Boost Team Communication with a Wiki
Organiser(s): JanMertens
Session duration: 45 minutes
Session type: interactive presentation + demonstration
Intended Audience: testers, developers, project managers
Presentation language: Dutch/English
Session Description
Wiki's have been around on the internet since 8 years now.
They are also becomming more and more popular in software development teams as a good alternative for the expensive online collaboration systems. In this session we will introduce you to the concept of a wiki and see how it can form an answer to the challenges of todays intranets. We explain the reasons why we opted for the TWiki variant, highlighting:
- Web Environment
- Interactive Environment
- WikiWords for Linking
- Creating New Pages
- Version Control
- PlugIns
TWiki is not our only communication tool. It fits nicely on top of IM and email. We will explain how it helped us in better spreading knowledge between team members and teams on different departments, floors, labs, cities and countries.
Examples of improvements for our test and support teams include:
- replacement of the always out-of-date faqs on our static web server
- edit and store weekly reports of each team member
- spread information about tools and test platforms
- using Twiki as a Planning and Tracking tool using the XpTrackerPlugin
In the last months the XpTrackerPlugin has gained more and more importance in our teams. I will explain :
- How we use the concept of projects, iterations, stories and tasks
- How it helps in giving immediate feedback to all project stakeholders
- How it helps team members to improve their effort estimations
- How it can be used as an extra communication channel between development and test
- How it helps when you have to work with teams on different locations
I will explain how we use it and demonstrate if possible on a life system. Finally I will comment on the limitations of Twiki and the XpTrackerPlugin. |
