Agile project management

10/1/2018
AKS AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Contents
1.0 Introduction 5
1.1. What is agile...................................................................................................... 5
1.2. HOW HAS AGILE EVOLVED.................................................................................. 5
1.3. core agile principles and practices....................................................................... 6
2.0 AGILE IMPLEMENTATION – DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES 7
2.1 scrum................................................................................................................ 7
2.2 agile project management.................................................................................. 8
3.0 Projectcommunication 10
3.1 INFORMATION RADIATORS............................................................................... 11
Effective information radiator should be:-................................................................. 12
War Room:- ............................................................................................................ 12
3.2 co-located vs dirtributed teams........................................................................ 13
3.3 osmotic communications ................................................................................. 14
3.4 daily stand-up meeting..................................................................................... 14
4.0 multiple level of planning 15
4.1 aligning agile projects to programs and portfolios.............................................. 15
4.2 user story........................................................................................................ 16
USER STORY- CARD, CONVERSION AND CONFIRMATION ........................................... 16
USER STORY- ATTRIBUTES........................................................................................ 17
STORY CARD INFORMATION..................................................................................... 17
4.3 THEME AND EPIC............................................................................................. 18
4.4 TIME BOXING .................................................................................................. 19
TIME BOXING – BEST PRACTICES .............................................................................. 19
ADVANTAGES OF TIME BOXING................................................................................ 20
PRIORITIZING REQUIREMENTS – MoSCow................................................................. 20
4.5 release plan..................................................................................................... 21
4.6 Velocity........................................................................................................... 21
4.7 iteration plan................................................................................................... 22
ITERATION – EXAMPLE............................................................................................. 22
ITERATION LENGTH SELECTION................................................................................ 23
4.8 release burndown chart ................................................................................... 24

4.9 burndown charts ............................................................................................. 25
4.10 burnup charts.................................................................................................. 25
4.11 kanban boards................................................................................................. 26
KANBAN CARDS....................................................................................................... 26
SIMPLE KANBAN BOARD.......................................................................................... 27
DETAILED KANBAN BOARD....................................................................................... 27
4.12 retrospectives.................................................................................................. 28
RETROSPECTIVES – AGENDA .................................................................................... 28
NEED FOR RETROSPECTIVE ...................................................................................... 29
CONDUCTING A RETROSPECTIVES ............................................................................ 29
SAMPLE TEMPLATE FOR CONDUCTING RETROSPECTION ........................................... 30
4.13 AGILE PROCESS TAILORING............................................................................... 30
5.0 agile estimation31
5.1 measures of size.............................................................................................. 31
5.2 relative estimating........................................................................................... 31
5.3 story points..................................................................................................... 32
STORY POINTS AND ESTIMATING.............................................................................. 33
5.4 estimate by analogy......................................................................................... 33
5.5 value points..................................................................................................... 33
5.6 ideal days........................................................................................................ 34
5.7 comparing story points and ideal days .............................................................. 34
5.8 estimation scale............................................................................................... 35
5.9 planning poker................................................................................................. 35
5.10 accuracy vs. precision....................................................................................... 36
5.11 wideband delphi.............................................................................................. 36
5.12 affinity estimation............................................................................................ 37
5.13 silent relative sizing.......................................................................................... 38
5.14 edit the wall .................................................................................................... 38
6.0 softskill negotiation 39
6.1 EI and SCRUMMASTERS / AGILE PROJECT MANAGERS....................................... 39
6.2 benefits of emotional intelligence..................................................................... 40
6.3 five levels of conflict ........................................................................................ 40

6.4 servant leadership ........................................................................................... 41
CHARACTERISTICS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP............................................................. 42
7.0 conclusion 42
8.0 reference 42

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1. WHAT IS AGILE
Agile is an iterative and incremental(evolutionary) approach to project development
which is performed in a highly collborative manner by self organizing teams with “Just
Enough” ceremony that produces high quality outcome in a cost effective and timely
manner which meets the changing needs of its stakeholder..
Agile Emphasizes on:
 Face to face communication
 Emphasis on Effective engineering techniques.
 Frequent demonstrations of progress and early return on investment.
 Adaptation to business change.
 Retrospectives and continious improvement.
Overtime,leanandsix sigmatechniquesbegantoinfusethemselvesintoAgile practices.Theseinclude
the following:
1.2. HOW HAS AGILE EVOLVED

AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
AMIT KUMAR SENAPATI PMP®
Agile eveolvdinthe late 1990’s inresponse tothe burdernsof heavydocumentationandfrequent
requirementschange.Itstartedasa collectionof lightweightandqualitydrivenapproachtoproject
implementation.
1.3. CORE AGILE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES
Early delivery of
value through
iterations with
Demos.
User stories reflect
Business Value and
Priority.
Acceptance tests
for all
requirements.
Sustainable pace or
velocity.
High Visibility
Communication
Retrospectives.
Continious
involvement of the
customer
Core Agile
Principles
and
Practices

2.0 AGILE IMPLEMENTATION – DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES
 Scrum
 Lean Kanban
 Feature Driven Development
 Agile Project Management(APM)
 Dynamic Systems Development Method
Some of the explanationof popularAgileMethodologies.
2.1 SCRUM
Featuresof Scrum:
 Simplicity and proven results.
 Enables other Agile engineering techniques.
 Emphasizes small teams and team empowerment.
 Welcomes changes to requirements.
 Allows working from a single source of prioritized work items.
 Daily status meetings.
 Team commitment to a potentially shippable increment during a ‘Sprint’.
Scrum rolesare importantfeaturesof Scrumand notusingspecifictermsisoftenreferredtoas‘Scrum-
but’.
Scrum definesthreeroles:

Scrum vocabulary
 Product Backlog – All work to be performed in the foreseeable future, both well-
defined and requiring further definition.
 Sprint – A period of 30 days or less within which a set of work will be performed
to create a deliverable.
 Sprint Backlog – A well defined requirement that can be worked on with relatively
little change over a period of 30 days or less and will result in a tangible,
potentially shippable incremental deliverable.
 Scrum – A daily meeting at which progress and impediments to progress is
reviewed.
Scrum definesfourrequiredmeetings
2.2 AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Agile ProjectManagement(APM) introducedphasesforAgileProjectsthatalignedwiththe PMPphases
appliedbythe ProjectManagementInstitute.
APMalsomodifiedthe traditional “IronTriangle”toemphasize Value andQualityandcreatedthe Agile
Triangle.
The five phasesof APMframeworkare asfollows:
Agile ProjectManagementframeworkalignmenttoPMBOK

3.0 PROJECT COMMUNICATION
EveryProjectManager quicklylearnsthatthe mostvaluable technique forprojectsuccessis
communication.Agile emphasizesthatthe mosteffectivecommunicationoccursface toface.

3.1 INFORMATION RADIATORS
An information radiatordisplaysinformationinaplace where passersbycansee it.Withinformation
radiators,the passersbydon’tneedtoaskany questions;the informationsimplyhitsthemastheypass.
Popularinformationradiatorsare :
 Task boards.
 Big visible charts.
 Continuous integration build health indicators.
The belowimage representsanexampleof taskboardwhichis usedasinformationradiatorduring
projectimplementation.

Effective information radiator should be:-
 Simple: Brief and concise.
 Stark: Errors should not be masked, rather should be used to improve the work and
performance.
 Current: Information displayed should be latest.
 Transient: Once the problem has been rectified, it shoud be taken off from the chart.
 Influential: Empowers the team to take decisions.
 Highly Visible: Easy to see and understand.
 Minimal in number: Not so many that they drown out other information.
War Room:-
War roominvolvesgettingthe entire teamtogetherinone roomandworkingonfactors thatfoster
communicationaswell asmotivationleadingtohigherproductivity.

