Wikimedia Apps/Team/Retrospectives/2016-02-12

Feb 12, 2016

Android

Previous Retrospective Actions

• Check and see that the sprint 74 tasks are parented [DMITRY] DONE
• Create and parent additional tasks for general collections [DMITRY] DONE
• Check out plain j-unit screenshots for flaky CI tests [STEPHEN] PHABBED

Significant Events

• Gather convo
  • Lots and lots of Gather sturf
• TSG rampup soon
• Q4 goals pitched
• Lots of WMF employee departures.+1
  • WTF factor is high
• Q4 planning, schmanning <-- Technical term
• Another sprint, another beta (or two)
  • Lower memory usage
  • Wiki zero
  • [dev] Reduced domain complexity (nice to not have to worry about "m." on domains)

Loved

• Crashes at all-time low. Wohooo!
• Finally touched some code again.
• Burnin' through groomin'+

Lacked

• Clarity around Gather, and/or which API we should be using+++
• Histogram of Android points distribution for Phlogiston

Learned

• Wikipedia Zero work is fun but time-consuming!
• There was a reason we were using mobile domains after all! Not anymore +

Longed for

• Want to see other groups at WMF doing well, makes us uneasy when other folks at the company are in turmoil+
  • Would help to know what other people's problems are clearly+

Action Items

• Create "Did Not Pass" column left of the QA column [MAX]

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IOS

Previous Retrospective Actions

• Figure out regression test possibilities with the A11Y people [BRIAN] ONGOING
• Josh to articulate 3-5 big areas/epics during planning meeting [JOSH] DONE
• Review possibility to release a beta during Tuesday planning meeting (and plan for the next one) DONE

Significant Events

• Release date!
• beta feedback overview and Sherah initial results
• Jonatan (Josve05a) joining us in IRC, filing bugs, and interpreting Swedish App Store reviews! ????????+1
• a11y accessibility testers are invited to repo & iOS dev program, w/ devices provisioned!
  • wow. so efficiency. much streamline.
• New settings view looks awesome!!!!
• Brace yoruselves, iOS donations are coming
  • http://cdn.meme.am/instances2/500x/4275007.jpg
  • ????
• Set a release date for PR/Comms

Worked Well

• catching bugs in code review
• set a release date (and closed scope)
• new community members filing bug and feature requests+1
• contributions!+1
• a11y - would not have had an accessable app at 5.0.0 without them
  • at our chosen release date (see: Triangle of Death/Iron Triangle/ IRON TRIANGLE OF DEATH)
• Triage looks great/is working
• QA COLUMN EMPTIED

Worked Poorly

• lots of bugs being found in code review
  • Wish we could change our software without introducing so many bugs
• "Design Review" during estimation
  • if we have more detailed feedback about design which isn't related to cost of implementation, we (at least for now) need to bring it up at a separate venue and/or file an "enhancement" ticket.
• BG's "file a ticket" threshold
  • Need to be re-calibrate threshold for filing tickets when regressions are discovered during code review. We're in crunch mode!
• Approaching our release deadline goal and there's a lot scoped that isn't done
  • What can we learn from this for defining "done" for 5.1?
• Our main planning etherpad died
• institutional issues and "community"
• Quarterly planning doesn't align with out planning and snuck up on us
• Individual goals also don't line up with planning (BG also mentioned this in "confuses us")

Confuses Us

• What to do with EPICS
  • How title
  • Where to put them
  • Working on EPICS vs shaving them down
  • Blocking tasks
• WIP limit for Blocked or Waiting
  • Purpose of Blocked or Waiting (also TSG needs)
• OTRS Plan
• (nit/bugaboo) purpose of personal goals vs. team goals (vs. org goals, etc..). never understood rationale behind encouraging personal "professional" goals in context of "vertical strategy"

Action Items

• When can we talk about upcoming design stuff? Planning meeting? Should we have designs ready for planning discussion? Email thread. [MAX]
• Retro followup meeting [MAX]