Best set of names for iterations ?

Question

Hi there,

I was curious what do you use as iteration names and how much iterations do you have? What is the best set of names for iterations which will also be simple enough to explain to the customer.

EDIT: lets say that my iterations are 5 weeks long each.

cheers

Perica

Answer 1

It depends. If you use agile development and you want to name the in between iterations, use the date in the name like:

Projectname Releasedate

For normal public releases the good old numbers still work:

Major release . Minor release . [Bugfix release].

Answer 2

In a project for a customer (a website using GAE) I'm using a very simple scheme:

• iteration1 as first week
• iteration2 as second week
• and so on

the customer likes this naming since it is simple and he can evaluates the progress I made.

EDIT

you can alias week as period, so each 5 weeks you got a new iteration label

Answer 3

We keep technical version names, similar to earlier described, using the iteration number as the main digit.

For customers, we apply project-specific release names, part of a consecutive set. For a recent gig we named the releases after the consecutive runners up of the (Dutch version of) the TV talent show America's Next Top Model. The first iteration released "Kathelijn" (ended in 10th place), next we released "Stefanie" (ended 9th).

We like to be creative at this, we maintain the natural order in the naming. You have to name all future iterations from day 1 to do this.

Another option is to name the release after the most prominent feature it brings. E.g "One-click to order" and the "Basic reporting".

Naming is important, a catchy name is worth a lot, even for an iteration.

PS. Google Sets can help you think of the next...