Production has now begun for the second semester on the game. This comes after about a month of "vacation" for all of us. To be honest, I've found it extremely challenging to get back into the swing of things again. I feel like I'm getting there but I don't feel on top of this thing called 'project management' yet. Thankfully, my programmer is very organized and good at management as well, so he's been helping put the pieces together, both with the old team and all the new members. I think next sprint, I'll be much more on top of things.
Sprint planning was a bit of a nightmare. I've never worked with a team larger than 6 or 7 people, but now I've got 13 member, and that doesn't include the person working on our sound design. We broke the team up into disciplines and then essentially they planned the gist of what they felt the sprint should be for them in terms of important details. When, questions came up, we addressed them immediately, even if it was something another discipline group had to answer. I then went around to each discipline and asked them what their goals were for that sprint. These would become this sprint's stories. Then each member was asked to set their own tasks for that sprint. This seemed to work out okay, but the lead team definitely needs to be more prepared in the future with what the goals of the sprint are.
Beyond this, my job this week was primarily setting up the meeting schedule with the disciplines and meeting with each of the new members and going over the 'Articles of Expectation.' This is a document that was written by the lead team to hold each member of the team accountable (including the leads) by explicitly stating what each person is expected to contribute to the team and project overall. A simpler version of this was used last semester and worked really well. I'm hoping it will be the same this semester.
At this point, being the first week and sprint with the brand new team, it's really difficult to tell how it all will go. I'm already worried about the output of some members or the way they delayed on getting their work in until this last day. I expect (and hope) that it's primarily trying to get back in the swing of things again. In that vain, my team and I are a lot alike. The sprint closes tomorrow, so I guess I'll see how this first week plays out then. For now, I'm excited to be a part of this project and plan to make it the best portfolio piece it could possibly be.
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