Retro Entities - Summaries of all Sprint Retrospectives of Team "Entities"

[jyoti3286]

Goal:

1. Summary of all Retro results for the Entity team in this Epic
2. Agreed Actions to be created as tasks - to make them visible in ZenHub, to get them done and discuss results in the next retro

This Epic includes team discussion about A. What went well B. Improvements C. Action Items: will be created as a task and linked to this Epic

[jyoti3286]

Sprint 19 Retro:

What went well:

1. Achieved the Sprint goal
2. Support from Bob
3. One team approach is working - team unity and Share knowledge
4. Focus on testing and QA yielded good result
5. BCOMP COD testing
6. Managing test cases in Testrail
7. Good time to test
8. Time to test releases from both teams
9. BCOMP filings are done !!!
10. Had time to work on Debt/tests/reviews
11. Not overwhelmed
12. Cleared Pear Backlog
13. Code quality was improved
14. Integrations testes were named by PO in the Sprint goal
15. BA work getting ahead of DEvelopment
16. Good work done by Laxmi/Severen/Richard
17. Teamwork and Collaboration
18. Was able to clean issues
19. Clear Code objectives
20. Was able to finish Custom date for directors which was pending from last 2 sprints
21. Rallied together for the Goal

Improvements:-

1. BA team collaborations across teams
2. Google docs solution alternative
3. Release activity unsurped a lot of time that could have been for sprint goal activities
4. Try to avoid last-minute rush to document scenarios
5. IMplement Git actions - INT/TEST/Publish
6. Cross-team projects
7. Test multiple scenarios with different data sets
8. User story level tests
9. How to pull relations ship teams into our release CI/CD process
10. Continue to expand on our unit testing. Strive for complete coverage
11. Design flows before development start
12. QA team to get ahead in planning for integrations tests then ask the team to revies
13. Conflicting work dependencies - too many releases
14. PR should be open for a day max
15. Ensure all dependencies are properly analyzed - technical
16. Broke a bunch of stuff because I did not run tests properly
17. Need a clear path for raising issues reg new P1 tickets as in who can take a decision
18. More flexible in timeboxing discussions
19. back to back releases was a bit hard

Ideas for Process Improvements:

• [ ] Spike Research Approach and documenting this in ZenHub
• [ ] The path for P1 bugs should be clearer: When who make a decision?!
• [ ] More time or follow up: To discuss items a bit deeper when needed
• [ ] More time in meetings: Someone should help the team to follow up on the "undiscussed" topics which couldn't be discussed because of timeboxing

Action Items

• [x] PR Cycle - Session After Sprint Planning - Katie will organize this - on whiteboard and documented here: https://github.com/bcgov/entity/blob/master/docs/Way%20of%20Working/PR-Process.md
• [x] Big Room Planning (BRP) Ideas: Waldemar to manage this
• [x] Knowledge Sharing: Maybe do Lunch and Learn and invite other team members from Relationship and asset if it makes sense. Katie will plan for the first session, probably for 50 mins - How to test things in COLIN API
  • created a story for Katie in Zenhub: Session is on Tue, 2019-12-17

[shahriar-khan-fw]

Sprint 20
https://github.com/bcgov/entity/blob/master/docs/Way%20of%20Working/Retro.md Agenda:

• Previous Retro action items - use Retro Mountain to assess progress for the action items see ZenHub: Retro ---
• Review the PR-Process
• Review unhandled filings process: https://github.com/bcgov/entity/blob/master/docs/Way%20of%20Working/Unhandled%20Filing%20Process -- open, review with all, are there next steps? (update ZenHub issue) bug triage process: https://github.com/bcgov/entity/blob/master/docs/Way%20of%20Working/Bug%20Triage

Action items:

• [x] SM @shahriar-khan-fw to remind Dev team about PRs at standup
• [x] @Kaineatthelab to send @sienna-freshworks Unhandled filings
• [x] @kialj876 to show @richard how to do Unhandled Filing Processing
• [x] @JohnamLane to review bug template and triage process with @shahriar-khan-fw & @WaldemarSchneider86

[shahriar-khan-fw]

Sprint 21 Agenda: Sprint Overview. Estimation Review. Retro.

