Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Conversely, get yourself invited to design and code walkthroughs. Brush up on the
design techniques and programming language your team is using. Even if you don't
have any comments to improve the author's work, you can use what you learn there
to make your tests better.
It's also not a bad idea to use some walkthroughs as mentoring or growth opportunities
for people on your team. The “guests�? should limit their own questions and comments
during the meeting to the material being presented and have a follow-up time with
their “host�? to go over any other questions about procedures, the design methodology
being used, and so on. This probably should not be done for every walkthrough, but
in situations where someone already has a background in the topic and/or is expected
to grow into a lead role for some portion of the project.
Here's a list of representatives to consider inviting to walkthroughs of various project
artifacts:
■
TDD
—tech lead, art director, producer, project manager
■
Story board
—producer, dev lead, artists
■
SQAP
—project manager, producer, development lead, test lead, QA lead, and
engineer(s)
■
Code designs, graphics
—key developers, art representative, test representative
■
Code designs, other
—key developers, test representative
■
Code
—key developers, key testers
■
Test plan
—project manager, producer, development lead, key testers
■
Tests
—feature developer, key testers
Relevant topics to cover in walkthroughs include:
Possible implementations
■
Interactions
■
Appropriate scope
■
Traceability to earlier work products
■
Completeness
■
Issues raised during the walkthrough are also recorded during the meeting.
Sometimes the presenter will realize a mistake simply by talking about his work. The
walkthrough provides an outlet for that. One participant acts as a recorder, recording
issues and presentation points that are essential to understand the material. Other
participants may end up using the information for downstream activities, such as coding
or testing. The leader is responsible for promptly closing each issue and distributing
the meeting notes to the team within one week of the walkthrough. QA is expected to
