Agile Scrum A beginner guide Agile 101 Agile

Agile & Scrum A beginner guide

Agile 101

Agile Manifesto: Inclusion while we learn better ways to develop software. Valuing: Individuals and interactions VS. processes and tools Working software VS. comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration VS. contract negotiation Responding to change VS. following a plan // hirelofty. com

What is Agile? Adaption: ● ● Facing the challenges of today Focusing on the challenges of tomorrow Planning: ● ● ● Prepared for change Identify uncertainties Tentative future plan/s of action Creation: ● ● Ability to create change Ability to respond to change efficiently // hirelofty. com

Key Concepts: User Stories: Functional increments that divide up the work that needs to be completed. Each user story is expected to contribute to the value of the overall product. Daily Meeting: And/or “stand up” is a brief meeting, each day at the same time, where everyone provides an update: team members describe completed contributions and/or obstacles that stand in their way. Incremental Development : In an Agile context, this means that each successive version of the product is usable, and each builds upon the previous version by adding user-visible functionality. Provides deliverables to clients. Iterative Development : Agile projects are iterative insofar as they intentionally allow for “repeating” software development activities, and for potentially “revisiting” the same work products. Team: A “team” in the Agile sense is a small group of people, assigned to the same project or effort. Milestone Retrospective: Once a project has been underway for some time, and/or at the end of the project, all of the team’s permanent members invests in reflecting and providing a detailed analysis of the project’s significant events. Personas: When the project calls for it – for instance when user experience is a major factor in project outcomes – the team crafts detailed, synthetic biographies of fictitious users of the future product: these are called “personas. ” // hirelofty. com

12 Principles of Agile: 1. 2. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Welcome changing requirements, at any stage in development; Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage. 3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. 4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. 5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. 6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. 7. Working software is the primary measure of progress. 8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. 9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. 10. Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential. 11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. 12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. // hirelofty. com

What is a Sprint? A Sprint is a predetermined time frame based on the tasks on the Backlog created collaboratively by the team Sprint planning is where the team determines the product backlog items they will work on during that sprint and discusses their initial plan for completing said items. Sprints contain and consists of Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, the development work, the Sprint Review, and the Sprint Retrospective Quick notes: Sprints are time-limited. The length of time depends upon what the team has decided, however two weeks is typical Teams meet every day to provide progress updates. This is called a Daily Scrum and/or “Daily Stand-Ups” At the end of each Sprint, the team reviews their work and discusses ways to improve the next Sprint. // hirelofty. com

Sprint Continued: Sprint planning is typically split into two parts: Part 1 – Scope: the team selects items from a prioritized list of product backlog items they forecast they will be able to complete during the sprint. Sample agenda for sprint planning: ● ● ● What is the goal for this sprint? This is a decision filter to determine which product backlog items to include in the sprint. What product backlog items are ready and contribute toward the sprint goal? Who is available for this sprint? Identify any vacations, holidays, etc. that will impact availability -What is the team’s capacity based on everyone’s availability What items will the team include on the sprint backlog based the above. How confident does the team feel that they’ll be able to meet the sprint goal. Part 2 – Plan: The team discusses in more detail how they will deliver the selected product backlog items. This may (but does not have to) include identifying tasks for the product backlog items, whethere any dependencies between the items, and signing up for the initial product backlog items that each team member works on. // hirelofty. com

What is a Backlog? A Backlog is a list of everything your project needs ( see below for examples). The order of the tasks are prioritized by importance. It consists of all features, function, improvements and fixes. Think of it as an ever-evolving to-do list; as the project takes shape, new items will emerge. A product backlog is a list of: -New features -Changes to existing features -Bug fixes -Infrastructure changes -Any other activities that a team may deliver that contributes to a specific outcome. // hirelofty. com

Backlog Continued: The product backlog is the single authoritative source for things that a team works on. That means that nothing gets done that isn’t on the product backlog. Conversely, the presence of a product backlog item on a product backlog does not guarantee that it will be delivered. It represents an option the team has for delivering a specific outcome rather than a commitment. Quick Note: It should be cheap and fast to add a product backlog item to the product backlog, and it should be equally as easy to remove a product backlog item that does not result in direct progress to achieving the desired outcome or enable progress toward the outcome. // hirelofty. com

Scrum 101

Scrum is a methodology that embraces the Agile philosophy.

What is Scrum? Scrum is a framework for developing, adapting and sustaining complex products to ensure high value products will be delivered. // hirelofty. com

Key Concepts: ● Scrum runs on a “servant leader” model ● Scrum Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional ● The Scrum model is designed to optimize flexibility, creativity, and productivity ● Scrum relies on complete transparency in order to optimize value, control risk // hirelofty. com

Roles: The Scrum Team consists of a. . . ● ● ● Product Owner Development Team Scrum Master Quick Notes: Scrum runs on a “servant leader” model. Scrum is a framework in which you can employ various processes and technique // hirelofty. com

Role’s Continued: The Product Owner speaks for and represents the user thus this person has the authority to say what goes into the final product. They’re responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the work of the Development Team. The Product Owner is also responsible for managing the Product Backlog. The Development Team: The Development Team consists of professionals who do the work in order to delivering the work. For instance, engineers, designers, writers and programmers. Scrum Master: A Scrum Master is vital component to the development and organization team. Their duties include product backlog management, coaching, implementation, facilitation, product planning and ultimately ensuring that high-value products are being created. // hirelofty. com