Action Items:

• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw to Facilitate discussion about regression vs dev testing with @JohnamLane & @katiemcgoff - what type of testing will be build by dev vs. QA (and vs. automated)?!

• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw Pre Grooming Review of Tickets. Dev + BA + PO

• [ ] @shahriar-khan-fw SK : To facilitate Versioning meeting ( @severinbeauvais + @Kaineatthelab + @katiemcgoff + @trishreimer )

• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw to facilitate a review of the PR process with @severinbeauvais ^ Please review in next Retro

• [x] Educating team on work that is completed by the Org.CM team and how this work can be better integrated within the product team. @trishreimer - Workshop w. BA´s happened to understand different type of releases

• [ ] @JohnamLane to work on further refine the QA process!

[WaldemarSchneider86]

Sprint 22 Agenda: Team Sprint Review (see Agenda) Estimation Review: no item identified that was estimated totally wrong Retro

Action Items:

• [x] @trishreimer - talk to Cameron on Thu and then to Loren & Jyoti re Stakeholder Engagement

• [x] @trishreimer - Update Stakeholder Map (Trish, BA´s and Design to involve stakeholders earlier)

• [ ] @thorwolpert to set-up Lunch & Learn about "GitHub Actions" - present to BCROS (together w. Roland Stens and Patrick Wei) (after you implemented GitHub Actions

• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw - Schedule weekly - 30 min - Pre-Grooming sessions with team - one day before the Grooming

• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw - update "Location" in Team Sprint Review & Retro - and make sure all are invited (Thor was not invited) (maybe check all invites if all team members are invited)

• [x] @WaldemarSchneider86 - Operations: Workshop with Kial, Patrick & Richard - see Retro item Rel. team - and then include the PO´s of how do we want to improve the Operations/ Maint. process (only Patrick and or Kial do currently the Operations work, which is a risk)

• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw - Create/ draft a Skill Matrix Table for Entity team - to identify the delta (missing skills) that the Entity team has (it is an overall goal that dev team members should be able to do various work activities and not be dependent on only one person skilled to execute a certain work item!) (include input from Asset team; Person - Skill - Delta? https://citz.sp.gov.bc.ca/sites/SBC/REG/Projects/MVSM/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc={FC496308-691F-4FF7-BC4F-436DCBEDD541}&file=Skills_Competences.xlsx&action=default

• [x] @ALL Daily - move to the small room next door to keep it quiet

• [x] @ALL - please try to reduce noise in our team space, as it is sometimes hard to stay focused - e.g. use meeting rooms for workshops, and go to floor space to have private conversations, etc.

[shahriar-khan-fw]

Sprint 22 Estimation Review: no item identified that was estimated totally wrong Retro action items:

• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw will work with Thor to bring in Monitoring tickets
• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw to work on Skills Matrix with the long term goal of bringing balance in team skills.
• [x] @katiemcgoff to find and inform the team about architectural diagrams
• [x] @lmcclung to work with @Kaineatthelab to figure out MVP for upcoming roadmap items

[shahriar-khan-fw]

Sprint 24

Action Items:

• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw to remind team about being mindful of design decisions made in relation to MVPs during Grooming. (Payment & Auth)
• [x] @shahriar-khan-fw and @lmcclung to make sure the Backlog has prioritized items for team to pull in.
• [x] @lmcclung and @shahriar-khan-fw to make sure monitoring tickets get brought into future sprints

[shahriar-khan-fw]

Sprint 25

[shahriar-khan-fw]

Sprint 26

[shahriar-khan-fw]

Entities Sprint 27

[shahriar-khan-fw]

https://app.zenhub.com/files/157936592/ec0a4141-58de-4827-8158-ac8bddf242cb/download Actions:

• Shahriar to invite and Bring PO/BA into other team's Pre - grooming
• Pull in more points for Sprint Planning than capacity BA team to create Pre-pregrooming Spikes for Devs.
• BA creates Stories, Dev breaks them down and adds technical details to the issues and brings them to Pre-grooming
• PreGrooming spikes and prep should make sure dependencies and artifacts are resolved.