3.2 CO-LOCATED VS DIRTRIBUTED TEAMS
Two typesof teamscan be identified.

3.3 OSMOTIC COMMUNICATIONS
Osmoticcommunicationoccurswheninformationisoverheardinthe backgroundof the team roomand
some of it isabsorbedviaosmosis.
3.4 DAILY STAND-UP MEETING
Dailystand-upmeetingsshare progressonthe sprintoriteration.Teammembersstandtokeepthe
meetingfocusedandshort.The stand-upiswhere eachteammembermakesa commitmentonwhat
that will completeforthe restof the team to hear.
 Scrum specifies that the meetings should be time boxed to 15 minutes.
 Only ‘committed’ team members are involved, with each participant answering 3
questions:
o What did we do yesterday?
o What will we do today?
o What’s on our way?

4.0 MULTIPLE LEVEL OF PLANNING
Multiple levelsof planninginAgileprojectsare representedusinga‘planningonion’.
4.1 ALIGNING AGILE PROJECTS TO PROGRAMS AND PORTFOLIOS
Agile projectssupportthe vision andgoalsof the projector portfoliothatcan extendforyears.

4.2 USER STORY
A userstoryis a lightweightmechanismtoquicklycapture requirements.Itactsas an agreement
betweencustomersandteammemberstodiscussdetailedrequirementsduring iteration.
User storyprovidesamediumforthe following:
 Gathering basic information about stories.
 Recording high-level requirements.
 Developing work estimates.
 Defining acceptance tests.
USER STORY- CARD, CONVERSION AND CONFIRMATION
The three components(CCCs) of auserstory are as follows:-

USER STORY- ATTRIBUTES
The attributesof a user storycan be representedusingthe followingacronym:
STORY CARD INFORMATION
Informationthatcan be capturedon a story card isas follows:
 Story identifier and name: A short name and unique identifier.
 Story description: A sentence or two that describes the feature in customer
terms.
 Story type: C=Customer Domain, T=Technology Domain or Others.
 Estimated Work Effort: The estimated work effort needed to deliver the story,
including time for requirements gathering, design, coding, testing and
documentation.
 Estimated value points: The relative value points for the user story.

 Requirements Uncertainty (erratic, fluctuating, routine, stable): An “exploration
factor” for a specific story.
 Story Dependencies: Dependencies that could influence implementation
sequencing.
 Acceptance tests: Criteria the customer team will use to accept or reject the
story.
4.3 THEME AND EPIC
Theme isa set of relateduserstoriesthatcan be combinedandtreatedasa single entityforeither
estimatingorrelease planning.
Epics are large userstorieswithlowerpriority.Theyare toobigto be implementedinasingle iteration
and therefore theyneedtobe disaggregatedinto smalleruserstoriesatsome point.

4.4 TIME BOXING
Time boxingissettingafixedtime limittoactivities.
 It lets other characteristics, such as scope, vary.
 If something cannot be accomplished in a time boxed period, it is deferred to the
next period.
 Time boxing allows velocity to be determined between iterations and sprints.
 Time boxing is often applied to meetings like Scrums, sprint planning, sprints and
iterations.
TIME BOXING – BEST PRACTICES
The bestpractices followedunderthe time boxingtechnique are givenbelow:
 Time box can be of any duration, 1 year, 1 month, 1 day, 4 hours or 15 minutes.
 Control is achieved at the lowest level of time boxing.
 If a task is running behind the schedule, it is deferred to the next time box.

 It fixes the length of the iteration and the team determines how much functionality
can be delivered in that fixed length of time.
ADVANTAGES OF TIME BOXING
Followingare the advantagesof usingtime box technique.
PRIORITIZING REQUIREMENTS – MoSCow
It isimportantto continuouslyprioritize the backlogandthi iscalled‘pruningthe backlog’.A methodto
prioritize requirementspopularizedinthe DSDMcommunityisMoSCoW.

4.5 RELEASE PLAN
A release planindicates howthe teamintendstoachievethe productvisionwithinthe project
objectivesandconstraintsidentifiedinthe projectdatasheet.
 A release plan helps the product owner and the team decide the time required to
create or develop a releasable product.
 A release plan conveys the expectations such as what is likely to be developed
and in what timeframe.
 A release plan serves as a guidepost toward which the project team can
progress.
The flowof activitiesduringarelease plancanbe representedasfollows:
4.6 VELOCITY
Velocityisameasure of a team’srate of progressperiteration.Itiscalculatedbyaddingthe numberof
storypointsassignedtoeachuserstory that the teamhas completedduringthe iteration.

