25
votes
Accepted
Is velocity a valid measure of team and process improvement?
Velocity is not a valid measure of team or process improvement.
Velocity, especially when it is based on Story Points, is extremely unstable. By itself, Velocity doesn't reflect the capacity of the ...
- 18.8k
11
votes
Accepted
What's an easy and sustainable way to introduce pair programming?
How to roll out pairing in a Scrum team?
I am afraid there is no right answer to this. It all depends on the existing team dynamics. Nevertheless, what is almost always relevant is to understand ...
- 864
11
votes
How to implement unit testing with a small Scrum team without spending half the Sprint unit-testing stories?
My devs are not used to unit testing framework and are still learning
This will improve over time as they gain more experience.
There are only 2 of them and each with their specialty (Front-end and ...
- 8,348
9
votes
What's an easy and sustainable way to introduce pair programming?
To pair or not to pair is a decision that the team should make and own. "Rolling out" any technical practice, and especially one that brings with it such strong personal preferences as pair ...
- 515
7
votes
Accepted
How to get people on board with Scrum/agile?
The below is predicated on the assumption that you work in a complex, adaptive environment where more is unknown than known when it comes to the value your work creates:
There are books and books on ...
- 920
7
votes
Why did our process cause us to miss our release date?
Both Developers and Executives Broke the Agile Contract
It was due for a release tomorrow but, as a result of a review by management, needs reworking. This will undoubtedly add a lot of time onto ...
- 49.5k
6
votes
Accepted
Why did our process cause us to miss our release date?
I think the crux of your question may actually lie in questions you posed in a comment, rather than in the question itself:
Do you find it acceptable that release dates are not met?
The answer is.....
- 14.8k
6
votes
Applying agile in a mostly operations/support environment
Scrum is not Agile. :) It is one way to do agile, it doesn't fit all situations.
Based on what you've described, a straight Kanban approach is going to work much better for you. When supporting a ...
- 12.4k
5
votes
Value Adding VS Non Value Adding - Technique to identify.
If you reduce or remove a non value adding activity the overall outcome won't change, but the process time will be reduced. Often the non value adding activities take some time, but they can be caused ...
- 11.9k
5
votes
How to organize a software development team so 20 people are on two scrum teams?
Your Scrum transition plan looks good
Here are my suggestions:
Get some training: Any team transitioning to Scrum will struggle with getting stories ready, estimating, release roadmap and so on. So, ...
5
votes
Is velocity a valid measure of team and process improvement?
Your concern is absolutely correct. Velocity as a team improvement metric is problematic because an improving team will often see their velocity increase but just because the velocity increases doesn'...
- 16.8k
5
votes
DevOps & Development Teams Processes, Procedures, Communication & Coordination to ensure tha latest supported technologies are used in development
Red Flags
Most of your post is out of scope insofar as it's engineering-level information and of very little practical relevance to the pragmatic controls an effective project management process would ...
- 49.5k
4
votes
How to organize a software development team so 20 people are on two scrum teams?
Having 10 people on a scrum team is a stretch. The recommended size is on the order of 4-7. Remember that scrum is about communication, and communication scales as the square of the team size. On a ...
- 152
4
votes
Applying agile in a mostly operations/support environment
Kanban for maintenance and Scrum for development
What would be the best way to manage this team so the load is level
across all resources, we work at a sustainable pace, and we have a
somewhat-...
4
votes
How to track impediments in SCRUM?
The drawback is that using this approach the velocity will be lower and if this is very unusual situation only some sprints will be affected.
[...]
How to track such a issues so that our ...
- 2,071
4
votes
What do you call the phenomena of process creep?
Excessive complexity in processes is called "Red Tape"
You can see the Merriam Webster definition of red tape here: Official routine or procedure marked by excessive complexity which results in delay ...
4
votes
Scrum Master role: Reporting?
I would start by asking: What is the report and who is it for?
There's no singular right answer - I don't think it's safe to say that "the Scrum Master should create all reports on behalf of the ...
- 18.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Choosing an appropriate development process/methodology
You can do a pilot of the Kanban method
Welcome to pm.stackexchange!
As @nvogel suggested, Kanban method may be suitable for your type of work. Again, as he suggested, you should let the dev team 'to ...
4
votes
Best way to keep development and testing in synch
One approach you could try is to have the QA working ahead of the developers.
It would work something like this:
Back end devs write stubbed API calls that mimic the behaviour of the finished ...
- 19.1k
4
votes
How does the use of CI/CD make it easier to handle the loss or absence of key staff?
What you're referring to is not CI/CD* - it's automation of build & deployment procedure. Basically a Deployment Pipeline. The way it alleviates your problems is:
You stop needing your Ops ...
- 1,036
3
votes
Accepted
How to write a user story involving artistic work?
As you pointed out, part of the challenge with this sort of user story is that it's big and takes a while to complete. Let's say the actual user story is something like this:
As a player who's got ...
- 16.8k
3
votes
Accepted
What do you call the phenomena of process creep?
Bureaucratization
Tendency to manage an organization by adding more controls, adherence to rigid procedures, and attention to every detail for its own sake.
Red tape is about right, but it refers ...
- 171
3
votes
Accepted
How to deal with huge data selection requirement
Don't Just "Work the Story." Work the Right Story!
Your current user story reads:
As a portfolio manager,
I should be able to select list of models from the list,
so that I can create a ...
- 49.5k
3
votes
Accepted
Is there a reason to apply BPM to agile methodologies such as SCRUM?
Agile methodologies already have a self-improvement process built in. So applying BPM to any agile method itself is superfluous.
However, you may want to apply BPM to the whole company, to see if ...
- 8,348
3
votes
Literature for introducing changes in software development process - not agile introduction
These are some that I have recently listened to. I have put links to Audiobooks. Play at 1.5-2X speed which will help get through them quicker for your MBA.
Manufacturing, but applicable to Software ...
- 226
3
votes
How can we keep track of changes to translations within our project?
Start with Source Control
Recommending specific tools is off-topic here, but from a software project management standpoint (and even from an engineering point of view) the correct answer is likely to ...
- 49.5k
3
votes
Accepted
Applying agile in a mostly operations/support environment
Based on past experiences, I would agree with the other posts above and recommend starting with a flow-based approach like a kanban board for the ongoing support apps, and maybe look at Scrum for the ...
- 957
3
votes
Accepted
( PMBOK 5th Edition ) What is difference between Quality Audit and Process Analysis?
Quality Audit is basically seeing if you are following the defined process. A Process Analysis is examining what you do and identifying aspects that could be improved.
As an extreme example, in a ...
- 186
3
votes
How to handle hand-outs from one jira project to another?
TLDR
Combine the teams into one.
Combine the Stories into one.
Use SubTasks for segregating work.
Have a single board that shows all work.
Work in tandem if possible.
There's a lot here that I see ...
- 14.8k
3
votes
Is velocity a valid measure of team and process improvement?
Hitting the nail on the head
One thing I'm worried about is that team can easily game this by simply estimating higher. So instead of task taking 2, they would give it 3. Creating an illusion of ...
- 616
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