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Created November 6, 2019 17:07
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BREAD sessions
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bread-session.md

BREAD session

The goal of a BREAD session is to:

  • eliminate misunderstandings about the scope of a given feature
  • share knowledge, expertise & pain points
  • provide us (and the business at large) a rough plan for implementation
  • provide us with a sense of the time/energy needed
  • be clear about the dependencies between tasks
  • know which person is accountable for a piece of work

It's not meant to be perfect nor static, but clear.

A BREAD session can be held as a feature kickoff or whenever someone needs clarity about a feature/task.

Bond (~5 mins)

  • Get devs, product, design in the same video call. Make sure they all had enough time to research the topic at hand
  • Write up the Definition of Done [CH Epic title]
  • When appropriate, add functional details to the DoD for clarity [CH Epic description]

Functional discussions are encouraged, implementation discussions are discouraged.

Reduce risk (5-20 mins)

  • Brainstorm ways the team could fail to deliver the feature as described and on time. Some useful questions to ask:

    • Is this capability really needed?
    • What needs to be researched and designed ahead of time?
    • What design assets (icons, images, colors) are needed and where are they?
    • What does jump out as difficult to implement?
    • Is there some refactoring needed ahead of time?
    • How do we test the feature?
    • How do we release the feature? Do we need to synchronise with another team?
    • Do we need to subscribe to a service/buy something ahead of time?

    Write items as they come up. No problem solving at this point.

  • Order the list by most concerning to least concerning.

  • Starting from top of list, discuss ways to mitigate for each items and write actions next to each item.

  • Review DoD and modify if necessary.

Estimate effort (15-45 mins)

  • Break down the DoD in cards [CH Story]
    • The cards should be clearly worded and action-oriented (with a verb) i.e.
      • "Build the data pipeline for"
      • "Design the CTA button"
      • "Create API endpoint for ..."
      • "Implement the textbox interaction on"
    • If a task need to be researched or further discussed, write "Research X and BREAD"
  • Assign cards to team member
  • Each owner estimates their cards with points (1 point = 4 hours)
  • Review the cards as a group and discuss when appropriate. Don't get into implementation details unless :
    • there is a disagreement about an estimated card. This is the time to draw out assumptions and personal expertise.
    • a card is a bigger than 2 days (?)
    • in this case, discuss and break down further.

At the end of this round, you should have a deck of cards. Each card should have:

  • a clear action [CH Story title]
  • an owner [CH Owner]
  • an estimated effort in point [CH points]

Arm yourself (~5 mins)

  • Quickly review the cards and compare against the list of risks
  • Make sure that every risk item has a matching card
    • when missing, add a card and flag the cards depending on it
  • For card needing the input/decision/funds from another team, make sure to flag them clearly and their dependencies

Draw out dependencies (~5 mins)

  • Order the cards chronologically and/or by dependencies.
  • Review the list of cards and make sure you can achieve the desired outcome with the cards listed
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