copyright © 2012 alcatel-lucent. all rights reserved. 1 agile documentation development methodology...

COPYRIGHT © 2012 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Agile documentation development methodology

Giby Panicker and Judith Benjamin1-Dec-2012

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Agenda

• Software Engineering Process Models

• Waterfall vs Agile-a comparison

• Agile evolution and principles

• Scrum - an Agile method

• Agile Best Practices

• Benefits of working in Agile

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Software Engineering Process Models

• Waterfall model

• Spiral model

• Agile development

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Traditional Method - Waterfall model

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Iterative model- Agile

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Tim

e

Voice of the

Customer

Analysis

Design

Implementation

Test

Deployment

Waterfall flow

Time

Requirements Requirements

Deployment2-4

weeks

itera

tion

Waterfall vs Agile

Agile method

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Waterfall and Agile - a comparison

Waterfall AgileLong detailed plan Short term plan

Customer feedback at the end of the cycle.Less customer satisfaction

Constant feedback from the customers

Better customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery of valuable software and meeting the right expectation

High risk to change in requirement Adapt to change in requirement to address the issues promptly

Predictable software Working software in shorter timescale

Highly risky, often more costly and generally less efficient

Less risky, low cost and more efficient

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Agile Evolution

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

Moving quickly and lightly

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Principles of Manifesto

Satisy the customer Early and continuous delivery of working software

Change in requirements

Adapting to change even late in the cycle

Deliver working software frequently

Deliver fully tested working software with 2-4 weeks iteration

Work together daily Work together throughout the project

Work around motivated individuals

Build projects around motivated individuals and motivate them

Face-to-face conversation

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a team

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Principles of Manifesto (contd…)

Working software Working software is the primary measure of progress

Sustainable development

Promote sustainable development. Maintain constant pace.

Continuous attention Continuous attention to technical excellence

Simplicity Simplicity is essential

Self organizing teams Scrum teams

Tunes and adjusts to the product behavior

The team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly

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Lean

FDD

Scrum

Crystal

XP

and others...DSDM

Agile - Many methods

Kanban

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Product Owner

12345678910

Product Backlog

Scrum- an Agile method

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Agile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVdScd4m-x8

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Agile Documentation Best Practices

Planning

Documentation

Verification

The techniques and documentation deliverables are well suited for documenting products developed in agile environment.

R

E

L

E

A

S

E

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Plan it well

Use the right tool

•Estimate the features •Consult the development team•Answer standard questions•Conduct a doc planning poker session•Collaborate on estimates with other writers•Reduce rework

•Get access to the same planning tool that the Agile development team is using• JIRA, Rally or XPlanner

•Documentation, development and QA tasks.

Planning Best Practices

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Planning Best Practices

Adapt right methodologies

•Topic-oriented writing is authoring concise, self-contained units of information about a specific topic •Use a topic-oriented approach such as the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) or Information MappingTM

•Using Information Mapping and DITA enables to produce right documentation at the right time

Manage your tasks

•Create documentation tasks•House all documentation stories in “Tech Pubs Documentation”•Create “Tech Pubs Overhead” component to log overhead tasks •Clarify on the number of iterations the documentation can be completed after the development team’s completion of the feature

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•Convert user stories to task-oriented topics•Task-oriented writing complements development’s use of user stories•Task-oriented writing is a necessity given the short iteration cycle and often limited number of writing resources•Helps writers achieve minimalism

Documentation Best Practices

Prioritize •Work on high-priority, low risk items•Return to lower-priority or higher-risk items•Aligning to feature priorities

Focus on content

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Verification Best Practices

Collaborate

Communicate

•For each task, ask the QA team to create an equivalent task for reviewing •Request a “hardening” iteration•Establish processes such as verification process, peer writer install process, peer review process etc.•Cross-functional review

•Face-to-face communication•Attend daily stand up meetings, sprint meetings, demos etc•For teams that are not co-located find ways to communicate as personally as possible in real-time:• Instant Messaging• Web cameras with video conferencing

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create user stories

similar to product

Planning access to feature tracking

tool

planning poker

session

Documentation

prioritize the doc tasks

convert user

stories into topics

topic oriented writing

Verification

create tasks for

QA to review

Ongoing Communication at all phases

request for hardening iteration

establish new

processes

Working Together as a Team

reducerework

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Benefits of working in Agile

• Better integration of documentation with product

• Incremental development; reviews in chunks

• Early feedback from users

• Timely sharing and resolution of impediments in authoring

• Comprehensive insight into product changes and development

Greater teamwork

Improved quality

Lowered cost

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Q&A

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