Routines
Clarity defines several routines to be performed by the teams at certain time intervals or whenever certain conditions are met.
There are three distinct kinds of routines Clarity defines - Planning, Review and Retrospective routines.
Planning routines
Planning routines are meetings during which upcoming work is planned, reviewed and organized. Planning meetings should result in -
- Clear and defined objectives for all defined organizational units.
- Definition of success - how will you determine that the defined goals are achieved.
Delivery cycle planning
Completed before starting a delivery cycle, all upcoming tasks scheduled for next delivery cycle are reviewed by the Team to ensure completeness of definition for each of them.
At the end of this routine it is clear what work needs to be done during next delivery cycle by all team members. Tasks that are unclear or lacking definition should be defined if possible or be removed from the delivery cycle.
It is during this routine team also commits to the amount of work to be delivered in the given cycle. Work that the Team is unable to commit to be delivered during the cycle should be removed from the cycle and postponed to the next cycle.
Goal and Objective planning
Done when defining a goal or objective. This routine is used to create a plan and secure commitment to taking the first steps towards delivery of a goal and objective.
Review routines
Review routines test work processes and determine current status of each individual planning component. This allows to identify issues and delays early and act to minimize impact of any deviations. It also encourages participation and informs stakeholders about the current status of work eliminating guesswork and facilitating communication in all levels of organization.
New task review
New task review routine is used to review all tasks in the New stage. This routine is initiated by Team leader whenever a sufficient amount of tasks are added to the New stage, or whenever a task of a high perceived priority is added.
The goal of this routine is to ensure all new tasks have a clear and defined objective , implementation notes, checklist , acceptance criteria, and estimation.
When this routine should be performed is left at the discretion of the Team leader. It is recommended to do the review quite often. It is perfectly fine to call for a review even with one new task created.
As a general rule, everyone in the team having relevant domain knowledge about the task should participate in the task review.
When possible, instead of having face-to-face meetings, this routine should be organized asynchronously using communication tools made available to the team.
Delivery cycle review
Often also referred to as stand-up or daily meeting. The main objectives of cycle review meetings are to present updates on the progress and discuss challenges associated with ongoing work. Cycle review meetings are done daily.
It is important to understand that this is a review meeting, not a planning meeting. Avoid in-depth discussions about implementation specifics, and similar - report on current state of affairs, note any issues related to current work, and if necessary - schedule another meeting specific to issues identified during the cycle review.
Goal and Objective review
Goal and retrospective reviews serve to update stakeholders about current progress and status of goals and objectives. Depending on whether this is a Goal or Objective review, the Team, or the Team leader reports current status and any issues, and impediments related to delivery.
It is also during this review when appropriate countermeasures to any impediments are decided and implemented.
Retrospective routines
In Clarity, retrospective is a routine during which Team members -
- Discuss and install improvements to the work process.
- Discuss work-related issues and install countermeasures.
Main goal of having retrospectives is continuous improvement to work process and efficiency. Clarity defines several kinds of retrospectives.
Important Avoid assigning blame and in-depth discussions about "what if's" during retrospectives. Goal of a retrospective is to identify issues, determine cause and install countermeasures to prevent repeat and new issues from happening. Retrospectives are not performance reviews and should never be treated as such. Treating retrospectives as performance reviews have negative side effects on team morale and doing so is also generally counterproductive.
Important Retrospective conclusions must be actionable and tangible.
Task retrospective
On completion of a task Team member responsible for a task can submit a optional Task retrospective. Task retrospective should include information about any impediments or issues encountered during the task that had an effect on delivery. Task retrospective contents are recorded along with the task for review later during Cycle retrospective.
Submitting task retrospective is not required if task proceeded as planned. Task retrospectives should be submit if task ever entered impeded, waiting or blocked statuses - if any action could potentially be taken to prevent such transition in the future tasks.
Important Task retrospectives can include conclusions and recommended actions, but it is not required. Main goal of the task retrospective is to identify the issue.
Delivery cycle retrospective
Delivery cycle retrospective is a review routine of past delivery cycle. The main goal of having a retrospective is to identify issues with work and work organization during the delivery cycle, review and most importantly - address the identified issues and install countermeasures where possible.
Cycle retrospectives are generally organized as a Team-wide meetings at the end of every delivery cycle.
The goals of a Cycle retrospective are:
- Review all task retrospectives; and
- Receive input from team members about any impediments or issues related to delivery cycle but not directly related to tasks; and
- Decide and recommend concrete actions to install countermeasures for all identified issue; and
- Review past retrospective results in terms of previously defined countermeasures and their effectiveness. Adjust previously set countermeasures as necessary.
Cycle retrospective organization
Cycle retrospectives should be kept short and to the point. All team members should attend cycle retrospectives. All input to the cycle retrospective should be prepared before holding the meeting, if any. Retrospective meetings, if any, should focus on reviewing the issues and determining appropriate actions.
Goal retrospective
Similar in their function to Cycle retrospectives, Goal retrospectives are organized once all the tasks in a single goal are completed. General goal progression, completion and related factors are reviewed and team members submit actionable items for review during the retrospective.
Teams do not review task retrospectives during Goal retrospective - that is done during Cycle retrospectives.
Objective retrospective
Objective retrospective is similar to Goal retrospective and serves to review Objective completion. Same semantics apply.
Postmortem
Postmortem is a special retrospective limited to a review of tasks that at were delivered during an Immediate stage of previous delivery cycle. During postmortem the team -
- Reviews all Immediate stage closed tasks from the previous delivery cycle.
- Determines and identifies cause(s) for these tasks.
- Discuss, determine appropriate countermeasures to ensure that such tasks does not occur again.
- Create tasks and objectives to ensure implementation of countermeasures, if any.
Postmortem retrospective can be organized as part of Delivery cycle retrospective.
Postmortem retrospective is skipped if there are no tasks that entered Immediate stage during previous delivery cycle.
Routine calendar
| What | When | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery cycle planning | Before starting delivery cycle | Team |
| Goal planning | After a goal is defined | Team |
| Objective planning | After a objective is defined | Stakeholders, involved Team leaders |
| New task review | Whenever high priority tasks are added, or sufficient amount of new tasks are created to warrant review | Team |
| Delivery cycle review | Every day | Team |
| Goal review | Every 1 to 2 delivery cycles | Team |
| Objective review | Every 2 to 4 delivery cycles | Objective Stakeholders, involved Team leaders |
| Task retrospective | Optionally, whenever a task is Delivered or Discarded | Task assignee |
| Delivery cycle retrospective | At the end of every delivery cycle | Team |
| Postmortem | At the end of ever delivery cycle if Immediate tasks were delivered | Team |
| Goal retrospective | Every time a goal is achieved - all tasks within a goal are complete | Team |
| Objective retrospective | Every time a objective is achieved - all goals within objective are complete | Stakeholders, involved Team leaders |