Operational Characteristics of Agile and Scrum 

1. Phases and Deliverables
   1. Pre-project phase: list of requirements b Feasibility phase: feasibility study
   2. Establishment phase: business case, prioritized list of requirements, description of architecture, description of development method, plan of action, management approach, summary of foundation
   3. Development phase, timebox plan, timebox review, result (incremental)
   4. Deployment phase: implemented result, project review f Post-project phase: benefits review
   5. Note: this book combines a, b, and c in Accelerator 2; d and e in Accelerators 2 and 3; and f in Accelerator 4.

2. Defining Requirements
   1. User story: a short description of the deliverable’s function from the customer or user’s
   2. Arrange functionalities in order of
   3. Production speed, or velocity: how many functionalities can a team build at a particular production capacity?

3. Timeboxing
   1. Start
   2. Iterative evelopment
   3. Release
   4. Two to four weeks in total

4. Timebox Planning
   1. This is the most detailed level of planning describing the deliver- ables per timebox, including acceptance criteria, priorities, formats and roles involved.

    

5. Delivering Quality

1. 1. Distinction between process and product quality
   2. Definition of Done (DoD). This is a Scrum concept describing what needs to be completed for a product to be considered ready for release.

6. Control and Review
   1. Benefits: the first increment results in a working product, which becomes the main input for the next increment.
   2. Timebox: agile projects use fixed timeboxes. Functionalities are developed in order of priority within each timebox. Cap the number of must-have functionalities at 60% of the total to ensure enough slack.

7. Techniques
   1. Team board: a simple tool to visualize the most important infor- mation on the project.
   2. Estimation: used to determine how many functionalities can be developed in the set time and at the set costs. Formats: T-shirt sizing (S-M-L-XL), Function Point Analysis (FPA), Planning Poker.
   3. Burn down chart: a graphic representation for each time box of the work still to be done for must-have, should-have and could-have functionalities, respectively. The chart is updated daily by the team manager, prior to the stand-ups held to monitor progress for each time box.
   4. Burn up chart: the opposite of a burn down chart, used to monitor progress on the whole project.
   5. Facilitated workshops
   6. MoSCoW prioritization. Agile Project Management prioritization technique distinguishing between Must-have functionalities (rule of thumb 60%), Should-have functionalities (rule of thumb 20%), Could-have functionalities (rule of thumb 20%) and Won’t-have functionalities.
   7. Business case: worst-case, expected-case and best-case scenarios. h Planning Poker: a gamified technique for making team estimates.
   8. The team members individually estimate the amount of work by putting down a card with a number from the Fibonacci sequence. The people who gave the highest and lowest estimates are asked to explain why. This procedure is repeated three times until a consensus is reached.

8. Success Factors
   1. Agile has to be a real competency. If not, forget it. b A clear mandate for the development team.
   2. Focus and engagement from users and sponsors. d Continuity and availability of team roles.
   3. Conciseness

9. Scrum
   1. Scrum is one of the most popular methods under the Agile umbrella.
   2. There are many similarities, but also some important differences. b In Scrum, the prioritized requirements and functionalities list is known as a Product Backlog.
   3. This is the basis for deciding which functionalities need to be developed for the first release, the Release Backlog. This is deter- mined during a Release Planning workshop.
   4. The Release Backlog is subdivided into a number of Sprints.
   5. eEvery Sprint is into even smaller portions, the Sprint Backlogs. These are determined in Start of Sprints workhops (SoS) and planned in Sprint Planning workshops.
   6. Each sprint ends with an End-of-Sprint meeting.
   7. Each sprint is also evaluated in a Retrospective when it is over.
   8. Bringing each product increment into production after development and testing.
   9. Organization: Scrum distinguishes between the Product Owner, the Scrum Master and other team members.