Agile Project Management

Course Instructor: Ansar Muhammad

Instructor Intro• 21+ years of experience [MS IT, BCS]• Software Development [Insurance, Healthcare, Call Center]• Project Management / PMO• ERP implementation/support• Waterfall• Rational Unified Process• Agile / Scrum / XP• PMP / www.largesoftware.projects [Risking Life and Limb]

Class Intro

• Experience (no of years)• Qualification • Biggest pain points (just 1 or 2) in projects so far

Class expectation from the course

• How can it make my life easier?• Will life get any better?• Already doing agile?• Case based

Knowledge of current PMP methodology

• 5 process groups• 13 knowledge areas• Interpersonal skills for the PM• Competing constraints• Technology factors• PMI.ORG

Agile frameworks• Agile Manifesto• Agile Principles• Frameworks

• XP (Extreme Programming)• SCRUM**• FDD (Feature Driven Development)• DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method)• AUP (Agile Unified Process)• Lean• Crystal• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development

Agile Manifesto (agilemanifesto.org)

• Individuals and interactions: self-organization and motivation are important, as are interactions like co-location and pair programming.

• Working software: working software is more useful and welcome than just presenting documents to clients in meetings.

• Customer collaboration: requirements cannot be fully collected at the beginning of the software development cycle, therefore continuous customer or stakeholder involvement is very important.

• Responding to change: agile methods are focused on quick responses to change and continuous development.

Agile Principles• Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable software• Welcome changing requirements, even in late development• Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)• Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers• Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted• Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)• Working software is the principal measure of progress• Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design• Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential• Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams• Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjusts accordingly

Scrum Framework

Scrum Process

Scrum.org

• Purpose of theScrum Guide

• Definition of Scrum• Scrum Theory and Values• The Scrum Team• The Product Owner• The Development Team• The Scrum Master

• The Sprint and its Planning• Daily Scrum• Sprint Review [deliverable

level]• Sprint Retrospective

[process level]• Product Backlog• Sprint Backlog

Project-1

• Shopping Site • High level features• Technology• Team size (3 to 9) – not counting Scrum Master and

Product Owner• Product Backlog• Estimation of work

Keep your stories simple and concise

• Write your stories so that they are easy to understand. Keep them simple and concise. Avoid confusing and ambiguous terms, and use active voice. Focus on what’s important, and leave out the rest. The template below puts the user or customer modelled as a persona into the story and makes its benefit explicit. It is based on by Rachel Davies’ popular template, but I have replaced user role with persona name to connect the story with the relevant persona.

• As <persona> ,I want <what?>so that <why?>.

• Use the template when it is helpful, but don’t feel obliged to always apply it. Experiment with different ways to write your stories to understand what works best for you and your team.

The three Cs

Deeper thinking

• Good negotiation skills• Good business analysis skills• Persuasive approach• Why was it a bad idea to catch the drug shipment?

Example of some user storieshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q5-cVeNjCE

Acceptance test for the user story

Smaller sub stories

Grooming the backlog

Identifying Epics

Splitting the bottom right one (from previous slide)

Difference between Epics, Themes and Stories

• https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2014/march/stories-versus-themes-versus-epics

• Stories• A story is a self-contained unit of work agreed upon by the

developers and the stakeholders. Stories are the heart of Scrum, and the building blocks of your sprint.

• Themes• Themes may be thought of as groups of related stories. Often the

stories all contribute to a common goal or are related in some obvious way, such as all focusing on a single customer. However, while some stories in a theme may be dependent on one another, they do not need to encapsulate a specific work flow or be delivered together. - See more at: https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2014/march/stories-versus-themes-versus-epics#sthash.U2hHkEev.dpuf

• Epics• Epics resemble themes in the sense that they are made up of

multiple stories. They may also resemble stories in the sense that, at first, many appear to simply be a "big story." As opposed to themes, however, these stories often comprise a complete work flow for a user.

Important difference between Epics and Themes

• But there's an even more important difference between themes and epics. While the stories that comprise an epic may be completed independently, their business value isn't realized until the entire epic is complete. This means that it rarely makes sense to deliver an epic until all of the underlying stories are complete. In contrast, while stories comprising a theme are related, each is independent enough to be delivered separately and still provide some measurable sense of business value.

Projects/Assignments• Next class on 15th Oct (Saturday)• Each individual will have to do a unique project (no programming but will involve

some prototyping, can use any tool, even Excel), target for mid Oct will be to develop a product backlog for that project

• Please share your email address with me ansarmuhammad72@gmail.com• We will have weekly email exchanges so that we hit the ground running when we

start again in Oct• The mid term will consist of items covered in the class and remote interactions• Plan to spend 3 to 4 hours per week other than classes and calls• You will need to watch the recommended videos on youtube.com

Course scoring structure• Quizzes = 10%• Assignments = 10%• Project = 40%• Final Exam = 40%

Note: Read the scrum guide available at:• http://www.scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2016/2016-Scrum-

Guide-US.pdf#zoom=100