Implementation

Use the following How To section to help you continuously improve as a program.

Background

Each program increment (PI)/quarter represents an opportunity for the program to reflect and improve
Even projects will conduct a postmortem at the end to find how to improve future projects
The Inspect & Adapt meeting has been scheduled to occur once a quarter at the end of a program increment (PI) to review what was delivered and reflect on learnings throughout the PI/quarter

How to

This procedure will show you how to use Atlassian products to facilitate a program Inspect & Adapt meeting.

Learn how to hold an Inspect & Adapt meeting

Meeting Preparation:
1. In Confluence, use the “Meeting Notes” template to create a page for the meeting
  1. Title the page to “Inspect & Adapt: <PI Number>”
  2. Set Date to the scheduled meeting date
  3. Remove the participants sections
  4. Set Goals to the specific leadership jobs that will be covered, e.g.:
    1. “Hold System Demo”
    2. “Close out the Quarter”
    3. “Hold Retrospective”
  5. Click the Publish button to add the page in the program leadership team’s space
2. In Jira Align, from the Program menu, navigate to the Program Board page
  1. Set the context configuration to Program = <this program>, Program Increment = <this PI>
  2. Copy the URL in the browser
3. In Confluence, update the page for the Inspect & Adapt meeting
  1. Add a new Discussion Topics row:
    1. Add the link to the Program Board page of Jira Align (above)
  2. Add comment to Notes column for row:
    1. Demo features from PI
4. In Jira Align, from the Program menu, navigate to the Program Increments Cleanup Report page
  1. Set the context configuration to Program = <this program>, Program Increment = <this PI>
  2. Copy the URL in the browser
5. In Confluence, update the page for the Inspect & Adapt meeting
  1. Add a new Discussion Topics row:
    1. Add the link to the Program Increments Cleanup Report page of Jira Align (above)
  2. Add comment to Notes column for row:
    1. Review outstanding items from the PI
6. In Confluence, update the page for the Inspect and Adapt meeting
  1. Add a new Discussion Topics row:
    1. Add the link to the Program Board page of Jira Align (above)
  2. Add comment to Notes column for row:
    1. Review changes made to board during the PI (using History Report)
7. In Jira Align, from the Program menu, navigate to the Process Flow Cycle Time page
  1. Set the context configuration to Program = <this program>, Program Increment = <this PI>
  2. Select the Feature Kanban process flow and update the Date Range to be from the beginning of the PI to the end of the PI
    1. Click on the Capture button in the upper right
      1. Copy the PNG image of the Process Flow Cycle Time from Jira Align (above)
  3. Update the Date Range to be from the beginning of the previous PI to the end of the previous PI (for comparison)
    1. Copy the PNG image of the Process Flow Cycle Time from Jira Align (above)
8. In Confluence, update the page for the Inspect & Adapt meeting
  1. Add a new Discussion Topics row:
    1. Add both PNGs of the Process Flow Cycle Time page of Jira Align (above)
  2. Add comment to Notes column for row:
    1. Review and discuss Kanban cycle time changes (last PI vs this PI)
9. In Jira Align, from the Program menu, navigate to the Program Increment Scope Change Report page
  1. Set the context configuration to Program = <this program>, Program Increment = <this PI>
  2. Copy the URL in the browser
10. In Confluence, update the page for the Inspect & Adapt meeting
  1. Add a new Discussion Topics row:
    1. Add the link to the Program Increments Scope Change Report page of Jira Align (above)
  2. Add comment to Notes column for row:
    1. Review and discuss PI scope changes
11. In Trello, from the Templates menu, search for “retrospectives” and select the Sprint Retrospectives template
  1. Click the Use template button
    1. Enter the title as “<Program> <PI> Retrospective”
    2. Associate it with your programs workspace
    3. Uncheck Keep cards
    4. Check Keep Template cards
    5. Click the Create button
  2. Enable voting on ideas by clicking the Show menu button the right side of the board
    1. Click one of the empty Add Power-Up… rows
    2. Search for “Voting”
    3. Click the Add button to add the Voting power-up to the Trello board
    4. Click the X in the to top right of the Power Ups model
    5. Click the X in the top right of the Menu to close it
  3. Click the Invite link in the top menu of the page
    1. Copy the link by clicking the option to Invite with link by clicking the Create link button
12. In Confluence, update the page for the Inspect & Adapt meeting
  1. Add a new Discussion Topics row:
    1. Add the link to the Retrospective page of Trello (above)
  2. Add comment to Notes column for row:
    1. Retrospect as a team
13. Copy the link to the Meeting page from Confluence into the published meeting notice (i.e. in a Calendar app) to communicate the scope of the meeting and provide pre-reading guidance
Meeting Structure:
1. In Confluence, click on the links (to Jira Align and Trello) from the page’s Discussion Topics section
2. JOB-TO-BE-DONEHold System Demo
  1. ASK Have we completed what we expected to at this point?
  2. ASK Have we satisfied the intent of the feature?
  3. ASK What impact has the feature work has on the overall objective?
3. JOB-TO-BE-DONE Close out the Quarter
  1. ASK Are there any item that need to carry over into the next PI? If so, have we split those work items?
  2. ASK Have we assessed delivered value against all of our objectives before closing them out?
  3. ASK Are there any risks that should carry over into the new PI?
4. JOB-TO-BE-DONE Hold Retrospective
  1. ASK Is the scope change during the current PI expected? Was there anything unexpected in the report?
  2. ASK What can we do differently to improve how we work together?
  3. ASK How are we progressing against our vision?
5. In Confluence, open the page for the meeting
  1. Set Action Items to any actions needed based on retrospective feedback
  2. Modify Decisions to capture the decisions made during the meeting
Meeting Follow-up
1. Confirm that decisions are communicated across the program
2. Share key findings with stakeholders

Output and next steps

Distribute the link to the meeting notes in Confluence to all appropriate stakeholders via the appropriate channels (e.g. email, Slack, etc.)
Add improvement items to the program team backlog and take action against them to make the use of time valuable for the program