Phlogiston

Phlogiston is a reporting tool for Phabricator.

= Links =
 * Source Code
 * Live instance on wmflabs

= Capabilities =

Monitor backlog per goal
When we look at our backlog in aggregate, we can only see the overall growth of our planned work: If we divide our backlog by team goals, we can differentiate planned (i.e., quarterly goal) work from un-planned, which means we can measure how much more work until we reach a goal.

We can also measure the relative proportion of our work by goal and see scope creep per goal.

Benefit
Improved chances of completing our quarterly goals. Easier to say no, and to see when we aren't saying no enough.

Prerequisites

 * Have defined end-points
 * Divide work by category

Monitor Maintenance Fraction
We can measure the amount of our work that is not part of our quarterly goals.

Benefit
Able to balance work within the team. See how our work matches our goals.

Forecast Velocity
The Velocity forecast shows actual data as bars and forecast data as lines, based on one-week (Sunday to Sunday) snapshots. The lines represent a plausible range of values. The pessimistic forecast is the lowest three weeks of the previous three months; the optimistic forecast is the highest three; and the nominal forecast is the average of all weeks in the previous three months. (For teams using two-week Sprints or other processes in which most tasks are marked Resolved at a different cadence than weekly, this should produce weird-looking bars but accurate lines. Probably.)

In the first example, the team has high variability in weekly output, so the range of forecasts for the following week is very broad. In the second example, the range is still very broad but a trend is emerging. The degree to which the bars remain within the boundaries of the forecasts provide some measure of the reliability of the forecasting.

Forecast completion dates and track forecasts over time.
We can forecast when we are likely to complete a given piece of work. Or, more realistically, we can identify work that is slipping indefinitely.

Velocity forecasting. Phlogiston now does simple forecasting of best, worst, and nominal velocity (best 3 weeks in last 3 months, worst 3, and average for whole 3 months) http://phlogiston.wmflabs.org/ve_tranche1_velocity_points.png

Completion forecasting. Based on velocity forecasts, this shows not only the current forecast, but a history of forecasts by week, which can give a lot of information about the reliability of the forecast (i.e, a forecast of "2 more weeks" that remains "2 more weeks" for 2 months is not a reliable forecast, whereas a forecast of "8 weeks" that becomes "4 weeks" the following months and "1 week" the month after is probably more accurate.)

Benefit
More likely to complete defined work. Limit goal-setting and other commitments based on evidence.

= Prerequisites =

Track all work by "category"
(which is basically a project, but using Category here to differentiate from Phabricator Project). Either change Team-Practices so that each column is a category, or add a third Team-Practices board, e.g., Team-Practices-Projects, with one column per category. Kevin has also suggested using a separate Phabricator Project for each category, which make is easier to bulk-tag tasks into Projects but harder to move tasks between categories.

Categories comprise Quarterly Goals, plus we would have some number of well-defined projects (like SPDPP, or THC) that fall under Permanent Goals, plus we would have a grab-bag project to track everything else. Total # of projects should be under 10 for the quarter.

Cost
Up to 30 minutes added to the weekly triage meeting for ~½ of TPG. Should not add time to working with individual tasks. 1 hour initial setup and debate over categories.


 * Open Question: How would we handle Epics, i.e., smaller than projects but bigger than tasks.  Proposed: Adopt an explode-or-shave rule, Epics are just big, high-point tasks in the backlog.  Everything in the Epics column of Team-Practices would become a Project/projectcolumn.


 * Open Question: how would we handle intermediate milestones, within each project?  Proposed: Don't.  Each project should be something that ends in less than 3 months, and if we absolutely need intermediate endpoints, break those out into more projects.

Story-Point work
Improved accuracy for metrics and forecasts.

Cost
To do it properly, probably some planning poker or bulk estimation to get the team calibrated. 1-2 hours of everybody's time to get everything pointed, and then an extra 10 minutes per week to estimate going forward.