Collaboration Tools

Overview

The Kinana team uses GitHub for project management and version control, Microsoft Teams for communication and meetings, and Azure for staging infrastructure access.

Note: Team does not use Azure DevOps or Jira. All project management occurs through GitHub Projects.

GitHub Projects

Overview

Purpose: Agile project management using Kanban methodology
Access: All team members have access to project board
Integration: Linked directly to code repositories for seamless workflow

Project Board Structure

Board Columns

Automation Rules

• Issue created → Automatically added to Backlog
• PR opened → Linked issue moves to Review
• PR merged → Linked issue moves to Testing
• Issue closed → Moves to Done

Issue Management

Issue Types (Labels)

• feature: New functionality
• bug: Defects or incorrect behavior
• technical-debt: Code quality improvements
• documentation: Documentation updates
• enhancement: Improvements to existing features

Priority Labels

• priority-critical: Blocking issues, immediate attention
• priority-high: Important for current sprint
• priority-medium: Nice to have in sprint
• priority-low: Future consideration

Component Labels

• shell: Core application
• library: Document management
• videos: Video platform
• podcasts: Podcast platform
• brokkly: Visual coding
• infrastructure: Azure/Kubernetes/Docker

Issue Template

When creating issues, include:

## Description

Clear description of the feature or bug

## Acceptance Criteria

- [ ] Criterion 1
- [ ] Criterion 2
- [ ] Criterion 3

## Technical Notes

Any architectural considerations or dependencies

## Related Issues

Link to related issues or PRs

## Estimated Effort (optional)

Team uses experience-based sizing

Sprint Management

Milestones

Each 2-week sprint has a milestone:

• Name: Sprint N (e.g., Sprint 23)
• Due Date: End of sprint
• Description: Sprint goals and objectives

Issues are tagged with milestone during sprint planning.

Pull Request Workflow

Linking to Issues

Required: Every PR must reference an issue

Closes #123

This automatically:

• Links PR to issue
• Moves issue to Review when PR opened
• Closes issue when PR merged

PR Labels

• needs-review: Awaiting code review
• changes-requested: Reviewer requested modifications
• approved: Ready to merge
• wip: Work in progress, not ready for review

Project Views

Default View: Kanban board (primary workflow)

Additional Views:

• Sprint View: Filter by current sprint milestone
• By Component: Group issues by component labels
• By Assignee: See each team member's workload
• Roadmap: Timeline view of milestones

Team Workflow

Daily Standup Integration

Each team member references:

• Issues currently "In Progress"
• Issues moved to "Review" since last standup
• Blockers (issues with blocked label)

Sprint Planning Integration

1. Product Manager prioritizes Backlog
2. Team reviews top items
3. Items moved to "Sprint Backlog" during commitment
4. Issues tagged with sprint milestone

Sprint Review Integration

• Demo issues in "Testing" or "Done"
• Stakeholders provide feedback (captured as new issues)
• Accepted items moved to "Done"

Azure Infrastructure Access

Overview

Access: Solution Architect and Senior Developer only
Purpose: Staging environment management, deployment monitoring, troubleshooting

Azure Portal

URL: portal.azure.com

Authentication: YHT corporate Azure AD accounts

Key Resources:

• Resource Group: kinana-staging
• AKS Cluster: kinana-aks-staging
• Container Registry: kinanacr.azurecr.io
• Storage Accounts: Various for sub-app data
• Application Insights: Monitoring and logging

Azure CLI

Installation:

# Windows
winget install Microsoft.AzureCLI

# macOS
brew install azure-cli

Common Commands:

# Login
az login

# Get AKS credentials
az aks get-credentials --resource-group kinana-staging --name kinana-aks-staging

# List resources
az resource list --resource-group kinana-staging

# View container registry
az acr repository list --name kinanacr

Kubernetes (kubectl)

Installation:

# Via Azure CLI
az aks install-cli

# Or direct download
# https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/

Configuration:

# Get staging cluster credentials
az aks get-credentials --resource-group kinana-staging --name kinana-aks-staging --overwrite-existing

