Ivis made its Eclipse-based project management tool, xProcess, available as an on-demand service from CollabNet. XProcess "aims to bring agility to project management," according to Andy Carmichael, Ivis' VP of International Operations, in an interview with Artima.

Collaborative tools, such as Wikis and source code repositories, serve an agile process by easing communication between team members and making the development team more transparent. xProcess brings similar transparency to project planning, says Carmichael.

"A project's tasks and targets don't often change, but the forecasts do... Xprocess takes targets and forecasts, and separates them. It often frightens project managers when Gannt charts [representing a project's progress] dynamically update. Such early feedback, however, is key to a project's agility," adds Carmichael.

The arrangement with Collabnet allows xProcess users to share project plans via CollabNet's hosting infrastructure. The hosted solution can even be used to share an existing Microsoft Project file, since xProcess can import such files, notes Chris Lank, Ivis' CEO, who spoke to Artima via telephone.

Xprocess is based on the Eclipse Rich Client framework, and uses the Subversion source code repository to store and manage project artifacts in the form of XML files. "Subversion has a strong open-source following, is compliant with WebDAV, and it is in general easy to get access to Subversion data through HTTP," notes Carmichael. "Our tool is a Java-based client, and Subversion's strong Java API was also important [in deciding to use Subversion]. Most actions [in xProcess] are driven by the client. The client checks Subversion for repository updates, and then merges any conflicts that may arise. You can even work offline, and synchronize changes once you reconnect." The collaboration with Ivis seems a natural step for CollabNet, an early supporter of Subversion.

While some in the agile community prefer to focus on code at the exclusion of up-front specifications and project planning, most enterprises, and even open-source projects, must incorporate some formal and visible planning into their work.

In observing a variety of projects over the years, Carmichael notes that agile teams must find a balance between agility and project stability. "One of the lessons we learned is that starting from a small project plan is typically better than planning everything out in great detail from the start... Instead of starting with a completely new plan, start by recording what you do now, then improve [those steps] a bit, and then review the results."

"Another lesson is that too much agility can lead to lack of efficiency in a project," points out Carmichael. "While agility makes you more responsive to market and business demands, you should have a reasonable period of project stability. Discussions about upcoming priorities should focus on what to do next month, not next week.”

How much up-front planning have you found appropriate in your agile projects? And how often do you let your project priorities shift?