Dependencies continued - minimize 'em

The last post was about dependencies with a promise to talk about minimizing dependencies as the next post. Well, finally here it is.

Minimizing dependencies on a single small team is pretty easy. You can plan related stories in the same iteration so that both are worked together. You can keep stories in the backlog in order of dependencies. In this case a story that has a successor is higher up in the backlog than the successor story.

Let's say you have two teams both working towards a common release. I have seen many instances where one team is building part of a feature for another team. You could manage them as separate efforts, keeping track of the dependencies, watching dates, checking completion, and so forth. Or you could get the teams to work together in the same iteration to develop the complete story that covers both pieces of work. In this case the dependency still exists, but if the teams work together in an iteration, there will be higher levels of collaboration and faster turn-around as the two previously separate teams work as one to accomplish the goal.

The other option is to write stories with no dependencies or at least as few dependencies as possible. Remembering that sometimes what appears to be a dependency really isn't. Like the house example in my previous blog.

Next up managing dependencies.