Agile Techniques and Practices

Question 1

User Stories

Answer 1

• User stories convey a simple situation in which somebody gets value out of your next feature.
• They should be quick & easy to understand so that you can glance over lots of them at once.
• They are a reminder to have a more detailed discussion once you have committed to building the feature.

As a —, I want to —, So that —

Question 2

INVEST: Characteristics of a good user story

Answer 2

INVEST

• I - Independent
• 2 - Negotiable
• 3 - Valuable
• 4 - Estimable
• 5 - Small enough
• 6 - Testable

Question 3

Story Points

Answer 3

• Relative sizing: items are compared to each other

* Numbers are unit-less, not based on duration

Question 4

How teams create the estimates

Answer 4

Planning Poker

• Requirements are discussed
• Everyone picks a card in secret
• Team reveal their estimates
• Outliers are discussed

Question 5

Agile Planning

Answer 5

Release Level - Use historical performance to forecast either:

• Number of sprints required to complete scope
• Scope that will be completed by required date

Release Planning
»Spring or Iteration planning
»>Daily planning

Question 6

Common Testing Practice

Answer 6

TECHNICAL LEVEL
*TDD - Test Driven Development
*TFD - Test First Development
FUNCTIONAL LEVEL
*BDD - Behaviour Driven Development
*ATDD - Acceptance Test Driven Development

Question 7

Five Centrifugal Forces of Distributed Teams

Answer 7

• Communication Breakdown
• Co-ordination Breakdown
• Loss of communication richness
• Loss of team bonding
• Cultural differences

Question 8

Mitigation Options for Distributed Teams

Answer 8

• Video Conferencing
• Cross-pollination
• Knowledge management systems
• Interactive whiteboards
• Instant messaging
• collaboration platforms

Question 9

Team Synchronization Meeting

Answer 9

• Sometimes known as the “scrum” or “stand-up”
• 15 minute time-box daily event
• Consistent place and time
• Development Team inspects their progress toward the Sprint Goal
• Development Team creates a plan for the next 24 hours
• NOT a problem solving meeting
• NOT a status meeting

Question 10

Retrospectives: All about the process

Answer 10

There are thousands of different ways to run a retrospective, but the key agenda should follow a similar pattern:
Reveal the situation and topics > Discuss options and solutions > Narrow it down to specific things to try

The Agile Lead is usually the person who facilitates the retrospective. However, it is the team as a whole who agree the actions they believe will bring improvement.

Question 11

Class Retrospective

Answer 11

• What’s going well?
• What’s not going so well?
• What puzzles you?
• What ideas do you have?