Smoke testing, grooming, refinement, candidates, epics, stories, blockers, bugs, spikes, release cadence…Six months ago I thought that knowing the term ‘sprint’ gave me an insight into agile software development. Not so much.
We’re starting to rebuild the (pre-major upgrade) agile methodology that existed before, which is a nice way for me to get gradually immersed in this way of working. My first high-level refinement meeting was this week, looking at what we focus on next and why, then the first wider team-based refinement of stories.
It’s fair to say we probably need to work more at this before we get it right, and everyone feels comfortable. There were only a few of us actively talking, so we need to work at getting everyone more involved.
We’ve recently started to dig into Prodpad more and re-examine our roadmap. Having started fairly recently, it doesn’t feel like I ‘own’ the things that have been devised previously, or have a good awareness of the intent behind some of the initiatives and ideas. Not to mention the volume!
As a Product Team we’ve been working together on a semi-‘scorched earth’ approach; setting aside previous initiatives and then re-introducing them based on our newer priorities, with a degree of realism of what the world now looks like, and rationalised to be more deliverable.
It’s been great to see how many of those previous ideas have been delivered (off to the archive with you!) but also interesting how things that may have seemed important previously don’t necessarily align with where we are now. Importantly, this is helping cement in my mind what we are focusing on now and next, so I can talk about this with more confidence to customers and our developers.
My Product Owner colleague and I both noticed something this week; our developers have been deferring to me for opinions at Product Owner reviews. It’s not been organised that way, it just seemed to have happened.
And that got the two of us discussing our relative strengths/weaknesses and how it makes us feel. My inexperience with real agile delivery has (as I put it) left me feeling ‘out in the wilderness’ sometimes. But my technical knowledge and propensity to tinker with tech feels like a safe space, which has probably led to this deferring.
It does feel like there’s lots of room to support each other on these differences and equal them out a bit more. Playing to strengths can be useful for other colleagues in deciding who to turn to, but levelling things out feels like a fairer and more sustainable option (and more opportunity for us both to learn).
Most of all, our conversations this week made me realise we probably don’t do enough of that — just talk. I hadn’t realised I’d not talked about my having children (or grandchildren!). While remote working is definitely how I prefer to work, those opportunities to just catch up and shoot the breeze do have real value but need to be worked at. It’s too easy to just make every interaction we have about a topic or issue.
It’s lovely to immerse myself back in #localgov occasionally and find out what is going on. This week it was a fantastic show and tell from the Greenwich community directory project, with 40+ people on the call.
The development of the Outpost product by the project team is really impressive. I liked how the distinction was made about it being a service management system and not a content management system.
I’ve been following this project since it started as part of work with Dorset Council, and now while at Placecube too as we can learn from the user research that’s happened. The great thing about the UK Open Referral data standard is that different products can exchange data more reliably, so the more options on the market, the better for councils.
This week I found out I will need to start wearing hearing aids, which set off a series of thoughts and worries, but my overall concern was what other people would think. I realised that there’s an stigma with hearing aids that other aids, like glasses, just don’t have (in my mind, at least).
I’ll think nothing of meeting someone - of any age - wearing glasses. But seeing someone wearing a hearing aid feels different somehow. Like a defining mark of old age. Of separation. Of decline. Maybe that’s just wrapped up in my father’s profound hearing loss and problems with his hearing aids.
The truth is way more interesting of course. Hearing loss affects 12m people in the UK, and the incidence of tinnitus (which I also have) is 1 in 8 people. This is a really common thing — ‘they walk amongst us’!
There’s also a wellbeing/preventative side of hearing aids I didn’t know about. Starting with them earlier is less about ‘rescuing’ hearing loss and more about prolonging hearing ability — firing up those audio sensors keeps them active and has been shown to help in the prevention of dementia and Parkinsons.
And it’s a world of tech that was unknown to me; multi-device bluetooth connectivity, phone app-based controls, remote diagnostics, algorithmic sound adjustments, EQ levels and (my favourite) tinnitus masking. Directly linking to my laptop for online conferencing? Sign me up!
This week has been back to the favoured location of being awkwardly placed behind the corner of the bed — just right for tripping over.