intro to agile project management
TRANSCRIPT
Session Topics
The Role & Balancing Act of Project Management
An Agile Approach to Project Management
An Introduction to the Scrum Method
The Scrum Team & Mentoring
Session Topics
Requirements Gathering & Cost Estimating
Scheduling & Release Planning
Development Problems & Solutions
A Discussion on Your Current Project Management Approach
Applying Agile to Your Team
The Role & Balancing Act of Project Management
Project Management
‣ Can be a profession, job, role, activity
‣ Responsible for planning, scheduling, requirements, estimating
‣ Facilitates communication, decision making, and strategy
‣ Provides leadership, crisis management, and vision
The Role & Balancing Act of Project Management
Balancing Act
‣ Authority vs delegation
‣ Ambiguity vs perfection
‣ Oral communication vs written communication
‣ Complexity vs simplicity
‣ Fear vs courage
The Role & Balancing Act of Project Management
Key Lessons
‣ It’s about making things and getting things done
‣ It’s about building on ideas that have worked throughout history
‣ It’s easier to succeed and lead when things are simplified
‣ It’s never “easy”
An Agile Approach to Project Management
What is Agile? XP, Lean, Kanban, Scrum (and a few others) “We are uncovering better ways to develop software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools;Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation;Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation;Responding to Change over Following a Plan.While the italic items of this list carry value, we value the bold items more.”
An Agile Approach to Project Management
What is Agile?
‣ End users first
‣ Freedom vs commitment
‣ Eliminate waste
‣ The Team matters
‣ Timebox everything
‣ Continuous working product
Benefits...
‣ Short time to market
‣ Quality and responsibility
‣ Delivery assurance
An Introduction to the Scrum Method
When to Scrum
‣ If projects require a lot of reworking or refactoring, with progressive insight.
‣ If projects often run over due to insufficient progress monitoring and/or limited learning or change capacity within the organization.
‣ If different disciplines do not understand and/or blame one another.
‣ If designers design things that are difficult to build.
‣ If developers encounter problems implementing the delivered designs.
‣ If people in your organization slow projects down by constantly having their say.
‣ Scrum keeps predictions to a minimum and thrives on open-mindedness and common sense.
An Introduction to the Scrum Method
When Not to Scrum
‣ If your organization requires a lot of thinking and realization. Scrum = Speed.
‣ If the quality or seniority of team members is below par.
‣ If the client has difficulty making decisions.
‣ If a client’s democratic sign-off policy cannot be breached.
‣ If the client or supplier has a very formal culture.
SprintA defined and consistent block of time during which the team carries out part of the
project. A whole Scrum is made up of several sprints.
Daily StandupA standing team meeting held every morning, lasting 15-20 minutes, to review what you did yesterday and what you will do today. Each person gets a brief (1-2 minutes) chance to
talk. Keep it short and direct.
RetrospectiveA brief moment of reflection, with the whole team, held at the end of each sprint,
after the sprint product Demo. What did we learn?
An Introduction to the Scrum Method
Writing User Stories
‣ “As a [role], I want [user need], so that I can [resulting ability].”
‣ Can be shortened to “As a [role], I can [do/view something].”
‣ Can you INVEST in the user story?
An Introduction to the Scrum Method
INVEST
‣ Independent
‣ Negotiable
‣ Valuable
‣ Estimable
‣ Small
‣ Testable
The Scrum Team & Mentoring
The Scrum Team
‣ Visual designer
‣ Interaction designer
‣ Front-end developer
‣ Back-end developer
‣ Copywriter
‣ Tester
‣ Scrum Master
‣ Product Owner - outside of the daily team
‣ Project/Product Manager - outside of the daily team
‣ Others...
The Scrum Team & Mentoring
Mentoring
‣ More senior members than junior
‣ Junior members get to learn from senior members by working along side them
‣ Open, visual communication
‣ Direct contact with different disciplines
‣ One room for the whole project team
Requirements Gathering & Cost Estimating
Sprint 0
‣ Strategic Intake & Research
‣ Product Statement
‣ Product Goals
‣ Product Design Ideas
‣ Technical Solution Outline or Direction
‣ Product Backlog
‣ Definition of Done
‣ First Sprint Scope Estimate
‣ First Sprint Goal
‣ Practical Agreements
Requirements Gathering & Cost Estimating
Setting Up the Scrum Room
‣ Space, table, chairs, hardware, wall space, let the Team “own” the room.
‣ Hang up Scrum Board & Velocity Chart
‣ Hang up Backlog Board, Product Statement, & other related materials
Requirements Gathering & Cost Estimating
Cost Estimating
‣ Estimate the project the same way you currently do
‣ Estimate the project using a coarse scale (i.e. XS, S, M, L, XL with matching cost ranges)
‣ Estimate the project using value-based pricing using percentage of R.O.I.
Scheduling & Release Planning
How Many Sprints?
‣ Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - Done & working well. Minimum of three sprints + Sprint 0
Scheduling & Release Planning
The Scrum Sprint
‣ Sprint Planning (day one, 4 hours)
‣ Sprint Goal
‣ Create Tasks
‣ Daily Standup
‣ Daily Scrum Board Update
‣ Daily Burndown Chart Update
‣ Daily Reviews
‣ Sprint Demo (last day of sprint)
‣ Retrospective (last day of sprint)
‣ Launch, Celebrate, & Final Retrospective! (after all sprints are complete)