FAQ (3) Why does it take so long to ship a Rangers Guidance project?

  • Article

The Ranges Build Customization Guide project has been feature complete for weeks, yet it has still not shipped. Why?

Answer / Explanation

The Build Customization Guide and Lab Management Guide projects were the first to dog food the Ruck process and the first to introduce the new get feedback early and strive for quality objectives. Looking at the diagram above, we take note of the <1> Feature Complete and <2> Review Complete milestones, after which the projects typically shipped in the past. Instead of shipping to the community, we now ship a BETA to all Rangers, MVPs and ALM Champs, giving all the subject mater experts a final opportunity to have an influence on the content and message of the guidance and associated material.

The new process include a <3> technical review by User Education (UE) which has proven top introduce a spike in overall quality and readability of the guidance. Once this review is complete and the team has revised the content, the <4> product owner is asked to do the final quality check and gives the “ship it” signal:

The last milestone is the <5> Codeplex signoff, which involves a final check of legal and licensing requirements … phase that can unfortunately take a while. So, overall we can see that we have introduce new quality and review phases and checkpoints, which introduce unfortunate delays, but increase the overall quality of the deliverables.

What can also be seen in the illustration is that the initial delay applies only to the guidance documentation. The Hands-on lab (HOL) manuals are shipped together with the guidance and in parallel enter a <6> technical review by UE review. The HOLs are then updated as and when they are revised, incrementally increasing the quality over time, but not delaying the initial shipment date. During this “in parallel” review and revision phase, the team is also able to rake community feedback into consideration, which we believe is another huge bonus.

Once everything has ben reviewed and revised, we reach the <7> Done milestone, which signals the end of the project and project team.

Disadvantages of this new process?

  • The time it takes from feature complete to shipment is increased dramatically, which is frustrating to the team and potentially confusing to the community.

Advantages of this new process?

  • The scope of reviewers, feedback and influence is increased
  • The quality of the guidance is improved with the initial shipment
  • The quality of the hands-on labs is improved with the subsequent revisions
  • The impact on the team in terms of post-shipment support is decreased, allowing teams to focus on the next adventures

So, what are your thoughts on this new process? Is the initial delay worth it? Your candid feedback will be highly appreciated!