Best Practices: Team Check Ins

Note: This is a proposed process, and is still under review.

Sample checklist for team check-ins

Open the linked Github issue in each Smartsheet row for the team to review.
Ensure the naming conventions haven't changed. If you don't understand a change, ask for help from the team. Once you understand the change, update the task name in Smartsheets.
Ask the person responsible if there have been any major changes to the linked issue since the last check in. If so:
- Ask for a quick recap for the benefit of the team.
- Verify with the person responsible for the work that all changes have been documented in the issue.
Ask the person responsible for the work to provide an update to percentage completed.

Ask the team if any new work that doesn't already map to a major feature in Smartsheets has been discovered this week. If it has:
- Verify this new work has been documented in a Github issue.
- If not, create a new issue then and there. Name it something, link it, and assign responsibility for updating it after the meeting to the person who brought the work up. Do not try to write work details in the meeting. If the team needs to be together to understand the work, sidebar after the rest of the meeting is complete to do documentation.

Run the first few check-ins and percentage completed updates in-person. This allows the team to get comfortable talking to each other and with the concept of providing percentage completed.
Once everyone is comfortable, you may choose to do this virtually or via Slack if no one has major updates. The entire team needs to have access to and be comfortable with editing the Smartsheet if you choose to do this.
When a new person joins the team, or it's been a while, consider running the check-in in person again to help bring them up to speed with the process.
Never use or make up terminology that doesn't exist in Smartsheets. Once it is named in Smartsheets, that is what it is called until the team agrees to a change together. This helps keep everyone on the same page.
- If a client consistently refers to something in a wrong or confusing way and does not respond to gentle correcting, note that in Smartsheets in the notes so the team can help translate when it happens again.