Intermediary sprints

The main goal for a Release sprint is to have a product release in the end, but when we are not yet ready to release then we also have an option to initiate an Interim sprint that will not end in the product release but will instead produce one or more building blocks necessary for the eventual product release.

Interim sprints are used when the team has unknowns ahead and needs to perform analysis, research, learning in order to be able to know how to plan a future Release sprint in details.

Even if the work ahead for the product release is well known but there is too much of it for the team to finish everything in a single max-length 4-week sprint, then having one or more connected Interim sprints is the solution.

Keep in mind that the main expectation for any kind of sprint is to have finite and measurable deliverables in the end which applies to Interim sprints as well. For the Interim sprint the deliverable will not be a product released to production but something smaller - some examples are:

• When looking for the best way to find out how to develop something then do the hands-on approach: develop a prototype or attempt to build a proof of concept
• It is still OK if this Interim sprint deliverable might not be used in the final product in production as long as we learned from the exercise and can now plan enough time to do it right
• It is also OK if the proof of concept turns out to be impossible to build, i.e. due to technical limitations or external constraints that we have now clearly identified and have removed all unknowns from our path
• When fixing a complex issue or optimizing performance we need to plan out enough time to attempt several or all potential fixes or experiments that will lead to resolution or improvements
• It is OK to have limited incremental success here without committing to specific outcome or specific numbers in the end as long as we have systematic progress and can keep stakeholders updated what worked / didn't work
• When researching and need to figure out how comps are doing things, or to learn more about a subject that is new but without possibility to build a tangible prototype even if it is thrown away in the end: it is OK to just do a detailed summary on the subject or ideally a plan on how we'll approach the next Intermediary or Release sprint

How much time can be allocated to an Intermediary sprint?

• Max-length applies to all types of sprints and it can never be longer than 4-weeks
• If multiple Intermediary sprints are needed then it is OK to connect them one after another but with explicitly approved plan on how many such sprints will exist before the next Release sprint
• Sprint planning time for an Intermediary sprint cannot be longer than 1 day
• Remember that if you have unknowns that are to be clarified during the Intermediary sprint then the sprint plan can be somewhat looser, i.e. Team member 1 Day 1, Team member 2 Day 2, etc. but this is an edge case applicable to time-boxed research only - everything else 

Product release sprints

1) Sprint planning

• Team has two days max to plan out the new sprint
• This is more than enough time for a quick research of goals ahead and a detailed sprint planning
• Take your time for sprint planning, up to several hours for the entire team is sometimes needed and the entire team needs to be present to take part in sprint planning, this is not something a single person (i.e. ScrumMaster) should do
• In case we have more unknowns then the team should not recommend a Release sprint but rather an Intermediary sprint where the primary goals will be to clarify the unknowns through hands-on proof of concept / prototyping or documented plan / deliverable, or to build necessary prerequisites for the eventual release

2) Sprint

• Maximum sprint duration is still 4 weeks or 20 workdays
• Each Release sprint will be divided into two structured wholes: Work phase and Test plan execution phase
• Maximum time allocated for Work phase shouldn't exceed 3 weeks or 15 workdays
• During this time the team should fix bugs, implement features, and complete other general Product Ownership related goals agreed on sprint start
• Work goals should be made in such a way that we can drop off some of the goals during the sprint and still achieve the release: i.e. drop off some of the planned new features, fix less bugs than planned
• If the team doesn't have a Test plan for the product that is up-to-date then one of the work goals needs to be to update the Test plan: this work is owned by the team SA but needs to get a buy-in from the entire team
• Maximum time allocated for Test plan execution shouldn't exceed 1 week or 5 workdays, and should match Test plan execution time estimate in team days
• During this time the entire team will focus on testing the product build in development by following previously prepared Test plan and by splitting test areas among all team members, both developers and SAs
• Test plan execution is "All Hands on Deck" time meaning that no team member is allowed to work on anything other than executing regression test to figure out quality of the current build
• There is no more "inter-team cross-testing" meaning you shouldn't send your build to other teams or other SAs to test it for you
• This doesn't mean that inter-team cooperation isn't allowed - actually it is still a good thing to do cross-testing with other teams especially when other teams are relying on your products and may be affected with the new release
• Devs must still execute "internal cross-testing" and verify each other's bug fixes (i.e. Dev1 tests bug fixes for Dev2, Dev2 for Dev3, Dev3 for Dev1 and final report is sent to SA)
• When the sprint ends the team will figure out how many bugs were found that SA will report in the bug tracker, and will estimate how much actual work remains to release the product
• Not all bugs found are blocking bugs (more on this soon)
• We just need blocking bugs fixed in order to release the product
• At this point the team will know if blocking bugs can be fixed within the Release phase time (see below) or not and will decide one of two things: we are going to release or we need to start a new release sprint in order to fix remaining blocking bugs that will take more than one week's time
• We need to watch out not to begin Release phase if we are uncertain that the remaining blocking bugs can be fixed within the allotted time: it is of no consequence to begin a new Release sprint, but there will be many affected stakeholders if we decide to enter the Release phase and fail to release on time

3) Release phase

• This is instead of what was previously known as "Test phase" but with main difference being that we are no longer spending time to test the product build for the first time but are focusing entire team efforts to release the product
• Release phase can take up to 6 days including the release day which is also considered the first day of the new sprint planning phase
• SAs no longer invest time into test plan or bug prospecting efforts as this is supposed to be already finished during the sprint
• Devs fix only blocking bugs and nothing else
• SAs verify fixed bugs only until we ensure there are no more blocking bugs
• Remember: the ultimate goal is to release a build that is equal or better in quality than the current one in production, nothing more, nothing less

Software developer on steroids - Level 2

Getting from a Jr. Software developer to Software developer Level 1 might have seemed like a long way to go but this is just the first step for a Software developer career in ApexSQL and all the future steps have even steeper learning and growth curve

If you've certified as a Level 1 dev then it means:
  a) You've been working in a fully functional team the company can rely on
  b) Have been a leader at least for a specific task or a goal within the team to carry your own weight
  c) Have gained enough experience with how we work and have already mentored other colleagues or can do so now
  d) You've grown and developed your hard skills just enough so that for any new challenges you encounter you already know how to approach resolving them even when it requires more learning
  e) You are successfully saving time to stakeholders and are working with them vs. working for them or thinking there is us-and-them

Time period

How long will it take to get from the day 1 in ApexSQL to a Software developer Level 2 will depend on each person individually - if you started as a Jr. Software developer (Level 0) then you'll need at least 3.5 to 4 years to be able to check off all of the items below

