Responding to AviD's comment/question to Joel:
So, if you have 10 new features coming
in the next version, with each feature
needing 5 tasks to implement, you
recommend creating 10 releases? And
how do I define that these are the
features/"releases" that are to be
included in the upcoming release?
Here is how we dealt with this specific problem in our development process:
- First, we made a regular release schedule: monthly internal releases and quarterly external releases. This schedule never changes but task assignment / feature completion does. This is hugely important in terms of simplifying our inter-human communication: don't try to argue with the calendar.
- Major features ("10 new features" in your example) are turned into cases (e.g., case 101 to case 110).
- Each task that is a sub-component of a major feature also gets created as a sub-case with a description of what makes this chunk of work an important part of the larger picture. Previously, in Fogbugz 6, we used the "See also" feature by allowing it to search the text for us ("This is a sub-component of case 101" for example). This was effectively the same thing but less aesthetic.
- Now that we've broken down the work to its finest level of usefulness, we bring the actual developers into the discussion. Each task and major feature is individually assigned to a particular developer.
- The developer determines when they can get their assigned work done by picking the appropriate internal release date that they think they can commit to.
- At this point, we have a rough sketch of what will get done for each release. Further refinements continue as the working people actually estimate the hours that they'll need to do the work, enabling evidence-based scheduling, etc.
For AviD's question, though, he would have the release-assignment problem solved by step 5 above.
However, I think point 6 is the most interesting as that's where you really get a solid schedule. For example, if developers are having trouble estimating a larger task, they break it down into sub-cases even further. Notice how my assessment of "finest level of usefulness" can differ (perhaps greatly) from the person who really needs to get the work done.
This is also a time when a developer can reach out to someone else and say "I can do most of this but it would really help if person X could help me with this little piece Y." This is actually where I get most of my development tasking: I personally sit in multiple places during this process, from large-scale planning meetings to little fiddly tasks that no-one else has time to do.
PS: Making it a personal goal to get this answer rated higher than Joel's.... ;-)
PPS: My original response is now overcome by events since Fogbugz 7 has lovely sub-tasks. Program managers love those reports.