In Agile, one of the primary thought processes is to discover the blunders quicker in a task, examine and stop them at the earliest opportunity. We don't have faith in doing work without testing the product increment in each progression. That is the reason testing holds a greater part in lean product development.
Agile is not just about being faster, it’s about continuous product release.
So, how frequent?? An obvious question
In Agile, frequent release of working software happens in weeks rather than months. For example, we consider two weeks as one iteration, this is our usual length to get work done. Together with the Product owner, Scrum master, and RTE the team members decide the iteration time period.
For us, longer iterations (three-four weeks) don’t work out. Especially, in getting feedback, we think shorter loops are better. We get precise stories and right acceptance criteria to complete.
Another essential point to recollect - In Scrum, release in every iteration is not required. Even if we have continuous product delivery, sometimes, demonstrating the ongoing developmet of the possible product is enough. It means the team will deliver the product in near iterations.
In Agile, Features need to develop in a priority order. The top-ranked (must do) features are considered first. The stories are created and divided in iterations according to the prioritization of their features. Once you’ve done with your top features, move on to the second worthiest features, and then to the rest.
Why is it necessary?? Because in Agile, there’s always a fixed timescale. Also, I believe you would prefer not to run on out of time without finishing the vital features of the product.
Writing User stories in Agile refers to define the requirements of the story. The user stories also include acceptance criteria and dependencies. We utilize sticky notes to compose the stories and orchestrate it on the physical board to facilitate the planning. We additionally utilize "Leankit" as a virtual Kanban board to put the stories.
The basic user story template:
As a (your role),
I want to (task),
So that (Purpose).
We do the Story estimation for each to break down the perfect sum work for the team(Developers, analyzers) in a certain time period. So, the idea is to make the product owner understand the cost; the team about time and values. There are numerous sorts of story estimation methods - Voting, T-shirt measuring, Rock - Paper - Scissors, but in Agile Planning Poker is prominently utilized.
In Agile, we always have a fixed time cadence. Within this, you need to complete the given task. In the development process, there's a high risk of confronting change in necessities. What's more, it can’t be avoided. That’s why Agile welcomes the last moment changes by doing the regular review (testing) and respond to those on team meetings, Daily stand up.
The Scrum team decides the “Definition of Done” for stories according to acceptance criteria. I know the next question popping into your brain “What is acceptance criteria?” The focuses that validates the user story. Agile acknowledges the story completion if the criteria are satisfied.
The most unique thing about Agility is active communication - discussions and meetings between Scrum teams; team and Product owner; team and Scrum master; Product owner and stakeholders. In Agile, communication is prioritized over any process or system.
The Agile framework has strong leniency towards the ceremonies - To support the teams to work more efficiently. Here are the name and ceremonies we follow:
Daily Stand up - We do it everyday once in the morning. This is a short (15 minutes) meeting of the Scrum team, Scrum master and Product owner. The ceremony is done to have visualization over the work of each member and remove the obstructions. Here an individual needs to say:
What did I do yesterday?
What am I going to do today?
Do I have any blockers or obstacles?
Iteration Demo - We follow this ceremony at the end of each iteration to demonstrate our work in the presence of scrum master and Product owner (Sometimes the stakeholder).
Iteration Retrospective - After Demo, now it’s the ideal opportunity to review and reflect. Scrum teams, Product owner, Scrum master (Sometimes the stakeholder) attend this ceremony.
In retro, everyone responses to 2 questions:
What went well?
What could have been better?
Iteration Planning - Once we finish the Demo and Retro of the previous iteration, the next comes the planning. In planning session, the teams do the planning for the upcoming iteration. The team prioritizes story and the Product owner maintains the Backlog according to that throughout the iteration.
Likewise, after every PI (Program Increment) the same ceremonies repeated. But here we talk about all the stories(tasks) of multiple iterations in a PI.
As somebody who handles the strategic need of product and market, would you say confidently that you are satisfying the needs of customers? What are the things going great for you? Furthermore, what are most certainly not? You have to discover a lot of answers. Because all that we've known so far may not work tomorrow or sooner rather than later.
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References:
http://www.scaledagileframework.com/