No regression

The first expectation is that you constantly confirm the level you're currently at which means you don't regress by no longer doing the work you were successfully doing before, or by doing it slower (i.e. you caught lazies)

If you had regression in your performance then it is critical to first make sure you get back on track and have consistent high performance of at least 3 or more months in a row - not doing so risks actual regression back to a Level 0

Soft skills + 1

When doing a Level 2 values review expectations will be one step higher than those for a Level 1 performance review

If you had a "Needs improvement" score for any of the values but have still managed to certify for Level 1 then those values if not improved in the meantime will read as "Unsatisfactory" during the Level 2 review which is a showstopper

If you had a "Meets expectations" score for a value then you need to have displayed consistent or improved values match in order to keep reading "Meets expectations" for the Level 2

Hard skills++;

Jr. Software developers can best testify the amount of new development knowledge and skills gained when going from Level 0 to Level 1 - the same goes for a Level 1 dev aiming to certify as Level 2

Each team has a bit different hard skills requirements depending on the owned product set so the only common metric here is how have those hard skills helped you be more efficient during work

Success = results / time;

The better hard skills you gained then you'll contribute to your team with more results over less time

Value added time saver

Can you confirm all of this:
  1) Are you self-sufficient enough so that others don't need to "manage" you by asking questions and giving directions / frequently correct you
  2) Do you communicate proactively and in an actionable manner with the stakeholders / no surprises caused by you and your team
  3) Do you educate stakeholders and provide suggestions and guidance yourself
  4) Can you be a role model for all Software developer Level 1 peers

Achievements

Additional information we should put on a table before starting the perf review for Level 2 is the list of achievements you can brag about since you've certified for Level 1

If you don't have anything exceptional to show for as a Level 1 dev then how can you justify you have earned the next level

This is also a great personal litmus test you can do for yourself before reaching out - are you able to provide a list of at least three achievements that you are proud of during your Level 1 tenure?

But don't say that i.e. you're proud of showing up for work every day or that you've managed to complete 3 sprints in a row as these are just normal everyday expectations so you won't be doing yourself a favor

For example:
  a) Took initiative to build a component / engine / feature which helped the team by ...
  b) Improved communication of the team with the stakeholders
  c) Helped the team achieve PUQ superiority by fixing X bugs in Y time / by improving performance by x% / by identifying and fixing usability issues
  d) Mentored new colleagues so that they have achieved ...
  e) Suggested [and helped implement] a feature / functionality that directly helped with Platinum goal
  f) Successfully managed X subcontracted projects
  g) Worked with team SEs to ensure uninterrupted team content flow
  h) Took ownership of a standard and helped everyone enforce it

Also such achievements are good to have but aren't the ones we're looking for:
  a) Learned to write thread safe code like a boss - good for you
  b) Read 3 books on design patterns - congrats
  c) Went to a .NET conference - nice
  d) Learned angular / js / css - great if it'll help you get the job done, but the focus is on the achievements that are "done" and have directly helped with your team and the company goals

The art of specs

In the initial The art of subcontracting article we've covered in short differences between functional/technical and requirements/specification

When preparing initial documents to describe a subcontracting project we have 4 distinct levels of documentation "depth" where each is more detailed than the previous one - and you don't necessarily need to document everything down to the lowest level in order to have a successful project

Level 1: User stories

User stories are a great way to abstract yourself from the technical minutia and to define top-level goals for the subcontracting project - they are the answers to "What?"

User story is a one-liner where you can describe your project goals to a person who is seeing the project for the first time and has no idea what you want to accomplish - never allow subcontractors to figure this out for themselves

Also a user story will make sure that the user (you) achieves clarity about the project goals before going down the rabbit hole

User story has a few elements:
a) "As a user" - this puts you in the proper set of shoes on start as you are the user
b) "of the <final deliverable>" - clarify what is the expected end deliverable of the project: an app, a component, an engine, documentation, specs, etc.
c) "I want to be able to <functional goal>" - one desired project use case

Some examples:
As a user of the application I want to be able to... (one goal what you want the application to cover, i.e. allow for browsing database encrypted objects, to be able to easily decrypt database objects)

As a user of the component I want to be able to... (visually view database objects in a form of a graph, manipulate database objects as a graph)

As a user of the engine I want to be able to... (access all of SQL Server instance properties in an object model form)

As a user of the functional specification I want to be able to... (have a detailed functional requirements breakdown for the engine mentioned above).
This specific user story is great for when creating specs-for-specs (see appendix)

As a user of the automated test I want to be able to...

All but the simplest projects will have more than one user story defined - i.e. one user story per needed application/engine feature


Level 2: Functional requirements breakdown

Once user stories are defined they can now be broken down into individual and more detailed functional requirements

Functional requirement is a free-form short description that further explains a user story

To breakdown a single user story "As a user of the visual component I want to be able to view database objects as a graph":
a) Each object type should be visually represented with a different geometrical shape
b) Related objects should be interconnected using lines
c) We should have several predefined presets / algorithms for object layouts
...

Functional requirements are short and don't go into details, i.e. what kind of geometrical shape should be applied to what type of object, how will object name be displayed, color of the shape, etc.

It is critical to invest as much time as needed to define all functional requirements that we need on start.

If we uncover that we've missed to define a functional requirement during the project then all such burden of additional requirements will fall down on us (as project appendixes that bear additional costs)


Level 3: Functional specification

Each of the individual functional requirements can be further broken down to create a functional specification / functional details

Consider each of the functional requirements as a new paragraph or a separate section with a freedom to go into all the tiny details

A section "Representing object types visually" can have:
a) A mockup / picture of a representative object type
b) List of default geometrical shapes, colors, text
c) List of configurable elements, and all required shapes to be available
...

Drawing up a good functional specification is very time-demanding and depending on the project scale and complexity it can be wise to consider subcontracting this work (see appendix)


Level 4: Technical specification

The lowest level of a subcontracting document is technical specs which can be more or less detailed, or can be skipped altogether

Almost every development subcontract will have some basic technical requirements in a form of required development technology, coding standards, etc.

