Agile Software Developent: Release and Iteration Planning Flashcards
3 main benefits of Release and iteration planning
Identify potential impediments
Communicate with stakeholders and customers
Provides Traceability
Questions to consider at the start of Release and Iteration planning
During release planning, the team focuses on groups of user stories or themes like security, reporting, login, dashboards, data clean up, UI enhancements that deliver a working and usable product.
What is the minimum set of features needed to be successful?
What themes should we focus on in this release?
Do the user stories align to deliver a fully functional feature?
Will the pieces result in something not fully functional yet? - If so, is this intentional, because there is a bigger picture, and this is a part of the process?
Does this plan equate to value?
Why does the team need a release plan?
To help the team focus on what is being delivered for the release
So stakeholders and customers can know what features to expect
How is velocity calculated?
measured numerically by calculating the average number of Story Points completed each sprint.
Which metric will a newly formed team not have access to when they plan a release?
Velocity
Release
The process of giving the latest version of the product to the customer or end-user
Agile process for getting to the Release
- Identify
- Features identified or requested - Plan
- User stories are written and prioritized - Build
- Team implements the user stories - Test
- Verify it works - Deploy
- Release the software to customers - Maintain
Ensure that it continues to work
Release Plan
Teams plan for completing user stories and functionality that will be included in a release
Made up of several iterations
shows which iteration user stories will be complete
Aligns user story implementation in a logical order
Is created in a release planning meeting
An iteration
A timed cadence used to plan, commit, and deliver work
Each iteration results in working software
What are iterations called in Scrum?
Sprints
How long is the typical sprint?
1 - 4 weeks
Should an iteration interval be changed once it has been set?
NO
Iteration Plan
Detailed and logical plan for implementing user stories
Shows teams commitment for completing user stories within an iteration
Only the user stories that the team can complete are included
Depends upon team’s velocity
Who creates the Release and Iteration Plans?
The PO prioritizes user stories based on value.
The team then estimates the user stories in the product backlog and determines how much of the prioritized work they can complete
What inputs are needed to create a Release and iteration Plan?
A prioritized backlog
Estimated user stories
Team’s velocity
Team’s availability
Burning down the release
Tracking the rate at which we are burning down the work
What does a burn-down chart show us
Measure how much work is remaining
Helps to determine team velocity
Lets us know if we are on track
Helps us understand the impact of adding user stories to the release
Displayed on Graph:
- Y-Axis represents Story Points
- X-axis represents weeks
Before shipping software, we need to …
Verify acceptance criteria has been met
Validate that it is working as intended
Demo to customer
How to manage bugs/defects discovered by the team?
Assess their value and impact. The software can still be released with defects if it provides value
Add to backlog
Be transparent about defects, by informing the customer and showing how and when you plan to fix it
Escaped defects
defects that are not caught by the team, but by the customer after the software has been released
A development team is building a product that has an upcoming release date. The team realizes they will not be able to complete all of the work that they committed to for the release. What should the team do?
Work with the Product Owner to prioritize and reduce the scope of the remaining work.
MVP
The MInimal set of features the team needs to deliver for the product and customer to be successful
Velocity
The amount of scope or user story points the team is able to complete each iteration
How is velocity established for new teams
New teams need to complete 3 - 5 sprints to establish velocity
New teams estimate velocity for their first 3 - 5 sprints
Velocity Equation
Total # of Story Points / # of Sprints
Timebox
A set period of time to complete work. It should result in working software or proof that a concept will or won’t work
Spikes
Risk management technique
A timeboxed deep dive that a development team uses to discover or prove if an approach will work
Used to determine technical and functional approaches
CI - Continuous Integration
A software development practice in which developers merge code frequently into a shared code repository. This helps to discover and fix problems with code faster
CD - Continuous Delivery
Perform frequent demo workin gsoftware to customers
Frequently release the workin gsoftware to customers
Give value earlier and more often
A team is trying to determine the best architectural approach for the product they are about to build. What technique or tool should the team use to figure what approach will work best?
A Spike
Sprint Planning
8 hours
- PO presents Prioritized Backlog
- Team reviews the priorities to gain clarity
- Team creates Sprint backlog by committing to deliver work they can complete
Scrum 4 events
- Sprint Planning
- Daily Stand-up
- Retrospective
- Sprint Review
Daily Stand-up
15 min a day
3 Questions
What did you do?
What do you plan to do?
What impediments are you facing?
Sprint Reviews
1 hour
At the end of each sprint
Team members demo working software to customers and customers give feedback
Retrospect
1 - 2 hours
At the end of each sprint
The team looks for ways to improve working processes
3 questions
What went well?
What didn’t go well?
What actions should we take to improve?
What happens with work not done during a sprint?
It gets placed back into the product backlog where it gets prioritized by PO
Why is changing sprint durations throughout the year a bad idea?
Prevents the team from establishing velocity. Without a velocity, the team will not be able to plan releases
Prevents the team from establishing predictability. Without an established sprint duration the team can never reach highly accurate predictions
How often should code be integrated?
Daily
How can we ensure that code is integrated daily?
Set continuous integration standards as part of the DOD
What might an increase in escaped defects mean?
An increase in the number of escaped defects or defects, in general, can indicate issues with development and test processes. The team should review the processes to determine how to improve them.
What should be in place before Sprint planning?
Product Vision
Product Roadmap
Well written user stories that are properly estimated
A prioritized Backlog
