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I have found that working in the way that Mike works is the best option. I
discovered that, with one team, I was able to keep pace with the
developers, so that I rarely was playing catch-up. For a couple of other
projects, one or more managers created jiras in anticipation of my start
date, and these jiras were separated from the issues assigned to developers.
- Elisa
On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 2:38 PM, Mike Starr <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com> wrote:
> When working in an Agile environment, I've always worked outside the
> sprints and never allocated developer time with Jira tickets because I
> generally only requested a 30-minute online demonstration from a developer
> then built the documents myself. However, I did attend every daily standup
> and release demo so I was able to gain insight into the development and ask
> questions during those meetings.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Mike
> --
> Mike Starr, Writer
> Technical Writer - Online Help Developer - WordPress Websites
> Graphic Designer - Desktop Publisher - Custom Microsoft Word templates
> (262) 694-1028 - mike -at- writestarr -dot- com - http://www.writestarr.com
>
>
> On 4/3/2018 2:01 PM, Stuart Conner wrote:
>
>> I'm in a new job where I need to plan and produce some documentation in an
>> Agile environment.
>>
>>
>> I have a known number of documents to produce within the next 3 months,
>> with
>> each sprint being 2 weeks long. The order in which the documents are
>> produced is not critical.
>>
>>
>> Each document will require the following sequence of activities: (1) A
>> developer SME either writes an initial draft of the document or conveys
>> that
>> information to me verbally, (2) I produce a good draft of the document,
>> gathering further information from the SME as needed, (3) review, further
>> rework and eventually sign-off. All the usual stuff.
>>
>>
>> The main pain-point is going to be getting developer time to work on the
>> documentation, as they have code to develop as well. We'll raise a Jira
>> ticket for each document so the necessary time can be planned into each
>> sprint.
>>
>>
>> My question relates to the best way to track things in Jira:
>>
>>
>> (1) We could say that for each sprint, the developer and I will work on
>> documents A, B and C, and we raise Jira tickets for these. But doing this,
>> developer time will be needed early in the sprint if he/she is to do their
>> part leaving enough time for me to rework and finish the draft before the
>> end of the sprint. If the developer gets tied up with other stuff during
>> the
>> first week of the sprint and can't look at the documentation until the
>> second week, then I won't have time to complete the documents before the
>> end
>> of the sprint.
>>
>>
>> (2) We could separate the developer's time on the documents from my time.
>> So
>> for each sprint, the developer will work on initial drafts for documents
>> A,
>> B and C, and I work on the drafts the developer produced in the last
>> sprint.
>> More flexible, more likely to finish the work scheduled for each sprint,
>> but
>> double the number of Jira tickets to be tracked.
>>
>>
>> (3) We could say that for each sprint, the developer will work on
>> documents
>> A, B and C, but I will work 'outside' the sprints, being flexible on how I
>> work on the drafts produced by the developer. I track my progress on the
>> documents separately. We don't drown in Jira tickets. But to some extent
>> I'm
>> working outside the Agile team.
>>
>>
>> Anyone been in a similar situation and have any advice on what worked for
>> them?
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>> Stuart.
>>
>>
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--
Elisa Rood Sawyer
~~~~~^~~~~~
Technical and Creative Writer
"Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today." Mark Twain
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