4.7 ITERATION PLAN
An iterationplan isalowlevel viewof the productwhere the teamtakesa more focused,anddetailed
lookat what will be necessarytoimplement,i.e.onlythose userstories,thathave beenselectedforthe
iteration.Eachiterationfollowsthe same consistentpattern.
ITERATION – EXAMPLE
In the belowexample,the majoractivitiesof athree weekiterationare shown.

ITERATION LENGTH SELECTION
Followingfactorsare consideredwhile selectinganiterationlength:
 The length of the release being worked on.
 The amount of uncertainty.
 The ease of getting feedback.
 The duration in which priorities can remain unchanged.
 Willingness to go without feedback.
 The overhead of iteration.
 A feeling of urgency is maintained, the shorter the iteration duration the greater
the sense of project urgency.
The followinggraphrepresentsthe average lengthof the iterationinAgile projects.
82% have iterationsbetween1and 4 weeksinlength.

4.8 RELEASE BURNDOWN CHART
The projectteam tracks itsprogressagainsta release planbyupdatingarelease burndownchartatthe
endof eachiteration.The graphshowna hypothetical burndownchartfora projectacrossseveral
iterations.Whenthe graphreachesZEROthere are nomore story pointsinthe projectand itis ready for
release.
STORY POINTS REMAINING

4.9 BURNDOWN CHARTS
Burndowncharts can alsobe tracked againstthe expectedvelocitybasedonavelocitydriveniteration
plan.Thisprovidesvisibilityonhowthe teamwill complete the storiesandtaskswithinaniteration.
In additiontothe rate at whichworkiscompleted,the burndownbarcharthelpstovisualize the work
that getsaddedor removedfromthe scope fora particularrelease oriteration.
4.10 BURNUP CHARTS
In additiontoshowinghowmuchworkis completed,the burn-upchartalsoshownthe workinthe
projectscope.The chart is alsoknownas ‘Feature Complete Graph’infeature.

4.11 KANBAN BOARDS
Kanbanis a conceptrelatedtoleanand Just-in-Time(JIT) production.
A Kanbanboard shownthe currentstatusof all the storiestobe done withinaniteration.
 The board is divided into segments reflecting key activities.
 The stories are represented by index cards or post-it notes.
 A status of a card is represented by its location on the board.
KANBAN CARDS
Kanbanuse cards to showprogressthroughan iteration.
 The cards on a Kanban board reflect work items that move through different
phases of the developmental cycle.
 Virtual Kanban boards can filter different types of cards based on the view
required.
 The cards can reflect anything that needs to be tracked.

o User Stories.
o Defects.
o Tasks
SIMPLE KANBAN BOARD
A simple KanbanBoardor a task boardhas three columns:
o To Do
o In Progress
o Done
Tasks are represented bycardsandstatus of the cards are postedunderone of the three columns.
DETAILED KANBAN BOARD

Considerthe followinginadetailedKanbanboard:
 The Work in Progress(WIP) limit allos the downstream processes to determine
when thay can consume more work.
 Work in upstream processes halts if a WIP is met.
 Sub workflows can be used to better illustrate when a card is complete an ready
for transition to the next queue.
4.12 RETROSPECTIVES
Retrospectivesare regularreviewsof the teamanditsmemberstodiscusswhatis workingandwhatcan
be improved.
 Retrospectives should be conducted at the completion of every sprint or iteration.
Retrospectivesshouldnotbe done onlyafteracatastrophicfailure.
 Retrospectives should be conducted at regular intervals, spread throughout the
life of a project.
 Retrospectives are not about apportioning blame; instead it is to learn from the
experience.
RETROSPECTIVES – AGENDA
In retrospectives,teamslookbackona pastperiodof work sothat they can learnfrom theirexperience
and applythislearningtofuture projects.

