Feature Creep, Stage Left

Editor's//Comment

Feature Creep, Stage Left

By David Riggs

Every now and then I get involved in communitytheater. Not acting, but rather in the stage band or as some unexpected,non-traditional musical addition. For instance, I played bluegrass fiddle inseveral productions of Woody Guthrie sAmerican Song, electric fiddle in a rock band for Return to the Forbidden Planet, Gypsy fiddle in Othello, and, most recently, Celticfiddle in A Midsummer Night s Dream.

My participation was the brainchild of the director,Luther Hanson, who meticulously planned and communicated how he wanted eachplay performed. As an outsider, it was interesting to watch the progress ofeach show as the acting, staging, sets, costumes, lighting, and music evolved.But in the course of rehearsals, and sometimes even during performances, Inoticed a similarity between these stage productions and the developmentprojects many of you undertake: feature creep (the act of adding bells andwhistles to the detriment of the original design goals). In the stageproductions it came by way of the actors adding actions, gestures, and,sometimes, even words to the original script. Indeed, sometimes a role callsfor improvisation. And granted, sometimes they were clever additions. But thedanger on stage is that, if you add unexpected bits, you risk disrupting yourfellow actors, or you add too much time to the length of the show, or youdetract from the playwright s intent. Everything on stage happens for a reason,and it must be well planned and wellexecuted.

This same phenomenon can happen with development projects.You start with a set of requirements and before you know it, you re halfwaythrough the project when the client or worse, your boss wants to add this coolfeature or that new feature, without giving any thought to schedules, budgets,or ramifications to overall functionality. And we all know how that makes youfeel. It is much easier to complete a project from start to finish than to haveto make amendments, whether reasonable or not, after you ve started. You had agame plan for a reason; probably because the goals were realistic and attainable.In a worst case scenario, you could end up with a project that is overdue, overbudget, and, quite possibly, dysfunctional. And we all know how that makes yourboss feel.

I may be preaching to the choir, but stick to your guns stickto the script. Much like the director of a play, the project manager mustmethodically set parameters, guidelines, goals, and deadlines. Certainly youcan be flexible, but you must be reasonable about your flexibility. Besides, youcan always add features in the next rev.

Thanks for reading.

David Riggs is editor-in-chief of asp.netPRO and itscompanion e-newsletter, asp.netNOW. Reach him at mailto:[email protected].