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We have a team of 20 people divided in 2 teams and a jira bord for both of them. We work on agile scrum methodology.
The team components are a pm/scrum master, BA, PO, testing team, ux,ui and backend dev team. The problem we have is that the bord gets messy and no one is taking care of it.
My question is who should take care of the bord to not get a mess pm, scrum master dev team?
Ideally it is the Scrum teams responsibility (everybody). The beauty of Agile lies in self driven and empowered teams. Don't try to command and control and make it habit of everyone. "Scrum master/PO" can facilitate this (help other team members to close task/US after discussion of their state see point no 2 below). If you try to hold one person responsible for it you will loose granular info and your Agile/Jira board will not reflect actual info.
"The problem we have is that the board gets messy and no one is taking
care of it."
If your team follow agile properly this situation will not occur.
Every team member update their respective task and US regularly(daily).
Use Agile ceremonies Grooming/Planning/Demo(acceptance of US) for Clean up task. Discuss with team [merge duplicates/Priorities and delete obsolete one.
one of the Agile principle is Limit work in progress:One should not keep more than 1 US/task in in-progress. Should complete one and and move on. Or else if he is blocked then only pick next one.
4.At end of sprint/Iteration Conclude US's state Accepted/Completed/Carryover/removed/Moved to backlog.
We usually take it(Clean up) as a retrospective action item and make sure stewardship followed in next sprint not only with respect to code but JIRA as well.
"Re-iterating: you can request PO or scrum master to facilitate/watch
it. but better to ask your team member to take this responsibility. or
Story owner should make sure his/her user story [JIRA in your case]
reach to a conclusive state and cleaned up in JIRA."
We update & clean the board at the Daily Scrum. This makes sense as everyone is telling what they completed yesterday. After the Scrum board is updated we start planning the day.
In this case the Scrum Master should teach the Scrum team to self-organize and keep the Scrum board up-to-date.
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We have a Scrum team, which concurrently working on 3 products, each of products has its own PO and Backlog. We decided to combine all Product Backlog, which main all three PO add he's Backlog Items, added to the same Product Backlog, and team member select PBI from this Backlog Item. I should say we have a Super PO(PO's of PO) who's get all Backlog Items from all other three PO and add to the shared Product Backlog.
So, first of all, I want to know, does this approach is good and efficiency? If no, what approach we should Better choice?
And We use TFS as a Scrum life cycle management, but we don't sure TFS can do this approach-one Shared Backlog Item for different kinds of Backlog Items from different context and different PO.
Thanks a lot
You can do this easily in TFS/VSTS by creating A Team that points at the root Area Path and then creating three Teams (one for each Product Owner) that point at the Product Area Paths under it.
/TeamProject <-- Your root team owns this and all sub areas. This is where your software team works
/TeamPeoject/ProductA <-- Your ProductA team owns this area. The PO for ProductA works here and prioritises his backlog. He will see only his stuff and only his stuff in Sprints.
While this method will technically work in TFS/VSTS you should look to fixing the Process issues in your organization that result in this problem in the first place.
But you must consider
How will your software team know which stuff to work on if they have three prioritised backlogs?
What does multi-talking within a Sprint do to productivity?
What would multiple DOD and other efforts to create multiple Done increments of software in a single sprint do to product quality?
This is a hard problem in your situation and there is no tool that can help you solve this business issue.
Well, first of when you change something, it is not that thing anymore.
In Scrum the team is 3-9 people who work on a backlog for a sprint of 2-6 week.
If you change any of these, it is not scrum anymore. You can call it agile, but it will be your custom agile process that no one has tested and no one knows how it will end up.
If you have 3 projects and you want to do it concurrently, make 3 teams that work concurrently.
If you don't have enough people to do that, use other methodologies.
I simply don't get what you gain by complicating everything. What is your gain by having stand ups with people talking about 3 different projects? What is the focus?
And you have 9 people max, but you have 4 owners them? :D that's funny.
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I am some way through a project, on the 3rd sprint, which is about back-end processing. Let;s say the sprint name is "3. Data merging and form generation". I have 4 or 5 features in that sprint relate directly to that task, and I'm halfway though- some completed, some not, one in progress.
