Agile Project Management is a broad subject which gets more interesting the more we dwell into it. This presentation explains Agile Method of Project Management in a nutshell. Starting from Agile project team hierarchy and steps followed to documents and tools used are briefly explained in the presentation.
2. Project Management Approaches
Different project management approaches can be adopted based on
the nature and size of the project
When the requirements are expected to change as the project
progresses based on customer needs and the size of the project is
relatively smaller- AGILE Methodologies (XP, Scrum, etc.) are
preferred.
When the requirements are clear before entering into the execution
phase of the project and the size of the project is relatively bigger-
NON-AGILE Methodologies (Water fall, etc.) are preferred.
Both Agile and Non-Agile methodologies has its own pros and cons, but
the Agile projects are very flexible and adjustable where as it’s tough to
accommodate changes in the Non-Agile projects.
3. Project Management Hierarchy
Leadership/Senior
Management
Project Manager
Project Team CProject Team BProject Team A
Project sub teams/groups Project sub teams/groups Project sub teams/groups
Project Manager will play the role
of the Product Owner and Scrum
Master as per the requirement and
will liaise between project teams
and Leadership
4. Roles and Responsibilities
An Agile project will have the following roles
Stakeholders: Anyone with an interest in the project and provide input
and are affected by the project’s outcome.
Product Owner/Project Manager: The person responsible for
bridging the gap between the customer, business stakeholders, and
the development team.
Scrum Master: The person responsible for supporting the
development team and keeping the agile process consistent.
Development Team Members: The people who create the product. In
software development it’s the programmers, testers, etc.
Each of the above mentioned role will have its own core responsibilities
during the course of the project execution which are explained in the
coming slides.
5. Project Management Steps
Stage 1: The product owner identifies
the product vision which defines the
product and its strategy and end
users.
Stage 2: The product owner creates
a product backlog, which is a high-
level view of the product
requirements, with a loose time
frame.
Stage 3: The product owner creates
a release backlog. The release plan
identifies a high-level timetable. A
project will have many releases, with
the highest-priority features launching
first.
Stage 4: The product owner, the
scrum master, and the development
team plan sprints, and start creating
the product within those sprints.
Sprint planning sessions take place
at the start of each sprint.
6. Stage 5: During each
sprint, the development
team will have daily
SCRUM meetings,
which will not go on for
more than 15 minutes.
Stage 6: The team
holds a sprint review. In
the sprint review, at the
end of every sprint, you
demonstrate the
working product created
during the sprint to the
product stakeholders.
Stage 7: The team holds a sprint retrospective. The sprint
retrospective is a meeting at the end of every sprint where the team
discusses how the sprint went and plans for improvements in the next
sprint.
7. Project Time and Effort Estimation
Estimating work effort in agile projects takes an approach which is
fundamentally different from the traditional project methods. The Modern
Agile method of estimation uses a “Top-down” approach.
Initially when the Release Backlog is created, each of the task/feature in
the release backlog will be assigned a priority along with the estimated
time for the complete development of the feature.
A basic Release Backlog will be as shown below
8. Once the release backlog is created, the tasks are categorized in to
different buckets based on the estimated time for development using
“The Bucket” theory.
The task buckets are created using Fibonacci sequence. For agile
estimation purposes, some of the numbers will be changed, resulting
in the following series: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100.
Different series are created depending on whether the duration of the
task is in terms of hours, days or months as shown below.
TASK BUCKETS
9. Once the tasks are categorized, a “Burndown Chart” is created taking
into consideration all the tasks in the release and the duration for their
completion which is tracked against the amount of work done everyday.
A Burndown chart is a very effective tool which can be used to track
every day's work against the time estimation given in the
Release backlog. The Burndown chart is reviewed everyday during the
Scrum meeting to identify any delays in the progress of the project.
10. Project Documentation
There is a myth that the Agile project methodology will have ZERO paper
work, which is far from the truth, Agile means less documentation and
does not mean no documentation.
A project will have following documentations
Product Vision Statement: A quick summary of the product. The
vision statement must articulate the goals for the product.
Product Backlog: The full list of what is in the scope for your
project, ordered by priority.
Release Backlog: A high-level timetable for the release of working
product.
Sprint Backlog: Document containing the goal, user stories, and
tasks associated with the current sprint.
11. Project Management Tools
Burndown Chart
A burn down chart is a graphical
representation of work left to do versus
time. It is a run chart of outstanding
work. It is useful for predicting when all of
the work will be completed.
Kanban
A Kanban board is a workflow
visualization tool that enables us to
optimize the flow of work.
Kanban can be used to organize many
areas of an organization and can be
designed accordingly.
