The Art of Communication in Agile with DevOps: What Developers and QA Should Say in Daily Stand-Ups
Our Purely CRM expert consulting team wants to share some valuable insights on what Developers communicate versus QA resources during a daily agile stand-up meeting. After all, effective communication lies at the heart of successful agile stand-ups, driving collaboration and ensuring project progress.
It begins by presenting a sprint task board, reading it from top to bottom and right to left. Developers start by communicating the tasks they closed yesterday. Then they provide an overview of their active tasks, specifying the tasks they are currently engaged in. Additionally, they mention any new tasks they will make active today. Importantly, Developers address any blockers they may be facing, ensuring that potential obstacles are surfaced and can be resolved collaboratively. Blockers may be discussed further after the stand-up, in a segment of the meeting we call, "Parking Lot."
The QA resource starts by presenting their sprint task board and reading, top to bottom, the resolved column where they indicate what bugs they will re-test that day to ensure they get closed as quickly as possible. Then, the QA resource should go to boards in the menu and ensure the board is filtered to user stories. They should read down the resolved column of the board to indicate any user stories that they will test today where those user stories have not yet been tested at all. Finally, they should read down the active column on the board to identify any test cases that will be written, that day, for user stories where those user stories have not yet had their testcase(s) written for them.
Closing out our daily stand-ups involves a structured approach that ensures efficient use of time and focuses on addressing work item details in a separate segment called the "parking lot." During the stand-up updates, Developers and QA resources provide concise statements regarding their work items, refraining from going into extensive details. They quickly indicate whether they are working on the item that day and if they have any blockers. Once all team members have provided their updates, the Project Manager takes the lead in signaling the end of the stand-up and transitioning into the parking lot segment. In the parking lot, detailed discussions take place to address questions or concerns raised during the regular updates. It's important to note that not everyone needs to participate in the parking lot segment, so the Project Manager may request those not involved to leave. The parking lot items are briefly mentioned during the regular updates and
Our team is proud of our processes, methodologies, and best practices. We often share these best practices and train clients in Agile during the delivery of our Dynamics 365 and Power Platform projects. Want to learn more? Contact our team to start a discussion. noted to be discussed in more detail in the subsequent parking lot session, allowing for focused discussions and efficient use of time during the stand-up.
For close to a decade our Purely CRM team has been laser-like focused on delivering CRM solutions built solely on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, combined with Power Apps and the Microsoft Power Platform. We’ve expanded our team immensely in the past years to help better serve our clients and partners. Most recently we merged with Endeavour Solutions, a top Microsoft ERP, CRM, and Cloud consulting firm to further expand our talented team of CRM consultants.
Our core focus is on large mid-market and enterprise CRM Design & Development projects, Staff Augmentation, and CRM Support. When needed we can also tap upon our peers at Endeavour for Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP to provide an All-in-One Cloud ERP-CRM. We provide services to clients Coast to Coast across the United States and Canada. We do not use resources overseas.
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