Topic G- Shared Understanding about a Project

Question 1

Enablers

Answer 1

• Survey all parties to reach consensus

- Support outcome of parties’ agreement

Question 2

Deliverables

Answer 2

• Vision
• XP Metaphor
• Product box exercise

Question 3

Tools

Answer 3

• Charter
• Project Plan
• Kick-off meeting
• Brainstorming
• T-Shaped skills

Question 4

Vision

Answer 4

a desired end-state often described as a set of desired objectives and outcomes

*It is critical to have a clear vision of the desired end objectives.

Question 5

Project Charter

Answer 5

a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the PM with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

*Formally initiates the project

Question 6

Project Overview Statement

Answer 6

May serve as a draft for the project charter or as a summary of the carter to distribute.

*Brevity & Clarity are key

Question 7

Identify the 4 common types of Agile Ceremonies

Answer 7

• Sprint Planning
• Daily Standup (aka Daily Scrum)
• Sprint Review (aka a Demo)
• Sprint Retrospective

Question 8

Scrum (Agile Practice)

Answer 8

uses ceremonies yo establish a cadence of meetings to assist the team in preparing and progressing the project.

Question 9

Scrum Master

Answer 9

The coach of the development team and process owner in the Scrum framework

Question 10

Sprint Planning

Answer 10

a meeting that facilitates communication and collaboration between a customer (aka product owner in Scrum) and the project team

Question 11

Sprint (aka Iteration)

Answer 11

time boxed between 1-4 weeks to facilitate planning, improve the quality of estimation and set a consistent cadence for the team and the product owner.

*One of the core Agile ceremonies used in Scrum

Question 12

Daily Stand-up (aka Daily Scrum)

Answer 12

Short 10-15 minute meeting held each day for the team to reaffirm commitment to its objectives for the iteration and to surface any potential blockers to its ability to meet iteration goals

*Not a status meeting, but a meeting for the team to divide the days work

Question 13

Spring Review (aka a Demo)

Answer 13

a review at the end of each iteration with the product owner and other customer stakeholders to review the progress of the product, get early feedback, and where the product owner review and accepts the stories delivered in that iteration.

Question 14

Sprint Retrospective

Answer 14

a meeting of thew team members facilitated by the Scrum Master for the team to identify its own improvements.

• Used to identify ways the team can improve its performance, collaborations, etc.

Question 15

Identify kick-off meeting activities

Answer 15

• Defining Vision Statement
• Defining a team charter
• Assisting the customer / Product Owner with user story writing, estimation of effort, prioritization, planning, and production of an initial product backlog

Question 16

T-Shaped

Answer 16

refers to a person with one deep area of the specialization and broad ability in the rest of the skills required by the team.

*Agile teams often invest in becoming more cross-functional

Question 17

User Stories

Answer 17

the Key outcomes the customer wants the solution to provide.

Question 18

Task Boards

Answer 18

Used to visualize the work and enable the team and other stakeholders to track their progress as work is performed during the iteration.

*Purpose is to promote visibility & limit the amount of work in progress (WIP).

Examples: Kan-ban boards, To-do Lists, procedure checklists & Scrum boards

Question 19

Kanban board

Answer 19

a visualization tool that enables improvements to the flow of work by making bottlenecks and work quantities visible.

Question 20

What are some common techniques used to reach consensus among a team?

Answer 20

• Fist of Five Technique
• Roman Voting
• Polling
• Dot Voting

Question 21

Fist of Five Technique

Answer 21

As a team is discussing an issue, a facilitator can call for the team to vote on its level of agreement or disagreement with the teams conclusions.

• A fist (0 fingers) is a strong statement of disagreement and will require adjudication
• An open hand showing 5 fingers means agreement with the team’s conclusions.
• 4 fingers might show general agreement with minor questions
• 3 fingers might show abdication to go along with the group but noncommittal.
• 2 fingers might show general disagreement but the questions at hand are relatively minor.
• 1 might be almost as strong a disagreement as a fist.

Question 22

Roman Voting

Answer 22

people vote either thumbs up (agreement) or thumbs down (disagreement). If anyone is thumbs down on the approach, the facilitator then will work to try to identify and enable the team to try to address the objections.

*Simpler version of check-in that Fist of Five

Question 23

Polling

Answer 23

team members to assess their point of view on an issue

• If the team is unanimous, a decision has been reached and the team moves on.
• If objections are raised, then the facilitator works to surface the objection and tries to help the team work to solve the problem.

Question 24

Dot Voting

Answer 24

a technique used to prioritize a list (i.e: lists of risks, report activities, etc). Each stakeholder is given a number of sticky dots; the number should be sufficient to help product spread in the results.

Each stakeholder can then vote with the sticky dots based on the weight they believe should be provided to that list item.

• Based on the number of dots each item receives, an overall priority can be identified.

Question 25

Estimation Techniques (used by Agile teams)

Answer 25

Agile teams tend to use relative estimation approach that take into account & uses a relative sizing method to help assess the overall effort. Meant to establish a benchmark when sizing new efforts

• T-shirt sizing: S,M,L,XL,XXL, based on the combination of risk, complexity, and labor.
• Modified Fibonacci Sequence: 1,2,3,5,8,13,20,40,100, infinity; based on the same factors. These are often referred to as STORY POINTS; they are unit-less & attempt to capture the overall impact of the work.

Question 26

Planning Poker

Answer 26

a user story is presented to the team, there is conversation among the team members and with the customer (Product Owner in Scrum), & when the team has asked its questions, the facilitator (Scrum Master or Agile Coach) asks the team to use a card deck (generally with the modified Fibonacci numbers) to vote for the number of points to assign the story.

Question 27

XP metaphor

Answer 27

a common vision of how a program works, this is called the Metaphor.

• Should be simple & non-technical, enabling a broad array of stakeholders to understand the overarching approach that is being taken to provide a capability or solve a problem.

Question 28

Product Box Exercise

Answer 28

stakeholders try to describe aspects of a solution in the same way a marketer might describe product features and benefits on a box.

Question 29

Brainstorming

Answer 29

a simple technique used to generate a list of ideas; it should be led by a facilitator and the group tend to be a group fo stakeholders, team members, or subject matter experts.