While in this sprint, I demonstrated some of what was happening to the client, who promptly (kind of unexpectedly) gave me a few pages of feedback purely to do with the UI. Very front-endy stuff, nothing to do with my current sprint, but still relevant and good stuff.
It seemed that at that time, it would be appropriate to drop my current back-end work and address the feedback. The reason being by addressing the UI issues, it would stop propagation of 'wrongness' to the rest of the application (Lotus Domino: That's how it works).
JIRA doens't have a facility for putting Sprints on hold, and starting a new one. You have to close a sprint.
Adding a feature to my current sprint would be fine, but would include a load of UI issues in a sprint names explicitly to do with the back-end processing.
It felt like square-peg-round-hole, and I'm not sure how this is 'supposed to' go with Agile, or JIRA.
So my question is: Is the problem that ..
Naming of Sprints shouldn't include too much commitment to their nature, so including a UI task with a sprint intended for the back-end processing woudn't be upsetting things.
If a sprint is "interrupted" like this, my notion of putting it on hold and sidetracking to another sprint isn't how Agile works (hence JIRA won't let you). Something else should happen (if so, what?)
JIRA is less flexible than Agile demands (seems very unlikely!)
Some other thing I haven't thought of.
The typical approach to scope changes mid-sprint is as follows:
If a change is relatively minor and both the team and the Product Owner agree then you go ahead make it. Typically a team will compensate for any changes, for example when they bring in a new story they would also take out a similarly sized story so that the net effect on the sprint is close to zero.
If the changes are significant the Product Owner may terminate the sprint. The team immediately starts planning for a new sprint in the same manner as usual.
It isn't all that common to name sprints with details of what the sprint contains. Just using a simple numerical sprint name (e.g. sprint 1, sprint 2) can help to make it clear the Scrum team is open to change.
In JIRA, if a sprint was terminated early I would mark it as complete and then create a new sprint. This may mess with your velocity calculation a little, but should be easy enough to compensate for.
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I have the following question.
Often in our project issues stay in progress forever.
To resolve this we would like to introduce a new workflow where if a JIRA issue has been idle for 2 weeks it will automatically have its status set to Postponed.
How can this be implemented in JIRA? I checked the column constraints on the board, but there is no constraint related to time.
I think you don't have to build a workflow to mask your problem with regards to the "Issues which stay in progress forever", but you need to fix it.
Fixing it means you need to coach the team and support them with various technics to avoid "never ending stories". I would suggest to:
Implement DOR (Definition of Ready) - avoid picking up issues which are not yet investigated, groomed and not enough clear to pick up. In our case the story could be added into the sprint just after all external dependencies are sorted out. Use the INVEST model which says INDEPENDENT How can you commit to deliver issues where you depend on any external team?
Slice big stories - There are plenty of technics how to split large user stories. In general its a bad practice to add a story into the sprint if the estimate shows that it can't be completed. Ideally the right size of the story is "that you have 2,5 story to each dev in single sprint". This doesn't mean that every dev should work on his own story and they can't collaborate, but it means that for e.g. 4 devs for a single sprint 8-10 stories are ideal. (Easier testing, collaboration, better planning, more stable velocity, etc etc..)
WIP (Kanban limit work in progress) - Putting the 'flow' back in workflow with WIP limits - Atlassian This is something which is easily configurable in Jira.
Show the 'DAYS IN COLUMN' indicator on cards - This shows a series of dots on each card (up to the width of the card or a maximum of 32), representing the number of days that the issue has been in the column. This could be a useful info for the scrum master to see whether there is any impediment which should be sorted out
Don't use blocked or postponed status. This is just my personal advice. Statuses like blocked/postponed could generate a habit that the issues will be really just postponed instead of removing the impediment and blocker. It is always easier to flag something as blocked as removing the impediment. Its your scrum masters responsibility to remove the obstacles and eliminate the waste.
Backlog grooming - Groom the backlog periodically and if you have problems with the external dependencies flag them in advance. Seek for external dependencies by purpose and identify them as soon as possible. This will give the SM/PO hopefully enough time to deal with them before the issue will be added into the sprint and picked up by the dev team.
