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.
1,129
questions
8
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4answers
242 views
Should developers be talking to users during Story planning / refinement?
When you have a Product Owner who is less technical, can developers be brought into discovery with users and stakeholders?
e.g. A new project is underway and the PO is doing discovery, creating epics,...
8
votes
2answers
276 views
Tool for Managing the Feature Development Process
Background: we currently use MantisBT for tracking of bug tickets, and have attempted to use the same for feature development. The latter has worked, but only to a point. Ours is a small shop, so ...
8
votes
4answers
837 views
Cost Estimates for agile projects
For Fixed Bid projects , the approach in our company is :
The estimation is done for every user story in story points, and team
has to convert those story points into hours.
Once we find out the ...
8
votes
2answers
4k views
Why do Agile practice not exist in scientific research projects and organizations?
This has already been asked (How can a team working on research based items work in an Agile project?), but the thread is from 2011, so I thought I'd poke for an update.
Does anyone know of a good ...
8
votes
2answers
892 views
Agile in enterprise: How to represent the requirements of non-business stakeholders?
I currently work on a large scale software project in a large company.
We follow an agile approach for development; however, due to the size of the the company there are several stakeholders that ...
8
votes
3answers
1k views
Is it possible to track velocity on a waterfall project?
Assuming similar work has been done in the past, can velocity be measured on a waterfall project? If that isn't the case, is there a more appropriate capacity management tool on a waterfall project?
8
votes
2answers
4k views
What is a good total size for a Product Backlog?
General
I realize the size of a product backlog will vary with each project. But assuming a project that is large enough to require a significant length time, is there any research or statistics on ...
8
votes
3answers
403 views
Managing Product Releases
I work as a Product Manager in a company focused on GIS Products. Our software development team works on both internal products and clients projects using agile methodologies.
I'm having trouble ...
7
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 ...
7
votes
4answers
10k 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 ...
7
votes
4answers
490 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 ...
7
votes
7answers
840 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 ...
7
votes
6answers
2k views
How important is having the PO inside the team?
I believe the Product Owner is an important member of the team and needs to be as accessible as any other.
I've recently been confronted by the idea that because the PO is part of 'the business' (i.e....
7
votes
6answers
2k views
Is dedicated product owner mandatory for a agile scrum team?
Team setup:
We are primarily an IT development team of .Net+Java developers who work respectively on components based on these technology stacks only.
About few weeks back our team has been asked to ...
7
votes
5answers
217 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.
...
7
votes
3answers
185 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.
...
7
votes
3answers
1k 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, ...
7
votes
5answers
6k 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.
7
votes
7answers
199 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 ...
7
votes
1answer
238 views
Agile and teammates that don't want to share knowledge?
How to get started with Agile if there are some programmer in my team, there only know a specific business domain and don't want to share knowledges with other teammates?
7
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 ...
7
votes
2answers
210 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 ...
7
votes
4answers
674 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?
7
votes
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 ...
7
votes
5answers
221 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,...
7
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 ...
7
votes
2answers
928 views
How to increase the deployment frequency having to cope with a lot of processes?
I am working as a product owner, in a fintech based software company. My development team follows scrum methodology, and 2 weeks sprint. They tried to follow scrum ceremony, but not to do story ...
7
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 ...
7
votes
2answers
479 views
Temporarily adding external freelance developers to an existing developer team (aka. Hybrid Team). Pros and Cons?
What are the pros and cons of adding external software developers to an existing developer team for a small project? What are the pros and cons?
For me:
Pros:
Development should in theory be faster ...
7
votes
5answers
1k views
User stories - difficult to decide actor
I always have trouble deciding who the actor should be and therefore how user stories should be written.
For example:
As a site owner I would like to display a carousel of products on the homepage ...
7
votes
3answers
463 views
What to do with a Product Owner who is not able to understand the role
I am a ScrumMaster for a team of developers and QA's with a Product Owner.
I have tried unsuccessfully for the last year to get the PO to understand what the role of the PO entails and he just does ...
7
votes
8answers
2k views
Selecting the right iteration duration
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 ...
7
votes
4answers
437 views
How to leverage Agile development benefits in a fixed-cost project?
I recently joined a company that has started moving towards "more agile" development. I've already been product owner for an internal software project and that worked reasonably well as far as I can ...
7
votes
3answers
438 views
How do you set an initial duration for agile projects?
I am researching agile methodologies for my organization. My question is this:
How do you prevent a project from running for far too long while using agile?
You can be writing requirements while ...
7
votes
3answers
950 views
What are the right conclusions to draw from the success or failure of a Sprint?
I recently encountered the opinion that, if a Sprint is successful due to statistical reasons (e.g. the team made big mistakes during planning but the team delivered its stories anyway), then that's ...
7
votes
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 ...
7
votes
2answers
270 views
Sprint story point from PM perspective
As a project manager, I am interested in the effort (estimated and actual).
While Sprint based estimation is story point based, how can I translate them to effort so that I can track and report them.
...
7
votes
4answers
2k views
Should sprint backlog have MoSCoW prioritization applied?
Scrum states that the team should commit to delivering the stories in the sprint backlog. It is implied that once they have reached this limit, no more items are added to sprint backlog.
Should the ...
7
votes
2answers
595 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 ...
6
votes
4answers
758 views
Can the product owner remove user stories?
As a product owner, can I completely remove a story from the Product Backlog?
I know everybody can add stories at anytime to the product backlog, but is the PO's only way to remove a story to put it ...
6
votes
3answers
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 goal or a shippable product at the end of ...
6
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 ...
6
votes
8answers
932 views
The development teams can't deliver successful sprints
We have 2 (50% distributed) scrum teams, that have been doing scrum for just over a year.
Since almost the whole time, the teams' painful point is environments instability, from all perspectives: ...
6
votes
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 ...
6
votes
3answers
5k views
How can we apply Agile to a consulting firm
As a consultant working for a consulting firm, planning projects using Agile/Scrum methodology can be quite challenging.
Considering we do not work full-time for our clients, it is hard to use Scrum ...
6
votes
3answers
242 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 ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
Difference between user story and acceptance criteria
I am having trouble differentiating user stories and acceptance criteria.
An example on I saw elsewhere state -
User Story:
As a user of the library catalogue, I want advanced search options on the ...
6
votes
4answers
896 views
From user stories to product, where and when to do graphic design?
We are taking our first steps in the Agile development world, and while we have a long path to follow, I'm having difficulties incorporating our graphic designer in the development process.
The ...
6
votes
4answers
205 views
Dealing with stories/functionality that will spread across the entire lifetime of the project
I'm trying to determine how I would deal with a story/epic that appears to potentially spread across every sprint.
As a user I wish to have see help information against data inputs so
that I can ...
6
votes
4answers
5k views
What is an impediment, and how to handle them and internal improvments in Scrum?
What exactly is an impediment? I know that Scrum say that and impediment is something that stop the team from performing the best it can. So basically it can be everything? But where goes the magical ...
