Wikimedia Apps/Team/Retrospectives/2015-10-23
ANDROID
editOctober 23, 2015
Previous Retrospective Actions
edit- Action! Wait a sprint to see if there is progress on HockeyApp blockers. Use default implementation if not. DONE H.A. GOT
Worked Well
edit- Manually handling Android configuration changes did, as expected but not elaborted, introduce complexity but was definitely worthwhile. I think the Google docs should be updated to say "Activities with simple views don't need this. Activities with map or WebView-like complexity do."+
- One of our most insidious bugs was fixed (by a volunteer!) +++
- Volunteer contributions (mostly). They're a time investment but definitely worthwhile so far.
- java-mwapi submodule style was very useful when needed. Made debugging much simpler and less crazy than munging a jar binary repeatedly. The library will be deprecated but I'm going to try to write about this particular (and novel, I believe) aspect of it.
Worked Poorly
edit- Work flowing through the system+
- Making big changes and upgrades (HockeyApp, intro'ing bugs)
- Bugs are a hiccup in workflow
- Patches stacked up with dependencies can make bottlenecks
- Code reviews weren't getting daily check-ins
- More focus on the service side took dev time away
- DB: Writing less code than usual
- Underestimating capacity
- Often waiting for signoff on things
- Self-QA helping
- Estimation is accurate
- MFE styles break our presentation+
- Moving to Parsoid is more complicated than expected.
Confuses Us
edit- Not confused, but I have a question: do we want to do more unit testing? Yes +1+
- I too have a question: Are we getting the most we can out of our ceremonies (and our Scrum Master)?
- Status of testing devices on order+
Top three items, from "Worked Poorly" and "Confuses Us"
editAction Items
edit- Action! Let's remember to estimate things
- Use standup for notifying of estimation needs, adhoc hatjitsu
- Action! Column to backlog: Design Doing (no more questions for design that aren't in the sprint) [MAX]
- Action! Need more sync up/communication w/Reading Web team ("MFE styles break our presentation") [EMAIL, MAX]
- Action! Need update on ordered testing devices [ADAM]
iOS
editOctober 23, 2015
Previous Retrospective Actions
edit- Action! Test drive Google Drive assets/spec management [TEAM] ONGOING
- iOS 5.0 Specs https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YPsHpgInH6RiUY4vVyyJp9tt5HtvG3u3sIB-gar4YPI/edit#
- Design stuff can live in Phab
- Spec is working well, design assets is rough
- Action! Let's ship stuff, not focus too much on perfection/robustness BETTER, TRICKY
- Action! IRC norms for Phab communication: Email thread [BRIAN] NOT DONE
- Action! Get more regular updates w/design (standups?) [MAX EMAIL THREAD]
- Or post-estimation kick-off?
- Action! Set a timeline for when the QA tasks are acted on [BRIAN/JOSH] ONGOING
Worked Well
edit- PM signoff!
- Pace of developement is picking up
- iOS 5.0 Specs doc
- GitHub community for diagnosing and working around DevOps issues (see below)
- New designs looking sharp
- iOS 9 features looking friggin' sweet
- Specs discussions w/ Josh & Elena
- Feeling good about focusing on specs, hope it will clear up lots of ambiguity and make the app better
- App is looking good - working well
- Feed!!!
Worked Poorly
edit- Meeting email thread: need teamwide planning and stand-ups
- Tough right now, let's get the whole team more in the loop
- Feels like we need a more cohesive, basic planning meeting
- Too much re-litigating/arguing
- Wasting a lot of time discussing things at execution-time
- Working together - or not?d
- Design assets migrating to google drive (IMO its fine, lets keep Prod specs on Google and mocks on Phab)
- DevOps infrastructure (iTC changes, broke fastlane _and_ CocoaPods)
- Not having a 3D-touch-able device (BG)
Confuses Us
edit- Swift best practices
- Good thing I'm going to a Swift Summit next week!
Top three items, from "Worked Poorly" and "Confuses Us"
editActions Items
edit- Action! Gut check on assets managment in pholio, Kaity to use pholio more
- Action! IRC norms for Phab communication: Email thread [BRIAN] NOT DONE
- Action! Get more regular updates w/design (standups?) [MAX EMAIL THREAD CONT'D]
- Or post-estimation kick-off?
- If no decision made after a few days of the email thread, let's just pick something
- Action! Need more regular team-wide buy-in
- Meetings?
- Action! Research how other teams do specs (e.g. Reading Web team)
- Action! We need a standard QA rigor, engineers to design a QA acceptance criteria for all testing