05: Development Process – Done is DONE

2022-11-18 – Friday

1. Development process: For a few months, we’ve been having issues with the concept of DONE. This seems to be one of the trickiest aspects of digital delivery; perhaps it’s the misunderstanding of agile as a concept.
2. Not being DONE is a common issue, and when you run a business paid on milestones or project completion, it’s a real challenge. You can easily miss a payment milestone because of done-creep (done-creep is that process of being told something’s done, only to test it to find out that there are stupidly obvious bugs or design issues).
3. So we’re trying something new (to us) to resolve this issue, and it appears to be working okay. Here’s the gist: When a Dev thinks they are done and ready to do a PR, they arrange a session with the PO and UX designer and run through the feature. If it’s DONE, the PR is approved (code review is still to be done). If it’s not done, bugs are raised, and the developer gets back to work.
4. Arguably this doesn’t initially change the time to completion, but what it does is reset what done looks like to the whole team. I’m expecting to see fewer rework cycles over time as people adjust. I’m also hoping our POs and UX gain a better understand the complexities of development.
5. Planning: another small win today. I feel like we’re getting on top of our scheduling issues. The combination of Float (Scheduling/Timesheets) and Monday.com for project management seem to be paying off. I have a reliable view of our committed work for the next month and 2 weeks of tentative work after that. Most importantly, I know what questions I need to ask my team to make sure we’re on track!
6. Reading: Makers by Cory Doctorow
7. Wordle 517: 5/6 too many consonants not enough vowels!