Agile Planning And EstimatingResponding to change over following a plan

About Me

• Google Plus: +BrettChild• Blog: www.bmchild.com

Objectives

•Planning in Software•Tools for Planning•Product Mapping•Release Planning•Estimating Effort•Q&A

Planning is hard

1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2009

Failed 0.31 0.4 0.28 0.23 0.15 0.18 0.24

Succeeded 0.16 0.27 0.26 0.28 0.34 0.29 0.32

Challenged 0.53 0.33 0.46 0.49 0.51 0.53 0.44

5%

15%

25%

35%

45%

55%

Software Project Failures and Successes

Standish CHAOS Reports

Why Plan?

•Reduce Risk•Reduce Uncertainty•Support Better Decision Making•Establish Trust•Convey Information

Agile Planning

•Focus on planning, not on the plan•Encourage Change•Plan is Easily Changed•Spread throughout the Project

One of the most destructive things we do is build something that no one wants.

Agile Tools

Product Mapping

Release Planning

Sprint Planning

Product/Project

Release/Milestone

Sprint

Product/Project Mapping• Impact Mapping• User Story Mapping

Impact Mapping

impactmapping.org

User Story Mapping

The Walking Skeleton

User Tasks

The Backbone

User Activities

User Stories

Release/Milestone Planning

•Minimum Viable Product•Evolutionary

Minimum Viable Product• Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup:

“A Minimum Viable Product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”

• Customer interviews• Demo page• Teaser links• Release 1.0 • Concierge MVP• Wizard of Oz MVP

BetterUX.it• A Community where startup founders can get expert feedback

from UX designers.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/04/10/a-guide-to-validating-product-ideas-with-quick-and-simple-experiments-2/

BetterUX.it

“Bootstrapped startup founders have trouble getting UX feedback because they have no reliable sources to turn to.”

• Release 1• Interview startup founders

BetterUX.it

“Would they pay for an online service to get feedback from UX designers?”• Release 2

BetterUX.it

“Would designers consult with startup founders?”

• Release 3• Interview designers

BetterUX.it

“Would new designers consult with startup founders?”• Release 4

Evolutionary

Estimating Effort

•Story Points and Velocity•Planning Poker•Affinity Planning

Story Points and Velocity

• Story Points: Relative size/complexity to other stories• Have no other purpose other than planning• .5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100

• Velocity: how many story points can be completed in an iteration• Historical data -> running average• Generally takes about 3 iterations before the velocity stabilizes

for a new team

Story Point and Velocity• Example:• We have a backlog of these tasks

• 6 tasks @ 1 point each = 6 total points• 8 tasks @ 2 points = 16 total points• 36 tasks @ 3 points = 108 points• Grand total of 130 points

• Our team velocity averages 50 points for each 2 week cycle• How long will it take us to complete the 108 points?

• 130 / 50 = 2.6 iterations * 2 weeks = 5.2 weeks

Planning Poker• Agree on an anchor• Good to allow in depth conversation about a story• Takes more time

Affinity Estimating• Useful for large amounts of stories• Generally done silently• Very fast

Review

• Planning in Software• Tools for Planning• Product/Project Mapping• Impact Mapping & User Story Mapping

• Release/Milestone Planning•MVP and Evolutionary

• Estimating Effort• Story Points, Velocity, Planning Poker,

and Affinity Estimating

Resources• Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn• Impact Mapping: http://impactmapping.org• User Story Mapping: http://

winnipegagilist.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-create-user-story-map.html

• MVP: http://practicetrumpstheory.com/minimum-viable-product/ and http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/04/10/a-guide-to-validating-product-ideas-with-quick-and-simple-experiments-2/