Terms of
Agile
Agile Very short feedback loops
characteristics Frequent adaptation of process
Reprioritization,
Regularly updated plans
Frequent delivery.
Uncertainty suitability and requirements (is the right product being built?);
technical feasibility and performance (can this product be built this
way?)
process and people (is this an effective way for the team to work?)
4 life cycle
Predictive life Predictive life cycles expect to take advantage of high certainty around firm
cycle requirements, a stable team, and low risk.
Iterative life Projects benefit from iterative life cycles when complexity is high, when the
cycles project incurs frequent changes, or when the scope is subject to differing
stakeholders’ views of the desired final product.
incremental life frequent delivery of smaller deliverables (MVP)
cycle optimize for speed of delivery
For example, builders may want to show a finished room or floor of a building
before they continue with the remainder of the building.
Agile life cycles incremental delivery uncovers hidden or misunderstood requirements
iteration-based the team works in iterations (timeboxes of equal duration) to deliver completed
agile features. The team works on the most important feature, and finishes it. Then
the team works on the next most important feature and finishes it.
flow-based agile the team pulls features from the backlog based on its capacity to start work
rather than on an iteration-based schedule
Each feature may take a different amount of time to finish.
Hybrid life cycle
An example of this approach is the development of a new high-tech product
followed by rollout and training to thousands of users.
Perhaps the team is incrementally transitioning to agile and using some
approaches like short iterations, daily standups, and retrospectives, but other
aspects of the project such as upfront estimation, work assignment, and
progress tracking are still following predictive approaches.
a portion of the project with uncertainty, complexity, or opportunity for scope
creep is being tackled in an agile way, but the remainder of the project is being
managed using predictive approaches.
this approach might be used when a particular element is non-negotiable or
not executable using an agile approach. Examples include integrating an
external component developed by a different vendor that cannot or will not
partner in a collaborative or incremental way. A single integration is required
after the component is delivered.
Agile style of Servant leadership is the practice of leading through service to the team, by
leadership: focusing on understanding and addressing the needs and development of
servant team members in order to enable the highest possible team performance.
(the role of PM)
-Support the team through mentoring, encouragement, and support.
-Educate stakeholders around why and how to be agile.
-support the team by providing trainings
-encourage the distribution of responsibility to the team
-aligning stakeholder needs
Agile - not rely on PM
coordination - cross-functional teams coordinate their own work and collaborate with
the business representative (the product owner)
- team members decide who will perform the work within the next
period’s defined scope (not PM)
Agile team - 3-9 people
(ideally) - Collocated
- 100% dedicated to the teams
- Self-managed
- Stable team
- Mixed team of generalists and specialists, and cross functioned
Mini-waterfalls when the team addresses all of the requirements in a given period, then
(bad thing) attempts to do all of the design, then moves on to do all of the building.
Affinity estimate Grouping items into similar categories
use story points to estimate
story point unit remains the same for all estimations
T shirt sizing Affinity estimate
Use XS,S,M,L,XL to estimate
Planning poker Affinity estimate, team activity
help team reach consensus on reasonable estimate.
Team members consist of team members with all the skills necessary to produce a working
product
Product owner - responsible for guiding the direction of the product.
- work with their teams daily by providing product feedback and setting
direction on the next piece of functionality to be developed/delivered
- works with stakeholders, customers, and the teams to define the
product direction
- create the backlog for and with the team
Team facilitator -This role may be called a project manager, scrum master, project team lead,
(PM) team coach, or team facilitator.
Organization Functional Organization create impediments for forming cross-functional agile
type teams.
Agile project At a minimum, for an agile project, the team needs the project vision or
charter purpose and a clear set of working agreements.
project vision/ purpose/ release criteria/ intended flow of work
simple and not into details
Team charter Agile teams require team norms and an understanding of how to work
together.
Working agreements (e.g. definition of ready and done, time-box)
group rules
group norms
Retrospectives - single most important practice
- help team learn from its previous work on the product and its process and
male improvements
- iteration prompts a demonstration and a retrospective at the end
-can have interim retrospective or an end-of-the-project retrospective
- looking at the qualitative (people’s feelings) and quantitative (measurements)
data, then using that data to find root causes, designing countermeasures, and
developing action plans
product -show the anticipated sequence of deliverables over time
roadmap -replans the roadmap based on what the team produces
Backlog -the ordered list of all the work, presented in story form, for a team
-sort of replace WBS
-constant re-prioritized based on schedule, scope and risk
Backlog The purpose of these meetings is to refine enough stories so the team
refinement understands what the stories are and how large the stories are in relation to
meeting each other
Daily standups -Teams use standups to microcommit to each other, uncover problems, and
ensure the work flows smoothly through the team.
- allow the team to self-organize and hold each other accountable for
completing the work they committed to the day before and throughout the
iteration.
