[newbie]Dev notes: Basic checklist when starting a feature

As always there is a TLDR. Its been a while and yes everyday i’m still learning so much about myself and yadda yadda lets get on with it.

Thankfully i am blessed to work at a company where ‘Process is King’ (although this can be a good and bad thing…but that’s another story). As part of said process when it comes to stories/features we have a definition of “Ready”, this is a super important concept. This means that all questions have answers and you know as much as you can about the task/feature and there is no blockers or dependencies (i won’t go into detail but that could be anything from does the project actually run locally to do you need an API up for said feature to have you spoke to Big Phil yet?)

Each story/feature normally has its challenges and there are always unknowns and weird surprises…normally they just eat away at your time. These are the things you and the team will need to be concerned about and the developer that will carry this feature will need to make a decision if they are ready or not.

Now for the list , this is in no particular order.
*checklist listed here is credited to my current mentor fyi.

TLDR

1. Do you have the requirements/BRS/documentation and have you read over the functional specs for the story?
2. Are there any dependencies?
3. Does the project I’m working on for this story run on my machine?
4. Do you have a high level understanding of the story?
5. Have you thought loosely about an implementation strategy?
6. Do you have the designs necessary
7. Is there a chance that you may have left the fridge open?

Overall there is always a lot of things to be aware of. The above list will help in most cases perhaps your project requires more particular checks before you can be “Ready to Dev”.

Of course if you feel that you do not understand the story or feel its too much for you or something on your checklist is not met, you must speak up to your Business Analyst or Project manager. This is super important to not set yourself up for failure.*

I am not saying that this list will take care of all the checks you need, but make a list that makes sense to you. This post is just expressing my opinion based on my experience so i’m happy to adjust my posts if they are not fair or correct….or if i have to add anything else
Have a great day.

Readers contributions

If you want to use the photo it would also be good to check with the artist beforehand in case it is subject to copyright.

Aaren Reggis Sela