Milestones (v1)

Purpose and Scope

This SOP outlines the process for creating, managing, and utilizing milestones in the development process at LowCode Agency. It provides guidance on the purpose of milestones, their creation, and their role in the development workflow.

Definitions

Milestone: A significant and measurable achievement that marks progress toward a project's goals. We usually have one milestone per flow per role. We have some default milestones per app as they are always the same for devs, the rest should be defined by the PM/BA based on the wireframes.
Plutio: The project management tool used for task and milestone tracking.
- Development Board - where milestones live:
Lo-fi Wireframes: Low-fidelity skeletal outlines of an application, which display every screen and flow in the app. Main source of truth when it comes to defining milestones.
Hi-fi Wireframes: High-fidelity, more detailed/accurate visual representations of an application when it comes to UI.

Purpose of Milestones

Checklist for Development: Milestones serve as a checklist for developers, ensuring a systematic approach to app development and minimizing the margin of error.
Final Scope Definition: Milestones facilitate present a more refined scope at each stage of development, as milestones should have any details added in the wireframe that where missing from the original scope. As the wireframe is the final source of truth.

Procedure

1. Create Milestones

Create a task in Plutio under "To-Do" for each milestone using the Milestone template task in Plutio.
Do one milestone per flow per role. So for example if Super Admin and Staff have an Events tab/flow, we should have the following milestones:
- Events > Super Admin
- Events > Staff
Create one milestone per technical goal (e.g., API connections, 3rd Party integrations, automations).
Ensure ALL tasks/milestones have an estimate start date and due date that fits the timeline.

2. Define Milestones

Milestones can only be completely defined based on wireframe approval, so when a flow gets approved you can document the milestone and fill in all details.
- Add Context
  - Add the link to the specific flow/role in the wireframe.
  - Include any additional context, user stories, links to calls, etc.
Ensure milestone includes the link to the low fidelity and high fidelity wireframes (high fidelity wireframes don't always apply).

3. Assign Developers

Once a milestone is fully defined:
- Assign developers to the milestone and ask for dev hours or dev points
- Adjust the due date of the milestone according to the dev hours or dev points (try to make sure we fit the timeline as much as possible)

4. Review Milestones

Review approved wireflows and milestones with the dev during the weekly call.

5. Milestone Progression

Milestones move from left to right through different columns of the Development board/phase.
They are created under the Development Phase.
- Developers MUST move milestones from To-Do to Doing once they've started the milestone
- Developers MUST add a test case video for each milestone before moving them to Ready for Revision.
- PM/BA MUST confirm all milestones under Ready for Revision are working as expected and add any QA under the QA column OR as subtasks under the milestone.
- Developer MUST move milestones from QA back to Ready for Revision
- PM/BA marks milestones as completed and moves them to the Completed Column once QA for the milestone is finished.
Click here for a video guide on how to move milestones across the development board.

Responsibilities

BA: Create milestones, add context, gather dev points/hours
Project Managers: Assign developers, set due dates, and review milestones with developers.
Developers: Work on taking the milestone tasks to completion, add test case videos, and move milestones through the development process.
QA Team: Review and approve completed milestone QA tasks/subtasks. (Not all projects have a QA in which case the PMs/BAs are responsible for QA)

Exceptions and Special Scenarios

For Webflow we usually do one milestone per page.
For complex projects, consult with the development team lead to determine the most appropriate milestone structure (per flow or per role).
If a milestone becomes obsolete (scope vs wireframe) or needs significant changes, inform all stakeholders and update the milestone in Plutio accordingly.