I've been using FddTools for a project. I really like the simplicity of the tool (since I'm using FDD on a relatively small project). But there doesn't seem to be much activity at fddtools.sourceforge.net
I just looked at FDD Project Management Application and it seems to be a great tool, though a little heavyweight for what I'm doing now.
What is everyone else using? Are the "pure" FDD tools worth supporting? Or are spreadsheets and conventional PM tools sufficient?
FDD Tools
I am using a custom developed tool. I wrote a basic version based on Chapter 6 of "Java Modeling in Colour" and have added features (no pun intended) as they have become relevant to project needs and our understanding of FDD processes. This was not NIH syndrome - I just wasn't aware of any software available to do the job and wanted to test out the techniques without the recurring boredom of death by spreadsheet or whatever.
It's worked out as more work in the short term but it's made the process more scalable as things have developed, and since when has a software person ever turned down the opportunity to build a tool rather than getting on with real work ? :)
I would be interested in other people's views of the tools I've seen listed here.
Kind Regards,
Derek Graham
Feedback
Glad to hear someone has found FDDTools useful.
Are there specific features you'd like to see incorporated into the tool? Feedback (both positive and negative) would be a big motivation to move the project forward.
Fdd Tools
I like the fact that it's a pretty limited tool;-)
The things I've done with the tool are to create an xsl document that transforms the FddTools xml into an xml document that's compatible with Maven so I can include it as a report on my project site.
As far as the tool is concerned, some better printing? Which I noticed is on the roadmap. How about moving the architecture to an Eclipse Plugin? And longer term, as I apply it to bigger project, I would think more prescriptive guidance to help implement FDD would be great.
I was at MS TechEd when Randy Miller used FDD as an example for how Visual Studio 2005 will allow a development team to customize the tool to support a particular process.
I could see FddTools (since it's opensource) as a plug-in to Eclipse that allows a similar technique; and a marriage to the other opensource tools and development processes.
Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback!
Printing is something that we want to improve (as noted on the roadmap). Prescriptive guidance is also a good idea that's not reflected on the current roadmap that I'll try to remember to add next time I get a chance to update the roadmap.
We've used Eclipse a bit, but none of the (current) development team use it as our primary IDE, so the plug-in is a bit less likely unless we can find someone who might take it on as a task. We always welcome any assistance that anyone might be willing to provide.
Dates
Just a quick comment - I did play with the tool for a while when trying to load in Excel (CSV) documents. It seems that the date is hard coded to mm/dd/yy (or was it yyyy)?? It would be nice to be able to change that.
Re: Dates
Thanks for the feedback. We'll look at dates more closely as we look at the preferences features.