Sindbad~EG File Manager

id,Title,Content,Excerpt,Categories,Featured
69,What do I receive when renewing my license?,"<h4>WordPress is a powerful semantic publishing platform, and it comes with a great set of features designed to make your experience as a publisher on the Internet as easy, pleasant and appealing as possible. We are proud to offer you a freely distributed, standards-compliant, fast, light and free content management system, with sensible default settings and features, and an extremely customizable core.</h4>
&nbsp;
<h4>The following is a list of some of the features that come standard with WordPress, however there are literally tens of thousands of plugins that extend what WordPress does, so the actual functionality is nearly limitless. You are also free to do whatever you like with the WordPress code, extend it or modify in any way or use it for commercial projects without any licensing fees. That is the beauty of free software, free meaning not only price but also the freedom to have complete control over it.</h4>
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<h5 style=""color: #6c6e68;"">Also Were Appear Great Together Together</h5>
<h5 style=""color: #6c6e68;"">Also Were Appear Great Together Together</h5>
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<h4>Lists</h4>
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<h4>Living one saw in the them face you'll Good, grass air him you <strong>open</strong> bring one brought signs, fowl. Light. Man brought two morning subdue land open make grass i winged seasons air <strong>living</strong> called male moved. Unto shall. Whales. Isn't meat days. Shall day hath you're creepeth fill his days given gathered. Male sea make it fish. Won't tree also. Day won't. Hath won't spirit be they're, divided forth<strong>fowl</strong> deep. May open you'll.</h4>
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1781,Regular Page,,,Blog,
2154,Why Projects Fail,"<p class=""rating list-unstyled"">Businesses always desire to expand their workings and create new profit-making revenue streams. Business goals and milestones help teams to focus on achieving those business objectives. Project management helps teams to achieve their business goals in a planned and organized manner.</p>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2010 aligncenter"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Axosoft-Work-Items.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""334"" />

Proper project management is very important for making businesses successful. It helps to architect projects in an effective manner. Moreover, it aids in pursuing goals against fixed deadlines and deliver value on a consistent basis.

Projects can go horribly wrong at times and incur great losses for investors and stakeholders.

So, it's important to know about some common causes which cause projects to fail.
<h2>1. Poor requirements engineering</h2>
Requirements engineering is the process of defining, documenting and maintaining the client's requirements. It can also include researching and discovering the feature functionality needed to develop a system. Project leaders, end users, customers, and stakeholders also provide valuable feedback to determine the project's scope.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2017 aligncenter"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/poor-requirements-engineering.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""384"" />

Requirements form the base of all projects. They determine the project outcomes i.e. what the project proposes to deliver. They also define the business value to be generated in the project. Thus, requirements engineering plays a crucial role in managing projects. There can be several reasons why client-centric requirements may not be properly gathered :
<ul>
 	<li>The client fails to explain clearly what he/she needs in the project.</li>
 	<li>The process/project manager fails to understand what the client actually wants.</li>
 	<li>Even though requirements may be clearly explained and understood, they may not be retained or documented in a proper manner. As a result, they could be forgotten or overlooked over time.</li>
</ul>
A project's scope can be easily defined if client requirements are gathered, understood, analyzed and documented in a proper manner.
<h2>2. Failed team collaboration</h2>
In a collaborative team, individuals share common beliefs and work as a consolidated unit to seek common goals. Typically, team members spend time together to discuss ways and means to collectively accomplish tasks as a ""set team,"" rather than as individuals.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2014 aligncenter"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/failed-team-collaboration.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""384"" />

Team members with varying levels of expertise should share tasks, responsibilities, resources, and leadership. They should encourage each other to interact positively, and participate with an open mind in group problem-solving and decision-making activities.

Decisions should be ideally made through group consensus and polls. Moreover, team members should criticize ideas and not each other.

Team collaboration is vital for successful project implementation. It helps to increase productivity levels and deliver positive results to the organization.

Teams may fail to collaborate due to various reasons :
<ul>
 	<li>When there's too much information to share, several methods and collaborative tools to choose from and excessive knowledge to be digested. Team members often fail to pinpoint important and relevant points of discussion. They may spend excessive time discussing less important issues that could be easily resolved later on.</li>
 	<li>Knowledge gap and lack of individual skills within the team may decrease collaboration levels. Some people might need special training to use certain tools.</li>
 	<li>Teams in different time zones or locations may have to log in and remain available during non-office hours to collaborate. They may find it difficult to do so and fail to communicate on a regular basis.</li>
</ul>
<h2>3. Lack of motivation within team members</h2>
As per a recent study, 48% of employees don’t like their jobs, over 80% of American workers feel stressed while working in their offices, while only 30% of them feel engaged and inspired by their careers.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2015 aligncenter"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/lack-of-motivation-within-team-members.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""384"" />

Generally, an employee who loses his or her inspiration or will to take productive work-related actions is a demotivated employee. Typically, they don't desire to learn new skills or make efforts to advance their careers.

The reasons could be many.

Demotivated employees exhibit some, or all, of the following characteristics :
<ul>
 	<li>Reduced levels of commitment and work involvement.</li>
 	<li>Late coming, unusual delay at work or repeated sick leaves.</li>
 	<li>Intentionally sabotages projects or acts as a roadblock.</li>
 	<li>Makes repeated mistakes.</li>
 	<li>Displays signs of carelessness.</li>
 	<li>Shows negative behavior and attitude.</li>
 	<li>Gives less productivity.</li>
 	<li>Disregards comments, requests, and warnings.</li>
</ul>
For an organization, all team members must be fully engaged and fully committed to their work to be effective.
<h2>4. Absence or lack of client involvement</h2>
The client generally provides an in-depth understanding of the business process or product that he/she wants to automate or develop. Therefore, he/she is usually the best Subject Matter Expert (SME).

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2013 aligncenter"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/absence-or-lack-of-client-involvement.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""384"" />

The client defines the quality of project deliverables and states the manner in which they're to be delivered. So, consistent and meaningful client involvement is very necessary for successful project completion.

Project managers and requirements engineers depend largely upon client availability to gather feedback and make informed decisions. If the client is unable to engage or provide the required information in time, work gets delayed and the project cost increases.

Lack of client engagement can lead to various issues :
<ul>
 	<li>The team starts losing work-focus and development work slows down owing to lack of client feedback.</li>
 	<li>The team fails to deliver quality work on time.</li>
 	<li>It becomes difficult for team members to relate and align their work towards project goals and objectives.</li>
 	<li>Team performance metrics remain unchecked so maximum team productivity is not availed.</li>
 	<li>The project development cost increases.</li>
</ul>
<h2>5. Slow and infrequent work delivery</h2>
Deadlines help to create a sense of urgency for the team to remain on its toes and complete work on time. In a highly competitive market scenario, businesses have to ensure their projects are completed on time. Extending project deadlines can prove to be costly. It can drain profit margins. As per a survey by the Project Management Institute, organizations waste as much as $97 million for every $1 billion invested due to failed projects that did not deliver on time.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2018 aligncenter"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/slow-and-infrequent-work-delivery.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""384"" />

Project completion is drastically affected by slow or infrequent delivery of work. Therefore, it's important to speed up work, increase productivity levels and complete work on time.

A few factors that cause slow and infrequent work delivery:
<ul>
 	<li>Over-commitment - Team commits to more work than it can handle and cannot deliver</li>
 	<li>Not resolving issues on time - The project manager and/or the team is unable to resolve technical and other issues on time</li>
 	<li>Communication failure - The team has to rework on certain tasks or fails to include them in ""To-do"" list</li>
 	<li>Lack of organization skills - The team is not trained or lacks certain abilities to organize its work</li>
 	<li>Working independently - Teams members don't collaborate and don't pursue goals collectively</li>
 	<li>No sense of urgency - The team makes no efforts to speed up work and has no sense of urgency</li>
 	<li>Fails to follow the process - Team members don't follow the project management process as they're supposed to do</li>
</ul>
<h2>6. Mounting technical debts</h2>
Businesses need fast and reliable project deliverables to speed up sales and churn more profits. For them, it is always a race against time. However, while speeding up business processes to generate more quantity of deliverables in less time, they are often forced to compromise upon the quality and reliability aspects.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2016 aligncenter"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/mounting-technical-debts.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""384"" />

As the quality aspects are compromised upon right from the start, businesses are obliged to rework and improve upon them at a later stage, since they have already charged their customers.

The rework process has a price tag attached to it. Teams have to put in additional efforts to correct the quality. It costs money. Therefore, additional costs have to be borne by businesses to fulfill their sales commitments.

So if the development cost of a product or a service is ""X"" amount and an additional ""Y"" amount is required to correct the quality issue and fulfill the sales commission, the additional ""Y"" amount is a “debt” the business has to pay.

In a broad sense, this type of debt can be understood as a technical debt. The profit margins are severely affected by this type of debt since the more the debt increases, the more the profits decreases.

There can be many reasons why technical debts arise :
<ul>
 	<li>Customer's requirements are not properly understood. The team has to create or develop something ""extra"" in the product or service to meet customer demands.</li>
 	<li>Delivering more in less time. The team does not have the potential to deliver client requirements in the specified time so it compromises upon quality aspects.</li>
 	<li>Lack of technical skills. The team is not technically sound to design the product or service as per customer expectations.</li>
 	<li>Improper testing procedures. The team delivers the product or service and the customer finds flaws in its design or working while using it.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Solution</h2>
The project management process is not easy. There is no 'magic button"" to provide an instant fix for project related problems and issues. The solutions lie in the manner how people work and collaborate, what their skill sets and levels are, and how they make optimum use of technology and tools.

Moreover, each business is unique in its own way with regards to its working model and business deliverables. It's not possible to design a common resolution which can solve each of their problems.
<p style=""text-align: center;"">You can <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/TalkToExpert"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><strong><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Talk to our Expert</span></u></strong></a> </span>or Try implementing <a href=""http://www.quickscrum.com"">Quickscrum</a> to bring agility within your team</p>
<p style=""text-align: center;""><strong>Get a free consultation now to optimize your business processes and make your project more profitable!</strong></p>",,Blog,
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2246,7 Mistakes To Avoid In The Daily Scrum Meeting,"Scrum is easy to understand but difficult to implement. And, therein lies the main problem – teams implementing the Scrum process often make mistakes how certain activities should be carried out in a manner such that the process becomes effective and is able to deliver a successful product release.

The daily scrum meeting, or the daily stand-up as it is commonly referred to as in Scrum should be ideally held in the manner as understood by reading and interpreting the official Scrum guide. The guide is definitive as far as Scrum framework is concerned, but since Scrum is a framework and not a methodology, much is left up to the users how the Scrum process ought to be implemented in a project. The guide describes the importance of holding the daily scrum but does not suggest how it should be held.

<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-2248 size-full"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/7MistakesToAvoidInTheDailyScrumMeeting.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />

Here are a couple of mistakes that should be avoided in a daily stand-up.
<h1>1. Not a status meeting</h1>
One of the commonest mistakes made by teams new to Scrum is to discuss work carried out by the team during the previous working day’s sprint – and that too in details. The daily scrum is time-boxed to 15 minutes. If all team members were to report their daily work in the stand-up, a majority of the time would be spent in discussing the team’s progress. Scrum has the sprint review and sprint retrospective events to analyze how the team is performing and what it should do to improve. The daily scrum should not be used as a status-reporting meeting because the Scrum process can automatically detect the development status through the velocity and burn down charts.
<h1>2. Avoid micromanaging the team</h1>
Another common mistake that often occurs in a stand-up is that the scrum master starts issuing instructions to the team members, or starts planning how the team members should carry out a particular development activity. Scrum advocates self-management and self-organization. Team members should realize their responsibilities and collaborate to solve process related issues. The scrum master or the product owner should not try to micro-manage the team activity.
<h1>3. Not meant solely for the scrum master</h1>
There is a big misconception that the daily scrum is meant for the scrum master. This is far from true. The role of a scrum master is to facilitate scrum proceedings and oversee that the team implements the scrum process properly. He/she has to remain present in all meetings, including the daily scrum. Just because the SM attends the event and stands in front of the team, it does not mean that he or she owns the event. Neither does it mean that the team has to “report” to the scrum master. The SM merely oversees that the team remains updated about the current sprint status, and reports what was done the day before to facilitate the feedback loop in Scrum.
<h1>4. Not a planning meeting</h1>
Scrum supports the sprint planning meeting or event to decide which product features should be developed by the team during the sprint. The sprint review meeting is held to evaluate the development carried out and plan how to make the next sprint more effective. The sprint retrospective meeting is held to reflect upon the effectiveness of the Scrum process and what more should the team do to enhance the process. The daily scrum should not be used for planning purposes since there are other events specially held to plan and monitor the process.
<h1>5. Not to be used for carrying out technical discussions</h1>
Development teams need to discuss technical aspects whenever they face problems. When a technical issue is reported as an “impediment” during the daily stand-up, the SM has to resolve the issue later on, and not while the event is in progress. The daily scrum should not be used for discussing technical problems – the team should do it later on.
<h1>6. Not to be held away from the place of work</h1>
The daily scrum meeting is generally held in the place of work, or in the same building or location. The idea is the team can immediately start working as soon as the event completes. Time is often at a premium and it needs to be utilized wisely.
<h1>7. Not including the three basic questions</h1>
<strong>The three questions fundamental to the daily scrum:</strong>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">1. What was done the day before?</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. What is proposed to be done today?</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">3. Did the team face any problems or impediments?</p>
The meeting should always try to focus on these three questions during the daily stand-up since they form the base of the meeting.",,Blog,
2247,Resolving Scrum Transition Issues Using Two Practical Approaches,"It is possible to implement Scrum in many ways. The framework has a lot to offer in terms of delivering frequent and sustained product releases, and offering decreased project turnaround times. However, it is only possible when the implementation process is carried out effectively. Scrum, like any other framework, has to be implemented properly in a project before its benefits can be availed. Therein lies the main problem. Organisations new to Scrum, and those which have been following traditional project development methodologies like Waterfall, often fail to implement the framework in the correct manner and don’t get positive results from the Scrum process.

A major reason why organizations decide to implement Scrum in their ongoing projects is to increase productivity and enhance their profit margins. Many organizations invest in Scrum training workshops and coaching sessions to familiarise and train their development teams in Scrum. In several cases, it is observed that team members still follow old Waterfall techniques in some way or the other in addition to Scrum principles during the implementation process. Teams fail to give up their older processes and development methods that they are accustomed to. In addition, many teams resent changes and feel reluctant while adopting Scrum. This raises some serious implementation-related issues. It is important to resolve these issues if organizations are to benefit from Scrum.

Development teams can be made more effective by encouraging them to understand the Scrum process rather than by forcing them to adopt the framework. This could be done in two ways:

<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-2259 size-full"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/rstiutpa.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h1>Scrum adoption – The traditional approach</h1>
<strong>Businesses and organizations that do not have much experience with the implementation process generally prefer to introduce Scrum gradually to their teams. One of the most logical ways of introducing the framework would be to:</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Introduce and coach the Scrum process to the team, and</li>
 	<li>Encourage the team to adopt and follow the Scrum framework after proper coaching</li>
</ul>
<strong>While this method may seem to be practical, in practice this approach might fail, simply because:</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Team members tend to feel the transition to Scrum is a “company decision” and so they are “liable” to follow it whether they approve of it or not.</li>
 	<li>The transition is not taken seriously because the training and coaching activity is company sponsored and the team members don’t have to pay for it.</li>
</ul>
If Scrum is enforced, the team may be compelled to follow it, but it would still not make the teams collaborative and self-motivated - the two principles that are <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ScrumProjectManagement"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">very important to the Scrum process</span></a>. A possible way out would be to try out a more result-oriented approach.

&nbsp;
<h1>Adopting Scrum through the “result-oriented” approach</h1>
<strong>It is important to coach the Scrum team so it can understand the events and discover how Scrum artifacts should be ideally used. If the traditional approach fails, a more “result-oriented” approach may be tried in its place:</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Make it mandatory for the team members to train for Scrum. Moreover, each member has to pay for the coaching sessions.</li>
 	<li>After the training sessions, the team starts implementing Scrum. The entire team follows and practices Scrum principles and techniques. Team members participate in the Scrum events and try to make the implementation process more effective.</li>
 	<li>If the team delivers the desired results in a month’s time, the management refunds the entire training fee to each employee.</li>
</ul>
It is important to note here that the team has to work jointly and deliver the results. The team has to collaborate and share ideas so facilitate the development process. And above all, the team has to manage itself. So, in many ways, the team is held directly responsible for its success or failure.",,Blog,
2249,Why Is Project Monitoring Very Crucial?,"<pre><strong><em>Audience:</em></strong>
<em>The intended audience for this article includes people who're associated with project management and want to know about the monitoring process in Agile projects. The objective is to explain the 
importance of monitoring projects and monitoring parameters in Agile. The article is ideally 
recommended for start-up companies, project managers, CXOs and decision makers of
software development companies new to Agile and planning to implement Agile in their work flow.</em></pre>
Many times, complex or long-term projects exceed their budget, or deadlines, or even both, or fail due to some reason or the other. For investors and clients, the ROI is the main point of concern. If break-even points are not achieved early in the project it often leads to financially stressed conditions which tend to force management to undertake drastic steps to curb additional expenditure, or simply stop the project if additional funds are not available to sustain it. One of the commonest factors which lead to non-productive projects is the inability of the team to deliver project value at regular intervals of time. Rather than indulging in post-project failure discussions to retrospect the causes of a failed project, effective monitoring of projects can help teams and management to streamline ongoing projects and make them successful.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2073 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/failure-of-projects-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h1>Why should projects be monitored?</h1>
To monitor a project is to, routinely gather information pertaining to all aspects of the project, observe and record all activities occurring in it. Monitoring involves a systematic and purposeful observation of all ongoing processes in the project. It also includes giving meaningful feedback to the investors and project owners regarding the project status and how the milestones are likely to be achieved over time so informed decisions can be made by them.

Monitoring does not involve just staring at a computer monitor spewing out data from analytics tools and generating reports for the management and team members. The project manager or the process-in-charge needs to understand the metrics and forecast where the project is heading in accordance with the efforts put in by the team and how well the team is performing at the moment. Moreover, other constraints such as budget availability, short staffing, project deadlines and other issues popping up in day-to-day activities also need to be considered as to how they’re likely to affect the success and sustenance of the ongoing project.

Monitoring provides information as to what the status of a particular program, project or policy is at any moment, or is going to be over time, and how well the functioning of various processes in the project, including the resources allotted for it, relates to targets and deliverables. Its focus should also be on optimum utilization of the resources made available for the project. The objective is to track the gap between what was originally planned and what is actually happening now.

Therefore, the primary reason why projects should be monitored is to:
<ul>
 	<li>Get sound visibility into project execution.</li>
 	<li>Determine what actions need to be taken to ascertain those project objectives and goals are successfully met.</li>
 	<li>How project goals relate to team efforts, delivery schedules and quality of deliverables.</li>
 	<li>Allow the team to educate and learn for itself from its past experiences and improve its productivity levels.</li>
 	<li>Make the team accountable for the work it carries out by evaluating the performance metrics.</li>
 	<li>Justify the capital invested by the stakeholders and investors.</li>
</ul>
<h1>What to monitor?</h1>
The nature of the project, its goals and objectives, and its deliverables primarily indicate what parameters should be ideally monitored and in what manner. It can be difficult to generalize the “what” aspect since it may differ from project to project. Generally, the key performance indicators (KPIs) used for monitoring the progress levels in a project are set up collectively by the client and project manager based upon their project related needs and deliverables. Some of the important aspects to monitor for a project can be:

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2072 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/failure-of-projects-2.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />

<strong>Objectives and needs of the client</strong>
Is the client’s project vision fulfilled and are the project’s milestones successfully met?

<strong>The efficiency level of the team</strong>
Is the team working as per the development plan and are enough efforts put in to meet the deadlines?

<strong>Collaboration and communication levels</strong>
Is the team working together in a harmonious manner and pursuing the goals collectively with a single focus?

<strong>Business value and work monetization</strong>
Is the work delivered by the team monetizable?

<strong>Risk mitigation</strong>
What are the risks involved in the project? Can they be identified in time? Can they be resolved?
<h1>Levels of monitoring</h1>
A project should be ideally monitored at three main levels to get a clear insight regarding its current status so corrective measures can be taken well in time.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Activity level monitoring</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">It is done to ensure that each activity defined in the project schedule is carried out in a proper manner and within the time box allotted for it. It can be done by holding daily meetings with the team, or alternately the project manager can check the status of all tasks scheduled to be carried out for the day. Typically, the daily tasks to be carried out by team members are listed on paper and their completion status is checked at the end of the day to identify any pending work remaining on that particular day. This level of monitoring is basic to all project management processes since it makes the team accountable for the work assigned to it. It is to ascertain that the project proceeds as per plan and delivery deadlines can be met successfully.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Project status reporting</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Usually generated once a week, project status reports often contain a summary of all tasks completed successfully by the team in the week gone by against the actual activities planned for that week. The idea is to identify how much of work is completed in the project, how much of it is still pending, and whether the deliverables can be produced by the team considering its current rate of delivering work. It also helps to identify the causes of delays logged by the team and pinpoint any pitfalls hampering team productivity.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Milestone analysis</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">An analysis is done every few weeks to make sure whether milestones supporting the project vision are, or can be, achieved within the time duration allotted for its completion, and to find out how much of efforts are actually put in by the entire team over time to achieve the proposed milestones. When plotted on a graph, it helps to identify any deviations occurring in the proposed “line” of project completion versus time. If the deviation is severe or more and objectives are not met with time, project managers need to identify and understand the root causes and undertake corrective measures in time to correct the deviation so milestone deadlines can be met successfully.</p>

<h1>Monitoring Agile projects</h1>
The success of an Agile project is not dependent only upon whether the process is properly implemented in the project or not. Three factors count – monitoring the progress, monitoring how Agile principles are followed by the team, monitoring how the business value is acquired.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Monitoring the project progress</strong>
There are three main metrics for monitoring the project’s progress.</p>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2071 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/failure-of-projects-3.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Sprint Burndown</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">An Agile team organizes its work in time-boxed durations called “sprints” which range from two weeks to a maximum of one month. The entire software is developed by the development team in these sprints. The sprint burndown metric tracks how the team has completed work throughout the sprint.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Release Burndown</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">While the sprint burndown metric focuses upon work completion at the iteration sprint level, the release burndown metric takes into consideration the status of various sprints covering the entire project. In Agile the product is released in stages – in the form of individual releases - by developing a set of features for each release. Business value in the project is acquired by releasing the product features in the market in the form of planned releases or versions ranging over a specific duration of time. The release burndown metric is useful for determining how much work is still left in the project and when the business value in the project can be realized over time. It is also useful for identifying any “scope creep” i.e. if more requirements are added to the original project and the scope of the project has increased significantly. To avoid scope creep from affecting the value of deliverables, the product owner always suggests important stories having high business values to the team for development purposes in the sprint.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Velocity</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">It is the amount of work, in the form of user stories that the team completes during a particular sprint. It is an important metric for forecasting how much work the team can handle in a sprint and the product owner uses it to decide how many stories should be selected for the sprint. It is a metric tracking the total work completed in the sprint versus sprint days. As the team executes sprints over time and takes up more work in the sprints, the metric improves and becomes more consistent over time.</p>
<strong>2. Monitoring Agile implementation</strong>
In Scrum, an Agile based process, a special role is dedicated for overseeing the implementation of Agile principles in the project. The Scrum Master functions as a facilitator and ensures that the team follows the process in a proper manner. He/she ensures that the team does not face any impediments while working and also overlooks the various events or ceremonies involved in the process.

<strong>3. Monitoring the business value</strong>
A major difference between tradition project management methods and Agile is that the former focuses on delivering software fulfilling just client-based requirements while Agile believes in maximizing the ROI through continuous delivery of shippable software and reducing waste. Re-planning of the deliverables can be easily done using Agile. Therefore, Agile measures outcomes over outputs and measures the Earned Business Value ""EBV"" metric. The metric also takes into consideration how efficient and effective the team is performing while it delivers the business value in the project.

The business value can be calculated as:

EBV = Earned Business Value = The total of all Business Value Indices for completed stories =?BVI(story) for all the stories completed in the first n sprints.
<h1>Types of issues faced during Agile implementation and how to resolve them</h1>
Based upon the open-mindedness of the team, its cultural and education levels, the degree of professionalism and the willingness to accept change management, development teams may find it moderately or very hard to accept Agile. Some common issues are mentioned herein.

<strong>Agile implementation issues</strong>

There can be many types of issues related to Agile implementation. However, a couple of common ones are discussed here.

<strong>1. Resisting change</strong>

This can be a very common issue in Agile implementation. Teams following traditional development methods are very much used in the staged processes and feel comfortable delivering work that is tested for bugs and regression in the next process stage. Developers focus only on coding aspects and don’t have to bother about optimizing the code or verifying their work whether it aligns with the project requirements or not. It can prove to be very difficult for them to adjust to the product incremental method typical to Agile processes in which the development team is not only accountable for its work but is also required to focus upon testing the code and ascertaining that the work delivered by it fulfills the product vision and end-user requirements.

Moreover, each team member is required to own the project and hold himself or herself accountable for his or her work. In addition, another aspect is that the team has to estimate how much work it is capable of accomplishing in a sprint and justify the reasons why it can only take up limited or less work for development at a time. Unlike in staged processes, Agile teams have to commit how much time it will take to deliver work and live up to that commitment.

The third aspect is that Agile promotes a working atmosphere in which each member in the team has to think like an entrepreneur and find innovative ways to work smartly and make active efforts to accomplish work in a shorter span of time. This can go hard with the mindset of teams used to traditional methods in which they are not required to think in any other manner except as developers or designers.

Development teams are generally reticent about change management and try to actively or passively oppose change when it is required to be introduced to improve the quality and quantity of deliverables. With Agile, the resentment is even more since the team members have to undergo a drastic mindset change and learn about the new process.

