18F blog archive | 18F project defaults

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🏁 🔐 🏁 TEMPLATE FRONT MATTER 🏁 🔐 🏁

A definition from the TTS Handbook:

Ship - To produce and distribute code or some other product of work. Also, the Weekly Ship newsletter about a particular project, telling what that team shipped that week

All 18F teams wereexpected to send weekly ship updates so that:

Note that if the ship is sent once in a two-week sprint, it can also be titled Fortnightly ship 🛳️

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Weekly (or Fortnightly) ship 🛳️ 🚢 ⛴️

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How to use

  1. Fill the distribution list with names or emails of people to keep up-to-date. Consider adding more people, rather than fewer, to reduce surprises for everyone.
  2. Plan to send the ship on the day most helpful to the partner; probably Friday or Monday.
  3. Designate a person, or a rotation of people, to captain the weekly ship.
  4. Copy the template and paste it under ships, using the date as a heading.
  5. Fill in its sections. Invite your teammates to contribute.
    1. Focus on outcomes the team is driving toward, rather than simply listing tasks.
    2. Consider the audience: it could be forwarded around the partner org, or FOIA’d
    3. Fill in “burn” numbers from your account manager.
  6. When complete, paste the ship into an email.
  7. Send or schedule-send the email to the distribution list in the morning.
  8. Post the same text in the #the-shipping-news Slack channel.
  9. The next week, bump the prior week’s ship down; stack the new one above it. </aside>

Distribution list

To:

Cc:

Template

Subject: [Agency Name ] / [Project Name] / Weekly Ship: xx/xx/xxxx

[General greeting]

[Write an intro summary note. The first time or two, explain the purpose of the weekly ship.]

Leadership decisions needed

Risks/blockers

Progress