Talk:Team Practices Group/Task Tracking

For relative priorities, I think the proposed option 1 makes sense. Creating a new field seems unworkable, and probably not that helpful either.

For the Priority field, I would vote for something in the ballpark of ignore/tiebreaker. Basically "It's a data point which can be used when understanding the actual priority, but the position on the board is what matters."

Option 1: Don't associate goals with tasks

Option 2: Use a separate Phab project for each goal. (see Dao of DarTar))

• Arthur: Would tracking epics for non-core efforts on our weekly board be enough to give folks a sense of capacity/what all is going on with the team?

• Arthur: Are core efforts consistent enough that there's little to no value in tracking them on the board too?

• Arthur: If we adopted the Tao of DarTar (for the record, I'm into it), what are the different project tags that we would employ? Would we remain disciplined enough to ensure we're correctly tagging our tasks with projects/goals/etc?

Option 3: Use a separate Phab column for each goal. Each task can be in multiple boards, but must be on the master board, where it is categorized by column.

Option 4: Use a Phab Task with a blocked by relationship for each goal.

Is this question specifically about TPGer work? I would love to come up with a general answer that will work for engineering teams as well, rather than solve it in a non-standard way.

Does "goal" here mean "departmental quarterly goal"? I hope so, but it would be good to be explicit one way or the other.

Yes, with Epics.

Yes, with parent/child relationships.

No.

I can't answer this question in a vacuum. I suspect the answer is "sometimes". I'm pretty sure it's not "always", but I'm also inclined to doubt the answer is "never". I remain uncomfortable with the distinction between Epic and "parent task", so can't distinguish between those two.

How should TPG visualize our total work backlog for all team members while also enabling team members to manage their tasks however they are managing them now?

Option 1: Use Epics as tracking tasks

1. add an Epic for non-core efforts (e.g., Discovery offsite, Phlogiston, Phragile, P2W, SPDPP, Testing 2015, one-off consultations, etc)
2. keep tasks associated with those efforts off the TPG board
3. Pro: solves the basic problem
4. Con: adding them could lead to clutter and slowdown backlog grooming

• In retro, team can see what they want to change, and if changes in the past have had desired effects
• in grooming - PO looks at goals to set priorities
• within sprint - look at burnups (Phragile) to see if on track
• in Quarterly Review, to see if work lined up with goals
• Check Outcomes Dashboard and prioritize new projects/goals/outputs
• Identify conflicts/Force tradeoff decisions

(potential groupings: Prioritization; people planning; course correction; forecasting))