Personas and models

Lesson 8 of 11 · 2 min 36 s. Episode 8 of the Jaah tutorial series: put the right kind of agent on each kind of work. Hand a question to a researcher and read its report, give slow tests to a test optimizer and read what it changed, put a small change on a cheaper model and see what Inherit means, then compare who did what and what it cost.

Before you start

A project connected to Jaah, with a Tasks list to open the new-task form from. The example is TimeSaver, a time-tracking app for small teams.
Tests in the project, so there is something for the test optimizer to make faster.

Steps

Open the new-task form and write the question as usual. Ours is: Which features do the leading time-tracking apps for small teams offer that TimeSaver doesn't have yet? Not every piece of work is a change to the code; sometimes you need a question answered before you decide what to build.
Open Advanced. Persona chooses who takes the work on: the coder, who builds changes, is the default, and the others are each set up for one kind of work, such as a test optimizer, a translator, a prototyper who draws mockups, and a researcher, who reads, answers a question and hands back a report. Pick Researcher. Then choose Unattended, so it decides everything itself, and press Go.
When it's finished, open the task and go to Artifacts. The report answers the question it was given, feature by feature, and says what each finding is based on.
On a new task, describe the slow tests in a few words. Ours is: Make the tests run faster. Under Advanced, pick Test optimizer, choose Unattended again, and press Go. Slow tests cost the whole team time on every change, so they deserve an agent of their own.
When it's done, open it and go to Details. Under Outcome, the agent explains what was making the tests slow, what it changed, and how it made sure they still test everything they tested before.
On a new task, write the small change. Ours is: Add a tooltip to the timer's Start button that says Start tracking time. Leave the persona as it is and look at Model, under Advanced: Inherit takes the tier the persona comes with, unless the project sets its own. For a job this small, set it to Low, the cheapest. Choose Unattended and press Go.
Back on Tasks, read the three finished lines side by side. The end of each line says who did the work, a researcher, a test optimizer or a coder, and what it cost, so you can see that the small change on the cheap model cost the least.

What you learned

Persona, under Advanced, chooses who takes the work on; the coder, who builds changes, is the default.
A researcher reads, answers a question and hands back a report under Artifacts; a test optimizer makes the tests faster without testing less, and explains what it changed under Outcome on Details.
Model sets how capable, and how costly, the model is. Inherit takes the tier the persona comes with, unless the project sets its own; Low is the cheapest.
The end of each task's line on Tasks says who did the work and what it cost.

Next lesson: Adding a project. Previous: Scheduled tasks.

Before you start​

Steps​

What you learned​

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Before you start

Steps

What you learned

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