Are We On the Same Page... Book?

"My team lead told me to implement this new thing... Then the systems architect told me it was a waste of time? Aargh!"

Lately, there's been a lot of discussion at work about how to keep all the developers on the same page. What do you do if you are working on a big story, which inevitably leads to new findings that could introduce problems ahead? Do you just fix them, or do you stick to the acceptance criteria?

Well there I was, in a meeting room full of giants who've been working on this system for more years than I've been in the industry. I felt like I was an apprentice at the round table of archmagi determining the fate of the nine fracking kingdoms. They were trying to solve this issue about team communication, from which I gathered some good principles

So you found a potential problem that might add more work to a story?

Story means conversation.

Whenever you start working on a story, what that really means is that you need to have a discussion with the stakeholder and team lead immediately. Get them in a room and start talking details. If you don't know everything about what you need to produce, then you might think it needs something that it actually doesn't. This can prevent you from finding fake potential problems before your manager becomes your real problem.

Is it real?

First, stop and consider if this is something that could really be a concern, or if this is just unnecessary gold-plating.

Bring it up.

Not just with your team lead, but make sure that other important people in your team understand what you are doing. Absolutely don't start work until you and your lead knows that the customer is on board.

Another story?

If your story is already pretty bloated, you might not want to make it pop. Maybe you just need to create another story to be fulfilled by this new criterion.

Prepare for delay.

Now that you're ready to add another bullet point to your story, you need to understand that this is going to take time. Consider this as practicing your time management skills, and make sure your lead and customer knows that this might take a while.

Consult peers.

Your co-workers will see things from different angles and come from different experiences. They may offer ideas and solutions that could make your life easier. More importantly, they could have solved the same problem in another story and save you a lot of time. Take 5 minutes, save 5 hours.