tech etc...

Month note

This month’s note will be short and sweet.

Service assessment…is nearly here

One month to go!

It feels like I’ve practiced as much as I possibly can. I’ve reviewed our systems over and over again, developed short, medium, and long term plans for the service, and can probably give our service assessment talk in my sleep.

I’m so grateful to be part of this incredible team. We’ve all pulled together on this project, cross-collaborating, checking in regularly, and reviewing each other’s work.

Focusing energy

Something that’s cropped up in the last month is how to focus the engineering team’s energy.

We’ve got a long list of improvements/tasks but must focus our energy on just a few (mainly because of the service assessment). Ruthless prioritisation is required.

However, sometimes ruthless prioritisation can be challenging. A cleanup task can take 30 minutes and would deliver value quickly, why not just do it?

On the flip side though, a 30-minute task could also turn into half a day’s work. How to balance the need to focus on priorities with useful mini-cleanup-tasks?

In one of our retros we talked about how to focus our energy, especially when we see a random task which feels like a priority but doesn’t fit in with what we’ve agreed as team with product and delivery.

I suggested we develop a workflow diagram to help the team focus its energy but also make space for cleanup tasks.

So far it’s worked well. We prioritise the mission work, but encourage time-boxed cleanup tasks and ensure we’re keeping track of areas for improvement in the code which take longer than an hour to implement.

Currently reading

I’m between books so don’t have anything on my bedside table…

Next up is Girl, Woman, Other (getting into my summer reading).