Agile Fundamentals

[qingquan-li]

1. What is Agile?

• History: Business requirements change quickly while the technology is still under development. (Compared to the Waterfall software development model). Agile Manifesto (with 12 principles) in 2001.
• Definition: move quickly and easily, think and understand quickly.
• Culture: empowing teams, outcome oriented, customer focus, adaptability in uncertain context.

2. How does Agile Work? (Scrum/Kanban)

• Development Process
  • Waterfall: Requiremets->Design->Implementation->Verification
  • Incremental delivery (Agile): making a product better and better through multiple rapid dev/iteration cycles
• Scrum (a framework for team collaboration on complex products): https://www.scrum.org/learning-series/what-is-scrum/
  • Product Owner: product backlog (small, manageable task)
  • The Team: Sprint (series short-time period, 1-4 weeks)
  • Scrum Master: daily scrum metting
• Kanban
  • For user requirements and team progress for the sprint
  • Kanban board cards on differenct columns, e.g., Backlog, In Progress, Peer Review, In Test, Done, Blocked

3. Agile Backlog Refinement

• Backlog Refinement (preparing for Sprint Planning): is a recurring event for agile teams. The process ensure that the next few sprints worth of user stories in the product backlog are prepared for sprint planning
• The Product Backlog
  • Epic: Epics (both business and enabler) are the primary economic drivers for the program portfolio. Progress is measured as outcomes against the benefit hypothesis. Takes 9-12 months.
  • Feature: A Feature is a service that fulfills a stakeholder need. Each feature includes a benefit hypothesis and acceptance criteria. Takes less than 12 weeks.
  • User Story:
    • Small functionality. Takes ~2 weeks. Breaks it down into tasks; a task should be completed by one person.
    • Ex: A a Marketing Lead (who), I want to hava a content management system (what) so that I can manage and provide quality content and experiences to my readers (why).
    • The Three C's: Card (who, what, why), Conversion, Confirmation.
    • INVEST: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable

4. Scaling Agile

• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): https://scaledagileframework.com. 4 core values of SAFe: Alignment, Built-in Quality, Transparency, Program Execution.
• Principles of SAFe: https://scaledagileframework.com/safe-lean-agile-principles/
• Create alignment with Program Increment (PI) planning: SAFs uses "Cadence" and "Synchronization" to assist in combining the work of multiple teams into one.