Thinking immutably when slammed with a ton of new feature requests

Large amounts of new designs and feature requests landed on my lap today… I had to answer the question, “How do I prioritize all this new work???”

Immutable data structures and transformations to the rescue!

(I’m such a nerd but i love it…)

1. Create a task array from the comps & feature meetings: I’m going through the designs/features and creating a list of all the things I need to do to accomplish them.
2. Filter the task array by our current capabilities: Our designer who worked with business to nail down the new features wasn’t 100% aware of what our API could do. I need to go through each task and remove the items that are too difficult and add them to a “defer” list which, as the backend team works on it, can be added back to my current task array.
3. Map the task array and add my estimates: this just means to add how long it’ll take to do each task.
4. Map the task array by business value: I need to get a good feeling of what value each item gives so it can be sorted properly.
5. Map the task array by release opportunity: I need to answer the question, “What can go out in the first release? second release?” In other words, this is such a big chunk of work, it can be released iteratively.
6. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: Sort by the weights of estimates, business value, release dates — output my actionable list: This is the output of transformation steps #1–5. If I got my weights and algorithm right, I’ll have a task list for the next month or two.

After doing this, I add all the tasks to JIRA, and keep track of the progress there.

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