Week 61 – 03/11/2019

Good but short week at work. Got stuck into a new piece of product design. I say new, it is half built but I think there are some decent changes we should make to simplify the flow of a core part of the product set. Going to be a good challenge of speed vs quality. Who will win?

Spent a lot of time backlog grooming and tidying up in general. We have a lot of old and possibly irrelevant tickets hanging around that are more like reminders than real stories. I am not sure of the best way to remember and store these ideas as well as not forgetting to do other things but dumping them in a backlog feels wrong. We have over 400 items in the main product backlog which is not that bad but it is not that good either. I would prefer to operate around the 100-150 mark and with well defined epics containing the bulk of the work and giving some well defined outcomes to aim for. My path to Utopia will be an arduous one no doubt.

Went for lunch with the ProductTank Sheffield team and picked their brains about how they organise backlogs and epics etc. We finally announced our speakers for the next ProductTank Sheffield which feels very organised.

The shortened work week was due to me taking Thursday and Friday off to venture to North Wales for three nights child free with my wife. Lots of nice food and booze in Prestatyn, Llandudno and Conwy. Highlights being TAPPS micropub for great beer and Johnny Dough’s for great pizza, both in Llandudno.

The unhealthy three days marks the end of our Summer/early Autumn unhealthiness as we start another no doubt short lived attempt at better living. My path to Utopia will be an arduous one no doubt (x2).

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