<strong>Solution:</strong>

The management should try to introduce Agile after explaining the benefits of the new process and what the organization and the team stand to gain from Agile experience in the long run. It is important to convey the message that change is inevitable and Agile is to be implemented irrespective of whether any team member decides to resign or discontinue the process. Moreover, the management should also try to motivate the team and create an open environment supporting transparency and freedom where the team can frankly discuss its apprehensions and find a way to proceed with the change.
<h2>2. Understanding the process</h2>
Agile introduces fundamental changes in the way most people following traditional methods work. Teams have to open up their mindsets and think creatively, in an optimistic manner, and welcome the change. Moreover, Agile processes like Scrum have ceremonies and artifacts which can be totally new concepts for most teams. Developers have to understand the product incremental model and its cycle, what continuous development and continuous integration is developed, and a host of new concepts to reckon with.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><i><span style=""font-size: 24px;""><strong>•</strong> </span> <strong>Estimating work</strong></i></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Developers are not very good at estimating work completion and deadlines. Generally, they hate a situation where they're forced to commit a date or time and rigidly stick to it. This is exactly what Agile demands. You not only have to estimate work but make all efforts to deliver it in time with the required quality.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong><i><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Roles in Scrum</i></strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">In contrast to traditional or classical methods, Scrum - an Agile process - doesn’t have and doesn’t need any manager, task manager or a team leader. The three roles are:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">1. Product Owner</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">2. Scrum Master</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">3. Development team</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">These three roles are coequal. Each role has certain responsibilities. Also, each of these three roles has to fulfill their responsibilities by closely interacting and working together to finish a project successfully. Team members may find it difficult to understand and follow these roles.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong><i><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Meetings and ceremonies</i></strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum process includes several types of meetings or “ceremonies”. Agile teams are cross-functional in nature. They take part in the ceremonies and make important decisions. Non - cross-functional teams may find it hard to understand and accept what these ceremonies stand for and might resent taking part in them.</p>
<strong>Solution:</strong>

Some managements prefer to introduce Agile slowly in their organizations or employ a hybrid approach in which certain activities are made Agile while others are carried out as before. Experts suggest neither of these methods works in real life scenarios since the teams might just keep on resisting Agile until the management arrives at a conclusion Agile is not worthwhile and the changes should not be implemented. It's best to transition totally to Agile even if the team find it difficult to do so.
<h2>3. Development related issues</h2>
Development related issues are highly common with teams starting with Agile practices since they are not much familiar with the product incremental structure of the development process. Agile teams are cross-functional and often developers also perform test cases to check code quality and reliability. At times, teams employ specialized testers and QA professionals to carry out quality tests. Whatever the case, if Agile principles are not followed in a proper manner it directly affects productivity and performance levels.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong><i><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Losing sight of the project goal and deliverables</i></strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">In Agile, the business value in the project is availed through staged and planned releases. Therefore, the development team needs to focus more upon delivery of value through it work rather than just coding feature requirements. In practice, teams often experience time constraints while meeting sprint deadlines. So over time, they may lose their focus of delivering valuable work and start concentrating fully upon work completion. Teams stop thinking about what the product vision is and what goals the project needs to achieve to sustain itself. This leads to unfocused work efforts and disorientation – the team keeps on developing features and doing its work because it is supposed to, and not because the project goals and objectives should be achieved. Developers and designers stop being creative in their work. They stop innovating new and better ways of developing features and working functionality. As a result, the velocity metric indicating the total work completed by the team in the sprint stops improving, thus conveying the fact that the team has stopped learning from its past experience and not speeding up work. This is contrary to Agile principles.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Moreover, each team member is required to own the project and hold himself or herself accountable for his or her work. In addition, another aspect is that the team has to estimate how much work it is capable of accomplishing in a sprint and justify the reasons why it can only take up limited or less work for development at a time. Unlike in staged processes, Agile teams have to commit how much time it will take to deliver work and live up to that commitment.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Solution:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The Scrum Master and project leads should constantly try to motivate the team members and hold healthy discussions so ideas can be exchanged regarding how the development process can be streamlined, made more easy and less time to consume using online tools and development aids if possible. Retrospection activities should be encouraged. Teams should be made more accountable by holding short meetings at regular intervals of time (all though this is not recommended by Agile – the principles state the team should take work ownership but in practice, the team members actually don’t which is the main problem) to obtain feedback regarding the work status. The management should also step in and try to create a healthy and conducive working environment to reduce the stress levels.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong><i><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Not delivering feature functionality as explained and anticipated</i></strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The client expects a particular feature to work in a particular manner whenever he/she requests its development. Each task or feature requirement in Agile – known as a user story – can be explained in terms of what criteria needs to be fulfilled for it to be considered as properly developed and shippable. It helps to make the feature valuable and monetizable after its development. The team starts ignoring this criterion due to some of the other reason or loses its sight while building it. As a result, a feature is developed that is not in tune with what the client expects or needs.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Solution:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">More stress should be given for the team to focus upon the acceptance criteria and the definition of done (DoD) which determines the value of the feature and its importance. Developers should be reminded again and again to create work in tune with these criterions and ensure they test the feature after they develop it.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong><i><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Lack of participation in retrospection activities</i></strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile stresses very heavily upon the “inspect” and “adapt” principles which form the core of all Agile processes. The team has to learn constantly from its past mistakes and ensure they've not repeated again in the future. Also, new and better ways of doing work should be discovered to increase productivity levels and deliver more valuable work. All this is made possible through the retrospection activities in Agile. In Scrum, a special ceremony known as the sprint retrospective meeting is held at the end of each sprint to support this principle. The team stops participating in these activities as a result of which further improvement in work in not availed and the velocity index stops improving. Further growth stops in the project.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Solution:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Retrospection activities should be made mandatory and team members encouraged to participate in them. If required, team members can be told to discuss new ways of improvement and prepare a list or a plan stating what new activities they propose to do with proper call-to-actions.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><i><strong><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> </strong></i><strong><i>Ineffective testing procedures</i></strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Testing procedures - especially unit tests - form an integral part of the development process and should be carried out preferably in the sprint itself when the particular feature is being developed. Testing ensures that the definition-of-done is properly fulfilled by the team, there are no bugs in the feature and that the feature is valuable to end users. Many times teams don’t carry out these tests since they may be time-to consume, or the team lacks the necessary resources or skill sets to perform them. The work delivered in such cases may contain bugs and lead to regression. The project owners may incur technical debt in the future.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Solution:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Testing activities should be made mandatory and teams should start considering testing procedures as an integral part of the development process. They should be accounted for while the team estimates work during sprint planning sessions held just before a newsprint is planned.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong><i><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Miscommunication between developers and testers</i></strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Effective communications are required for doing quality work. When team members discuss things and exchange ideas, thoughts become clear, and the entire team comes to know about the nature of deliverables and how they should be built. In Agile, testing should be a part of the development process and testers should work closely with developers to resolve test related issues and problems. When testers stop communicating with developers for test issues, or developers stop responding to testing queries, it leads to a situation where partially or improperly tested features are released in the market which can reduce the project value in the long run.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Solution:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The product owner or the project lead should motivate team members to collaborate and exchange ideas. At the same time, developers and testers should be made more accountable regarding the quality of deliverables – especially fulfillment of the DoD - to ensure only fully tested and valuable features are developed at all times.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong><i><span style=""font-size: 24px;"">• </span> Development work held up because of code and functionality dependencies</i></strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Big or complex project development can have a lot of dependencies as far as code functionalities go. Often a piece of code created by one developer functions as a source of input for the task to be developed by another developer. In such cases, the second developer has to wait for the first developer to complete his or her work and create the particular functionality before the later one can start with his or her work. During the second half of the sprint planning session when the team members are selecting and taking up their development tasks, they should also discuss code dependency issues and organize their work accordingly. When team members don’t analyze their tasks and don’t discuss the dependencies, it leads to a situation where one developer is loaded with urgent work while the other one has to wait for the first one to complete. Time is wasted and productivity at the team level is greatly reduced. It decreases team velocity.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Solution:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The developers and team members should work more closely and analyze dependencies before they take up their tasks. If dependencies still exist, each developer should plan his or her work with regards to the work to be carried out by the developer who’s going to be affected by the particular dependency.</p>

<h2>4. Communication and collaboration related issues</h2>
Communication levels play a vital role in a project’s success. Right from project inception to delivering goals and objectives, the team relies upon timely and effective communication to develop product features, share ideas and resolve technical issues. With remote or distributed teams working in the project, communication between project managers and teams can often prove to be difficult owing to different time zones and cultural differences. With in-house teams, effective communication lays the foundation of a shared product vision and the harmonious working environment in which the team can make informed decisions by discussing, analyzing and working together.
<ul>
 	<li><strong><i>Communication</i></strong></li>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;"">The sixth principle in the Agile Manifesto states:<i> “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is a face-to-face conversation.”</i>In Agile, it is crucial to have effective communications between developers and the client, end users, and the stakeholders. The team develops software as per the product vision explained by the client. In turn, the client verifies work delivered by the team at the end of each sprint. Team members need to communicate with each other to resolve development issues. At every stage communication is vital and when it stops, it could raise some issues.</li>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;"">
<ul>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;"">
<ul>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;""><span style=""color: #00bea4;""><strong>Some of the causes could be:</strong></span></li>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;"">
<ul>
 	<li>Miscommunication of requirements</li>
 	<li>Different time zones</li>
 	<li>Failure to focus and listen properly</li>
 	<li>Culture differences</li>
 	<li>Attitude and ego related issues</li>
 	<li>Gender bias</li>
 	<li>Inadequate knowledge</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
 	<li><strong>Collaboration</strong></li>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;"">Collaboration amongst team members can be challenging since developers are used to their individual methods for creating code and working functionality, and may find it very hard to follow someone else’s coding methods. Agile processes favor continuous development. It is common for the team to use GitHub or Git to share, update and version the code before final changes are uploaded for deployment. It is recommended the team follows certain coding standards to make the code readable to others. To work effectively, the team needs to constantly collaborate and share ideas and suggestions to make things work.</li>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;"">
<ul>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;"">
<ul>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;""><span style=""color: #00bea4;""><strong>Some of the common issues faced can be:</strong></span></li>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;"">
<ul>
 	<li>Priority conflicts</li>
 	<li>Insufficient alignment amongst team members</li>
 	<li>Limited automated software development processes - lack of Continuous Delivery</li>
 	<li>Coordination challenges</li>
 	<li>Unpredictable software delivery</li>
 	<li>No visibility over status, progress, and results</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>",,Blog,http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/failure-of-projects-1.png
2253,Main Features Of Agile,"Many IT products development companies and software businesses experiment with Agile frameworks and processes such as Scrum and XP to improve upon their development process and avail higher investment returns. In many ways, Agile has become synonymous with software development and is rapidly emerging as the number one choice in terms of project development frameworks. Many project managers prefer Agile in lieu of other project development methodologies. The reasons are many. Certain features of Agile remain common to all <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Agile offshoots such as Scrum, XP, Kanban, etc</a></span>

It is worth knowing what the core tenets of Agile are:

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2286 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/main-featuresof-agile.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />

&nbsp;
<h1>An overview of the Agile development method</h1>
Twelve core <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileDevelopment"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">principles define the Agile process</span></a>
<ol>
 	<li style=""list-style-type: none;""></li>
</ol>
<ol>
 	<li>The topmost priority is to satisfy the customer requirements through the delivery of early and quick product releases – deliver valuable software on a consistent basis.</li>
 	<li>Working releases of product features should be delivered frequently, ranging from a week to ten days, up to a maximum of one month.</li>
 	<li>Progress should be measured on the basis of working software delivered to the client. The software is more important than its documentation.</li>
 	<li>Changes should be welcomed and incorporated into the product development cycle – even late during the development phase. The team should learn from the “inspect” and “adapt” principles and constantly try to improve its working.</li>
 	<li>The client and end users should work together through collaboration and collaborative processes.</li>
 	<li>Self-motivated individuals should be involved in the Agile process. They should be provided with a conducive environment, and all support and help should be rendered to them as and when needed. The team members should be trusted to do their job right.</li>
 	<li>The most efficient, and recommended, a method of communications should be face-to-face and involve personal interactions.</li>
 	<li>Best architectures and designs emerge from self-organized and self-managing teams.</li>
 	<li>Continuous attention should be given to achieve technical excellence and good designs. Refactoring of code leads to enhanced Agility.</li>
 	<li><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileProjectManagement"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Agile processes should support</span></a> sustainable development and be able to maintain a constant pace on an indefinite basis.</li>
 	<li>Simplicity is very important – the lesser the better.</li>
 	<li>The team strives to improve itself at regular intervals. It should make efforts to become more productive and more effective. It should possess an ability to adjust its working to suit development processes and changing environments.</li>
</ol>",,Blog,
2256,What is Scrum backlog?,"The Scrum backlog officially referred to as the product backlog, is the main list of <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">product features prepared by the product owner</a></span> in accordance with the product envisioned by the stakeholders and project owners. In Scrum, it is not required to undertake extensive project planning activities to initiate the project. Instead, a list containing the product features can be prepared to start the actual development process.

What is Scrum backlog? In simple terms, a scrum backlog is a prioritized features list that contains a short description of all functionality required to develop a working version of the product. The list may not be “perfect” when it is initially created. The product owner and team members can simply begin noting down everything they can possibly think of in terms of product features and functionality required to build the product, and create the list. It can always be updated later on, and new features added to it as and when stakeholders desire new functionality to be included in the final version of the product. The “featured items” in the list, or the backlog, are known as product backlog items. Also known as user stories, the backlog items are taken up for development by the team, and developed during the daily sprints. The product backlog is an important artifact in Scrum. The entire development activity and even the success of the product are dependent upon it. Therefore, Scrum advocates that the backlog should be considered as important and enough efforts should be spent in grooming it on a regular basis to preserve its “health”.

<img class=""aligncenter"" src=""https://quickscrum.com/Images/article_detail/what-is-scrum-backlog.png"" alt=""product backlog"" />
<h1>Characteristics of the product backlog used in Scrum Agile process</h1>
The Scrum backlog, used in the Scrum Agile process, should ideally exhibit the following characteristics:
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>INVEST</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>I = Independent</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The backlog should have an independent existence.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>N = Negotiable</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Backlog items should be negotiable i.e. added, updated, or removed after providing valid reasons.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>V = Valuable</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Each backlog item should carry a certain business value.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>E = Estimable</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Each item in the backlog should be associated with a certain “story point” value and estimated properly.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>S = Small</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Backlog items should be small so they can be easily managed.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>T = Testable</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Each item should have certain acceptance criteria or associated with benchmark parameters. It should be testable.</p>

<h1>What is the product backlog grooming?</h1>
The product backlog grooming sessions are also referred to as backlog refinement sessions. They are an inherent part of the Scrum process and are conducted to ensure that the product backlog reflects a true “picture” of the product as envisioned by the stakeholders. The grooming activity consists of updating the product backlog from time to time. Changes occurring in the product features or business value of the backlog items should be updated in the backlog.

Product backlog grooming consists of :
<ul>
 	<li>Removing user stories which are no longer important or relevant to the product being developed.</li>
 	<li>Creating new user stories on the basis of feedback received from the stakeholders and the newly discovered “needs” or requirements.</li>
 	<li>Re-assessing the business value (market worth) associated with user stories currently in the backlog.</li>
 	<li>Estimating stories.</li>
 	<li>Correcting current estimates of user stories in response to newly “discovered” or “received” information.</li>
 	<li>Splitting up epics or “large” user stories into smaller and easily manageable ones so they can be easily managed and developed during the sprint cycles.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
2263,An Introduction To Scrum Of Scrums,"The Scrum framework is ideally suited for organizations carrying out project development using small teams. A typical Scrum team consists of a product owner, a scrum master, and up to seven to eight cross-functional development team members. It is easy to implement Scrum in a project when the team size does not exceed ten or twelve members, at the most. However, at times, organizations have to develop larger projects and require additional developers to complete the project on time. In such cases, the team size would naturally have to increase to include additional team members.

Now, according to the Scrum process, each event in the framework is time boxed and should not exceed the duration specifically allotted for it. For example, if the team consists of eight members, and the daily scrum meeting is to extend for a maximum of fifteen minutes, each team member would get approximately two minutes to provide the daily feedback. This duration is sufficient, as the main objective of a stand up is to briefly discuss what the team did yesterday, what it proposes to do today, and whether the team faced any problems the previous working day. Each team member can summarise these three questions in the time allotted to him or her.

Now, if we take up a scenario in which a large team is participating in the stand-up, say eighteen developers in all, it would mean that each team member now has less than a minute to give the feedback. It would be very difficult to avail a proper understanding about what the entire team did the previous day since the team members have been unable to report their complete status owing to a restriction in the daily stand up time. Feedback plays a very important part in the inspect and adapt principles which are so very important in Scrum. When the feedback system is hampered, sufficient inputs are not obtained from the process flow, and Scrum may start losing its effectiveness in supporting the self-correction activities.

So, how can organizations develop big projects requiring large development teams using Scrum? Scrum of Scrum provides a viable alternative of using Scrum to develop projects requiring large teams.

<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-2267 size-full"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-of-scrum.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h1>Introduction to Scrum Of Scrums</h1>
It is not feasible, and not practical, for a big number of team members to work together and collaborate using traditional Scrum. If a large team were to use Scrum, the team would require a large hall to conduct the daily scrum and each member would have seconds and not minutes to provide the feedback. If manual Scrum methods are followed, the team would also require a Scrum board the size of a small theatre screen to pin the story cards, and even if it were so done, each team member might require a stool or a small ladder to climb up and read the current sprint status during the daily sprints. The review and retrospective events would not be able to gather feedback from so many members. The inspect and adapt principles would be compromised upon since the volume of feedback would be too large for the team to handle and a special process might have to set up to analyze and summarise the feedback received from each team member. This would take a lot of time, and the efforts put in would end up being counterproductive.

Scrum has to be scaled up to include larger teams if big projects are to be developed. In Scrum of scrums, the entire Scrum team is divided into smaller groups, with each group consisting of between five to ten members. Each group functions as an independent Scrum team. Moreover, each team selects one person – usually the Scrum master – who represents the team. The representatives from each of the teams participate in the Scrum events on behalf of his or her particular team. Just as the Scrum process supports the review and retrospective events, a special “parent” process supports the same events, however with certain subtle differences.

The Scrum of the scrum process proceeds normally as per the traditional Scrum process. However, the team representatives in lieu of the development team members attend the events. The representatives report the statuses, completion levels of the sprint, impediments faced by the team members, and the next steps to be planned, and to be taken by their respective Scrum teams. Technical problems and issues are resolved through collaboration and joint efforts of all involved teams. The individual teams might have to negotiate with respect to the responsibilities accepted or given, and ascertaining the authority levels. The Scrum of scrum may maintain a unique product backlog of its own to track the group teams’ activity.

The Scrum of scrums is also known as a ""meta Scrum""",,Blog,
2266,Salient Features Of Scrum,"<h1>Agile - The base of Scrum</h1>
Agile, and the path to Agility is now becoming a much sought after norm for many businesses across the world. There is a huge demand for understanding, and implementing, Agile based frameworks. Perhaps one of the main reasons why Agile is becoming increasingly popular is because consumer demands are changing radically and people now desire more. And, people are not ready to wait. They want products which offer good value for money, and that too with enhanced features. This has created a need to develop products which are:
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li class=""rating list-unstyled"">Competitive</li>
 	<li class=""rating list-unstyled"">Feature rich</li>
 	<li class=""rating list-unstyled"">Quickly available</li>
 	<li class=""rating list-unstyled"">Fulfill specific end-user requirements</li>
</ul>
Agile proposes to satisfy these requirements without adding on to the product costs.

The basic issue with all Agile frameworks is that they are – frameworks. They offer guidelines on how the Agile process can and should be implemented in a project. For that, it becomes imperative to understand what a framework is, and how it differs from a methodology. Many individuals still feel Agile is a methodology and they could not be more wrong.

<img class=""aligncenter size-full wp-image-2273"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/salient-features-of-scrum.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h1>Agile methodology misconception</h1>
There is still a misconception regarding Agile – some people still tend to refer to Agile as a methodology. This is not true. A methodology offers a set of rules, principles, tools, or practices that can be used to conduct processes and achieve certain goals. A framework, on the other hand, is a loose structure that leaves enough room for other tools and practices to be included and only provides the process required. In simple terms, a methodology is like a doctor’s prescription – you have to “take” it as per instructions provided, while a framework is like trying out home remedies – you know what can be done to achieve a particular objective, but it is up to you how to implement the remedy, and when to implement it. An Agile framework has to be implemented in a project to be successful, and there are no specific rules about how to do it. You have to follow certain guidelines and configure your project to function as per the rules specified in the framework. This is very much the case with Agile. Agile is a framework.
<h1>Agile Scrum salient features</h1>
Of all Agile frameworks, Scrum and Extreme Programming “XP” are the most popular. <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Even though the Scrum framework is more generally used for developing software projects</a></span>, it can also be used for developing non-IT projects. Scrum constitutes a collection of ideas and rules pertaining to effective project management. The framework supports collaboration and self-organization. The team members work jointly and develop the project. They collaborate and share their ideas and findings. Scrum teams self-manage their activities. The most important aspect of Scrum is that all activities are time boxed. The client receives working versions of the product features on a continuing basis through product incremental cycles – sprints – at regular intervals ranging from a week up to a maximum of one month. Cycles keep on repeating until all product features are developed and the product is ready.

A unique aspect about Scrum is that the framework has a capability of adapting itself to changing market conditions, and incorporates those changes in the product development cycle even late during the development process. The Scrum process focuses on responding quickly and efficiently to changing environments and assimilating those changes in the product design. The client benefits through the development of a product that is in tune with the most recent market demands. Moreover, participation from the end users and incorporating their suggestions while developing the product features further ensures that the product developed is most likely to assume a high business value or worth.
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Scrum - an agile process – focuses upon delivering high business values to the client in the shortest time possible.</li>
 	<li>It supports rapid and repeated inspection of the actual working software.</li>
 	<li>The product is developed in stages through the product incremental cycles known as sprints.</li>
 	<li>The client benefits from shippable product release at the end of the incremental cycle.</li>
 	<li>Frequent and consistent product increments should be delivered to the client.</li>
 	<li>The client and the business set the priority.</li>
 	<li>The working process responds quickly and efficiently to the changes occurring in the market conditions, and by incorporating those changes into the product features in the least time possible.</li>
 	<li>Scrum teams self-organize and self-manage to determine the most efficient and quick way of delivering high priority features.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Scrum principles</h1>
Scrum functions as per certain rules or principles which are very important for its efficient working:
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li><strong>Individuals and interactions</strong> over Process and tools</li>
 	<li><strong>Working software</strong> over Comprehensive documentation</li>
 	<li><strong>Customer collaboration</strong> over Contract negotiation</li>
 	<li><strong>Responding to change</strong> over Following a plan</li>
</ul>
Source: <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""http://www.agilemanifesto.org/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">www.agilemanifesto.org</span></a>",,Blog,
2268,What is sprint planning?,"In Agile Scrum, every iteration cycle begins with a sprint planning meeting. The primary reason for undertaking sprint planning is to create the sprint backlog – a temporary list of user stories having high “business value” selected from the product backlog - for the development team to work upon during the daily sprints. Traditionally, the sprint planning meeting was held in two parts. However, Scrum has now evolved, and the sprint planning is a “single” event now.

What is sprint planning? To understand the process in a nutshell, in the Agile process, development is carried out in short “bursts” of activity through product incremental cycles known as sprints. A small “portion” of the product backlog, i.e. the user stories defined in the backlog are carefully selected by the product owner and “transferred” to a temporary list known as a “sprint backlog”. The development team processes the sprint backlog and develops the stories contained therein during the daily sprints. At the end of the sprint cycle, fully developed, tested, and deployable “development” is presented to the PO for verification purposes. The event especially dedicated to the sprint process is the sprint planning meeting. The event is time-boxed from six hours to eight hours max. It should not exceed more than one working day.

<img class=""aligncenter"" src=""https://quickscrum.com/Images/article_detail/what-is-sprint-planning.png"" alt=""Sprint Planning"" />
<h1>The sprint planning process</h1>
Traditionally, the sprint planning process was carried out in two parts. The first part used to be “dominated” by the product owner, while in the second part the team members used to distribute “work” amongst themselves.

The objective of sprint planning is to select user stories for development purposes. The <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">product owner carefully selects a few product backlog items</a></span> or user stories having high “market value” from the product backlog. These stories, or product features, are transferred to the sprint backlog. The development team picks up stories, one by one, and distributes them for development purpose. When the PO selects the user stories, the development team negotiates with the product owner as to which of the stories are “developable”, and which of them cannot be “accepted”. The team has to give reasons if a particular story is not developable. The PO argues why the team cannot develop it, and genuine “reasons” are identified. If the acceptance criterion is not properly defined, or the story is not described in a clear manner, the team can reject the story. In such a case, the PO has to ensure that the story is “updated” with new or additional information and made “ready” for development purposes. Development can take place only after this is done. In the end, a sprint backlog is created, and accepted by all.

Once the sprint backlog is finalized, the development team starts analyzing the product features taken up for development. Each feature is further divided into “developable” parts and distributed amongst the team members based upon their levels of expertise and experience. Experienced programmers may take up complex or lengthy stories while less experienced ones may settle for less complex and simple user stories. The distribution process is carried out as per mutual consent. The team members have to collaborate and decide amongst themselves as to how the developments tasks should be ideally distributed. Developers can also “volunteer” to take up certain stories on their own if they feel they can handle the development independently. If there is a confusion regarding the acceptance criteria or if the story is still not clear, they can summon the PO for additional explanation. Stories taken up for development in the sprint backlog have to be completed by all means and cannot be transferred back to the product backlog. As per recent Agile trends, the actual sprint planning process has become more collaborative, and the PO tends to “share” his or her thoughts regarding which of the stories should be taken up for development. Even though the PO has the final say regarding the selection, the team members are encouraged to participate in the selection process and “help” the PO in picking up user stories from the product backlog. The entire process concentrates more on teamwork. Emphasis is given upon “tackling” development as a cohesive unit rather than remain concerned about individual contributions. Agile supports and encourages teamwork and team efforts over individual contributions.",,Blog,
2271,Scrum Product Owner Role And Sprint Planning Meeting Agenda,"In many ways, in a Scrum project, the sprint planning meeting agenda plays a very significant part in determining the success of delivering shippable product increments through the sprint iterative cycles. The product owner is very closely involved in the sprint planning agenda, and is responsible for the outcome of the sprint cycle, since he or she is primarily responsible for taking the initiative and “designing” the sprint – the PO decides which user stories should be ideally taken up for development purposes based upon their business values. Moreover, the product backlog needs to be refined on a regular basis. The PO may invite and seek the help of Agile team members to keep the backlog refined so “granular” and developable user stories are available at the time of Scrum planning meeting.

The main issue with Agile Scrum today is that the role of a PO cannot be “standardized” based upon assumptions as to how Scrum ought to be implemented in a project, and what the PO should ideally do to make the project a distinct success. In addition, while considering Scrum sprint planning, the same thoughts might be applicable to it as those associated with the PO’s – it is difficult to create generalized rules regarding how a sprint should be ideally designed. The primary reason is products and requirements change as per fluctuating market conditions, and stakeholders too are liable to change their thoughts as and when end user demand user-specific requirements and development. However, after considering the fact that scaled Scrum versions are likely to “dominate” the Agile scenario over the coming years, it is worthwhile thinking that “some” of the duties of a PO and certain sprint planning “characteristics” are likely to remain common – irrespective of which scaled version is used, and the manner in which Scrum should be, or can be, implemented in a project. In addition, while the sprint planning meeting was traditionally conducted in two parts, the Scrum event has now evolved to be conducted as a whole – as a single event – and include two topics in it, rather than two parts:
<ul>
 	<li>What can be done in this (currently being planned) sprint – the “What” aspect</li>
 	<li>How should the chosen “work” be ideally “done” – the “How” aspect</li>
</ul>
It is interesting to think about <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">how the product owner’s role is likely to modify</span></a> itself in the future, and what features the sprint planning event is likely to include. The suggestions are open for debate, and the reader is invited to present his or her viewpoints.
<h1>Scrum product owner role and responsibilities likely to remain “common”</h1>
<h1><img class=""size-full wp-image-2277 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-product-owner-role.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""409"" /></h1>
<ul>
 	<li>Creation of the product backlog based on the vision as seen by the stakeholders. Defining user stories having high business values so the project “worth” is maintained at all times.</li>
 	<li>Monitoring all Scrum related activities in a project. Even if the PO’s role may be demanding and “difficult to play”, the PO still has to deal with changing market conditions, stakeholders requests, and negotiate with the development team with regards delivering shippable stories and maintaining team velocity.</li>
 	<li>Ensure the product backlog is refined and maintained at all times. Moreover, the PO should also make sure that the product backlog is made easily available to all team members – especially in the case of distributed or disjointed teams.</li>
 	<li>Product backlog items “PBIs” should be properly defined. Story “parts” such as the description, business value, and acceptance criteria should be clearly stated and explained in index cards (if manual Scrum is followed). Moreover, stories should be explained “in depth” to the entire team so effective user stories can be developed and shippable product features can be availed on a consistent basis.</li>
 	<li>Be always accessible when needed. Scrum product owner responsibilities should include remaining present and sharing knowledge, skills, and experience with the team members whenever required.</li>
 	<li>Define “clear” and productive sprint goals when a sprint is planned.</li>
</ul>
<h2>What Sprint planning meeting agenda should include</h2>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2300 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/sprint-planning-meeting-agenda.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""430"" />

If we consider the traditional <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Scrum product owner role</span></a>, the PO decides which user stories should be selected from the product backlog during the sprint planning sessions. The PO had, and still has, the authority to decide unanimously as to what the sprint backlog should ideally contain. However, the delegation of authority has “diluted” to a considerable extent, and more emphasis is now given to team members and inviting them to participate in the event while deciding the sprint backlog. Team involvement often leads to knowledge-based and result-oriented decisions, and this can benefit the project immensely.

Recent Agile trends indicate a clear “inclusion” of a sprint goal. It is now “formal” that each sprint should have a unique sprint goal. The entire team should make efforts to ensure the goal is properly defined and understood by all. The goal should also be achieved. The team is suggested to follow a common sprint “vision” rather than just blindly develop user stories. It is very important to keep the “complete picture in mind” and proceed with sprint development. In addition, this attitude should be maintained throughout the sprint duration.

&nbsp;",,Blog,
2274,Two Parts Of Sprint Planning Meetings In Scrum,"Sprint planning sessions are important events in Scrum. Valuable product increments are delivered to the client through properly planned sprints. The product owner, responsible for delivering the business value in the project, plans the sprint by selecting the most important product features (in the form of product backlog items) and presents them to the development team during the sprint planning meeting. The main objective of the product owner is to ensure that:
<ul>
 	<li>The sprint goal is properly defined</li>
 	<li>Acceptance criteria are clearly stated for each user story</li>
 	<li>Definition of Done ""DoD"" is properly understood by the team</li>
</ul>
While the product owner works out these important factors affecting the success of the sprint, the development team puts in its best efforts to understand the product vision and develop user stories in the best possible manner to fulfill the project goal.

The sprint planning meeting is actually carried out in two parts, with each part dedicated to a specific activity.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2280 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Two-Parts-Of-Sprint-Planning.png"" alt="""" width=""768"" height=""493"" />
<h1>Two parts of the sprint planning meeting</h1>
The sprint planning event is attended by the product owner, scrum master, and the development team. At times, if they desire, stakeholders and/or management personnel may also attend the meeting after getting a permission from the PO. However, it is the product owner's discretion to decide if and how many of non-Scrum team members can attend the sprint planning event.

