End of the week, sprint, month and quarter

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus (Happy St David's Day)!

End of the sprint

Lot's of things coming to an end this week. It's the end of the month so I had to put some timesheets and expenses in. You can tell from my expenses alone that it's been a busy month of travelling.

It's the end of the sprint, so I've been reflecting on how the 3rd user research round went. We managed to fit in…

  • 6 interview / usability tests
  • observing operational areas
  • a few demos of our prototype to staff that were passing by

PI (program increment) planning

It's nearly the end of the quarter, and our next PI (program increment) planning is round the corner. I wasn't involved with PI planning last time, but hoping to get more involved this time.

A PI is basically 3 months worth of work, that is planned across a whole program, so multiple teams can align on dependencies.

We are working on 2 work streams and only one is going into this PI, so we've got a chance to focus on 1 work stream for a sprint or 2 and make sure the tech teams have what they need. I'm also hoping to start working more closely with the tech team, rather than just chucking designs over the fence.

I haven't been officially invited to PI planning yet, and I get the sense people are a bit surprised I would even want to go. I'm hoping that what I've learnt from attending previous PI planning days will help me (and some others) get value from me being there, at least for some of it, if not the whole 2 days.

Eryri and Gower trips

Thankfully, I do have some fun things and time off planned this month.

  • We have a weekend planned in Bala in Eryri National Park with a big group of friends, including a trip to Zip World Llechwedd.
  • I'm going to try the beach saunas at Oxwich Bay and have some food at Beach House.
  • I'm planning a Gower hike with some friends. We're hoping to walk over Rhosili Down.
  • A couple of gigs around Swansea (may have to skip one because there is too much going on).
  • And, last but not least, my cousin is getting married. Looking forward to catching up with the whole family there.