Anything more than that is very risky as it effectively spoon-feeds the subcontractor and requires a lot of micromanagement time on your side thus making it questionable whether you should've worked on the project by yourself from the start

A good rule of thumb is to avoid technical specification whenever possible, or if really needed have subcontractors work on it prior to beginning any actual implementation/development work

For specific projects where it is important to go down to tech spec details level, try to keep it as short as possible


Appendix - Specs for specs

The main goal of subcontracting is to help you achieve team goals as quickly as possible (success = results / time)

Smart product teams will keep this in mind at all times and will not replace their development time with spec writing time

A smart product team will spin off subcontracting projects by focusing on writing up Level 1 (user stories) and Level 2 (functional requirements) subcontracting documentation

As such you can have subcontractors write Level 3 and Level 4 (functional and technical specification) documents themselves which you can later review and approve prior to starting the implementation

a) Know thy comps - research and figure out in details who we want to better / what we want to achieve
b) Know thy goals - write up good user stories by yourself what we want to achieve (Level 1)
c) Know thy needs - write up all functional requirements (Level 2)
d) Make it so - have subcontractors do the remaining work by writing the remainder of the project documentation prior to implementation

Jr. Software developer trial period breakdown

Trial period length

Jr. Software developers have the longest trial period when compared to all other roles at ApexSQL

Many of the guys who start at this entry level position have no previous work experience or at least no experience in software development jobs, and have a limited hard skills set

Improving hard skills and earning experience is only possible through actual work by developing products and taking part in ideally every step of the product new version life cycle covering the concept, analysis, roadmap, design, development, testing, release, and agile support

ApexSQL is made of guys who are dedicated and see themselves in the IT battle trenches for years to come by sharing both success and failure with the rest of the company

How long it will be until you complete the trial period it'll mostly depend directly of you, and of your team, but specifically trial period for Jr. devs with no previous experience is usually 9-12 months and depends on your growth curve, team achievements, and individual results 

Specific requirements

0) To even start talking about successful end-of-trial it is mandatory for all our devs to read in full and to share on the subject of The Inmates Are Running the Asylum book.

This step is also a prerequisite for any software design and usability improvement discussions / tasks

1) The first step of each performance review is that the team (a product team consists of both devs and Support engineers) must have a good standing and good results at least for the past 3 months.

This comes down to successful ownership of team products by:
  a) Having good team transparency: no surprises for stakeholders; share proactively - raise suggestions vs. asking questions or providing one-sided decisions
  b) Don't expect to be told what to do and don't allow to be asked what you're doing - if someone asks for an update then it is already too late
  c) Ideally have a few product releases under your belt - not all teams have this but it is a good achievement to have if applicable
  d) Uninterrupted new content flow - this part is owned by team SEs but if they get stuck it will come down to devs in the team to help out even though we'd like to avoid this as devs should focus on development work


2) The second step of the perf review is to have good individual results that speak for you and to actually own some team goals.

One option is to became a go-to guy in the team for a specific area, to directly contribute to your team through learning and sharing about a specific area, subcontract management, QA and test automation, development/implementation of a specific engine or technology, or something else.

This doesn't mean to isolate other team members from an area of code or to work alone in isolation as that should never happen, but instead take ownership of a goal within the team and with the help and collaboration from the team you complete it from start to finish

And most importantly share regularly about your team and individual achievements and progress - don't expect someone will be spying on you or monitoring your every step; no one will notice if you don't share for yourself

Also don't hide behind other team members - there's no such thing as a team lead in ApexSQL or a team PR

Owning a goal means you won't wait on everything to be reviewed by everyone else in the team and to reach a "consensus" - help is welcome and collaboration is good, but you should never wait on anything or anyone and should take full responsibility for the goals you own

3) The third step is values review from peers, mentors, colleagues, stakeholders - just read our Working Naked values statement and let me know if you have any questions

4) The final match-80%-of-job-level-requirements step is not required for a successful end of trial for devs as certifying for Software developer Level 1 requires even more battlefield experience and hard skills which can be ideally achieved in the next 6-12 months at most 

Benefits

Upon successful end-of-trial performance review Jr. Software developers remain Jr. devs (Level 0) but gain paid vacation time proportionally for the given year, and are paid during the month for the ongoing month (vs. at the end of month)

Later on when you finally certify for a Software developer Level 1 it comes with commensurate increase in salary, and depending on the current company policy also covered local contractor monthly taxes and insurances 

On the right track

Ask yourself:
A) Is my team proactive enough, do we get many questions from stakeholders or we're able to anticipate questions by regular sharing of our status, plans, and recommendations
B) Are we sprinting regularly in the team, learning from our failed sprints, and doing everything we can in order to succeed each of the team sprints
C) Am I contributing in my team by sharing responsibilities with my colleagues without skipping out
D) Am I there for my team members when the going gets tough
E) Am I sharing regularly with the stakeholders for both my team and myself, or am I expecting that others in the team will be sharing for me
F) Are we (devs) helping our team SEs with customer support and with content. How is my team SE doing right now
G) How much did our team and I contribute to the company when compared to other Jr. Software developer teams / individual devs
H) Am I repeating mistakes or am I learning each day so that my next day is always better than the previous one

What next

Reach out to HR and/or Facilitators whenever you have any doubts or when you lack feedback

Otherwise we'll keep an eye out and touch base when we consider you ready for a potentially positive first performance review

The art of project management

Ok, so you've figured out what work to subcontract and have found a potential freelancer who will consider doing the work - congrats on learning the art of subcontracting basics, now comes the actual project management

As we already determined that every member of our product team is not just a PO but also a PM, below are a few PM operational algorithms that will help you to ensure your project is successful


Project takeoff

  1) When you have project specs vetted by the team (SSE, devs, others as needed), send the specs to the selected tried out subcontractor, or send the specs to Ops for assistance in finding a subcontractor with the best bid

  2) Subcontractor will usually have some questions about the project specs before providing work estimates
    a) If the answers to the questions are already covered in the specs that means the subcontractors didn't bother to read through the specs and you can dismiss them
    b) If there are no questions at all or no questions you hoped to hear then make sure to ask a few "control" questions of your own, i.e.: how do you plan to implement something, what do you suggest for a solution for this problem, which technology will you use to accomplish this, did you work on a similar project before, etc.
    c) If you get some very basic questions about the project that should've been covered by the specs already that means that the specs aren't good enough and my suggestion is that you don’t waste time in ad-hoc discussion with the subcontractor but go back to step 1) to rewrite/update the specs to cover all important information and then send the new specs to the subcontractor

  3) After the subcontractor provides work estimates and project ETA, perform a sanity check
    a) If you don't agree with some of the estimates don't challenge them directly but simply ask for a more detailed breakdown and explanation how did they come up with such an estimate
    b) Be constructive when talking with subcontractors, it isn't your goal to reduce the estimates but to make sure both sides are fair and professional: you are an employer but you need to treat your subcontractor as your partner

  4) Once the project estimates are good define project milestones as these are critical steps along the way that will allow you to track the progress and to avoid situation where you reach the project deadline and figure out it isn't done right
    a) Although we don't pay out $ when a project isn't done or done right, we still have growing opportunity cost caused by the delays which can be greater than the actual project cost
    b) Each project can be broken down into several milestones with no exceptions (like a sprint PBI can always be broken down into smaller tasks)

