Setting the Future Direction

AIMS is entering a new stage in the development process called the ‘hardening cycle,’ which immediately raises questions as to exactly what this involves. Thinking in terms of setting concrete, the goal of the hardening cycle becomes clearer.

During the sprint or development cycles, the teams are working with the ‘ingredients’ that are part of the functionality that they are building. The user stories originally created to detail needs inform team members the goals that will guide the script they are developing. It may be that a manager will want to see the team’s work schedule, or an employee will want to submit a doctor’s note when reporting sick leave. These are just two examples of the hundreds of pieces of functionality that the teams are building in all three functional areas including Finance, Human Resources and Supply Chain Management.

After the features are developed during the sprint cycle, then it is time for a more rigorous review and revision in the hardening cycle. This part of the process is similar to setting concrete in that the teams will address every imperfection to ensure that there is a solid foundation on which to build the next layer of functionality in subsequent sprint cycles.

Kweku Johnson, Functional Lead for the Human Resources stream stated, “The teams are checking the work completed during the sprint cycles and are looking for any defects in the process that would affect the individual’s ability to achieve the identified goal, whether that’s seeing the team’s schedule or attaching a doctor’s note.” This work is critical to ensuring that the groundwork is there to build on during the next sprint cycles. “We won’t close off a user story until we are sure that we have what we require for an action to be successfully completed.”

As any good concrete setter knows, the product needs to be ‘just right’ to ensure the consistency required to create a strong and stable foundation. For the AIMS Project, this work occurs during the hardening cycles.