Why you should buffer an additional day in your current project schedule

Someone call it an iteration, someone call it a milestone. Whatever it is named, it means the period of time for a cycle of software development.

The pace of development and the granularity of task in a project affects the duration of each cycle. Thus, the duration of a cycle may varies among different team and different projects. But for easier manipulation, one month or two months is the duration of time that will be adopted mostly.

I am sure you have read a lot of articles on how to structure the work into each cycle. But one thing I want to share with you is, reserve a day for packaging of your deliverable. If you are like me, who demand a release of the development that is capable to execute either a fraction or a complete set of functions at the end of each cycle, it is better to reserve a day for the team to tidy up their work and prepare for the release.

In my team, the deliverable for each release will include all or selection of the followings,

  • release notes (text file or an additional entry on the product web page)

  • change log

  • binary (e.g. compiled java classes, war)

  • program source

  • user guide (or any sort of document to describe the usage)

  • email announcement

  • tag a version on SVN




As you can see, the list is quite extensive and thus I feel it's easier for the team to spend a day for preparation. In turns, it helps them to review what they have achieved and give them a sense of satisfaction. With the release properly organized, it helps you (the project leader) to review the development as a whole. You can evaluate if the pace is proper and allow you to send out your product for testing or simply to experience at the earlier stage.