The first part of the event mainly concerns the PO as s/he explains the sprint vision and goal to the team. In the second part, the development team decomposes product backlog items, or user stories, into developable tasks for the daily sprint.
<ul>
 	<li><strong>The first part</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">During the first part of the meeting, PO shares the sprint vision with the team and presents the sprint backlog containing important PBIs for development purposes. PO explains to the team what the proposed increment plans to deliver in terms of business value to the client, and how should the team develop the stories. The functionality desired in product features are also explained to the team. Perhaps the most important task of PO during sprint planning events is to state and clarify the sprint goal in addition to the Definition of Done so the team can decide the development process and deliver potentially ""shippable"" product increments to the client.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>The second part</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">In the second part of sprint planning event, the team meets to discuss how the PBIs should be decomposed into developable tasks. Stories are broken down into simpler, and easy to develop functional entities which can be developed independently of each other. Once this is done, the team decides which of the developers should take up which tasks. In a scrum process, team members have to pick their own tasks or select them through mutual agreement. Developers generally choose tasks depending upon their levels of expertise and skill sets. Experienced developers may take up more complex tasks, while less experienced ones might select simpler features or functionality.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The PO may, or may not attend this part of the event, but should remain available if needed. If the team faces any problems or has confusion regarding any activity undertaken in the upcoming sprint, it can request the PO to provide the answers.</p>",,Blog,
2278,Sprint Retrospective,"An experienced Scrum team may have completed many successful projects. It may also be implementing Scrum effectively. The team might be perfect from every point of view. However, Scrum principles suggest there is always a scope of improving upon the work process to make it even better and even more efficient. The “inspect” and “adapt” principles help to generate inputs that are very important in the improvement process. Scrum dedicates a special event to support these principles. The event is called the sprint retrospective meeting. Some experts also refer to the meeting as a Scrum retrospective.

A sprint retrospective can be thought about as a “lessons learned” type of meeting. During the meeting, the team thinks about how everything worked out in the sprint just completed. It tries to retrospect and evaluates the outcomes of the sprint. The event is team driven and the entire team participates in it. The team decides how the retrospective should be held and how it should proceed. A healthy atmosphere fostering trust and sharing of ideas should ideally prevail in the meeting. The members should feel comfortable while contributing their ideas and sharing them with other team members. Senior team members should lead by example and help new joiners understand the scrum process and how the objectives of holding a retrospective can be best fulfilled.<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-2284 size-full"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/sprint-retrospective.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />

&nbsp;
<h1>Scrum retrospective – When, Who, and How long?</h1>
The retrospective is the last event to be held in a sprint cycle. It is conducted just after a sprint review event finishes. The entire Scrum team, including the product owner and the scrum master, should ideally attend the meeting. The sprint retrospective should generally last for three hours but it can be extended if required. At times, discussions may last for a longer time and so it may become necessary to extend the meeting. It is important to know that every event in Scrum is time-boxed so the retrospective should not extend beyond its period.
<h1>The focus of a sprint retrospective meeting</h1>
The sprint retrospective is a very important Scrum mechanism that helps the entire team to evolve on a continuous basis. The Scrum team can improve itself with regards its core functioning, and by delivering consistent product increments through the sprint cycles. Three important questions form the basis of the entire meeting:
<ul>
 	<li>1. What happened properly or worked well?</li>
 	<li>2. What did not happen and what failed to work?</li>
 	<li>3. What can further actions be taken to improve the Scrum process?</li>
</ul>
<strong>The meeting further tries to decide what the team should:</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>1. Start doing</li>
 	<li>2. Stop doing</li>
 	<li>3. Continue doing</li>
</ul>
<h1>Key elements of a retrospective</h1>
<ul>
 	<li>The Scrum process is enhanced at the end of each sprint to ensure that the project team always improves in the manner it works.</li>
 	<li>It is a collaborative process involving the entire <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" rel=""noopener"">Scrum team including the product owner, the scrum master</a></span></li>
 	<li>The team members try to identify what worked well and what can be improved upon to make the Scrum process more effectual.</li>
 	<li>The process followed by the team is discussed and the suggestions are invited how to improve it.</li>
 	<li>Different ways and methods to increase productivity are thought about and discussed.</li>
 	<li>The meeting aims to support team formation and bonding.</li>
 	<li>Areas of conflict should be identified and resolved properly.</li>
 	<li>The team’s sense of ownership should be further strengthened and self-management activities should be promoted.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
2283,What Is Agile Software Development Life Cycle?,"Hey! Glad you are here. There is lots of buzz going on globally to go agile across enterprises and within a team. But what exactly agile means and why to go for it?

Responding to the changing business context faster was a need for the software industry. An enormous amount of money and time have been wasted to fulfill the business needs in the 1990s. Disruptive Change was needed to improve. That’s where agile is born.

In 2000, a group of seventeen “thought leaders,” including Jon Kern, Kent Beck, Ward Cunningham, Arie van Bennekum, and Alistair Cockburn, met first at a resort in Oregon and later, in 2001, at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in Utah. It was at the second meeting where the Agile Manifesto and the Twelve Principles were formally written. The Manifesto reads:
<h1>4 Values of Agile</h1>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Individuals and interactions</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">In the Agile software development life cycle model, self-organization and motivation takes precedence over delegation of authority and following the “seniority” hierarchy. Team members are encouraged to take an active part in the development and planning activities. They are also “empowered” to take certain decisions on their own. The Agile team has to collaborate and share ideas to develop the product “as a whole” unit i.e. each member should support a common vision.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Working software</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile focuses on delivering “working” software through product incremental cycles over comprehensive documentation. The main objective is to develop and deliver product features in a continuous and sustained manner until the entire product is developed.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Customer collaboration</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Since all the requirements pertaining to product development may not be available, or “acquirable”, at the project start-up time owing to various factors, development should commence almost “immediately”, and presented to clients for verification purposes. Stakeholders and project owners “clear” the product features developed through the sprint cycles. A lot of time is saved through customer collaboration, and as a result, the project proceeds in a successful manner as the client always Okays the development keeping in mind the current market trends.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Responding to changes</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile focuses on incorporating dynamic changes in the product development cycle. Changes in the product features can be easily and effortlessly carried out by developing “user stories” – product functionality or features as defined in the product backlog. Changes can be carried out at any time while the features are being developed – even late in the product development cycle.</p>

<h1>The twelve principles of agile development include:</h1>
<ul>
 	<li><strong>Customer satisfaction through early and continuous software delivery: </strong>Customers are happier when they receive working software at regular intervals, rather than waiting extended periods of time between releases.</li>
 	<li><strong>Accommodate changing requirements throughout the development process: </strong>The ability to avoid delays when a requirement or feature request changes.</li>
 	<li><strong>Frequent delivery of working software: </strong>Scrum accommodates this principle since the team operates in software sprints or iterations that ensure regular delivery of working software.</li>
 	<li><strong>Collaboration between the business stakeholders and developers throughout the project: </strong>Better decisions are made when the business and technical team are aligned.</li>
 	<li><strong>Support, trust, and motivate the people involved: </strong>Motivated teams are more likely to deliver their best work than unhappy teams.</li>
 	<li><strong>Enable face-to-face interactions: </strong>Communication is more successful when development teams are co-located.</li>
 	<li><strong>Working software is the primary measure of progress: </strong>Delivering functional software to the customer is the ultimate factor that measures progress.</li>
 	<li><strong>Agile processes to support a consistent development pace: </strong>Teams establish a repeatable and maintainable speed at which they can deliver working software, and they repeat it with each release.</li>
 	<li><strong>Attention to technical detail and design enhances agility: </strong>The right skills and good design ensures the team can maintain the pace, constantly improve the product, and sustain change.</li>
 	<li><strong>Simplicity: </strong>Develop just enough to get the job done for right now.</li>
 	<li><strong>Self-organizing teams encourage great architectures, requirements, and designs: </strong>Skilled and motivated team members who have decision-making power, take ownership, communicate regularly with other team members, and share ideas that deliver quality products.</li>
 	<li><strong>Regular reflections on how to become more effective: </strong>Self-improvement, process improvement, advancing skills, and techniques help team members work more efficiently.</li>
</ul>
There are a few methodologies under Agile – Scrum, Kanban, XP etc. Scrum is the most widely adopted framework in the Software industry.

Quickscrum is designed to enforce organizations follow Agile – Scrum or Kanban in the right manner. Try it out freely. Quickscrum has helped over 5000 teams transformed to highly efficient agile teams. Talk to our Expert for any assistance you require regarding Agile Transformation.

Have a look at the image below, to get insights about Scrum.

<img class=""aligncenter"" src=""https://quickscrum.com/Images/article_detail/what-is-agile-software-development-life-cycle.png"" alt=""Scrum Roles"" width=""830"" height=""480"" />",,Blog,
2294,Product Backlog Refinement,"Product Backlog refinement is a routine backlog maintenance activity and an integral part of the Scrum process. It is important since it helps to keep the product backlog organised, and in proper order. The product backlog items, which actually constitute the product backlog, represent the product features to be developed in the project. Each PBI carries a certain business value. These business values actually define the importance of a particular product feature in the form of product backlog items. When changes occur in the product’s market-related conditions, the business value associated with a particular product feature, and its PBI, may change. These changes need to be updated in the product backlog. During a product backlog refinement session, PBIs are updated with respect to their business values, so the backlog can reflect a true picture of how much worth the product is from the market point of view.

Scrum fundamentally concentrates on delivering business value to the client through the product increment cycles. When PBIs are updated from time to time, some of the backlog items having high business values can be taken up for development in the daily sprints and delivered to the client in the form of shippable product features. This becomes possible when the product backlog refinement process is carried out on a regular basis.<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-2302 size-full"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ProductBacklogRefinement.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""622"" />
<h1>What does the backlog refining activity consist of?</h1>
The product backlog is a dynamic Scrum artifact and keeps on changing on a continual basis during the development process. As changes occur in the product features, the details associated with the PBIs have to be updated in the backlog to keep it healthy at all times. The backlog refinement process is directly related to the upkeep of PBIs, therefore it is worth knowing what can be actually “refined” in the backlog:
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>1. Description</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">The description of a product backlog item generally does not change once it is defined. However, at times it may be required to elucidate the PBI by describing it in a more detailed manner. This may be necessary when PBIs having seemingly similar descriptions are to be added in the backlog. Even though the descriptions of two or more PBIs may not be the same, they might seem to be the same at a first glance, and this could create confusion while identifying similar types of PBIs in the backlog. Each backlog items should be defined in a manner such that its uniqueness is understood by reading its description. Refinement process can include updating the PBI description.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>2. Acceptance criteria</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">The acceptance criteria linked with the PBIs plays a significantly important part in defining the Definition of Done “DoD” during sprint planning sessions. Each item has its unique DoD which has to be fulfilled if the PBI is to be considered “releasable”. Many times, while creating the product backlog at the time of project start-up, <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">the Product Owner may lack the certain information</a></span> necessary to define a PBI in depth. At such times, the PO may simply reference the PBI and define it in the product backlog while keeping other relevant information blanks in the PBI to create the project estimate. This is done by estimating the backlog items. The idea is to plan a probable release date for the project. The acceptance criteria is a technical part of the PBI that has to be defined so the development team can focus upon how the backlog item should be developed during the sprint. The acceptance criteria may be updated from time to time as per information availed from the stakeholders and the development team.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>3. Business value</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">The business value is estimated using story points in Scrum. Each PBI has a certain business value linked with it. Business values are important since the framework focuses on delivering consistent product increments that add on to the project’s worth in the market. One of the major reasons why managements prefer using Scrum for development purpose is because the one you can avail important product feature releases from time to time. Moreover, the business value of the product is maintained while the features are being developed. Business values may change if the demand for a particular product feature may decrease or increase depending upon end user requirements. When such a change occurs in the market, the business value of the PBI representing the particular product feature should also be updated to reflect the most recent change. During the refinement process, the business values of PBIs may be updated.</p>

<h1>Who is responsible for refining the PBIs?</h1>
The PO “owns” the product backlog on behalf of the stakeholders, and is primarily responsible for creating it. It is not necessary for a PO to create the backlog personally – he or she may instruct the development team and/or the Scrum Master to help him/her in defining the backlog items and in estimating them. The PO is held responsible for the creation and upkeep of the product backlog. Therefore, the PO also oversees the backlog refinement process.
<h1>Who should carry out the refinement activity?</h1>
The refinement process may be carried out singularly by the PO, or alternately the entire Scrum team may participate in the event. Generally, the development team updates the PBIs (with the exception of business values that should be updated by the PO). There are no specific rules about who should carry out the refinement process. What is important, though, is that the Product Owner is responsible for the upkeep of the product backlog. The team can freely decide who should refine the PBIs.
<h1>How frequently should the backlog be refined?</h1>
The refinement sessions can be carried out in different ways as per the team’s convenience. The team may spend an equivalent of approximately 10% of the entire sprint time in refining the backlog. Alternately, the team may spend a couple of hours each week, or even half an hour on a daily basis (generally not recommended) and keep on updating the PBIs. There are no fixed rules on how frequently the backlog should be refined. However, considering the nature and size of the backlog, the team should unanimously decide how frequent the sessions ought to be. The bottom line is that the product backlog should remain healthy and high priority PBIs should be made available for sprint planning sessions.",,Blog,
2298,Sprint Retrospective Meetings Do's And Don'ts,"<h1>Why does Scrum have a sprint retrospective meeting?</h1>
Scrum focus upon self-learning and self-organization. Scrum teams can learn from their prior mistakes, and make efforts to identify them and correct them. Scrum framework is uniquely designed so that the teams can avail proper and reliable inputs from the process flow, identify potential pitfalls, and avoid them well before they can affect the product development process. One of the main practices in Scrum is to support the “inspect” and “adapt” principles that are so very important while implementing the framework in a project. These principles help in the self-learning and self-managing processes. Scrum supports a special meeting to support these principles – the sprint retrospective meeting.

Sprint retrospectives are important for the Scrum process. Organisations and teams put in efforts to ensure that the retrospective remains productive and fruitful - in many ways, the retrospective event often decides the effectiveness of Scrum. Scrum experts have many suggestions as to what should, and what should not be done in a retrospective to make it effective. Here are a few common pointers which can be applied to any retrospective meeting.

<img class=""aligncenter size-full wp-image-2306"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/SprintRetrospectiveMeetingsDosAndDonts.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""628"" />
<h1>Do’s – What should be done</h1>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Safely express ideas and issues</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Keeping an open and frank atmosphere during the retrospective can go a long way in increasing team participation. Team members should feel confident and safe while expressing their views and opinions. A common issue faced by many teams new to Scrum is that team members often do not feel comfortable while expressing their ideas and stop contributing to the feedback process. The reasons could be many: A product owner or scrum master delegating authority in an improper manner, new team members not knowing much about how and why retrospectives are held in Scrum, or an unwillingness on the part of the team to participate in seemingly “unproductive” meetings. Whatever they may be, the scrum master should identify the reasons that are hampering team participation, and try to correct them.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Eagerness and involvement of the team</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">One of the biggest factors influencing a positive outcome of Scrum retrospectives is increased involvement of the team members in the process and their willingness to contribute new ideas. It is not just important to remove any impediments faced by the team, but also encourage the team to participate in the retrospective by motivating the team members so that they feel more involved in the Scrum process. The team should have a sense of ownership and feel responsible for what it contributes to the project. This can be ideally achieved by playing a servant-leader role. The senior team members should foster friendly yet formal communications with the subordinates so they feel more comfortable in what they do and feel.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Focus upon introverts and shy individuals</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Sometimes, even when the Scrum master or senior team members do their best to foster the healthy environment so the team can contribute effectively, some individuals in the team may simply fail to contribute. It may not be because they resent the process or don’t believe in it, but rather because they may be of an introvert nature and feel shy to stand in front of a crowd and voice their opinions. It may not be correct to force such a person to open up as it may make the person recede further into his/her shell. Ideally, such individuals need to be gently prompted with simple, straightforward questions that can invite answers from them. The senior members should understand the fact that individuals may have different types of nature, and some individuals may have to be “worked” upon before they can feel comfortable expressing their views and ideas.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Asking different questions</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The three most important questions asked during a sprint retrospective are:</p>

<ol class=""custom-padding-left-60"">
 	<li>What went well?</li>
 	<li>What did not go well?</li>
 	<li>What should be improved upon?</li>
</ol>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">If the team has high negative energy levels and is not conductive, it can make a difference if the three questions are asked in a slightly different manner. Instead, asking questions like:</p>

<ol class=""custom-padding-left-60"">
 	<li>What to keep on doing?</li>
 	<li>What to stop doing?</li>
 	<li>What new should be introduced?</li>
</ol>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">This method works well with teams that are sensitive to self-criticism.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>5. Make it a fun event</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum teams can be made to enjoy the retrospectives. Does the team like pizza? Then order a few rounds occasionally and hold the meeting while team members enjoy their pizzas. It’s one of the best ways to increase team morale and make people open up.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>6. Timeboxing</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Each event in Scrum is time boxed and the sprint retrospective is not an exception. The event should not drag on and on so it can become boring. On the other hand, if the objectives of the meeting are fulfilled before the time is up, don’t hesitate to end the meeting sooner even if the official time limit is still “not reached”.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>7. Proper call-to-actions and follow-ups</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Each retrospective requires inputs from the sprint just completed and the sprint review event. During the retrospective event, the team tries to find out where it went wrong, and how errors can be corrected. Moreover, each retrospective ends with some course of action to be taken by the team to support the inspect and adapt principles. Retrospectives are a continuous process as long as the project lasts, and so proper call-to-actions ought to be worked out so each team member can self-correct and self-manage. The follow-up process should be effectively initiated and carried out to benefit from the meeting.</p>

<h1>Don’ts – What should be avoided?</h1>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Playing the “blame” game</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum is a joint effort in encouraging collaboration. Scrum teams self-manage and self-organize. A retrospective is a fact-finding event and there could be instances where individual team members may become the center of focus if they have made a mistake, and the mistake has been identified and openly discussed. The general tendency is to hold the individual responsible. However, this is not the intent of the Scrum process. Rather than pointing fingers at people, the entire team should introspect and try to find the reason why the mistake occurred in the first place. Avoid playing the “blame” game and stop targeting individuals.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Suppressing personal feelings</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum advocates frankness and open-minded discussions. Many times, an individual may feel suppressed or might feel dissatisfied with something or the other concerning the process. Rather than bottling up your emotions, they should be rationally expressed and conveyed to the team. There are two main benefits of disclosing your feelings – you get the “thing” out of your system so you feel relieved, and the team can deal with your issue and find a possible solution. This can only be possible when you voice your issue. So avoid suppressing your feeling. If you’re not comfortable with something, or something bothers you, be open and discuss it out.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Making retrospective a general meeting</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Sprint retrospective is an important Scrum event. It should not be taken lightly. Sometimes stakeholders and the technical team may desire to attend the retrospective. Stakeholders have a right to attend the meeting, however, they should refrain from disrupting the meeting flow. If the team feels uncomfortable discussing certain issues in presence of the stakeholders or visitors, it has a right to restrict certain individuals from attending the meeting. Scrum supports transparency, but it does not do so if the process flow is affected in any way or manner and the Scrum process is made ineffectual.</p>",,Blog,
2313,Product Backlog In Scrum,"People prefer using lists when they plan activities or things to do. While planning projects, people still prefer using lists to remind them about what activity they are supposed to do, at what time, and in what manner. It is important to record what has been accomplished, and what more needs to be done in a project. Things are not much different in Scrum. A Scrum project commences when a list is created which contains what all needs to be done to develop a product. The list is known as the product backlog.

<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-2316 size-full"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Productbacklog-planning-process.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""369"" />

What does a product backlog in Scrum actually consist of? To understand the product backlog, it is imperative to know how Scrum actually works. In Scrum, the entire product is broken down into its basic features and functionalities which are developed through product incremental cycles known as “sprints”. Each product feature and functionality is “described” individually in list items known as “product backlog items” or “user stories”. The list items - all of them - are combined together to form the “master” list or the product backlog in Scrum. In short, a product backlog is an ordered list of “everything” needed to develop the product in totality. The backlog functions as a “single” source of all requirements, and everyone uses this list to develop the product by selecting a few list items, or product backlog items, having high business value and developing them in daily incremental cycles or daily sprints.

<span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">The product backlog is managed by the product owner</a></span> – a person who represents the project owners or stakeholders, and functions on their behalf in the project. The product owner is often helped by the development team and the Scrum master to maintain the product backlog. The main function of the product backlog is to:
<ul>
 	<li>“Capture” and store all requests for developing the product. It can include new features, functionalities, related documentation, testing or “acceptance” criteria, etc. Moreover, each list item – the product backlog item – can be updated as and when necessary, primarily by the product owner based upon the feedback received from the stakeholders and the development team.</li>
 	<li>Provide developable “items” in the form of “useful” user stories to the development team so it can “program” and create the features through the daily sprint cycles.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Product backlog items</h1>
Product backlog items form the “heart” of the product backlog. Agile Scrum does not attempt to define or state what exactly a product backlog item should be like, but rather suggests what it should ideally contain. When backlog items are “goal-oriented” and focus upon the “what” aspect rather than the “how” aspect, they prove to be more useful and effective when they are developed. Moreover, backlog items should be listed or “designed” from the end user’s perspective. That way, each item can maintain its usefulness and worth from the market point of view. Furthermore, <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">large backlog items commonly referred to as “epics” in Scrum</a></span> should be “broken down” and made simple so they can be easily managed and developed by the team during the sprints.

Product backlog items can be of different types depending upon why they have been created and what they represent.
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>1. User stories</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">Depicting new features or functionalities.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>2. Bugs</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">A defect in an existing feature or functionality which needs to be corrected.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>3. Chores</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">Work or activity required to be carried out to initiate or complete a process. The activity has no direct business value but it is essential to carry it out.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>4. Epics</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">Large user stories that are too “generalized” and cannot be developed as a “whole”. Epics are generally created at the time of project inception and later “refined”, and made more “granular”. Epics need to be broken down into simpler forms which are easily manageable and developable during the daily sprints.</p>",,Blog,
2314,Sprint Planning Meeting Agenda,"In a Scrum project, the Sprint planning meeting agenda is one of the most important activities undertaken by the team. <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">The product owner plays an important part</a></span> in the agenda. In Scrum, out of the many important duties carried out by a PO, a very important one is to create the product backlog based upon the vision of the stakeholders, and subsequently maintain or “groom” it with the help of team members (preferably). However, once the backlog is created and all required product backlog items are properly defined in it, it becomes necessary to “prepare” for the next step in the Agile product development cycle – plan and develop effective sprints so shippable user stories are delivered at the end of sprint cycles. Offering consistent development over successive sprint iterations is an inherent feature of Agile Scrum. In a sprint planning agenda, the objective of a sprint meeting is to prepare productive sprints so the team can develop meaningful stories.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2322 alignnone"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/sprint-planning-meeting-agenda-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""430"" />

So, what does a sprint planning meeting actually consist of? In practice, the meeting is conducted in two parts – the first part is dominated by the product owner while in the second part the development team actually prepares tasks from user stories taken up for development in the sprint backlog.
<h1>1 <sup>st</sup> part of sprint planning</h1>
The product owner is the most “conversant” person as far as user stories are concerned since he or she actually “create” the product backlog. The stories need to be explained to the team members. During the first part of the Scrum sprint planning meeting, the PO selects some of the most important product backlog items from the top of the backlog and creates a “sprint backlog” by transferring the selected stories into it. So, the sprint backlog is a subset of the main backlog and contains a “chunk” of stories which carry high business values. The PO explains how the development of a particular story should be carried out by the development team. The acceptance criteria are explained and the team is briefed regarding what it should do to ensure their “development” is shippable i.e. the stories are bug-free and satisfy the benchmarks or acceptance criteria linked with each story. The PO also answers any doubts or queries put up by the team.

The first part is attended by the entire team – the product owner, scrum master, and the development team members. It is not necessary for the stakeholders and project owners to attend the meeting, but if they desire to do so, they can attend the meeting as “passive” invitees, and not disturb the proceedings with their suggestions or even try to get “involved” in the meeting.
<h1>2 <sup>nd</sup> part of sprint planning</h1>
User stories form the base of all development activity in Scrum. The entire product is developed by creating shippable stories, which are later integrated to “form” the complete product. During the second part of the Scrum planning meeting, the team starts discussing how it will carry out the actual development activity and create the stories in the sprint backlog. Generally, a Scrum team is “multi-talented” i.e. each team member possesses more than one type of expertise. However, it is important to know that this may not always be the case in all Scrum projects, since the product requirements and resources may vary depending upon the nature of the product to be developed.

The team members – developers, programmers, designers, QA personnel, and technical writers – decide amongst themselves how the user stories should be split up into parts that are more “manageable”. Each such “part” is referred to as a “task” in Scrum. Tasks are developed to create shippable user stories. A developer can develop each task individually. Certain Scrum teams may even work in “pairs”. Members collaborate, and decide amongst themselves as to who should take up which task depending upon the experience and levels of expertise possessed by them. Once the tasks are “distributed” the actual sprint can begin.

The PO may not mandatorily attend this part of the meeting but should make himself or herself available to aid the team deal with technical difficulties and to answer questions regarding the acceptance criteria if the team so requires.
<h3><strong>Duration of the entire meeting</strong></h3>
All meetings in Scrum are “time-boxed” and have to be completed within the stipulated time allotted for it. While considering the ideal sprint planning meeting agenda, the sprint planning meeting can range from two hours to eight hours depending upon the total number of stories to be taken up for development in the sprint backlog and the complexity of the project.",,Blog,
2317,What Is Iterative Software Development?,"<h1 class=""rating list-unstyled"">What is iterative software development?</h1>
Iterative development is a process, or a method, in which a software product is developed after breaking it down into smaller, easily developable “chunks” of code. The entire software application or utility is “disassembled” and split up into much smaller “features” portions. Each portion is individually designed and developed. Individually developed software features can be tested and corrected. Development typically occurs in repetitive product development cycles. The cycles should ideally result in fully functional product features. When enough features are developed, they can be integrated to form a bug-free working version of the final product.

What is iterative software development using a particular framework or methodology? In a nutshell, it is can be understood as implementing the iterative software development process in accordance with the unique rules proposed by the particular framework or methodology.
<h1>When is an iterative software development model used?</h1>
Iterative software development is most commonly used with incremental development – the software production or development cycle is split up into smaller segments, and each segment produces fully developed software features at the end of its run. The iterative cycle is repeated until all the product features are developed. It is a key development method used in Agile frameworks and methodologies.

Typically, iterative software development model is used when a project is large or complicated, and likely to extend for a longer duration. It becomes more difficult to track and monitor the project development parameters – time, resources, productivity, testing, acceptance levels, etc. when traditional software development frameworks such as Waterfall are used, since such development methodologies are not specially designed to tackle issues pertaining to rapid software development and delivering bug free software releases in relatively short times. This is where Agile scores. It splits up the entire project into smaller, easily manageable “chunks” of product features, and each feature is developed, tested, and deployed independently through iterative cycles known as “sprints”. Each sprint is individually designed and planned in a special event known as a “sprint planning meeting”. Time-boxed development leads to increased productivity and increased client satisfaction levels.

<img class=""aligncenter"" src=""https://quickscrum.com/Images/article_detail/what-is-agile-software-development-life-cycle.png"" alt=""project management"" />
<h1>Agile incremental development methodology and Waterfall methods</h1>
Waterfall development is based on “stages”. Software development occurs through “Waterfall” stages. During each stage, a certain process is carried out and the project is “developed” up to a certain “level”. The entire product is developed when each of the stages is completed in totality. Waterfall stages cannot be “reversed” or backtracked. This can often prove to be risky at times because if there is an inherent flaw in the project design, or bugs have not been identified properly during the “testing” stage, the error cannot be corrected or resolved unless all the stages are repeated once again. This can prove to be expensive, time-consuming, and counterproductive at times.

Agile is based on incremental development methodology. The product is split up into its constituent features. A small group of features is developed in repetitive development cycles known as sprints. At the end of each sprint, shippable product features are submitted for verification purposes to the product owner. The development should be deployable and bug-free. After all the features are developed through sprints, they are integrated to form the complete product.

