action #105891
closed
retro: Our definition of non-estimated tickets is ambiguous
Added by livdywan about 2 years ago.
Updated about 2 years ago.
Description
Motivation¶
The team wiki states:
Estimate t-shirt sizes for our tickets. Goal: Ensure tickets are workable. Refine and split tickets for larger estimates.
The most obvious query would be all New tickets in backlog: ready issues. And when we started adding size: qualifiers to tickets we attempted to reset all tickets without an estimate to New. Apparently that wasn't good enough since we have Workable tickets without an apparent estimate again.
Of course you can say "As soon as there are no more tickets with status 'New' we are done" but that leaves out tickets that people picked up are being worked on already where the scope might not be clear because we never discussed them as a whole team. As long as these tickets are resolved below our median cycle times that's not a problem at all but I guess you can confirm that this is mostly not the case. I think we have two options: 1. Define strict rules that all tickets should have a "size:" in the subject, we define a query for that and try to estimate all (still allowing people to pickup tickets without size). Pros: Clear rules, Cons: More process, more work. 2. Be more strict as ScrumMaster that all tickets are properly followed up with, have a current state, don't drag on forever. Pros: More adaptable, less buerocraczy, this should have been covered already by "least updated" queries already. Cons: Might be a little bit less clear rule to follow
okurz wrote:
- Be more strict as SrumMaster that all tickets are properly followed up with, have a current state, don't drag on forever. Pros: More adaptable, less buerocraczy, this should have been covered already by "least updated" queries already. Cons: Might be a little bit less clear rule to follow
Sure. When tickets take longer or new question are raised I also consider re-assessing them, but that counts for any ticket. By that token it makes no difference to me if it has size: in the title. Which is why I wasn't perceiving this as an issue until you brought it up again.
- Status changed from New to Workable
- Assignee set to livdywan
- It's still fine to take "new" tickets if they're clear enough, or trivial - trivial meaning it won't take weeks or months.
- We should have size: in all tickets, add/save query
I'll create a query for tickets w/o size: in the title and use that for estimation calls going forward.
- Status changed from Workable to In Progress
cdywan wrote:
- It's still fine to take "new" tickets if they're clear enough, or trivial - trivial meaning it won't take weeks or months.
- We should have size: in all tickets, add/save query
I'll create a query for tickets w/o size: in the title and use that for estimation calls going forward.
I created a new query and I'm pondering if future tickets should also go on it. Since generally we don't prioritize those I think it's not very meaningful.
I'm also adding it to the wiki.
- Status changed from In Progress to Feedback
Let's see how well the query works at the latest this Thursday
cdywan wrote:
I created a new query and I'm pondering if future tickets should also go on it. Since generally we don't prioritize those I think it's not very meaningful.
yes, leave them separate.
- Status changed from Feedback to Resolved
During the call we usted the new query, and also tweaked it by skipping epics. I'd say we're happy with it.
Also available in: Atom
PDF