  5) Get in touch with Ops for assistance with securing project finances

  6) As soon as you have a formal approval for the project, agree on a hard date with the subcontractor by when the project will be completed, and by when the first milestone will be delivered


Project cruise

  A) If the subcontractors have any additional questions about the project at any point along the way, make yourself available to help out as soon as possible
    a) Insist on written communication whenever possible, especially if you discuss changes in the project requirements; use Skype only when it will save you time but have all project agreements written down in case we need them later on
    b) #EveryoneThinks applies to the subcontractors as well - don't solve problems for them but instead always ask for them to suggest and explain the best solution that you'll review and approve or suggest differently

  B) If you uncover additional work is needed for the project along the way that wasn't covered by our original requirements go ahead and immediately discuss project appendix estimates with the subcontractor and let Ops know to assist you with financial approval
    a) Be fair - if you didn't ask for that work in the original specs then don't insist for subcontractors to do it for free

  C) Make sure you know the upcoming milestone ETA as well as the project completion ETA at all times
    a) If the subcontractor misses an ETA you need to send a follow up immediately
    b) If you don't hear back from the subcontractor send another follow up and add Ops to CC to help out
    c) If someone wakes you up in the middle of the night you need to be able to immediately provide project ETAs and status

  D) #EveryoneShares - be transparent towards all stakeholders (i.e. Facilitators): if you are asked about project status then you're already late
    a) Push information when a milestone is approved
    b) Push information when a defined ETA is changed for whatever reason
    c) Push information when additional project requirements are uncovered

  E) As soon as you receive a deliverable from the subcontractors prioritize reviewing it and providing feedback
    a) If you need some time to review the deliverable provide the subcontractor with an ETA - what you expect from the subcontractor about giving and honoring ETAs applies to you as well
    b) Check deliverable conformance to specs, functionality, quality, performance, code where applicable
    c) If something isn't good enough send it back with sufficient feedback
    d) If a deliverable meets all of the milestone acceptance criteria inform Ops and the subcontractors about it to cover the financial side of the milestone


Project touchdown

  1) Project is officially complete as soon as all milestones are approved and all project requirements are fulfilled - you determine when this happens by giving away final project approval
    a) Don't give an approval if you haven't allowed all team members (devs, SSEs) to review the deliverables and to report all found issues, provide feedback
    b) Don't give an approval just to end the project sooner if there are still remaining issues - be persistent for the subcontractor to resolve all of the known issues
    c) When in conflict with the subcontractor whether an issue is a bug or an additional request feel free to consult with Ops, but also remember that we need the project 100% completed as soon as possible with the highest possible PUQ so if a small additional project appendix will get us there don't think twice about it and err on the subcontractor side
    d) Always remember: the more things subcontractor didn't finish the more work for you

  2) Never stop thinking about additional work you can subcontract, especially if you're happy with the subcontractor
    a) Spin off a new project immediately if you already found additional work needed for an R2, R3, Rn down the way
    b) When applicable ask the subcontractors to do some comp research on their own and to suggest any missing features, areas where we can improve the project - senior guys who are looking for additional work will be happy to help you out with this


Key things to remember

  1- You are the project manager and you own the project from start to finish
  2- Ops is always there to help you out with administration and PM advice whenever in doubt
  3- Don't be afraid: Failure is ok, fear isn't ;)

The art of subcontracting

When a fully staffed product (development) team is unable to achieve all of the team goals within an acceptable time frame, the team is faced with two options:
  a) Keep developing on your own and work long hours until the goals are achieved or at least until new challenging goals show up so you can work more long hours again
  b) Develop smarter by temporarily increasing team velocity through subcontracting: outsource and manage development projects instead of developing everything on your own

Each team is by definition a Project management team and each team member is a PM as soon as you start thinking outside of the confines of your own 10 typing fingers

What does "subcontracting" mean in practice?
  1) Identify potential projects by defining the needs in your team where you need help
  2) Prepare functional/technical requirements and/or specification for the project
  3) Leverage help from the Ops team to find the best external freelancer/team to complete the job
  4) Communicate with the selected freelancer/team, review their progress, provide work feedback and set your expectations
  5) Give your approval (or not) for parts of the project as it progresses, and for the entire project once it is complete
  6) Implement deliverables in production

What all can be subcontracted?
  a) Reusable UI components, shared between teams or products
  b) Backend libraries / engines / frameworks, either for internal team use or for multiple teams
  c) Modular features for owned products, i.e. an externally developed functionality that can be easily "plugged" into the product
  d) Fully integrated features for owned products, i.e. subcontractor gets full access to a separate product code branch and adds additional functionality directly
  e) Entire new products including backend functionality and frontend UI based on our standards
  f) Test automation helper apps that are unaware of the product, i.e. data generators
  g) Product-specific test automation helper apps specific to your product's interaction design

We can subcontract everything that we find complex?
Not just complex but even if you know how to do it internally and don't have enough time to do it (remember: success = results / time)

What's the difference between functional and technical requirements?
Functional requirements are your concise expectations of what you need completed

Technical requirements are your general technological expectations / tech limitations of how you want the project done

Requirements are short, generalized documents that provide freedom to outsourcers to figure out the tiny details along the way

At a minimum each project needs to have at least functional requirements defined

What's the difference between functional and technical specification?
Functional specification is a more detailed document providing more thorough expectations, i.e. interaction workflows, UI mockups, etc.

Technical specification is a technical minutia document which can define technical workflows or even entire development project UML

Detailed specifications are optional - they can either help our or make a project unmanageably complex depending on the type of the project

How should SSEs be involved into subcontracting?
Everyone in the team needs to spec-test functional requirements/specification, especially team SSE prior to starting a new project

Once a subcontracted project deliverable comes in such as an UI component, new product feature, new product, test automation helper, etc. SSE should review and scrutinize the deliverable prior to acceptance as if it was developed internally

How much work can we subcontract?
This is up to you mostly; as long as we have resources available to dedicate to outsourcing work you'll be able to suggest new projects for subcontracting and will get assistance from Operations to get started

Release process and test phases

Release process covers 3 distinct consecutive test phases for which product teams (devs and SSEs) are in charge:
  1) Design and usability testing
  2) Continuous testing
  3) Static/release testing

Each team must have a clear test plan that will allow for systematic advancement between subsequent test phases culminating in a product release

In a good product release scenario a team should never regress from one test phase to a previous one - some guidelines follow to explain each test phase


1. Design and usability testing
During this phase the team is testing new features, changes in a product, and is working towards locking down the product interaction design

Usability testing helps make sure the interaction design is optimal and customer friendly - the team should leverage feedback from as many external resources as possible: company stakeholders, power-users, other product teams, etc.

