AgileSHIFT

TOOLS &
TECHNIQUES
Helping you add value by working in
an agile and efficient way QA.com
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CONTENTS
Customer story 5

Epic 6

Swarm 11

Kanban 12

Canvasses 14

Agendas 15

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ADDING CUSTOMER
VALUE STORIES & EPICS
There are many different tools and techniques that organizations can employ when AgileSHIFT teams will benefit from describing the work they do from the
working in an agile way. Whichever ones are used they must add value to the way perspective of the customer rather than from that of the technical specialist. By
that the team works, and the way that they interact with their customers and other doing this the output is more likely to satisfy the customer, and more likely to offer
stakeholders. value to the organization.

As a minimum, they should help the team to: The AgileSHIFT way of describing customer and user requirements in this way is the
customer story.

DEFINITION

Customer story
An informal, natural language description of one or more features of a piece of
work. Customer stories are often written from the perspective of an end user or
Better organize and plan Improve their working Communicate more final customer in order to better understand their requirements.
their work practices effectively within
the team and with
stakeholders
Traditionally, customers have To overcome this situation, the customer
communicated their requirements to is asked to explain to the supplier
suppliers by describing the technical the nature of their organization, the
solution they want to receive. The functionality they require and the value
description assumes that the customer to them of this functionality. This is
has the same level of knowledge about known as a customer story. In turn, the
the technical aspects of creating the supplier is asked to use their technical
product or service as the supplier. It also expertise to define the best-fitting
assumes that the supplier is as familiar technical solution that most efficiently
with the use aspects as the customer. Of satisfies the customer’s needs.
course, this is rarely the case.

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Customer stories are not a replacement for traditional specifications of requirements
in all cases. Instead, they are used when the customer is happy for the supplier to
work out the best way to satisfy a particular need or want.

The customer story contains three key pieces of information:

• The category or description of the customer

• The feature or function that is being described

• The value or benefit that is sought from the feature or function

These are then assembled:

An example of an epic could be:

Customer stories describe work that can be performed and completed within a As the scope of this work cannot fit into a single iteration, it is described as an epic.
single iteration. Work that is likely to extend beyond a single iteration is called an
epic. Epics should be broken into customer stories prior to the beginning of the
work on delivering that feature of function.

DEFINITION

Epic
A high-level view of a requirement that has not yet been sufficiently refined or
understood. Eventually, an epic will be refined and broken down into several
customer stories or requirements.

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RELATIVE
ESTIMATING &
STORY POINTS
For repetitive and ongoing work it may be possible to generate accurate estimates
for duration, resource and cost of activities. But for singular, unique work this
becomes more difficult. Also, there is a tendency for Parkinson’s Law to operate, i.e.
work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

In response to this, many agile teams find value in using relative estimating
techniques that offer scales which do not directly relate to any measurable success
factor. Relative estimating techniques include ‘T-shirt sizing’ and ‘story pointing’.
In each of these techniques, the team is encouraged to think about the ‘size’ of the
proposed activity, using only other activities as a point of reference instead of the
scale.

In T-shirt estimating, the team uses T-shirt sizes like small, medium, large and
extra-large, while story pointing uses a non-linear sequence of numbers to describe
relative size. A sample scale might double each successive number after zero, for
example:

0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128

Traditional estimating methods normally give precise estimates such as ‘A task will
take four months’. This apparent precision is often quite spurious and misleading
because it is a ‘best guess’. Relative estimating avoids the pitfall of false precision but
nevertheless gives an indication of the size of the task in relation to other tasks in the
task list.

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 THE TASK LIST
The first customer stories or epics can be written as early as during start-up, and
significantly more will be added later during each successive iteration planning
event.

The team will create and maintain a task list and use this to store the user stories
and epics through the work. The stories and epics in the task list are prioritised
by the AgileSHIFT sponsor according to business need and estimated value. The
sponsor is accountable for optimizing the value achieved by the work.

ROADMAP
In addition to the task list, there should be a high-level view of the general direction
the work is taking and the key expected value delivery dates across the next several
months. This roadmap enables the team to know how today’s work contributes
to the overall vision, and it enables stakeholders and customers to prepare over a
longer timeframe.

