EZ Messenger Staff - Software Help

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I need some help with F.A.S.T and related components. Software Help.

How an idea is fertilized and a bug is squashed.

All day every day we encounter ideas for improvements or enhancements and we also encounter bugs with existing features. With over 100 internal users and over 2,000 external users our application stack is quite diverse and covers numerous brands and feature sets such as EZ Venue, FAST, WhoKnocked and EZ Knock.

The chatter and noise can be overwhelming and the need to prioritize and allocate resources efficiently and with purpose is critical. To do so EZ Company utilizes several methods and tools outlined below.

First, brainstorming and collaboration should be free flowing. This occurs between team members, teams and cross functional teams. Ideas can flow in chat conversations, phone calls or in person but it’s always a good idea to make some written notes along the way, Microsoft Word isn’t a bad choice and the Comments feature within Word is helpful sometimes as well. Regardless of how the brainstorming and collaboration evolves it is a necessary component of the process.

Next, a manager or a lead needs to assess the above and if deemed appropriate for moving to the next step a Planner Task should be created. Microsoft Planner is a task management tool that we use as an organization to keep all these things documented and outlined. The tasks can be updated, different parties assigned, and various attachments uploaded to help keep everything in a single place. IMPORTANT, use complete sentences in your documentation and explanation, tell a story as if no one understands or has any background knowledge. Generally the task will belong in Application Support's PLAN.

Third, depends on whether it is an idea or a bug

- BUG, at this point a post should be made in the Application Support channel with a link to the task and you should expect a response from the Dev team that includes a GITHUB issue number. Github is an application used specifically by the development team to track issues assigned to them, bugs are directly managed by the development team. IMPORTANT - Make sure the Department Head is aware and is prioritizing resources with the Dev Team!

- Idea/Improvement, at this point an idea or improvement should be brought to the Department Head(if created by a manager or lead) so that they can place the task in the projects bullpen. The Projects Bullpen is used by the Leadership Team to assess priorities and allocate resources.

Fourth, you will be asked to participate in additional collaboration when the time comes. It is all too common that additional questions arise as development work commences. This is a very iterative process and can take several cycles to get things right sometimes.

Next, it will be time for validation and testing. At this stage your dedicated involvement is needed to fully validate and test the fix for the bug OR the idea for improvement. This too is a complex and iterative process that may take multiple cycles to work out the kinks. It’s imperative that any use cases that were overlooked are documented and that you clearly explain what is or isn’t working as expected or intended.

Finally, once validation and testing is complete and signed off on the item is ready for release. With bugs this release may happen in a matter of minutes or hours whereas improvements may need to wait until the next release/maintenance window. Either way time is of the essence and at any given time there are countless issues being worked on and many have precedent/dependent relationships to one another meaning A comes before B and C can’t happen until B does.

Please note this is different from assistance needed for Tech Support, that article can be found by CLICKING HERE

#newhire #help