Let's Quiz
Welcome to the Agile Project Management Quiz - Part 4. This time, too, it will be about a real project situation that we have experienced ourselves and for which we had to find a solution.
As in the previous three parts of our quiz series, you can once again test your Scrum-knowledge and test your project management knowledge on real project examples. Have you missed one or more parts of our quiz series? No problem, you can still find them on our blog. In the first three parts, we looked at the Sprint Planningthe Sprint backlog and the Reporting dealt with.
In the last quiz, we took a closer look at reporting. It was about how successful our team is, how many story points (user stories) have been processed and what options there are to present this clearly - keyword Burndown chart. But when are user stories actually completed? How is this defined and who decides? Our quiz today deals with exactly that. Have fun!
Sprint Review - What have we achieved?
At the end of each sprint, Scrum provides for a so-called Sprint Review before. In this meeting, the development team presents the Product Owner (PO) the results of his work from the last sprint. Other interested stakeholders also take part in this meeting - for example, representatives from the specialist department or the authors of the user stories developed. The results are presented live on the system. The team also has the opportunity to collect feedback, make suggestions for improvement and exchange praise and criticism. Based on what is shown, the PO finally decides whether the corresponding user story is to be considered complete. done) or whether further improvements need to be made. Another Scrum artifact helps the PO with this assessment. The so-called Definition of Done (DoD).
Definition of Done - What is it?
The "Definition of Done (DoD)" describes the Product owner's specifications for the product. It is largely responsible for determining whether a user story is considered to be a done can be identified. The Scrum team is responsible for compliance with the DoD and must always take the DoD into account both in sprint planning and in the implementation of user stories. A typical Definition of Done, from the product owner's perspective, could look like this, for example:
- Acceptance criteria are fulfilled
- Tests are successful
- Software is delivered on integration environment
- Constraints are met (e.g. design specifications, usability specifications)
- User documentation is updated
The product owner's criteria are often supplemented by additional aspects from an operational or IT perspective. For example, the DoD could also include, in addition to the user manual, that the operating manual is also updated and that the test coverage is at least 80%.
It is important that the DoD provides all stakeholders with Clearly communicated and understandable is. To a certain extent, the DoD is a component of every user story, which must be taken into account in the effort estimate. If the criteria are not clearly defined or not sufficiently communicated, there is a risk that the effort required to implement a user story will be underestimated. As a result, too many user stories are planned into the sprint, none of which may ultimately meet the DoD and are not approved by the product owner in the sprint review.
In such a case, it sounds tempting to soften the DoD at the end of the sprint in order to complete a few user stories after all. However, this is not advisable, as the project builds up an ever greater "debt" over time. In the end, it can cost an entire sprint to make up for missing tests and documentation, for example. In practice, this happens frequently and cannot be completely avoided. Nevertheless, the DoD is the quality standard for the project - which should always be adhered to wherever possible.
The practical case - a sprint review meeting
The following example serves as a practical case for today's quiz. In the sprint review meeting of an agile project, the results of the sprint are presented.
The Definition of Done of the project:
- Software is delivered on a test environment
- Acceptance tests have been carried out and all were successful
- Operational readiness index is fulfilled
Participants of the meeting:
- Team
- Scrum Master
- Product Owner
- Overall project manager
- Test manager
- Commissioning Manager
- Agile coach
The results are shown and presented directly in the system. A list with the sprint results is also presented at the start of the meeting.
| Priority | User Story | Story Points | Status |
| 1 | Story D | 12 | Finished, except for part "xy". The story can only be completed with story T. |
| 2 | Story E | 20 | Finished, but not yet tested. |
| 3 | Story F | 8 | Done. |
| 4 | Defect for story B from previous sprint | Done. | |
| 5 | Defect for story C from previous sprint | Could not be reproduced and needs to be analyzed together with the TOE. | |
| Update on the PROD environment (request came during the sprint) | Ready and recorded. |
The presentation of the sprint results on the system is introduced by the developer with the following words:
"Don't be surprised about the strange data. We don't have a copy of the real data in the development environment. But I can show you all the functions."
Now it's your turn!
Question 1: How many user stories can be entered as completed in the burndown chart?
Question 2Which user stories can be imported into the production environment?
Question 3: What tips do you have for the team to get more user stories completed in the next sprint?
| For this case, too, there is no the right solution. Please send us Your answers per Contact form or post a comment under this post. Then we will gladly send you the Sample solutionwhich is our recommendation for dealing with the project situation, by mail back. We look forward to your ideas! |
More agile project management can be found here
Here you will find parts 1, 2 and 3 of the project management series:
Part 1 of the PM Quiz - Sprint Planning - All beginnings are difficult
Part 2 of the PM Quiz - Sprint Backlog - Let the sprint begin!
Part 3 of the PM Quiz - Reporting - Is our project successful?
