Agile Methodologies Flashcards
What are the 4 Values of Agile?
- Individuals & Interactions (over Processes & Tools)
- Working Software (over Comprehensive Documentation)
- Customer Collaboration (over Contract Negotiation)
- Responding to Change (over Following a Plan)
What should a Servant Leader do?
- Shield the team from interruptions
- Remove impediments to progress
- (Re)Communicate project vision
- Carry food and water
What does “Waste” include in Agile?
- Partially done work
- Extra processes
- Extra features
- Waiting
- Defects
What is Return on Investment (ROI)?
The ratio of the benefits received from an investment to the money invested (usually a %)
What is Internal Rate of Return?
The interest rate you will need to get in today’s money to receive a certain amount of money in the future
What is Regulatory Compliance?
- Requirements usually mandated by government agencies
- Must be implented into the project work as regular development work!
How are features prioritized in the project backlog?
By value
What are some common techniques used to prioritize a product backlog?
- Simple Scheme
- MoSCoW
- Monopoly Money
- 100-point method
- Dot Voting/Multi Voting
- Kano Analysis
If the customer doesn’t want to prioritize the product backlog, what must the Agile PM do?
- Teach the customers WHY it’s important for them to do this, and make them do it
- The PM must not do it themselves
What is the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?
- A set of functionality that is complete enough to be useful, but small enough to not be an entire project
- Usually a module in software
What are some benefits of a Kanban/Task Board?
- “Information Radiator” ensures efficient diffusion of information
- Can be drawn on a wall or whiteboard
- Makes the iteration backlog visible
- Serves as a focal point for the daily meeting
What is the Theory of Constraints?
On the Cumulative Flow Diagram, the activity that’s causing the bottleneck is the one that comes right after the widening activity area
What is the Gulf of Evaluation?
What one person describes is often different from how another person interprets
What is a Retrospective in Agile?
A meeting conducted at the end of a sprint to reflect on what the team did correctly or wrong, and how to improve over the next sprint
What is a Release in Agile?
A series of sprints that results in a product the customer can start using
What is a Sprint Review Meeting?
The customers reivew the work completed in the sprint and give the team their feedback
How is funding different in an Agile project vs. a Traditional project?
- Agile projects are funded in increments, because the product is delivered incrementally
- Vs. Traditional projects, which are generally funded at the start
What’s the best thing a PM can do when encountering concerns about Agile project management?
Educate all stakeholders about the benefits of agile
If any stakeholders are causing problems, what should the agile PM use to resolve them?
Interpersonal skills
What are some methods of stakeholder engagement in an agile project?
- Get the right stakeholders
- Cement stakeholder involvement
- Actively manage stakeholder interest
- Frequently discuss what “done” looks like
- Show progress and capabilities
- Candidly discuss estimates and projections
What are some methods of setting a shared vision in an agile project?
- Agile charter
- Definition of “done”
- Agile modeling
- Wireframes
- Personas
What should “done” be defined for, in an agile project?
- User stories
- Releases
- Final deliverables
What is agile modeling?
Different modeling techniques used to help establish a shared vision
What are some methods of brainstorming in an agile project?
- Quiet Writing
- Round Robin
- Free-for-all
What are the 3 levels of Active Listening?
- Level 1: Internal (How will this affect me?)
- Level 2: Focused (Put yourself in the mind of the speaker)
- Leave 3: Global (Builds on level 2 with body language)
According to COCOMO (the Constructive Cost Model) how many times more important are people to a project than tools & processes?
11 times more important
What are the idea characteristics of an agile team?
- Self-organizing
- Self-directing
- Small teams with fewer than 12 members
What are Generalizing Specialists?
Ideal agile team members - skilled in multiple areas and can help reduce bottlenecks by sharing work
What is the Shu-Ha-Ri Model of Skill Mastery?
A model of team development:
* Shu - Obey
* Ha - Move away
* Ri - Find individual path
What is the Dreyfus Model of Adult Skill Acquisition?
A model of team development:
* Novice
* Advanced Beginner
* Competent
* Proficient
* Expert
What are Tuckman’s Five Stages of Team Development?
- Forming (PM’s role = directing)
- Storming (PM’s role = coaching)
- Norming (PM’s role = supporting)
- Performing (PM’s role = delegating)
- Adjourning
Ideal conditions of a co-located team?
- All team members work together in the same location
- Allows for face-to-face time and interaction
- Should be within 33 feet of each other
- No physical barriers
- Sometimes virtual
Burnup vs. Burndown Charts?
- Burnup chart shows work that has been completed
- Burndown chart shows how much work remains to be done
Velocity Chart
Shows how many points worth of work the team can do per iteration
If a team has completed 3 iterations with an average velocity of 18 points per iteration, how many iterations would it take to complete 250 points of work?
= 250 / 18 = About 14 more iterations
How does agile planning differ from traditional planning?
- Trial and demonstration uncover true requirements, which then require re-planning
- Agile planning is less effort upfront, done more throughout the project
- Mid-course adjustments are the norm
What is Timeboxing?
Short, fixed-duration periods of time in which work is done
* Daily stand-up - 15 minutes
* Retrospectives - 2 hours
* Sprints - 1-4 weeks
What is Ideal Time in agile?
The time it would take to complete a given task assuming zero interruptions or unplanned problems
How are requirements decomposed in agile?
- Epics (entire program)
- Features (module)
- Stories (breakdown of stories)
- Tasks (individual things to get done)
What happens to the Cost of Change over the course of an agile project?
It increases! So it’s best to find issues early and fix them as early as possible
What is Technical Debt?
- Backlog of work caused by not doing regular cleanup
- Refactoring is the solution to technical debt!
When a problem is encountered in an agile project, who should solve the problem?
The team
What is Kaizen in agile?
- A continuous improvement process in which the team implements small, incremental improvements over time
- Usually follows Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
What is the Agile Cycle?
Plan, Develop, Evaluate, Learn
What is a Value Stream Map?
A visual representation of the flow of information through a process in which you can identify waste and optimize the process
Over the last three weeks the project team has finally been able to establish a shared vision of what the product would look like when it is complete. This is an example of?
Progressive elaboration occurs when more information in detail emerges over time.
After many years of following the agile principles the project team has implemented a few new methods in addition to the agile methods in order to increase the efficiency of the project. This will be known as?
Process Tailoring (done to amend agile methodology to better fit the project environment)
