New Business

Announcements. Process New Work - Assign ToDos & Due Dates

Completed Work

Acknowledge work Completed this cycle - Congratulate Team Members!

Unplanned Work

Assign Unplanned Work for the Upcoming Cycle

The Meeting Has Concluded

Card Master should bang the gavel. Release to Recess.

* Continue reading for the full process.

Pull Requests Welcome

Find us on Github

What Are They?

• Villains Plot, Plan and scheme - They Help Meetings Run
• Ideally, a team should have multiple villains, and rotate them from cycle to cycle.

Responsibilities

• Running the pre-standup meta meeting
• What went well last time?
• What can we do better?
• What does work generally look like this cycle? (Load, etc)
• Ensure Blocked cards have clear unblock Task.
• Resolving as much scut work as possible prior to the meeting.
• Recording load on each Responsibility Lane from week to week
• Protector of the realm (but mostly everyone's time)
• Responsible for starting the meeting on time and ending as quickly as possible.
• Trains other Card Masters - The more the better!

New Business

“Unrefined Material”

• All lane changes occur during planning meetings.
• “Unrefined material” - Must have a potential due date.
• Announcements for the next meeting
• Problems with no defined solution
• Unidentified “complaints”

Unplanned

"Refined, but not assigned."

• Work that has been touched and defined but not been assigned
• Contains a due-date, at least 1 associated team member, goals that can be completed in 1 “cycle” - where a cycle is defined as the time between team standups.

Blocked

“Stalled, due to outside factors.”

• Blocked items cannot be actioned until the block is resolved.
• Blocked card must have a clearly defined unblock task
• Possibly send alerts to slack / notify team or manager

Responsibility [multiple]

“Promised work, per cycle”

• Lane per group, for defining workload
• Workload should be broken out by generalized types of work done by the team.
• On an assembly line you might separate bolting parts together from painting the car.
• Lane Capacity estimation formula:

  $workers * $estimated_work_per_cycle

Tracking [multiple]

“Not Cycle dependant work”

Kept for reference

Items to be aware of, but not completed on a specific cycle.

Complete

“Finished products go here”

• “Finished and kept in a lane until archived”
• Cards need somewhere to go after they’re completed.

Here's the starter rule set.

• All work enters at the New Business lane.
• All work moves between lanes during a standup*
• Transactions are not Work.
• All cards should move through lanes at the standup.
• Last - You must be in eye sight of the car before claiming shotgun. (This is not negotiable.)
* It’s OK to add comments, change members and provide possible solutions to cards, but NOT ok to move them between meetings.

The Lawful Evil Process, Longform.

• Users populate to the New Business Lane between cycles
• Card Master for the week reviews lanes before meeting.
  • Looking for missing information on New Business items
  • Comparing unplanned work for the coming week to estimated capacity in each lane.
  • Pushing unplanned work due dates where possible
  • Following up with team members individually to fix placeholder cards and confirm changes in
• Clear any cards in New Business
  • Determine if a card is:
    • Announcement (No action needed)
    • Complaint (Card should be reworked)
      • See “1-minute redirect”
    • A Transaction - Transactions are problems with well defined solutions. These should not be processed.
    • Problem (Solutions should be suggested!)
  • Collaborate solutions to the card
    • Define the problem as well as possible
    • Brainstorm a TODO list of items that can be completed in a cycle
      • Now is NOT the time to solve the problem
      • See “1-minute goals”
    • $ESTIMATE_POKER_PLACEHOLDER
    • Move to Unplanned
• Move any finished cards to Complete
  • Review cards marked as completed
    • This is a chance for discussion and praise
    • See 1-minute manager “1 minute praise”
  • As part of the review of completed work -
    • Consider any new work that resulted.
    • Consider if this class of problem can now be transactional
      • See “Andon cord”
• Review work Planned for the current cycle
  • Determine if work is blocked
  • Determine if work is expected to be completed by the start of next cycle, or if due date needs to be updated.
    • Team member responsible for the card should ultimately determine the timeline.
    • External pressures such as other work that is blocked or external deadlines should be considered.
    • Any card with a new due date past the next cycle, should be moved back to Unplanned.
  • Ensure all cards have a touch / comment / due date adjustment by end of cycle.
• Drain Unplanned work due before next cycle
  • Move any work due within the next cycle to the appropriate lane
  • Decide if any lane is overloaded, adjust if possible
• End the Meeting.
  • There should be a defined and concise step to end the meeting.
    • This prevents end of meeting add-ons and off topic discussion.
    • Team building is great - but stand-ups aren't the time.

References

• The New 1 Minute Manager
• DevOps Handbook

Tools

• Trello
• Original Card Counter for Trello (Chrome Extension)