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Info
titlePurpose

This is a lightweight getting started guide for our team while formalized training material is being developed.

How to Start Creating Your OTL

Object List and Task Outline

Start with a list of your objects. When you believe you've captured all your deliverables, start an outline to elaborate your tasks. Include the whole SDLC for development tasks. Formal testing planning would be a set of its own objects. Concurrently or after, build your milestone list. Below is an example of the objects (deliverables) and a task outline for the migration project itself. I started with the object list and its types and through collaboration with the team we talked through the tasks. This provided a good starting point for the detailed tasks in the OTL template itself where things became more clear, estimated, adjusted, and scheduled. We included the red PMO touchpoints touch points here because I used this later in the task descriptions to call out the parties involved.

If you're working on an OTL for a project that hasn't started yet, and you don't know the scheduled dates yet, create an object for Project OTL, type ProjectPlan, and include tasks for Review & Revise OTL (rechecking that it's still accurate), Schedule Tasks (adding due dates to the planned work), Sign-Off by PMO (explain to the PMO what is active work versus what may be dropped on the backlog for later elaboration).

 


Example (Red indicates indicates work performed by the PMO):

ObjectObject TypeTasks
FIS Migration PlanProject Plan
  • Identify Projects / Products and their Leads
  • Create Project / Product Spaces in JIRA 
  • Build out Confluence
    • Create vision statement
    • Identify Team Members
    • Scope Statement
    • Create OTL templates
Methodology Training SessionTraining Session
  • Introduce SCRUM, focus on time boxing work
Ontology Training SessionTraining Session
  • Ontology workshop, IPPS leads (by 4/21)
JIRA OTL Training SessionTraining Session
  • JIRA OTL training, FIS team and IPPS team (by 4/21)
Professional SCRUM TrainingTraining Session
  • Interview trainers
  • Design session (3rd for Ontology)
  • Budget request
  • Identify team and projects
  • Schedule training
  • Execute training (end of May)
Project OTLs+Project Plan
  • Object List
  • Develop OTL
  • Review OTL
  • Load OTL
RetrospectiveCloseout Document
  • Meet with task force for feedback and actions
Project OTLs+Project Plan
  • Object List
  • Develop OTL
  • Review OTL
  • Load OTL
RetrospectiveCloseout Document
  • Meet with task force for feedback and actions

Milestones

Milestones come out of your communication plan. What do you need to tell your stakeholders? You might want to have things like kickoff, final delivery, but during planning you might have a major go / no go decision point. Maybe you want to communicate when certain modules are ready. Below is an example of the milestones for the migration project itself.

Example:

MilestoneDate
Projects & Leads Identified and Methodology Selected3/17/2017
Estimated Project Schedule4/9/2017
Leads Start OTL Development4/110/2017
FIS Schedule Finalized4/25/2017
FIS Engine Started6/2/2017 (ballpark estimated)

 


The Full OTL Template

The following is an example of the 3 types of rows you will find useful in generating your OTL.

As you finalize your OTL, run it through the /wiki/spaces/ITSPRO/pages/67404306PMO's Project Rubric to make sure you captured everything you can prior to formal review.

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Tip
titleConfluence Tips

Note the confluence table controls in the menu above. You'll want those row controls to add, remove, cut, copy, and paste. See https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/tables-136463.html for full guide on features.

 


if you get into the highlighting traps (e.g. trying to copy a table from one page to another), Confluence has some interesting quirks when it comes to table copies via highlighting. Here's somethings I discovered

  • If you want to copy an entire table, place your cursor above at the line above the table and shift arrow down to highlight it. The line above the table appears to carry the metadata that defines it as a table. Highlight only the table and you'll just get text.
  • If you want to capture multiple cells to say delete data, do a drag and click but start your mouse outside of the table. The cells will be highlighted in blue if you clicked right. Oddly, this doesn't carry color information, but don't worry about the colors. That just makes for easier reading.
  • If you want to copy a row WITH the colors, click and highlight the row content INSIDE the table boundary. You won't see the blue highlighted cells, but it will get the color formatting information.


Issue TypeEpic LinkEpic Name / SummaryObject TypeObject ComplexityEpic Summary / Task DescriptionPhaseOrig Est.Due DateAssignee
Milestone
 

Short description of milestone
     





MM/DD/YYLead
Epic
 

Very short object name (noun)See ReferenceSee ReferenceSummarize what this object is
    




TaskEpic NameShort description of task
  


Describe what the task is doing. Include conditions of success, e.g. requires approval of a particular person before closing. Other folks involve? Call out the players by people, or team, of whatever makes sense. Make sure the estimate includes everyone's time.See ReferenceXhMM/DD/YYPerson

 

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