This is a mind map of the main features (current and future) of XPlanner ![]()
Planning
Story elaboration/workflow
- Story owner changes during its lifecycle: Customer/BizAnalysist->Dev->Tester->EndUser/UAT). This could be done by attaching a state to the story:
State Owner Draft Biz Defined Biz->Dev Estimated Dev->Biz Planned Biz->Dev Implemented Dev->Tester Verified Tester->EndUser Accepted - Story ATs must be better expressed. Most people are using free form text in the description to capture acceptance tests. If ATs were better expressed semantically, we could
- Enable linking (from a test tool like Fitnesse),
- Extract status from a continuous integration tool that would run the ATs and automatically complete a story that passes all ATs.
- Track "scope creep" by bumping back to Defined the state of an Estimated story if the ATs were modified (maybe shooting an email to the tracker/developer).
- Estimation validation through comparaison: using google suggest type async search, provide a popup with stories of similar estimate.
Release planning
- Add the notion of Release
- Allow easy (re)assignment of stories to iterations
- Tracking of iteration budget
- Release big visible charts (burn down, velocity)
- Prioritization (Value+Risk/Cost)
Iteration planning
- Better reordering and re-assignment of stories
- Velocity calculation
- Tracking of iteration/developer budget
References
- Mike Cohn's upcoming Agile Estimating and Planning book
- AgilePlanner


