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Ask HN: How do you handle misc tasks with due dates in Agile?
Let's say you're in a four person team. Everyone's got their stories planned and groomed. Everything's going great. But there are a few things which don't quite fit in:
- Bob needs to make a trip on Friday to HQ to demo the software to some execs.
- Sandra needs to file 3 TPS reports on Wednesday.
- Jim needs to print 350 name tags for an event next quarter.
How do we keep these tasks visible and show the progress of them?
Do we create stories for them, point them, then put them in our task board? Or, do we not create stories and just post them alongside our task board to keep them visible?
Do we create a new column in our task board for misc tasks and put them there?
- tetonraven 11y agoFirst off, each person shouldn't have "their" stories. The stories in the sprint backlog should be owned by and worked by the entire team. Second, not everything needs to be a story or a task in the backlog; agile isn't about tracking every activity. Everybody will have things outside of planned stories (meetings, time off, whatever). If you feel the need to get detailed about it and plan at the hours level, assume a baseline "development hours per day" (6 is a common one) and adjust for planned time off. If your team is not able to get in the development hours you're expecting, there's something else wrong; such as a "manager" asking you to do TPS reports, outside the scope of the project your team is actually working on. Anyway, velocity at the point level is a better measure of a team's ability to take on a certain amount of work in an upcoming sprint, because it inherently accounts for distractions. However you do it, don't get too caught up on detailed accounting and planning of hours; that's not how agile works. And definitely don't create "stories" for things that aren't actual user stories.