Right-sizing elements of work
Right-sizing work items is one aspect we have been thinking a lot about. Specifically, we see that the typical sizing of work items in many tools doesn't really map to best practices. For example, Kanban says that the board should directly map to your process, meaning that an element moving across the board should be 'done'. Your definition of done might be different, but if it is not something you deliver your users, you are probably not right-sizing your work items. Similarly, the 2020 Scrum Guide says that work becomes an 'increment' when it reaches a pre-defined definition of done.
Still, we see many teams using their issue trackers and project management tools to keep track of individual tasks. Tools that enforce a strict 'one assignee per item' pushes teams to break down work into individual tasks, even if collaboration within the team is clearly best practice. Making a design or writing a piece of code is not 'done' until it has reached the user, tested a hypothesis or fixed a user problem.
visualize the work, not the workers ... is a fascinating (and often very subtle) idea. for example, what really is the difference between these two options? What is each approach optimized for? (1/3) pic.twitter.com/dDbSq40rga
— John Cutler (@johncutlefish) May 2, 2020
In Kitemaker, we designed work items to be not only things you deliver to your customers, but something you as a product team can use for collaboration. We provide a collaborative document helping you write one-pagers, to collaborate on the "Why", "How", and "What". Every work item lets you specify a team to work on the item, and the activity feed is used by teams to discuss and keep track of ongoing work. And we have themes that are used to make a roadmap and keep track of overall product plans or document sprint and product goals.
Work items in Kitemaker can be used for productive interactions for collaborating teams
Interested in trying a new, more collaborative way of managing your team? Something that was not built as a bug tracker, but for modern development practices? Then try out Kitemaker, and tell us what you think!