Agile

2021

© 2021 Cognizant
Task 6: Resource Review
 • Scrum process is highly structured and will produce more documentation than any
waterfall project.

• Scrum follows an opportunistic approach to developing functionality. So…don’t ask for a

project plan; ask for the release plan.

• It takes time for a team to learn and internalize the process. Understand the organizational
change management aspect of scrum and the mental shift required to be successful.

Learnings • Know the 5+5 rule: it takes five sprints to learn what to do and five sprints to learn to do it
better.

• Scrum is focused on enablement of the team as a whole. Every member of the team is
valuable, has a specific role and knows what to do to make the team successful (like a
Marine combat team)

• Early sprint results will be uneven; look for trends. Don’t be alarmed by great results in
sprint 2 but poor results in sprint 3.

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Planning Onion and different levels of Planning

 It's a common myth that Agile and

Scrum requires little or no planning

 Planning is a regular event in an Agile

environment and occurs regularly, even
daily
Bring Agile to Your Team

1 2 3
Be Adaptive Focus on the Deliver High Value
In our industry, change is
Customer and High Quality
inevitable. Plans and people
Any Agile project only exists Agile is not just about making
must be flexible in order to
because a customer has asked something happen fast. Speed
remain competitive in the
for something. The customer is is important, but what you
market. Welcome feedback and
a person with a problem that deliver is more important.
change throughout projects,
you can help solve. Plan Focus on what brings the most
and view failure as an
around their needs, listen to value to the customer, and
opportunity to grow. Agile
their feedback, and evolve limit work in progress so those
teams aim to continuously
your strategies as their items are done right.
improve, not remain the same.
requirements change.
Bring Agile to Your Team

4 5 6
Simplify Communicate Put Ownership on
Accomplish tasks by focusing
Constantly the Team
only on what is most
Transparency is one of the Agile practices aim to
important. Maximize the time
main pillars of Agile. eliminate blame on
spent on delivering what the
Communicate among teams individuals. Team members
customer needs, not on
and with customers as often share responsibility for the
unnecessary work. Strive for
as possible, preferably face-to- whole project, not just certain
efficiency while still delivering
face. Be sure that everyone aspects. If something goes
quality.
involved in a project is wrong, the whole team must
informed and aware of what is resolve the problem. If a
happening in the project. project is successful, the whole
team receives praise.
Bring Agile to Your Team

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Stand Up Visualize Work Reflect
Even if your team is not using a When the work in a project is Like standups, business
pure Scrum framework, daily represented visually, it is easier retrospectives are a powerful
standups are a great way to for teams to recognize and Agile strategy. Teams should
keep team members aligned on concentrate on the highest strive to improve continuously
project progress and priority tasks. Real-time just like their products do.
roadblocks. Standups foster displays of work allow teams to Hold team retrospectives
improved communication and quickly respond to changes and regularly to determine what is
visibility among teams, and easily identify bottlenecks in and is not working well among
encourage teams members to workflows in order to assist the team and with customers
share ideas and help each other each other in resolving issues. to improve relationships and
succeed. efficiency.
 What is an Agile Release?
Agile release is planned delivery of product features over a series of sprints. The length of release depends on the
product, domain, market conditions etc.

- - - Release 1- - - - - - - Release 2- - - - - - - - Release 3- - - -

Incremental Delivery
Minimum Viable Product Incremental Release N Incremental Release N + 1
- First release is usually a MVP - Remaining must have and should - Remaining should have and nice to
- Must have features have features have features
- Some should have features - Customer feedback on MVP - Customer feedback
release - Enhancements
- Focus on building the scalable
- Some nice to have features - Full product scope
 Velocity Charts
Velocity.  By far the single most important word to
any Agile team. Whether you are currently
practicing Agile, looking to adopt within your
organization or trying to achieve your Agile
Nirvana, understanding Velocity is fundamental to
achieving success with Agile. Beyond a basic
understanding, it’s important that you learn how to
measure, influence and improve upon it. Velocity is
Like burndown charts, velocity charts are invaluable as they a point-in-time metric (unit), used to accurately
provide insight into how a team is progressing with their current measure the value that your product development
and any previous iterations. teams are delivering to your business.

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 Agile
Metrics
Burndown Charts
The blue bars represent work remaining, and
the green bars represent the work
completed.

The chart is created daily for the project

leadership.

It provides “project intelligence” for

leadership, and visibility into how the team is
progressing on a daily basis.

If a team becomes blocked by an issue, it

will show up in the chart as the blue bars will
level off or increase.

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