It is ok to update interaction design, make functional UI changes during this phase, but not after this phase is locked down


2. Continuous testing
Once interaction design is locked down, the team must focus on finding as many bugs as possible and fixing them all as soon as they are found and reported

Usually this phase will help to clean up product functional bugs, regression bugs, and make sure the build is stable enough to go on to the next and final phase of the release process (for more details about Continuous testing vs. static testing read this article)

At this time we should have no usability or interaction design bugs reported, however if it happens that such a bug is found then the team must stop continuous testing and immediately regress back into #1 Design and usability testing phase


3. Static/release testing
At this time the team cannot make multiple product builds meaning the code must be fully locked down, and that only one build can be tested

If the previous two testing phases were covered well then the static testing will only reveal limited number of functional bugs

For static testing round #2 the team should fix only the most critical bugs:
  a) Regression/broken bugs
  b) Bugs that will clearly make the new build considered worse than the public one

If done correctly there should be no static testing round #3, but if it does happen there can be no round #4 so product release is mandatory after that

If it happens that there are design bugs or multiple "critical" bugs found during static testing then the team must stop static testing and immediately regress back into corresponding previous test phase


At any time when a process regression happens this only means that the previous testing phases weren't done well and the team must update/improve owned testing plan in order to prevent process regression from happening in the future

Remember that each team gives its own product release recommendation at the end - good litmus test question for a release: "Is this product build better than the previous one?"

The only thing that a team must follow at all times is this clear release process and must be able to provide feedback to all stakeholders about:
  a) What is the current product testing phase
  b) What is the ETA to go into the next phase / release

Scrum PPPPPPP

When planning work ahead in your sprints avoid guesstimating at all costs

Why? By guessing estimates for weeks of work ahead you're putting yourself and your team in a corner: when unplanned things show up (and they always will) there is no turning back as you've already committed to delivering per your sprint

Optimists are guesstimating for less work than there actually is which causes the need for Overtime, low quality deliverables, messed up roadmap schedule, and feeling of failure at the end

Pessimists are guesstimating for unrealistic and unjustified work which is even worse than being an optimist - this raises a red flag that a team isn't capable of doing good work in realistic time

Unfortunately even when a team is capable of finishing work in good time, by being a pessimist from the start the original estimates become self-fulfilling prophecy and the work expands to fill out all of the allocated time

Realists on the other hand are different from optimists and pessimists simply in being good JIT planners and proactive communicators

How to recognize an optimist or a pessimist?
  a) Sprint contains many part1..part_n type of tasks in the sprint
  b) Multiple different tasks have identical estimates of n hours (usually equal to max. daily deliverable limit)
  c) There are no internal testing or peer-review tasks, only work specific tasks

How to become a realist?
  1) As a ScrumMaster dedicate a few hours time to meet with your team when planning a new sprint and take input from all team members when estimating task hours.
  One-man 15min sprint planning is a recipe for failure

  2) When encountering goals that require more detailed research before the work can be broken down into clear daily deliverables, plan for a spike-goal of a few hours that will result in more detailed planning of the work ahead.
  This is JIT planning by utilizing Spike goals and it helps to avoid doing complex planning for weeks ahead

  3) Unknowns still show up even to the best of planners - when this happens figure out what happened, try to devise the best plan for solving the new situation, and if you see the original estimates are no longer viable make sure to immediately inform all stakeholders

Blitzkrieg testing

(Wikipedia) Blitzkrieg (German, "lightning war") is an anglicized term describing a method of warfare whereby an attacking force spearheaded by a dense concentration of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, and heavily backed up by close air support, forces a breakthrough into the enemy's line of defense through a series of short, fast, powerful attacks

Although we're striving to automate as much development processes as we can, in some cases of complex product releases we still need to ensure products pass human / manual testing so there are no broken functionality issues we missed

What happens when we have limited number of testers covering multiple products from multiple development teams? As we never test in parallel, one or more products inevitably gets delayed, we pile up technical waste and lose agility

Consider a typical development scenario:
  1) On day 1 Dev team A works for 3 weeks and builds Product A for testing
  2) On day 2 Dev team B works for 3 weeks and builds Product B for testing
  3) The same software testers cover both Dev team A and Dev team B
  4) Software testers receive Product A and Product B for testing on week 4
  5) We prioritize products based on their ROI, date of last release, customer requests - one product still gets delayed and there is always at least one customer that we've let down

Instead of losing momentum, we can now add air support (developers) to help mechanized infantry (software testers) and blitzkrieg the product for one day

Years ago in early days of ApexSQL each developer was owning exactly one product and was also responsible to self-test the product before sending it to testers. Without this mandatory self-testing we've regressed to not doing any self-testing prior to sending products to testing

Consider different step #5 above:
  5) Dev team A works together with software testers to blitzkrieg-test Product A for one day and release it as Interim build or even production build if software testers agree
  6) Dev team B works together with software testers the next day to blitzkrieg-test Product B for one day and release it as Interim/production build

Critical note: developers cannot report bugs "internally" or fix them on-the-fly: all bugs must be reported to software testers who will then create bugs in the system and prioritize them accordingly

Also to avoid confusion - some online blogs say that Blitzkrieg testing = spot-testing; there is a major difference: spot-testing is quick testing by a lone scout, while Blitzkrieg is a short but major quality offensive

Scrum tales - part 15 - success FAQ

Why does Scrum matter?
- Scrum provides structure and forces prioritization in the company
- Scrum provides maximum work transparency at all times
- Scrum provides clear insight into problems within teams
- Scrum eliminates team leaders and administrative non-thinkers
- Scrum enables regular dialog between stakeholders and teams
- Scrum allows teams to make their own commitments and estimates within reason
- Scrum allows teams to work without constant supervision and guidance
- Scrum allows for predictable work increments
- Scrum is easily scalable

Why do successful sprints matter?
Each successful sprint carries a potential production-ready deliverable increment (a new product build, a specs or a prototype for a new tool, documentation, etc.), and as each sprint is time-boxed it is easy to make systematic progress and be competitive as a company

What happens when a sprint succeeds?
It shows that a Scrum team cares about the company success and can be trusted more in the future as the team has delivered what they agreed with the stakeholders

What happens when a sprint fails?
It shows that a Scrum team needs to improve in the future, and gives the team a chance to accept responsibility and address the organizational issues themselves

Is it ok to fail a sprint if it is done for a greater cause / higher goal?
No - saying "greater cause" in this context is an excuse for doing things your way without alignment with previously agreed goals and priorities, and with lack of transparency towards stakeholders

There are no valid reasons why a sprint should fail if:
  a) Communication with the Product Owner and all stakeholders was regular
  b) All issues with suggestions how to resolve them were raised as soon as they showed up
  c) Sufficient effort was expanded

How to ensure a sprint succeeds when unexpected issues show up?
As soon as the issues show up:
  1) Consider all possible solutions to keep the sprint on track: additional research, workaround, help from other teams, or just expand some extra effort
  2) Contact stakeholders / Product Owner to inform them of the issues and possible solutions
  3) Recommend sprint grooming as the last resort

Both the Scrum team and all stakeholders equally wish for each sprint to succeed so consider all related communication as discussion between allies on a common quest for success

Developer Vs. Programmer

At ApexSQL we're making killer tools for SQL Server, and to do so we're proud to have strong product and website teams currently consisting of developers and SQAs. We have no programmers in our teams and we don't need any.

