Intro to Agile Project Management

Agile Project ManagementAn Introduction

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


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


Balancing Act

‣ Authority vs delegation

‣ Ambiguity vs perfection

‣ Oral communication vs written communication

‣ Complexity vs simplicity

‣ Fear vs courage


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”


The “Waterfall” or “Relay Race”


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.”


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


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.


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.

User StoryAn identifiable action taken on behalf of a specific user role.

EpicA story which is too large and ambiguous to be a single story.

Definition of DoneWhen all requirements to satisfy a story have been met.

Story PointsThe team uses points to estimate the difficulty of a story.

BacklogThe complete list of epics and stories

to build the product.

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.

Sprint ZeroCreate a strategy, product statement, backlog, and estimates.

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?

Burndown VelocityTeam’s speed, measured in story points per sprint per day.


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?


INVEST

‣ Independent

‣ Negotiable

‣ Valuable

‣ Estimable

‣ Small

‣ Testable


Key Roles

‣ Scrum Master

‣ Product Owner (PO)

‣ Stakeholder


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...


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


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


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


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.


How Many Sprints?

‣ Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - Done & working well. Minimum of three sprints + Sprint 0


Product Backlog

‣ Identify

‣ Prioritize

‣ Estimate

‣ Planning Poker


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)

Thank You!Collin Schneider

[email protected] Twitter: @thinksaydo

mailto:[email protected]