Tips for Managing Teams & Spec Work

The following are some tips and ideas for managing the work of Tiger Teams, Spec Teams and the deliverables being requested-- prioritization of user stories, statements of work/assignments, spec writing, reviews, managing meetings, and creating models to communicate goals (workflows, story relationships, teams, etc).

Link: [DOCUMENTATION & SPECIFICATION TEMPLATES]

Spec, Research, & other Teams

Managing Meetings (Spec Team lead and SA)

• Best Practices for Virtual Meetings
  • Unknown macro: {html}

    <A href=" http://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/2010/10/13/how-to-host-an-effective-virtual-meeting/" mce_href=" http://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/2010/10/13/how-to-host-an-effective-virtual-meeting/" target="_Blank"> "How To Host An Effective Virtual Meeting"</A>

    . Source: UC California Digital Library
  • Unknown macro: {html}

    <A href=" http://www.facilitate.com/support/facilitator-toolkit/docs/Great-results-virtualQA.pdf" mce_href=" http://www.facilitate.com/support/facilitator-toolkit/docs/Great-results-virtualQA.pdf" target="_Blank"> "Getting Great Results from Virtual Meetings"</A>

    . Source: Facilitate.com
• Always communicate meeting agenda and goals in advance
• Maintain Meeting Minutes to capture discussions & brainstorming (can be annotated into specs)
• Document your decisions
• Utilize a "parking lot" to keep discussions from going off track- come back to these issues at a later date
• Due dates- assign and communicate due dates for any tasks
• Time-limit brainstorming & discussions in order to accomplish meeting goals
• No meeting ends without assignments, next steps
• Unknown macro: {html}

  <A href=" http://www.doodle.com" mce_href=" http://www.doodle.com" target="_Blank"> Doodle.com</A>

  for surveying meeting availability

Managing (leveraging) Resources

• Ask your Tiger Team for Help
• Use the (historical) OLE Functional Specifications Facilitators Guide for team startup
• Use your Kuali OLE distribution list for discussions- this saves all emails to KIS team page archive
• Define leads for tasks (spec writing vs modeling vs data requirements vs testing)
• Make assignments vs requesting help, as needed
• Celebrate decisions and accomplishments
• See [Teams & Collaboration Lists] to see who else is working on specs & collaborate overlaps

Managing Deliverables

• Maintain all team documents in your
  Unknown macro: {html}

  <A href=" https://docs.google.com/a/kuali.org/open?id=0B4DWNTr-9s9XZDBkOGNmZDUtZjJkOS00NDNjLTg0MjUtMjllNzhlZmI5YWVi" mce_href=" https://docs.google.com/a/kuali.org/open?id=0B4DWNTr-9s9XZDBkOGNmZDUtZjJkOS00NDNjLTg0MjUtMjllNzhlZmI5YWVi" target="_Blank"> OLE Google Docs</A>

  folders (even if you draft offline, add to team folder- not via email)
• Start with a schedule and a plan
• (sample gantt of work)
• Developing Workflow and Dataflow Models for Specs
  • Unknown macro: {html}

    <A href=" https://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=185180&topic=29442&rd=1" mce_href=" https://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=185180&topic=29442&rd=1" target="_Blank">Google Drawings-</A>

  • [Gliffy Diagrams]
  • Visio (if license)
    • Unknown macro: {html}

      <A href=" http://alternativeto.net/software/microsoft-visio/?license=opensource" mce_href=" http://alternativeto.net/software/microsoft-visio/?license=opensource" target="_Blank"> Open Source Alternatives</A>

  • Microsoft Office
    • Word
    • Powerpoint
• [Balsamiq\- Wireframes] (user interface design)
• Use the OLE Documentation & Specification [Templates] (user story spec template, whitepaper template, models, data requirements, test scripts)

Tiger Teams

Please refer to tips for spec teams, and also use the following ideas and resources as applicable or helpful to your efforts.

Planning-Organizing- Managing-Reviewing

• Prioritization of User Stories
  • This is an iterative process- work with Core Team and Scope Team
  • Leverage other Tiger Team leads to find the optimal process
  • Use the work that's come before- prior specs, investigations to guide prioritization
  • KISS- get some spec teams started, then evaluate as you go
  • Utilize the [OLE:OLE Roadmap] for priorities in planning
• Statements of Work/Organizing Assignments
• Managing competing priorities
  • (sample gantt timeline)
  • staggering team starts
  • start, spec writing/completion, TT reviews
• Spec Reviews
• Gap Analysis
• Technical tasks and needs, as identified

Other Tips & Resources

• Unknown macro: {html}

  <A href=" https://docs.google.com/a/kuali.org/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1zG4eNDtxYpMzI1OTA3NjctMWJiYS00MmM2LWFiOWMtNThmNjAzNGJmNzAz&hl=en_US" mce_href=" https://docs.google.com/a/kuali.org/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1zG4eNDtxYpMzI1OTA3NjctMWJiYS00MmM2LWFiOWMtNThmNjAzNGJmNzAz&hl=en_US" target="_Blank">Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) Guide-</A>

  For SA & BA only, in managing requirements analysis and brainstorming with spec teams
• [OLE:Specification Best Practices]
• Specifications Checklist