[shahriar-khan-fw]

[shahriar-khan-fw]

[jdyck-fw]

[jdyck-fw]

[jdyck-fw]

Sprint 36

Retro action items.

@

• [x] jdyck-fw - Review at Friday's standup, how stabilized is Dev now?
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Ask about OCM or Design updates specifically at standup
• [x] @Sienna-Blumstengel - Move alterations into ZenHub tickets within an Epic (done and todo)
• [x] @Sienna-Blumstengel - Ask about top priorities and blockers in requirements and UX design
• [ ] @Kaineatthelab & @lmcclung - Reach out to home team
• [ ] @lmcclung - Linda - Talk to Steven (alterations in Zenhub)
• [x] @janisrogers - Template for tickets from ServiceNow (alterations in Zenhub)
• [x] @jyoti3286 - Jyoti - POs to discuss at PO sync (alterations in Zenhub)

[jdyck-fw]

Sprint 37

Action items:

• [x] @Kaineatthelab & @lmcclung - Reach out to home team
• [x] @lmcclung - Linda - Talk to Steven (alterations in Zenhub)
• [x] @lmcclung - Revisit stories and confirm there is no overlap and things are in the right place
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Identify blocking tasks early in sprint planning and regularly in standup
• [ ] @thorwolpert - Create a story and tasks to start using featureflags with users + groups

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] @thorwolpert - Create a story and tasks to start using featureflags with users + groups (carry-over task)
• [ ] @riyazuddinsyed - Ensure everyone can run regression scripts with a single click
• [x] @lmcclung - With Kaine talk to Ian re: broken DEV NR
• [x] @Sienna-Blumstengel and @lmcclung - Arrange a meeting with a couple of devs to identify common tasks and story they fit under
• [x] @jyoti3286 and @lmcclung - Create a document for people to note what user ID they are using and what companies are associated

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [ ] @riyazuddinsyed - Ensure everyone can run regression scripts with a single click (carry-over task)
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Keep PRs simple and focussed on the ticket being developed (bring this focus to standup)
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Spearhead a discussion around what to tag with our sprint (vs untracked velocity/effort)
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Bring up the 'done' column topic with the full team (not being used by QA and 'closed') creates our burn-down

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] @jdyck-fw - Discussion with Linda / Sienna / Thor / Kaine to discuss tracking design requirements
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Revisit DOR DOD documents and get team agreement on follow it or update it
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Explore where UX review best fits into our workflow and build it in
• [x] @jyoti3286 - Break out front end and backend release tickets

[jdyck-fw]

Retro 42

Action items:

• [x] @jdyck-fw - Discussion with Linda / Sienna / Thor / Kaine to discuss tracking design requirements - carry over
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Revisit DOR DOD documents and get team agreement on follow it or update it - continued
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Clean up retro mountain so that we can focus on 2-3 things
• [x] @Kaineatthelab - Identify risk around John not here through release of Names work

[jdyck-fw]

Retro 43

Action items:

• [x] @jason.dyck - (standup) - IDIR make sure to login to a live system and not just test
• [x] @jason.dyck - (standup) - Keep working closely ux and dev, this helps
• [x] @jason.dyck - Group discussion next week to revisit e2e of NR
• [x] @linda.mcclung - Share detail of the current state of e2e in NR

[jdyck-fw]

Retro 44

Action items:

• [x] Keep using the “Go Live” ticket as our “must do” list
• [x] Ensure we get good coverage for our end-to-end testing

[jdyck-fw]

Combined retro for Sprints 45 & 46

Action items: 1.

• Retro note - Sad that we are not able to use our Tech review meeting to full extent. Is there a way to improve this?
• Action - Further explore how we can consistently create value in a reboot of this meeting
• [ ] Owner - @jason.dyck 2.
• Retro note - We weren't able to test the speed of PROD before we went live (next might be with auto-analyze, colin, when we shut down NRO)
• Action - ensure we have adequate design and review of a solution before rolling out auto-analyze to prod
• [x] Owner - @Kaineatthelab 3.
• Retro note - We need to figure out a plan for Ops across all teams
• Action - Discuss at PO sync
• [x] Owner - @jason.dyck

