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Epics and Agile Planning

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Dilbert on Estimating

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Watch for road signs…

Along the way there will good, salient topics that we cannot fully address in this session.

Road Sign slides will allow us to briefly consider these topics, but stay on track for our main message.

If time permits, we can revisit these topics during the Question and Answer period at the end.

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For what answers are we looking?

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• Business Case• Financing• Scope & Approach• Contracts• Initial Release Plan• Assemble Team

Sprint Planning 1 day

•Acceptance Defined•Team commits•Tasks created

Product Owner establishes vision and

prioritizes Product Backlog

Sprint1 to 4 weeks

Team (BA, QA, Dev, etc.) createsand estimates Sprint Backlog (tasks)

DemonstrableRelease

Daily Scrum< 15 minutes

Burn down

Demo1/2 day

Sprint Retrospective1/2 day

Burn up

velocity

Scrum

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A list of goals, features, and requirements that a product must provide in order to meet a business need

The Product Owner creates and maintains this list, and from it all Sprints derive their work

Product BacklogThe essential planning tool

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How much of the product backlog effort can a team handle in one sprint?

Should become more accurate over time

Should rise and then level off

Is observed*, not speculated

*Except for sprint 1 and new teams

Velocity

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What do we get if…

Total features in P B/LTotal features in P B/Lfeatures per interval of timefeatures per interval of time

length of intervallength of interval

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Oooo…

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What are these things really?

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User StoriesWhat are User Stories?

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User StoryA good format

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User StoryFor Example

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Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimable

Small

Testable

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimable

Small

Testable

Good Stories Are...

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Not all stories are created equal…

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Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimable

Small

Testable

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimable

Small

Testable

Sprint1 to 4 weeks

Fits nicely into one sprint…

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What about the rest of INVEST?

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimable

Small

Testable

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimable

Small

Testable

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The Epic User Story

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How much is there?

3 3

2 5

8

8

20

20

30

40 Total: 180

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How much is there?

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What do these number represent?How does one assign them?

3 3

2 5

8

8

20

20

30

40

User stories can be sized with hour or days, but most experienced practitioners use Story Points.

Story Points are popular because they allow teams to estimate the size of User Stories relative to one another, and avoid having to guess who will work on a User Story.

Planning Poker is a popular way to spawn discussion and assign sizes to User Stories.

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Epic

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The Epic User Story

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Embrace Epicness

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In a future session…

Epic Small

I wonder how…

I wonder how…

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Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Gary.McCants@ImprovingEnterprises.com

All Done!

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Questions?

www.synerzip.com Hemant Elhence

hemant@synerzip.com469.322.0349

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Synerzip in a Nut-shell1. Software product development partner for small/mid-

sized technology companiesExclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies, typically venture-backed companies in growth phaseBy definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clientsDeep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment

2. Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals for each client

Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparencyStable teams with very low turn-overNOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support

3. Actually reduces risk of development/deliveryExperienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering disciplinePractices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined

4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking

offshore team captive – aka “BOT” option

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Our Clients

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Call Us for a Free Consultation!

www.synerzip.com Hemant Elhence

hemant@synerzip.com469.322.0349

Thanks!