Challenge Description
Learn how to create a high-level visual Ways of Working (WoW) strategy outlining the key responsibilities and activities that QAs undertake before, during and after a sprint.
Instructions:
Brainstorm (20 minutes)
Brainstorm the activities and responsibilities that QAs undertake within an agile sprint. Split these activities into 3 sections: before a sprint starts (shifting left), during a sprint and after a sprint (shifting right). You’ll be able to get ideas from a real work example of a WoW that Robbie and his team built.
To do this, you will need to interact with the others doing the activity with you, brainstorm ideas together, ask questions as to how other people work and together learn and agree on what responsibilities should go into your WoW. You’ll be taking notes as you go.
Mindmap (10 minutes)
Reflect on your brainstorming notes and start to build a high-level visual representation of your WoW. You’ll be given a sprint timeline outlining the 3 states of before, during and after a sprint and start creating your mindmap from there.
Demo (5 minutes)
Show your WoW to your other team members and how you have gone about structuring your WoW. See how others have done it and learn from what they have deemed important in their WoW mindmap.
Wrap-up:
You should now have a good high-level idea of the activities a QA is responsible for throughout an agile sprint and how your team differs and can learn from others. You’ll have a great template to take home and continue to work on a more in-depth strategic WoW with your own team.
What you’ll learn
- Identify and analyse activities that QAs undertake within a sprint cycle
- Research how others go about involving QAs and generate ideas that might help a team going forward
- Draft a ways of working document to share with a team
Resources
Power of Models - Richard Bradshaw and Dan Ashby - https://bit.ly/mot-models
