Agile

Agile

The Shape of the Work When Estimating Agile Releases

In a recent webinar on using the SLIM tools and methods in an agile environment, we showed a template for agile projects included with SLIM-Estimate. I was asked, "Since agile teams are a fixed size group that stays together throughout the work on the release, why doesn’t the agile template use the Level Load shape?" My answer was the typical short answer to a complex question, "It’s complicated and it depends." In this blog, let’s take a look at some of those complications and dependencies.

The team, the whole team, or nothing but the team?

When using SLIM-Estimate to estimate the effort required for a release, agile or not, you have to decide, "Whose effort are we interested in?" When describing a team in a scrum project, we usually talk about three major roles: product owner, scrum master, and team member. These people are, in general, full time on the project. If you are only interested in estimating the effort of these full time team members, then you may want to use the “Level Load” shape in SLIM-Estimate. The total effort of these people is based on the number of people multiplied by the duration of the work on the release.

Blog Post Categories 
Agile

ITMPI Webinar - Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths

Presented by for ITMPI on Sept. 9 at 11:00 AM EST by Dr. Andy Berner.

When it comes to agile, there are common myths and misconceptions about estimation. In this webinar, QSM’s Andy Berner will offer corrections to these, such as:

  • Why we still need to estimate duration on agile projects
  • Why velocity is not constant on a project, or across projects
  • Why setting expectations based on scope is still important, even as we “embrace change”
  • Why burndown charts will not be straight lines
  • Why you still need to plan for work on requirements, even though it’s not all “upfront”

While some longstanding principles about software estimation still apply, agile methods require some significant changes to how we estimate. This webinar will show you how to tailor estimation tools and methods specifically to an agile development environment to estimate, measure, and analyze your agile software development projects. Andy Berner will demonstrate how top-down estimation fits with the principles of agile development, and will discuss what needs to be estimated, how size factors in, and how to accommodate different iteration lengths and types of work. This will allow you to optimize the choices and plans for the work of your agile teams.

Register for this webinar!

Blog Post Categories 
Agile Webinars

Webinar Replay - Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths, Part 2

Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths, Part 2

When it comes to agile, there are common myths and misconceptions about project estimation and tracking. In Part 2 of this PDU-approved two-part webinar series (which can be viewed independently or together), presented by QSM's Andy Berner offers corrections to these, such as:

  • Why velocity is not a good predictor of release duration
  • Why burndown charts will not be close to straight lines
  • Why change and churn are not the same thing
  • Why looking at just the values of metrics alone is not enough

While some longstanding principles about software estimation still apply, agile methods require some significant changes to how we estimate. This webinar shows you how to leverage the SLIM estimation and tracking tools to properly interpret metrics collected by agile teams and ensure that agile projects meet their goals. Andy Berner demonstrates how SLIM fits with the principles of agile development, and discusses milestones, productivity, project control, data collection, and looks with an eye towards further research.

Watch the replay!

Blog Post Categories 
Webinars Agile

New Workshop: Estimating and Tracking Agile Projects

QSM is pleased to introduce our Estimating and Tracking Agile Projects workshop, the latest in our popular workshop series.  We introduced a number of workshop offerings last year in response to a growing demand for basic educational courses on software estimation and project management from our clients and prospects. 

The purpose of our Estimation and Tracking Agile Projects workshop is to give students a clear understanding of how to estimate and track agile projects at the project release and portfolio level which, in turn, helps establish more reasonable expectations for developer sprint/iteration level planning. Participants will learn how to "embrace change" in the estimation and tracking process while also effectively managing stakeholder expectations based on scope. The workshop content includes the most effective methods for sizing agile projects and uses SLIM as an example to show how a scope based parametric tool can be used to estimate and track effort/cost, duration and quality in an agile environment.

After completing the workshop, attendees will have the ability to estimate and track agile projects at various stages in the software development life cycle. They will also be able to explain, from a software estimation perspective, what makes software projects using agile methods truly unique vs. differences in terminology.

QSM offers a number of additional agile resources for our clients and prospects, including articles, blog posts, and our upcoming Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths, Part 2 webinar.

