PM/Manage Project

Agile's principles

Reminder on the principles of agile:
  1. Focusing on value
  2. Respecting for people
  3. Minimizing the waste
  4. Being transparent
  5. Adapting to change
  6. Continuously improving

Sprint 0 or design phase

Objectives

The 0 sprint, unlike the following sprints, is not a realization sprint but a design sprint: it allows teams to visualize the project as a whole and for the technical teams to lay the foundations of the architecture in order to meet the target needs.

The deliverables

  • Macro-vision of the product: the reason for the product
  • The epics or macro features concerned by the product
  • Initialization of the Backlog: list of the different functions (user story) and their priority
  • Clarify the division of tasks within the actors
  • Estimate of the number of sprints / the duration of each of the sprints / the size of the team
  • The definition of done : list of things done to consider a finished story (documentation, ...)

The stakeholders

  • Scrum Master: organizes the workshops of the sprint 0
  • Product Owner
  • Realization team
  • Architecture / infrastructure team
  • Project manager

Tools

To manage the backlog, often a ticketing tool such as Mantis, Jira or Trello are used.

The rituals of the scrum

Scrum sprints are very rhythmic: because of their duration (2 to 4 weeks) with "obligation" to have, at this frequency, something to show.
In order to keep this pace, the scrum master rythms the sprint by organizing the different rituals.

Daily

Daily review bringing together the entire project team (Scrum Master optional, Product Owner, Developers).
The purpose being, for everyone, to list what they did yesterday, what they will do today, follow up on his tasks, raise the sticking points.
Usually the daily happens in the morning.

Warning : it's not with the state of mind that the PO "controls" the work of the developers because the PO must also take part and say what he has done / will do.

The Sprint Planning

The sprint planning is programmed by the scrum at the end of each sprint (or beginning of the next sprint). The entire project team (optional Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developers) must participate.
First of all, it is possible to give the availability of the participants on the next sprint (and estimate a capacity to to do).
In a second step, the PO presents each of the user stories, starting from the highest priority story. The developers ask questions, can propose certain behaviors and then they each estimate the task to be done (for example via poker planning).
Note that a story, even a priority story, cannot be embedded until all the entrants are present (interface contract, service already in place, graphic models, etc.)

The grooming

The grooming is programmed at the initiative of the Product Owner or Scrum Master.
It allows, before the sprint planning, to discuss with the team of developers about the user stories.
It should be noted that in Some teams, only the "groomed" stories can be presented in sprint planning.

The Review

The review is scheduled by the Product Owner at the end of each sprint, it is his responsibility to show the progress and functioning. of the product during the sprint.
The review is open to all. It is customary to also invite key users and sometimes managers.
Note that in reviews, it is only necessary to show what has already been tested:)

The retrospective

The retro is programmed by the srum master at the end of each sprint. It is intended for team members.
Its purpose is to make people talk about what went right and wrong during the sprint in order to find improvements to be implemented for the next sprints.

Scrum planning

The planning from the initial to the closed phase:
Les différentes phases d'un projet Agile
Life cycle of a project
At the end of the 0 sprint, the duration of the sprint is decided (generally between 2 and 4 weeks) and estimate the number of sprints.
the shorter the development time, the shorter the duration of the sprint (to benefit from feedback and continuous improvement).
At the end of each sprint, deployment is possible but it is up to the PO to decide when to go into production (release plan).
The planning of a sprint:
Les différentes phases d'un projet Agile
The planning of a sprint
  • Every day is the daily, it must be fixed at a time that is convenient for the whole team
  • At the beginning of the sprint, the sprint planning takes place: discussion of the stories that are taken up in the sprint. They are then cut into tasks by developers
  • Throughout the sprint, the stories are developed and tested
  • The PO collects feedback from users on the previous sprint
  • Throughout the sprint, the PO prepares the next sprint by writing stories and prioritizing them
  • During the sprint, the PO organizes grooming to discuss the future stories
  • At the end of the sprint, the product is presented to a wide audience. (review)
  • At the end of the sprint, the team discusses the positive and negative points of the sprint and tries to find ways to improve it (retro).

Template of backlog's requirements (User story for Agile method)

Version: 1.0
Date: 2021/01/06

Introduction

Purpose

This document explains the shape that the requirements must take to form a backlog.

Stakeholders

ResponsibleAccountableConsultedInformed
Product Owner Product Owner Users Project Team

Versions

VersionDateAuthorDescription
1.0 2021/01/06 Emeline Robert Aubrun @manageprojects.tech Initialization

Input

DocumentVersionLinkDescription

Requirements or backlog

Backlog is the list of stories ordered by value/priority. 2 stories can't have the same priority.
The story on top will be first done.
With this method, the requirements with the most value will be done first and if there is not enough time, the most valuable will be done first.

Story

Description

Priority: ranking of the need in the backlog that determines its order of realization. The priority must take into account the value for the customer but also early remove doubt about feasability.

As ...(user/administrator/customer/member) ...
I can ...(action) ....
To ...(gain for the user)...

Acceptance Criteria

The action must be performed.
The data are stored in the database.
The action is logged.
The xxx page is displayed with a confirmation message.
Other users cannot initiate the action.

Attached Files

Mock-up of the screens.
Tests' plan.

Definitions

Some explanations of the terms (select to expand):
Production Deployment

It is deployed on production environments BUT is not not used or used by a small part of the users (this is called the pilot phase).

Commissioning

It is accessible and used by all users.

Report

Document allowing all parties to trace the delivery of deliverables.

GO

Decision of all parties to proceed to the next step.
GO's decision can be qualified: prior actions must then be taken (e.g. corrections or rapid corrective delivery planning).

Recovery plan

Comes after the crash of servers, databases, etc., it is a function of uploading the application from the backups.

Service continuity plan

System adopted to guarantee the expected service rate.

RACI or RAM (responsibility assignment matrix)

Describes who does what on the project. The different responsibilities :
Responsible / Accountable / Consulted / Informed.