Notes on agile

I worked to create, and simplify a new jira project. My goal was I to only keep only the fields we used. We also changed the workflow (the statuses issues flow through) and added a new issue type. The most frustrating part was the bulk updates of the backlog and in progress to the new project. For now Issue types Epic-a project that will span may sprints Story-A piece of work I can deliver that has value Task-something that needs to be done to accomplish the story Request something someone asked for and we haven't backlogged and prepped yet Bug - a defect Issue status Requested a request we have not looked at Accepted - a request we will do, in the future To be groomed - may get rid of but we are prepping this for intake Grooming - we are breaking it up/down Groomed-will get rid of To do - ready In progress - being done Completed-done Rejected not done (no longer needed, indefinite hold, duplicate, whatever)

What rituals are there for an agile scrum team? Each sprint (ours are 3 weeks) has Scrum aka standup The goal is 15 minute daily meeting The common three questions are: What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? What is in your way? The goal is transparency, everyone on the team should have the opportunity to know what each person is working on, and for the team to all get an idea of where they are on the commitments for the sprint, what issues there are, and use the opportunity to help out other team mates as needed. Grooming The goal is to prepare work for upcoming sprints, break epics (large goals that will span sprints) into stories (a deliverable piece of work, as small as you can make it and still assign value). Each story should be assigned a complexity rating, or story point. These are Fibonacci numbers (1, 3, 5, 8). These are complexity not hours! Retrospective At the end of the sprint look back What action items did we have last sprint, did we make progr...

Today I spent my time creating a new JIRA project to move three of the teams into - and attempting to redesign the workflow, fields, and in general simplify it while keeping it so it matches the process and will allow us to report on what is important to us. My goal is to get it cleaned up and ready so that on Monday during sprint planning the three targeted teams can begin by using the new project. In addition, I am going to start cleaning (matching pattern) the SharePoint, and create a template with links to relevant data for each customer. The objective is to make things self-service and predictable which will help with onboarding as well as assisting as analysts and developers move team to team. Finally, I hope to create common definitions and agendas for rituals. For example an agenda for the retrospective, and define our Story Points so there is a common understanding between teams about what a "3" is, for example, I am getting some pushback on this. Mostly in the...

Found out about http://modernagile.org Methodology Sounds interesting, and similar to what we did at my last company. However I am not sure I can drive into this with the teams here yet. I hate overhead and wasted work (lean!) so getting away from estimates and other non value added work sounds good.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/547715/

In order to work towards lean, you need to focus on having a balance of throughput and resource utilization, leaning more toward flow (throughput). Lean does not align with all business models. For example low cost airlines focus on most time in the air or utilization of resource planes. They are much less concerned with the throughput of customers from origin to destination. Lean was based on American observations of the TPS or Toyota Production System. The book reviews the Efficiency Paradox, reminds us that learn is a goal, achieved through various methods, not a end point or a pattern you can mimic. Lean is about continuous improvement and not a box to check. You must always remove waste from the system and review the values and goals of the company to check they are being accomplished by the systems and structures you have put in place. A review here http://better-operations.com/2013/06/30/this-is-lean/ The book here http://www.thisislean.com

5 values; Courage, Commitment, Focus, Openness, and Respect.  From https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/updates-scrum-guide-5-scrum-values-take-center-stage Described here: https://guntherverheyen.com/2013/05/03/theres-value-in-the-scrum-values/