Skip to main content
Project Management

Return to Answer

formatting changes and such
Source Link
Nitesh Verma
Nitesh Verma
  • 11
  • 3

HereAlthough I'm posting a response a year after the question is asked, but this seems to be a common question and hope my experience would help some people in taking the right decision for their respective organizations.

According to me, here is a mix that works best for maintenance projects:

1). Define a sprint cycle - week or 2-week cycle depending on the volume of work, time it takes to fix/test/release, the number of resources you have in your team and the client's perspective/expectations.

2). Plan and re-plan your sprintssprints as often as possible to be on top of the estimates v/s current status. You'll also arrive at velocity or capacity to deliver in a few weeks time, which will further help you in planning.

3). I would not recommend use of Story pointsStory points for maintenance, as hourly estimate works betterhourly estimate works better in this case, since you exactly know what needs to be fixed and how much efforts are required, rather than going for relative-estimation techniques.

4). Use Kanban BoardKanban Board to keep a track of progress of tickets/incidents.

5). Daily stand-up meetingsstand-up meetings would help to resolve smaller or urgent bottle-necks while the Retrospective analysisRetrospective analysis would help to gradually improve the process.

6). Too much focus on processToo much focus on process may also lead to bottleneck at times since you tend to lose the flexibility and agility. I recommend to be flexibleflexible enough to accommodate changes to sprint as long as nobody(other than process) is getting hurt.

In a nutshell, lots of wonderful tools, techniques & processes are available, you would want to choose only the ones that would really help youchoose only the ones that would really help you and your business.

Best, Nitesh

Here is a mix that works best for maintenance projects:

1). Define a sprint cycle - week or 2-week cycle depending on the volume of work, time it takes to fix/test/release, the number of resources you have in your team and the client's perspective/expectations.

2). Plan and re-plan your sprints as often as possible to be on top of the estimates v/s current status. You'll also arrive at velocity or capacity to deliver in a few weeks time, which will further help you in planning.

3). I would not recommend use of Story points for maintenance, as hourly estimate works better in this case, since you exactly know what needs to be fixed and how much efforts are required, rather than going for relative-estimation techniques.

4). Use Kanban Board to keep a track of progress of tickets/incidents.

5). Daily stand-up meetings would help to resolve smaller or urgent bottle-necks while the Retrospective analysis would help to gradually improve the process.

6). Too much focus on process may also lead to bottleneck at times since you tend to lose the flexibility and agility. I recommend to be flexible enough to accommodate changes to sprint as long as nobody(other than process) is getting hurt.

In a nutshell, lots of wonderful tools, techniques & processes are available, you would want to choose only the ones that would really help you and your business.

Best, Nitesh

Although I'm posting a response a year after the question is asked, but this seems to be a common question and hope my experience would help some people in taking the right decision for their respective organizations.

According to me, here is a mix that works best for maintenance projects:

1). Define a sprint cycle - week or 2-week cycle depending on the volume of work, time it takes to fix/test/release, the number of resources you have in your team and the client's perspective/expectations.

2). Plan and re-plan sprints as often as possible to be on top of the estimates v/s current status. You'll also arrive at velocity or capacity to deliver in a few weeks time, which will further help you in planning.

3). I would not recommend use of Story points for maintenance, as hourly estimate works better in this case, since you exactly know what needs to be fixed and how much efforts are required, rather than going for relative-estimation techniques.

4). Use Kanban Board to keep a track of progress of tickets/incidents.

5). Daily stand-up meetings would help to resolve smaller or urgent bottle-necks while the Retrospective analysis would help to gradually improve the process.

6). Too much focus on process may also lead to bottleneck at times since you tend to lose the flexibility and agility. I recommend to be flexible enough to accommodate changes to sprint as long as nobody(other than process) is getting hurt.

In a nutshell, lots of wonderful tools, techniques & processes are available, you would want to choose only the ones that would really help you and your business.

Best, Nitesh

Source Link
Nitesh Verma
Nitesh Verma
  • 11
  • 3

Here is a mix that works best for maintenance projects:

1). Define a sprint cycle - week or 2-week cycle depending on the volume of work, time it takes to fix/test/release, the number of resources you have in your team and the client's perspective/expectations.

2). Plan and re-plan your sprints as often as possible to be on top of the estimates v/s current status. You'll also arrive at velocity or capacity to deliver in a few weeks time, which will further help you in planning.

3). I would not recommend use of Story points for maintenance, as hourly estimate works better in this case, since you exactly know what needs to be fixed and how much efforts are required, rather than going for relative-estimation techniques.

4). Use Kanban Board to keep a track of progress of tickets/incidents.

5). Daily stand-up meetings would help to resolve smaller or urgent bottle-necks while the Retrospective analysis would help to gradually improve the process.

6). Too much focus on process may also lead to bottleneck at times since you tend to lose the flexibility and agility. I recommend to be flexible enough to accommodate changes to sprint as long as nobody(other than process) is getting hurt.

In a nutshell, lots of wonderful tools, techniques & processes are available, you would want to choose only the ones that would really help you and your business.

Best, Nitesh