---
title: "Ways of working for projects, plans, products, etc."
source: Ways of Working (JPH)
source_url: https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/ways-of-working
licence: CC0-1.0
domain: operating-models
subdomain: jph-ways-of-working
date_added: 2026-04-25
---

# Ways of working for projects, plans, products, etc.


## Goals

Our goals are SMART: specific, measurable, actionable, relavent, and timely.

Teammates know the goals and also know the steps to take to achieve the goals.

We keep our focus on the goals.

Each step of work has a goal; a step of work can be a task, or sprint, or epic, or milestone, etc.


## Publishing

We publish documentation to everyone in the squad.

We publish the time and place of meetings, such as standups, showcases, etc.

We publish our team availability, such as contact information, office hours, attendance openings, etc.


## Plans

We have a capacity plan for sprints, iterations, deployments, etc.

We have an issue plan for how to address bugs, problems, emergencies, etc.


## Heuristics

Respect estimates.

Help when needed.

Code is done when all code tests pass, and the code is deployed to production, and the customer accepts it.

Never ignore anything-- such as bugs that “solve themselves”.

No story creep.

We don't say “no” to story ideas. We say yes, add it on the backlog, and we will prioritise it later.”

We show what we have done to the business people who are impacted, not just our product owner (when appropriate).
