Are they the seeds to be nurtured to bring in automation, innovation and transformation. There is a saying, necessity is the mother of invention. I would say, innovation is amalgamation of creativity and necessity. We need to understand the ecosystem, to apply creativity and identify the ideas to bring in change. We need to be competent with changing ecosystem and think beyond the possible. What is the biggest challenge in doing this? "Unlearning and Learning", we think the current ecosystem is the best. Be it health, finserve, agriculture or mechanical domain, we need to emphasize with the stakeholders, to come up with the strategy to drive. The very evident example here is the quality of life is changing every millisecond. Few decades back the phone connection was limited to few, but today all the millennials are having a mobile phone. Now phone is not just a medium to talk, but are so powerful devices that an innovative solution can be developed on it....
Hello All,
Create a Pivot with “Start iteration #” as Column parameter and “End iteration # “as Row parameter. Values are derived from the “# of tasks”. Similar views can be plotted using other unit of measures like “Hours” and “Story points”.
· Values in green boxes reflect, # of task completed as per plan, however it does not help us understand if they were closed within the defined time or schedule.
· Value in Amber boxes define, # of tasks slip to the next sprint.
· Value in Red boxes or cell defines, # of tasks slipped by more than 2 sprints, which is really a
concern and need immediate action.
· Column with PV as head, defines # of tasks planned to be completed in each sprint. This takes care of spill over task count for next sprint, hence total number of tasks cumulatively in the sprints will not be the right measure.
· Row with Value, depicts number of tasks completed in each sprint. This is known as Velocity in Agile terms.
· SPI row depicts, Schedule performance Index (with # of task as base unit).
· SV row depicts, Schedule variance (with # of task as base unit).
· AV row depicts, Actual cumulative Value sprint on sprint (with # of task as base unit).
· Average Velocity will be simple average of Values with row headers as “Value”
SPI and SV help measure if project is off track or on track in terms of meeting the release plan, which can be leverage by scrum master to adjust capacity and take appropriate decision. RAG status for the SPI and SV values help define Project Schedule Health.
Assuming a scrum team of 2 developers, average # of task accomplished by team can be derived. Given sample less than 2 task are completed by developers per sprint.
On similar lines based on capacity and cost per hours for resources CPI and CV can also be derived.
Currently IT industry is barraged with articles on Agile i.e., #BeLean. AGILE’s basic premise is to be lean yet measure and
track matrices. #GOAGILE, #BEAGILE, #AGILITYLEADS and many more hashtags around
#ONLYAGILE does not mean cut corners. Lean Engineering gurus have been teaching
to go #AGILE and be #LEAN. Being Agile is to be nimble, to be able to adapt to
the changing needs of company to achieve goals as to what is desired by business.
We need Agility to achieve measurable parameters i.e., not just measure outcome
but also Project management specific measure. What if I say we should not just
track Velocity, Burn down and Burn up charts but also EVM.
Agile Project Managers so called “Scrum
Masters” most often keep calling “Scope is Dynamic Hence Agile”, “Do not know
what will be the scope for couple of sprint down the lane and hence it is not
possible to forecast outcome after 2 sprints”, “Do not know what will it take
to deliver the complete full scope”.
It is important for stakeholders to
know few key parameters for any project be it a IT industry or civil or
mechanical etc. Key parameters to know Quality, Schedule and Cost. There are
measures like Velocity and Burn down\Up charts available to track project
health, most of the key agile matrices revolved around outcome i.e., how much
value has been realized thus far and will be realized over time. These are important and very helpful for
business sponsors to take decision based on ROI however when it comes to
metrics for Project manager and IT liaison to help them decide next steps to
meet business objects are limited.
These limitations can easily be
handled by leveraging EVM which got evolved over time to report, forecast,
monitor and keep a track of project progress for traditional projects. Agile
EVM complements Velocity and Burn down/up charts for Agile projects to keep a
track of project health and forecast project status.
For shorter sprint cycle EVM might not
be that helpful however it helps track project status better than mere Velocity
and Burn down charts since project risks and uncertainties are measured on daily
basis for smaller projects. Agile EVM will be very helpful and handy for long
term projects especially with more than 2 months duration. EVM can be leveraged
to handle dynamism in sprint scope, be it addition of new user stories to the
scope or spillover of few incomplete or partially complete user stories to next
sprints. Practicing Agile EVM can help govern Agile project’s accurate status,
spotting initial signs of worry, as well help forecast end-state based on
up-to-date project data.
Does Agile scrum master need to track
extra parameters to come up with EVM, answer to that is “No”. It is up to scrum
master how to extract EVM details from the Agile specific trackers. Let me share how I use to derive Schedule
variance and Schedule performance Index from the simple Agile tracker.
Objective is to come up with the dashboard
as show below, which has Agile and Traditional project management matrices.
Here is a sample snapshot of task tracker sheet with 8 fields\parameters
Parameter # 1 >
Parameter # 1 >
Task #: This is the unique task number
for project.
Parameter # 2 >
User Story #: This defines the unique number for each user
story shared by BA which captures the functional requirement and acceptance
criteria.
Parameter # 3 >
Task Description: This defines the
exact task which got derived based on WBS modeling. Generally, task should be
within the range of 3 to 8 hours for optimal tracking however there could be
exceptions.
Parameter # 4 >
Complexity: Individual developer or tester
(task owner) defines task complexity, which will be leveraged for fine tuning
estimation techniques be it a Pocker or POM model estimation.
Parameter # 5 >
Story points: # of story points
allocated to each task in the beginning of the sprint by team using one of the
accepted Agile estimation technique.
Parameter # 6 >
Start Iteration #: Purpose of this is
to track in which iteration this task is planned to be accomplished.
Parameter # 7 >
End Iteration #: Purpose of this is to
track in which iteration this task got finished and realized or earned value.
Parameter # 8 >
Total Hours #: Actual effort spent
against each task, which has a break up of productive and nonproductive hours
for each row.
Let me take first section and explain
how to derive this view.
Create a Pivot with “Start iteration #” as Column parameter and “End iteration # “as Row parameter. Values are derived from the “# of tasks”. Similar views can be plotted using other unit of measures like “Hours” and “Story points”.
· Values in green boxes reflect, # of task completed as per plan, however it does not help us understand if they were closed within the defined time or schedule.
· Value in Amber boxes define, # of tasks slip to the next sprint.
· Value in Red boxes or cell defines, # of tasks slipped by more than 2 sprints, which is really a
concern and need immediate action.
· Column with PV as head, defines # of tasks planned to be completed in each sprint. This takes care of spill over task count for next sprint, hence total number of tasks cumulatively in the sprints will not be the right measure.
· Row with Value, depicts number of tasks completed in each sprint. This is known as Velocity in Agile terms.
· SPI row depicts, Schedule performance Index (with # of task as base unit).
· SV row depicts, Schedule variance (with # of task as base unit).
· AV row depicts, Actual cumulative Value sprint on sprint (with # of task as base unit).
· Average Velocity will be simple average of Values with row headers as “Value”
SPI and SV help measure if project is off track or on track in terms of meeting the release plan, which can be leverage by scrum master to adjust capacity and take appropriate decision. RAG status for the SPI and SV values help define Project Schedule Health.
Assuming a scrum team of 2 developers, average # of task accomplished by team can be derived. Given sample less than 2 task are completed by developers per sprint.
On similar lines based on capacity and cost per hours for resources CPI and CV can also be derived.
It is not mandatory to track EVM for
Agile projects but I believe Earn Value measure help track project progress and
provide different view on the project health. Earn Value perfectly complements
Agile matrices.
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