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How to Manage Agenda

How to Manage Agenda

Working as a lead means you will be handling our members task that we need to complete as a team to progress forward on our project.  To help with this their something that you should know about how and why things are setup the way they are.  If at anytime you see a chance to improve our structure or way of doing thing please let me know (Lead Producer).

 

1st. When creating an agenda you will notice its pretty simple form compared to what you have seen on the agenda edit and view screen.  This is a dumb down version of assigning out task.  We use this to our advantage by making it simple and some what quicker to get task out their.

2nd. After you have created an agenda you will notice its is not visible right away.  What happens is it goes into a "Defining" status and only the producer can see it.  Once I have had a chance to review it it goes out as either a task assigned to a sprint that we run or as a stand alone project in the "Pending" status.

3rd. The reason for 2 is so as a team we stay in sync so I don't have 9 different leads moving in 9 different direction.  This has happen and now you see the solution too it.  It is good all of us are eager push forward but we need to work as a unit/team.

4th. After you have sometime to adjust to the lead position 1 or 2 sprints. I know their is a lot more information open to you when you start the lead position so I try to pace it a bit.  But once sometime has passed I will start assigning you bigger agenda's and it is up to you during our rest period which happens after every sprint 3 to 4 days at least to allow for reviews and us to choice our path moving forward.

5th. You will make agenda to break down the bigger agenda assigned to you then if you have any question you can request a meeting with me or PM me.

6th. After you make these agenda they will be put on the sprint or set as stand alone task by me you will assign them out to your members.  Then you will update your own agenda as you manage these.  I expect you as a lead to take on the hard parts and not assign them out but assign more of the micro management parts to your members under you.  At the bottom I will give a full sample of what this means that I hope everyone can relate too.

7th. When a member or yourself has a question during the process of running a sprint or stand alone task we want to use the kanban forum or liaison on stand along task at the top of all agendas to discuss these issue as it relates to their task.  We do this so that the information is public for all members.  Using PM make it so only a few member see the information and how the task was defined and resolved.  So later if we have to modify this situation and another or different member has to do it... We run into problems which can be avoided by making as much information as possible open to everyone.  On top of this it show everyone in all roles progress is moving forward.

8th. Now when in edit mode for agendas you will notice their are a few more area to modify.  The major ones that probably need explained are the "Meta Data" ones which include "Title", "Description", and "Keywords".  These are only if you mark the item as public so it can be seen on the front end for search engine optimization (SEO) reason.  You will want to put something meaning full for all three of these areas.  So google etc can index it correctly.  Outside of that I think its pretty much self explanatory. I ask that you keep in mind we don't want everything visible to the public such as the wiki page to the GDD will never be public.  So use a little common sense when doing this.

9th. After a member is done with their agenda they will place it into "Request Review" status.  They can use this when ever they are in the process of creating the agenda if they need guidance of any sort.  When you have a minute you need to review it and get them going again if its not completed assign it back to them otherwise mark it as "Approved" status.  Keep in mind to watch their times they have entered to make sure they are reasonable.

10th. If a task runs over the 5 hours limit we have we need to break it down don't be afraid to modify the agenda in progress as you see fit.  If you modify it dramatically then notify the member to let them know directly their task has changed.  An then create or divide up that task into other agenda by creating them and defining them so they can be put on another sprint when we are ready.

11th. If a member abandons the agenda you have assigned let the automation system handle it.  After 7 days of them not working on it, it will be place back into a pending status to be reassigned.  These member normally have quit and just forgot to tell us.  The automation system will deal with them and send them notice of their status until they are removed for lack of participation.  Unfortunately it happens all we can do is re-group and move forward.  We will continue to recruit and sooner or later we will end up with a team of dedicated game loving developing people who share our passion for creating art.


Ok so lets go over that sample of an agenda you would divide up because its more then 5 hours of work per user.

