Wikimedia Apps/Team/Retrospectives/2015-09-25

= ANDROID = September 25, 2015

Previous Retrospective Actions

 * Action! Provide update on device acquisition [ADAM] WILL EMAIL
 * Action! Check that Content Service is ready to be consumed [MICHAEL]
 * Action! Team to continue compiling thoughts on Content Service in etherpad doc (https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/mobileapps_content_service_design) [TEAM] ONGOING
 * Action! Follow up with Nuriya from Analytics on state of stats for link preview + pageviews [DMITRY] WILL CHECK BACK

Worked Well

 * SN: Wednesdayish beta release. Starting the release process early in the day and midweek and no known regressions! :)
 * A brand new Sitzmann++
 * SN: NO MO GB!+
 * App has cracked 4.40 rating on Play Store+
 * Designers have been responsive
 * Nearly ready for resubmission to Google
 * Maps in Nearby -- cool new (volunteer-driven) feature!++
 * Google Play dev acct transfer went smoothly (OIT was great)
 * Progress on content service while I was out.
 * Deployed service to production.
 * SN: Hive queries.

Worked Poorly

 * SN: Refactoring old code. Long methods, magic numbers without symbols, the usual maintenance woes. One specific example: I didn't think to grep for the number 48. It was really clear when that change was made that the number was tightly coupled to the action bar size. The entire Java portion of the codebase used a dimension symbol. This should have been bridged over. We need to work had to write better code: prevent concerns from becoming sprawling, minimize differences from the previous revision, remove conditionals, try not to deviate from established code patterns in the codebase unless there's a good reason, etc.
 * SN: I kind of wish we would have started the HA discussions sooner. 3rd party has been slow.
 * SN: Flaky tests on a slow CI. I think there is a hurt curve to converting even a small set of tests to CI as seen by web and now us.
 * SN: Slow CI: 5 minutes per patch revision, 5 minute merge, 2 minute post build, all serial for all submissions+++

Confuses Us

 * SN: Android native UI development vs web. StaticLayout layout & friends: land of 29 parameter and 100 line methods & nearly no documentation for fundamental classes. It's difficult to be pixel perfect across devices.
 * Data from link previews after move to production+

Action Items

 * Action! Provide update on device acquisition [ADAM] WILL EMAIL
 * Action! Team to continue compiling thoughts on Content Service in etherpad doc (https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/mobileapps_content_service_design) [TEAM] ONGOING
 * Action! Follow up with Nuriya from Analytics on state of stats for link preview + pageviews [DMITRY] WILL CHECK BACK

= iOS = September 25, 2015

Previous Retrospective Actions

 * Action! Discuss strategy disconnect with PM/Manager meetings [MAX] DONE
 * Quarterly planning is compounded by strategy push
 * Things are not well-aligned
 * Need a better meeting mandate, focus on core capabilities
 * Action! Clarify when QA gets slotted in ONGOING
 * Go back to the schedule we wrote up and improve on it based on the last couple of meetings [JOSH/ADAM]
 * Action! Review Ready for Dev column, pull out now-irrelevant tasks [COREY/JOSH] DONE
 * Action! Implement Blocked or Waiting column [MAX] DONE

Worked Well

 * Gaining MVP clarity with iOS 5.0 prototyping/design
 * Josh!

Worked Poorly

 * Mentioned in strategy "retro" but lost essentially half this week on strategy work
 * Specifics around 5.0 features and release timing still fuzzy (Josh :
 * Lack of product spec
 * Tracking functionality & regressions
 * Tracking number of in-progress features
 * Discrepancy between design/product/dev on expected behavior of new designs
 * Search for example: design thought we were presenting articles modally from search results, wasn't specified in the card. ad-hoc decided to push for now

Confuses Us

 * Phabricator(welcome!)
 * Design pipeline clarity
 * What's stopping us from settling on 5.0 design MVP sooner?
 * Why are we doing extra work to go against iOS platform norms when we're already behind schedule

Actions Items

 * Action! Josh to get further clarity on QA availability/schedule for 5.0 [JOSH]
 * Action! Discuss how to "implement" product spec as single source of truth for designs & requirements [BRIAN TO START EMAIL THREAD]
 * Action! Start email thread clarifying how we see what design is working on [MAX]
 * Action! Meeting with design to discuss what is breaking iOS design patterns [BRIAN/KAITY/NIRZAR/TEAM]