-meeting to identify problem
information Highly visible displays of information to quickly inform stakeholders
radiators
Demonstration/ As the team completes the features usually in the form of user stories, the
reviews team periodically demonstrates the working product. The product owner sees
the demonstration and accepts or declines stories.
Continuous Perform frequent incorporation of work into the whole, no matter the product,
integration and then retest to determine that the entire product still works as intended.
Test at all levels Employ system-level testing for end-to-end information and unit testing for the
building blocks.
Acceptance In ATDD, the entire team gets together and discusses the acceptance
Test-Driven criteria for a work product. Then the team creates the tests, which allows the
Development team to write just enough code and automated tests to meet the criteria.
(ATDD)
Test-Driven Writing automated tests before writing/creating the product actually helps
Development people design and mistake-proof the product.
(TDD) and
Behavior-Driven
Development
(BDD).
Spikes - timeboxed research or experiments
- to explore uncertainty
- Spikes are useful for learning and may be used in circumstances such as:
estimation, acceptance criteria definition, and understanding the flow of a
user’s action through the product.
Fast failure Fail quickly and early (reduce cost of change, save resources)
Risk backlog Repriorized backlog
to Balance to deliever highest-value feature and mitigate biggest threats
Risk burndown To see a risk profile, trend should move downward
chart
Pre-morterms Facilitated team exercise to identify possible failure points
Story points -rate the relative work, risk, and complexity of a requirement or story.
-Many agile teams use story points to estimate effort.
-the number of story points a team can complete in a given time is unique to
that team
Personas Quick guides of key stakeholders on project and their interest
Burndown chart For remaining story points
Burndowns show the effect of team members multitasking, stories that are too
large, or team members out of the office
Burnup chart show the work completed.
Burnups allow teams to see what they have accomplished, which helps the
team proceed to the next piece of work.
Velocity the sum of the story point sizes for the features actually completed in this
iteration, allows the team to plan its next capacity more accurately by looking
at its historical performance.
-measure of a team capacity for work for each iternation
-is a project performance metrics
- each team defines their own units
lead time -for flow-based agile
- the total time it takes to deliver an item, measured from the time it is added to
the board to the moment it is completed
- useful to understand cycle time from the first look at a particular feature to the
length of time it took to release it to the customer
Cycle time the time required to process an item
measure cycle time to see bottlenecks and delays, not necessarily inside the
team
formula: WIP/Throughput
response time the time that an item waits until work starts
work in progress Amount of work working on
(WIP)
Throughput Amount of work can get done in 1 iteration
Impediment Visual tool to track issue and risk
board
Out of tolerance = out of control (quality)
Tolerance Control limit (quality)
Feature burnup/
burndown
charts
product backlog -shows completed work compared to total expected work at interval milestones
burnup chart or iteration
- show the team’s completed value
Earned value - use story points to calculate SPI and CPI
-the left Y axis represents story points as scope, and the right Y axis
represents the project spend
cumulative flow
diagram
Fixed-price -for agile procurement
increments -a project can decompose the scope into fixed-price microdeliverables, such
as user stories
Multi-tiered -for agile procurement
structure - hybrid style contract
contract -mostly fixed items (e.g., warranties, arbitration) can be locked in a master
agreement. Meanwhile, all parties list other items subject to change (e.g.,
services rates, product descriptions) in a schedule of services.
Not-to-exceed for procurement
time and -limit the overall budget to a fixed amount
materials
Graduated fixed - different rate for “finish early”, “finish on time” and “finish late”
price
Fixed price work - SOW divided into work packages, each with fixed price.
package - Work package can be reprioiritize
- Price can be reestimated and update
Early when an agile supplier delivers sufficient value with only half of the scope
cancellation completed, the customer should not be bound to pay the remaining half if the
option customer no longer needs it.
Project -The team members determine how plans and components should integrate.
Integration -The project manager’s focus is on building a collaborative decision-making
Management environment
Project Scope -Agile methods deliberately spend less time trying to define and agree on
Management scope in the early stage of the project and spend more time establishing the
process for its ongoing discovery and refinement.
-scope is defined and redefined throughout the project. In agile approaches,
the requirements constitute the backlog.
Tools: backlog, roadmap, user stories
Project -Adaptive approaches use short cycles to undertake work, review the results,
Schedule and adapt as necessary.
Management
Tools: iteration burndown chart, repriorize backlog, hold retrospectives,
velocity, story point
Project Cost lightweight estimation methods can be used to generate a fast, high-level
Management forecast of project labor costs, which can then be easily adjusted as changes
arise. Detailed estimates are reserved for short-term planning horizons in a
just-in-time fashion.
- determine budget by breakdown scope, using affinity estimation (e.g. T-shirt
sizing)
Tools: Velocity, affinity estimate, roll wave planning
Project Quality agile methods call for frequent quality and review steps built in throughout the
Management project rather than toward the end of the project.
-Tools: retrospectives and daily stand-up, user stories
Project -benefit from team structures that maximize focus and collaboration, such as
Resource self-organizing teams with generalizing specialists.