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] @jason.dyck - propose a new format reboot of the dev tech meeting (carry-over)
• [x] Jason - Create a ticket for a rotating dev that takes a day of the sprint for catchup up, work ahead, research, etc
• [x] Jason - At grooming - bring up the consideration the UX feedback time in estimations
• [x] Jason - At grooming - bring up the consideration of more common components
• [x] Jason - Bring this up at Def of Ready meeting - Make sure UX and visual design is ready to go and approved before it goes into a sprint (or grooming)

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] @jdyck-fw - At Grooming and Sprint Planning, ensure our estimates account for UX and small improvements
• [ ] @lmcclung - Put more details in milestones so that designers know what's coming up and can have it ready for devs
• [x] @lmcclung - Post long-term planning board in entities chat and pin it (sienna will help)
• [x] @lmcclung - Talk to @Kaineatthelab about folks working in Names and not putting new people on it until after a sprint

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] @lmcclung - Put more details in milestones so that designers know what's coming up and can have it ready for devs (carryover action item)
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Coordinate an Ops rotation conversation and move a plan forward
• [x] @Kaineatthelab & @lmcclung - When considering an MVP approach ask "if we never got to it again, would it be ok?"

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] @jdyck-fw - At Sprint Planning & Grooming, remind the team. "If we are making shared components, try to break out the work into another ticket."
• [ ] @Sienna-Blumstengel - Meet with all BAs and then POs on how to share BA resources across teams
• [x] @lmcclung - Discuss metrics at PO sync

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] @Sienna-Blumstengel - Meet with all BAs and then POs on how to share BA resources across teams
• [x] Everyone - If you have a question about a story in the sprint, put it in a RocketChat discussion created about the story (not the task)
• [x] Everyone - If you have meetings you don't think you're needed at, check with Linda

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] @lmcclung - At Sprint Planning, review from Epic level of what is and isn't done
• [x] @jmills-cgi - Identify what we are releasing next and when

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] @lmcclung - Create a ticket for a dev to create more test data
• [x] @lmcclung - Raise consideration of Slack at PO sync for interest

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] Jason - Ensure that our Monday discussion on requirements for devs includes an exception path
• [x] Jason - Encourage ‘heads down’ blocks of time and continuing to call out dependencies on other team members at standup

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] Jason - Standup reminder to ensure individual priorities align with Sprint Priorities (demo ready)
• [x] Jason - Sprint Planning reminder to focus on user value for sprint end

[jdyck-fw]

• [x] All action items completed - reviewed at sprint 9.4 retro

[jdyck-fw]

• [x] @lmcclung - Ensure sprint backlog has blockers as priority and has sufficient work
• [x] @argush3 / @thorwolpert - Try out the branching idea for this sprint
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Review ZH workflows re: Ops tickets and new repo
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Leave estimations out of Triage

[sienna-oldaccountdontuse]

• [x] @jdyck-fw - Review ZH workflows re: Ops tickets and new repo (carried over from last sprint)
• [x] All - Release candidate to make releases more organized - fixes to release branch and merge to main later - continue to swarm on priority items
• [x] @lmcclung - updating NR epics and prioritizing.  Revisiting with staff re: priorities.

[jdyck-fw]

• [x] Devs - The author ensures that their ticket is tagged to a release before moving it to Ready for QA
• [ ] @jdyck-fw - Try Pull Request for document updates and pin a training to Entities chat
• [x] @jdyck-fw - Review ZH workflows re: Ops tickets and new repo (carried over from last sprint)
• [x] @lmcclung - Update PI Boards to ensure we have appropriate release dates & enrol James to help remind to alternate Entities release weeks with NR release weeks
• [ ] @lmcclung - Create a tech debt ticket/epic to fix GitHub actions to run Unit Tests for NameX and NR

[jdyck-fw]

• [x] All - Look to other teams that do Backlog Grooming well and what we can learn
• [x] All - Try out a design focussed grooming session - Thurs 10-11am

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [x] Get the NameX Tests passing reliably by disabling the current failing ones and build on the successful ones
• [x] Jason - Put a dev rotation in place to share in ownership of updating release tickets regularly
• [x] Cut a release branch each Friday for the upcoming release, leaving it in the Test Environment for 3-4 days with a hard-cutoff for additions

Carried forward:

• [x] @jdyck-fw - Try Pull Request for document updates and pin a training to Entities chat
• [ ] @lmcclung - Create a tech debt ticket/epic to fix GitHub actions to run Unit Tests for NameX and NR

[jdyck-fw]

Action items from retro board:

• [x] Jason - at standup bring up tickets not tagged to a release yet and show release report
• [x] Having UX people more involved for review during development. Maybe scheduling a call/video time, walk through it with the designer
• [x] Jason / Sienna - Ask Kaine about extra resources on testing NR (POs, BAs, John Lane?)