Common Operations:

# View all pods
kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

# View specific service
kubectl get pods -n kinana-shell

# View logs
kubectl logs pod-name -n kinana-shell

# Describe pod for troubleshooting
kubectl describe pod pod-name -n kinana-shell

# Execute command in pod
kubectl exec -it pod-name -n kinana-shell -- /bin/bash

# Port forwarding for local debugging
kubectl port-forward pod-name 5000:5000 -n kinana-shell

Deployment Verification:

# Check deployment status
kubectl rollout status deployment/kinana-shell -n kinana-shell

# View deployment history
kubectl rollout history deployment/kinana-shell -n kinana-shell

# Rollback if needed
kubectl rollout undo deployment/kinana-shell -n kinana-shell

Monitoring & Logging

Application Insights:

• Access via Azure Portal
• View application performance metrics
• Query logs with Kusto Query Language (KQL)
• Set up alerts for critical errors

Log Analytics:

# View logs in portal or via CLI
az monitor log-analytics query \
  --workspace [WORKSPACE_ID] \
  --analytics-query "ContainerLog | where TimeGenerated > ago(1h)"

Access Control

Role-Based Access:

• Solution Architect: Owner permissions on staging resource group
• Senior Developer: Contributor permissions on staging resource group

Security Best Practices:

• Use Azure CLI login (no hardcoded credentials)
• kubectl config tied to Azure AD authentication
• Access reviewed quarterly

Microsoft Teams

Overview

Instance: YHT Corporate Microsoft Teams
Purpose: Real-time communication, meetings, and collaboration

Team Structure

Kinana Development Team (Team name in Teams)

Channels:

• General: Announcements, team-wide communication
• Daily Standup: Quick updates and coordination
• Development: Technical discussions, code questions
• Deployment: Staging deployment notifications and coordination
• QA & Testing: Bug reports, testing coordination
• Documentation: Links to docs, PRD reviews

Meeting Types

Daily Standup

• Schedule: Every working day, 15 minutes
• Format: In person or Video call
• Recording: Not required (brief updates)
• Attendees: Full team

Sprint Planning

• Schedule: Bi-monthly, start of sprint
• Duration: 1-2 hours
• Format: In person or Video call with screen sharing
• Recording: Not required (brief updates)
• Attendees: Full team

Sprint Review

• Schedule: End of sprint
• Duration: 1 hour
• Format: Live demo in staging environment
• Recording: Recommended (for stakeholders who can't attend)
• Attendees: Team + stakeholders

Retrospective

• Schedule: End of sprint
• Duration: 45 minutes
• Format: Internal team discussion
• Recording: No (confidential team feedback)
• Attendees: Development team only

Ad-hoc Technical Discussions

• Schedule: As needed
• Format: Quick calls, WhattsApp or scheduled meetings
• Purpose: Architectural decisions, problem-solving, code walkthroughs

Office 365 / Outlook

Email Communication

Primary Use Cases:

• External stakeholder communication
• Formal approvals (PRD sign-offs)
• Contract and license management
• Communication with YHT corporate teams

Internal Communication: Prefer Teams for faster response

Calendar Management

Meeting Scheduling:

• All recurring ceremonies (standups, sprint planning) in Outlook calendar
• Outlook calendar synced with Teams for easy meeting join
• Meeting invites sent via Outlook

Document Collaboration

SharePoint/OneDrive (part of Office 365):

• Initial drafts of PRDs and formal documents
• Long-term archive of approved PRDs

Workflow:

1. Draft document in Word (using corporate template)
2. Share via OneDrive / Email for review
3. Finalize and get approval
4. Archive in SharePoint
5. Technical specs move to GitHub repos

Collaboration Best Practices

Asynchronous Communication

• Document decisions in GitHub issues/PRs
• Use Teams / WhattsApp for announcements (not just chat)
• Write clear commit messages for future reference

Synchronous Communication

• Daily standup for quick coordination
• Impromptu Teams calls for complex discussions
• Screen sharing for code walkthroughs

Tool Selection Guide

Last Updated: November 2025
Version: 1.0