Agile estimating

I have read Mike Cohn’s book an Agile Planning and Estimating Several times. Its well written, In the meantime these videos will help. In my opinion, Poker Planning is a version of the Wide-Band Delphi estimating technique.

Agile Retrospectives

Project retrospectives or ‘Lessons Learned’ events helps the project team examine what went right and what went wrong on a project. The advantage of Agile Retrospectives is th frequency with which the increments take place - so you get to refine and adapt much more quickly i.e you get to do continuous improvement as you go along. Lessons learned at the end of a traditional project is usually too late!

Method Agility Ranking

I often get asked which Method is the most Agile. I always say Scrum because it is a framework - a wrapper - into which you can roll engineering practices that suit your organisation. Boehm and Turner in their book - Balancing Agility and Discipline have made an attempt at ranking the methods.

 

Implementing SCRUM in 10 Easy Steps

I liked this - although it is only part of the picture.

 I am working with a company at the moment that wants and needs to become more Agile. SCRUM is just one part of the jigsaw but it is attractive because it is simple. However, do not underestimate how hard it is to make things stick. We are talking organisational change here!

Defect Removal Rates

As has been stated previously, Agile encompasses more than a methodology or framework. Total Quality Management is also of major importance because higher quality = less rework = higher thoughput into production. The following table highlights the defect removal efficiency rates associated with the most common techniques. For a relatively modest input -e.g. formal code inspection, the output is a much lower defect density. The interesting thing is the fact that Testing is less effective at finding defects than formal activities. Which one is the cheapest to perform?
 

Removal Step	Lowest Rate	Modal Rate	Highest Rate
Informal design reviews	25%	35%	40%
Formal design inspection	45%	55%	65%
Informal code reviews	20%	25%	35%
Formal code inspections	45%	60%	70%
Modeling or prototyping	35%	65%	80%
Personal desk checking of code	20%	40%	60%
Unit Test	15%	30%	50%
New Function (component Test)	20%	30%	35%
Integration Test	25%	35%	40%
Regression Test	15%	25%	30%
System Test	25%	40%	55%
Low-Volume beta Test ( < 10 sites)	25%	35%	40%
High-Volume beta test *> 1000 sites)	60%	75%	85%

Please refer to Software Estimation - demystifying the black Art by Steve McConnell. 

SCRUM Summary

A nice summary can be found here

 

Theory of Constraints

I know I bang on about this time and time again! However if you want to get Agile you need to find the constraints within the organisation. You need to remove them as quickly as possible if you want product - i.e software to flow. Frameworks such as SCRUM are but one part of the Agile picture. When you attend a daily meeting and are asked for the impediments affecting your progress - think constraints.

SCRUM and Haka

I’ve never actually seen this tried when confronted with the upper management wanting an explanation on why the estimate is too big. But next time the management disagree on your estimates try a bit of this. I think the translation goes along the lines of - your high level estimate stinks, and we have had enough!

Watch more videos at SportsTube!

Agile Testing

Agile testing. This should keep the QA guys happy. Sorry I mean the Test guys Happy. I don’t understand why some companies call the Test department ‘QA’ or quality assurance. Sure they are acting as a gate on the software but who is checking the testers are doing a great job? Would thatnot be the QA department. I.E to me, the QA team should look across development/testing etc to ensure they are doing a great job - more of an audit role I guess. Anyhow - Agile testing - worth a view…

Agile Team Sizes

Occasionally I find a Video that does not fit into any of the small number of categories I use. Here is one that is quite interesting, and also often asked. How big a team can you have working on an agile project?

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