Three iterations of work left.

Upon checking my tracker this morning, I saw something that I haven’t seen since I began using Pivotal Tracker almost 1400 stories ago, the end of the backlog.

Am I done? No, far from, the last 14 months has all been phase one.

Unless I create additional tickets, which we both know I will*, phase two is due to begin at the end of October, the start of November.

I’ve made a point of not planning for phase two; I’m attempting to stop myself from getting distracted by future goals rather than the problems I need to solve now. I have been planning; I’ve just been trying to keep it all in my head and not put pen to paper.

In October I’ll start planning in earnest. Hopefully, the foundations I have created are suitable, I’m confident they are, but until I begin planning phase two, I will not know for sure.

*Alternatively, I could dive into the icebox and pull out a few tickets.

Costs to Expect roadmap

Now that version 2 of the API is out, it is time to publish a roadmap. It is not a comprehensive roadmap; it is merely a summary of where we are going with Costs to Expect over the next several months.

I work on numerous projects; the weeks match up approximately with when I expect to complete tasks, they don’t necessarily line up with the time required for the individual tasks.

Week 1

Minor fixes.

I’ll spend two to three days working through issues that arose during development.

Week 2-3

Multiple item types.

I’ll need to spend one to two weeks finishing all the changes necessary to support multiple item types. The database is ready; however, many parts of the API need to be updated to expose multiple item type support correctly.

Week 4

Permitted users.

I need to add permitted users management to the API. Once we have decided precisely how we want to limit user management, I need to implement it; this should not take more than a few days.

Week 5-7

App development

I’ll spend a couple of weeks building the base for the Costs to Expect App. The initial release will be private and have restricted user access; it will not be publically available.

I need to migrate the features from the web app, develop the base code for interacting with the API and work out the UX. I intend to build the majority of the forms for the app using the API Options requests, so I need to develop the relevant system.

Week 8-End of the year

Forecasting for the budgeting system.

I will spend the rest of the year planning and developing the forecasting system. The forecasting system touches both systems, the API and the App. We hope to have a version of the App ready for users at the end of the year.

We don’t know what will be in the first public release; it very much depends on how baked the features are; some may need a little more time. Costs to Expect is an evolving product; there will always be more coming.