This process is concerned with how we come up with take a pool of ideas, analyse them and then divide them into a set of JIRA issues that will form the start of the development process to take them to implementation. It involves the filtering of the pool based on some measure or intuition of realism and the breakdown of what's left into clearly defined tasks.
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We assume that there are ideas being generated, but from time to time, it may be helpful to formalise the search for new ideas. This is discussed separately here.
Evaluating New Ideas
There are many ideas that will be conceived by individuals outside of any official call or process. These should be collected and not forgotten and the place they should go is here: Road Map Ideas
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Ideas Call (monthly)
A more formal time in which to develop ideas is the New ideas from the HDX Ideas for Brainstorming document linked to above and other ideas are discussed and evaluated in this monthly call. This will be used is a chance for brainstorming and without being too prescriptive, we will broadly loosely follow the Six Hats of Critical Thinking method, which methods to assess ideas. Six Hats encourages looking at problems possible ideas from different angles, represented by a hat colour.
White hat
We start by sharing the information about the problemidea.
- What is the available information?
- What facts do we have?
Yellow hat
We then think optimistically about the problem or suggestionidea, highlighting the advantages and benefits of solving it.
- What are the benefits?
- Why is it workable?
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We then think cautiously to identify the disadvantages drawbacks of the suggestion and why it might not workidea.
- What are the risks?
- Why is the suggestion idea not workable?
Red hat
We then consider our gut reaction towards the suggestion idea without attempting to understand the reason behind the feeling.
- What is your hunch about the suggestionidea?
- What do you like/dislike/love/hate about it?
Green hat
This represents the creative thinking part of the discussion. During the critical thinking discussion, this hat fuels the stakeholders’ thinking to innovate a thinking creative solution for the problems or look to the suggestions from a creative perspective. Creative tools can be applied to drive creativity during the conversations such as the Lego Serious Play and brainstorming techniquesHere we consider possibilities, alternatives and new ideas, donning the hats above as necessary.
Blue hat
This is the process control plan where the meeting leaders manage difficulties during the discussions. It makes sure that the guidelines of the six thinking hat process is applied. This hat can be used to drive the thinking process to better routes. For example, if there are no ideas, the facilitators can direct the discussion to the green hat route.
The blue hat is a control hat during the critical thinking discussions, it can also act as a moderation hat before and after each circle of thinking.
While the resources did not indicate a specific sequence between the hats, the sequence indicated above is similar to De Bono’s six thinking hats websitehat comes into play as and when needed as a control and moderation mechanism to manage the thinking process.
Conclusion
The end result of this call should be ideas that we intend to take forward and actions on individuals to take specific ideas to break down into JIRA epics and issues.
Ideas Breakdown
It is the responsibility of individuals actioned in the Ideas Call to take selected ideas and turn them into appropriate JIRA issues. For those less familiar with how to do this, the place to start is by creating an "epic" (assuming the piece of work is reasonably substantial). The epic describes the overall goal - it is a broad description of the idea. The epic is then subdivided into JIRA issues by considering what smaller pieces of work need to be done and in what order to complete the epic. This task should be done either in coordination or in partnership with the Product Owner. See Development Process.