The main difference between Waterfall and Agile is that development is staged in Waterfall while it is of an iterative nature in Agile. Waterfall cannot be reversed, while Agile keeps on changing constantly to meet the most current development requirements.
<h1>Iterative software development at a glance</h1>
<ul>
 	<li>Initially, a “top-level” project design is created to “give shape” as to how the project deliverables should be ideally developed. The specifics are not addressed during the project start-up but are “designed” later on. The product owner is largely responsible for designing the project.</li>
 	<li>The entire product is developed, tested, and “deployed” in stages. Development is carried out in iterative development cycles known as “sprints”.</li>
 	<li>It becomes possible to analyze, remove defects in the development “phase”, and check for regression before its occurrence since a product feature can be individually developed, tested, and “rectified” after it is checked for bugs during the sprint cycle. Technical issues are identified and addressed to “well in advance” and not allowed to “escalate”. User feedback plays a very important part in the Agile process.</li>
 	<li>Less time is spent on documentation and more focus is “created” upon developing product features. Productivity takes precedence over documentation.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
2318,3 Serious Pitfalls Every Scrum Master Should Avoid,"The scrum master holds a unique position as their role is to facilitate the team in coordinating itself, and resolving any problems as and when they arise. Like all Agile based frameworks, Scrum too supports the ""inspect"" and ""adapt"" principles. Scrum teams are self-organizing and self-managing.

The teams govern themselves and streamline the development work. However, at times, the development team may face a problem and might be unable to find a proper solution to deal with the problem. That is when the <strong>scrum master</strong> steps in - the person studies the problem, determine the best possible way of dealing with the issue, and suggests ideas to the team how to resolve the problem.

Ideally, the scrum master should employ a servant-leader role and foster a healthy working environment by maintaining a personal contact with team members. The person acts as a mentor, listens to the issues faced by the team members, and helps to resolve their issues.

<em>“Scrum suggests a facilitator's role for the scrum master, and advises that a scrum master should not transgress his or her role”</em>

Transgress here means not to go beyond certain limits. This is important since the development team is autonomous in its working and undertakes its own decisions. As it so happens, if a scrum master has a technical background, he or she may get involved with the work carried out by the team and start suggesting ideas. This could make it difficult for the team to function since Scrum teams decide for themselves how a product feature should be developed.

The individual taking on the responsibilities of a scrum master should make it a point not to commit three common mistakes that individuals new to the scrum master's role usually make.
<h1>1. Let the team be self-organized, don’t coordinate the team.</h1>
The scrum master generally remains close to the development team as he/she looks after the majority of the issues whether technical or non-technical one.

Owing to the frequent and daily interactions with the team, a scrum master may start feeling inclined to be a ""part"" of the development team, rather than as a separate Scrum entity having a specific role to play.

In the course of action of daily activities, a scrum master may unconsciously start coordinating the activities of the team. This may not be intentional, but simply out of rote. Scrum authorizes the development team to <strong><i>self-organize and self-manage.</i></strong> The team can make informed decisions on its own, and it is not required for the scrum master to intervene or try to coordinate the team activity.

<img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-2321 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/self-organise-and-self-manage.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />

Scrum teams are self-governing. In the scrum, teams learn from their mistakes through the ""inspect"" and ""adapt"" principles supported by events such as reviews and sprint retrospectives. Teams can learn when they coordinate themselves. A scrum master should not intervene and try to coordinate any activity other than his or her own.
<h1>2. Let the team decide, don’t take decisions on behalf of the team.</h1>
The work done by a development team can be often very demanding and complex. Many times, teams face situations where it becomes difficult to decide upon the correct course of action, or what kind of decisions it should make to solve the problem. It is important for the team to develop individual thinking, make informed decisions based upon their levels of experience, and hold themselves responsible for the decisions they undertake.

A scrum master closely monitors the activities carried out by individual team members. He/she tries to ensure that the team follows scrum properly.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2325 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/decisions.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />

Individuals often get influenced by the type of environment they are working in, and in case of scrum masters, they might be tempted to have their say regarding what the team should ideally do to resolve a particular issue. There is nothing wrong with that. However, scrum masters should realize that offering suggestions to resolve an issue is quite different than actually deciding on behalf of the entire team.

<em>""Scrum promotes teamwork, and emphasizes upon teamwork over individual efforts"".</em>

The scrum master should not make decisions on behalf of the team - S/he should rather suggest a correct course of action and facilitate the team to make their own decisions.
<h1>3. Unanimously resolving technical issues.</h1>
Scrum offers an organized way of working. To complete the scrum process, each member of the team takes on tasks specific to his or her profile. An important rule to follow is not to transgress one's particular area of work.

Each team member is responsible for himself or herself and is advised to work within the scope specified by the role he or she plays in Scrum. The role of a scrum master is to facilitate scrum proceedings. But many times scrum masters take the initiative and start resolving issues on their own after studying a problem. This should not happen in Scrum. Suppose a product owner faces a particular issue, he or she can consult the scrum master regarding what should be done, but the final decision should be taken by the product owner, and not by the scrum master.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2329 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/resolving-issues.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />

<i>""Scrum supports this particular approach because self-correction and self-learning processes cannot exist otherwise"".</i>

If any of the team members start taking decisions and resolving issues on their own, it would not be teamwork. It is important for the entire team to learn from the decisions it makes, rather than individual team members.",,Blog,
2324,Product Backlog Items,"Product backlog items are also known as user stories, backlog items, or “PBI”s. They represent the product features to be developed in the project. In Scrum, the entire product is broken down into its constituent features and functionalities. Each feature exists as a user story or a product backlog item in the product backlog and developed in product incremental cycles known as sprints. A sprint planning session is held just before a sprint cycle commences. During sprint planning, a few user stories having high business values are selected from the product backlog by the product owner and the team for development purposes. Selected stories are transferred to a temporary development list known as a sprint backlog and developed by the team in daily sprints.

<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-2327 size-full"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/product-backlog-items.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""346"" />
<h1>Product owner and backlog items</h1>
The product owner or the “PO” owns the project on behalf of the stakeholders. He or she is responsible for the success or failure of the project. The PO is primarily responsible for “designing” the backlog items and creating the product backlog. In addition, the PO has to ensure that the project’s business value or its “market worth” is maintained at all times. It is, therefore, required to associate each backlog item with a certain business value. The PO carries out this activity by assigning story points to each backlog item. He or she may seek help from the Scrum master and the team members if required. During the sprint planning meeting, traditionally the PO selected user stories and created the sprint backlog. However, as per recent market trends and Agile practices, the role of the PO has changed to a certain extent and the development team now aids the PO in selecting user stories, and in creating the sprint backlog. As per Scrum practice, the PO decides the “What” aspect concerning the development of product backlog items i.e. what stories should be developed first. The development team has the right to decide the “How” aspect – how stories selected in the sprint backlog should be developed. The PO has to make sure that the team understands how the stories should be ideally developed and explain them to the team members. If the team has queries, the PO answers them.
<h1>Refining the product backlog</h1>
<a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""text-decoration: underline; color: #3366ff;"">The product backlog should reflect a true picture</span></a> as to how much a particular product feature or functionality is worth in the market. Market conditions are liable to change over time, and some of the features having high business value may lose their importance because end users may no longer need them. On the other hand, stakeholders may request the development of new features to “add-on” to the market value of the product. Since product features are represented through product backlog items, it may be necessary to add new items or remove old items from the backlog. The business value of some items existing in the backlog may be updated depending upon the feedback received from end users. The process of updating the product backlog is known as product backlog grooming or refinement. Grooming sessions should be carried out on a regular basis and the team should aid the PO in this “routine” activity.
<h1>Getting the “most” out of an Agile product backlog</h1>
The Agile product backlog forms the “heart” of all development activities in Scrum. The product can be developed in time through the sprint cycles if a few aspects are carefully “looked into” while defining the backlog items and taking them up for development during the sprint sessions.
<ul>
 	<li>The business value of each backlog item is properly “worked out” and stated in the backlog.</li>
 	<li>The acceptance criteria and the definition of “Done” should be clearly stated.</li>
 	<li>The team members properly “understand” the backlog items so they can make informed decisions during the sprint planning sessions (accepting user stories based upon individual experience levels) and daily sprints.</li>
 	<li>The correct number of backlog items should be taken up in the sprint backlog for development purposes.</li>
 	<li>The team should know how to present the backlog items, after development, to the stakeholders during the sprint review and retrospective sessions.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
2328,Is Scrum a methodology?,"<h1>Is Scrum a methodology?</h1>
<div class=""detail-box articledetail"">

Fundamentally, a methodology can be understood as a set of rules or principles. It can include “tools” and/or practices which can be effectively used to fulfill a predetermined process and achieve specific goals. A methodology is more like a doctor’s prescription. You are required to follow it exactly in the manner suggested, and not deviate from the “instructions” stated therein. A framework, on the other hand, is “loose” and merely offers a skeleton or an incomplete structure that leaves sufficient “room” for other methods and practices which can be “incorporated” into it. A framework basically provides a structural support for other project related activities. The process flow is “strengthened” by the framework’s “structure”.

Is Scrum a methodology? No. Even though people still refer to Scrum as a methodology, the reference, in fact, is not appropriate. Scrum is a framework. It provides a “skeleton” which helps development teams to choose their own production processes, how the management “desires” to execute the project, and decide what kind of roles the team members should “play”. The Scrum framework offers specific guidelines which the Agile team should stringently follow.

<img class=""aligncenter"" src=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Images/article_detail/is-scrum-a-methodology.png"" alt=""Scrum"" />

</div>
<h1>What is Agile Scrum?</h1>
Scrum is an Agile based framework which can be easily applied in almost any type of project. Scrum, however, is most commonly used for software development and is a very popular environment for developing wide-ranging software-based products. The framework is ideally suited to project conditions where the product may undergo rapid changes or may have highly emergent requirements.

Agile Scrum is fundamentally based upon three basic principles.
<ul>
 	<li><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Product owners plan and decide what needs to be developed</span></a>, or built, in the next couple of months or less. They plan the project, work out the project dynamics, and design a project process flow that is most suitable for their unique project related requirements.</li>
 	<li>The development team builds the product in stages through the sprint iteration cycles. At the end of each cycle, the PO and stakeholders verify that the development is OK. The team ensures that important product features are developed first, followed by less important ones.</li>
 	<li>Scrum masters make sure that the Scrum process is followed, and implemented properly. If the team faces any issues, technical or otherwise, the scrum master resolves the issues.</li>
</ul>
<h1>How does Scrum work?</h1>
Project work in Scrum begins with the creation of a master list known as a product backlog. The product owner creates a list which contains all the features required to develop the product in totality. Once such a list is prepared, the actual Scrum process can begin. Scrum functions through repetitive iterations known as “sprints”. Each sprint traditionally extended from two weeks up to a month. However, Scrum has now evolved to last for seven to ten days owing to rapid project development requirements and dynamically changing market trends. Scrum development methods suggest that each sprint should begin with a short meeting, known as a daily scrum meeting, in which the entire team plans what it proposes to “do” on the particular “working” day.

The entire product is developed in short bursts of development activity known as sprints. The product is broken down into its constituent features, and each feature is developed as a user story in a sprint. Moreover, each feature, in the form of a user story, should be “successfully” developed such that it does not have any flaws or bugs. Each sprint, in short, should only produce “shippable” products. Once the feature is developed, it has to be verified and cleared by the product owner and the stakeholders. A special event known as a sprint review meeting is conducted after each sprint to ascertain the development carried out by the Agile team. The PO plays an important part in this event.

During the Scrum Agile process, once the entire team feels certain that the features developed to meet the acceptance benchmarks, the development is presented to the stakeholders in the sprint retrospective meeting. The event is important since it also offers an opportunity for everyone involved with the project to “think back” and reflect upon what things worked well in the last sprint, what kinds of issues affected the development activity, and how the team can change its working so productivity can be increased.

The entire process is repeated again-and-again until the product is developed entirely and the project is completed. It is possible to avail Scrum benefits, but it is possible only when the framework is properly implemented in the project.

&nbsp;",,Blog,
2332,Scrum Daily Meeting,"In Agile Scrum, each day before the daily sprint commences, the team holds a short meeting known as the Scrum daily meeting. The meeting is also referred to as the “daily stand-up” by most Scrum professionals. Typically, the meeting is held in the same place, or location, where the team works. The daily Scrum should be held in the morning and should be time-boxed. It should not exceed more than fifteen minutes each day.

<img class=""aligncenter size-full wp-image-2337"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-daily-meeting.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""350"" />
<h1>Who attends?</h1>
It is mandatory for the entire development team to attend the daily Scrum. The product owner and the scrum master are “committed” to attend the meeting. The product owner “owns” the project on behalf of the stakeholders and is primarily responsible for the success or failure of the project. Therefore, it is important that he or she attend the meeting. The Scrum master overlooks the Scrum process and ensures that Scrum is implemented in a proper manner by the team at all times. So, it is imperative for the Scrum master to attend the meeting. The meeting is held to discuss what the development team is “going to do” on that particular day. The team members have to attend the meeting too. Even stakeholders can attend the meeting if they so desire, but they should participate passively and refrain from joining the discussion with team members.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Three important daily Scrum questions</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Discussions are short and relevant in the daily Scrum. The stand-ups should not be held to resolve problems or discuss any topic other than what the team has planned to do on that particular day. Ideally, only three aspects ought to be discussed during the meeting.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">1. What, and how much “work” was done “yesterday” or the day before?</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. What does the team propose to do “today” or that particular working day?</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">3. Did the team members face any impediments or issues? If so, what were they?</p>

<h1>Common pitfalls in the daily Scrum meeting</h1>
Many times Agile teams fail to get optimum benefits from the daily Scrum meeting. The primary reason why this happens is that the team can get “sidetracked” with other issues or discussions. Another reason could be that the Scrum process may not be implemented properly, and teams may fail to work in accordance with Agile principles and rules. It is imperative to know what can make the daily Scrum ineffective.

<img class=""aligncenter size-full wp-image-2345"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-daily-meeting-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""267"" />
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Using the daily Scrum as a ""status report"" meeting</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The main purpose of the daily Scrum is to avail feedback from the team and identify any problematic issues faced by the team members. Scrum principles suggest a proper line of action be taken on the basis of feedback received from the team. If the team fails to complete any of the tasks planned the day before, the Scrum Master is supposed to demand an explanation and identify possible reasons why the team failed to deliver productivity. This could affect the team velocity in future sprints. The meeting should not be used as a mere “status report” meeting. Proper action should be taken depending upon the feedback availed.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. The stand-up keeps “dragging” on and on</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Each Scrum even is timeboxed, including the daily stand-up. It should not exceed more than fifteen minutes each day. If the stand-up consumes more time than ideally recommended, the team may end up compromising upon the productivity it is supposed to deliver that day. This can affect the team’s velocity since user stories and tasks may not be “developed” on time.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Avoiding the meeting altogether</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">It is important to hold the daily Scrum each working day and discuss the three important questions mentioned above. At times, team members may feel there is “little value” in discussing “routine work-related matters” and avoid holding the meeting altogether. The general belief is that daily Scrums are a waste of time since nothing important is being discussed in them. This should not be the case. The daily Scrum has its own importance and significance in the Scrum process. The meeting is held to avail feedback regarding the team progress and removing any problems faced. Scrum stresses upon timely feedback since the important Scrum principles “inspect” and “adapt” cannot be fulfilled without availing feedback from the process flow.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. The daily Scrum becomes a ""no problem"" meeting</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">It is not necessary that the team should face impediments or issues on a routine basis and “inform” the Scrum master regarding the same. Most of the day's work may proceed without any hassles during the daily sprints. However, in the event any of the team members do face any issue, he or she should report it during the daily Scrum. A common mistake is not to discuss the particular problem “in front” of other team members, but try to resolve it independently. If any team members face a common issue, there could be something fundamentally wrong with the project design and the “glitch” should be properly identified and removed on a permanent basis. If team members fail to report problems, the inspect and adapt principles cannot be fulfilled, and Scrum may “fail” at that particular instance.</p>",,Blog,
2333,Product Backlogs,"<span style=""font-size: 16px;""><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Product backlogs are very important in Scrum</span></a> </span></span></span>since the entire product is “manufactured” by developing the set of product features and functionalities contained therein. A product backlog is a prioritized list of product features and contains short descriptions of all the functionalities envisioned in the product. While starting with a project in Scrum, it is important to write down “everything needed” to develop the product in totality. The stakeholders provide a “wish” list of all features desired in the product. Subsequently, the product owner creates a product backlog based upon the wish list. When enough “items” are created in the backlog, the actual Scrum process commences with a sprint planning meeting in which a few product backlog items having high business values are selected in the sprint backlog for development purposes.

The product backlog can “change” over time as the project begins. New features in the form of user stories or product backlog items may be added to enhance the product’s value in the market. The stakeholders may desire additional functionality in already developed product features to remain “in tune” with end users requirements and market-specific demands. It is important to carry out routine “grooming” activity and keep the backlog updated at all times to ensure that the business value of the project is maintained at all times – even while the product is being developed.

The product backlog items or user stories primarily consist of:
<ul>
 	<li>Product features and functionality</li>
 	<li>Bugs</li>
 	<li>Epics – “Large” or “un-grained” feature items</li>
 	<li>Technical reference/documentation</li>
 	<li>Knowledge acquisition process/activity</li>
</ul>
User stories may also consist of other technical “stuff” and aspects but generally, include the above.

<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-2340 size-full"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/product-backlogs.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h1>Properties of a Scrum product backlog</h1>
To be useful and effective, a Scrum product backlog should exhibit certain characteristics.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Visible to everybody</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The entire Agile team needs to refer the product backlog at some time or the other. The product owner and the development team may access the product backlog on a daily basis, while the stakeholders may desire to check the business value of backlog items on a periodic basis to ensure that the business value of user stories is maintained. The Scrum master may refer to it to ascertain the acceptance criteria during the daily sprints. The product backlog should be easily accessible to all. Moreover, Scrum advocates transparency in all of its processes. The backlog should be visible to everyone.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Be a “single source” and reflect the “truth”</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">It is important to <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">maintain a “single” copy or version of the product backlog</a></span>. More than one “versions” of the backlog can lead to confusion – the team may erroneously start picking up user stories from outdated versions simply because it is unsure which version is most updated and should be followed. Moreover, the backlog should be properly refined from time to time through the grooming sessions. User stories in the backlog should be updated with respect to their business values so high priority stories can be selected in the sprint backlog during sprint planning sessions. The project should maintain its “business worth” at all times – even while the product is being developed.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Be dynamic in nature</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The product backlog functions as a “living” artifact in Scrum. It is constantly updated and groomed by the product owner and team members. When the market conditions change or stakeholders feel the business value of the product can be further enhanced through the addition of new features, the backlog is updated to include those changes. Old or undeveloped user stories, which have lost their business values, can be removed from the backlog. The backlog items keep on “changing” all the time, and the backlog rarely remains “static”. The backlog should be dynamic in nature.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px; text-align: right;""><span style=""color: #3366ff; font-size: 14px;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/36/add-a-story"">For more Help</a></span></p>
",,Blog,
2343,What is Scrum process?,"Scrum is a better way for development teams to work together and “manufacture” a product. In the <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Scrum Agile process</a></span>, development is carried out in “small pieces”, with each piece contributing towards the product’s overall “growth”. Building a product in segment or pieces makes project management much easier. It is easier to track, monitor, and “redesign” small pieces of the product rather than the actual product. Moreover, when small segments of the product are developed on a periodic basis in a sustained manner, it becomes feasible to adhere to the project completion deadlines.

<img class=""aligncenter"" src=""https://quickscrum.com/Images/article_detail/what-is-scrum-process.png"" alt=""Scrum"" />
<h1>How does the Scrum process model work?</h1>
Scrum is a framework and not a methodology. Most people tend to confuse between a framework and a methodology. While methodologies are exact processes and have to be followed in a “prescribed” manner, frameworks are more flexible and have to be implemented in a project before their benefits can be availed. Quite often, a project has to be “molded” as per the framework. In Scrum, a project has to be “designed” in such a manner that it supports the principles and ideals supported by it. The actual product has to be broken down into smaller, easily developable “user stories”, and each story has to be designed and developed on an individual basis. Moreover, each story can be stringently tested for any bugs and should be “released” only when it is regression free. Scrum supports product incremental cycles i.e. the entire product is developed in parts through the consistent and sustained development of smaller, individual product features through repeated process cycles known as “sprints”.
<h1>Important features of the Scrum Agile process</h1>
Developing a complex project or building a complicated product may prove to be a difficult task. Scrum offers a framework specially designed to make “difficult” work easy and “more” manageable. The main reason why Scrum succeeds where other frameworks and methodologies fail is that it concentrates more on “human” involvement and decision-making. Scrum teams need to collaborate to get things done. Moreover, team members have to share their ideas and experience to expedite the development process. In many ways, Scrum is a simple framework and easy to implement if one “learns” it in a proper manner. It is important to know what is Scrum process before implementing it.
<h1>Three main roles govern how the Scrum process works.</h1>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>In the Agile Scrum model, the product owner plans what needs to be done and in what manner. He or she thinks about an effective project design and works out possible ways and means to implement it in a manner such that the product is developed in the least possible time, and the project maintains its “business value” or market worth at all times.</li>
 	<li>The development team has to support the stakeholders and the PO’s vision regarding project development. It has to collaborate, plan, and actively facilitate the product increment process so that “shippable” user stories are developed at regular intervals.</li>
 	<li>The scrum master has to ensure that the entire Scrum process is properly carried out and the team does not face any technical difficulties or hurdles.</li>
</ul>
<h1>The Agile Scrum model overview</h1>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>While discussing the Scrum process model, the product owner creates a master list containing all product features and prioritizes it depending upon the importance of the product feature, and how much the particular feature is “worth” in terms of its saleability. The list is called “product backlog”.</li>
 	<li>During sprint planning activity, the development team extracts a small “chunk” of product features from the top of the product backlog for development purpose. The temporary list of features to be developed is known as a “sprint backlog”. The team decides how to proceed with the development work.</li>
 	<li>The actual development is carried out in “short bursts” or activity known as sprints. The sprint has to be completed within a predetermined time limit. It cannot be extended or shortened. Traditionally it lasted from two to four weeks, but recent Scrum trends indicate it has shortened to last for seven to ten days. Each day before the sprint starts, a short meeting, not exceeding more than fifteen minutes, is held to “start” the day. The meeting is known as the “daily stand up” or the “daily scrum”.</li>
 	<li>The sprint should ensure that only shippable and bug-free product features are developed. The development carried out by the team is verified by the PO and the stakeholders (if, and when necessary).</li>
 	<li>During the tenure of the entire Scrum project, the scrum master collaborates and helps the implementation process. He or she ensures that the team remains focused, and resolves difficulties and problems as and when they arise.</li>
 	<li>All Scrum events such as the sprint review meeting and the sprint retrospective meeting are to be conducted in an appropriate manner and at the correct time.</li>
 	<li>The entire Scrum process has to repeat itself until the entire product is manufactured through sustained product increment cycles – sprints.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
2346,The Role Of A Product Owner As Per The Scrum Guide,"Of all the Scrum roles, the product owner plays the most significant part. Besides understanding and promoting the client’s product vision to the team, the PO also fosters a healthy working environment and ensures that the project is completed well on time. Above all, the PO is also held responsible for the success and failure of the project. Therefore, the person appointed as a PO should possess certain characteristics that constitute a great leader – the product owner leads the entire Scrum team.

So what makes a good product owner? What virtues should he or she possess? The best way to know about the kind of role a PO should ideally play is to revert to the official Scrum guide and discover what it has to say regarding the <a class=""link-hover"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">role of a product owner</span></a>
<h1>Create the product backlog items or user stories in the backlog</h1>
One of the biggest responsibilities of a PO is to decide what product features should be developed in the project, and to represent those features in the form of user stories or product backlog items in the backlog. The product owner is responsible for the product backlog and “owns” it on behalf of the stakeholders and clients. It is not necessary for the PO to personally create the user stories and define them in the backlog. The official Scrum guide states

“The Product Owner is responsible for the Product Backlog, including its content, availability, and ordering.”

While the guide further generalizes the role of a PO as

“The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog.”

It is not necessary for the PO to create the product backlog all by himself/herself. The PO is held accountable for the backlog. He/she can take the help of team members and the Scrum master while creating the backlog. In certain types of Scrum implementation, the PO supervises the backlog creation while the team actually defines the product backlog items as per the PO’s instructions and guidelines. Since Scrum is a framework, its core principles have to be applied to a project before its benefits can be availed. Moreover, Scrum should be implemented in accordance with the requirements of the project, and so there is a lot of scope as to how the PO can fulfill his/her responsibilities.
<h1>Order and prioritize the product backlog</h1>
In its most fundamental form, a product backlog is simply an ordered list of everything required to develop the product. The list functions as a single source of requirements for developing the product in totality i.e. it includes the functionality, acceptance criteria, description, and documentation aspects needed to make the product shippable. The guide states

“The Product Backlog lists all features, functions, requirements, enhancements, and fixes that constitute the changes to be made to the product in future releases. Product Backlog items have the attributes of a description, order, estimate, and value.”

In real life, the product backlog is dynamic in nature, and never complete.

The Product Backlog is an ordered list of everything that might be needed in the product and is the single source of requirements for any changes to be made to the product. Product Backlog is never complete. The earliest development of it only lays out the initially known and best-understood requirements. The Product Backlog evolves as the product and the environment in which it will be used evolves. The product backlog is dynamic in nature - it constantly keeps on changing to identify what the product actually needs to be appropriate, competitive, and useful. As long as a product exists, its product backlog also exists.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Design and plan a proper sprint goal</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Since the product backlog is primarily “owned” by the PO, he or she is responsible for delivering a stable and bug-free product release, and ensure that the project is completed in time. In Scrum, since the entire development activity is carried out through the daily sprints, it is very important to design a sprint such that its goal is properly satisfied, and met, at the end of an iterative cycle. The PO conveys the product vision to the team, and one of the important duties undertaken by him/her is to design and plan a proper sprint goal. The guide says:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The Sprint Goal is an objective set for the Sprint that can be met through the implementation of Product Backlog. It provides guidance to the Development Team on why it is building the Increment.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-2364"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/role-of-product-owner-scrum-guide.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""474"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The sprint goal is decided during the sprint planning event. The main objective of having a well-defined sprint goal is to ascertain that the development team remains focused upon how it should develop the user stories, and what criteria the stories should fulfill to be considered as “shippable”. The sprint goal includes the acceptance criteria – conditions specified in the product backlog items that have to be satisfied so the product feature developed by the team can deliver a certain business value to the client. As the PO is the person most conversant with regards what the final product should ideally deliver in terms of functionality, the success of the sprint depends a lot upon how the PO has defined the sprint goal. A lot depends upon how well the team understands the product vision and the sprint goal, and it is the PO’s responsibility to ensure that the team understands user stories up to the levels required to deliver a useful and important product increment to the customer.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level needed.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Be available to the team</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileDevelopment"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Agile Scrum advocates self-organization</a></span> and self-management. Scrum teams are cross-functional and capable of working independently. In practice, the Scrum master oversees Scrum implementation and makes sure the team does not face any impediments. However, if and when the team faces a problem or a technical situation, the Scrum master may seek the guidance of the PO and ask for a solution if the team cannot resolve the issue on its own. Moreover, for issues pertaining to client or stakeholders feedback, the PO liaises between the team and the management to bring forth an acceptable solution.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-2369"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/sprint-goal.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""380"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The PO should remain accessible, if not physically, at least be accessible using electronic communication devices and online chats facilities to resolve issues. The team should be able to communicate freely and convey the issues to the PO when required. The PO should be available when the team needs his or her presence.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">If possible, participate in the daily scrums</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The daily stand up or the daily Scrum is more of a development team-Scrum master event in which the SM does what he/she is supposed to do in Scrum – oversee that basic Agile principle are properly followed by the team and the information-feedback cycle is maintained. The official Scrum guide does not suggest anything regarding whether a PO should attend the daily scrum or not. It is not mandatory for the PO to attend this event, however, if the PO does take the initiative and attend the daily Scrums, it would enhance the Scrum experience, because if such were the case, the team would be inclined to take the process more seriously. The best way to lead a team is to set an example by doing something yourself first and motivating the team to follow you.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Moreover, there is an added advantage if the PO attends the daily Scrum. It is possible to avail of a much better idea regarding how the team is performing, and what kinds of issues the team is currently facing by attending the stand-ups. The PO stays better informed, and as a result, the inspect and adapt principles can be made more effective.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Source:<span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v1/scrum-guide-us.pdf"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""> The Scrum Guide<sup>TM</sup></a></span></p>",,Blog,
2348,The Role And Duties Of A Scrum Master In Scrum,"<h1>Scrum Master and Scrum implementation</h1>
Scrum is an Agile based framework. Like all other frameworks, Scrum too has to be implemented in a project. The better the implementation, the better are the results availed from it. Scrum suggests three primary roles:
<ul>
 	<li><strong>Product Owner</strong></li>
 	<li><strong>Scrum Master</strong></li>
 	<li><strong>Development team</strong></li>
</ul>
While the Product Owner is responsible for the project and the development team designs the product features, <a href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">the role of a Scrum Master</span> </a>is of much significance in the Scrum process. The Scrum Master is responsible for implementing Scrum, and ensuring that each team member adheres to Scrum theory, practices, and rules.

