Readers/Web/Team/Retrospectives/2015-06-08

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Undercover Brother/Voyage of the Damned & Gather Sprints (05/11/15-05/22/15 & 05/25/15-06/05/15)

Notable events[edit]

  • hackathon!

Absences[edit]

  • Sam Disney adventure
  • Much hackathon absence: 2015_lyon_hackathon_related_comp_n_vacation.pdf
  • Rob paternity leave

Velocity[edit]

Previous Actions[edit]

  • Action! would be good to have at least one day on testwiki before en-wiki (push to group 0 instead of all wikis)/ would be good to then do something with the code that's there; ask people to do dedicated QA testing during this period [Rob/Kaldari] DONE
    • Action! Make sure every Tues afternoon someone takes look at test-wiki; (Jon is making a phab task https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T101865) [ALL]
    • Action! Run script that generates changelog since last derploy (and send to mailing list)

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T100296 [ONGOING, part of sprint planning]

  • Action! every Monday is "clear the ready for signoff" day (but let's strive to keep it clear throughout the sprint!); ping JK or signer-offer when card moves to signoff NOT DONE
    • Action! put WIP limits on Code Review, Signoff [TEAM]
  • Action! explore new branching strategy (email): what about using master branch for done tasks, and dev branch for betalabs and signoff tasks [Joaquin] [Jon is gonna jump in the ring]
  • Action! make failing browser tests send to mobile-l [SAM] DONE (sent to reading list)
    • Jon worried he's still the only one looking at stuff
    • Jon fwd's flaky tests to Dan D.; getting better!
    • There is an EPIC in progress, will check in w/Sam when he returns

What's been working well?[edit]

  • A lot of code review to clear the backlog
  • Guerilla meetings with Google
  • Time given to deal with code debt(more like using the confusion to try to tackle tech debt)
    • priorities are confusing though; would like to schedule more dev-focused stuff
  • Cleaning up alpha, recognising the failures of stuff lingering in beta/alpha
  • Lyon was great for letting of steam and drinking beers and unusual brandy things
  • Support from QA
    • Dan D has been awesome

What hasn't worked well[edit]

  • Q1 planning without meaning.
  • Product support
  • MyTeam morale
    • not sure what goals are
    • feel like we're spinning our wheels
  • Off-site approval process/communication
  • 'Emergency' requests from search and other teams being dumped on us outside planning
  • Meeting attendance / late attendance
  • code review

What is confusing[edit]

  • The purpose/meaning/vision of readership +
  • Team members in&outs.
  • When is people going&leaving mexico.
  • Building lead images

Top issue: Readership issues-

  • JH: transparency seems lacking: we want to know where Toby is being pulled? What is actually going on?
  • JR: expectations need to be set: when can we expect to have a clear vision?
  • RK: desktop/mobile web feels important, but it also feels like we're the forgotten team (the 1%)
    • Baha: (this may be an org-wide feeling right now, not just our team)

Action! Be patient :-)

  • JR: engineers join to tackle interesting problems, not tackling code debt; it's demoralizing. Google convo felt modern and exciting. Code debt doesn't get me up in the AM
  • Action! Maybe a team half-day hackathon to play with new technologies, hack on cool stuff [KL]
  • Action! Figure out Readership offsite!!!!!!! Miami/New Orleans! in September (i'm holidays on september)I thought Euro holidays were august? [KL]
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