Amber Hunt - Sprint 2 - Paper 2 - Estimating an Agile Project

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.1  INTRODUCTION

1.2  STARTING WITH USER ROLES

1.3  CREATING USER STORIES

1.4  WRITING EFFECTIVE STORIES

1.5  GROUPING WITH THEMES OF EPICS

1.6  CONCLUSION 1.1 INTRODUCTION Estimating in Agile can be frustrating. One may think it is just about assigning a time the project would be completed. Well, it is not that simple. With estimating in Agile, user roles and user stories must be created, as well as creating, writing, and grouping those stories. These stories lead into the planning phase of the project which leads into something else. It is basically a waterfall effect.

1.2 STARTING WITH USER ROLES The product owner usually assigns user roles. It makes it easier to focus-on the users experience rather than what goes into creating it. They do it based on their view of the product. It makes the estimate phase relatively easy and simple. This role is not to be confused as one person. It is to be thought of as roles that the product owner assigns to make. For example, Customers or Visitors to a website can be user roles. (Lynda.com - from LinkedIn, 2017)

'''1.3 CREATING USER STORIES '''          User Stories are short stories created for the user. It is used to find out what interests the user about the product. According to Doug Rose from Lynda.com, a user story is a conversation vehicle. The user story must be able to do two things such as, operate the client’s language and add business value. To operate in the client’s language, you must be able to answer the questions of why and what? The developers worry about the how. Do not stress on the dynamics of what the story is about, but rather, what it does not say. The product manager must make sure that he/she is not swimming in the developer’s pool. (Lynda.com - from LinkedIn, 2017) To be successful, one must use the three C’s come in. Conversation, Confirmation, and Card. These are good ways to record the user stories.

'''1.4 WRITING EFFECTIVE STORIES''' Writing user stories is a good way for the product owner and the developers to communicate. To get great results from writing user stories, one must use INVEST. It stands for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Sized-Appropriately, and Testable. Follow these steps and the stories should be very easy. (Lynda.com - from LinkedIn, 2017)

'''1.5 GROUPING WITH THEMES OF EPICS'''

Epics or themes are great ways to group stories. Epics are said to be created after the stories. It is a great way to get identical stories into the correct spot. Using FEEDBACK, an acronym to help with grouping in Agile helps as well. It stands for Flow, Effort, Entry, Data, Business rules, Alternatives, Complexity, and K is for Knowledge. (Lynda.com - from LinkedIn, 2017)

1.6 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, estimating in Agile does not have to be as hard or frustrating as many make it out to be. It can be easy and straightforward if those steps are followed. All one must do is assign user roles and stories, create, write, and group them then everything else will fall into place. It is just a process that leads into another that can be done without the headache.

Citation

Lynda.com - from LinkedIn. (2017). Creating user stories. [online] Available at: https://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Creating-user-stories/175074/387213-4.html

[Accessed 9 Nov. 2017].

Lynda.com - from LinkedIn. (2017). Grouping with themes or epics. [online] Available at: https://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Grouping-themes-epics/175074/387215-4.html [Accessed 10 Nov. 2017].

Lynda.com - from LinkedIn. (2017). ''Starting with user roles''. [online] Available at: https://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Starting-user-roles/175074/387212-4.html

[Accessed 9 Nov. 2017].

Lynda.com - from LinkedIn. (2017). Writing effective stories. [online] Available at: https://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Writing-effective-stories/175074/387214-4.html [Accessed 10 Nov. 2017].