Tips and Tools for Team Management

The following are some tips and Best Practices for managing the work of SME 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

Contents

Spec, Research, & Other Teams

Managing Meetings (Spec Team lead and SA)

Best Practices for Virtual Meetings
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  "How To Host An Effective Virtual Meeting"
  . Source: UC California Digital Library
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  "Getting Great Results from Virtual Meetings"
  . Source: Facilitate.com
Always communicate meeting agenda and goals in advance
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  OLE Meeting Minutes Agenda Template
  is available for your team use
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
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Doodle.com
is a useful tool for surveying meeting availability

Managing (leveraging) Resources

Ask your SME Team for Help
Use the (historical) OLE Functional Specifications Facilitators Guide for team start-up
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 & Team Documentation

Maintain all team documents in your
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OLE Google Docs
folders (even if you draft offline, add to team folder - not via email)
Start with a schedule and a plan
Sample Specs-Reviews-Coding-Testing timeline (example only)
Developing Workflow and Dataflow Models for Specs
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  Google Drawings
- Gliffy Diagrams
- Visio (if license)
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    Open Source Alternatives
- 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)

Managing Scope of Specifications

Think "critical path" - not every alternative workflow
80/20 rule - for agreement in discussions, and for documenting critical workflows in specs
Try to stay within the scope of work and story goals of the assignment
Other teams, SME Team reviews, gap analysis and testing will pick up alternate workflows or missed requirements

SME Teams

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

Prioritization of User Stories

This is an iterative process - work with Project Team and Scope Team
Leverage other SME 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 Roadmap for priorities in planning

Statements of Work/Organizing Assignments

Formulate SOW's for each spec team (see SOW template & samples)
Use the SOW as a template for thinking through assignments
Leverage your SME Team's expertise to get this started
KISS - you don't have to know everything, but can draft Goals to assist team efforts

Managing competing priorities

Stagger spec team starts - have multiple teams going, but stagger them to manage spec writing vs. review periods and re-prioritization
- Start Spec Team #1
- Start Spec Team #2
- Complete Specification reviews for Team #1
- Start Spec Team #3
- Complete Specification reviews for Team #2
- ...and so on...
Have SME Team members be "owners" of different tasks and administration
Circulate agendas and action lists for commitments by SME Team members
Solicit help from the Functional Council
Rotate meeting facilitation based on topics

Specification Reviews

Leverage the expertise of your SME Team
What's missing in specs? (initial Gap Analysis)
What's in specs that needs more details? Send back to spec team with comments.
You don't have to rewrite the specs - leverage your Subject Matter Experts on spec teams by giving them feedback
Keep it moving - use email distribution lists to facilitate offline work and assignments between meetings

Gap Analysis

"You know what you know" - now use it!
This is iterative process - things will get missed
Testing, other specs, and other teams can often identify anything you've missed
Be critical, be thoughtful, but avoid "analysis paralysis"

Technical tasks and needs, as identified

Utilize your Technical Council member to lead technical investigations
Contact TC members on other SME Teams or the Technical Council distribution list for more support
Talk to Project Team, Developers - facilitate joint efforts & understanding
If you've identified a critical technical need or roadblock, maybe someone else has too - communicate with other SME Teams & Project Team

Managing Teams & Spec Work