New VFS Team Member Template Michael Ramirez

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Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veteran Facing Services (VFS) team!

As a new VFS team member, you will be working in the web ecosystem we call the VA.gov Platform (or "The Platform," for short). The tasks on this list are designed to get you up to speed on the role of Platform, making it easier for you to do your job.

Because the VA is a huge organization that serves millions, the Platform it runs on is equally big, complex and multilayered. Most people find that even learning the basics for their own practice area entails a significant learning curve. The tasks on this checklist will help you acquire those basics as quickly and efficiently as possible.

User Story

As a new VFS team member, I need to complete onboarding activities so I can successfully work on my project and support the VA.gov Platform.

How to fill out this ticket

• Add your name to the ticket title
• Complete the Onboarding Checklist below
• Under Get set up for your practice area, you only need to complete the items for your role
• You can close this ticket when all items are completed in the Onboarding Checklist and the Platform Checklist

Onboarding Checklist

Share your info with Platform

• Complete the fields below:
• Name: Michael Ramirez
• Pronouns (e.g. she/her): he/him
• Role: API Engineer
• Email: michael.ramirez9@va.gov
• GitHub handle*: rammic
• Start date: 1/1/2024
• VFS Team: CES / VAOS

*Providing your GitHub handle will allow Platform to provide you access to the necessary GitHub repos.

General

• For General orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session.
• Update your Slack profile
• Watch VA.gov overview video for an overview of VA.gov
• Watch VFS Orientation for Platform Website video
• Watch the Platform Support overview video
• Review the Getting help from the Platform in Slack guidance
• Review Welcome documentation
• Review Support Overview documentation
• Review the guidance on Submitting a feature request
• Request Access to Tools
• Confirm that you have access to the VA GitHub Organization
  • Note: Membership in the VA Github Organization is a prerequisite for getting access to vets.gov-write and access to many commonly-used repositories. Platform will not be able to complete this task if you are not a member of the VA GitHub Organization.

Norms and standards

• Review guidance on the Platform Satisfaction Survey

Working on the platform

• Review the Platform Principles
• Review the GitHub Markdown Cheatsheet to learn the syntax for formatting documents in GitHub
• Review the Digital Modernization Strategy
• Review the Web Brand Consolidation documentation
• Review the Collaboration Cycle documentation on Platform Website
• Are you a Veteran? Consider adding your name to the Veterans willing to help VA teams with product testing document

Get set up for your practice area

Designers & Researchers

• Review the Research and Design Guide on Platform Website
• Learn how we do research at VA
• Watch the getting started with design videos
• Get oriented to the Design System
• Get oriented to the Collaboration Cycle
• For Design orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session
• For Accessibiliy orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session

Front-end Engineers

• Review frontend developer documentation on Platform Website
• Confirm that You Can Log In as a Test User
• For Front-end orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session
• For Analytics orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session
• For Accessibiliy orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session
• For QA orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session
• For Design System/Forms Library orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session

Back-end Engineers

• Review backend developer documentation on Platform Website
• Confirm that You Can Log In as a Test User
• For Back-end orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session
• For QA orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session

Product Managers & Delivery Managers

• Schedule a PM intro via Calendly with Shira Goodman (Platform Governance Team PM).
• If your team is new, please complete the New VFS Team ticket. If you're joining an existing team, you can skip this step.
• For Analytics orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session
• For Accessibiliy orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session
• For QA orientation sessions, either attend a live session (schedule via Calendly) or watch the latest recorded session

Off-boarding of teammates

• Review process for when a teammate leaves

Platform Checklist

The items in this checklist are for Platform to complete. If you are ready to close the ticket and the Platform Checklist section has not been completed, please reach out to Platform via the guidance provided in Getting help from Platform in Slack.

• New VFS team member has been added to the VFS Team Roster located in Atlas
• New VFS team member has been added to the vets.gov-write GitHub team

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Added to Atlas

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Platform checklist complete