The agendafor a retrospective revolvesaroundthe followingthree areas:
NEED FOR RETROSPECTIVE
Retrospectivesare necessaryinanAgile projectenvironment.
 They help to reflect and learn from the past.
 They determine how the team should work in the future.
 They help in improving communication within the team.
 They allow a team to own an drive their development process.
CONDUCTING ARETROSPECTIVES
Retrospectivescanbe conductedat the iteration,release orprojectlevels.The retrospectivesshould
establishagoal that the whole teamwill worktowardduringthe nextiteration.
The followingpointsneedtobe consideredwhile conductingaretrospective:

SAMPLE TEMPLATE FOR CONDUCTING RETROSPECTION
A sample template forconductingretrospectionisgivenbelow:
4.13 AGILE PROCESS TAILORING
Processtailoringinvolvestailoringorcustomizingthe Agile processestocaterto a situation.Itcan
include roles,processesorprocedures.E.g.of projectspecifictailoringare asfollows:
 Adding or removing work products and tasks.
 Changing milestones and what work products will be made available at each
milestone, and extent of completion expected at specific times.
 Responsibilities for review and approval (RACi table can be used).
 Detailed procedures for reporting progress, performing measurements, managing
requirements, managing change requests etc.

5.0 AGILE ESTIMATION
5.1 MEASURES OF SIZE
Determiningthe size of aprojectisimportanttofinalize itsexpectedcompletiondate anditsresourcing:
5.2 RELATIVE ESTIMATING
Relative estimatingisanimportantaspectinagile estimation.

5.3 STORY POINTS
StoryPointsare the unitof measurementforexpressingthe overall size of auserstory andtheir
associatedeffort.
 The number of Story Points are a relative measure.
 Story Points are compared to one another.
 Story Points should be determined by the team using estimation techniques like
Planning Poker or Affinity Estimating.
 Story points are unique to a project. Story Points cannot be compared to other
projects.
The followingare some importantconsiderationsinStoryPoints:

STORY POINTS AND ESTIMATING
Bestpracticesto be followedwhile estimatingastorypointare givenbelow:
5.4 ESTIMATE BY ANALOGY
Storypointestimationcanbe done effectivelythroughcomparisons.A few considerationswhile
estimatingbyanalogyare as follows:
5.5 VALUE POINTS
Agile emphasizesdeliveryvalue andoutcomes.
 Value point show the relative business value of a story.
 Applying the same relative sizing techniques to the value of stories helps provide
a view into the overall value delivery.

 This also engages the Product Owner and business stakeholders in quantifying
the value of the stories/features.
 In turn, it brings real power to measurements.
5.6 IDEAL DAYS
An ideal dayestimate answersthe question,how longwouldittake tocomplete astory,giventhat,
 It is the only task being worked on.
 There were no interruptions.
 Everything needed(clarifications, dependencies) is available.
Once the ideal dayestimate hasbeenarrivedat,ithas to be convertedtothe actual (elapsed)days
basedon the level of distractiontobe accountedfor.
There can be several distractionsthatcanarise whenan ideal dayestimate isbeingconvertedtothe
actual days.Followingare the factorsthat give rise todistractions:
5.7 COMPARING STORY POINTS AND IDEAL DAYS
Givenbelowisacomparisonof the two unitsof same size measuresusedinAgile projects,viz,Ideal
daysand story points.Eachapproach has itsownset of advantages.

5.8 ESTIMATION SCALE
Agile estimationshouldaimforestimatesthatare reasonablypredictable onaggregate andnotstrive
for precision.Precise estimationprocesscanbe time consumingandexpensive.Usually,anon-linear
scale isusedfor estimation.The twocommonlyusednon-linearscale are asfollows:
5.9 PLANNING POKER
One way toestimate storypointeffortistouse a game of planningpoker.
 Each member of the team receives a deck of numbered cards.
 The product owner reads each story card and answers any questions.
 Each team member estimates the effort using a relative estimate and everyone
shows their hand at once.
 Outliers(high or low) talk about why they made their estimate.
 After the discussion, team members re-estimate until consensus is reached.
The product ownerreadsa userStory and the fourteammembersprovide theirestimatesusing
planningpokercards.