What is the difference between a programmer and a developer?


Definition

Programmer is a grunt receiving orders from a team leader and/or project manager working on a piece of code outsourced for someone else's solution and based on someone else's plan.

Developer is a spec-ops, lean-mean-development-machine part of a small band of heroes owning and building top-notch solutions, come hell or high water.


Examples

Programmer has many bosses: a senior, a team leader, a project manager, etc.
Developer has only one boss: the customer.

Programmer wants to write a program or some code.
Developer wants to create the best solution for the customer.

Programmer comes to work and works for 8h.
Developer has incremental results each day regardless of hours worked.

Programmer asks questions.
Developer makes suggestions.

Programmer speaks for himself as one from the team.
Developer speaks to the team and for the team.

Programmer reads roadmaps and writes code to accommodate roadmaps.
Developer makes roadmaps and works to accommodate customers.

Programmer doesn't know the competitors and tends to be surprised.
Developer knows what competitors had for breakfast and what they plan for dinner.

Programmer schedules meetings and gives updates to stakeholders when asked to do so.
Developer has an active com-link with battle buddies and keeps stakeholders constantly informed of mission status.

Programmer learns when new skills are needed for work and/or is trained by others.
Developer learns organically and shares the knowledge by training others.

Programmer works with other teams to share personal workload.
Developer works with other teams to lessen everyone's workload.

Programmer strives not to fail the sprint.
Developer strives to add more work on top of a successful sprint.

Programmer waits for SQAs to test code changes and report bugs.
Developer self-tests new code and makes it tough for SQAs to find bugs.

Programmer is unsure about performance of created tools.
Developer perf-tests regularly and knows that owned tools are top-performers in the market.

Programmer expects of SQAs to write test cases and to regression test everything.
Developer cooperates with SQAs to write unit tests, to implement detailed logging and to automate regression testing.

Programmer uses 3rd party tools to speed up work.
Developer uses our company tools to speed up work and to help improve the tools in the process.

Programmer "overcommits", "cannot reproduce", "cannot fix", "must ask someone else".
Developer gets the job done. Period.

Efficient customer support chain

To have an efficient chain of help from customer and all the way down to developers teams should make sure to not skip steps and seek shortcuts as they will prevent internal growth but also unwillingly consume more of team time on the long run making the support inefficient and time consuming

 

 

What does this mean in practice?

 

   1) Support - don't be a hero, you cannot isolate all bugs by yourselves as this will suck up your time and you won't be able to work on anything else that day; pass complex support cases down to QA to isolate and reproduce the issue when you define the problem itself; not passing cases down to QA will also deny them of the opportunity to grow hard skills and help you better/faster in the future

 

   2) Support - make sure you do define what the problem is about when the customer first contacts you; this means you shouldn't forward received customer email directly to QA if you don't know the answer immediately - try to at least define the problem before pushing it down the chain to QA to isolate and report a bug

 

   3) Support - some of you have tendencies to contact devs and discuss directly with them whether a customer report is a bug and whether or not devs can fix it easily; don't go to devs but go to QA instead because going to devs without a defined bug will only waste time for both teams

 

   4) QA - although you no longer have unattended assistance metric this doesn't mean you should contact devs for every single support case and definitely not repeatedly when similar issues show up - I can hear directly from devs which QA team is doing better job isolating technical support case bugs

 

   5) QA - you can and should contact customer directly when you need additional help to isolate a complex problem; contacting customer through Support will only waste time of both teams and prolong solving the case

   6) Devs - help QA grow by giving them pointers what to research, check and isolate; if you always roll down your sleeves, dig down into code and isolate a problem for them, you'll be stuck doing this indefinitely while we'll have consequential impact on our product releases

Production roadmap demystified

To escape the arbitrary process of determining production roadmap we need to instate a scientific and clear system to satisfy business needs and have unambiguous priorities for both products and their functionality. Production roadmap will be defined in few simple steps:
   1) Create empty slots for product releases per each developer team based on business (EPO) needs
   2) Perform Research and Analysis to determine clear priority list for new/existing product and their functionality
   3) Fill out the roadmap slots by following previously defined product/functionality priorities

Step 1 - empty slots creation
Owned by: COO with assistance of CEO/Sales

Business needs that guide creation of production roadmap empty slots:
   1. One possible release slot per core developer team per month (12 per team)
   2. 75% of empty slots are to be allocated for new High ROI products (9 "green slots" per team)
   3. Release one new major version for existing products each year

Step 2 - R&A rank lists
Owned by: DPD with assistance of other technical teams (Support, QA indirectly)

Singular system similar to what we use in HR - evaluate specific properties of each candidate, summarize, sort and create a clear rank list of recommendations to fill the "buckets"

We can distinguish 3 sets of properties* for 3 rank lists we need to fill out the empty Production roadmap slots:
   1. Possible new High ROI products (green slots)
   2. Existing products (purple slots)
   3. New/existing product changes/functionalities; prioritized list of features needed for each of the products we'll use to fill the allocated slots

*Specific properties for R&A product/functionality ranking will be detailed separately

Step 3 - filling the empty slots
Owned by: COO with assistance of DPD

With clearly defined business needs and R&A rank lists, filling the slots is objective process:
   1. Fill the green slots based on new High ROI products R&A list of priorities
   2. Fill the purple slots based on existing products R&A list of priorities
   3. Assign a minimum and maximum feature set to each product release; minimum feature set must be met, maximum only if there is enough time and resources allocated but not for the expense of delaying the release
   4. Proof the estimates with developer teams to establish a commitment of both sides: no changes on requirements side and no delays on developer side


Do's and Don'ts
   A) Do apply lean techniques for new releases: make each new product release as short as possible with minimum possible feature set needed to determine the success of the product; analyze first version results and make a clear decision to pivot or persevere

   B) Do plan and proof estimates conservatively to make Production roadmap predictable and solid for the entire year