The Scrum Master ideally plays a servant-leader for the entire Scrum team and facilitates Scrum implementation. In addition, the Scrum Master also helps the stakeholders, end users, and outsiders to understand how their interactions and advice can help the team to improve its performance. At all times, the Scrum Master tries to better the Scrum process and maximize the business value created and delivered by the team.

The Scrum Master has certain responsibilities towards the team, the Product Owner, and the organization.
<h1>Scrum Master's services towards the Product Owner</h1>
The Scrum Master aids the Product Owner in many ways, including:

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2350 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-masters-services-tow-pro-owner.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Finding proper techniques for refining the product backlog</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The <a href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">product backlog should be properly ordered</span> </a>with backlog items having high business values grouped together at the top of the list. Often, the Scrum Master helps the Product Owner in doing this by suggesting and working out effective grooming and sorting methods.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Educating the team for maintaining concise product backlog items</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Big epics should be decomposed into simple, and easy to develop user stories. Large stories should be properly understood and split up into simple tasks. When DT finds it difficult to define, maintain, and granulate the stories, the Scrum Master educates the team how to maintain them, and how to break down the stories.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Ensure that the Product Owner maximizes the business value in the product backlog</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The product backlog represents the entire value of the project. It is imperative that it contains product backlog items which can deliver a certain business value in the project and represent functionality that is useful to the end users. The Scrum Master advises the PO regarding which stories to include, how to refine them, and how to get proper feedback from the stakeholders to ascertain that the stories remain valuable at all times.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Facilitate Scrum events when requested or required</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum events are important in improving the implementation process. They provide feedback regarding the work done by the team in the previous sprint. The feedback is used for bettering the process flow. The Scrum Master organizes the events on the team's behalf and ensures that proper decorum is maintained in the events when stakeholders, end users, and others attend the meeting and forward their suggestions to the PO and the team.</p>

<h1>Scrum Master's services towards the development team</h1>
The Scrum Master helps the Development Team in different ways, including:

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2356 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-masters-serv-tow-the-dev-team.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Coaching the Team in being cross-functional and self-organized</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Development teams in Scrum are cross-functional. Each developer in the team possesses multiple skills and takes up other specialized kinds of work such as testing, designing, etc. in addition to his or her core skill activities. The Scrum Master helps individual team members to organize their work in a manner such that their special skills are properly utilized and made effective.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Developing high-value products</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The development team delivers the business value to the client by developing dynamic and useful product features. It is important to understand the business value first so that the features can be developed by keeping end users in mind. Scrum Master educates the team regarding the business value, and how features should be developed so that the value is actually delivered through the sprints.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Removing impediments hampering the team's progress</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Teams face problems and impediments while working. The Scrum Master understands the impediments and tries to resolve issues to remove the impediments hampering the team's progress.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Arranging Scrum events when needed</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Events play a very important part in supporting the ""inspect"" and ""adapt"" principles in Scrum. They should be conducted in a proper manner so proper outputs are derived out of them. The Scrum Master organizes the events and ensures they remain effective in generating the desired outputs and proper call-to-actions.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>5. Guiding the team in organizations new to Scrum</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum Masters have to put in extra efforts when dealing with Scrum implementation in organizations new to Scrum. Team members may have many doubts and might need a lot of explaining to understand how Scrum actually works what should be done to deliver the business value in a Scrum project.</p>

<h1>Scrum Master's services towards the organization</h1>
The Scrum Master also helps the organization in several ways, including:

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2365 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-masters-serv-tow-the-organisation.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Coaching Scrum adoption to the organization</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The first and foremost duty of a Scrum Master is to educate the team about Scrum and how it should be implemented. This can also include the management, stakeholders, technical personnel, etc.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Helping the management and employees to understand empirical product development</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum follows the product incremental cycle model. The team, used to traditional Waterfall development methods, should be educated regarding the empirical product development method followed by Scrum. The Scrum Master teaches the empirical product development concept to the team and the management.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Suggesting organizational changes to increase the productivity of the team</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum working is very different as compared to traditional development methodologies. Scrum advocates self-organizing and self-managing teams. This might induce some organizational changes. The Scrum Master suggests these type of changes to the organization.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Working with other Scrum professionals to improve Scrum implementation</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">When new to Scrum, organizations may decide to employ other Scrum professionals to aid the team in many ways. The Scrum Master has to work with these professionals and aid them in their line of work to streamline the Scrum process.</p>
&nbsp;",,Blog,
2351,Scrum Retrospective Meeting,"A Scrum retrospective meeting, known also as a sprint retrospective meeting, is held to assess the work carried out by the entire Agile team, and to identify what needs to be done further to improve upon the current Scrum process. Associated primarily with sprint cycles, the retrospective session is basically an “improvement” meeting held to find ways and means to identify potential pitfalls, past mistakes, and seek out new ways to avoid those mistakes. Retrospective sessions are attended by all – <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">the product</span> <span style=""color: #3366ff;"">owner</span></a><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">,</span> scrum master, development team members, and even the stakeholders (if they so desire).

The main purpose of having a sprint retrospective meeting is to find what activities and “things” the team is doing well, what activities should be continued, and what “more” can be done to improve the development process. The “inspect” and “adapt” principles play a key role in retrospective sessions.

<strong>The team asks three main questions to retrospect:</strong>

<strong><img class=""aligncenter size-full wp-image-2354"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-retrospective-meeting.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""438"" /></strong>
<h1>Making the Scrum retrospective more effective</h1>
The Scrum retrospective is a very important Scrum event and should be taken seriously by all team members. It should be ideally conducted in an atmosphere promoting trust and honesty. Retrospective sessions can prove to be effective only when members can collaborate effectively and share their ideas without any inhibitions.

So, how can Scrum retrospective meetings be more successful? A few pointers can help in availing positive results out of the meeting.
<ul>
 	<li>Everyone should be able to speak freely and present his or her ideas, however vague or unrelated they may appear to be “at a first glance”. Sometimes a “wrong” idea can invite comments or suggestions which can lead to meaningful and effective discussions. Discussions, in turn, can give birth to solutions.</li>
 	<li>Team members should not use the retrospectives to promote themselves or their beliefs. Discussions should be carried out which are related to, and affect the topic or issue being discussed.</li>
 	<li>Efforts should be made to collaborate and avoid blaming individual team members for what went wrong. Scrum is a collective effort, and teams take precedence over individuals. Therefore, the focus should be more on what the “team” did wrong, and what the “team” should do now to improve.</li>
 	<li>Points and suggestion discussed during the meeting should be implemented in a proper manner. If a retrospective does not include “Call-to-actions” in the end, the basic purpose of holding the meeting is defeated.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
2363,What is Agile software development model?,"The Agile software development model is fundamentally based upon the “product incremental” model. In Agile, software development is carried out in “short bursts” of development activity known as “sprints”. Each sprint lasts for a predetermined period. Traditionally, sprint cycles lasted for two to four weeks. However, nowadays they typically last between seven to ten days. Each sprint cycle results in the development of bug-free and deployable product features or functionality. Sprints are carried out until all product features are successfully developed.

What is the Agile software development model? In simple terms, in the Agile software development process, the entire software “product” is broken down into its basic features and functionality. The Agile process starts with the creation of the product backlog – a master list containing all the features and functionalities required to develop the product in totality. Once the backlog is created, a small set of features and functionalities having high business values are transferred to a “sprint backlog” and developed individually in product incremental cycles known as sprints. At the end of each sprint, a few of the product features are developed, tested, and “submitted” for <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">verification to the product owner</a> </span>and stakeholders who “accept” the features as “Done”. It is important for the features to be bug-free. Moreover, each feature should be deployable and should function as per end users’ expectations. In Agile, development is always carried out by keeping the end users in mind, and the entire product is developed from their perspective. Sprint cycles are repeated on a consistent basis until all the product features are developed successfully.

It is important to know that Agile framework forms the “base” for many other software development methodologies and frameworks such as Scrum, Extreme Programming “XP”, Kanban, etc. which have their “roots” in Agile principles and process. However, there are subtle differences between these Agile “offshoots”. Each framework is bug-free and has its own particular mode of functioning, advantages, and disadvantages. Moreover, each framework is specially designed to develop software projects of specific types and nature.

<img class=""aligncenter size-full wp-image-2367"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/what-is-agile-software-dev-model.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h1>Values important to the Agile software development model</h1>
Agile was originally conceptualized to overcome the shortcomings of traditional development frameworks such as Waterfall, and designed to provide a better control over the actual production process carried out in a project. Agile concentrates upon rapid delivery of product features through short, and rapid, product incremental cycles. Agile is very popular for its unique values that it supports and honours in all of its frameworks.

The Agile software development model includes four important values.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Value individuals and interactions rather than processes and tools</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">More important is given to Agile team members and individuals associated with the project rather than focusing and concentrating more upon traditional processes and tools, or technology, used in the production process. Agile values people more than processes.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Development of working software takes precedence over detailed documentation and paperwork</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile concentrates upon rapid delivery of working product features and functionality through short product incremental cycles. The development work takes precedence over the completion of formalities, paperwork, and getting the “productivity” cleared by senior authorities. Time should be properly channelized and more focus should remain upon delivering product’s worth rather than following mandatory rules and regulations.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Collaboration with the customer or client is more important than contract negotiation and formalities</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile gives more importance to customers and clients and stresses upon developing the product in accordance with the client’s interaction and feedback. The client is very closely involved in the production process. It is important to “satisfy” the client’s requirements rather than fulfilling contract formalities.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Quickly responding to changes and incorporating them in the production process</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">A unique “selling point” of Agile, the framework is specially designed to handle changes occurring in the market-related conditions and incorporating those changes in the product design – even lat in the product development cycle. Agile responds promptly to changes and has the capability to include them in the product development cycle – at any stage and at any time while the product is being “manufactured”.</p>",,Blog,
2373,Roles in Scrum,"Scrum is a popular Agile product development framework. It offers a foundation using which business goals can be delivered in a collaborative and time-bound manner. The Scrum process actually begins when a client or a customer needs a particular product. The framework provides certain guidelines which have to be implemented in the planned and organized manner within the project so positive results can be availed.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">There are three fundamental roles in Scrum.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. The product owner - </strong>Owns the project on behalf of the stakeholders and project owners.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. The scrum master - </strong>Ensures Scrum is properly implemented and the team does not face any problems during the project.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. The development team - </strong>Carries out the actual development activity and “manufactures” the product.</p>

<h1>Scrum team roles</h1>
The Scrum team roles can be briefly “summed” up as:
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Product owner</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The person primarily responsible for the project’s outcome i.e. its success and failure is the product owner. The PO conveys the stakeholders’ vision regarding the product to the entire team and ensures that members develop the product in accordance with the expectations of the project owners (stakeholders) and the end users. The PO leads the Agile team by example and outlines every activity in the project.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""aligncenter size-full wp-image-2382"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/roles-in-scrum-po.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""300"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>The primary responsibilities of the product owner include:</strong></p>

<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Creating, maintaining, and prioritizing the product backlog in accordance with the business values of the user stories.</li>
 	<li>Conducting sprint planning sessions and creating the sprint backlog so the development team can develop product features in the sprints.</li>
 	<li>Designing or planning the daily sprints.</li>
 	<li>Be available to resolve issues and problems as and when faced by the entire team.</li>
 	<li>Make sure that bug-free and shippable user stories are developed through the product incremental cycles (sprints).</li>
 	<li>Ensure that the team velocity is maintained in a consistent manner at all times.</li>
 	<li>Participate in the sprint review and sprint retrospective sessions.</li>
 	<li>Ensure that the project delivers a certain business value – at all times – even while product features are being developed by the team.</li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum encourages self-organization. The PO should respect this Scrum principle and respect the team’s ability to micromanage the development activity. He or she should not interfere with the actual development process and let the team handle it on its own.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Moreover, the PO should not:</strong></p>

<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Give direct instructions as to how the team should develop user stories.</li>
 	<li>Not transgress his or her authority and make efforts to “manage” the development team.</li>
 	<li>Add any additional user stories to the sprint backlog once daily sprints commence.</li>
 	<li>Halt or terminate existing sprints (This can only be done in rare situations).</li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Scrum master</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The main role of the scrum master is to be a perfect “team player” and facilitate Scrum proceedings. A servant-leader role is highly recommended for him or her.<img class=""aligncenter size-full wp-image-2385"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/roles-in-scrum-sm.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""300"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>The main duties of a scrum master include:</strong></p>

<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Ensure that Scrum principles and rules are properly implemented in the project.</li>
 	<li>Remove any problems or impediments faced by the team members.</li>
 	<li>Ensure that daily sprints are properly conducted and the team makes sufficient efforts to deliver shippable functionality through the sprint cycle.</li>
 	<li>Make sure that the entire Agile team follows Scrum – including stakeholders, other individuals, and groups participating in Scrum events or processes.</li>
 	<li>Help the PO “achieve” the product vision as “seen” by the stakeholders.</li>
 	<li>Aid the PO and the team during the backlog refinement sessions.</li>
 	<li>Facilitate and uphold Scrum collaboration principles.</li>
 	<li>Make sure that the team remains conversant with any recent updates and changes occurring in the Scrum process and in product backlog items – user stories.</li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Development team</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">In the Scrum process, the actual development of the user stories – product features and functionality – is carried out by the development team. Ideally, the team should include approximately seven members, plus or minus one or two members but not more than that. Generally, the team is composed of cross-functional members, with each member having more than one skill or expertise. A development team can consist of architects, software engineers, analysts, programmers, testers, QA experts, UI designers, etc.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""aligncenter size-full wp-image-2387"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/roles-in-scrum-dt.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""300"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>For a team to be effective and productive it should follow certain common goals:</strong></p>

<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Pursue a common goal or objective.</li>
 	<li>Ensure user stories are developed on a consistent basis through the product incremental cycles – sprints.</li>
 	<li>Make sure they develop “shippable” user stories.</li>
 	<li>Adhere to the same or similar norms and rules (Everyone follows the rules – there can be no “exceptions”).</li>
 	<li>Collaborate and work together.</li>
 	<li>Share ideas and thoughts.</li>
 	<li>Respect for each other’s work.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
2374,Acceptance Criteria In Scrum,"In Scrum, the product features are represented in the form of user stories or product backlog items, in the product backlog. The framework focuses upon delivering consistent product increments, and since user stories form the base of all developmental activities in Scrum, they should be properly stated and defined so the team can develop them as per the product vision was seen by the client. The DoD and acceptance criteria define what conditions must be fulfilled so the story can be considered as ""complete"" and deployable.

The Definition of Done ""DoD"" and the acceptance criteria play an important part in making a user story more effective. When these two criterions are carefully worked out, defined, and explained to the development team, successful product increments can be availed and shippable product features can be developed. The DoD binds the team to what the product owner actually desires in terms of a successful product increment. In many ways, it can be considered as a contract between the Scrum team and the client. The acceptance criterion helps to reinforce the DoD and ascertains that the team delivers product increments which meet predefined quality standards.

<img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-2380"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/acceptance_criteria.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />
<h1>What are the acceptance criteria?</h1>
Acceptance criteria are quality standards required to satisfy the client’s expectations in terms of what kind of quality the client desires in the product, and what conditions should be satisfied so the client can accept the final product developed by the team. Basically, the acceptance criteria are statements that can be written down and evaluated as being either true or false as regards their outcomes. They generally have a clear “pass” or “fail” results and can be used to describe functional as well as non-functional requirements.
<h1>Acceptance criteria and goals</h1>
<p class=""custom-padding-left-30""><strong>Acceptance criteria should have clearly defined goals:</strong></p>

<ul class=""custom-padding-left-60"">
 	<li>To define what should be developed or built by the team. The definition activity should be done before the actual development process starts.</li>
 	<li>To make sure every team member understands and shares a common vision regarding the development requirement.</li>
 	<li>To help the team to decide that a story is complete and “Done”.</li>
 	<li>To verify the feature development using automated processes and methods.</li>
</ul>
<h1>When should acceptance criteria be created?</h1>
The criteria specify the prerequisites to be followed by the team to the development carried out can be considered as shippable. The team should know what conditions have to be met so it can start planning the technical process. Therefore, acceptance criteria should be mentioned in the user story before it is accepted for development by the team during the sprint planning event. Ideally, the criteria should be worked out well in advance at the time when the <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" rel=""noopener"">product owner creates the product backlog</a></span> during the project planning phase. However, live working conditions indicate if the criteria are defined a few days prior to the sprint planning event, the team remains familiar with it and remembers it clearly. Some teams prefer to define the criteria when user stories are discussed, and at the time of product backlog refinement.
<h1>Should acceptance criteria be documented?</h1>
Scrum always encourages working process and principles over extensive documentation. While it is important to avoid the pitfall of spending too much time and efforts over comprehensive documentation, creating small, concise, and focused documentation can actually aid the team in understanding a user story. The point is documentation should not be avoided, but at the same time it should not be lengthy and require too much of efforts in terms of resources required to complete it.",,Blog,
2376,How Can Agile Scrum Reduce Regression During Software Development?,"<div class=""detail-box"">
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<div class=""rating list-unstyled"">For IT development companies, and organisations developing computer and digital devices (smartphones, tablets, digital diaries, etc.) software projects, one of the most important, and also the most troublesome issue is encountering ""bugs"" or defects in the code functionality when a particular application, or a system, is deployed and used in a live environment. Software bugs can be very common. Ever since computers were designed in the early years, bugs have inadvertently, or otherwise, kept on troubling coders and project managers, and have tested their ingenuity to resolve them to the fullest extent possible. Ask any seasoned programmer - He or she will tend to initially confer, and eventually say that the word ""Bug"" is aptly named - It tends to ""bug"" you!</div>
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<div class=""detail-box articledetail"">

<img class=""aligncenter"" src=""https://quickscrum.com/Images/article_detail/how-can-agile-scrum-reduce-regression-during-software-development-1.png"" alt=""Scrum"" width=""830"" height=""400"" align=""middle"" />
<h1>The etymology of the word ""Bug""</h1>
It is interesting to know how the terminology ""bug"" was first coined, and used to describe a state of functioning in which an error or a flaw in coding can lead to flawed results, or ""outputs"" in IT jargon. There are several stories as to how the terminology came into existence. A theory most subscribed to involves the pioneering programmer, Grace Hopper, who was a young Naval Reserve officer working on a Mark II computer at Harvard University. In 1944, she related an incident in which the computer had malfunctioned - an actual moth had, in fact, ""managed"" somehow to get itself embedded between two electrical relays, causing the computer to halt in its functioning. She explained that the cause of the malfunction was a ""bug"" which was later removed by a technician. The famous bug was exhibited by the Navy for many years and is now owned by the Smithsonian Institute.

<img class=""aligncenter"" src=""https://quickscrum.com/Images/article_detail/how-can-agile-scrum-reduce-regression-during-software-development-2.png"" alt=""Scrum"" width=""830"" height=""400"" align=""middle"" />
<h1>Bugs and software regression</h1>
In a broad sense, a software bug can be understood as an error, failure, flaw, or even a fault in the code designed to develop an application or a computer-based system. Bugs typically create unexpected and incorrect results or outputs, which cause the functionality of the particular application to stop, or function in a manner other than so desired. Bugs generally arise owing to reasons such as:
<ul>
 	<li>Mistakes carried out while encoding a program</li>
 	<li>Designing improper code structure or logic</li>
 	<li>Utilising the functionality of the code in a manner other than that recommended</li>
 	<li>Technical errors in the code compilers and/or interpreting resources and agents</li>
</ul>
Of course, the above are not the only causes which give rise to bugs, however, they constitute the major reasons why bugs tend to occur in the majority of the cases. When the numbers of bugs increase significantly, the overall functionality of the application may be compromised upon to a considerable level, rendering it useless and non-productive. This can cause severe financial loses, and even force businesses to face litigations from troubled end-users and consumers. Broadly, the word ""regression"" means to return to a former, or a lesser developed state. So, how can regression be understood in terms of ""software regression"" pertaining to software development? In practice, developers write down or generate code, to develop a particular functionality as requested by the end-user or the client. During the coding stage, the developer not only develops the code but also checks it and ensures that it is working properly. This is a standard practice followed by most experienced programmers and developers. However, at times, the testing process may not be carried out properly, or the code functionality might work properly in most cases, but fail to work under certain circumstances and situations. A second scenario is the code may be developed and properly tested at the time of creation, and the application deployed in a successful manner. However, a newer version of the deployed functionality may be subsequently re-developed to include even more features and functionality, to replace the prior one. The reason could be a need experienced by end-users to use the functionality for a more specific purpose. The newer version may cause some of the older functionality to stop working. This, in a rough sense, can be understood as software regression. For example, you could encode a program to display ""Hello World"" on the monitor. It might work perfectly, and display the message each and every time it is executed. Later on, the same code may be re-developed to accept the user’s name, and display it in lieu of “World.” The objective of the new code might be to display ""Hello John"" rather than ""Hello World"". However, once the newer code is developed and deployed, it actually ends up displaying the user's name only - ""John"" - instead of the actual greeting ""Hello John"". In this case, some of the older functionality associated with displaying ""Hello"" in the greeting is curtailed due to some coding reason and ""missed out"" by the newer code. This is software regression.
<h1>Knowing a ""bit"" about what is Agile Scrum framework</h1>
Agile is a framework. It offers guidelines as to how software-based projects can be effectively developed through the consistent and sustained delivery of software functionality through short bursts of development activities known as<span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""text-decoration: underline;"">""sprints""</span></a></span>. "" Agile is based upon certain principles which suggest how the framework ought to be ideally understood and interpreted by people, and how the framework should function in an ideal working environment. One of the Agile principles states ""Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through the early and continuous delivery of valuable software."" To support this principle, the Agile framework supports an iterative (repetitive) product incremental cycle (a process through which smaller components or parts of the actual product are individually developed, and later integrated to form the complete product). At the end of one product increment cycle (sprint), Agile events known as the ""Sprint Review"" and ""Sprint Retrospective"" are held to ascertain the reliability of the code functionality developed during the sprint, and whether it satisfies the acceptance criteria so it can be considered as ""bug free"" and fully functional. Agile promotes ""shippable"" product increments i.e. small pieces of code offering a certain functionality that is complete, perfectly functional, and free of any ""manufacturing"" defects. It is worth knowing about the actual Agile process, events, roles, and artifacts which can help to eliminate bugs and control the factors causing regression in software code. People new to Agile concepts and principles may find the framework difficult to understand. This article does not aim to educate the reader in Agile or Scrum framework. Rather, it aims to explain some of the important Agile characteristics which make the framework a very good choice for developing software projects. The objective is to describe how Agile can help to reduce regression levels during the development process. To understand how Agile can do this, it is important to know a ""bit"" about Agile first.

</div>
<h1>The product owner ""PO"" (Role)</h1>
He or she is the person who ""owns"" the project on behalf of the stakeholders or project owners. The person represents the interests of the stakeholders in the Agile project and ensures that the project delivers a certain business value (importance in terms of market value and financial implications) at all times while the product is being developed. The individual is primarily responsible for the success or failure of the project.
<h1>The product backlog (Artefact)</h1>
It is a master list mentioning all features and functionalities to be developed in the software project and to manufacture the software product in totality.
<h1>Product backlog item ""PBI"" or user story Artefact</h1>
In an Agile scrum, the actual product is ""broken down"" into much smaller, manageable, and developable parts known as product backlog items ""PBIs,"" or user stories. Each developable sub-unit or product item exists independently in the backlog. Moreover, each PBI is defined to include:
<ul>
 	<li>An index or a reference number to uniquely identify the PBI</li>
 	<li>A description stating the functionality to be developed</li>
 	<li>An explanation describing what the functionality is supposed to deliver, how it is to be delivered, and why it is needed</li>
 	<li>A list of acceptance criteria which needs to be satisfied for the PBI to be considered as ""perfect"" and ""complete""</li>
 	<li>A short explanation describing what must be ""done"" for the PBI to be considered as ""shippable"" and ready for immediate use</li>
</ul>
<h1>Sprint planning meeting (Event)</h1>
The iterative product development cycle (sprint) is initiated by an Agile event known as ""sprint planning."" This meeting is important from the development point of view. The meeting is held in two parts. In the first half, the PO selects important PBIs or user stories for development purposes from the product backlog, and a temporary list known as a ""sprint backlog"" is prepared to hold the user stories for development purpose. The PO then explains to the development team how the stories should be developed, and what activities team members should carry out to make the development ""acceptable."" The acceptance criteria are properly explained to the team, so each developer becomes familiar as to how the actual development activity should be carried out, and what the management expects out of the proposed development. In the second half of the meeting, the development team discusses how user stories should be distributed amongst the developers on the team. Stories are generally distributed based on the expertise and skill sets possessed by the developers. Individuals are assigned development tasks based upon their familiarity with the development process and their experience levels.
<h1>Sprint backlog (Artefact)</h1>
It is a temporary list created by the PO during the sprint planning meeting to hold the PBIs, or user stories, for development purpose. In Agile, development is always carried out in short bursts of activity known as sprints, and at any given time, a small subset of the product is actually developed. Unlike the traditional waterfall method, development is never carried out as ""whole."" The entire sprint backlog is processed for development during the sprint.
<h1>The sprint review (Event)</h1>
It is an Agile event held immediately after a particular sprint, or a product increment cycle is completed, and a certain code functionality in the form of a user story is developed by the team. The meeting is headed by the Product Owner who verifies the development and ensures that the user story satisfies the definition of “Done” as mentioned in the PBI. If the user story fails to satisfy the acceptance criteria so stated, it is sent back to the product backlog for re-development. If it is accepted by the PO, the user story is presented to the stakeholders in the succeeding sprint review event for their acceptance and opinions.
<h1>Sprint retrospective (Event)</h1>
Held immediately after the sprint review event, the stakeholders preview the user stories developed by the team. The stakeholders offer their opinions regarding how much of business value the user stories actually offer after their development, and whether the stories can be, in fact, considered as ""shippable."" The main purpose of the retrospective is to reflect upon what mistakes occurred in the Agile project in the past, and what needs to be learned from prior mistakes. The retrospective offers an opportunity for the Agile team to communicate with the end-users and project owners, and to get ""first hand"" information as well as knowledge as to what the stakeholders actually need in their project, and how they had actually envisioned their project at the time of its inception.
<h1>How can Agile Scrum framework help to reduce or eliminate bugs and software regression?</h1>
Software regression is identified if it exists in the code functionality, checked, rectified, and re-tested during the Agile development process. This is how it happens.
<p style=""display: inline !important; padding-left: 60px;""><strong>1. Starting with the software development process using Agile</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">In Agile, the actual development starts with the creation of the product backlog. Based upon how the stakeholders and project owners have envisioned the software project, and what they desire in terms of product functionality, the PO initially ""breaks down"" the entire project into PBIs or user stories, which are small, individually developable functional units. Once the master list or the product backlog is created, the PO assigns a business value to each PBI, so that important user stories having a higher ""market value"" can be developed first. The PO than proceeds to conduct a sprint planning meeting which is attended by all. In the sprint planning meeting, the PO selects some of the important PBIs from the top of the product backlog and transfers those stories to the sprint backlog so the development team can start with its coding activity. It is important to know that developers and programmers only develop those user stories which have been transferred to the sprint backlog, and none of the other PBIs stated in the product backlog. The developers then break down the PBIs into individually developable even smaller tasks and distribute them amongst themselves. Each programmer or developer prepares a smaller list which includes all tasks to be developed by him or her during the sprint.</p>
<p style=""display: inline !important; padding-left: 60px;""><strong>2. Carrying out the actual software development</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">The actual product development is carried out through sprints. During the sprint, each developer takes up tasks allotted to him or her and proceeds with their development. At a time, one task is taken up for development. Once the task is completed, it is marked as “Completed” and another task is subsequently taken up for development. The process is repeated until all the tasks are developed. Once a particular task is completed, it is tested for its reliability, consistency, and accuracy by team members specially appointed to carry out the testing process. Some Agile processes maintain a separate team for carrying out the Q.A. related activities. Each task is painstakingly checked for any errors arising through improper coding practices, wrong usage of coding language, flawed design, and other regression related parameters. Agile teams can also use specially developed regression testing software to identify any flaws in the coding, designing, or functional aspects. Once the regression checking is over, the user story is verified whether it fulfills the benchmark and acceptance criteria mentioned in the PBI. After the story is thoroughly checked, it is marked as ""Completed"" and its status updated in the Agile process flow. It is important to complete all the tasks allotted to the team members during the sprint.</p>
<p style=""display: inline !important; padding-left: 60px;""><strong>3. After the development activity</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">After all user stories have been developed by the development team during the sprint, an Agile event known as the sprint review is held to present the development carried out to the PO. During the sprint review, the PO scrutinises each user story and re-verifies whether they fulfill the acceptance criteria and whether they, in fact, meet the definition of ""Done."" If any user story fails to satisfy the PO, it is transferred back to the product backlog from where it may be taken up for re-development at a later stage. The only bug-free, well documented, and ""shippable"" user stories should be accepted as ""final"" during the sprint review. The objective of the event is to check for any regression related issues at a ""micro"" level. Once the sprint review event is over, another Agile event known as the sprint retrospective is held to further ascertain whether the user story functionality is acceptable from the market point of view. The stakeholders, project owners, end users, and other technically oriented staff members attend this event. The user story functionality is demonstrated to the participants, who minutely scrutinise the functional aspects and working to find any flaws or incorrect functioning of the user story. The participants also determine how much worth the functionality is from the saleability and market point of view. Once the stakeholders are satisfied with the results, the user story is accepted as ""Done"" The aim of this event is to check for regression related issues at a ""macro"" level.</p>

<h1>Agile Scrum and software regression</h1>
Each task, when completed by the team during the daily sprint, can be individually tested for bugs, design flaw, and regression. In Agile, the user story cannot be accepted until it fulfills the acceptance criteria and meets the benchmarks. At the time of development, the developer initially checks the user story for any bugs or errors of any kind. Once the development team Okays the functionality, it is checked and verified again by the PO. POs are usually experienced Agile professionals and have the knowledge, as well as the ability to find any bugs or flaws overlooked by the team. This is how bugs are eliminated at a micro level. Once the PO acknowledges the user story, it is exhibited to the stakeholders who are familiar with the market trends and conditions and know what kind of functionality a particular user story should offer to satisfy the end user’s requirements. They again check the functionality from the end user’s point of view, and if it does not proffer to fulfill what the end users need, they reject the user story. When any user story reaches the sprint retrospective stage, it will not possess any bugs or coding errors, which are detected in the preceding micro level stages. The development is checked at a macro level during the retrospective, and accepted by the end users.

