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rakesh1155

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Joined: 21 Jan 2009
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:57 pm
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Hi,

First of all, I didn't know where to put this up, so I am posting this here.

We have a requirement1 and requirement2, both needing modifications to the same set of COBOL programs.

Requirement1 is planned to move to production in Release1.
It is not planned when to move Requirement2 changes.

Now does it make sense to have two different developers working on requirement1 and requirement2 simultaneously. And then later, retrofitting the changes of requirement2 to the requirement1 finalized code which would lead to re-testing everything again?
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Anuj Dhawan

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 4:15 pm
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I hope your Team-Lead logs-in here - s/he is best suited to answer this question! icon_biggrin.gif
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rakesh1155

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 4:48 pm
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Unfortunately he doesn't.

If he did, this forum would have made him smart enough that I would not have needed to put this question up ! icon_smile.gif
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Akatsukami

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Joined: 03 Oct 2009
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 5:28 pm
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What does your site have in the way of change management tools? That will determine how easy (or otherwise) the code merge will be.

You'll need one additional set of testing, true; however, it's going to depend on what your timelines are like (will req#1 and req#2 take the same amount of time to code and test, so that only the merge testing is required, or will there be significant slack doing one or the other?)
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Anuj Dhawan

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 5:29 pm
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Actually, in ideal situations, what you say is correct, however - possibly release-2 might be a distant plan as you said, "It is not planned when to move Requirement2 changes".

What Business has to say:
Let's say, on a given Credit Card some bank wants to introduce two different new rewards-systems. To do that, they want to see the response of First-reward-system in the market first - obviously, they plan to release this change little early to get the response from market. If it succeeds, they go for other decided plan otherwise they might modify the second plan and just drop the idea to implement it.

What an Application Developer has to say: Similar thing, what you said.

Keeping above thing in mind, it might make sense to implement both the changes simultaneously from technical per se however, from Business per se, it is not.

If this should be done by single programmer or more, it depends - on your management.

If I were to do it - I'll ask to keep the same programmer if his mileage is good enough.
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rakesh1155

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 5:44 pm
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Hello Akatsukami,
We have Endevor at our site.

The additional set of testing which will be pretty much a duplicate of req#2 testing is my concern. Also, the point that the req#2 testing done prior to code-merge would ultimately be of no value.


Hello Anuj,

Yes, single programmer or more - depends on the management... not questioning it.

I think I should have stressed a little more on "simultaneously".

My concern here more is the additional set of testing required after merge and initial req#2 testing done going waste.
I would better have the code started after the req#1 is done and dusted that will ultimately save some billable hours for the customer.
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Anuj Dhawan

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 5:55 pm
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rakesh1155 wrote:
I think I should have stressed a little more on "simultaneously".
May be you can identify with this:
Quote:
What Business has to say:
Let's say, on a given Credit Card some bank wants to introduce two different new rewards-systems. To do that, they want to see the response of First-reward-system in the market first - obviously, they plan to release this change little early to get the response from market. If it succeeds, they go for other decided plan otherwise they might modify the second plan and just drop the idea to implement it.

If this does not help, suggest (as one of the alternatives) talk to someone at your shop with your point of view.
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Akatsukami

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 7:49 pm
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rakesh1155 wrote:
Hello Akatsukami,
We have Endevor at our site.
[...]
My concern here more is the additional set of testing required after merge and initial req#2 testing done going waste.
I would better have the code started after the req#1 is done and dusted that will ultimately save some billable hours for the customer.

That could well be true. OTOH, my shop invariably has several teams of developers working on the same source modules simultaneously...since otherwise we could not implement a fraction of the changes demanded of us (let alone "nice to haves", like new business functionality icon_biggrin.gif ). Again, the timelines control; having req#2 being implemented in the sweet by-and-by -- maybe -- is OK, until management says, "You've gone live with req#1? Good; now bring up req#2 this afternoon. No, I don't mean 'tomorrow'; if I'd meant 'tomorrow' I'd have asked for it tomorrow".
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Anuj Dhawan

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 7:59 pm
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ROFL -- icon_lol.gif. I'm thinking why do you quote rakesh1155 !
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rakesh1155

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:40 pm
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Hello Anuj,

Yes, your example does work well for an answer to my query.

So it all depends on scenario to scenario. And for this currenct scenario, from the time-line info I ve got about the req#2, the re-work can be avoided (of course if the intention is not to keep the developer busy).

And yeah, about rakesh1155, when I first started using email... created an email account with this ID and have used the same along everywhere. But 1155 doesn't have any significance... I wasn't born on 1st Jan 1955 icon_biggrin.gif
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daveporcelan

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Joined: 01 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 10:51 pm
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Ok so now you have it.

You checked on the forum and everyone there says in this case with this timeline, give both changes to the same developer.

Tell your manager, and it will be done.
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rakesh1155

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:31 pm
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I really appreciate all of you for replying on this post!!

Hello daveporcelan,
As strange it may sound, the fact is that I had to come to this forum for responses after speaking to seniors around me from whom I got mixed responses on this query.
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daveporcelan

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:37 pm
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It does seem strange.

What is not strange, is nobody on this board actually gave you a strait answer. Nobody here can really understand your circumstances, so the answer is always 'it depends'.

You can take from this thread whatever helps you get your situation resolved.
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rakesh1155

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 7:57 am
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What I understand is 'it always depends'.

But I do understand that if its once in a while situation to do some rework (and letting some of your work go waste), it is fine.

But if its a regular thing in such situations, there's surely something wrong.

The conclusion is "at some places, the developer's time and effort hasn't got any value"

Anyways, thanks for your reply daveporcelan !!
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Ed Goodman

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Joined: 08 Jun 2011
Posts: 556
Location: USA

PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:33 pm
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Write the code changes so that they can turn on req 2 with a parm card of some sort. Then test them both at the same time.

Move combined code to prod with the parm set to disable req 2. When it's time for req 2, change the parm card.

I know that it's not that simple to implement in real life, but the concept is sound.
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