> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://calcs.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Template Development Workflow

> Guidelines and best practices for efficient template development at Calcs.com

Template development is a crucial contributor to growth for Calcs.com and should have an outlined workflow. For the purposes of sprint planning, the following guidelines should be considered at the start of a template development. These guidelines were created with consideration of the current practices that are already being used.

## Iterative Development Process

In December 2022, Laurent and Eva presented upon the process for the efficient, iterative development of templates. [Recording available here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jyhd2isZ6DphzFVSsUpPZJCD_jjEtdn2/view?usp=sharing).

### Key Principles

* Each increment of work is something that is "potentially shippable" - NOT a final product, does not do everything
* High-level goal = separate "learning" from "doing" on the ticket
* Before starting anything, do lots of research
  * e.g. flowchart for how to do a given calculation
  * Then direct user research (poke Anna / Ati / others for who we can talk to) - can ask them to schedule interviews
  * Come with questions, but usually users volunteer a lot more information than asked

### Iteration Strategy

* **First iteration**: Just the inputs (NO calculations at all)
  * Add test cases at this point!
* **Each subsequent iteration**: Add fully-fleshed out widgets (NOT doing all limit states - but what is added is complete)
  * At each iteration, easy to check test cases because you only need to check the new results added!
* **Big advantage of smaller iterations**: Much easier reviews!

### Ticket Specification

* Ticket spec'ing takes MUCH longer in this process
  * Easily 6 hours to spec out tickets! - effectively, dedicate a WHOLE SPRINT to the spec'ing
  * Do spec'ing in the sprint before
  * "Owner" will spearhead spec'ing process - they'll do the research themselves ahead of time, but then go through as a group of 2-3 people to discuss and refine
  * If it feels ridiculous how long the ticket work is taking, then you're good :-)
* User story tickets in ClickUp are LONG - which means that the reviewer can just reference a checklist in the ClickUp ticket

## Development Categories

During the development of a template, all sprint tasks will fall into one of three categories:

1. Pre-Template Development Work
2. Editor Sectional Work
3. General Final Template Work