Management is on the Cards

Getting things done is a challenge for every business, there are heaps of methodologies and systems out there too. Here in the studio we use our own version of “Agile” to work as a team day to day.

By admin

Getting things done is a challenge for every business, there are heaps of methodologies and systems out there too. Here in the studio we use our own version of Agile to work as a team day to day. We don’t follow it to the letter, and we’re pragmatic about changing things that don’t work for us as well.

Our week runs wednesday to wednesday, which helps avoid long weekends, and public holidays messing things up as much because we have a consistent day when everyone can come in.

All our tasks end up written on library cards, stuck up on a big wall with photos and categories – Not Done, Doing, Done and DONE DONE. The last two are kinda the same, except we review everything we do to make sure we never drop the ball on quality, testing software, and reviewing design is a really big part of producing first rate work, having the two states helps keep us always focused on this.

The Wall

Estimation is a big part of the process, we work out how many hours everyone can put in, allowing for training, research and meetings etc – and then we allocate as much work as we should be able to get through in one week cycle. We also of course have a bug tracking system to make sure we don’t loose track of client requests, but the bugs we’re actively working on all go onto the wall as well. It gives everyone a single place, a focus for the day, and week.

That’s not the end of the story though, the biggest part of the process is how we work together as a team of humans … That’s a story for part II