Questions tagged [agile]
Use this tag for any questions that involve agile approaches from the perspective of a project manager, Scrum Master, agile coach, or similar role.
1,294
questions
9
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4answers
383 views
Is the PM's required knowledge in agile environment changing nowadays?
We see software developers these days that do not know what does it mean not to use TDD or other practices of XP, project leaders that never worked in a non-agile environment, etc.
These people don't ...
9
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5answers
1k views
Estimating user stories at the start of the project so that the PM can determine a quote for the client
Recently I have started to work on a team in a new project. Our company is attempting to run things in an Agile manner.
The project team consists of 4 developers each from different teams and with ...
9
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3answers
1k views
What are you doing with Agile teams who no longer run retrospectives?
I have run into several teams who tell me that they no longer run iteration retrospectives: they were a waste of time and they weren't learning anything new. What is your answer to these teams? Should ...
9
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3answers
2k views
What to do with unexpectedly blocked story in scrum?
We have a low-pointed story which was dev-complete but, during testing, revealed a problem. In investigating the problem it was discovered that an external party will be required to deliver a fix. The ...
9
votes
4answers
722 views
How much does Lean Software Development really has to do with the original concept of lean manufacturing?
We are seeing more emphasis on the concept of Lean Software Development, especially by the Agile community.
It's definitely exciting to imagine that the software industry can be as productive, ...
9
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2answers
2k views
Is there Scrum ceremony for planning Technical Details on an Agile Project?
Specifically, if we assume that the team spend a day on Sprint Planning using the 4-8 hours of planning for each week of our sprint formula then that doesn't really seem like enough time for the team ...
9
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2answers
8k views
SRS for an Agile project
Currently, I am drafting a SRS ( Software Requirement Specification ) doc for an agile project, and the samples are the ones used in a waterfall project. I did google a lot but couldn't find any right ...
9
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3answers
2k views
Scrum approach to Graphic Design office
I've been recently asked to teach Scrum to a graphic design office. Why? Because they want to turn their services into quick deliverable products, and not lose focus on the current project they're ...
9
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9answers
2k views
Selecting the right iteration duration [closed]
I've long argued that "1 week" makes a great iteration duration. It forces the issue of getting SW Dev tools operating smoothly and effectively, it also makes it much harder to operate a "dev then ...
9
votes
2answers
607 views
Which is the best methodology to manage a distributed team, working in several short term one-man projects?
I lead a team of around 20 people, distributed around the world (different timezones, most of us haven't met in person).
Most of the projects we work on are short term (3-4 weeks) customizations with ...
8
votes
6answers
3k views
Points, Hours, Capacity
Let's say we work in two week sprints.
The team has 6 developers.
8 hours per day, 10 days, multiplied by 6 would equal total 480 hours.
Multiply that by .7 to get at an ideal developer day and you ...
8
votes
5answers
3k views
Should I leave building the database for the end?
Let's suppose that, as a PO, I have a mini-project with my team.
The project consists of displaying messages and announcements on big shared screen.
The admin can write messages on a page on his ...
8
votes
6answers
2k views
What are the main reasons Scrum doesn't admit managers?
How can I explain the fact we aren't gonna manage the team to a customer? The customer will ask why is not-managing better than managing?
Scrum introduces self-organizing teams. Why doesn't Scrum ...
8
votes
4answers
11k views
Scrum on maintenance. Is it possible?
God bless, I never had a lot of deal with maintenance. But I am curious, is it possible to customize Scrum for maintenance?
If yes, how to guarantee SLA (if developers have a fixed Sprints), for ...
8
votes
4answers
672 views
How to write implementing HTTPS as a user story?
The title sums the question up pretty well. How do you do that? Should you even make implementing HTTPS a user story?
I thought of:
"As a page visitor I want all communication with the service to be ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
How can you estimate a spike story?
We are working on a technology of which the team is not sure how would it go. I would like to estimate and timebox this story. However, the scrum team has to have goal or a shippable product at the ...
8
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7answers
1k views
How to make Release Planning more accurate?