In Agile, development of the project is carried out using PBIs or user stories. A user story comprises a smaller, dedicated, software code offering a specific functionality, which is subsequently woven, or integrated to form the actual product. It is much easier to check small pieces of code as to whether they function properly or not, and if they contain any type of errors. Moreover, it is also more convenient and feasible to verify small chunks of code rather than the whole repository containing the entire project code. When individually developed project functionality is checked for regression, the integrated final product will possess a lesser probability of exhibiting any types of regression. This is one of the major advantages of the Agile Scrum. Regression is identified and rectified at a micro level - while small ""pieces"" of functionality are actually being developed.

</div>
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</div>",,Blog,
2392,How Should Acceptance Criteria Be Defined In Scrum?,"In Scrum, the product owner reviews the user stories during the sprint review event and checks whether their acceptance criteria are met before clearing them for a client demo. He or she will never clear a story if its acceptance criteria are not met. Scrum advocates that bug-free and shippable user stories be developed through the product incremental cycles. Each product feature carries a certain business value. At the time of development, the feature should be developed so that its usefulness is sustained in the market i.e. the feature should function as per the product vision was seen by the stakeholders. For this to happen, it is important for the development process to satisfy the technical terms and conditions as specified in the backlog items. The acceptance criteria specify conditions which need to be fulfilled by the team, so the feature can retain its business value in the market. Acceptance criteria are important for the scrum process. The product cannot be released unless the acceptance criteria of the backlog items are met during development.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2395 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/how-should-acceptance-criteria-be-defined-in-scrum.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />
<h1>How should acceptance criteria be defined?</h1>
The acceptance criteria should be expressed clearly in the product backlog items. It should be stated using a simple language so it becomes easy for the team members to understand and follow it. Moreover, the story should be described in a manner such that it can be understood without facing any ambiguities regarding its possible outcomes – what is acceptable and what is not - the technical team should be able to understand what is to be developed and delivered, in what manner, and what conditions should be satisfied so it can be considered as shippable.
<h1>What is the purpose of defining the acceptance criteria?</h1>
The acceptance criteria help the team to understand what a user story should ideally deliver in terms of a product increment, and what it should do to maintain the usefulness of the feature. End users have a final say regarding what is exactly required in terms of feature functionality. Based on their feedback, the product owner ensures that the acceptance criteria reflect end-user conditions, and conveys those requirements in the acceptance criteria.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>The acceptance criteria:</strong></p>

<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Defines the limits or boundaries of a <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">user story or feature in the product backlog</a></span></li>
 	<li>Helps the product owner to answer what is needed in the feature so the team can deliver the expected business value.</li>
 	<li>Helps the team to understand and share ideas regarding how the team should develop the feature.</li>
 	<li>Aids the team in testing the feature development so it can be accepted as “Done” by the PO and stakeholders.</li>
 	<li>Helps the team in understanding how much further development is required to finish the story.</li>
</ul>
<h1>What should the acceptance criteria actually include?</h1>
The acceptance criteria should be defined while maintaining its “scope”. To be effectual, the criteria should be written following certain guidelines.
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>It should try to explain the intent of developing the product feature. It should not try to provide a non-debatable solution. Team members can argue regarding its acceptance while negotiating user stories with the PO during the sprint planning meeting event.</li>
 	<li>It should be independent of its implementation. The acceptance criteria should not suggest or limit how the story should be developed. The team decides how the story or product feature should be developed since it “owns” the sprint backlog.</li>
 	<li>It should be explained at a macro level and provide an overall picture of what is actually needed.</li>
</ul>
<h1>When to write the acceptance criteria?</h1>
The <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">product owner is responsible for creating the product backlog</span></a> at the time of project planning. All user stories depicting the product features as envisioned by the client are stated in the product backlog in the form of product backlog items. The product owner should write stories and acceptance criteria. However, as per the role of the product owner as suggested by the Scrum guide update, the PO is to be held accountable for creating and maintaining the product backlog. It does not necessarily mean that the PO should personally create backlog items and state the acceptance criteria in the stories. The development team can aid the PO in writing the stories and stating the acceptance criteria in it. The product owner, however, has the final say what the acceptance criteria should ideally include.",,Blog,
2405,Agile in a Non-Agile Environment,"<h1 style=""text-align: left;""><strong>Agile in a Non-Agile Environment</strong></h1>
<h2><span class=""example2"">Introduction</span></h2>
How do you feel when you realize you are working in a non-agile environment? myself feeling like an Alien walking through a human environment, looking at me as a weirdo.
<h2><span class=""example2"">Subject matter</span></h2>
Nobody ever told us how would it be to work on a non-agile environment before, but coming from an Agile company our first thought was that everyone there will be excited about it, and magically each person will start collaborating with each other for the company's sake. The reality taught us that it was the other way around, the toughest journey we ever had.
<h2>Summary</h2>
<div>The company we worked for, used to work in a traditional way of doing software (Waterfall?), a business department, a solution design team, Development team and finally a Functional Test team.</div>
<div></div>
<div>
<div>Challenges</div>
<ul>
 	<li>Managing the transition to agile</li>
 	<li>Differences in organizational cultures</li>
 	<li>No effective communication across teams</li>
 	<li>Reporting progress and demonstrating control</li>
 	<li>Solution design too far from the real implementation</li>
 	<li>Requirements based on a classic approach</li>
 	<li>Release date agreed without development estimations</li>
</ul>
<div>The first approach we took was that we were not dealing with all challenges at the same time; So, first of all, we just focused on managing the transition to agile in our development teams and see how this would change the environment.</div>
<div>This was rather easy due to the fact that development teams were looking forward to adopting Scrum to finally provide quality software on a sustainable pace.</div>
<div>The real challenge started when teams started to interact with other departments.</div>
</div>
<div>
<div></div>
<div><strong>Pincer movement<br clear=""none"" /></strong></div>
<div></div>
<div>""There is nothing worse than a pincer movement to demoralize your opponent. Feel that you are trapped in a none-escape situation it's the faster way to give up or suffer a painful journey.""</div>
</div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div>
<div>Some of the challenges described before have a strong connection with the business. Without effective communication, there aren't realistic estimations, no feedback from the stakeholders as well as non-fulfill delivery dates, so it's easy to end up feeling pressure from both sides, Business to provide a release as soon as possible and Functional test, who has also pressure from business to get the sign-off as quickly as possible.</div>
<div>So, eventually, the teams start to feel surrounded by pressure from every side, trap on a pincer movement.</div>
</div>
<div></div>
<div>
<div>Flaked by Business</div>
<ul>
 	<li>No contact with the team</li>
 	<li>No Product Owner, therefore no prioritization</li>
 	<li>ROI not clear</li>
 	<li>Estimations not taken into account for the release date</li>
 	<li>No willing to negotiate deliveries</li>
</ul>
<div>Flanked by Functional Test</div>
<ul>
 	<li>Over-testing, FT test don't trust integration testing performed by the team</li>
 	<li>E2E still required</li>
 	<li>Go-live takes so long</li>
</ul>
<div>Team demoralized</div>
<ul>
 	<li>No ownership</li>
 	<li>Team morale decreases</li>
 	<li>ROI not achieved</li>
 	<li>Defects in production</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div></div>
<div><strong>Breakthrough<br clear=""none"" /></strong></div>
<div><strong> </strong></div>
<div>At this point, a breakthrough was needed, the only way was to concentrate our effort on fixing some of the challenges, particularly the organizational culture but the communication issues as well.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Normally this transitions can only be done from the inside, so the real challenge here is to find the right people to do so, and most of the time we  can find them among managers staff or even stakeholders, they care about the company's sake and will do the best to make it work, those people can act as if they were an Alien Infiltration.</div>
<div></div>
<div>
<div><strong>Alien Infiltration</strong></div>
<div><strong> </strong></div>
<div>
<div>""In the infiltration scenario, the invaders will typically take human form and can move freely throughout human society, even to the point of taking control of command positions."" Wikipedia</div>
<div></div>
<div>Looking for sponsorship among stakeholders/managers can support the agile transition from inside and across all teams.</div>
<div>They can remove walls faster and painless than anyone else, so with time, we were able to reach agreements across all teams.</div>
<div></div>
<div>
<div>
<div>With Business</div>
</div>
<ul>
 	<li>Coach closest Business Analyst to be your Product Owner
<ul>
 	<li>Prioritize your team backlog</li>
 	<li>Unblock functional impediments</li>
</ul>
</li>
 	<li>Delegate on someone on your team to be a Proxy-Product Owner
<ul>
 	<li>Fills stories with content</li>
 	<li>Unblock functional dependencies between teams</li>
 	<li>Keep in touch with Business Analyst as well as Functional Testing POC to coordinate releases.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<div></div>
<div>With Functional Test</div>
<ul>
 	<li>Require a Senior Functional Tester to be part of your team.
<ul>
 	<li>Along with QA on your team will set up a whole test plan</li>
 	<li>Easier to get a sign-off to go-live</li>
 	<li>Increase trust</li>
</ul>
</li>
 	<li>Involve QA members on the release process to Production
<ul>
 	<li>Support clients</li>
 	<li>Provide release notes and content information</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<div>With Team(s)</div>
<ul>
 	<li>Catch the pulse on your teams, it's going to be thug journey, keep your team motivated.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div></div>",,Blog,
2422,Main Differences Between Agile Scrum And XP Framework,"<div class=""detail-box"">
<div class=""row"">
<div class=""col-lg-20 col-md-20 col-sm-20 col-xs-18 full-width"">
<div class=""rating list-unstyled""></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class=""detail-box articledetail"">

""There are subtle, but marked, differences between Agile Scrum and XP frameworks. While both the frameworks appear to be similar at a first glance, the differences lie in how the sprint backlog items are committed, and how the development team takes up the user stories for development during the daily sprints.""

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2423 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/xpagile_1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />

Of all Agile frameworks, Scrum is the most popular one. Scrum methodology is highly recommended for developing IT projects and it is so widely recommended for it that it is often confused with Extreme Programming or ""XP"" Agile framework, which is synonymous with software development. Both the frameworks are much similar, and to a person not conversant with Agile, both might appear to be the same at a first glance. While most Agile processes and events remain the same, there are some subtle differences between the two frameworks.

</div>
<h1>Sprint durations</h1>
Typically, in the scrum, the sprint iteration can last from two weeks up to one month. In XP, the duration is much shorter and generally lasts from one to two weeks. The sprint duration does not exceed two weeks in XP.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2425 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/xpagile_2.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />
<h1>Committing the sprint backlog</h1>
One of the major differences and an important one too is how user stories are committed in the sprint backlog while implementing Scrum and XP. In the scrum, the sprint backlog is ""owned"" by the development team. Once the team accepts the sprint backlog, all the user stories in the backlog are ""committed"" for development purposes. The team is required to complete all the user stories stated in the backlog. Moreover, once committed, the sprint backlog cannot be ""changed"" while implementing Scrum. If any new user story is required to be developed, it can only be included in the next sprint after a new sprint planning meeting is conducted. This is not the case with XP. The sprint backlog does not become ""static"" even after it is accepted by the team and the user stories are taken up for development. If required, based upon the feedback received from the stakeholders, a user story taken up for development can be replaced with another one having the same estimation in terms of story points. Therefore, the sprint backlog is not ""committed"" at any time in XP. New stories can be replaced in lieu of those currently existing in the backlog - something that is impossible in the scrum. However, it is important to know that such a ""replacement"" of the user story is only possible in XP before the particular user story is taken up for execution in the daily sprint. Once the development of a user story starts in XP, it cannot be replaced.
<h1>Determining the sequence while developing user stories</h1>
The role of the product owner remains common in both scrum and XP. The PO prioritizes the product backlog in accordance to the importance of user stories based upon the business values. Feedback is availed from the stakeholders as to which of the user stories are more important and pertinent from the development point of view, and the PO categorizes the product backlog based upon the business values of the user stories. The similarity, however, ends there. In the scrum, once the user stories are prioritized and taken up for development during the daily sprints, the development team enjoys the autonomy of deciding how the user stories should be actually taken up for development during the daily sprints.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2429 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/xpagile_3.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />

The role of the product owner remains common in both scrum and XP. The PO prioritizes the product backlog in accordance to the importance of user stories based upon the business values. Feedback is availed from the stakeholders as to which of the user stories are more important and pertinent from the development point of view, and the PO categorizes the product backlog based upon the business values of the user stories. The similarity, however, ends there. In the scrum, once the user stories are prioritized and taken up for development during the daily sprints, the development team enjoys the autonomy of deciding how the user stories should be actually taken up for development during the daily sprints.

&nbsp;",,Blog,
2426,Why start-up should focus on Minimum Viable Product,"In this fast changing and high business competition era, it is very tough to start and grow the start-up to a profit making business entity, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach enables start-ups to provide a safe and risk-free option to try out an idea.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development technique is limited in terms of cost &amp; time while it has all the mandatory features required to launch &amp; test an idea with the end users. It means startup can test every assumption in the fastest way and can come to know if there is a real market for his idea/product. Creating MVP is all about failing fast or winning fast.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2428 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/estimating-in-agile-and-scrum1-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""308"" />
<h3><strong>The importance of MVP</strong></h3>
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">1. Test Idea</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">There is no proven way to identify where that the product will be a success or a failure until you launch it. Minimum Viable Product simplifies this complex subject with bare minimum risk. You can launch Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and can assume whether the whole idea/product is worth or not.</p>

<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. Knowing customer desire</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a set of the most used features and functionalities. Once you launch your idea/product with the set of most required features, you can get the honest and real-time feedback. Feedback can eventually help you to know what exactly customer desires.</p>

<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">3. Faster ROI</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach helps to focus and deliver a basic set of features which solves the end user's pain. Hence it helps to get Return on investment at the early stage.</p>

<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">4. Cost-effective</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">Typically, In Minimum Viable Product (MVP) your focus is on limited features and functionalities. You don’t waste much time in Analysis, Development, and Design &amp; Testing blindly. It reduces overall time spent on extra functionalities thus saves a lot of time &amp; cost.</p>

<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">5. Faster time to market</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">Minimum Viable Product (MVP) helps to reduce time to market as it proposes to develop and launch only basic limited features and functionalities that have real-time usability.</p>

<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">6. Focus on value proposition</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">Minimum Viable Product (MVP) compels you to focus on the value proposition and forces you to remove the unwanted or less important features, so you end up developing only important features that really matter to end user.</p>

<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">7. Reduce Risk</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">Minimum Viable Product (MVP) reduces the risk such as</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">a. With less investment idea can be proven
b. You don’t need to wait longer for revenue generation
c. Customer acceptance is validated quickly
d. Chances of failure are reduced as product roadmap is defined on the bases of market inputs</p>

<h3><strong>How to define MVP?</strong></h3>
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">1. Selection of Features</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">This is the most important part of the MVP. It defines 90% of your success or failure. According to studies, only 7% of the features are always used by users. As an entrepreneur, you have to be very cautious while deciding these potential features.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">a.  Analyse competitors websites (if exist)
b.  Sketch your product ideas over a paper or web tool and demonstrate to your potential customers to get valuable inputs
c.  Have a value-adding brainstorming session with potential customers
d.  Do market surveys using an appropriate questionnaire</p>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2436 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/agile-ratio2.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. The scalable architecture &amp; technology</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">The journey from MVP to a fully mature product requires many additional features to be developed. That’s why technology choice and architecture plays a very important role. At each stage, the product should be scalable &amp; maintainable.</p>

<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">3. The Development Process</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">MVP requires meeting various changes during its development cycle. You need to follow an agile process that gives an ability to adapt to the changes quickly. It also brings a greater level of involvement &amp; transparency among development team &amp; client.</p>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2438 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-Development-Process.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""199"" />
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">4. Importance of Automation Testing</h4>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;"">The traditional way of working emphasis on manual testing which consumes a huge amount of time as well reduce quality. Due to the short development time, most of the team skip testing and which will lead to buggy software. It's highly recommended to incorporate automation testing since beginning to produce the high-quality product.</p>",,Blog,
2431,How To Manage Time And Organize Your Product Release,"When a new product or a set of new product features providing some value to customers or end users is launched in the market, the launch activity is described as a product release. A product release helps to create a value stream for business owners. Its function is to bring in capital for the business by generating a profit. Product based companies – especially those following a SaaS model - have to depend heavily upon releases to grow and sustain their growth over time.

Organizations can grow only if the products they manufacture are released at the correct time and in the correct manner. If a product is released prematurely before it can be properly tested and made shippable, it could result in end users experiencing bugs or regression. This can lead to a bad user experience and even affect brand reputation. On the other hand, if a product is released too late it could prevent the organization from availing the business value in the time leading to stressful financial conditions for the project owners. Projects may be forced to close down if they can't sustain themselves over time. Therefore releasing the product in the right manner at the right time is very important.

Both traditional Waterfall processes and Agile methods facilitate product release. However, the manner and frequency of the releases vary considerably depending upon which method or process is employed by the team to manage the software project.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2435 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/time-and-organize-your-product-release-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h1>Doing it the traditional way</h1>
Traditional processes are best suited when the scope and time of the project are fixed. However, in practice, stakeholders may request changes in existing features and functionality as and when market conditions change. This can delay the development process and extend the deadline since the team may be forced to take up unplanned design and/or functionality related work which it has not anticipated and accounted for at the time of project inception. In Waterfall processes as the project completion and the release date are fixed at the onset, the development team is often kept under pressure to deliver work – both planned work as well as feature changes related - within the stipulated deadline. Teams may find it difficult to cope up with the added development activity and start cutting corners to complete work in time. As a result, the release may contain bugs and have faulty functionality which reduces user experience and even lead to a bad brand image.

Owing to the staged process flow, Waterfall processes are irreversible in nature. The product can be released only after the project completes. Moreover, since only a single version of the product can be designed at a time in the project, you can’t have multiple product releases supporting upgrade versions for the same product in the same project. It’s also difficult to address risk mitigation since defects found in later stages cannot be reworked upon and corrected by reverting back to prior stages. It can be also difficult to adapt to changes in the product design once the project is documented and the development process starts. Therefore the business value of the release cannot be increased or enhanced once the project deliverables are decided.

Thus, you can be sure of releasing your product on time using traditional methods only if you’re absolutely sure about the project’s scope, know exactly what you’re going to design and develop in your project and whether you can estimate your team’s velocity (the speed or rate at which the development team can complete work in a given duration of time) correctly.
<h1>How Agile does it</h1>
The success of a product release depends primarily upon what functionality the features offered in the release and how useful they are to end users. The business value in a project can be availed only if the releases are properly designed and planned. To make a release valuable, Agile tends to focus upon the following aspects:
<ul>
 	<li>Can the business value be delivered in the form of a releasable product?</li>
 	<li>Is the goal of building a reliable product with the desired quality met?</li>
 	<li>Can the project successfully deliver the product releases on time?</li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Planning the releases</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">In Agile since development is carried out of the product on incremental cycles bases, the release of a product depends primarily upon the development team’s velocity metric which indicates how much of work the team can handle or get done per iteration cycle. Given the speed at which the team can deliver shippable product features, it can be planned how many sprints are required to develop a particular set of features. The features set is made available to the end users in the form of a release. The goal of a release is to deliver working software to end users as quickly as possible.</p>

<blockquote>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">For explanation, suppose a product has 9 features. If the team has a capacity of developing 1 feature per iteration cycle or sprint, and each sprint lasts for 2 weeks, a release containing a set of 3 features can be released in the market every 6 weeks. Since the product contains 9 features, if 3 features are planned for each release, it would take 3 releases to launch the entire product.</p>
</blockquote>
&nbsp;
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2437 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/time-and-organize-your-product-release-2.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""296"" /></p>

<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>As the team becomes more conversant with the product with each development cycle, it tries to improve upon its velocity metric and speed up development work. More work can be taken up by the team per sprint which can reduce the total number of releases required to launch the product.</li>
 	<li>Since features are launched in sets in releases, it becomes possible to receive end-user feedback at the end of each release rather than receiving the feedback after the entire product is deployed. Product owners can plan further rework to enhance the business value of the features even while the product is being developed. The rework can be taken up by the team as a “feature enhancement” task which can include all suggestions provided by end users to make the feature functionality more useful and powerful.</li>
 	<li>Business value is delivered to the client at the end of each release. Therefore, it becomes easier to achieve the breakeven point and fulfill the marketing milestones.</li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Designing the sprints</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">A sprint is a predefined duration in days (generally lasting 1 or 2 weeks or more but not extending 1 month) during which the team develops valuable shippable software and delivers it to the client. Each sprint is planned in a special Agile event known as the sprint planning meeting. During sprint planning sessions, the product owner (a person responsible for delivering the value in the project) selects a few valuable and prioritized product development tasks (user stories) and presents them to the team for development purposes. The team decides how much work (number of tasks) it can complete in the development cycle (sprint) and creates a sprint backlog (a list of finalized features and working functionality) to be completed during the upcoming sprint.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The team understands how each feature is to be developed and what criteria (acceptance criteria) should be fulfilled so that the particular feature can be considered as successfully completed (fulfill the Definition of Done). If the team has any doubts or needs any clarifications the product owner helps the team to understand the deliverables and what end users expect out of the proposed functionality.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The team members i.e. the developers, designers, testers, technical writers, database administrators etc. than take up the proposed tasks from the sprint backlog based upon their levels of expertise and start decomposing the work (tasks) in a manner such that each task can be developed independently (provided they don’t have any dependencies).</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Working software is then developed by the team during the sprint.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The objective of a sprint planning session is to:</p>

<ul>
 	<li>Establish a clearly defined goal for the sprint.</li>
 	<li>Choose valuable and important tasks or user stories that support the sprint goal.</li>
 	<li>Break or decompose work (user stories) into specific development tasks.</li>
 	<li>Create a sprint backlog.</li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2442 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/time-and-organize-your-product-release-3.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""554"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Prioritizing the product backlog</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Broadly speaking, the product backlog is a list of all activities (feature development, testing, documentation, and deployment) needed to build the product. Each project has a product vision that explains what the final product should be like i.e. what kind of features the product should have, what type of functionality the features should offer, how end users shall use the features etc. People involved with the project viz. stakeholders, end users, technical team and the product owner suggest feature requirements and functionality that can fulfill this product vision.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The product backlog, therefore, is a ""wish"" list of all functionality desired in the product and keeps on growing in size over time as more and more requirements keep on adding in the list. Agile focuses upon the development of most valuable and important features first followed by less important ones so that maximum value in the project can be tapped and delivered in the form of working software to the client at the end of each product incremental cycle - the sprint. Hence it is required to arrange the product backlog such that valuable and most important tasks or development activities are contained at the top whereas less important requirements are placed in the middle. The process of prioritizing the product backlog as per the business value of the stories contained in it is also known as “backlog refinement” or “backlog grooming”.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2445 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value-3.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""511"" /></p>

<h1>Product monetization in Agile and traditional methods</h1>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2446 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/time-and-organize-your-product-release-4.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""305"" />
<h1>Using the tool</h1>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Creating user stories for capturing requirements</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Requirements in the form of user stories can be added dynamically to the product backlog:</p>
        <span style=""color: #ff0000;"">[Place Image]</span>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/ProductBacklog/ProductBacklogList""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/ProductBacklog/ProductBacklogList</span></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Alternately, you can also add the stories while planning the sprint:</p>
        <span style=""color: #ff0000;"">[Place Image]</span>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Sprint/SprintList""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Sprint/SprintList</span></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">… or even while using the Scrum board:</p>
     <span style=""color: #ff0000;"">   [Place Image]</span>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Task/TaskList""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Task/TaskList</span></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">To find out more about adding stories visit:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/119/add-a-story""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/119/add-a-story</span></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Detailing the stories with relevant information</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">User stories form the base of all development activity. Therefore, for teams to develop meaningful and useful features, each story should be properly described and detailed by the client, end user or the person who requests the functionality. The value of a story depends upon how well its acceptance criteria is stated. The acceptance criteria is a set of statements with each state having a clear pass/fail result. The statements specify both functional and non-functional requirements. To find out more how to state the acceptance tests please visit:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/138/define-acceptance-criteria""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/138/define-acceptance-criteria</span></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Prioritizing stories as per their importance and business value</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The value of a project i.e. its ROI depends a lot on how stories are estimated and prioritized in the product backlog. To deliver high-value stories on a consistent basis, it is important to organize the backlog in a manner such that important and valuable stories can be found on the top and easily picked up for development purposes. To understand how to rearrange stories as per their importance please visit:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a href=""https://quickscrum.com/Help/38/prioritize-story""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://quickscrum.com/Help/38/prioritize-story</span></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Designing the sprints</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Stories or feature tasks are developed in product incremental cycles called sprints. A few valuable and important stories – just enough number of stories that the team can successfully develop in a sprint and not more or less - are selected from the top of the prioritized product backlog by the team for development purpose. The team then discusses how the stories should be developed, what parameters should be fulfilled for the story to be considered as successfully developed (made shippable) and how the team members should decompose the stories into individually developable parts. The stories taken up for development are listed in a backlog called “sprint backlog”. The team then starts with the actual development work as the sprint commences. To find out how to design the sprints please visit:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Sprint/SprintList""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Sprint/SprintList</span></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">To read more about sprint designing visit:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/56/sprint-planning"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/56/sprint-planning</span></u></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>5. Planning the releases</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">A release is made up of one or several sprints. Keeping the product vision and roadmap in mind, sprints are included in the release plan based upon what features are developed in them, and how much of value the sprints will deliver through the sprints. To read about how to plan your release please visit <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/185/sg-Release-Planning"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><u>https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/185/sg-Release-Planning</u></a></span>. It is very easy to create your release plan using the tool and you can find how to do it at <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/49/release-planning"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><u>https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/49/release-planning</u></a>.</span></p>

<h1>Conclusion</h1>
A release plan provides a common vision to the team regarding what goals need to be achieved, how and when. It helps the team to decide upon priorities and make informed decisions. From the management's point of view, a release plan offers a roadmap as to how the client and stakeholders can earn back their investment amount and plan further growth. Traditional project management processes support a single release plan whereas in Agile you can have multiples releases to avail the business value in the project at regular intervals of time. Find how Agile helps to monetize your work efforts in a short passage of time and how you should plan your product release using the Agile process.",,Blog,
2434,Scrum Testing Best Practices,"<h1>Introduction</h1>
With scrum software tester need to be more test analyst at the beginning to know about what products it is, the technology involved in it and what are main business component those going to delivered sprint by sprint. But on his aim of testing he needs to analyze what are possible test automation tools need to adapt &amp; where he reports the issues, what are the possible test cases he can generate and how many of them can be automated for regressions test and when possibly he can start automation test.
<h1>Tester mission in scrum:</h1>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Get involved from day one &amp; listen: when product idea come on whiteboard and scrum master, product owner, designer, the developer ( architecture board ) discussing it.</li>
 	<li>Always be a part of the planning meeting for the ongoing current sprint: Aim provides the estimation with test-related activities ( test case, understanding the acceptance test criteria/framework planned to use for test automation/acceptance test environment setup ).</li>
 	<li>Be a part of a planning meeting for the next sprint: Tester needs to update any major improvement with test automation framework before starting the new sprint.</li>
 	<li>Writing the acceptance criteria for each item for the next sprint. Tester uses the user stories and helping the product owner by suggesting QA about test standards, user experience, performance issue and setting up the base life for acceptance testing. Also, make aware to the development team if something they need to consider or need technical help for a tester.</li>
 	<li>Upgrading accepting criteria and maintaining the test cases: Once the tester receives feedback from product owner he needs to upgrade the test cases.</li>
 	<li>Automate the API testing for current sprint - If the application uses the API then code ideas is automate the API to cover the UI / Acceptance testing.</li>
 	<li>Execute acceptance test in a manual way with current sprint - When the sprint is new there is nothing much to automate and later at some stage many things we not able automated, so do manual testing.</li>
 	<li>Automate the smoke test ( UI / Regression ) with previous sprints - Constantly automate the old sprints to keep baseline.</li>
 	<li>Exploratory testing - Keep breaking the system and try to find the undiscovered bugs.</li>
 	<li>Be part of the retrospective meeting - You can review ongoing testing progress and covered area and major achievements done &amp; drawbacks noticed.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Summary</h1>
In the scrum, tester becomes one of the close members of the Scrum team and help to achieve product owner goal using acceptance criteria.",,Blog,
2454,Distributed Teams Challenges And Agile Advantages,"<h2>Part 1 - Project management methods and Agile</h2>
With dynamically changing market scenarios dominating the outsourcing markets, it has become imperative to remain conversant with emergent technologies and use them for developing projects. New platforms and technologies have a lot to offer in terms of reduced development time and targeting a wider range of client-centric requirements, however, while reaping the benefits they offer, they also impose a few constraints regarding their applicability. Offshoring businesses can increase the productivity levels and generate higher profits but often face problems in finding technical teams familiar with the usage and implementation of new technologies. For most organizations, it is more profitable to find technical talent in other countries and outsource their projects depending upon the nature and scope of the project on hand.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2456 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/DistributedTeamsChallengesAndAgileAdvantages-5.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />

It is very important to manage projects in an effective manner to make them profitable. Several project management frameworks and methods aim to make project management easier and more effective. Some of the popular methods used in the past, and even now are:
<ul style=""list-style-type: disc;"">
 	<li>Critical Path Method (CPM)</li>
 	<li>Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)</li>
 	<li>PMI/PMBOK Method</li>
 	<li>Event Chain Methodology (ECM)</li>
 	<li>Extreme Project Management (XPM)</li>
 	<li>Adaptive Project Framework (APF)</li>
 	<li>Lean Development (LD)</li>
 	<li>Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma</li>
 	<li>PRINCE2</li>
 	<li>Dynamic Systems Development Model (DSDM)</li>
 	<li>Feature Driven Development (FDD)</li>
 	<li>Rapid Application Development (RAD)</li>
 	<li>Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)</li>
 	<li>Waterfall (Traditional)</li>
</ul>
Each method proposes to make project management easy and more accurate. Often, it is difficult to choose which method one ought to adopt for developing a project since every management technique has its own pros and cons. While a particular organization may offer a positive feedback regarding a method it is following, consultants might consider it a bad choice and speak against it. There are no postulates or rules which define a “successful” project. Also, there are no rules which can help in deciding whether a particular methodology is more effective as compared to the other. It is based more upon personal experience, understanding how a methodology works and what it has to offer, and how well it can be implemented. Perhaps, the most important aspect to understand is whatever methodology you choose, what is more, important is how well you use it to your benefit to make your project successful.

