Free trial development, day by day
Day 1: Sprint meeting and Kickoff
We begin the trial with a sprint planning meeting. The customer and the Shinetech developer meet to define the sprint goal, prioritize the needed work, and set up the deliverables against which the customer can measure progress at the end of the trial week. The customer, acting as the Product Owner, and the developer work together to break down the work into tasks based on priority. The developer then creates a sprint backlog and further breaks it down into smaller tasks that can be finished in a day or less.
After we define the goal together with the customer, we kick off the sprint and start working through the tasks from the backlog. We treat this sprint as any regular project, and that’s the mindset the developer maintains throughout the free trial.
Days 2-4: Free trial development and Daily Scrum meetings
The developer will strive to hold daily Scrum meetings or stand-ups during the sprint. The meeting is held at the same time and place each day and lasts 10 to 15 minutes. The purpose of daily stand-ups is to ensure that everyone involved in the sprint is on the same page about the deliverables and the work we need to do. The stand-ups address the following main questions:
- What has been accomplished since the last meeting?
- What are we planning to work on today?
- Are there any roadblocks preventing us from making progress?
These questions aim to coordinate the collaboration efforts between the developer and the customer. Also, the meeting can serve as a short ‘brainstorming’ session where we can identify potential solutions to roadblocks, if any, and later figure out a workaround or include more people to address the issue.
The developer can also demonstrate what they accomplished since the previous meeting, what they plan to do next and raise any concerns about the obstacles they may face. The developer focuses on producing usable code that can be implemented almost immediately. Essentially, the customer should receive a functional code or feature at the end of the trial sprint. After each day, the code is available for feedback and analysis from the customer’s team. We uphold transparency in Shinetech so that our customers know exactly what we’re working on at every moment. This principle is later transferred to our contractual cooperation.
Day 5: Sprint Review and Retrospective
During the sprint’s final day, the developer and the customer conduct a sprint review meeting. The developer demonstrates the completed work to the customer and any other stakeholders. The customer should provide feedback on the work done and a decision if they want to proceed with setting up cooperation backed by the contract.
After we review the completed work, we proceed to the sprint retrospective to discuss what went well, what could be improved, and how we can collaborate better in the next sprint. The developer and the customer identify the root causes of problems and provide an action plan to address them.