Scrum & Agile practices

So, I pulled together some agile practices literature from which I have made some suggestions for well defined packagable solution. Agile tends to support short feature driven cycles; it seems appropriate as we try and complete the integration work in the same manner.

I use the word cycle here, as iteration can have the side effect of giving the reader the impression that the same bit of work is continually being repeated. Wheras I appreciate solutions should be continously improved during the execution\development phase, I do also think that each cycle should result in a finite deliverable.

Getting agile… (Martin Fowler)

Xp to Scrum

Advanced Development methods Scrum methodology to aid project management

One key phrase, and universally accepted formula:

business value = f(cost, time, functionality, quality)

Scrum encourages “Value driven projects”. Value driven projects leave the determination of the four variables in the customers' hands throughout the project.
A key feature in a scrum team is self adaptivity. The ability of the individual to adapt to the requirements that the team collectively agrees to deliver.
The first part of self-adaptivity is regular reviews of the process. Usually you do these with every iteration.

At the end of each cycle, have a short meeting and ask yourself the following questions (culled from Norm Kerth)

- What did we do well?
- What have we learned?
- What can we do better?
- What puzzles us?

Things to do

- Create a product backlog
product backlog that has been identified as required for the next release of the product (and therefore can be identified by the output of each cycle)

- Encourage self organisation in meetings (weekly meeting)
The team identifies how requirements can be turned into a product increment that delivers that value during the next iteration

- Produce weekly burn-down report
Where we are and where we have to get to – graphed!

-Set dates for demonstrations (monthly meeting)
Demonstrations increase project sponsor/manager/owner's visibility of where they are by visual inspection. It should also enhance the teams ability to focus an actual outcome rather than a purely technical or theoretical one.

- Set subsequent monthly date for review/planning meeting
Each cycle, if monthly, should be reviewed and the next one planned.