Management
Project streamlining team member access to information, frequent team checkpoints,
Communication and colocating team members as much as possible
s Management
holding regular stakeholder reviews are intended to promote communication
with management and stakeholders
Tools: weekly status report, update gantt charts, earned value reports, agile
metrics, information radiators
Project Risk -using adaptive approaches make use of frequent reviews of incremental work
Management products and cross-functional project teams to accelerate knowledge sharing
and ensure that risk is understood and managed.
-Risk is considered when selecting the content of each iteration, and risks will
also be identified, analyzed, and managed during each iteration.
-the requirements are kept as a living document that is updated regularly, and
work may be reprioritized as the project progresses, based on an improved
understanding of current risk exposure.
tools: spike, fast failure, risk backlog, daily stand-up, retrospectives, pre-
mortems, risk burndown chart
Project Special types of contracts
Procurement
Management
Project -require active engagement and participation with project stakeholders.
Stakeholder -adaptive teams engage with stakeholders directly rather than going through -
Management layers of management
-whole team activities, not only PM
Tools: demo review, personas, retrospective
Monitor and Rely on demo and feedbacks
controlling
Scrum - scrum is not equal to agile
- one of many agile approaches to product development
- run on timeboxes
eXtreme a software development method based on frequent cycles
Programming
(XP)
Kanban method Teams are focused on flowing work through the system to completion and not
beginning new work until work in progress is completed.
The method uses a “pull system” to move the work through the process. When
the team completes an item, the team can pull an item into that step.
Cystral method Crystal methodologies are designed to scale, and provide a selection of
methodology rigor based on project size (number of people involved in the
project) and the criticality of the project.
Scrumban Scrumban is an agile approach originally designed as a way to transition from
Scrum to Kanban.
an evolving hybrid framework in and of itself where teams use Scrum as a
framework and Kanban for process improvement.
he work is organized into small “sprints” and leverages the use of kanban
boards to visualize and monitor the work
Daily scrum = daily stand-up
The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to inspect and synchronize the team's
progress towards the Sprint Goal, discuss if anything impedes the team and
re-plan the team's work to achieve the Sprint Goal.
The outcome of the Daily Scrum should be: An updated Sprint Backlog
Sprint = iterations (same thing)
Product Backlog - compiled of all the things that must be done to complete the whole
project
- once a task is completed, it should be removed from the product
backlog list
Sprint backlog a subset of the product backlog. The sprint backlog comes from the product
backlog, but it contains only that item, or those items, that can be completed
during each sprint.
user story is an informal, general explanation of a software feature written from the
perspective of the end user. Its purpose is to articulate how a software feature
will provide value to the customer.
Story point -a kind of relative estimation
-to estimate the difficulty of implementing a given user story
- replace hours or days
Defeat cycle -Measure the period between the time defect was introduced and the time it
time was fixed
-reflect cost of change
Burn rate = Cost
Stable team, stable cost
MVP Minimum viable product
Independent complete product
Agile execution Iterations – iteration reviews (validate scope) – team retrospectives (to discuss
any issue)
Rolling wave Type of Progressive elaboration
planning
Relative sizing Use relative estimate instead of absolute estimate
Use completed task to forecast future project timeline
Cost of change Use demo/review window to have early change to reduce cost
Timeboxing Short, fixed period with a defined set of activities
Feature driven Focus on Planning, managing, and tracking product features
development to meet the specific needs of a large software development project
(FDD) Features relate to a small business value capability
Lean a) Helps to streamline the development process
development b) Eliminates project waste
Dynamic The framework will set cost, quality, and time at the outset, and then use
Systems formalized prioritization of scope to meet those constraints
Development
Method (DSDM)
coach = project leader (PM)
Approach to -Visible and active executive sponsorship,
Organization -Change management practices, including communication and coaching
change -Progressively pacing the adoption of agile practices on a project-by-project
basis
-Incremental introduction of agile practices to the team; and
-Leading by example by using agile techniques and practices where possible.
-encourage empirical measurements, small experiments, and learning so they
can move toward agility.
-Change contract types
-to start small and learn as rapidly as possible what works well in the
organizational context.
-reduce size of project delieverables
agile-based PMO The role of PMO is not fixed in agile
PMO operates as if it were a consulting business, tailoring its efforts to meet
specific needs requested by a given project
PMO should strive to deliver what is needed and keep the pulse on its
customers to ensure that it knows and is able to adapt to their needs
Developing and implementing standards.
Multiproject management.
Facilitating organizational learning
Recruiting, selecting, and evaluating team leaders.
Managing stakeholders.
subject matter
experts (SMEs)
Scrum of two or more Scrum teams consisting of three to nine members each need to
Scrums (SoS) coordinate their work instead of one large Scrum team. A representative from
each team attends a meeting with the other team representative(s), potentially
daily but typically two to three times a week.
