A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) is a useful tool for reporting and tracking project performance. It provides a simple, visual representation of project progress at a particular point in time. It is usually used to provide a higher level status of the overall project and not daily updates for individual Sprints. The image above is an…
The responsibility of prioritizing and delivering business value in an organization for projects lies primarily with the Product Owner. For programs and portfolios, the responsibility lies with the Program Product Owner and Portfolio Product Owner, respectively. Their role is to act as effective representatives of the customer and/or sponsor. The guidelines for evaluating and measuring…
A typical Prioritized Product Backlog will contain all User Stories, their time estimates (including any revised estimates), and the status of higher priority requirements. Any new or revised User Stories resulting from changes to business requirements, customer requests, external market conditions, and/or lessons learned from previous Sprints are also incorporated. Backlog Grooming Session The Product…
The term “agile” generally refers to being able to move or respond quickly and easily; being nimble. In any kind of management discipline, agile as a quality should therefore be a good thing to aim for. Agile project management specifically, involves being adaptive during the creation of a product, service, or other result. A number…
The role of a Chief Scrum Master is necessary to ensure proper collaboration among the Scrum Teams. Coordination across various Scrum Teams working on a project is typically done through the Scrum of Scrums (SoS) Meeting. There is no hierarchy between the Scrum Masters: they are all peers. The Chief Scrum Master just works on…
At the program or portfolio level, there is normally a smaller number of requirements/user stories than at the project level. The percentage of user stories with a very tangible value/business need/user impact is normally much lower than on project level. That means that the selection of techniques that are useful at a program or portfolio…
Agile and Waterfall are two different methods used in managing a project. Both the methods have their own pros and cons and choosing one model is based on many project-centric factors. Waterfall Method The Waterfall model is a progressive design process which in the software development industry goes through stages such as Conception, Initiation, Analysis,…
User Stories adhere to a specific, predefined structure and are a simple way of documenting requirements and desired end-user functionalities. A User Story tells you three things about the requirement: Who, What, and Why. The requirements expressed in User Stories are short, simple and easy-to-understand statements. The predefined standard format results in enhanced communication among…
Selecting appropriate Scrum Master(s) and identifying relevant Stakeholder(s) is crucial to the success of any project. In some projects, there may have been pre-conditions stipulating certain team members and their roles. When there is flexibility in choosing the Scrum Master(s), the following are important Selection Criteria: Problem-solving skills—This is one of the primary criteria to…
The Program Product Owner develops the Program Product Backlog which contains a prioritized list of high level business and project requirements preferably written in the form of large Program Backlog Items. These are later refined by the Product Owners of individual projects as they create and prioritize Product Backlogs for their projects. These Prioritized Product…