Blog Post Categories 
Agile Tracking Training

PDU-Approved Webinar - Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths, Part 2

When it comes to agile, there are common myths and misconceptions about project estimation and tracking. In Part 2 of this PDU-approved two-part webinar series (which can be viewed independently or together), presented on May 28 at 1:00 PM EDT by QSM's Andy Berner offers corrections to these, such as:

  • Why velocity is not a good predictor of release duration
  • Why burndown charts will not be close to straight lines
  • Why change and churn are not the same thing
  • Why looking at just the values of metrics alone is not enough

While some longstanding principles about software estimation still apply, agile methods require some significant changes to how we estimate. This webinar shows you how to leverage the SLIM estimation and tracking tools to properly interpret metrics collected by agile teams and ensure that agile projects meet their goals. Andy Berner demonstrates how SLIM fits with the principles of agile development, and discusses milestones, productivity, project control, data collection, and look with an eye towards further research.

Register now!

Blog Post Categories 
Webinars Agile

Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths, Part 1 Webinar Replay and Q&A Highlights

Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths Webinar

Our recent webinar, Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths, Part 1, presented by Andy Berner, featured a lively Q&A session. Here are a few of the highlights that you can catch in the PDU-approved replay.

Q: You talked about different types of work and how they're done concurrently. What about the work of developing the system architecture?

A: How architecture is determined in agile projects is a really interesting question. Grady Booch, who is one of the great proponents of software architecture used to say that the biggest difference of opinion between him and Kent Beck, who is thought of as the inventor of agile, was the extent to which architecture is planned versus evolved. So there's controversy, but I think all agile methodologists would agree that some basic architecture constraints are an input to the coding work, and thus we would consider that as part of "getting to ready," and also agree that some detailed architecture decisions evolve along with the detailed design as part of “getting to done.” So it's split.  The more complex the project, the more likely you’ll need strong architectural input that was part of "getting to ready" and should plan more architectural effort as part of the "getting to ready" portion.

Q: Can you create an agile estimate using function points as an input?

Blog Post Categories 
Webinars Agile

New Webinar Series - Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths

When it comes to agile, there are common myths and misconceptions about estimation.  In the first of this two-part webinar series (which can be viewed independently or together), presented on April 22 at 1:00 PM EDTQSM’s Andy Berner will offer corrections to these, such as:

  • Why we still need to estimate duration on agile projects
  • Why setting expectations based on scope is still important, even as we “embrace change”
  • Why you still need to plan for work on requirements, even though it’s not all “upfront”

While some longstanding principles about software estimation still apply, agile methods require some significant changes to how we estimate.  This webinar will show you how to tailor the SLIM estimation tools and methods specifically to an agile development environment to estimate, measure, and analyze your agile software development projects. Andy Berner will demonstrate how SLIM fits with the principles of agile development, and will discuss what needs to be estimated, how size factors in, and how to accommodate different iteration lengths and types of work.  This will allow you to optimize the choices and plans for the work of your agile teams. 

Blog Post Categories 
Webinars Agile

Twin-SPIN Presentation: Does Agile Scale? - A Short Case Study

On Thursday, April 9, QSM's Pam Simonovich will present Does Agile Scale? - A Short Case Study, hosted at the University of Minnesota.

This presentation uses completed project data as an example to show that when organizations make a conscious decision to adopt Agile methods in conjunction with other traditional development methodologies, these approaches can be effectively scaled and implemented for larger projects and enterprises – to a point.

Blog Post Categories 
QSM News Agile

The Importance of Grooming the Backlog: An Interview with Andy Berner

In agile development, getting the backlog ready and grooming it take serious consideration and work. You need to plan, budget for, and track this work. In a recent interview with Cameron Philipp-Edmonds of StickyMinds, Andy Berner talks about his upcoming presentation for Agile Development Conference East, the importance of keeping a well-groomed backlog, the pitfalls of the impossible zone, and why it's vital that you and your team keep your tools serving you and not the other way around.

Read the full interview transcript here!

Blog Post Categories 
QSM News Agile

New Article: A Case Study in Implementing Agile

A Case Study in Implementing Agile

This case study for Agile Connection by QSM's Taylor Putnam serves as an example of how adopting agile can be extremely beneficial to an organization, as long as situational factors are considered. Adopting a new development method is a strategic, long-term investment rather than a quick fix. As this article shows, making deliberate, fully formed decisions will ultimately lead to better outcomes.

Read the full article!

Blog Post Categories 
Agile Articles