Wikimedia Apps/Team/Retrospectives/2016-02-12

From mediawiki.org

Feb 12, 2016

Android[edit]

Previous Retrospective Actions[edit]

  • Check and see that the sprint 74 tasks are parented [DMITRY] DONE
  • Create and parent additional tasks for general collections [DMITRY] DONE
  • Check out plain j-unit screenshots for flaky CI tests [STEPHEN] PHABBED


Significant Events[edit]

  • Gather convo
    • Lots and lots of Gather sturf
  • TSG rampup soon
  • Q4 goals pitched
  • Lots of WMF employee departures.+1
    • WTF factor is high
  • Q4 planning, schmanning <-- Technical term
  • Another sprint, another beta (or two)
    • Lower memory usage
    • Wiki zero
    • [dev] Reduced domain complexity (nice to not have to worry about "m." on domains)

Loved[edit]

  • Crashes at all-time low. Wohooo!
  • Finally touched some code again.
  • Burnin' through groomin'+

Lacked[edit]

  • Clarity around Gather, and/or which API we should be using+++
  • Histogram of Android points distribution for Phlogiston

Learned[edit]

  • Wikipedia Zero work is fun but time-consuming!
  • There was a reason we were using mobile domains after all! Not anymore +

Longed for[edit]

  • Want to see other groups at WMF doing well, makes us uneasy when other folks at the company are in turmoil+
    • Would help to know what other people's problems are clearly+


Action Items[edit]

  • Create "Did Not Pass" column left of the QA column [MAX]

IOS[edit]

Previous Retrospective Actions[edit]

  • Figure out regression test possibilities with the A11Y people [BRIAN] ONGOING
  • Josh to articulate 3-5 big areas/epics during planning meeting [JOSH] DONE
  • Review possibility to release a beta during Tuesday planning meeting (and plan for the next one) DONE


Significant Events[edit]

  • Release date!
  • beta feedback overview and Sherah initial results
  • Jonatan (Josve05a) joining us in IRC, filing bugs, and interpreting Swedish App Store reviews! ????????+1
  • a11y accessibility testers are invited to repo & iOS dev program, w/ devices provisioned!
    • wow. so efficiency. much streamline.
  • New settings view looks awesome!!!!
  • Brace yoruselves, iOS donations are coming
  • Set a release date for PR/Comms


Worked Well[edit]

  • catching bugs in code review
  • set a release date (and closed scope)
  • new community members filing bug and feature requests+1
  • contributions!+1
  • a11y - would not have had an accessable app at 5.0.0 without them
    • at our chosen release date (see: Triangle of Death/Iron Triangle/ IRON TRIANGLE OF DEATH)
  • Triage looks great/is working
  • QA COLUMN EMPTIED


Worked Poorly[edit]

  • lots of bugs being found in code review
    • Wish we could change our software without introducing so many bugs
  • "Design Review" during estimation
    • if we have more detailed feedback about design which isn't related to cost of implementation, we (at least for now) need to bring it up at a separate venue and/or file an "enhancement" ticket.
  • BG's "file a ticket" threshold
    • Need to be re-calibrate threshold for filing tickets when regressions are discovered during code review. We're in crunch mode!
  • Approaching our release deadline goal and there's a lot scoped that isn't done
    • What can we learn from this for defining "done" for 5.1?
  • Our main planning etherpad died
  • institutional issues and "community"
  • Quarterly planning doesn't align with out planning and snuck up on us
  • Individual goals also don't line up with planning (BG also mentioned this in "confuses us")


Confuses Us[edit]

  • What to do with EPICS
    • How title
    • Where to put them
    • Working on EPICS vs shaving them down
    • Blocking tasks
  • WIP limit for Blocked or Waiting
    • Purpose of Blocked or Waiting (also TSG needs)
  • OTRS Plan
  • (nit/bugaboo) purpose of personal goals vs. team goals (vs. org goals, etc..). never understood rationale behind encouraging personal "professional" goals in context of "vertical strategy"


Action Items[edit]

  • When can we talk about upcoming design stuff? Planning meeting? Should we have designs ready for planning discussion? Email thread. [MAX]
  • Retro followup meeting [MAX]