Baby steps in an agile world

Baby steps in an Agile world
Agile strategies and techniques that will save your sanity while making your committee better. Probably.

None of what I talk about here has anything to do with individuals or groups specifically. After going through two redesigns of the campus web presence, spending two years on a large scale campus project, and working with countless clients in the *real world* along with Startups I have devised the following “Agile story.” Use at your own risk.
Disclaimer

http://gapingvoid.com/ms2125.jpg

# S: (adj) agile, nimble, quick, spry (moving quickly and lightly) "sleek and agile as a gymnast"; "as nimble as a deer"; "nimble fingers"; "quick of foot"; "the old dog was so spry it was halfway up the stairs before we could stop it"
- http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=agile

Agile Manifesto
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
http://agilemanifesto.org/

User stories
Customer focus: “Improve the results of searching for jobs.”
Make them elevator friendly: 30 seconds to explain or less.
Make them the right size: Something that can be done in a week or two.
Make them testable: “A user can mark 5 jobs for a follow-up in under 2 min”

From http://www.flickr.com/photos/orcmid/3879384912/

People that don’t work in the same physical space need software.

Basecamp

Overall feature or story item
Tasks or stories
Who is responsible, when is it to be done, comments, was it complete?

Pivotal tracker

Time estimation and management

http://web.hbr.org/email/archive/managementtip.php?date=120309

Other software components
Besides Basecamp or Pivotal Tracker?
Word, Excel, notepad…

Integrate version control with bug reporting and fixing.

Process
Item is completed
Fix is tested, status is reported and changed
User has feedback added, feedback assessed
New story is written or item is reopened
Back to step 1

Use a process that works for you.

In short
Use Basecamp or excel or a word document
Break down the project for the sponsor (and you)
Provide time estimates for each phase
Share information, open up

About me.
Jesse Rodgers
Associate Director, VeloCity -- University of Waterloo
Blog: http://whoyoucallingajesse.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jrodgers
Email: jrodgers@uwaterloo.ca

Baby steps in an agile world

by Jesse Rodgers on Dec 07, 2009

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