Ways of working
This is our agreement about how we work together. It is not a rulebook. It is a starting point for being clear, kind, and dependable when the work is easy and when it is not.
Working together
We turn cameras on by default in team meetings because it makes conversation easier.
We use our Slack status and calendars to make availability visible. This helps people plan work without having to guess whether someone is available.
Nobody is expected to reply outside their working hours or while their status says they are away.
We make room for everyone to contribute. Ask questions, say when something is unclear and challenge ideas to make things better for everyone.
When a meeting or huddle produces a decision, action or useful learning, we write it down where the people affected can find it.
Slack
Use #integration-hub-team for team discussion, coordination, and sharing what we
are learning.
Use #ask-integration-hub for questions and requests from people
using, or planning to use, our services.
Slack is asynchronous. If you need an answer by a particular time, say when and explain why.
We do our best to acknowledge customer questions during working hours and say what will happen next. The Integration Hub is not yet a live service, so this expectation will develop with our customers’ needs.
Keep follow-up discussion in a thread when it helps the channel remain easy to scan. Do not put passwords, private keys, file contents or other sensitive data in Slack.
GitHub
GitHub is central to our work. We store our code here, hold our product backlog here, and run our CI/CD pipelines here.
GitHub is where we keep work that needs an owner, a decision or a useful history. Pull requests should explain the outcome they change and how the change was checked. Link the issue, architecture decision record or discussion that explains why the work matters.
When something is blocked, say so. When it is resolved, close the loop where people are already following the work. Nobody should need to reconstruct a decision from half a dozen old Slack threads and a meeting they did not attend.
GitHub Repositories
- Integration Hub - Our product backlog and documentation lives here.
- Modernisation Platform Environments - Our infrastructure code lives here.
- You can find our other repositories prefixed with
integration-hubhere.
Ceremonies
We work on a fortnightly cadence. Our ceremonies give us time to agree priorities, make progress visible and improve how we work together.
| Ceremony | Occurrence | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-up | Monday to Thursday | Share progress, raise blockers and agree what needs a follow-up conversation. |
| Backlog refinement | Fortnightly | Make upcoming work clear enough to discuss and plan. |
| Planning | Fortnightly | Agree the work we will focus on in the next fortnight. |
| Retrospective | Last Friday | Reflect on how we worked and choose improvements to try. |
| Show and tell | Last Thursday | Share progress and learning with colleagues and interested people. |
Stand-up is for coordination, not a status performance. Keep updates brief and move detailed problem-solving to a follow-up conversation.
Before refinement, read the work likely to be discussed and bring questions. Work is ready to plan when people understand the outcome, the important risks and what needs to be true for it to be complete.
Retrospectives look at how we work, what works well, and how we can remove friction.
Show and tell is where we show progress openly for external stakeholders to come and see.