Reading/Multimedia/Retrospectives/2017-09-14

2017-09-14

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What aspect of process is going well?

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  • We've held on to our daily standup meetings, which are helpful. It's kept me sane through a tumultuous time. A good practice to keep going anyway, keeps the team together and lets us talk about things.
    • And they are on time! :)
    • I also really like that they are written down, for posterity as well as transparency and focus.
  • The backlog curation meeting also helps, especially on this team where bugs have sat for a long time without attention
    • Could we do with more of that? It doesn't feel to me like we're making a huge impact on the backlog (though maybe we're not supposed to be) <-- This sounds like "improved" :)
  • We seem to actually like each other...most of the time. :)+1
  • Communication seems to happen freely+1
  • We have a very good "alpha" which portends good things
    • Early release or transparency, we have both

What aspect of process could be improved?

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  • Do we have a place for UI specs? Can we?
    • Ramsey: Not sure that MM has done before. When new designer shows, we will have a new process. Will it be Google? Maybe. Maybe InVision. A lot of design research stuff to happen first, too. Google Drive will have a flat, non-directive set of results.
      • Amanda: New designer is SDoC-committed, with heavy emphasis on MM, but the design process they have for that will likely mirror what is on MM.
    • Is this specific to 3D?
      • Yes, and a spec exists, but it is prelim and needs to be changed.
  • As Max mentioned, we should have a planning meeting - no real sprint structure ATM
    • cf. quarterly planning (which has been ad-hoc for as long as I can remember, but could be better?)
    • Can we create a longer feedback loop/cycle?
    • We have a workboard, but it doesn't seem to be treated as a Kanban board. It's possible to use a Kanban without a planning meeting. Workboard is too big for planning meetings.
      • It's not clear what MM is working on vs everything in the board.
      • Having a planning meeting would let us prioritize current tasks as well as plan for more than one day out.
        • Ramsey would need to be there, probably engineers
        • How is this different from grooming?
          • Subtle difference, but we could repurpose grooming for planning.
    • Is there a kickoff meeting?
      • Reading Web has kickoff, grooming, retro, prioritization.
    • How much is life in MM going to change when SDoC gets going?
      • Now, we just try to fix as much wrong with Commons as possible.
      • Need to balance bugs with SDoC dev
  • +1 Some Phabricator cleanup is probably in order
    • Ramsey wants to clean up the cruft
      • Separating workboards probably solves some of this
      • Don't want to miss anything
      • Want to make sure other teams are aware of their responsibilities
      • There are always more ideas than time
      • We want to project an image of cleanliness, esp with regards to SDoC
        • Actually doing work will be a big part of this
        • Age of task in the backlog may be a way to remove tasks
        • Separating team work from volunteer work
  • Code review practices are a little lax (I am as guilty of this as anyone) +1
    • Patches sit for a long time, and we don't get things done
      • That information gets lost
      • Missing patches because they were tagged in some backlog somewhere
      • Need a team expectation of when code review happens
      • Gerrit lets you create combinations of dashboards
        • Can we check this regularly?
        • If we have a workboard, this may be solved
          • Unless you have patches that are not associated with a ticket
            • Or somehow related
  • We knew it would likely be the case, but integrated design could help....now we will hold tight for that.
    • No action item, but waiting is OK.
      • Designer will start Sept 25
      • Hard enough to get Nirzar's attention
      • Next retro we may have our designer around.

What aspect of process is confusing?

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  • How do we want to do roadmap and quarterly planning for The Future™?
  • The grooming sessions are a little hard to follow for me atm, though I'm hoping that'll improve as I learn my way around better
  • I'm a bit unclear on the SDoC stuff - Ramsey doing a great job of keeping us up to date on what's happening, but I'm not really succeeding in keeping a good picture of the state of the nation in my head
    • Should I be looking at the SDoC drive all the time? Is this what I do without a process?+1
      • Amanda: I started sending update emails, but stopped because was overwhelmed with execution, will start sending updates again
  • How will CL support be integrated once 3D is done?
    • For SDoC we have Sandra, currently OOO
      • She lists her stuff on Phab
    • Non-SDoC stuff might go through Chris
      • E.g. designs go out to community
    • The CLs have a new process this FY for how to request help from them
      • Open question: Who asks for help for non-SDoC stuff?

Parking Lot

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  • What happens to the designer req after SDoC? Who is responsible for 3D design?

Action Items

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  • Ramsey to create Drive entry for InVision app demos
  • Max to create Kanban board for team separate from backlog
  • Max to alternate backlog grooming and prioritization
  • Max to circulate Luis Villa's blog post on backlogs
  • For next retro: Is backlog cruft still a problem, and do we want to formally separate will-not-work from will-work?
  • Devs to get together to draft a norm around code review
  • Amanda to start SDoC update emails again
  • Amanda to show team where to ask for CL help (new CL process)
  • Max to email out: What is SOP for archiving retros?