How to Create A GitHub Organization and Scrumboard
Last updated
Last updated
Table of Contents:
You will be using Github Projects to organize and manage your workflow. You can follow the instructions below to get started!
Sign into Github
In the top right corner, find the + icon and select New organization
Select Create a free organization
Name the organization with an approved team name
One team-member will enter their email and will make the organization on their personal account.
Add all teammates to the organization
From the organization overview page, click on the Repositories tab.
Click on Create a new repository
Give your repository a fun name that matches the name of your game!
Make sure to make the repo public
Add a README
Choose the MIT License
From the repository homepage, click on the Projects tab.
Click on the dropdown next to Link a project and select New project
Then, click on New project
Name the project board: “Scrum Board”
Create a Board, not a Table
Modify the settings which can be found by clicking on the three dots ... in the top right corner and then selecting Settings
[Optional] Add a description and a README
Change the visibility to Public
Work together at the beginning to establish the foundation of your project
Setting up your files, creating your HTML elements, and agreeing upon variable names and data structures together will ensure that as you split up and work on your own features, you are all on the same page.
Organize your JavaScript code into clear sections.
Variables
Initial Setup
New Frame Logic
Event Handler Logic
Helper Functions
The bulk of your code should live in the helper functions section and the rest of your code should simply invoke the appropriate helper function in the appropriate order.
This approach will allow you to assign individuals to work on separate functions and minimize merge conflicts.
Get the size of the task right. Aim for a single function's worth of work. Consider these examples for Pong:
Too big: Implement scoring
Why? Implementing scoring is too vague! Scoring involves checking the DOM to see if the ball has left the screen, updating the scoring data, rendering it to the screen, and checking if the score triggers the end of the game. We can be more specific.
Too small: Declare a score variable
Why? declaring a single variable may be just one step towards writing a function to handle scoring.
Just right: Keep track of scoring data each time the ball leaves the screen
Why? This task is very specific and it focuses on a particular interaction between the DOM and the program's data. We might have a separate task for rendering the data to the screen and another for ending the game at a particular score threshold.
Proactively update the scrum board:
Assign yourself to a task that you want to tackle and immediately move it to In Progress. This will prevent your team from doing duplicate work by showing ownership of tasks and will result in more autonomous work.
Remember to move tasks to Done. Not only will it let your teammates know that a feature is complete, it will also feel really good to make that progress!
Consider coming up with a team ritual for completing tasks. Maybe you have some slack message or emoji that you all send and you can breifly have a congratulatory moment! This is not just for team-building, it will also keep your teammates up-to-date on the state of the program.
Prioritize minimum-viable-product features first. For Pong, the prioritization might look like
Render two paddles and a ball to the screen in correct starting positions
Control the paddles with keyboard inputs
Move the ball on each new frame
Detect collisions between the ball and the paddles
Bounce the ball off the top and bottom walls
Add scoring when the ball goes past the paddles
Implement a restart feature
Implement bonus features (AI mode, leaderboards, etc...)
I recommend the following sections (see my example):