   C) Do use priority pairs to determine the weights of business needs if something's got to break; i.e. New High ROI products > one major release for all existing products each year

   D) Don't assume available development resources are fixed but think outside of the box to satisfy all business needs

   E) Don't push back planned releases but instead cut out lower priority features to release on time

Product release notes - why do they matter

Everyone involved in pre or post-production is writing product release notes: developers, QA and Support. In the end release notes for all products appear consistent and are published following carefully constructed set of internal writing standards. Here's an autopilot plan listing release notes creation process in top-down priority by owners


Support

You are the direct owners of product release notes; they serve as proactive help and guidance for our customers by letting everyone know what we improved, changed and fixed in the new product releases. Having good release notes has multiple benefits:
   a) Satisfied existing customers
   b) More new customers
   c) Less need for later reactive support

This means that you have the final and ultimate responsibility to polish the release notes for all products before the release, make them consistent and easy to understand for all and push to production. To do so, use all the help you can from other teams (QA, developers) to clarify required technical details and rewrite the release notes as needed

Release notes standards are there to make all release notes consistent, not to create more bureaucratic overhead; if you see a way to improve it by making release notes simpler and easier for customers to understand - act on it now


QA

You write the most of the release notes from scratch as soon as Bugs are reported which basically makes you the main authors of 90% of all our release notes. Writing good release notes has multiple benefits:
   a) Release note text can also be directly used as Bug title - two flies with one swat
   b) Bug title matching well written release note will make developers understand bugs more easily and will pull on your sleeve less often
   c) Save time for Support which in turn allows them to resolve more reactive support issues, to forward less issues to you and thus save your own time


Developers

You are the first and the last line of defense - you consolidate all release notes for a new product release into one file on start and incorporate them back into product after Support team reviews them

Yes, you still have to write all enhancements and changes as no one else knows what has improved and changed in the product better than you. Additionally you have the responsibility to incorporate final release notes back into your product and to make sure formatting is consistent across all products

As Everyone Serves, your main job is to provide prompt technical assistance to other teams when they need to write a good and simple release note


Common suggestions

   1) When in doubt how to write a release note just put yourself in customer's shoes and see if an outsider will understand it after a single read
   2) Make all release notes as concise as possible - they are not help content but new product version proactive one-sentence guidelines
   3) Describe anything and everything that has changed and especially improved in new product releases, even if you accidentally improved performance by a few percent
   4) If not sure how to write a release note contact other teams for assistance - don't write a poor and inconclusive release note as it will eventually come back to you

Scrum tales - Part 9 - The Five Whys

When the sprint ends we expect all committed goals to succeed which unfortunately is not always the case. Scrum teams must meet to discuss what went wrong and to discover the flaws in the process vs. just toss the blame around

Scrum teams meet to conduct a Sprint retrospective meeting with the main purpose to identify and analyze the issues in the Sprint process and to figure out how to fix them in the future sprints. Sprint is an iterative process and no matter what goals fail there is always a reason why they failed and it is not due to one team or one person's fault but due to a flaw in a process; this underlying flaw is what teams almost always fail to identify and skip finding a way to resolve it in the future sprints

Let's reflect on what great companies already did before us and use it to our advantage - specifically the Five Whys lean manufacturing technique will help us explore cause and effect relationships underlying specific issues we encounter and to finally get to the root cause of a problem or in our case a failed sprint goal

How do the Five Whys work? The team meets to discuss an issue and iteratively asks five times "Why?" or more specifically "Why did the process fail?" followed by determining a Proportional investment how to solve the issue going forward. Best to illustrate this with an example applicable to Scrum and the everyday goals we have:

Developer team sprinted and Product backlog item saying "Get new product maintenance version approved for production" failed. During the Scrum team retrospective meeting, the following questions should be asked and answered:
   1) First Why
Q: Why wasn't the product approved for production?
A: Not all High priority bugs were fixed in time to get the approval
Proportional investment: This is not a preferred solution, but if it comes down to a time crunch, you will roll up your sleeves for a weekend and catch up

   2) Second Why
Q: Why weren't all High priority bugs fixed?
A: New bugs were discovered during the unplanned third static testing round
Proportional investment: You will always assume there will be maximum number of static testing rounds when planning a new Sprint and never raise everyone's expectations by committing to releasing the product if the goal is too risky

   3) Third Why
Q: Why did the product go into three static testing rounds?
A: The product was of lower quality than expected even though it is a maintenance release
Proportional investment: You will always plan ahead for better internal self-testing before sending a new build to a static test round to catch and fix the low hanging fruit before it goes over to QA and results in unexpected new bugs

   4) Fourth Why
Q: Why was the product of lower quality than expected for a maintenance release?
A: Some of the engine code was rewritten in between test rounds in order to fix a specific bug that a customer requested to be patched
Proportional investment: Always first raise a hand when you see large code changes are needed and review with Product owner vs. hacking away at previously tested code and in the middle of product testing, no matter if the Almighty asked for the patch in person

   5) Fifth Why
Q: Why was the engine code rewritten between during final product testing phase?
A: We have to fix ASAP all bugs forwarded over by Support team that customers need fixed, no matter if we're in final testing phase or not, we have team performance goal to achieve
Proportional investment: No, you don't; this means our system is flawed and the product will be delayed meaning all customers will have to wait or risk getting lower quality build for one specific bug fix. Let's make a rule not to patch anything during product testing phase and instead do it immediately after the release to production if deemed necessary

To help out with asking and answering the Whys, I will volunteer to be the Why Master for all Scrum teams meaning you need to invite me in all Scrum retrospective meetings if your sprint goals failed to quickly discuss how to improve our processes and prevent future sprint goal failures

Responsible diversification

...or simply put: how to have a cross-functional team without risking Sprint goal failure

The issue

On one hand, Scrum is all for having cross-functional and self-managing teams vs. narrow-specialists, while on the other hand each team member should be able to finish every goal and task within a Sprint no matter how complex it is; this appears to be the most common Scrum paradox and I'm seeing numerous articles and even entire books on how to solve it

We want to:
   a) Make Scrum teams fully self-managing
   b) Have employees of all qualifications, both Jr. and Sr. to focus on the same critical company goals

We don't want to:
   a) Isolate employees by making them run sprints on their own just because they cannot yet work on all tasks in the team
   b) Introduce valid excuses as to why Sprint goals weren't met
   c) Loosen up the Definition of Done and affect team deliverable quantity and/or quality

