Before the scrum sprint initiates, product owner reviews the list of all new features, change requests, enhancements and bug reports and determines the priority. If the project is new, it includes new features that the new system must provide- this list of item is referred as Product Backlog. The items that are kept on sprint are referred as Sprint Backlog.
Epic is a group of related user stories.
User Stories define the actual business requirement. Generally created by the business owner.
Task: To accomplish the business requirements, development team create tasks.
Velocity is a metric that is calculated by addition of all efforts estimates associated with user stories completed in one iteration. It predicts how much work Agile can complete in a sprint and how much time will it require to complete a project.
The key feature of agile are:
Scrum process artifacts include:
If capacity is measured as a percentage of 40 hours weeks then completed
= story points * team capacity
If capacity is measured in man hours then completed story points / team capacity.
A Story Board is a visual representation of a software project’s progress. There are generally four columns ‘To do’, In Progress’, ‘Test’, and ‘Done’. Different colored post, its notes are placed in each column indicating the progress of individual development items. A story board is typically used in agile development.
Each day, at same time and same place (in front of the task board), the team meets to give updates about their tasks and tickets resolved for the day. This meeting addresses SCRUM’s three questions listed below.
A ScrumMaster should make this role their top priority to focus on benefits of the overall team. Their load will vary from sprint to sprint depending on what impediments and issues the team is dealing with. Newly formed teams typically take more ScrumMaster time; 50%-100%, while experienced ScrumMasters with established well functioning teams might spend 50% or less time on the ScrumMaster role.
A scrum burn down chart should consist of:
The testers (developers) ensure that the whole process of testing (development) is broken into small steps as possible, and just a small unit of code is tested (developed) in each of these steps. The team of testers (developers) consistently communicates the results of their work, and changes the short term strategy and even the development plan on the go, based on the results of agile testing. Agile methodology encourages flexible and rapid response to change, which should lead to better end results.
No, in an attempt to maximize velocity, a team may in fact achieve the opposite. If asked to maximize velocity, a team may skimp on unit or acceptance testing, reduce customer collaboration, skip fixing bugs, minimize re-factoring. While potentially offering short-term improvement (if you can call it that), there will be a negative long-term impact. The goal is not to maximize velocity instead the optimal velocity over time, which takes into account many factors including quality of the end product.
You can’t measure it easily. Velocity’s value comes from its inherent consistency. A fixed iteration length helps drive the reliable rhythm of a project. Without this rhythm, you are constantly revising, re-estimating, and reconciling, and the ability to predict out in the future is minimized due to inconsistent results.
If, on the other hand, almost everyone is going to be out a week for the holidays or a couple days for company-wide meetings then by all me adapt iteration dates or velocity accordingly. Like most agile practices, these are guidelines, not strict rules.
Agile has a new breed of PM tools including Rally Software, Version One and Xplanner ,Easybacklog, Icescrum, Agilefant, Agilo.These tools bear no resemblance to the waterfall PM tools like MS-Project or Clarity.
A Release candidate is a build or version of software that can be released to production. Further, testing such as UAT may be performed on this version of the product.
A Scrum Sprint is a regular, repeated work cycle in scrum methodology during which work is completed and made ready for review. Scrum sprints are basic units of development in the scrum methodology. Generally, scrum sprints are less than 30 days long.
Sprints contain and consist of the Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, the development work, the Sprint Review, and the Sprint Retrospective.
During the Sprint: