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DOCUMENTATION THRIVES IN AN AGILE METHODOLOGY
BY JENNA MOORE, ASSOCIATE FELLOWSENIOR TECHNICAL WRITER, SAS INSTITUTE
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AGENDA
• Who should be here• Define the issues• Review the options• Review Agile development• Fit the doc into the agile cycle• Learn the benefits• Learn to implement it fully
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TRADITIONAL PROJECT WATERFALL Documentation work traditionally falls here
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LAST MINUTEOUT OF TIME!
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WHAT IS AGILE? TERMINOLOGY
Story, User Story: is a software system requirement. Usually they are short and consists of several sentences.
Iteration: is a time period (2 weeks to 2 months) in which the team implements and delivers a set of functionality (user stories).
Scrum, or Stand Up: is a status check where the team meets and share progress, impediments and short term assignments. Usually three questions asked: "What did you do yesterday?", "What will you do today?" and "What is blocking progress?"
Backlog: is a list of user stories, bugs, and features that need to be completed.
Theme: is a collection of user stories.
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HOW DO THEY FIT?
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BENEFIT 1 JUST IN TIME DOCUMENTATION
• Write it during the dev
story• Technical review while
fresh• Saves time later
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BENEFIT 2 HIGHER ACCURACY
• Review during story• Functionality and
intent are fresh
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BENEFIT 3BETTER SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT FOR DOC AND DEV TEAMS
• Doc and dev in sync• Editors involved earlier• Long end-cycle
processes are shortened
or eliminated
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IMPLEMENTATION 1 SCRUMS
Attend daily or
weekly scrums
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IMPLEMENTATION 2 ITERATION BACKLOG
Add
documentation to
the iteration
backlog
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IMPLEMENTATION 3 PRODUCT BACKLOG
Add documentation only steps to the product backlog or appropriate
iteration.• Technical Review• Edit• Production steps
Final
documentation
steps
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REVIEW
Getting Started
• Release planning meetings• Get your stories into the backlog• Decide with development how to
pursue the documentation-
concurrent, one iteration back, or
other
Keeping Up
• Assign ownership of documentation
stories• Attend daily or weekly scrums• Improve processes as you go
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Q&A
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JENNA MOORE ASSOCIATE FELLOW
Slideshare.net: jcpmooreLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/techwriting