Solution

Our goal is to always KISS so to fix the mentioned paradox we'll introduce some flexibility by allowing Scrum teams to be collectively qualified to achieve all assigned goals; what does it mean for Scrum teams compared to the practice so far:
   1) Each team member is no longer needed to be able to perform all tasks in the sprint
   2) Each team must still be able to complete all team tasks with sufficient quality
   3) Tasks achievable by select team members only are to be treated as high risk tasks meaning they must be marked as such and must be prioritized within the sprint
   4) Each team must make an Internal redundancy plan for tasks achievable by select team members only and lay out the redundancy pairs in Sprint planning meeting

In practice - teams

   A) Support team can have one part of the team (Writers/Analysts) focus on writing, analysis and other high level tasks first while Product support guys focus on handling the actual customer support and lower level writing, posting tasks

   B) Core developer teams can directly integrate Jr. developers, have Sr. devs focus on new development design and complex bug fixes while Jr. devs work on low/medium complexity bugs and following specs

In practice - individuals

   A) Working exclusively on simpler tasks or taking ad-hoc tasks and insisting there is no more work in the sprint left for you when all low level tasks are done is an excellent way to not advance your career and eventually have your regular review result in DNE

   B) If you can work on all team tasks, you must still roll up your sleeves when there is critical low level / transactional work left; taking lower priority but more complex work in such cases is even worse than not working at all

Patching zen

We must be able to find a perfect balance between administration and efficiency in order to achieve the goal - deliver customer needed fixes as soon as possible. Let's address specific use cases that were all encountered in under 14 days' time

Support
   1) Each week Support check status of customer requested bug fixes, gets patch ETAs from developer teams - this is good and will result in good hard info that will be part of developer team SMART goals. However not all patch and bug fix requests are backed up by Product backlog items (PBIs) - this is not good and is something we must have in order to:
      a) Ensure all needed customer bug fixes are properly prioritized in developer team Product backlogs; remember that dev teams are mainly Scrum oriented
      b) Have hard evidence when and what bug fixes were requested right there in the TFS, easy for all teams to access and see, not scattered around in dozens of emails and forgotten about

   2) If a specific PBI hasn't yet been committed to, add new bug fix request there; this may be a change to how we did it so far (add bug fix requests only if the goal is not yet approved, otherwise create new PBI), but this change will increase efficiency and reduce your dependencies on development Product owner to approve new PBIs

   3) Don't exaggerate - ask for bug fixes for only the most troubling issues for our customers, or if it can directly help our revenue; other bugs will be fixed eventually. The more bug fixes in a patch you request, the longer it will take to be done

   4) Provide development Product owner with weekly product patch priorities; NOT individual bugs but actual product names and their TFS PBIs; this will help Product owner understand customer priorities better and correctly prioritize developer team goals to meet customer needs

   5) Reproduce a bug and put it into TFS before you ask for a patch; if you cannot reproduce it, QA are there to help

Developers
   1) You're self-managing spec-ops now - don't rely on a single person to guide each and every step of the way to deliver the requested patch to customers. There is no central synchronous checklist to follow and wait until someone else completes their action item

   2) Some of the bugs requested in the patch cannot be reproduced, require too many changes and time to do, or look as though they were by design? Contact Support now and clarify them ASAP, discuss each and every special case as these bugs are customer favorites and cannot be pushed aside

   3) Release notes not yet updated and reviewed? Don't wait for this step as it is an asynchronous operation - instead get the patch to the customer now

   4) Always cut a label before sending it to testing; this ensures the code base is pristine after the patch is quick-tested

   5) QA found a newly broken feature bug in the tested patch build? Fix it now and create a new label to send to testing, don't wait for explicit approval as the patch is not done until the customer starts smiling

   6) As soon as the label is quick-tested by QA, send the build link to Support; you don't need release notes, website content or COO, CTO, CEO to approve this - just get the patch over to the customer

   7) Once release notes are updated, update and rebuild the label, then it can also be promoted publically on the website. We determined that there are dozens of "silent downloaders" that do get these patches manually after they are posted on the website so we should help them as well

Spin off blog - Developer central

Over the years we've been writing standards documents for developers for coding, CLI, GUI, explaining what to do and what not to do during development. Documents cover best practices and have some concrete suggestions; however documents are updated at most once per year and are fully read once, then forgotten

Technology keeps improving daily and individual teams and developers keep discovering new tips and tricks to stay ahead but in the end all this knowledge stays within a single team or worse with a single developer. We must change this and share our knowledge and experience

As new developers join the company I keep seeing repeating questions and repeating issues with newly written code - mentors spend hours of time to answer the same questions over and over again. Let's stop this trend now: http://apexdevcentral.blogspot.com/

Back to the test drawing board

We've been cutting labels and sending products to testing for years - both developers and QA know the rules implicitly without even looking down at written guidelines. What scared me the most this week is that when system rules are violated and there is a massive confusion on both developer and QA sides, one of the arguments was "we've been doing it like that since I joined the company"

Nobody likes reading the rules, operation manuals and workflow guidelines, but still they are there for a reason. If you forget about them, you'll be hearing from me soon

Let's get a few things straight:

   1) Devs, there's no more Continuous testing; you cannot just send in a new major build without some internal testing and expect to have QA determine if the product can start or not, then find/fix a few bugs each day until the build is stable for real testing; instead conduct a few days of internal testing (plan it in your Sprints) to pick the low hanging fruit, resolve critical issues immediately (product doesn't start, main features don't work) and write down all non-critical ones to forward to QA along with the first label to log down to bug tracking system

   2) Devs, make sure you always send modified product version to testing; we cannot have two builds with identical versions that are functionally different just because engine takes too long to rebuild. Consider updating the way engines are referenced and versioning strategy, suggest solutions proactively; Everyone leads - proactively identify problems and solve them, don't ask questions but make recommendations

   3) Devs, always send an official request for testing when a new build is ready; specify testing areas as detailed as possible even when it means you have to roll back your sleeves and write detailed guidelines for back-end high-tech stuff that QA might not understand on their own; Everyone shares - communicate widely and effectively, educate your customers

   4) QA, it IS your job to determine if the product can start or not; Everyone serves - treat everyone as a customers and take personal ownership of their issues vs. "it's not my job" attitude; if you got a version that doesn't start at all assume that it did work on devs' side and that it is your job to isolate on which systems product works and on which it doesn't, then report Bugs

   5) QA, report all found Bugs professionally following the established procedure without sending additional emails with built up emotions and no concrete analysis or actionable suggestions

   6) QA, use your right to cut testing short if there are too many obvious Critical issues found, however always follow the procedure and send in testing summary at the end and allow devs to fix the Bugs to surprise you in the next test round vs. hate-mailing about the build quality

Upside from this week's confusion related with our new product is that almost everyone managed to transition to constructive discussions with actionable suggestions lead by analysis and pros/cons; we need more of this in all aspects of our work