Action items from discussion:

• [ ] Jason & Sienna connect with Thor for a knowledge sharing session around storing docs on GitHub
• [x] For demo day, we will create a release ticket based on what is going to Test for demo and then follow by releasing it to Prod afterwards

[jdyck-fw]

New retro actions:

• [x] More - Only introduce points we actually expect to complete in a sprint / Review carryover points
• [x] More - Double checking designs before UX Assurance and asking any questions along the way if there are unanswered questions/designs
• [x] Add - Changing our estimating to fibonacci

Carryover:

• [x] Jason - at standup bring up tickets not tagged to a release yet
• [ ] Jason & Sienna connect with Thor for a knowledge sharing session around storing docs on GitHub

[jdyck-fw]

[jdyck-fw]

Action items:

• [ ] Create tickets specific to fixing specific areas of tests and test data and groom these to be able pull them into future sprints
• [ ] Create tickets specific to explore and prioritize tech debt issues and groom these to be able to pull them into future sprints
• [ ] Groom design tickets during Backlog Grooming

[jdyck-fw]

Top vote Retro focus areas:

• Test env still has data issues - 6 votes
• Dev api environment wasn’t stable, which created issues when testing IA UI / Dev work is challenging when apps are in a state of flux - 6 combined votes
• Lots of names bug and ops reports / Ops work still dragging BAs down - 5 combined votes

[jdyck-fw]

1. Linda will set up a meeting next week - come up with a plan and get it on the board

[jdyck-fw]

[jdyck-fw]

Carry over action items:

• [ ] Linda will confirm we have a ticket in place to create the data for end to end dissolution testing
• [ ] Thor will host a L&L for Open API Specification (OAS), how to store API documentation there
• [ ] Linda will confirm there is a ticket in place requesting the SRE team to make a dashboard of services and their statuses

New action items:

• [x] Limit to two sprint objectives
• [x] Be more intentional to link dependency tickets in backlog refinement and pay extra attention to not pull in blocked tickets at sprint planning
• [ ] Create scripts to be used in a workshop to show the rest of the team how to do this work
• [ ] Next sprint (or sooner if it fits) - Conduct a workshop on how to create test data scripts

[jdyck-fw]

• [ ] Pull in tech debt as well as bugs.
• [x] At planning, ensure we pull in a balance of FE and BE tasks.
• [x] Thor speak to PPR team about creating regular blocks of time to unblock Entities

[jdyck-fw]

• [ ] Create an RFC (lessons learned, best practices) - More feature flags, deploy more often
• [x] Manage dependencies in sprint planning (FE-BE, SME)
• [x] Jason - Bring Tech Debt ticket review into triage to prioritize what we have

[jdyck-fw]

• [ ] Jason - At the end of the sprint, discuss Ops tickets that Entities team received (count and descriptions)
• [ ] Sienna - Make sure OCM tasks have regular testing
• [x] Linda - Consider splitting createUI, editUI, or others if it makes sense to optimize working in smaller groups
• [x] Linda - Get some stats on volume for all of the change filings https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JGR7kqcoxmfAmY5X9Rkvun8axbv3ywdM/edit?urp=gmail_link#gid=352904542 (edited)

[jdyck-fw]

• [x] Jason - Share overall Ops stats & create some Ops retro actions during Ops retro
• [x] Jason - Update happy hour to be every 4th Thursday that isn't Backlog Refinement
• [x] Linda - At PI planning - ensure we have clear focus on dependencies
• [ ] Sienna - Make sure OCM tasks have regular testing (re: firms release)
• [x] Sharing up that we have accomplished a lot and put forward a strong effort