Final Exam Study

Question 1

Project Management Plan

Answer 1

PMBOK - the document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled.

Common Elements

Introduction or overview of the project

Description of how the project is organized - Roles & responsibilities

Management Processes -
Work to be done ◦ Project Schedule ◦ Budget information

Technical processes used on the project - Technical infrastructure & technologies to be used

A baseline is the approved project management plan plus approved changes

Question 2

Scrum Planning

Answer 2

1. Can’t get the plans right up front
2. Up-front planning is helpful without being excessive
3. Keep planning options open until last possible moment (just-in time planning)
4. Focus more on adapting/re-planning than conforming to a plan
5. Correctly manage the planning inventory
6. Favor small & more frequent releases
7. Plan to… learn fast (Fail fast) & pivot when necessary

Question 3

Source Control

Answer 3

version control system for tracking changes in computer files & coordinating work on those files among multiple people

Question 4

Product Planning

Answer 4

1. The Product Owner is crucial in the initial product planning phase, collaborating with stakeholders and often supported by specialists like Systems Architects and UI/UX Designers.
2. Ideally, the entire Scrum team participates in this phase to offer feedback and reduce later handoffs, though full team engagement typically awaits organizational funding post-envisioning.

3.Sprint 0 involves creating a high-level Product Backlog with Epics and a Product Roadmap for incremental releases, based on the product vision or scope from the Statement of Work.

4. To aid in planning and understanding, additional artifacts like wireframes, flowcharts, and personas may be developed alongside the Product Backlog and Roadmap.

Question 5

Scope

Answer 5

Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project (the What) and the processes used to create them (the How)

A deliverable is a product produced as part of a project

Project scope management -
includes the processes involved in defining and controlling what is or is not included in a project

Question 6

PBIs

Answer 6

User Stories / Requirements

Question 7

Product Backlog

Answer 7

Everything to be built over a project.

Epics
Stories

Question 8

Sprint Backlog

Answer 8

All the stories to be worked on / completed during a given sprint.

Question 9

Release Planning

Answer 9

We don’t want to set overly aggressive deadlines

Each release should focus on minimum releasable features (MRFs)

◦ “Must-have” functionality for users to do their task, while meeting customer value & quality expectations

Question 10

MVP

Answer 10

Minimum Viable Product

Question 11

Prioritizing

Answer 11

PBIs that deemed to be most important to key stakeholders will be placed at the top of the Product Backlog

MoSCoW

Must Have
Should Have
Could Have
Will not Have

Question 12

Release Naming

Answer 12

Release Stages:

Alpha
- software that is in the early stages of development. Possibly environment from continuous deployment

Beta
-feature complete software, but not ready for release as it’s not fully regression tested. Possibly a result of a release after a sprint

Release Candidate
-Has gone through several beta test cycles. Beta testing is now conducted at client site or in future production environment. Has potential to be a final product soon.

Production Release
- Stable Release or Final Release or Live Release

major.minor.build.revision

major = a milestone release or large change

minor = potentially a significant change, but not one that requires the major # to be changed

build = incremental build of solution that happen at intervals of a project. Like at the end of sprints

revision = change or edit to an existing build to resolve an issue

Example: 2.1.3.1 or 2.1

Production release versions of initial software are 1.0

Question 13

Product Roadmap

Answer 13

Key Components:

Release Names

Dates of each Release
- Should show the timespan it will take for each release

Deliverables
– product produced as part of a project

Features
-What will be in each of the deliverables Can use Epics/Features from the Product Backlog

Question 14

PERT

Answer 14

Create 3 estimates of duration
(ex: workdays) to complete each activity
Optimistic, Most likely, Pessimistic

Question 15

Story Points

Answer 15

Uses Relative Size Estimation

There is no direct correlation between hours & story points

Question 16

Fibonacci

Answer 16

1
2
3
5
8
13
20
40
100

Question 17

Planning Poker

Answer 17

Good for estimating small sets of stories

Full Scrum team participates

Question 18

Wall Estimation

Answer 18

Good for managing large raw product backlogs

Place Stories on The wall:

Height of story placement determines priority
-Higher = more importance
-Done by Product Owner & Stakeholder if present

Horizontal placement represents size
-Stories on left are smaller than the bigger -stories on the right
-Done by dev team

Question 19

Velocity

Answer 19

The amount of work completed in each sprint

Essential for Sprint Planning meeting

Helps determine teams capacity of work it can commit in upcoming sprints

Used to answer:
- When will the project be done?
- How much will it cost?