Why an issue is sitting idle for two weeks? Is it because of external dependencies or issue is too big to complete in two weeks?
I am not sure about the Jira work flow and if Jira can move it to postponed state. But you can move it back to backlog at the end of the sprint.
But if it happens because the issue is too large to fit in two weeks, then I would recommend to slice it into smaller tasks to fit in sprint.
I hope it helps.
If we ignore the arguments how good a workflow and its management is raised by #shippi the solution to this question is explained here.
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Marketplace-Apps-questions/ScriptRunner-how-to-change-status-of-an-Issue/qaq-p/628842
Shortly said Jira has ability to execute scripts , they can also be scheduled and executed on regular basis. What needs to be done is a script to be written and scheduled that every day checks how long an issue has been idle and set the appropriate status.
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Using the Agile Scrum methodology, stories that are ready from the backlog can be moved into a sprint
There is generally a process to agree when a story has been sufficiently refined to be considered ready
How do you indicate this in Jira?
My backup plan is to just have an undated sprint named "Ready", and then move ready stories from the backlog to "Ready" to a dated sprint, but that seems messy
A common approach is to use backlog refinement sessions to decide which stories are 'ready'.
For example, you could have a backlog refinement session planned several days before the end of a sprint. In that session the Product Owner would present the stories they would like to target for the next sprint. The team reviews the stories and points out any potential problems with adding them to the next sprint. At that point the Product Owner could mark stories as 'ready' if they found that useful. Other stories might require a bit more preparation work and the Product Owner has the days until planning to do this in.
I've seen a couple of approaches to recording the 'ready' state. One is to have a 'ready' column in Jira. Another possible approach is to use a radio button style custom field called 'ready'. That would allow you to add in a quick filter to the backlog view in Jira agile that would give you the ability to only show stories that are ready at the planning session.
I think the process of agreeing wether or not a story is 'ready', is sprint planning.
Sprint planning gives developers the opportunity to dig into the story, and ask questions from the product owner, and decide it's readiness. If the product owner isn't able to make the story clear during planning, then it's not ready. The acid test for readiness though, in my opinion, is wether or not developers are comfortable giving an estimate to the story.
Reflecting this status in jira is another matter. In the past I edited the Jira workflow, and added additional state 'ready to estimate', but I've since removed it, it didn't add much value but increased complexity.
I think you should be aiming for the majority of stories that make it into sprint planning to be clearly defined and ready to estimate, but it's fine if there are a few there which aren't, so long as the planning session doesn't turn into a 'design the feature' session. Someone needs to call the fact that it's not ready, and toss it from planning.
Tim
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I recently shifted to a new organization that follow Agile mode of development. The current project we are working has stalled due to many requirement changes that were reported recently. Since this is my first Agile assignment (after working in 4 years in non-agile environ), its a bit hard to differentiate where the problem really is.
Ruby on Rails is the platform that is being used for development. Since I can't ask a vague question, I will narrow it to this.
In agile, is it ok for the business team to relax and give requirements at will? (Some requirements given during the final sprints were altering the entire design of our app)
Or, its the development team's mistake not foreseeing the numerous possibilities of the application and not having a concrete design that could have welcomed abnormal changes?
In agile, is it ok for the business team to relax and give requirements at will? (Some requirements given during the final sprints were altering the entire design of our app)
It is OK (albeit not wise ;-)... so then an agile development team would tell them "fine guys, this would cost this amount of extra time and consequently this much schedule slippage."
If they are willing to pay the price, all's well.
If they decide that maybe the new feature is not that urgent after all, all is well too.
If they insist on including the new requirements and keeping the original schedule, that project is not agile :-(
Or, its the development team's mistake not foreseeing the numerous possibilities of the application and not having a concrete design that could have welcomed abnormal changes?
I don't think the design should be ready to welcome any kind of changes and any new features - that would only lead to bloatware, and a lot of extra work which in the end proves useless.
Agile projects should have some sort of roadmap too, so that the developers have at least a rough idea where the product is supposed to be in a year's time etc. This would allow them to plan forward and extend the design to make room for probable future changes.
