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Effective Meetings & Communication

This article explores how effective communication and streamlined meetings, leveraging platforms like Discord and GitHub (focusing on Issues and Project Boards) within Agile Project Methodology, can significantly enhance software development collaboration. Our goal is to provide strategies to optimize these tools, improving team efficiency and project outcomes.

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Effective

Using Agile/Scrum in Blueprint Teams

Agile

Agile Methodology is a project management approach used primarily in software development. It focuses on delivering value through flexible, iterative progress rather than following a fixed plan. Agile emphasizes collaboration, customer feedback, and small, rapid releases of software.

Key Concepts:

  • Iterative Development: Software is developed in small pieces, allowing for frequent feedback and the ability to adapt to changes quickly.
  • Collaboration: Teams work closely with each other and with stakeholders, fostering better communication and efficientmore tailored solutions.
  • Flexibility: Agile teams are ready to respond to changes in requirements, technology, and methods at any point in the project.
Scrum

Scrum is a framework that implements Agile principles. It provides a structured, yet flexible way to manage projects.

Key Concepts:

  • Roles: Scrum defines specific roles - Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team - each with its own responsibilities.

    • Product Owner: The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Development Team. This role involves managing the product backlog, defining product features, and prioritizing work based on business value.

    • Scrum Master: The Scrum Master serves as a facilitator and coach for the Scrum Team, ensuring that Scrum practices are followed. The Scrum Master helps remove impediments that obstruct the team's progress and works to ensure a smooth, productive environment for the team.

    • Development Team: The Development Team consists of professionals who do the work of delivering a potentially releasable Increment of "Done" product at the end of each Sprint. Development Teams are cross-functional, meaning the members have all the skills necessary to create a product Increment, and they are self-organizing, with no one (not even the Scrum Master) telling the team how to turn Product Backlog into Increments.

  • Sprints: Work is divided into sprints, typically 2-4 week periods, during which a potentially shippable product increment is developed.
  • Scrum Events: Regular meetings aresuch keyas Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-up, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective help teams to drivingplan, bettercoordinate, Softwarereview, Development.and adjust their work.

    • Sprint Planning: A meeting at the beginning of each Sprint where the team selects work from the product backlog to commit to completing during the Sprint. The outcome is a Sprint Goal and a Sprint Backlog.

    • Daily Scrum (Stand-Up): A short, daily meeting (typically 15 minutes) where each team member discusses what they did the previous day, what they will do today, and any impediments to progress.

    • Sprint Review: Held at the end of each Sprint to inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog if needed. This articleis willa covertime thingsfor likethe Discord,Scrum GitHub Issues/Project Boards,Team and stakeholders to collaborate about what was done in the Sprint.

    • Sprint Retrospective: Occurs after the Sprint Review and before the next Sprint Planning. This is a meeting for the Scrum Team to reflect on their processes and make improvements for the next Sprint.

This is a VERY brief and general introduction to Agile Projectand Methodology.Scrum. ThePlease goalrefer to the additional resources for more information.

How Blueprint Developers can Follow These Principles and Frameworks (Scrumprint)


Given the unique structure of Blueprint, adhering strictly to a traditional Scrum framework is not feasible for us. Our commitment to academic and extracurricular activities, alongside the absence of a standard 9-5 work schedule, necessitates a more flexible, hybrid approach to project management. Consequently, we are tasked with tailoring industry-standard methodologies to accommodate the diverse schedules of our student team members. Recognizing the dynamic nature of this articleadaptation, we remain open to continuous feedback and anticipate that our approach will evolve over time. The following outlines an adapted framework we encourage teams to implement

Roles

  • Technical Lead/Scrumprint Master: Oversees the project's technical direction and ensures adherence to the Blueprint Agile practices. Acts as a facilitator for the team, assisting with obstacle removal and process guidance.

  • Product Manager: Similar to the Product Owner role in Scrum, manages the product backlog, crafts user stories, and ensures tasks align with the non-profit organization's (NPO) requirements.

