This post made me think about the differences between something that has been launched where there are users playing around with it around the clock and something that is still under development.
Rather than a defined list of tasks I have more of a large list of things that need to be implemented at some point before we can get into a full beta. Because of the ambiguities of how some things should work and how some things fit together with others I have found that switching often when I get stuck is more productive than sticking to the one task and really struggling to flesh it out in the absence of other supporting features which will be able to better define the task down the track.
It seems sometimes that I can lay the base for an entire new feature in the time it takes to really get into the nuts and bolts of how a few buttons will behave.
Couldn't help thinking of the similarity between what you advocate and the process switching model in OS course. Hope to remember your advice - every switch has an overhead - clearly.
Rather than a defined list of tasks I have more of a large list of things that need to be implemented at some point before we can get into a full beta. Because of the ambiguities of how some things should work and how some things fit together with others I have found that switching often when I get stuck is more productive than sticking to the one task and really struggling to flesh it out in the absence of other supporting features which will be able to better define the task down the track.
It seems sometimes that I can lay the base for an entire new feature in the time it takes to really get into the nuts and bolts of how a few buttons will behave.