Informative workspace
A workspace designed to be informative allows team members to get the status on the current project. Just like a physician checks a patient’s pulse as the first step of a more thorough examination, the informative workspace is meant to give you cues and signals only, not to be a repository of your documentation. It is a holistic view on the project that can only be complemented by consulting team members.
Informative workspaces can be implemented online or offline, and both environments can coexist seamlessly.
Regarding our offline practices, we like to use magnetic, erasable boards. These allow us to set mood boards, pin down important story cards, add post-it notes, and draw diagrams.
Several tools and applications can be used to create an effective workspace online. Some are designed with Agile in mind, while others can serve a more traditional project management approach. We have tried several tools over the years, and we recommend the following — sorted by our sujective experience of Agile collaboration:
- Pivotal Tracker: an Agile dashboard that allows you to plan and monitor your iterations, set releases, check your velocity, and more. We love it!
- Toggl: a real-time, time tracking application that works on most devices and platforms, clearly showing where you really spend your time on.
- Google Wave… now Google+: the real-time nature of Google’s social network, and segregation of information and team members into circles, can really be put to use for Agile practicioners!
- Basecamp: a project management and collaboration tool that is versatile enough to adapt to your collaborative needs.
Morning meetings
Also called stand-up meetings (Extreme Programming) or daily scrum (Scrum), a morning meeting is a very short, timeboxed event where team members share their activity — what they have accomplished and what they plan to work on today. Since morning meetings happen, well, every morning, there is no need to give a lengthy update. Really, 1 minute per person should suffice. If points arise that need special attention, these can be adressed after the meeting by a smaller group of people concerned.
Morning meetings work best in person, but could alternatively be held online through web conferencing, with varying degrees of results. Consider the problems brought up by distributed teams, time zones, bandwith, and you will soon realize why meeting in person still rules.
Standards
Here is an excerpt from our internal documentation regarding the collaborative workflow.
We understand that we all have our habits and preferences perfected over the years, and as such, different ways to be efficient and productive. We do not want to interfere in your workflow and tell you what software or equipment to use to complete your tasks: Microsoft Outlook or Gmail, Adobe Photoshop or The GIMP, a compact camera or an SLR… That’s up to you.
We do, however, need to reach consensus on the processes and underlying tools that allow us to work together: if one member uses LinkedIn and IRC, while another likes Facebook and Skype, they may never meet. They need to reach a common ground to collaborate.
In the spirit of Agile methodologies, our workflow is not fixed in stone and may be subject to change over released projects. As a member, you are invited to study it and share your opinions and ideas. Nevertheless, before you criticize constructively, we ask you to adopt it as it is until the next retrospective. It may grow on you – or not, but you will have a more accurate view on what works and what doesn’t. More importantly, you will respect other team members by collaborating in the agreed way.
This defines all our collaborative efforts, be it the morning meetings, a Photoshop mock-up, coding standards, sandbox and staging servers, and more. With the exception of testing new online applications to use as informative workspace, our normative efforts have truly paid off and remain stable over the years.