This document provides a quick reference guide for agile planning and processes. It describes meeting types and frequencies, user story sizing and descriptions, acceptance criteria, adding tasks, and team roles. It also provides information on navigating the CA Agile Central tool, including how to view the current iteration and add user stories, features, and epics.

1. Agile Quick Reference Guide
Author: Ellen Ma
Contents
Agile Quick Reference Guide ........................................................................................................................1
Planning Level Details ...............................................................................................................................2
Types of Meetings.....................................................................................................................................2
List of Items owned by Business in Rally.......................................................................................................3
Sizing of User Stories.................................................................................................................................3
Descriptions of User Stories......................................................................................................................4
Acceptance Criteria...................................................................................................................................4
Add Tasks to User Stories..........................................................................................................................4
Team Roles....................................................................................................................................................5
Business Team...........................................................................................................................................5
IT ...............................................................................................................................................................5
Agile Coaches............................................................................................................................................5
Vendor Solution Consultants ....................................................................................................................5
CA Agile Central (Rally) Info ..........................................................................................................................6
Best view for current iteration..................................................................................................................6
To add User Story/Feature/Sub Epic ........................................................................................................6

2. Planning Level Details
Planning Level Time Horizon Focus Deliverables Primary
Stakeholder(s)
Product (Epic) 6 to 12 months Vision and product
evolution over time
Product vision, roadmap
and high-level features
Product owner
Business SMEs
Release 8 to 16 weeks Wheat features to deliver in
the next release
Release Plan Whole team
Iteration 2 weeks What stories to deliver in
the next iteration
Iteration Plan in Rally Whole team
Daily Each day How to complete
committed stories everyday
Updated Task Board in
Rally
Whole team
Types of Meetings
Meeting
Name
Frequency Duration Purpose Attendees
Iteration
Planning
Meeting
Bi-weekly 1 to 2
hours
As a team go through User Stories in scope for
the coming iteration and prioritize, size and
task them out accordingly.
Whole team
Demo Bi-weekly 1 hour Informally show case the product developed up
to date to a targeted audience (may include
business leads and stakeholders) and the agile
team.
Whole team
Retrospective Bi-weekly 1 hour As a team discuss the things that went well and
those that could be improved upon for the past
iteration. Also outline action items to have the
team complete with an aim for improvement
for the coming iteration.
Whole team
Standup
Meeting
Daily 15 minutes A quick 15 minute meeting to have the working
team (including external consultants) provide
an update on
- What was worked on yesterday
- What’s to be worked on today
- Any impediments / other issues
Whole team

3. List of Items owned by Business in Rally
Sizing of User Stories
User stories need to be sized appropriately by the owner in an attempt to conceptually estimate the
scope of the work being done for that user story.
The field to input such estimate is called “Plan Est” and is done at the User Story level in Rally.
The conceptual comparisons used on this project are that of “T-shirt Sizes”. Sizes such as “XS”, “S”, “M”,
“L”, “XL” and “XXL” are provided to the team to perform mental estimate on the size of the user stories.
Each size has a corresponding point value for which is the actual value being inputted into Rally in the
“Plan Est” field.
The chart below provides a guide on how user stories are sized. (The points are Fibonacci numbers)
These points are useful in the iterative process of the project in that they help the working team gain a
clearer picture of the scope of the work that are being done. This helps the owner of the user story to
plan and estimate their time commitment on that particular user story and to conceptualize the overall
time and efforts required to complete all of their user stories in the given iteration.

4. Descriptions of User Stories
Each user story needs to have a description that covers three main areas: who, what and why.
Essentially, the description of the user story should indicate the role of the owner, what he/she wants to
achieve in this user story and the reasons behind it.
The template below serves as a good example,
As a _________________, I want to_________________________, so that _______________________.
Acceptance Criteria
The acceptance criteria are an important part of the user story. In here, the owner of the user story
needs to clearly outline the expected outcomes of the user story in order for them to be considered
complete. The owner should lay out all the specific criteria the user story needs to meet in order to be
considered complete. The rule of thumb is to have 2 to 3 lines of acceptance criteria here.
Add Tasks to User Stories
For each user story in Rally, it is also necessary to add tasks. The tasks are essentially granular steps that
need to be completed in a specific order in order for the user story to be considered complete. It is easy
to add tasks to each user story in Rally and the user interface is also easy to understand.
Tasks can be described in one short sentence and should point out the activities to be done. For
example, a task for a user story to create a SharePoint site for the project may read something like
“obtain access to project SharePoint site”, and another task may be “add documents to newly created
SharePoint site”.
Rally also requires the user story owner to estimate the number of hours each task will take. Simply
input this information in the appropriate field next to each task in Rally. A good rule of thumb is for each
task to take 2 to 5 hours depending on the nature of the task. The owner of the task can leverage
professional judgement here.
When under time constraints, the owner of the user story does not need to write out the tasks
extensively. The best approach towards this tasking exercise is to treat it like a “to-do” list for each user
story so the owner is always clear on what needs to be done in order to complete the user story. Write a
short title for each tasks and give it an estimated number of hours would be all that are required here.

5. Team Roles
Business Team
- Product Owner
- Team member
- Team member
- .
- .
- Team member
IT
- Delivery Lead
- Scrum Master (Business Analyst)
- Team member (IT Operations Analyst)
- Team member (IT Operations Analyst)
Agile Coaches
Vendor Solution Consultants
- PMO Lead
- Designated Support Engineer
- Solution Consultant Lead
- Solution Consultant
- Solution Consultant
- .
- .
- Solution Consultant

6. CA Agile Central (Rally) Info
There are several agile project management tools available on the market for projects to use. The most
common tool adopted by many large companies is named “CA Agile Central”, or “Rally” as its previous
and more popular name.
Some other tools available are
 Jira
 Trello
 Agilo for Scrum
Best view for current iteration
Track -> ATF Dashboard, then scroll down to Iteration Tracking section. This is the best place to view all
user stories in scope for the current iteration. Click on the button to enlarge the screen for better
view.
To add User Story/Feature/Sub Epic
Portfolio -> Portfolio Items, then select the type of content to be added. For example, if a new User
Story is to be added, select “Feature” from the dropdown menu to see the list of all features in the
current project. Then, click on the feature you would like to add the new User Story under. Once at the
feature information page, go ahead and click on the second tab from the left named “User Stories”.
Here you can add a new User Story by entering the name in the space at the top and click on “Add” to
finish the step.