TC Process - Meetings and Responsibilities

This document outlines the roles/responsibilities for the Technical Committee coordination team, Testing team, Building Block leads, and software development team. It also outlines the standing meetings that are scheduled for those GovStack team members.

Roles and Responsibilities

Technical Committee Coordination Team

Coordinate work and oversee Jira backlog for the Technical Committee/cross-cutting work, as well as supporting BB leads in managing their Jira backlog
Prioritize topics for conversation in TC (and architecture team) meetings
Provide support and allocate technical resources to BB groups
Attend TC meetings (weekly)

Building Block Leads

Coordinate the development of BB specification documents
Manage the Jira backlog as well as writing and prioritizing tasks to be done by the Building Block team
Work with testing team to link use cases to technical specs and example implementations
Work with testing team on definition of APIs and automated testing processes - provide timely reviews to changes made by the testing team.
Notify teams when changes are made to Building Block APIs. See this document for more detailed information: https://govstack-global.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GH/pages/367165460
Ensure all work is done for scheduled GovStack releases and provide release notes detailing changes to BB specs for each release.
Support requests from other teams - architecture, sandbox - as needed
Attend TC meetings (weekly)

Architecture Team https://govstack-global.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GH/pages/192806969

Discuss cross-cutting technical questions and provide recommendations to BB groups
Review of specifications and other GovStack outputs

Testing Team

Coordinate the development of automated testing processes to show DPG compliance with BB specifications
Prioritize work for the software development team in the implementation of automated tests
Attend TC meetings (weekly), Testing team meetings (weekly)

Software Development Team

Implementation of automated testing platform
Work with BB teams to understand APIs to be tested and support definition of APIs as needed
Attend Sprint planning/backlog grooming (weekly) and Testing Team meetings (weekly)

Meeting Cadence

The following standing meetings are used to coordinate the work of the Technical Committee. Note, the meeting schedule may be changed as needed to best facilitate our work

Technical Committee Meeting: Weekly on Thursdays at 3PM CET (60 minutes, but hold additional time in case needed)

Who: Technical Committee team, Testing team, and Building Block leads. Others may join as they have interest/availability

Focus: We will divide this meeting into 2 parts. The first 60 minutes is used to discuss issues related to the GovStack process, technologies, formats of specifications, work of the various BB groups, testing and integration with the GovStack sandbox. Any TC or BB member may suggest agenda items. @Esther Ogunjimi will provide agenda for the meeting on Wednesdays.

The final 30 minutes will be used for the technical sprint process. On alternating weeks, we will use this time for a sprint review/roundtable (where each BB lead and the testing team will report progress, next tasks, and any blocking issues). On the opposite week, we will do a retrospective meeting, focusing on what is working well with our sprint process, what things need improvement and assigning action items to improve our workflow.

Testing Team Meeting: Weekly on Fridays at 2PM CET (1 hour)

Who: Testing Team and Software Development Team

Focus: Every week, this meeting will focus on backlog grooming, prioritizations, and resolving questions for the automated testing process, planning tasks for the software development team, as well as to work through example implementations. Note: BB leads are not required for this meeting - we will reach out to individual BB groups with specific questions

Architecture Team Meeting: Weekly on Fridays at 4PM CET (1 hour)

Who: Architecture Team (all are welcome to join)

Focus: Walk through key technical questions that are raised in the Technical Committee meetings of by the BB groups and provide recommendations/guidance, particularly as it relates to cross-cutting concerns.

Sandbox/Testing Team Alignment: Weekly on Tuesdays at 9:30AM CET (1 hour)

https://govstack-global.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GH/pages/216006665

Who: Testing and Sandbox Teams

Focus: Ensure alignment between testing/compliance work and implementation of use cases that is being done in the Sandbox.

Note: All work is planned using Jira - each Building Block working group has a Jira project and a separate Technical Committee project is used for cross-cutting work.