SWARM
Instead of everyone focusing on different tasks, which is valid in many instances, in a
swarm everyone focuses on one task until it’s completed.

DEFINITION

Swarm
The practice of everyone in the team collectively working on a single task until
it is complete, before they move on to tackle other tasks.

For example, there may be occasions when a team finishes a certain percentage
(say 75%) of all the stories in an iteration, but no single story is fully completed. In this
case, it would have been better to have completely finished a smaller percentage
(say 50%) of all the stories by swarming each one, since unfinished stories have little
value to the customer.

It is better and usually easier to get stories completed when everyone on the team is
focusing on one story at a time. Efforts are focused rather than dissipated. This is the
concept of swarming.
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KANBAN
Typically, Kanban boards are used as and reduces the level of WIP (items
information radiators. They describe that have incurred cost but which could
sequential processes as columns on a be wasted in the event of a change of
board, and work is represented by cards environment).
Kanban is a way to improve flow and provoke system improvement through or sticky notes that describe customer
visualization and controlling work in progress (WIP). One of the more popular ways stories and other information about the In the past, Kanban boards were usually
of using Kanban is via a Kanban board (see Figure 2). item. As each item completes a step in whiteboards with the work written
the process it is available to be ‘pulled’ on sticky notes. Today, with globally
Kanban is a method of visually representing the movement of work through a series into the next process. The pulling of distributed teams featuring team
of processes which also permits control of the level of potentially wasteful WIP at items between processes is another key members who work from home or
each step. It is a key part of the Lean approach to delivering outputs and outcomes. Lean concept. remote offices, online virtual Kanban
board tools may be more effective.
Some Kanban environments impose
DEFINITION
a limit on the number of items that
can sit in a process. This prevents
Kanban backlogs forming between processes

A board that visually displays the work in a task list or iteration. It is usually
made up of a series of columns and/or rows where work items move from left
to right as they progress through various states in order to be completed.

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CANVASSES Agendas
Inefficient meetings can cause a significant decline in team effectiveness. Agendas

& AGENDAS provide structure to the regular interactions and communication demanded by the
AgileSHIFT approach. It is expected that teams will adjust and alter the standard
agendas over time as they better understand their needs.

The AgileSHIFT framework is complemented by canvasses and agendas so that AgileSHIFT agendas include:
organizations and teams can get started quickly and efficiently.
• Daily stand-up: Used during the stand-up meeting to establish what will be
discussed.
Canvasses
The AgileSHIFT canvasses are ready to use templates for the most common checklist • Iteration planning: Used at the start of each iteration to define the work.
and information capture requirements. Even though they are ready to use, it is
expected that any AgileSHIFT team will, with the agreement of the AgileSHIFT • eview/demo: Used during the iteration review meeting to establish what
R
sponsor, alter and adjust their composition. It is recommended that these changes will be discussed.
should only be made once the team has used the canvasses in their stock form and
understands fully the implications of any changes. Describing them as canvases • etrospective: Used at the iteration retrospective to assist in discussing
R
rather than templates reflects and emphasizes the expectation that the content will achievements and potential improvements.
change.
• locker: Used when a serious impediment to progress is identified and
B
AgileSHIFT canvases include: must be addressed.

• Start-Up: Used during the start-up meeting to help the attendees • Handover: Used when the value enabler is delivered to the customer.
determine whether a proposed delivery is worth undertaking.
A sample set of canvasses and agendas can be accessed at
• Business justification: Used to put forward the proposal for potential work.

http://axelos.com/agile-shift/canvases-and-agendas
• Roadmap/storyboard: Created and agreed during start-up, this is a
description of the journey of change.
(requires login which is provided after the Axelos AgileSHIFT examination has been
successfully completed).
• Prioritization: AgileSHIFT is compatible with a variety of prioritization
methods. This canvas documents the method chosen.

• Task list: A List of the work to be undertaken.

• Information radiators: Large visual displays (for example, information on a

• Go/no go meeting: Used to document the decision of whether to embark

• Major risks: Enables team members to document the most urgent or

• Organization: Explains the purpose and functionality of the team.

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