5.10 ACCURACY VS. PRECISION
Agile estimatesstrivesforaccuracy,but notprecisionasachievingprecisionmakesthe estimation
processlengthyandexpensive.
 Accuracy strives for converging on the standard or known value.
 Precision is about repeatability.
5.11 WIDEBAND DELPHI
WidebandDelphi isaprocessthatthe team can use to generate anaccurate estimate.

 The Project manager chooses an estimation team, comprised of knowledgeable
experts and through a series of sessions gains consensus among the team and
estimate.
 This techniques is a repeatable process because it consists of a straightforward
set of steps that can e performed the same way each time.
 The drawback of this technique is it requires more effort and co-ordination to
develop the estimate.
The stepsinvolvedinthe WidebandDelphitechnique are asfollows:
5.12 AFFINITY ESTIMATION
AffinityEstimationisatechnique usedbyteamstoestimate(instorypoints) alarge numberof user
stories.The advantagesof AffinityEstimationare asfollows:
 It is quick and easy.
 Decision making process is transparent and visible.
 It creates experience rather than confrontational exercise.

5.13 SILENT RELATIVE SIZING
The firststepin AffinityEstimation issilentrelative sizing.Findingbelow the processesof implementing
thisstep:
 Product backlog is provided by the product owner.
 Stories are arranged horizontally.
 Team members are expected to size each item relative to other items on the wall
considering the effort involved in implementation.
5.14 EDIT THE WALL
The secondstepin the AffinityEstimationiseditthe wall.Thisstepinvolvesthe followingprocesses:
 Editing the relative sizing on the wall.
 All the items in the product backlog are placed on the wall and moved in either
direction according to the relative sizing. A discussion is conducted and decisions
are made, based on it.

6.0 SOFT SKILL NEGOTIATION
Emotional Intelligence(EI),oftenmeasuredasan Emotional Intelligence Quotient(EQ),isameasure that
describesthe abilitytoidentify,accessandmanage the emotionsof one’sself,of others,andof groups.
Agile Emotional Intelligence isasoftskill whicheveryProjectManagershouldpossesswhile handling
projectsinunpredictableenvironment.
 This skill is applied by Project managers to promote collaboration in agite teams.
 It encourages leadership of the projects that are flexible and can be adapted to a
customer’s requirements.
6.1 EI AND SCRUM MASTERS / AGILE PROJECT MANAGERS
Emotional Intelligence isanimportantskillforthe agile projectmanagersforvariousreasons.Agile
ProjectManagers:
 Need to build relationships and understand how to get the best from others in a
matrix environment.
 Need to be able to motivate staff, build teams from disparate sources, and
manage conflict.
 Need to understand and manage the impact of a technical solution on a user
population.

 Need to provide leadership decisions based on the analysis of the situation and
understanding of the impact of that decision.
 Must be able to deliver results by understanding one’s emotions, the emotions of
others and how those can be most effectively managed.
6.2 BENEFITS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
If agile projectmanagerstake effortstoimprove onthe emotional quotient,theycanbe betterprepared
for performingtheirrole inthe followingways:
 Improved Leadership.
 More effective handling and resolution of disputes.
 More effective development of team working.
 Improved negotiations.
 More cost-effective decision making.
 Better quality problem solving and decision making.

6.3 FIVE LEVELS OF CONFLICT

6.4 SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Thisleadershipstylelendsitself readilytothe participatorystyleof management thatisencouragedin
self-organizedandAgile teams.
Servantleadershippositionsthe leaderasthe enabler.
A servantleader:
 Helps the team.
 Removes obstacles that the team is facing.
 Gives them the tool and skills they need and protects them from unnecessary
disturbances.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Some of the characteristicsof servantleaderare asfollows:
7.0 CONCLUSION
The documentwill enablethe readertounderstandthe variousconceptof Agile ProjectManagement
and implementationof some Agile Techniquesprocesses.
8.0 REFERENCE
1) Project Management Institute.
2) Internet.
3) Simplilearn

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