Transparent Artifacts

Summary

Make work progress visible through information displays and shared dashboards. These provide real-time visibility into team activities and system status.

Context

Software teams need to see each other’s work. This helps them coordinate well and find opportunities to collaborate or help each other.

Problem

When work is invisible, team members miss opportunities to help each other. They may duplicate efforts or fail to coordinate dependencies well.

Solution

Create visible displays of work progress, system status, and team metrics. Use dashboards, task boards, and information displays that everyone can see and understand.

Forces

• Transparency vs. privacy
• Information overload vs. useful visibility
• Real-time updates vs. maintenance overhead
• Physical displays vs. digital accessibility

Related Patterns

• Daily Stand-Ups
• Display of Work
• Distributed Whiteboards

Sources

• Agile information radiators and kanban boards
• Research on organizational transparency
• DevOps monitoring and observability practices