So lets say your task for your role is to feed all the member of Thou Curator.  Currently their is 22 members as of right now.  But only 3 of them including yourself is in your role.

1st. Your agenda says to feed them as a leader in your role you must figure out how to start correct.  So you start doing research by google, asking members what they like, finding recipes online or a book store.  Etc etc in today's world knowledge is there you just need to find what works for you and how to obtain it.  You are an expert in your field if you are ask something and you don't know.... You need to spend the time to look it up and research it by whatever means you can.  This is apart of growing and learning from experience.

2nd. Once your research is done and you have drawn to a conclusion based off logic and not emotion attachment to food.  It would be who of you to run that by the producer.  I may not know everything about the subject but I know a lot of small things about every field dealing with game development.  We want to stay on the same and if I think we should be doing something else which I could be wrong it is up to you to prove me wrong using logic not emotion.  We want to do whats best for the project / team not individuality or what is easiest if we know in the long run it will not work.  Also saying away from temporary fixes and dealing with our problems up front is always preferred.

3nd. So you did your research and you found that making peanut butter and jelly sandwich seems to be the choice of a lot of members.  So now you have two other members and yourselves to work with to get this task of feed all of us done.

4rd. First off you need to lead by example so you doing the major part needs to happen.  So lets figure out the major part.... I would say putting it all together and making sure everything is synced up.  So your agenda even though it says feed the team.  Basically means this because you have members to handle the other parts.  You can change your own agenda to read this if you wish.

5th. Ok so if you're going to take care of that then lets start breaking it down.  Lets see supply need list would be a good asset to upload to your agenda.  So lets say you do that, and now you can copy paste that list into other members agendas if needed.

6th. So ok first agenda for member est time 2.75 hours tops.  agenda title "Go Shopping" so member 1 we will call him/her's agenda task is to go shopping for the list.  You can in the context of the agenda define where to get the goods, when to do it etc etc if need be and also paste your shopping list into their agenda.  We want to always make it easy for them as possible.  Hopefully you have notice by now when I refer to something I paste a link or try to remember to in all communication not just agenda.  Yes they could go find it themselves but if we make it easy for them they spend more time reviewing what you ask of them instead of hunting for information.

7th. Ok so after that lets have member 2 layout quantities of the items purchased to make it easy to run down like an assembly line.  Total time est 3 hours.  So you make another agenda that says take said asset that where uploaded and lay them out two bread, on table spoon of peanut button, one table spoon of jelly, etc etc.

8th. They submit their agenda for review.  You review them but the quantities of jelly does not match up with number of people we are feeding.  Make your comments on the agenda liaison area or on the kanban forum if its apart of a sprint.  Then re-assign the task back to member 2.

9th. Member one wants to know since you did not specify type of jelly what kind you want.  This could be asked either in PM, agenda liaison, or kanban forum.  Hopefully this type of question is on the kanban if not we might want to send a PM about this try to keep as much as possible public unless its a person issue they are having with it or they are embarrassed about something then PM is acceptable.  After the issue is resolved any relative information to the agenda should be put on the agenda or kanban for the public.  Keep in-mind not to degrade or put down our members in any way we want to have fun not target people.

10th. So you reply back to that member moving the conversation to the public view if need be.

11th. Now both members submit their agenda for review you do so and it looks good so you approve them.

12th. But wait you still are not done we have not feed our team.  So at this point you must ask yourself do I have everything needed to complete this task on time with the sprint.  If so do it, if not break it down again using agenda to be scheduled for the next sprint then repeat this pattern until Thou Curator can enjoy P&J Sandwiches.

13th. We don't want to create and append agenda to a sprint so if a member has 1 agenda or 3 at the start with in one day of the sprint starting we don't want to assign anymore out for that sprint for them.  Any additional agenda that need done to complete the overall goal should be placed on the next sprint.  This is so we don't overload our members with task.

I hope I have made it clear how our agenda system works if you have any question PM or ask me on the liaison section of this wiki.

 

 

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