I had an interview with one company. They use Scrum, but don’t like rough estimates during Release Planning. So, they asked me, how to make Release Planning more accurate (they don’t want more than 30 ...
8
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4answers
3k views
Is there an Agile methodology that fits with large refactoring?
Some background: At work, there are several epic (user visible) stories whose effort will be greatly reduced by improving the roles and permissions infrastructure in our code base. However, the effort ...
8
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4answers
2k views
Aren't stakeholder expected to adopt an agile mindset when working in a Scrum framework?
What is expected of the stakeholders when it comes to being agile? Since collaboration is at the heart of agile, shouldn't the adoption of agile values be present on both sides?
As per my ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
How technical should a Scrum Master be to effectively remove impediments?
One of the main roles for a Scrum Master is to remove impediments for the team, such that the development can progress.
This is, in my undertanding, to ensure that the development team can focus on ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
Planning a sprint after reduced team strength
We have seven people team and their running velocity is ~50 points(2 weeks sprint). Now due to change in business focus, we have to reduce team size from 7 to 4.
How do we plan current sprint? ...
8
votes
3answers
345 views
As a Scrum Master, how to handle management expectations on delivering story points?
Problem - I've been appointed as a Scrum Master to a new team and senior management (CTO) expectation is that our team should deliver more than the SP capacity we can currently realistically deliver.
...
8
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6answers
4k views
Is there an Agile or Scrum method without Iterations / Sprints?
I just had a little discussion about this with a few coworkers but we did not come to a conclusion yet. We have a bunch of projects that are actively maintained and developed using scrum, with fixed ...
8
votes
8answers
7k views
How to manage a product development and maintenance team
I am a project manager working with a product development team. We are using SCRUM with our development team. We have a heavy backlog list, that we are working on.
The issue that I am having is, we ...
8
votes
5answers
13k views
Difference between Scrum Master and Agile Delivery Manager
What is the difference between a Scrum Master and Agile Delivery Manager and how can I bridge the gaps.
Perhaps you could recommend books, courses or podcasts.
8
votes
3answers
2k views
User story conversation vs. scope creep
TL; DR;
What is the difference between:
A) The details evoked & scope definitions & acceptance criteria gained from the ongoing "user story conversation" a team should have with the PO, BAs, ...
8
votes
5answers
256 views
Prioritization in Agile
I am quite new with prioritization requirements in agile. As we know, normally, during the prioritization process in agile, business value is the most important factor that taken into consideration.
...
8
votes
5answers
2k views
Is Agile feasible for a large financial application?
I am considering using Scrum on a very large (40+ developers) multi year project for a major bank.
I am trying to figure out if Agile is feasible for a project this size. There are thousands of ...
8
votes
6answers
4k views
Why can't I find well elaborated criticism on agile/scrum on the web? [closed]
After several years of agile and scrum hype around, I'd expect the first well-known reactions from "bullshit!" to "magical!" to be gone and I should be able to find some really elaborated articles ...
8
votes
7answers
219 views
Which columns exist on your task board?
Currently, we’re implementing new processes at our company essentially from scratch, but there are a lot of opinions on which columns should be on the task board. As the one responsible for this ...
8
votes
1answer
791 views
Do you consider a defect an actual defect if it occurs in Dev prior to the acceptance of the User Story as Done?
A fully agile centric question.
If an exception, error, defect or bug occurs prior to the completion of a user story; do you log it is a bug or do simply consider part of the work required to make ...
8
votes
8answers
834 views
What does a Product Owner do if they disagree with the CEO's direction on product strategy?
What can, and should, a Product Owner / Product Manager do if the CEO has mandated that the team builds something which the Product Owner feels is not in the best interests of the customer?
Aside from ...
8
votes
2answers
325 views
In Scrum, what should we do with partly-completed work started at the end of a Sprint?
I get most of Scrum. However, I can't get my head around what to do with work in progress at the end of a Sprint.
If we are working in a swarm, we can defer the end of a Sprint, or bring it forward ...
