The document explains the use of Rally as a tool for managing Scrum projects, emphasizing the importance of using Scrum methodologies correctly. It details the process of project inception, backlog management, story estimation, iteration planning, and release planning. Additionally, it highlights the distinction between projects and teams in the context of backlog and iterations and recommends practices for effective project management.

1. Rally - How To Use It
aka “Why absolutely everything you do
with it is wrong”

2. What is Rally?
• A tool for managing SCRUM
• If you don’t use SCRUM, you’re doing
it wrong.

3. Some Terms
• Product Backlog
• Features/Stories
• Iterations
• Releases
• Test Plans
• Defects

4. Project Inception
• Work out a couple of themes for a
project
• State those themes as stories
• Create a backlog for the project
• Put those stories in the backlog

5. What’s the Backlog for?
• Stories that haven’t yet:
• been defined
• been estimated
• been prioritised
• You should have multiple backlogs

6. Story Hierarchies
• Stories can have sub-stories
• Sub-stories elaborate and expand the
parent story
• Keep breaking stories up until you hit
the 1-3 day mark
• Keep breaking stories up until
acceptance criteria are small

7. Make A
Booking
Find A
Room
Pick The
Dates
Pay With
Credit Card
Obtain Card
Details
Charge Credit
Card
Handle
Declined Cards
Enter Guest
Details
Pay With Gift
Voucher
Validate Gift
Voucher Balance
Reduce Gift
Voucher Balance
Pay For
Booking
Record Accounting
Details

8. Story Estimation
• Guess-timates - “I think this will take
XYZ”
• Rule of 3 - keep guess-timates between
1 to 3 ‘units’
• Units are:
• days, weeks, months, quarters,
years

9. Task Estimations
• Stories have tasks
• Task are created when stories leave
the backlog - NOT BEFORE!
• Task estimations are “How long will
this take me right now?”
• Tasks do not depend on other stories
• Tasks are in hours - Rule of 3 applies

10. Projects vs Teams
• Projects have Backlogs
• Projects have Releases
• Projects DO NOT have iterations
• Teams have iterations.

11. Iteration Planning
• Populate team backlog
• Pull in stories from project backlogs
• Drag “defined” stories to iteration
• Add tasks to stories
• Don’t add too many stories
• Don’t plan more than 2 iterations
ahead

12. Rally As A Kanban Tool
• See the Task Board

13. Release Planning
• Plan releases around stories
• Use the highest level story possible
• All sub-stories automatically
included
• Release when stories are done

14. When in Doubt - Go
Faster, Not Slower
• Use shorter iterations - 1 week?
• Focus on getting the process right
• Use smaller releases - 1 story?
• Keep team backlog short