If business doesn't give timely information about the roadmap (or if it proves unreliable), that is (usually - barring really unforeseen market/environment changes) business' fault. If the team did not use that info wisely, it's their fault.
Agile doesn't mean you don't have requirements or specifications or you can be free and easy with them. The business leads need to know what they want. The benefits of being agile is that if you do need to change paths, you can do that in an easier way, so you can adapt quickly.
Requirements changing will be painful no matter what your development methodology. There still has to be a strong clear plan, at least at that point in time.
Agile projects are supposed to have requirements gathering, design, analysis, coding, testing; just like the waterfall development model. However, in an agile project, the phases are supposed to cover less ground and therefore, happen faster.
I agree with Péter Török's answer, but its also the responsibility of the agile team or the agile team manager to teach the business team that the project will deliver better results each round if they postpone new requirements until the next requirements phase. Since a round is supposed to be 30 - 90 days, most new requirements can wait. The few requirements that can't wait, need to have a time and schedule cost.
Opinion of a Scrum Master here. It sounds like the business is lacking a clear knowledge of what 'agile' is, or how they implement it. Agile needs to be applied with structure, whether that be Scrum or Kanban or something similar. Too often it is a synonym for 'we don't design or document' things.
If you are meaning a team using Scrum, this would be manageable as long as the Product Owner and Scrum Master are on top of their game.
If the business team are giving requirements 'at will' that do not align, it is up to the Product Owner to take these on board, and prioritise a list of tasks prior to sprint planning. If they don't align with what has already been done, they may be estimated as large stories, due to the need for refactoring etc. by the team. It will then be up to the Product Owner to decide if it is worth proceeding with them despite the size, or working on alternative stories that align with work already done.
This would be a tough environment for the whole Scrum team to work in, but you would expect the business to see the lost value by changing direction between sprints, and hopefully align the product to a direction before too long. It certainly is not the development teams fault for not anticipating this, I would more say the Scrum Master and Product Owner need to have some serious words with the business units involved.
There needs to be a buffer between the sprint and the backlog.
The Business Team own the backlog and the prioritisation of the stories in the backlog but once the Dev team have committed to x number of stories in the sprint then it is unwise for the business team to tinker with its content. If you find this happens I would suggest shortening the length of the sprints.
If however a super urgent new requirement comes up that just cannot wait for the next sprint then another story/stories of similar points value have to be removed.
It is important that the business team manage their backlog so that in the sprint planning meeting the next set of stories are fully specked, prioritised and ready to go.
In agile, is it ok for the business team to relax and give requirements at will?
Yes, it's ok to change requirements (maybe not relax), but in our teams we will not disrupt or change the scope of the sprint unless the work currently in scope of the sprint is made redundant as a result of the new requirements added to the product backlog by the product owner (not the sprint backlog). Also note that if you commit to 100 points worth of work in a sprint, you complete 80 points and the the requirements change enough for the sprint to be disrupted then the team has still delivered 80 points that sprint based on the POs original requirements. (important when dealing with external clients)
its the development team's mistake not foreseeing the numerous possibilities of the application and not having a concrete design that could have welcomed abnormal changes?
We have a very high-level understanding of the overall features/project being worked on, however before we accept User Stories (broken downs chunks of the feature/project) we ensure that we fully understand what the Product Owner wants. If the product owner is unsure then we will ask the person whom does know. Note I am not saying that you plan out the whole project, you only nail down 1 or 2 sprints worth of user stories.
(This is how I do it, but there is no prescriptive rules, every agile rule make Agile less Agile - My opinion)
No, it is not ok to give requirements at will.
There is a general notion that business and development work together on daily basis and do that not primary in written form, but as well face to face (often to review or plan stuff). The idea is not to make too much assumptions on the future, but some and go with these.
Having done this as a coder, the only advice I can give: Setup for change. As you learn about your framework, the product side learns about the business.
If you run into problems like these: Its actually important that you fix this problem. This is what you have sprints for: Fail at something and then fix it after a retro. Doing this for a while should lead to a sane organized process how to get all the requirements at the right moment.
However: Proper engineering has hurt no-one yet as well as proper security and requirements engineering. If you need to do this despite your agile process: so be it.