CodeAFConnect teams

Connect teams

One team's result wakes the next team with no message from you, and you hear once at the end.

Say how work flows between teams once. After that, finishing is the signal.
  • backend
  • then docs
  • then qa
  • design
  • then build
  • then release notes
  • fix
  • then changelog
  • then announce

Teams get powerful when they hand work to each other. In this playbook, backend lands an API change, docs writes it up, and qa adds an end-to-end test for it, one after another, with no message from you in between. The link is a standing rule you give the global manager once. Members report up to their managers, the global manager sends the next team its directive, and you hear once, when the last team is done.

Steps

Start from a company with a global manager and backend and qa teams, such as the one in Build a software company.

  1. Choose All teams on the teams page and give the global manager a new team and the rule that connects them:
Start a top-level team docs with its own manager; docs owns docs/API.md. Standing rule from now on, no need to ask me: when backend reports an API change done, send docs a directive to document it in docs/API.md; when docs reports done, send qa a directive to add an end-to-end test for that endpoint to tests/test_api.py and run the suite. Tell me only when qa reports.
  1. The chat says ◆ started @docs, and a card asks to keep the rule: wants to keep a rule · API change pipeline · where · for this project. Press 1 (Keep this rule).
  2. Choose backend on the rail and give its manager the change:
Add DELETE /tasks/<id>: 204 on success, 404 for an unknown id, with unit tests. Commit it on main when the suite passes, then report done to the All teams manager.
  1. Wait for one report.

What you see

The chain runs in the global manager's Traffic, one row per step: backend finishes, the global manager wakes, sends a directive to docs, docs answers Done with the endpoint documented in docs/API.md, the global manager sends a directive to qa, and qa answers done with the suite passing. Then one message reaches you: Per your standing rule, here is the qa report, with what each team delivered.

To audit it later, open the global manager's Traffic column (Alt+L). Each directive is a row, such as ◆ → @docs API… done and ◆ → @qa Add an… done · 2 msgs, and a row opens to show its thread.

In our run

91 seconds from backend reporting done to qa reporting done, and about $0.60 for the round. Main gained the DELETE /tasks/<id> commit, docs/API.md a section for the endpoint, and tests/test_api.py a test that deletes a task over the wire; the suite passed with 35 tests.

Make it yours

  • Add a step. Put a release note after qa: "when qa reports done, send product a directive to add a line to docs/CHANGELOG.md".
  • Other chains. The same shape fits any hand-off: design writes the spec, build implements it, docs writes it up. Name the teams, say what each one's done triggers, and say when you want to hear.
  • Gate it with a review. Send backend's change through a review line first, as in Review every change, and start docs only when the change is merged.

Go further

Rules: House rules, conventions and model choices that every conversation in a project starts out knowing.

Coming soon: describe the org you want and CodeAF builds it: teams, managers, budgets, standing orders.