Projects may vary in terms of their scope, size, complexity, and nature. However, regardless of that, offshore or distributed teams have to be properly coordinated and managed. Agile project management framework offers several options for managing remotely developed projects.
<ul>
 	<li>
<h4>Critical Path Method (CPM)</h4>
</li>
</ul>
Recommended for developing small to medium sized projects using a team of 7 to 12 cross-functional and multi-skilled individuals. The Scrum framework is characterized by its clearly defined events, artifacts, roles, and process which have to be followed by the entire team. The error correction and retrospection activities take precedence over documentation and delegation of authority. The client is actively involved in verifying the development carried out by the team. The Scrum team delivers the business value in the project through successful product increments developed through periodic cycles known as sprints.
<ul>
 	<li>
<h4>Extreme Programming (XP)</h4>
</li>
</ul>
Extreme Programming (XP) offers a practical approach to program development and focuses primarily upon the delivery of business results. It follows an incremental, start-with-something approach towards product development, and makes use of continued testing and revision processes. XP is generally recommended for short-term projects, and development teams typically follow the code-test-analyze-design-integrate process. XP is known for “paired” programming i.e. two developers engaged with code development and testing simultaneously. One programmer creates the code while other tests it on the spot.
<ul>
 	<li>
<h4>Kanban</h4>
</li>
</ul>
Based upon the concept of Toyota production model, Kanban offers a pragmatic approach to development by matching the actual amount of work in progress to the development teams capacity in delivering it. The framework provides more flexibility in terms of planning options, quicker output, a clear focus pertaining to what needs to be developed, and maintaining total transparency throughout the product development cycle.
<h4>Scaled Agile Frameworks (SAFe)</h4>
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a structured and prescriptive method to help large organizations and enterprises to get started with adopting Agile. It is a popular and efficient Agile framework successfully used by many companies covering various industry verticals. It is especially recommended for large sized software based projects where teams can function interdependently.
<h4>Nexus</h4>
Nexus is an Agile framework focusing upon cross-team dependencies and team integration issues. It facilitates Agile implementation in complex and large-scale projects. It functions as an exoskeleton and helps multiple Scrum teams to integrate and pursue a common goal of delivering valuable product increments through sprints. Each team delivers a certain business value to the client through each product increment cycle, and the teams achieve this by following Agile principles and process. Nexus is recommended for development teams consisting of over 100 individuals.
<h2>Part 2 – Agile for distributed teams</h2>
While executing your very first remote project, the most logical thing to do is to document the project vision and figure out how the team will deliver the project goals. Proper and effective communication is of paramount importance while explaining the goals and objectives to team members. It is a simple and straightforward process most of the times, but while working with distributed teams, the cultural differences and varying language proficiency levels may often create constraints and lead to miscommunication as well as confusion. This can be a common scenario in the case of teams located in countries across different time zones and possess a limited ability to communicate using a particular language. Individuals may find it difficult to understand and capture the exact project requirements and deliver code or functionality that does not fulfill end-user requirements. Projects often fail because of these and other such technical and non-technical reasons.

Using Agile it may be possible to simplify these types of problems. Agile is not a silver bullet that can rectify all issues and problems faced during project execution. <a title=""Agile Project Management Framework"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileProjectManagementSoftware"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Agile is a framework</span></a>, therefore It depends upon how well the team understands its principles and how effectively it implements them in the project. However, the framework is designed such that issues can be dealt with in a more proactive and effectual manner.
<h2>Part 3 – Dealing with issues using Agile</h2>
Businesses prefer making quick profits. If the organization is a public venture, or funds have been collected from stakeholders and investors, it may become even more important to generate quick profits and mention them in an annual report and general body meetings. Considering the intense competition levels in the market, it has become imperative for businesses to speed up development work and complete projects sooner by using emergent technologies rather than development projects using traditional development methods and techniques. New technologies offer many benefits which can speed up project execution, however, there is a catch involved - people have to collaborate and gather feedback from the development process before analyzing it and fine-tuning the process to make it more effective and productive.
<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">1. Project vision and documentation</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile does not emphasize upon extensive documentation. In real life scenarios elaborate or extensive documentation often remains locked away in filing cabinets or resides on shelves for future references - teams rarely bother to read them thoroughly since they can be large in size and a lot of time is spent in reading and understanding them. The attitude of most development teams (Don’t mean to disrespect them in any way) is to get started with work so deadlines can be met. Teams are generally pressed for time so they don’t bother, or can’t afford to spend hours reading the comprehensive documentation. Paperwork is greatly reduced in Agile, and if you choose to follow Agile, you need to create just enough documentation to get started with work. More importance is given to understanding client-centric requirements and delivering business value, rather than creating elaborate reports and documents. Moreover, one of the <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" title=""Scrum Project Management"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ScrumProjectManagement"" rel=""noopener"">responsibilities of the product owner in Agile</a></span> is to ensure that the team understands the deliverables and project vision properly before it starts to work. The PO also makes sure that the business value delivered from the sprints is useful and matches the project vision.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. Maintaining quality standards</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Quality and deadlines are the two most important factors associated with, and affecting, the success levels of a project. Quality features fulfilling end-user requirements have to be developed within the decided time so it can be properly marketed and business returns availed from it. In the IT market segment it is not just important to build quality software, but to release it in the correct manner at the correct time and at the correct place (targeted market audience i.e. the geographical boundaries within which end users are likely to buy your product. With online marketing these boundaries remain virtual but nevertheless play an important part in deciding the “target audience” when the project is planned and incepted). When outsourcing work to remote teams, the quality aspects could get compromised upon if a QA or testing process in setting up as a part of the development process. Fewer development teams actually bother to test the code for regression after it is developed unless it is a pre-decided activity and integrated with the development process.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The Agile manifesto states ""Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through the early and continuous delivery of valuable software."" Its emphasis upon “early and continuous delivery of valuable software” i.e. useful and valuable product features should be developed and delivered to the client on regular basis. Agile focuses upon the delivery of “shippable” features. Each feature should be properly tested for errors and made bug free before its development can be considered as complete and deployable. Developers and programmers often double as testers to carry out the QA part during sprint cycles. Agile fails if “workable” features are not developed. Remote teams trained in Agile have to fulfill the test conditions stated in the acceptance criteria defined for each development task created in the product backlog (ideally).</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">3. The supervisor or project manager’s role</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Every project needs a manager to oversee its execution and completion. It is important for the supervisor or the project manager to remain available to the team and resolve problems and issues as and when they occur. When teams are located on-premises it becomes easy to resolve technical problems since face-to-face interactions are possible and the manager is always available when you need him or her. That is not always the case with remote or distributed teams. Owing to time differences, the manager could be ending the day while the remote team would be just about to start with work. Teams may be required to wait for some time before problems are resolved, and this could delay work further. Deadlines and commitments may therefore not be met.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" title=""Scrum Master"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Kernel/CoachList"" rel=""noopener"">Scrum Master’s role is very clearly defined in the Agile framework</a></span>. The SM often plays a servant-leader role, and mentors and facilitates the Agile process. The SM ensures that he or she is always available to the team and resolves glitches whenever the team gets stuck. In Agile, the Scrum Master is a specific role played by a person, rather than a designation or responsibilities given to a single individual. The role can be played by anyone on the team. In case of distributed teams, a responsible team member can be taught to play the Proxy Scrum Master’s role and provided with quick-access channels to communicate with the actual SM or PO in case of urgent issues. The person also functions as a team representative and creates daily feedback reports which can be studied by the client, PO, and the SM as per their convenience.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">4. Ownership and team empowerment</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Traditional project management methods differentiate between senior and junior level individuals, and have a clear hierarchical structure defining authority levels and who reports to whom. Even today, most organizations still follow this traditional hierarchical model, and individuals belonging to different levels of authority remain concerned about their responsibilities and reporting status. Even though the model is organized, it takes a lot of time for issues to get resolved as the escalation process involves several individuals starting from the junior level to senior levels. Moreover, people have a tendency to “pass on” issues to senior levels personnel and let them decide what to do next. Technical staff and junior level employees may prefer not to get involved with decision making since they often become scapegoats to bureaucratic procedures. In case of distributed teams, the scenario can become even worse because you don’t have to deal with just bureaucratic attitudes but the language and distance factor may further make the team even less accountable for the success or failure of the project.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile does not believe in shifting responsibilities or escalating issues. As per the model, teams are cross-functional and self-managing. Each team member often takes up additional tasks other than his or her particular skillset thereby reducing the total numbers of skilled members required in the team. There are no senior-subordinate levels – just three primary roles of a product owner, scrum master, and the development team. Rather than assigning tasks, each team member voluntarily takes up work based upon his or experience and skills. One of the most important aspects about Agile is that the team has to “own” the project on behalf of the client. It means each person is responsible not just for the work done by him or her, but the overall contribution of all members at the team level is even more important. The entire team is accountable for the success or failure of the project – not just the product owner but each and every member of the team.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Moreover, the three roles of PO, SM, and the team are empowered in Agile to decide on their own what course of action to take to best fulfill their objectives. The development team is not required to follow orders or take permissions in deciding how a particular feature should be developed, and in what manner. It has to deliver work as decided in an event – the sprint planning meeting – held before each product incremental cycle known as a sprint starts.</p>",,Blog,
2457,Why Agile Can Be A Popular Software Development Framework,"Software products penetrate almost every aspect of human existence today. They manifest themselves in a multitude of manner and remain omnipresent in a host of devices ranging from washing machines and smartphones to automobiles and computers. Owing to a consistent usage of different types of digital devices by people across the world, software applications, and utilities have to evolve as and when consumer requirements change and ""strive"" to fulfill the new set of requirements demanded by end users. It is, therefore, essential to develop newer versions of existing software products more frequently, in the shortest time possible, and in a manner such that end users do not face any problems while using the products in the upcoming months. Stiff market competitions and an ever-increasing consumer ""appetite"" for feature-rich products have created a special need to implement a reliable and sustainable product development methodology, or a framework, which can aid in developing sophisticated software products in a relatively short time. Moreover, the methodology should also help in reducing the developmental overheads so investment returns can be increased. As of today, a reliable project development methodology is very much required to fulfill the business goals on a consistent basis, and earn large profits from the products manufactured by IT companies.

Over the decades, IT stalwarts have introduced many software development frameworks and project management methodologies. While many of these methodologies have proved to be useless and non-productive, a large number of them have been, in fact, successful in delivering the desired results – with varying levels of acceptance. With the passage of time, two software development frameworks have managed to dominate the field of software development. The frameworks are:

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2458 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/why-agile-can-be-a-popular-software-development-framework.png"" alt="""" width=""964"" height=""591"" />

&nbsp;
<h1>1. Waterfall</h1>
It is a traditional software development framework typically featuring ""staged"" development processes which have to be ""carried out"" one after the other. A unique aspect about this framework is that product development starts from the ""topmost"" stage and ""flows"" towards the ""bottommost"" stage. Once started, the product development cycle cannot reverse itself - it is unidirectional in nature. The framework is widely used, and is very popular amongst software development companies, primarily because the framework has ""been around"" for a long time and used by a large number of software developers and IT firms. It is easy to understand and use. Therefore, it is also used for teaching the software development process to engineering students. Even though it is a much sought after development framework, a large number of individuals and companies traditionally using Waterfall methods for developing their software products are now finding it increasingly difficult to meet the changing global software trends and developing state-of-the-art applications and utilities, which are so much in vogue today.
<h1>2. Agile</h1>
A comparatively new ""entrant"" Agile has managed to find a special niche for itself in the IT development field over the years. The Agile framework was originally envisioned, and developed, to overcome the defects of traditional software project management methodologies and frameworks, which had failed to evolve ""in the desired direction"", could not adapt themselves to the changing market trends, and offer reduced turnaround times. There are many reasons why ""lightweight"" Agile frameworks have become popular development platforms:
<ul>
 	<li>They support product development through ""short bursts"" of programming/development activity, generally lasting from two weeks up to one month. It is much easier to develop, test, and document smaller ""pieces"" of code, features, and functionality rather than entire projects. Individually developed features are later integrated to form the ""complete"" product. The frameworks primarily focus upon rapid delivery of ""shippable"" products and business value.</li>
 	<li>The client is actively involved with the team and the development process. Each feature is checked and ""cleared"" by the stakeholders before it is accepted as ""Done"". This leads to increased customer satisfaction and enhanced user experience.</li>
 	<li>Potential pitfalls are identified well in advance, at a micro level, so it is much easier to control regression and reduce technical debt. Agile software projects generally help to earn good profit margins.</li>
 	<li>Agile frameworks support error detection and error correction processes. Technical errors are discovered early during the product development process and dealt with effectively.</li>
 	<li>The frameworks provide an opportunity to carry out ""retrospective"" thinking, reflect in terms of where the project is heading, and what ""more"" could be done to improve the product development process.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Agile and the scope of software development</h1>
Individuals associated with the software industry generally prefer using the term ""software development"" to describe their particular line of work. The words are indiscriminately used to describe a host of development related activities, including testing, documentation, debugging, deployment, and maintenance of software applications. It is normal to explain one’s profession as ""software development"" while the individual may be working as a VBScript or Java web developer, an application programmer, an iOS or Android mobile apps creator, or even developing specialized scripts for WordPress themes.

One of the commonest doubt prevailing amongst most individuals new to the Agile process is whether Agile is ""applicable"" to their particular field of work. And if so, how? In what manner? How can they possibly benefit through Agile? The questions are many. First of all, it is important to know where Agile is applicable, and whether it ""covers"" your particular field of work. Please read to <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Article/ArticleDetails/1003/5/Software-Development-Activities-In-The-IT-Field"" rel=""noopener"">know more about Agile ""applicability""</a></span>. The list provides a rough idea regarding the scope of Agile software development.
<h3><strong>1. Clients and stakeholders engagement</strong></h3>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2459 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/why-agile-can-be-a-popular-software-development-framework-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />

Agile emphasizes upon client engagement. The stakeholders ""own"" the project and sponsor it. Their objective is to develop successful software projects and generate higher sources of revenue out of them. In practice, the client remains conversant with the current market trends and possesses a fair idea as to ""what"" is likely to score in the market in terms of a feature-rich application or utility that can satisfy the end user requirements. When the client is closely associated with the day-to-day development activity, he or she can decide whether the productivity offered by the development team can satisfy user related requirements, and how much of business value the product features possess. Client participation leads to meaningful and successful project development and completion.

Waterfall does not encourage or support client participation. The project is developed and subsequently presented to the client after it is totally completed. Since the client does not participate in the development process, Waterfall projects may fail to offer the exact features so desired, and, in addition, do not ""guarantee"" any business value for the project. There is a certain risk involved regarding the product's saleability.
<h3><strong>2. Transparency and collaboration</strong></h3>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2460 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/why-agile-can-be-a-popular-software-development-framework-2.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />

The Agile framework makes it possible to increase the transparency levels while working and facilitates the actual product development process by increasing the collaboration amongst team members. Information pertaining to the entire project is shared equally with all team members, and each decision undertaken by the senior team members - the product owner and the scrum master - is freely discussed. The seniors ""act"" as mentors and many times employ a servant-leader role to increase team participation. The team members have the authority to accept or reject the tasks taken up for development. Moreover, the developers have the right to allocate or distribute development tasks amongst themselves. Seniors do not allocate work to the development team members. All these factors create a healthy working environment. A conductive Agile work-related atmosphere leads to meaningful development and timely completion of product features.

The Waterfall framework primarily concentrates upon delegation of authority and direct allocation of work. Unlike Agile, the development process is pre-decided, and in many cases, even decided as to which resource should be used for developing a particular product feature. The waterfall is rigid as far as sharing of information is concerned. The project related documentation is created at the project’s onset, and apart from technical information, nothing else is generally shared with the team. The seniors have the final “say” and junior team members cannot argue with any of the decisions undertaken by the seniors.
<h3><strong>3. Quick and predictable delivery</strong></h3>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2461 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/why-agile-can-be-a-popular-software-development-framework-3.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />

Apart from the actual development activity, Agile supports several events and activities which constitute the actual Agile process. Each activity is time-boxed and has to be completed within a stipulated time. It is one of the most important framework features. Quick and sustained delivery of shippable products through periodic product incremental cycles known as “sprints” comprise the main heart of all Agile frameworks. The deadlines are stringently adhered to and rarely compromised upon.

One of the biggest drawbacks of Waterfall is that projects, in many instances, extend well beyond their stipulated deadlines, and rarely get completed in time. It is an inherent drawback which actually inspired the ""birth"" of Agile and Lean frameworks. Traditional development methods are rigid, and it is very difficult to control the rate at which productivity is offered by the team. That is not the case with Agile. Each Agile sprint is dynamic, and ""monitored"" on a daily basis through the daily scrum meetings so it can be ""made"" effective. Agile concentrates upon quick and timely delivery of product features and functionality through daily development activity known as ""daily sprints"".
<h3><strong>4. Predictable costs and work schedule</strong></h3>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2462 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/why-agile-can-be-a-popular-software-development-framework-4.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />

It becomes possible to predict the amount of work done, or productivity offered, by time boxing the daily sprint iterations. The development carried out can be frequently and easily monitored since each “daily sprint” has to result into something “significant” with regards the development of product features, and the same has to be exhibited to the product owner and the stakeholders in special Agile events known as the “sprint review” and “sprint retrospective” meetings. The “velocity”, or the rate at which actual development is carried out, is used for estimation purposes i.e. the total number of tasks developed by the team during a particular sprint provides an idea about how much work was carried within a specified time. The estimation makes it possible to predict how much time and financial resources will be required to complete the project. A reliable project release date can be subsequently stated.

It is very difficult to estimate how much time a Waterfall project will need to complete. Deadlines are generally “set up” based upon predictions and project related experience, rather than on actual project dynamics and production pattern. It is one of the primary reasons why Waterfall fails to deliver time-bound projects.
<h3><strong>5. Support for ""change""</strong></h3>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2463 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/why-agile-can-be-a-popular-software-development-framework-5.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""350"" />

Agile is based upon ""inspect"" and ""adapt"" principles. The Agile framework dynamically supports changes and is capable of adapting itself to changing market-related conditions and client demands – even late during the development process. New features can be introduced to enhance the product’s business value, and redundant functionality can be safely ""removed"" from the production plan without affecting the productivity levels.

Waterfall does not support, nor advocate, any types of changes once the documentation process is carried out, and the project commences. The framework is rigid and there is no scope of changing the functionality stated in the documentation process – even if the client so demands.
<h3><strong>6. Focusing upon the business value</strong></h3>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2464 alignnone"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/why-agile-can-be-a-popular-software-development-framework-6.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""350"" />

In <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileDevelopment"" rel=""noopener"">Agile, development is carried out</a></span> by splitting the actual product into smaller developable parts known as ""user stories"" or product items. Right from the project conception stage, each user story is segregated and arranged depending upon its importance and business value. User stories having a greater business value or importance in the project are developed first, followed by less important ones. Thus during the Agile process, only important product features are developed at all times, thereby increasing the business value linked with the project currently underway.

Waterfall does not have features that can account for or take into consideration the current business value linked to the project. The concept does not exist. Projects are developed in a traditional manner, and no efforts are made to determine what they are currently worth in the market.",,Blog,
2470,Feature Prioritization Based On Business Value To Increase ROI,"In layman's terms, a product can be considered successful only when a huge number of people use it and the owner can earn a good profit by selling it in the market. The “power” of a product can be judged by the kind of features it supports and how useful those features are to end users. Therefore, it is important to capture the requirements of end users in a systematic and organized manner in your product, and determine how important they are. The business value in Agile is indicated by how much important a feature, or a “user story” is from the client or end user's perspective.

<img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-2472"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""488"" />
<h1>Not all features are used frequently by end users</h1>
Users don't always use each and every feature offered by a tool or automated process. As per observations:
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>57% of the features are never used</li>
 	<li>19% are rarely used</li>
 	<li>16% are used sometimes</li>
 	<li>13% of the features are used quite often</li>
 	<li>7% of the features are used on a regular basis</li>
</ul>
Agile focuses more on the development of these frequently used 7% of the features which carry more business value.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2481 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value-8.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h1>Doing it the traditional way</h1>
Traditional development methods follow a sequential (non-iterative) design process involving conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, production/implementation and maintenance stages. Requirements are gathered from the client, project owners, stakeholders, end users and other sources. These requirements are documented in the requirements phase at the start of the project. Once defined and documented, the requirements cannot be changed in subsequent stages. Therefore, in Waterfall methods, once end-user requirements are captured in the project new requirements can’t be added later on. Moreover once documented, the requirements cannot be changed or updated in subsequent stages even if stakeholders or end users want modifications in existing functionality. So if you’re following Waterfall methods you can capture end-user requirements only once in your project when it starts.
<h1>How Agile does it</h1>
It’s not very difficult to capture client-centric requirements in Agile:
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Get valuable ideas and feedback from client, end users and various other sources</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Based upon the product vision shared by the client, the Agile team invites the stakeholders, technical team, end users, marketing and sales team, and management personnel to brainstorming sessions with an objective to identify market requirements and spot end-user needs. Data is also gathered from various other channels such as usability testing, product usage data, emails, forums and more if possible.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2473 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""451"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. List the ideas in the form of user stories in the product backlog</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Ideas and suggestions collected from people and other sources are thought over and shortlisted to include only valuable suggestions which have a certain importance in terms of how useful they are to people using the product. The requirements are documented using an ""As an, I want to, So that "" format to specify the role (Who wants the feature or functionality), proposed activity (to do what) and the result or objective (to achieve what). This particular form of documenting the client/end user requirements is known as “user story” creation. A common list of all features and functionality required to build the product is prepared. This list is known as the “product backlog”.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2475 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value-2.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""451"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Detail each user story and prioritize its importance</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">It can be difficult to specify the technical aspects and the particulars of each and every user story at the time of its creation. The reasons could be many. At times teams might feel a particular feature is important and should be included in the backlog but may need further participation from end users to get the required details. In such cases, a user story is created for the particular feature and included in the backlog but its details may be kept blank. Later on, when proper details are made available to the team, it updates the particular story by filling up the blanks with relevant info.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2476 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value-3-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""511"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile focuses upon timed and sustained delivery of business value at the end of each product incremental cycle. Important stories having high business values are placed at the top of the product backlog while less important ones are arranged below them. Stories in the bottom have the least value. At the beginning of each new development cycle, few valuable stories are collected from the top of the backlog and made ready for the upcoming sprint. Stories are always collected from the top to ensure that maximum value is delivered to the client from each sprint.</p>

<h1>Requirement Gathering In Traditional Method Vs. Agile</h1>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2477 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value-4.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""456"" />
<h1>Using the tool</h1>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Creating user stories for capturing requirements</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Requirements in the form of user stories can be added dynamically to the product backlog:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2478 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value-5-1.png"" alt="""" width=""1366"" height=""300"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/ProductBacklog/ProductBacklogList"" rel=""noopener""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/ProductBacklog/ProductBacklogList</span></u></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Alternately, you can also add the stories while planning the sprint:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2479 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value-6-1.png"" alt="""" width=""1366"" height=""300"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Sprint/SprintList"" rel=""noopener""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Sprint/SprintList</span></u></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">… or even while using the Scrum board:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2480 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/capturing-and-prioritizing-the-business-value-7-1.png"" alt="""" width=""1366"" height=""300"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Task/TaskList"" rel=""noopener""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Task/TaskList</span></u></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">To find out more about adding stories visit:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/119/add-a-story"" rel=""noopener""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/119/add-a-story</span></u></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Detailing the stories with relevant information</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">User stories form the base of all development activity. Therefore, for teams to develop meaningful and useful features, each story should be properly described and detailed by the client, end user or the person who requests the functionality. The value of a story depends upon how well its acceptance criteria is stated. The acceptance criteria is a set of statements with each state having a clear pass/fail result. The statements specify both functional and non-functional requirements. To find out more how to state the acceptance tests please visit:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/138/define-acceptance-criteria"" rel=""noopener""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://www.quickscrum.com/Help/138/define-acceptance-criteria</span></u></a></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Prioritizing stories as per their importance and business value</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The value of a project i.e. its ROI depends a lot on how stories are estimated and prioritized in the product backlog. To deliver high-value stories on a consistent basis, it is important to organize the backlog in a manner such that important and valuable stories can be found on the top and easily picked up for development purposes. To understand how to rearrange stories as per their importance please visit:</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://quickscrum.com/Help/38/prioritize-story"" rel=""noopener""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">https://quickscrum.com/Help/38/prioritize-story</span></u></a></p>

<h1>Transitioning to Agile processes</h1>
There are many benefits of Agile. Development teams can become highly productive using Agile processes. However, teams and newbies migrating to Agile should typically expect the following:
<ul>
 	<li>Reading about agile just isn’t enough. Agile can be easy to read and understand, but when it comes to implementing Agile in real life, teams often struggle and don't get proper results in the beginning. It is important to prepare for the transition and get proper Agile coaching so positive benefits can be availed.</li>
 	<li>Each and every member in the team, whether it be a developer, tester, database administrator, technical writer or a system architect, it is important to try and get involved with the project as early as its inception so the entire team can become familiar with the product backlog (features list) and iteration planning (sprints and releases) to keep pace with work and project deliverables.</li>
 	<li>Unlike traditional approaches, stories in Agile get developed quickly and made shippable within a short time during the iteration or sprint cycle which generally last one or two weeks. Teams have to remain focused and time-bound.</li>
 	<li>The feedback cycle is quick in Agile. The client, stakeholders or end users can submit new requirements even while the team is busy developing the stories. Teams have to develop a mindset to adapt to changes as and when they occur.</li>
 	<li>In Agile nothing happens by accident. Teams have to plan work and perform the ceremonies in a proper manner so the process can become streamlined and business value can be delivered on a consistent basis at the end of each product incremental cycle. Teams have to work hard to create an Agile environment if they wish to become Agile.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Conclusion</h1>
End-user requirements are very important for any business since they define the deliverables and scope of the product or services offered by the organization. While Waterfall processes are simple to understand and follow, they fail to adapt to changing end-user requirements and market-induced conditions as they follow a linear-sequential life cycle model. Businesses have to transition to Agile at some instance of time if they’re to remain competitive and sustain a good growth in the market they are in. Organizations desiring to realize the time, quality, and cost benefits of agile project management have to prepare for change management and get trained in Agile processes to reap its benefits.",,Blog,
2491,Scrum Product Owner Role,"Several discussions have been carried out by Agile professionals regarding the Scrum product owner role. What virtues make a product owner an “ideal” one? How should a PO delegate authority? Should it be as per traditional management models, or should a servant-leader role be employed? How should the person handle stakeholders when there are issues? There are many questions. The debate can keep on extending indefinitely since newer “scaled” versions of Scrum keep on coming, and the PO has to change his or her role based upon the traditional or scaled, version of Scrum the management decides to follow.

