When developers are not on client work, they can be working on internal projects to improve the company. These are our best practices to ensuring that internal projects are run well.
In any organization that juggles multiple projects, having clear coordination and allocation of resources is essential. The role of a "Bench Master" is critical in ensuring a smooth transition for developers between client projects, minimizing downtime, and promoting ongoing learning and development.
Bench Masters are responsible for ensuring that developers get put on projects that align with the companies goals and the developers' career goals. This means they need to stay aligned with the company' stakeholders and keep them informed of the developers' focus. Bench Masters also help employees blocked by a company stakeholder to get unblocked.
This alignment can be achieved through a weekly meeting with the Bench Masters and stakeholders called the Priority Alignment meeting.
The following meeting structure should be followed
Hey {{ COMPANY STAKEHOLDERS }},
The goal is to use our internal devs on the best project.
{{ ATTENDEES }}
Copy from last week and make changes as needed Legend: ✅ Done since last meeting, remove in next week's summary ⭐️ New/Status Change since last meeting ⚠️ Warning - Something might not be correct here ❌ Remove next meeting - Consider removing these as the team is not working on it
| Product | Projects | Team |
| {{ PRODUCT 1 }} | {{ PROJECT DETAIL }} | {{ TEAM MEMBERS }} |
| {{ PRODUCT 2 }} | {{ PROJECT DETAIL }} | {{ TEAM MEMBERS }} |
<This email was sent as per the rule: ssw.com.au/rules/internal-priority-alignment>
After the meeting, the Bench Masters should record a quick summary and send it out to the stakeholders. This is especially important for stakeholders who couldn't attend.
Microsoft loop is a good option, but its important to copy them into an email and send them out to the stakeholders.
Ensuring that clients see and receive value from work is one of the top jobs of a consultant or employee. Thus, as a manager and team member you should make sure that each day you:
Daily Scrum is an important part of operations, and making sure that your staff has participated in Daily Scrum activities helps to keep projects and team operations on track.
Daily Scrum meetings can be conducted in person or virtually (by email or tools like Microsoft Teams), and should be completed every day to make sure Product Owners are stakeholders are up to date on what is happening. See Do you do Daily Scrums (aka stand up meetings)?