Here is a starting point for discussion about what team meetings we should
have, moving forward. I'm not stuck on any of these specifics. It's just
easier to have a candidate proposal to pick apart, rather than starting a
group discussion completely from scratch. I have probably missed some as
well.
So feel free to question or challenge, or to propose tweaks to or deletions
of, any of these. Or propose more meetings. We might end up with a panel of
meetings completely different from what you are about to read. But here
goes...
1. Full-team checkin (weekly, 25-50 minutes)
This is very similar to the meeting we have been having Mondays and
Thursdays, but with less of a "here is my status" focus, and more of a
"here is what other people might find interesting". The Scrum-of-scrums
stuff probably wouldn't be here, and definitely no looking at workboards.
The primary purposes are team-building and information-spreading.
2. "Sprint" planning (weekly, 25-50 minutes)
Since we won't be using timeboxed sprints, the frequency of this meeting is
pretty arbitrary. The main goal is to make sure the "To do" columns in the
sprint boards never go empty. This is where Dan (and Moiz) would propose
stories to move from the product backlog into the individual sprint boards.
Some combination of tech leads would attend, and would give rough
estimates, raise issues about incomplete specs, suggest alternate
prioritizations, etc. Other developers could be included, but most likely
would be optional (and perhaps very optional). It's not clear to me to what
degree this meeting should (or could) be divided up into segments for each
sub-team.
3. Daily standup (almost-daily, 5-15 minutes)
I think it is useful for the subteams to have some form of meeting more
than twice per week. But to avoid having "too many" meetings, I'll propose
the option of doing these on IRC. I would also propose that each sub-team
schedule its own separate daily standup, but obviously not at overlapping
times. I'm totally open to individual subteams deciding they don't need
daily standups.
These should probably follow standard daily scrum format, unless there is a
reason not to: Each developer (or other information worker) would say what
they completed since the last standup, what they expect to accomplish by
the next one, and if they are blocked by anything. The main benefits of
this are team cohesion, daily focus on what is important, and quickly
identifying blockers.
4. Showcase (biweekly?, 25-50 minutes)
This is a chance for subteams to proudly demonstrate what they have
accomplished. This could be opened up to folks outside S&D, but those
details should be worked out. Especially in the near term, I'm not sure
what frequency would be best. The purpose is twofold: It's always fun to
show what you have done, and it's helpful to other stakeholders to really
see what S&D is up to.
5. Retrospective (biweekly?, 25-50 minutes)
As we settle in, these retrospectives are likely to become shorter, and we
will be able to go deeper on a smaller number of issues, and really discuss
possible solutions. These could be every 3 weeks or monthly, but I would
prefer to have them more often, but shorter. The purpose, of course, is
continual improvement.
6. Technical deep-dives (purely as needed)
I haven't seen a case for holding a standing meeting time open for these,
especially now that the team has 5 different but sometimes-overlapping
subteams.
7. Product backlog grooming (TBD)
Note that this is purely at the product backlog level, not at the sprint
board level. It is not clear to me who would be involved helping Dan keep
the many product backlog items clearly organized.
8. Front-end/back-end coordination (TBD)
I feel like some combination of Moiz/Dan/TechLead would be helpful here,
but don't yet have a clear picture of what it would be.
9. Other
Of course, there would also be various strategy-level and operational
meetings between various combinations of Wes, Moiz, Dan, and Oliver. I'm
especially unclear on what (if any) research/data-related standing
cross-sub-team meetings we should have. And this doesn't count all the
recurring one-on-ones, which are also valuable.
What else did I forget?
Kevin Smith
Agile Coach
Wikimedia Foundation
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