  • Designer: Collaborates closely with the Product Manager and NPO to iterate on designs throughout the project lifecycle.

  • Development Team: Comprises students who execute tasks, contribute to design and implementation, and participate in Blueprint Agile events.

Events

  • Weekly In-Person/Discord Meeting: This meeting serves as a hybrid of Sprint Planning and Stand-Up, allowing for flexible attendance based on members' availability. The focus is on setting the direction for the week, addressing any immediate questions, and briefly sharing updates.

  • Async Stand-Ups: Conducted twice a week via a designated communication platform (e.g., Discord). Team members update on what they've done, plan to ensuredo, thatand any blockers. This method ensures everyone stays informed and can contribute asynchronously.

  • Sprint Review: Held bi-weekly, coinciding with every second in-person meeting. This event is for showcasing work done, gathering feedback from the NPO, and discussing adjustments. It's an opportunity for reflection and celebration of progress.

  • Sprint Planning: Follows immediately after the Sprint Review during the same meeting. The team selects items from the backlog to focus on for the next two weeks, ensuring alignment with the NPO's needs and team capacity

Goals and Additions:

  • Limit Meetings: Restrict to one team meeting per week and one NPO meeting every two weeks to minimize disruption to student schedules. Use this time efficiently to cover planning, review, and immediate actions.

  • Office Hours: Held weekly by the Eboard Blueprint, providing an open forum for questions, guidance, and additional support outside of scheduled meetings.

  • Continuous Feedback Loop: Encourage ongoing feedback through a dedicated channel or form.

The next sections will show how tools like GitHub and Discord can be used to encourage this framework.

Joining & NavigatingInteracting thein Discord

Discord is our primary mode of communication used for project teams, tech teams, and general blueprint announcements. You can join Discord using this link: Blueprint Discord Link. Upon joining the server, you will be prompted to change your username to [FIRSTNAME] [LASTNAME] ['YEAR]. For example: "Atilla Duck '25". There are a lot of users on the Discord, so please do this as soon as possible. 

TODO:If (Putyou thisare inon a Project Team or a Tech Team project we kindly ask that you leave the rulesnotifications channelon too)for your respective channel.

Make Use of Discord Features

  • Discord Structure

  • @People
  • Threads
  • Webhooks

Working Effectively with Agile

There isare aseveral lot of jargon involved in agile, here is a base guide. As a product manager you might be expected to know more about the Agile methodology sofeatures that you can assistmake use of in Discord to help organize channels.

Pinning Messages: Use this to save the most important messages in your teamchannel for quick access. This can include Project Proposal Documents, Links to specific resources, or important channel guidelines that you want to save in followingthe channel. 

Threads: Use threads to manage conversations on a specific topic. Perhaps their is a bug that someone needs help with or the Project Leader would like to collect team members opinions on a new feature. Using threads leaves the main channel less cluttered. Threads can be used for the Async Stand up events from the Scrumprint framework.

@People: Use the @ feature in your messages to get the attention of specific users or roles. Do not be afraid to make use of this feature if you need help with something or if someone has been unresponsive. "@here" is a good way to get the attention of everyone in a respective channel.

Reactions: It's respectful to acknowledge your teammates messages! Thankfully discord makes this easy so you can throw a quick thumbs up without having to type anything.

Webhooks

Webhooks make it effectively.easy way to get automated messages and data updates sent to a text channel in your server. Each project team and tech team project channel will be accompanied by another "-hooks" channel. This sectionchannel willconnects go over some basic terminology and recommendations for improvingto the effectiveness of your team's meetingsrepository andon projectGitHub. methodology.Whenever someone makes a contribution (commits code, opens a Pull Request (PR), comments on an issue, etc.) the "-hooks" channel will be notified. Currently, the Webhooks are configured to output the results of certain tests whenever you commit code. This makes it easy for you to see the activity going on in your project!

GitHub Project Boards & Issues

 

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