Targetprocess: getting started

Targetprocess basics:

Targetprocess is an organizational tool that allows employees to view their individual responsibilities in addition to seeing how they relate to the functions and  responsibilities of the rest of the company. Users can create "views" that display similar information in different formats in order to encourage a wider understanding of how roles are integrated and provide smoother collaboration between different departments.

Agile breaks down into two work processes that Target Process tracks. The two arevery similar but have different timelines: Scrum and Kanban.

Kanban:

On-going project or issue, usually consisting urgent fixes that are constant and in need of immediate repair. At OLM, we put bugs, server crashes into the Kanban work stream.

Scrum:

Essentially the division of large projects involving multiple departments into a host of smaller user stories and tasks assigned to individuals and/or teams. In a Scrum project the relevant user stories are assigned to a "sprint", which is a two week time span, and the stories should be finished by the end of the sprint. The language breakdown is translated below. Programs: A group of related projects.

• Projects:  An element of a program that constitutes multiple features.
  • Features: A collection of user stories.
    • User Stories: Assigned by administrators, user stories are can vary in size depending on how many tasks they are composed of.
      • Tasks: Elements of a user story. Users are able to create and assign their own tasks.
    • Bugs: bugs require immediate attention and will always be "in progress" or "finished" due to their urgent nature.

Note: The majority of users will operate at a user story/task/bug level. All users can create tasks within any user story assigned to them individually or as a member of a team.

A more detailed breakdown of the Targetprocess domain model.  

Follow these simple instructions to create new "views" in Targetprocess:

1. Obtain link to Targetprocess from IT.
2. Input password and username into the username and password fields. Obtain both from IT.
3. Click the create button in the lower right hand corner of the screen.
4. Click view.
5. Browse the different template options available. Some essential views include:
   • Team Iteration Plan-shows sprint plans.
   • My Work-shows user stories assigned to you/your team.
   • Epics, Features and Stories-displays the entire heirarchy of company goals. *Users can utilize as many views as desired.
6. Click on the desired template.
7. Additional modifications can be made to the boards lay out by clicking the set-up tab.
8. To modify the cards themselves click the customize cards tab. Note:Exploring the different capabilities is the best way to learn how to best utilize them so don't be afraid to tinker with your personal settings.

Details on essential views:

1. The "team iteration plan" view:
   • In the Team Iteration Plan view, you can see each sprint set up for each team. You'll notice the first column (swimlane) is titled "no team sprint"-these are the user stories that have not been assigned a sprint or time box for completion. The next column show sprint "plans" for OLM Production Team, 45Press, Praxis and Cloud Conversion. To the left of the actions button you can choose four different views of the work within each swim lane. This will give more details on what is happening with each user story. User stories, tasks and bugs can all be set to four different states:
     1. To-do
     2. In Progress
     3. In Testing
     4. Done
2. The "my work"" view:
   • Shows user stories, tasks and bugs assigned only to you. You can then move your tasks to the four swim lane views to track your own work and show others when you are actively working on something (by dragging and dropping the task card to the "in progress" swimlane). Testing can be indicated by dragging a task card to the "testing" swim lane and the completion of a task can be displayed by moving a task card to "done". Note: We are actively creating acceptance criteria for each of these swim lanes for particular user stories, tasks and bugs. For example, "done" may not it is "live" yet. We are working to differentiate between a task being accomplished versus something going live.
3. The "task board" view:
   • A lot of individual tasks may have dependencies on others' work - this view allows you to see where others on the team are with their work so that you can know when you have any impediments or blockers.

 

Finishing tasks:

• As indicated previously tasks should be moved into categories based on its status (to-do, in progress, testing and done) as the status changes. This means if you are working on a task it should be in the "in progress" swimlane and when you have finished it should be in the "done" swimlane.
• When you have finished a task you need to input an hour estimate. The point of this is to develop an general understanding of how long it takes to do a particular task which, subsequently, allows for more efficient planning in the future. The code for hours is included below:
  • 1 = 2 hours or less
    2 = 1/2 a day or less
    4 = 1 day
    8 =2 days
    16 = 4 days
  • Note: The purpose of these effort estimates are built in to assist future planning the estimates you make should always be rounded up.For example: If it takes you three days to finish a certain task you will estimate the effort as a 16 because, while it fits into a 4 day window it will not fit into a two day window. This allows for spare time in the theoretical future as opposed to being behind schedule.
• To input your estimated effort follow these steps:
  1. Click on the my work view.
  2. Double click on the user story that includes the completed task.
  3. Click on the unnamed column that features a number next to a lower case h (usually 0).
  4. Type in the number that corresponds to the amount of time/effort it took to complete the task.