# Sprint Retrospective 1

### What Went Well ✨
* **100% Backlog Sweep:** Driven by team focus, every single planned task from the initial decision logs—including the creation of user stories (#4) and design artifacts (#7)—were completed.
* **Prototyping:** The rapid build of our AI slop UI prototype was highly effective. It provided immediate, shared understanding on what the final MVP dashboards and product aesthetics could look like and provide some things to improve in our actual product.
* **Strong Foundation:** Successfully established the core features, architecture boundaries, and strong understanding of our product based off our research to give us a guided plan to protect development velocity.

### What Didn't Go Well 🚧
* **Unprotected Main Branch Commits:** Team members were pushing code and assets directly to an unprotected `main` branch without code reviews, introducing massive configuration and collision risks.
* **Ambiguous Role Boundaries:** Some tasks were assigned to the whole team leading to some not completing tasks(e.g research) . Individual responsibilities weren't explicitly defined at the start, leading to mild alignment gaps.


### Action Items 🎯
| Specific Improvement | Owner  | Success Metric / Connection |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| **Enforce Repository Protection:** Enable branch protection on GitHub for `main`; require at least 1 approved PR review before merging. | Aditya | Zero direct-to-main commits recorded during Sprint 2 logs. |
| **Establish Responsibilites via Github Issues:** Formally map roles (Responsible, Support, Reviewer) for all upcoming Sprint 2 backlog epics. | Hieu | Every user story explicitly assigned to a clear owner before kickoff. |

### Lessons Learned 💡
* **Velocity Needs Guardrails:** Speeding through 100% of tasks is great, but development guardrails (like protected branches) must be configured to protect work stability.
* **AI slop as inspiration:** Building a messy, functional visual prototype early saves hours of coding and meeting. It acts as an anchor point for both engineering and visual appeal discussions.
* **Explicit > Implicit:** In cross-functional teams, never assume someone knows they have the responsibility for a task. Document accountability explicitly within the tracking tools.

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# Decision Logs

## Sprint 1
- [x] Create a project brief on what a WatchTower is, who it serves, and what problems we are solving first. #1
- [x] Finalize Sprint 1 MVP definition with strict feature boundaries to avoid overbuilding. #2
- [x] Draft functional and non-functional requirements for WatchTower MVP. #3
- [x] Create user stories for Sprint 1 and near-term backlog aligned to personas and MVP. #4
- [x] Document Sprint 1 planning and workflow in one place. #5
- [x] Set up research docs structure and collect individual research notes. #6
- [x] Prepare Sprint 1 design artifacts for dashboard structure and core incident flow. #7
- [x] Create initial GitHub backlog for Sprint 1 and future-ready placeholders for Sprint 2+. #8
- [x] Set up and populate Sprint 1 meeting/process evidence required by the course. #9