XP Practice: Informative Workspace

October 1, 2007 by Artem

The idea of the Informative Workspace practice is to make it as easy as possible to grasp the state of the project by just walking into the room. Daily agile software development is all about the easy communication, information feedback and extremely short feedback loops. Informative Workspace is a way to accelerate the information exchange and communication with the help of easily readable indicators and big visible charts.

The agile team project room often includes the story board with user story cards movable from not started to in progress to done column, release and/or iteration burndown charts, the automated indicators showing the status of the latest unit-testing run. Many teams find it useful to conduct the daily standups meeting in front of their story board. It is also worth noting that even if the team is not co-located it is still likely to find it useful to have a dedicated meeting room with the big visible charts, whiteboards and flipcharts.

Links

Kent Beck on Informative Workspace
Informative Workspace by James Shore - from his book "The Art of Agile Development"
Informative Workspace Repository - a vast collection of the real informative workspace photos. Maintained by Rachel Davies
A Gallery of Team Rooms and Charts - maintained by William Wake
Earned-value and burn charts by Alistair Cockburn - an extensive article on the charts used in agile software development
Build Status Using Lava Lamps - the practical instructions on gluing the continuous integration tool (Cruise Control) with the color lava lamps for reflecting the current build status