/
Team Lessons Learned

Emoji :calendar_spiral: Date

Dec 12, 2024

Emoji :busts_in_silhouette: Participants



Emoji :goal: Goals

  • Collectively look at the work done in FY24 and focus on gathering feedback on how our team works moving forward

Emoji :speaking_head: Discussion topics

Item

Presenter

Notes

Expectation Setting

Becki and Netal

  • Key Message (Netal):

    • Goal is to collectively look at the work done in FY24 and focus on gathering feedback on how our team works moving forward

    • Let’s focus on items within our control

    • We are not looking at current process for review - discussing specific themes

  • Meeting Format

    • What are the action items to improve on these themes?

    • 5 minutes to discuss gap (Netal)

    • 15 minutes to discuss solutions/action items (Becki to Moderate)

Topics

Team

  • Versioning Strategy and Accountability

    • Gaps and Problems:

      • There is not currently a defined versioning strategy that is being used

    • Questions:

      • What’s the difference between versioning and tagging?

        • Tagging

          • aliasing a pointer to a specific instance of an artifact

          • Future topic for lunch and learn?

    • Action Items

      • Team needs to define, document, and standardize:

        • Action Items for and - Document Outsystems vs. Non-Outsystems, including definitions and vocabulary

      • In depth Dependencies Planning and team agreement

        • Potential idea: More frequent releases

          • Not stacking multiple releases

            • Increases amount of bugs and time pressure

          • Outsystems can slow down based on smaller releases

        • Need to determine what features can be worked on simultaneously

  • Idea/Question: How do we get to the state of more frequent releases

    • Focus on this idea as we move forward - we want to get to this state

      • Action Item for : Define Team Strategy

    • Is branching possible?

      • This is limited within Outsystems

  • Documentation and Accountability

    • Dev Documentation (Design checklist)

      • Needs to be created for OS and non-OS projects

      • Accountability needed - documentation alone is not OK, we need to commit

    • Project Management (Project Plans)

    • Testing (UAT Documentation)

    • Feedback:

      • Question: Will Grecia be involved in Design checklists?

        • Yes - Great idea

      • Outsystems' selling point is reusable components - we can leverage this

        • WebDev doesn’t have standardized component library

          • Everyone - document successful tools and reusable resources

      • Thinking point for the Devs: What is the best way to track or document shared components as more are added

        • Outsystems - Internal Forge and documentation on best practices

  • Technical Debt and Accountability

    • Estimation

      • Lessons Learned from SDF and CEA

      • Where were the Gaps?

        • Team to review estimates before beginning work using the three day planning period

    • Commitments

      • Sprint Goals should be commitments from the dev team and reviewed in retrospectives

    • Roles & Responsibilities

      • Dev and QA: Responsible for meeting to discuss work breakdown

        • Everyone to take turns stepping up to help schedule work

    • Defect Reduction

      • Clarify requirements before work begins

      • Need to focus on Code Review and Unit Testing

      • QA and Dev need to communicate directly and do it right the first time

      • Idea: Separate Accessibility and Mobile into its own user story when planning?

      • QA and BA to collaborate on Test Cases ahead of the sprint

      • QA and Dev feel at odds and not part of the same team - that relationship is not working like it should

        • How should it be working?

          • Better Communication - easy to fix defects or things the team could fix together could be avoided and save a lot of time

          • Accessibility - need to work together to help get Dev team on the same page

      • QA to demonstrate the process of testing

  • Deployments and Accountability

    • Versioning Strategy

      • OS vs. Non-OS

    • When will we do deployments?

      • incorporate CAB

      • Thursday Releases

  • Standards and Accountability

    • Development Standards (Outsystems)

      • Design and Implementation

      • Security and Accessibility

        • All teams developing applications and testing need to be responsible and accountable for Security Planning and standards

Emoji :white_check_mark: Action items

Versioning Strategy and Accountability

and - Document Outsystems vs. Non-Outsystems and definitions
- Review Project Plan continuously and integrate dev feedback earlier in the process
- Pre-kickoff release planning with the entire team
- Define team strategy and expectations for versioning

Documentation and Accountability

to review the design standard documents in the weekly dev meeting
Development team MUST adhere to defined processes
to collaborate with Grecia to formalize standard documentation of design
Team to commit to documenting reusable, successful tools in the moment
and dev team to prioritize working with OutSystems to research/spin up an internal forge
Candace for Updating Components - and
Dev team to review Application Feature Inventory - https://yaleits.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CADKS/pages/4049371146
Team to Involve QA at the beginning of process
and QA team to create standard documentation on process and templates/checklist for UAT
Team to help make Project Plan a core part of the process

Standards and Accountability

and to ensure that all documented standards (check lists and templates) include Security and Accessibility planning. If it does not yet exist, create documentation.
, and to work with Omar to formalize
to help standardize and publicize documentation across project deliverables

Technical Debt and Accountability

to present metrics based on estimation vs. actual during retrospectives moving forward
and to define metrics to be reviewed
to investigate Accessibility Training Opportunities between QA, Dev and Accessibility
QA team to share their testing process
Team to commit to more active communication and review in retrospectives

Deployments and Accountability

to review project plans on Mondays to allow for review and feedback of deployment schedule

Standards and Accountability

Team to commit to bringing up issues proactively


Emoji :arrow_heading_up: Decisions




Brainstorm:

  • Open Discussion - request feedback

  • Projects to review: FAS, CEA, YSB, FRMS, SDF