Question 20

Definition of Ready

Answer 20

1 product owner that owns Product Backlog

Before heading into a Sprint, the Product Backlog’s top PBIs should be in a “Ready State”, meaning:

-Stories are sized appropriately (small & granular)
-Business value is clearly articulated in the stories
-Details can sufficiently be understood by developers
-Acceptance Criteria is clear & testable
-Top stories are prioritized in way they are to be executed

Question 21

Sprint Planning

Answer 21

To determine the most important sub-set of PBIs to build in the next Sprint, the entire Scrum team performs sprint planning.

Just-in-time activity that takes place at the beginning of each Sprint:
-Timebox of 1 hour per weeks in a Sprint

Product Owner tells team on Sprint Goal

PO + Team negotiate what goes into a sprint

Dev Team decides what goes in sprint based on estimated velocity / capacity

Tasks

Question 22

Sprint Execution

Answer 22

Is the work the team performs to meet Sprint Goal

Starts after Sprint Planning — Ends when Sprint Review Starts (last day of sprint)

-The dev team self organizes + self assigns work/tasks.

-Scrum Master remains as Agile coach, questioner, and impediment remover.

-Product Owner is available to:
clarifys ?’s
review work + provide feedback
verify acceptance criteria of PB is met
grooms PB of next sprint
interacts w/ stakeholders + maintain relationship

Swarming - divide + conquer - parallel work

Is a mini SDLC w/ all phases

Scrums
Sprint Burndown Chart
Release Burndown Chart

Question 23

Grooming

Answer 23

To ensure top PBIs are in a “ready state” prior to each Sprint, they must be proactively managed.

-Perform grooming as ‘Just-in-time planning’
-Don’t want to plan further in advance than necessary

-Grooming is an ongoing collaborative effort, led by the one grooming decision maker:

-the Product Owner (PO), who is constantly grooming throughout the project

PO could/should include the Scrum Master & development team (analysts & devs)

Grooming entails 3 principal activities:

-Creating & Refining PBIs (progressive refinement)
-Prioritizing PBIs
-Estimating PBIs

Question 24

Performing Change Control

Answer 24

View managing a project as a process of constant communication & negotiation

Overly Communicate w/ stakeholders

Stakeholders want indication + paper trail

Question 25

Tradeoffs

Answer 25

Project team is willing to change the scope of work, by substituting or replacing other scope

-New desires are added & prioritized into the Product Backlog

New PBI’s are estimated
-ex: 8 new Story Points added — stories at the bottom of the product backlog, which add up to this new estimated amount, are no longer considered to be in scope

Working bottom-up, starting with the least important story

-Product Owners must communicate this Tradeoff to stakeholders & allow them to prioritize with knowledge of this

We don’t get rid of the PBI, as it’s still a project need

Question 26

Approaches to Scope, Date & Budget

Answer 26

In Agile, at least 1 of these variables must be flexible: Date, Budget, Scope

Question 27

Date Impacts on a Project

Answer 27

Examples:

Flexible Date
-20pt velocity is established for the available team
-200pt backlog / 20pt velocity = 10 Sprints
-The date is what it is when the team is done

Fixed Date
-16 weeks(8 sprints of 2 wks) from now, it’s needed
-200pt backlog / 8 Sprints = 25pt velocity is needed
-Means we need to increase velocity per sprint to create a shorter timeframe

Question 28

Sprint Reviews

Answer 28

Also known as the “Sprint Demo”

• No PowerPoints, can be raw
  -Not a sales pitch
  -Review what was planned vs. what was delivered
  -1 hour per week Sprinted
  -2 weeks sprints = 2 hour Sprint Review

Question 29

Sprint Retrospective

Answer 29

This is where the Scrum team analyzes the process used to build the product

• Allows for continuous process improvement

Teams are free to examine:
-What’s happening
-Analyze the way they work
-Identify way to improve
-Make plans to implement these improvements

Anything that affects how the team works is open to scrutiny & discussion:
-processes, practices, communication, environment, artifacts, tools, etc…

?’s to ask:

-What worked well this sprint that we want to continue doing?

-What should we start doing?

-What didn’t work well that we should stop doing?
-What do we think we can improve on, that we may or may not have a solution for, at this moment?

-Did our team truly obey the timeboxes?
-Did we self-assign work?

-Or did Scrum Master or someone else drive us?
-Was Daily Scrum format followed?

-Did we have unused time?
-What still puzzles us about the Scrum Framework