Planning

Our aim in planning anything is to create a structure that aligns stakeholders of a project with a minimal amount of formalism.

This will be different for every group but our overall recommendation is this:

• A Kanban style board with features as cards
• A small description of each feature and the value it achieves
• Prioritized by developers with the feedback of stakeholders
• Timelines are managed by seniors who can use experience to estimate and manage throughput
• Asynchronous check-ins and releases with constant feedback from stakeholders

The best products are built in rapid iterations of many small feature releases.

By releasing often the time developers spend building and the time they receive feedback is shortened so that we can constantly reorient to something that delivers value.

We minimize the time developers are performing administrative tasks by reducing it down to only those activities which align stakeholders to the roadmap.

Standups

Developers meet once daily with their partner to set objectives and slice up work.

We build accountability and trust by getting together to quickly plan each day according to the priorities of everyone involved.

Retrospectives

Each week we get together for a set time to go over our successes, failures, and our plans for the future to align everyone on our purpose, mission and values.

What a retrospective looks like:

• Chatting about our experiences during the week
• Have each member voice their concerns and then work together on fixing them
• Celebrate our successes for the week
• Capture and brainstorm the objectives for next week that are actionable