8
votes
3answers
382 views
Is it possible to be agile with a highly technical project?
I'm working on a small (4-6) team on a project that involves creating a machine learning model to predict the outcome of sports matches real-time. This also involves scraping the data and storing it ...
8
votes
4answers
4k views
what should be part of Sprint 0?
This is our first Agile project and we plan our Sprint 0 to consist of :
Release Content Planning : Defining EPICs/MMFs Product Backlog
Product Backlog Grooming : Breakup of EPICs into stories (as ...
8
votes
4answers
1k views
Can one person be Scrum Master inside two project at the same time?
We have a software company and our team is ten people and the number of projects we have is two.
Can one person be the Scrum Master inside two projects at the same time?
8
votes
5answers
727 views
How can we speed up code reviews without sacrificing thoroughness of the code reviews?
At our workplace, we use Agile Scrum method. However, we don't really follow it religiously.
But, we do very thorough code reviews. The problem with code reviews is that it's takes a while to ...
8
votes
5answers
8k views
When is the best time to create story tasks?
I have a team of developers who are relatively new to Agile and sprints (approx. 5 months now).
Every time I walk into their sprint planning session, I do not like what I see. It's absolute silence ...
8
votes
6answers
942 views
How to implement SCRUM without forgeting the four principles of the agile manifesto on the way?
Don't the four agile principles get a bit lost in the middle of all the SCRUM process? How can this be avoided? How to promote these four principles over the process that is imposed? How to make the ...
8
votes
5answers
812 views
Can metaphors in popular culture help with explaining agile or waterfall to clients?
After reading this blog post that suggests that the Death Star was an agile project I was wondering if using metaphors is a good way of describing methodologies in a slightly fun way.
'Movie x ...
8
votes
3answers
1k views
Why are Story Points of a story not equivalent to days/hours in estimation. In Scrum [Agile]
I'm currently working in a team with new to agile methodology programmers and few old school peeps.
They seem to always, in planning meetings give hours/day estimates for a story. It really pisses me ...
8
votes
3answers
771 views
What is the term for an anti-user-story?
I need to create some short narratives that capture the "who", "what", and "why not" to show some of our stakeholders why we need a minor policy change.
For example, imagine I'm designing a control ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
Estimation given in days and need to plan in Agile
The client internally feels that this is about 500 developer days worth of work and there could potentially be 4 developers (or pairs of developers) that work in parallel. We need to go back to them ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
In an Agile environment, how should a developer update team members and managers when there's no “visible” progress?
A developer is working on a research project that involves working with new technologies. The concepts are also new to the developer, and the developer is working on building a product on top of the ...
8
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10answers
2k views
How to implement scrum on an Waterfall enterprise?
Research prior to asking this questions -> When to Use Waterfall, When to Use Scrum ?
I am not focus on pure waterfall vs pure scrum conversion. I am more incline of solving the following problems ...
8
votes
5answers
2k views
How to deal with constantly (~daily) changing requirements?
I see a number of similar links, but none seem to have a solution, mostly "they shouldn't be doing that"'s. I agree, but please, read on:
Scenario: 800K pages of documents, narrative(e.g. emails)/...
8
votes
3answers
1k views
How can I increase management buy-in of Agile adoption?
In my current role we manage our web development using Scrum. This has been really successful within our team (improving productivity, spotting issues early and increasing collaboration) but outside ...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
Hiring a Scrum Master / Agile Coach [closed]
I hope this is the right place for a question like this, but I am wondering what do/should organizations look for when hiring Scrum Masters or Agile Coaches?
This question is only for people who have ...
8
votes
5answers
235 views
Why can't QA's share expertise and suggest new ways of working
I work as part of an eight-member agile team. When I joined the company I saw lots of problems in the team. I decided to share my past experience to help the team but the team saw me as a small person,...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
Agile Best Practice for External Blocking Issue
Our company is trying to adopt a more rigorous Agile methodology (including Sprints and Scrums and all that fun stuff. We even got a JIRA subscription!), and we've run into a couple issues.
The ...
