Wiki Loves Monuments mobile application/Retrospective

WLM Project Retrospective

19 September, 2012

What worked/went well?

• Shit got done in tight schedules
• Things got fleshed out that were not clear rather than sitting there getting stale
• we had brion! :D \o/
• Arthur
• bug list (only 3 open - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?list_id=147521&bug_severity=blocker&bug_severity=critical&bug_severity=major&bug_severity=normal&bug_severity=minor&bug_severity=trivial&resolution=---&query_based_on=WikiLovesMonuments&query_format=advanced&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&product=WikiLoves%20Monuments%20Mobile&known_name=WikiLovesMonuments )
• massive team communication
• simultaneously very task-focussed but also very flexible to change/last minute requirements
• huge amount of work done in a short period of time
• drive to gain clarity around tasks
• highly responsive to community users
• bug triages
• saying no

What didn't?

• bugzilla and mingle didn't work together so well
  • possibly only use bugzilla for defects+
• [Jon] i18n stuff +++
• spike
• week-long sprint
• insufficiently curated backlog - last-minute surprise features +
• inability to respond to serious app crashes
• upstream communication with WLM; not always clear who was responsible for what, lots of buck-passing +
• mobile app vs. web app - often approached things from a perspective that would work well for a web app but not a mobile app +
• In the beginning, it was assumed that we can use TS and existing code just fine. How do I type a double-dotted i in "naive"? +
• beta releases
  • Perhaps could have released earlier to the app store? +
• 1 week iteration
• too many meetings? (possibly due to 1 week iterations) +
• lack of attention to mobile site
• [Arthur] volunteer involvement++++
  • being more tactical in our community, applying more mentoring
  • build more time into our sprints for volunteer engagement +
  • open up planning process
  • public bug triage
  • we could not have done the data/api without the volunteers, particularly Maarten
• bring back yuvi +
  • 1/2013 - can we add a timer to the big screen after Wiki Loves Monuments is over
    • YES - TTY - TimeTillYuvi
• feature creep?
• [Team] arthur didn't code as much as he could have +++

Anything still puzzling?

• [Brion] out of memory errors are hard to reproduce; we kinda know where it might be failing but it's hard to tell for sure what's at fault
• [Tomasz] When we will bury it?
  • should we bury it - well, if you're personally interested in maintaining it... Good luck! :P
    • YES