One not-so-fun and a fun perk of working as a product manager are the unending meetings. Half the time, you are always in one meeting or the other. Planning, re-strategizing, optimizing and the list is endless.

Many times as Product managers, you will be working across boards. Interacting with different people, developers, stakeholders and users. Time is of the essence and having physical meetings is not always key or efficient. The Covid era made us understand this and also brought us to use different technology platforms for collaborations. Such as Slack, zoom, google meet and so on.

Last week, our product management team here at Side-hustle worked on a task, creating a TO-DO app using Scrum processes on Jira software. In the article which was published, Scrum processes were explained and the steps we took in making the project a success was also outlined and explained.

However, This week, my team and I were charged to work on a URL shortener using scrum processes on Jira. In this article, more explanation will be given on Jira software, what the URL shortener task is all about and how we carried out this task. More focus will be on Sprints retrospectives and Reviews.

What is Jira Software?

This is a platform created to help teams manage and track workflow. The platform is used for all kinds of user cases, from requirements and test case management to agile software development. It is comprehensive software that enables users to collaborate effectively.

One major advantage of the Jira software is that it is a comprehensive project and product management tool. Having features such as analytics, reports and many more.

URL shortener, the meaning and the need

Just like our homes, fun places, offices etc have addresses, web pages also have addresses called URLs that help people locate them on the computer network.

URL is an acronym that simply stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It contains a domain name and some other detailed information that helps direct a browser to a specific webpage.

URLs can be long or short. However, short URLs are most times preferred to long URLs for some reasons.

Long URLs impact negatively on both the users and SEO. They are difficult to read, type and remember. Worse still, the chances of typing it in wrongly are extremely high. They are also difficult to share. Long URLs are usually truncated by search engines leading to low search results and they receive little or no engagements.

Shorter URLs on the other hand are easier for users to remember and type out, they also rank higher in search results.

Our team at Side hustle was given the task this week to manage the development of a URL shortening app that can shorten URLs into something that can be easy to type, remember and track.

We are to do this Using Jira software, prioritize and organize our backlogs into sprints, run scrum ceremonies and more within the Jira software and also document the process, lessons, retrospectives and challenges.

Key features in the proposed URL project

Using some URL web applications as case samples such as bitly, rebrandly, TinyURL and sniply. We developed our test features for our project based on priority.

• Sign up/log in

• Options to shorten URL without an account

• Homepage (Input URL, Settings and notification)

• Search icon (For previous shortened links)

• Share and copy icon (To different social platforms)

• Delete icon (To delete old URLs)

• Analytics/Performance

• QR code option (To share URLs as QR codes)

It is important to note, this is a test project that won’t be developed but is solely used for learning and exploring scrum practices on the Jira software application.

Implementation Process

The first step is ideation and brainstorming. Understanding the necessary and needed requirements. Creating a roadmap and arranging them in order of priority. The road map includes epics and user stories of features. This is then given an estimated time for completion.

Here is a sample of how this is carried out on our team board on Jira.

Since this is a test project, we used a week as the time frame for the completion of the task.

After which backlogs were created on the platform.

The next important aspect is the moving of backlogs into sprints to start the development process of the proposed features. After the backlogs have been moved and categorized into sprints the next aspect is sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives.

Before we delve into the aspect, we should understand what sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives are.

Sprint Review

The word, review, stands for assessment. More like an appraisal to check for possible improvements or retention.

A sprint review focuses on the product. Its major concern is optimizing and maximizing product value. When the product team organizes a sprint review meeting, the focus is mainly on the features implemented and how it is useful in the general development of the product.

Sprint Retrospectives
In simple terms, retrospectives mean looking back, a reflection of what has been done.

A sprint retrospective is a meeting held after the sprint review and before the next sprint planning. The main purpose is to collect feedback from the entire team to understand which practices worked and which didn’t.

In all, a sprint retrospective is a meeting held at the end of an iteration (sprint) in scrum agile software development.

The picture above shows a brief documentation of one of the sprint retrospective meetings we had in the course of carrying out this project.

Importance of Sprint reviews and Sprint retrospectives

At the beginning of this article, we understand that meetings are an essential part of the everyday life of a product manager. The next question that comes to mind is, why is this important? Why do we need to have sprint reviews and retrospectives?

• Great feedback system: Sprint retrospectives and review meetings serve as a session to get feedback across all teams working on the project. This will help in the next stage of development of the project.

• Create room for transparency and more collaboration

• Helps in discovering and providing remedies to issues that might arise in the course of the project.

• Gives valuable insights for improvement and also reshapes the outcome of the entire project.

In conclusion, learning never ends. The more you explore Jira software following scrum processes, the better you get at it.