agile estimation

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Agile EstimationV. Lee Henson CST

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Founded in 2007 - Salt Lake City, UT

Personally Trained, Coached, and or Mentored at 41 of the Fortune 100 Companies

Deep understanding of Agile & Traditional Project Management, (PMP), RUP, Lean, Kanban, Scrum, (CST), XP, & PMI-ACP

Proven Applied Agile Principles in Software, Hardware, Financial, Insurance, Construction, Medical, Marketing, Legal, Entertainment, Research, Military, Government, Retail, Education, Law Enforcement, and many more...

Website: http://www.AgileDad.Com

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Copyright 2013 AgileDad LLC Licensed for Classroom Use Only.

V. Lee Henson CST

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Certified Scrum Trainer

Project Management Professional

PMI- Agile Certified Practitioner

Certified Lean Agile Professional

Motivational Speaker & Executive Coach

Author of The Definitive Agile Checklist

Inventor of Rapid Release Planning

Information Technology / Psychology

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Copyright 2013 AgileDad LLC Licensed for Classroom Use Only. 4

Objectives:

What am I going to get?

When am I going to get it?

How much is it going to cost?

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Agile vs. Plan Driven

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Executive Project DashboardExecutive Project DashboardWill Be Done At Risk Will Not Be Done

Backlog Item #1 Backlog Item #11 Backlog Item #21










60 % WBD60 % WBD 40 % AT risk40 % AT risk Will Not Be DoneWill Not Be Done

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Scrum vs. Waterfall

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The 3 C’s of a Good User Story:

1) The Card - The topic of the backlog item, the high level description of the desired system behavior.

2) The Conversation - Detailed requirements are only discovered after the backlog item has been pulled into a sprint. This is a dialog between the product owner and the development team.

3) The Confirmation - Criteria that insures the backlog item was completed to the specifications of the product owner. The customer will evaluate the competed backlog item against the acceptance criteria, and if all tests pass, approve the backlog item by the end of the sprint.

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The Index Card - Overview:

Title - The title should be 10 words or less.

Description- As a ________ I would like to ______________________________

so that ______________________________.

Business Priority

H-M-L

T-Shirt Size

XS - S- M- L - XL

MoSCoW

M-S-C-W

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Writing a Good User Story Description Template:

As a _________________________ I would like to __________________ so that ________________________________.

Example: As a (role or persona), I would like to (execute an activity), so that I can (see or achieve a value or benefit).

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Product Backlog Design:

All possible system features are captured in a stack rank ordered list called the product backlog.

New features can be added to the backlog at any time.

Features in the backlog have a gross estimate of effort and or value.

Each Sprint implements The highest priority features

High

Low

Features

Each new feature is Prioritized & added to the stack

Features may be reprioritizedAt any time

Features may be removedAt any time

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Breaking Down The Work:

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What About Business Priority?

We all know the business has a 3 point ranking scale for priority of backlog items: High, Really High, or Really Really High.

The business needs to use tools to help them understand that not everything can be of the highest priority.

With the understanding that we would not be doing the work if it were not important, which items have the greatest urgency? Can we arrange them into High, Medium, and Low categories?

Two websites to assist with priority:http://dotmocracy.org

http://www.innovationgames.com

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Time vs. Relative Complexity:

Let’s paint the room!

How many hours will it take?

Why all of the different answers?

Have any of you painted before?

Compared to something else you have painted, would it be easier to determine how difficult it would be to paint the room?

Is it easier to reach consensus?

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Planning Poker - Does It Work?

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Let’s Use a T-Shirt Size...

Smaller Than XS = a Task.

Extra Small = 1

Small = 2

Medium = 3

Large = 5

Extra Large = 8

Larger than XL = an Epic

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Understanding MoSCoW: MoSCoW = more than a Russian Capital

Must Have

Should Have

Could Have

Would Like

Every iteration should have a mix of the above types of items.

Stake holders LOVE the Would Likes.

The Product Owner drives the product backlog and creates the rank order based heavily on the MoSCoW ratings.

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Understanding Velocity:

The rate at which a team can produce working software

Measured in non-time-referent terms (e.g., Story Points) per Sprint

More accurately stated, it is measured in terms of the stabilized number of Story Points a team can deliver per sprint of a given length, and with a given

definition of Done.

Used for estimation and planning

Can be artificially increased by cutting corners on quality

Must have stabilized to be reliable

Should not be used as a measure of comparison across teams

Lean concept of Limiting Work to Capacity

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Velocity - An Example:

Example: Team A is working in 2-week sprints on work that it has estimated together. Team A has been

working together for several sprints, and consistently delivers between 18 and 23 points of working

software every sprint.

We could reasonably expect Team A to deliver roughly 20 points per 2-week sprint, and so we

consider that to be the team’s velocity for planning purposes.

If there are eight 2-week sprints in a release, we can extrapolate that Team A has the capability to deliver

160 points in a release.

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Connecting The Dots:

Size (complexity) is estimatedA story is estimated to be 3 story points in relative complexity

Velocity is measured“Team A can deliver 20 story points in a 3-week sprint”

Duration is derived- “Based on Team A’s measured velocity of 20 story points per sprint, it will take Team A 3 sprints to deliver 60 story points.”

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In Other Words...

Backlog Item estimates answer the question “how big?”, rather than “how long?”

Size estimates and observed Velocity, used together, are answer the question “how long?”

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The Five Levels of Agile Planning

Agile teams plan their projects at 5 levels:

Product VisionT-365

Product RoadmapT-365 to T-90

Release PlanningT-60 to T-45

Iteration PlanningT-0

Daily PlanningT+1 to T+14

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Questions?

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Thank You! [email protected] Twitter @AgileDad - LinkedIn [email protected]

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Hemant Elhence [email protected]

469.322.0349

Questions?

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1. Software product development partner for small/mid-sized technology companies

Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies, typically venture-backed companies in growth phase

By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clientsDeep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment

2. Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals for each clientSeamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparencyStable teams with very low turn-overNOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support

3. Actually reduces risk of development/deliveryExperienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering disciplinePractices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined

4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking offshore team

captive – aka “BOT” option

Synerzip in a Nut-shell

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Our Clients

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Call Us for a Free Consultation!

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Hemant Elhence [email protected]

469.322.0349

Thanks!

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