Author: Liz Vines
This blog was updated in February 2022
An example of how our team utilizes an Agile/Scrum process:
The Problem
A web manager notices that on video cards, it shows a square shape instead of a triangular one. That manager submits a ServiceNow ticket.
ServiceNow
ServiceNow is a cloud-based (NC DIT utilized) support platform that allows the classification of support requests as either an incident, as in "Something is broken," or a service request, as in "I need something."
A Digital Solutions team member receives the ServiceNow ticket and works to solve the issue. The web manager is given status updates and is notified when a solution is found.
If a bug on the Digital Commons platform is detected, or a platform fix is required, a Jira ticket is then initiated.
Jira is a software that we use to plan, track, and manage our agile and software development projects
Sprint Planning
On a Monday, members of our team get together, review the Sprint goal and talk about all the tickets that are pressing and that should go into the next Sprint (three-week work cycle).
We then get the whole team together and based on the capacity of our developers, we decide which tickets will go into the Sprint to be worked on. Thus, during that three weeks only those tickets that were put into the sprint are being worked on. Others remain in the backlog for future sprints.
Backlog Grooming
The whole team meets to discuss the progress and status of tickets. Some that are perhaps older and no longer needed. We talk about what tickets will be priority items for the next sprint, and for our team, it is also an opportunity for the developers to get more information on what's being requested. The idea here being to keep the backlog 'clean' and relevant. Sprint goals are created for the next Sprint.
Testing
During the three-week cycle, as the developers complete the work on the tickets, they are put through three levels of online testing by team members.
- FAT (factory acceptance testing) and code review occur in which the developers make sure things work as expected.
- UAT (user acceptance testing) and lastly, testing on Staging. We get on the platform and try out the new feature on the non-live versions of your websites.
- Staging testing, developers are given feedback and changes are made, if necessary. By the last Wednesday of the sprint, back to our example, if the video card now shows the triangle instead of a square, and it works, it is ready to be pushed to the live sites.
Prod Push (going live to all the sites!)
On the last Thursday of the sprint the developers ‘push’ the changes to all of your websites. Immediately following the push, the rest of the team gather online and begin checking your live sites to see that the change has taken place and that there are no problems.
Sprint Review
The following day, the last Friday of the Sprint we get together for a Sprint Review to share feedback on the increment of work that was produced. Web Managers and all stakeholders are invited to hear what changes, updates, fixes were made.
Retrospective
On the Monday following Sprint Review, prior to Sprint Planning, we get together to talk about how the sprint went, overall. We discuss pain points, acknowledge what went well and discuss future goals for making the next sprint cycle even better.