Consistent Workflows for Better Software Outcomes

When moving work through a software development project, you generally have statuses you step through to complete work. These statuses are designed to capture and report the work item's current state and provide associated implicit tasks to move to the following status. The flow of statuses and each stage differs between teams and projects, but does it have to be? The subtle subjective reasoning for status variations is interesting; boiling down to the essence of each status is a natural progression of software. Karsarsoft implemented this natural status progression and keeps it consistent to keep it simple. This crucial consistency allows for remarkable reportability and a clear understanding of every team's project status. Let's take a moment to review the list of statuses for work items in KS Status.

Draft - an idea defined and written down for all to see.
Analysis - some work items require more research and analysis before being worked on in a project.
Review - the work or bug has been flushed out and is ready for final review.
Build Ready - work becomes available to be built, planned, and worked.
Building - people or machines are building the work.
Build Complete - the work item is built and ready for validation.
Validating - someone begins validating the work, ensuring what was built matches the requirements or acceptance criteria.
Done - work was both built and validated.
Released - work was released and consumed by users.
Blocked - Work that has stopped due to a blocker that needs to be resolved.

Think of a status not found here or that couldn't be aligned with this list. It covers the common statuses found in most software development projects. Now imagine working in an environment where the same status was used across teams, eliminating the confusion and ramp-up time to understand the new team's approach to software development. Adding to this consistency factor is using the same estimate methodology across projects like in KS Status, and you have just streamlined your software development approach by not treating every project like a custom solution that requires custom processes. The next time you switch companies or teams and are exposed to drastically different approaches to doing pretty much the same thing, remember there is a better way to build software.