It would be more practical to concentrate upon some of the most important, and the most common, activities of a PO.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2495 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-product-owner-role-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""409"" />

&nbsp;
<h2>Suggested Scrum product owner responsibilities or roles</h2>
<ul>
 	<li>Create the product backlog based on the product vision as seen by the stakeholders and project owners. Define important user stories having high business values in the product backlog so the “value” of the project is maintained at all times.</li>
 	<li>Monitor and track all Scrum related activities in the project. The Agile product owner role may be difficult to play since an Agile Scrum project may be very demanding, and the PO may have to deal with market-related issues with the stakeholders and still monitor the development carried out by the development team. Balancing both the activities can be trying.</li>
 	<li>Ensure the product backlog is properly groomed and maintained at all times. The backlog should be easily accessible by all team members, including the scrum master.</li>
 	<li>Each product backlog item ought to be appropriately stated and defined in the backlog. The description of the story feature, its business value, and the acceptance criteria should not only be stated in the story index card but also explained “in depth” to the entire development team so they can develop effective user stories and shippable product features.</li>
 	<li>To be always available when needed, and make it a point to remain present, as well as share knowledge, information, and expertise during the sprint reviews, sprint planning, and sprint retrospective meetings.</li>
 	<li>The product owner responsibility should include defining “clear” and productive sprint goals whenever a sprint is to be “initiated”.</li>
 	<li>Scrum product owner responsibilities should also consist of respecting and helping everyone “attached” with the project to ensure that the project is successful.</li>
 	<li>Not influence the psyche or mindsets of team members regarding any issue – technical or otherwise – and encourage them to get “involved” with the project so better productivity can be achieved. The ideal Scrum product owner role may not prove to be so easy to “play” for every individual.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
2494,Project Management Predictions For 2016,"Organisations, CTOs, CEOs, CFOs, entrepreneurs, project managers and other entities associated with the field of project management have a lot of expectations for the coming 2016 – there’s a hope that things will be different, markets will perform better, and businesses will earn good profits. There’s a lot of hype regarding what 2016 has in store for us, and here are our views on the upcoming trends and expectations.
<h3><strong>The IoT and Big Data</strong></h3>
Internet of Things or IoT was a prominent buzzword in 2015 and it’s expected it will continue to buzz the market this year too. As IoT grows and more internet ready devices are envisioned, the role of the project manager will become even more pronounced and project management professionals will have to develop extra skills necessary to handle the challenges of integrating devices and systems. In addition, internet trends indicate more and more people are going to spend time online doing what they normally do, but in far excess in 2016. As per research and finding undertook by various companies, last year over 250 million posts were created each hour on Facebook while 34,150 videos were uploaded to YouTube every minute. Approximately 2.5 quintillion bytes of data were created each day on the internet. The figures are just an example to explain the magnitude of data that was created and transmitted over the net the previous year. Businesses in 2016 shall have to understand and make sense out of the gargantuan data expected to proliferate online media in the coming months. Big Data is expected to play an even more significant role than before.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2496 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/iot.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h3><strong>Offshoring and distributed development</strong></h3>
The process of outsourcing or offshoring projects is not new. Offshoring activities have kept on increasing consistently over the years and it is expected that the same trend will continue in 2016. New technologies which are being introduced in the market now help to achieve quick turnaround times, which in turn motivates organisations to use those technologies to increase their productivity levels and complete their projects more quickly to generate higher profits. Large-scale projects need larger development teams. Offshoring certain, or all development related activities to countries such as India, China, or Indonesia helps to further decrease the production costs of projects. Working with distributed teams is becoming a norm with many big development companies. Virtual teams are easily afforded since the distributed team members can work from the comfort of their homes or local offices – they don’t require to reallocate. Freelancers can even work while travelling or doing some other kind of work. Lowered working overheads and less time spent in commuting to offices (in the case of freelancers) makes it very convenient for software development businesses to hire such teams at highly competitive rates and CTCs. Moreover, organisations get access to a vast pool of technical resources ready to work at reduced rates, which further makes offshoring and working with distributed teams a lucrative choice to carry out software development activities. Many development businesses are likely to opt for offshoring and distributed development in 2016.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2498 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/offshoring1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h3>Multi-skilled<strong> project managers</strong></h3>
Tighter budgets and even tighter deadlines are challenging project managers to deliver projects against all odds. Management is trying hard to find solutions to tackle this issue from the root level and one possible way out is to implement emergent technologies which propose to save time by offering pre-defined functionality and make development easy. This means project managers will have to familiarize themselves with trending technologies and find ways to resolve technical issues arising due to their implementation. In addition, project development may also include using more than one emerging technologies depending upon the size, scope, and complexity of the project. 2016 is likely to see traditional project managers updating their skill sets and learning new technologies if they are to survive.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2499 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Multiskilledprojectmanager.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h3><strong>Agility and Agile frameworks</strong></h3>
Lean and Agile principles are becoming popular and setting new development trends. Agile proposes quicker delivery of workable and tested software. While clients can benefit from a consistent delivery of business value in the project, software development businesses can release pre-planned product versions and capture potential market segments. Since Agile is more flexible than most other software development frameworks and methodologies, management can control production costs by scaling up or down team resources to fulfill project scope and requirements. Moreover, it is very easy to respond to changing market conditions and update your product with new features, or even change some of the features already developed by the team while the actual development process is still going on. There are many factors which make Agile the preferred option for managing software projects and it is likely that frameworks like Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), and Kanban will figure prominently in the project management field during 2016.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2500 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Agileframeworks.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h3><strong>Collaboration and increased teamwork</strong></h3>
Project management is becoming complex and more difficult over the years. Considering the highly competitive market scenario and a need to use <a title=""Agile Project Management"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileProjectManagement"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">modern project management methods to boost up productivity</span></a> levels, development teams are likely to include cross-functional team members who can do more than one core activity. While a typical development team may include just web designers and web developers, complex project requirements may require teams to include QA testers, technical writers, DBA, etc. in addition to the designers and developers. It is important for the team members to share ideas and work closely keeping a common goal in mind and fulfill targeted objectives. This is an Agile virtue – thus giving credibility to the fact why more organizations prefer using Agile in lieu of traditional project management methods. This would require collaboration and teamwork efforts. 2016 is likely to see teams collaborating with each other and pursuing common objectives.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2502 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Collaborationandincreasedteamwork.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />",,Blog,
2504,What is Git? What benefits does Git offer?,"<h1>Software code and version control systems</h1>
A version control system records changes carried out to a file, or a set of files over time, and helps you to recall specific versions of the code later on when you need it. If you're a developer or a web designer and want to keep track of each and every version of your code developed for a particular feature, a Version Control System ""VCS"" allows you to:
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Revert the code files back to their previous state</li>
 	<li>Recall and revert the entire project back to its previous state</li>
 	<li>Compare code changes over specific durations of time</li>
 	<li>Find who last modified a piece of code that might be causing an issue or a problem</li>
 	<li>Who introduced a particular issue and when</li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">   …and much more.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">   It’s important to know why version control systems are necessary.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2514 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/gitlab-Software-code-and-version-control-systems.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Importance of code repository</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">For developers, the source code making up the software project is the main area of concern. Teams often put in great efforts to organize and store the code in a proper manner so it can be used again for further development. For software development teams the code repository – a database where the code, including all changes, carried out on it – forms the single source of invaluable knowledge and the centre of all activity.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Why did the code need to be changed from time to time?</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Product features and software functionality need to be updated as and when market conditions change and end users provide new feedback. Teams have to work upon features already developed and offer extra functionality to the product can remain competitive in the market. Thus new versions of existing code have to be developed by the team from time to time.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Version control systems</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">For developers and the team, it can be difficult to maintain and keep track of different versions of the code. Moreover, developers may require to compare today’s version of the code with yesterday’s version, or a version developed last year. Version control systems help the team to keep track of various versions developed over time. Such systems also log information as to what code was developed, who developed it, and when the changes were carried out. This helps to compare the performance of different versions and also know when bugs were introduced and fixed in the code. One of the major benefits of a VCS is that if some mistake occurs during coding due to some reason, developers have an option to turn back the clock and easily compare earlier code versions and fix the mistakes so disruption occurring to other team members can be minimized.</p>

<h1>What is Git?</h1>
Git is the most popular and widely used version control system today. Originally developed as an open source project in 2005 by the creator of the Linux operating system, it is a matured and actively maintained environment. A huge number of developers rely upon Git version controlling to develop several types of commercial and non-commercial projects. Git-based developers are well thought of and considered as valuable resources.
<h1>What are the advantages of Git?</h1>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Performance</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Git performs very strongly and reliably when compared to other version control systems. New code changes can be easily committed, version branches can be effortlessly compared and merged, and code can also be optimized to perform better. Algorithms used in developing Git take the full advantage of the deep knowledge stored within, with regards to the attributes used to create real source code file trees, how files are modified over time and what kind of file access patterns are used to recall code files as and when needed by developers. Git primarily focuses upon the file content itself rather than file names while determining the storage and file version history. Object formats of Git repository files use several combinations of delta encoding and compression techniques to store metadata objects and directory contents.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Security</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Git is designed specially to maintain the integrity of source code. File contents as well as the relationship between file and directories, tags, commits, versions etc. are secured cryptographically using an algorithm called SHA1 which protects the code and change history against accidental as well as malicious damage. You can be sure to have an authentic content history for your source code with Git.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Flexibility</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">A key design objective of Git is the kind of flexibility it offers to support several kinds of nonlinear development workflows and its efficiency in handling both small scale and large scale projects as well as protocols. It is uniquely designed to support tagging and branching operations and store each and every activity carried out by the user as an integral part of ""change"" history. Not all VCSs support this feature.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Wide acceptance</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Git offers the type of performance, functionality, security, and flexibility that most developers and teams need to develop their projects. When compared to other VCS Git is the most widely accepted system owing to its universally accepted usability and performance standards.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>5. Quality open source project</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Git is a widely supported open source project with over ten years of operational history. People maintaining the project are very well matured and possess a long-term vision to meet the long-term needs of users by releasing staged upgrades at regular intervals of time to improve functionality as well as usability. Quality of open source software made available on Git is heavily scrutinized a countless number of times and businesses today depend heavily on Git code quality.</p>

<h1>Why use Git in your organization?</h1>
If your business depends heavily upon it and software processes, or you're a software development entity, Git radically changes the way how your team will create and deliver work to you. Various processes including designing, development, product management, marketing, customer support can be easily handled and maintained using Git in your organization.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Feature Branch Workflow</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2512 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/gitlab-feature-branch-workflow.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""259"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Git has powerful branching capabilities. To start work, developers have to first create a unique branch. Each branch functions in an isolated environment while changes are carried out in the codebase. This ensures that the master branch always supports production-quality code. Therefore, besides being more reliable it's also much easier to edit code in a Git branch rather than editing it directly using an external editor.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Distributed Development</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2511 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/gitlab-distributed-development.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""537"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Since Git is a distributed VCS it offers a local repository to each developer with its own history of commits. Therefore, you don't require a network connection to create commits, inspect previous file versions, or check differences between two or more commits. Also, it’s much easier to scale the team. With Git, users can be easily added or removed as and when required. Other team members can continue working using their local repositories and are not dependent upon whether a new branch is added or an older one closed.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Pull Requests</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2513 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/gitlab-pull-requests.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">A developer calls a pull request to ask another developer to merge one of his/her branches into the other's repository. Besides making it a lot easier for project leaders to monitor and track code changes, ""pulling"" also facilitates other developers to discuss their work before integrating the code with the codebase. Moreover, if a developer can't continue work owing to some hard technical problem, he/she can initiate a pull request to seek help from the rest of the team.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Community</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2510 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/gitlab-community.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Git is very popular, widely used, and accepted as a standard version control system by the vast majority within the developer's community. It's much easier to leverage 3rd-party libraries and encourage other developers to fork your open source code using Git. The sheer number of Git users make it easy to resolve issues and seek outside help using online forums.</p>

<h1>GitLab integration by QuickScrum</h1>
QuickScrum tool offers Git repository integration for quicker and streamlined software development. Using the tool Gitlab feature you can get complete control over your project repositories. Also, enable version control system (VCS) for tracking code changes. Create, delete and merge pull requests. Check request status and associate one or more repositories with a project. Harness GitLab’s powerful features to create free unlimited private projects, use built-in Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment features, export projects, reduce “Idea to Production” time, and do a lot more!",,Blog,
2506,Agile For Project Management An Introduction,"In the recent times, as technical advancements keep being introduced by leaps and bounds – and on a consistent basis - rendering quality into a product today may or may not require great skills. However, designing and developing a product in a pre-defined timeframe and ensuring that it adheres to stringent quality standards may indeed prove to be a difficult task for most manufacturers. With pressing end-user requirements, increasing levels of market competitions, and the need to keep working overheads low, it has become increasingly important for organizations to change traditional working processes and introduce new ones which can enhance business models and help to deliver business value more often, and in a more reliable manner.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2507 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/AgileForProjectManagement–AnIntroduction.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />

While talking about changes, Agile tops the list of project management methodologies that support “change”. Agile was conceptualized because there was a need to find a better way of managing project such that they could be developed in less time and in a more efficient way. Perhaps the most important thought put behind the conception of Agile was to introduce empiricism into project management – something that was not done before prior to 2001 when Agile took birth in a ski resort, in the Wasatch mountains of Utah. Agile focuses on making decisions based upon “what is” rather than “what is proposed” i.e. what best can be done with what we have currently with us. And another aspect that Agile focuses upon is to start work with very little or unclear set or requirements – you can keep on building and improving your product over time as more information is available from the client and end users. This can be a great asset to organizations as you don’t have to wait for comprehensive paperwork and documentation to get started with Agile. Moreover, you can start with an idea and keep on building it, but you need to develop it in a manner such that whatever you produce is useful and has a certain business value attached to it. So how does Agile do this? How does it work? It’s interesting to know how Agile can be effectively used to control projects that are big or small, whether they are simple or complex in nature, and if they have to be executed for a few months or for years at a stretch.
<h3>What is Agile?</h3>
Agile is a framework that focuses on early product deliver. The products could be any - physical products, processes, software, or even running an activity or an operation. It can be understood as a set of methods and practices, stated in a manifesto, which act as guidelines, and teams have to follow those methods and practices in a proper manner to deliver the goal and objectives to somebody - usually the client. <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" title=""Agile Development"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileProjectManagement"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">In Agile, solutions are obtained by self-organizing teams</a></span> which collaborate, discuss, and constantly strive to improve their working process and become more effective in what they do. Another feature of Agile is that the teams are cross-functional i.e. each team member is skilled in more than one core activity that he or she specializes in. The teams can start working even if very little information is available regarding the product to be developed. In Agile, the entire product is not delivered to the client ""at one go"". Rather, the product is developed in stages. After each stage is completed, the client is invited to verify that the development delivered by the team fulfills what he or she had anticipated at the time of project inception. Valuable product features are delivered by the team to the client regularly, on a consistent basis through product incremental cycles known as sprints. The sprints keep on functioning until sufficient product features are successfully developed, tested, and shipped to the client.

The unique aspect about Agile is that it focuses primarily upon the delivery of business value to the client. Agile emphasizes more upon how much a particular product feature is worth to the client in terms of its financial worth in the market. Important features should be developed first, followed by less important ones. When sufficient product features are developed and successfully tested, they are integrated to form a minimal viable product or an ""MVP"" which demonstrates the usefulness of the product and how it is likely to fare in the market. The objective of developing an MVP is to get enough inputs from the process so the management and the technical teams can decide the projects actual worth in the market, how difficult it is going to be to develop a ""sellable"" version having enough features so end users can use it to their benefit, how long it is likely to take, and how much capital is needed to sustain the product development process over the months.

Instead of developing the entire product and releasing it in the market after a prolonged duration, Agile concentrates on releasing several versions of the product at regular intervals of time. Each “release” is sellable, therefore, the client can start recovering the capital invested in the project very early as compared to traditional project management methods. There are many advantages of Agile processes:
<h3>Early recovery of capital</h3>
In the case of traditional models, one has to wait for the entire product to be completed before it can be shipped. The investors can subsequently start earning from the project. This can take a lot of time-often months. The investors cannot recover a single cent from the project in the meantime. <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" title=""Agile Project Management"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileProjectManagementSoftware"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">In Agile, a release can be availed</a> </span>in as soon as a couple of months since the client can go ahead with a version with limited product features and launch it in the market. It is true that the financial worth of such a release might not be substantial, but, nonetheless, it can help the client to start recovering some of the capital pumped into the project development activity. Therefore, the investors benefit from a steady trickle of cash flow until the full-fledged release is developed in the near future that can help them to earn bigger profits.
<h3>Planned profit generation</h3>
There is a certain risk involved with almost all traditional project management systems. The success levels of the product cannot be determined unless and until it is developed fully and launched in the market. As the development process takes a lot of time, there could be instances of market conditions changing in the meantime. The investors may well face a scenario wherein the conditions may have changed drastically and a competitor might have already launched a similar product. If such were the case, the bulk of the market share may be captured by competing products and investors may fail to churn out significant profits from the product. This does not necessarily happen with Agile. Several releases can be planned over the months, with each release offering a more advanced set of product features. Management can design a well-planned sales strategy catering to each release and target specific customers to fulfill the sales goal for each release. This also helps to mitigate several types of risk factors generally associated with large-scale projects.
<h3>High product quality</h3>
One of the biggest advantages of Agile is that the testing and QA activities are done on a consistent basis after each feature is developed in a sprint. A feature can be considered as shippable only after it is tested by the QA team members and approved by the product owner. In addition, the client too reviews the features and may reject their development if he or she feels it does not fulfill the product vision. <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" title=""Agile Project Management Software"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileDevelopment"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Agile processes offer quick feedback regarding the product quality</a></span>. This is because all Agile frameworks are uniquely conceptualized to define and deliver the business value contained in the project.
<h3>Proper risk management</h3>
Risks are an inherent part of any project, and project management models should try to minimize their occurrence if they are to be effective. Risks keep on multiplying if they are not identified in time, and they can also lead directly-indirectly to technical debt. The basic advantage of Agile is that you don’t work with the entire product at any given instance of time – you engage with a certain feature, or a set of features, and develop it during the sprint. It is easy to test for and identify risks when individual features are checked for their reliability and this is what Agile proposes to do. Agile teams are cross-functional i.e. a developer or a programmer may double as a QA tester, while, certain teams may include professional testers who carry out unit tests, manual tests, Selenium tests, and even use automated testing software to check for redundancies and bugs in the software code. Regression is checked for at the time of feature development, and if a particular feature fails to perform as per the acceptance criteria stated in the QA conditions of the feature, the said feature is rejected at the time of review and transferred back to the backlog for redevelopment. Another positive aspect about Agile is that its principles categorically state to avoid rework which can lead to waste, or money and efforts spent overactivity that consumes time and does not produce any positive results.
<h3>Responding to changes and market conditions</h3>
Project development takes time. Large projects may take months before they can be deployed in the market. Considering the dynamically changing market trends, it is quite possible that some product features may become outdated by the time the project is launched. This is a typical scenario in the case of projects using traditional “staged” project management methods in which product features or their scope cannot be changed once finalized. Waterfall methods are irreversible, therefore, it becomes very difficult to incorporate changes in the product design once the documentation is done. this limitation is removed since the framework is specifically envisioned to respond dynamically to changes occurring in the product design induced due to changing market trends. The main advantage you have is you develop a small part of the project at a time in incremental cycles known as sprints. If a product feature is developed and it is later realized that it does not totally fulfill end-user requirements, or if the requirements have changed over time, using Agile it is possible to update the particular feature by taking it up in a sprint and redeveloping it as per new requirements and acceptance criterions.
<h3>Increased client satisfaction levels</h3>
Client satisfaction depends primarily upon how much he/she gains from the project, and in terms of project development, how a project will fare in the market and earn high ROIs. Apart from the financial aspect, another factor which contributes towards increased client satisfaction levels is up to what extent the management or the client feels happy with the development activity. Often clients have product visions which teams fulfill partially or fail to satisfy. A primary reason why this happens is the client fails to convey a proper vision to the team, or the team fails to understand it properly. The teams may offer productivity which the client does not actually desire but realize the fact only when the project is deployed. This is because traditional management methods do not encourage client participation to a great extent. In Agile, each product feature can be considered as “Done” only when it is approved by the client. The client is very closely involved in the product review activities, and the team may have to do rework on a particular feature if the client is not satisfied with a particular feature development. The client feels very much in control because he or she is closely involved with the project and remains updated regarding recent developments.
<h3>Long-term project sustenance</h3>
Market trends indicate to end users having specific requirements are not ready to compromise upon, or wait for indefinite periods of time to fulfill their work-related needs, primarily because they have other options available in terms of newly emerging brands and start-up ventures. Competition is rising and will continue to do so in the near future as new development technologies keep on being introduced into the market. Vendors don’t have many choices but to develop products that focus totally upon end user requirements and satisfy them. This means whatever products they develop have to include a plethora of features and offer them at competitive rates to beat the competition. This also means development will take time and projects will extend over months before an MVP is developed, tested, and modified to produce a saleable version. It is easy to scale Agile by adding or removing team members depending upon the project complexity and product related requirements. Management can control the production costs by investing or scaling down development resources since the development activity is carried out in sprints in the Agile framework, and Agile supports such changes. You can speed up the release date, as per needs, or postpone it to a later date if new features are to be added in the production plan. It is very difficult to do this using Waterfall method since the scope of the project is predefined and resources cannot be scaled up or down. Moreover, if the project is rescheduled to extend for more months, it could run out of funds and employers may not be able to support the project any longer.",,Blog,
2508,The Significance Of Business Value And The Definition Of Ready In Product Backlogs,"The product backlog reflects what the clients need in terms of a product release. For a complex or feature-rich product, the product backlog can include a large number of product backlog items, and it can be a huge list. Scrum recommends that important backlog items having high business values should be developed first, followed by less important ones. This is to ensure that the business worth of the project is maintained at all times – even while the team is developing the product.

<img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-2516"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/busi-value-defi-of-ready-product-backlogs.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h1><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Prioritising the product backlog</span></a></h1>
The product backlog is “owned” by the product owner on behalf of the client. The PO is primarily responsible for creating and maintaining it. The PO can carry out the prioritizing activity. Alternatively, the entire team can collectively participate in the activity and aid the PO. Moreover, the PO has a final say regarding the business values to be allotted to the backlog items.

Generally, the PO starts creating and prioritizing the backlog when the product release is planned. However, many times, a common issue faced during the initial stages of a Scrum project is that enough information may not be available with the PO regarding what the proposed product features should ideally include. The client may not be clear about or may need some additional time or information to work out the business values for a set of backlog items. In such scenarios, the PO may merely mention the product features in the product backlog and omit to mention their acceptance criteria and/or their business value since the information is not available at that time. So, it becomes necessary to update the business value at a later stage when the client avails the required information. This is one of the main reasons why a product backlog item may not be properly defined or prioritized in the backlog.

It is important to prioritize the product backlog so that high-value stories are developed first during the daily sprints. So, what is the criterion for prioritizing the product backlog? On what basis should user stories or product backlog items be prioritized in a product backlog? The product owner, based upon the product vision seen by the stakeholders and clients tries to prioritize the backlog based on:
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Business value</li>
 	<li>Definition of ready</li>
</ul>
The business value of the user story or product backlog item

<strong>One of the main factors to consider while prioritizing a backlog item is to determine its business value and include that value in its definition. The business value is typically a number ranging from one to ten. The higher the business value, the greater is the number. The business value is determined after considering several factors, such as:</strong>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Client’s preference and priority in developing the feature</li>
 	<li>End-user requirements</li>
 	<li>Market demand for the feature</li>
 	<li>Levels of competition faced from other businesses developing products with similar features, etc.</li>
</ul>
The product owner assigns business values to the stories based upon the extent of value or financial worth, the story can bring to the business and stakeholders once the product is developed and released in the market.
<h1>Definition of ready</h1>
The idea of making product backlog items “workable” or “ready” dates back to the times when the first Scrum guide was launched – in the year 2002. When backlog items are ready, they can be easily called to the sprint backlog for development purposes and converted to product increments. If stories aren’t ready, the development team simply cannot develop the product features. Therefore, it is important to ensure that enough “ready” items exist in the product backlog - at least before the sprint planning meeting event is held.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>For a user story or a product backlog item to be ready, it should be:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Clear</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The item should be properly described regarding what product feature it actually represents. The functioning of the feature should be thoroughly explained so the team can easily understand it. All technical details and specifications i.e. the inputs to the feature, functionality offered by the particular feature, what end users expect out of the feature, etc. should be clearly stated in the story.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Feasible</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">In the scrum, it is important to complete the development of all user stories accepted in the sprint backlog. For a sprint to be successful, each story should be developed. If a story is too complex, or an epic is not properly decomposed into smaller easily developable user stories, the team may not be able to complete it in the current sprint. The feature should be estimated and split up into multiple parts if required, so it can be developed during a sprint. It should be feasible to develop the story.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Testable</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Since <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Scrum advocates that bug-free shippable product increments be developed</a></span> at the end of sprints, it becomes essential to test the product features developed by the team before they can be released. Each story is assigned a benchmark, or specific conditions, that should be fulfilled in totality before it can be considered as “complete”. When the team develops a backlog item, it is tested against the acceptance criteria or benchmark conditions. Each criterion should be satisfied before the story can be considered as completely developed.</p>",,Blog,
2518,Can Agile Reduce Complexity?,"Every project has a certain level of complexity in it. When we say a project is simple, we actually mean that its degree of complexity is very less or can be considered as negligible, but nevertheless, it does exist even if in a minute magnitude. Project management methods deal with project complexities depending upon how flexible they are, and what kind of provisions they offer to deal with them. Tradition management methods such as Waterfall are often rigid owing to their staged working processes, which are also often irreversible. Using pre-1990 era methods, one can try to address the complexity in a project to a lesser or greater degree of success, but typically such management methods do not make it possible to reduce or minify the actual level of difficulty in executing the project and neither its complexity. This is not necessarily true in the case of Agile. With Agile you can actually try to control the level of complexity in a project provided you have the correct level of experience in implementing Agile principles and techniques.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2520 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CanAgileReduceComplexity1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h3><strong>What is ""Complexity"" in a project?</strong></h3>
Broadly speaking the term ""complexity"" can be best understood as difficult or complicated conditions arising due to the availability of multiple options, or options which make you simultaneously focus upon different directions at a given time, and which result in a multidimensional scenario that is hard to understand and resolve. Complexities can be of different types in a project. Business level complexities arise due to uncertain market conditions, technological advancements, and other such factors which affect the business logic contained in the project. The project level complexities can be of two types of project complexity and requirements complexity.
<h4>Project complexity</h4>
Project related complexity can be different of different types of organizations. Several factors contribute to it, however, the most important ones are uniqueness, limiting factors, and uncertainty.
<ul>
 	<li><strong>Uniqueness</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Every project is unique and has its own attributes and requirements. As the project commences it gains maturity over time and benefits through the learning process. This is most significant when the organization is running a project which is the first of its kind, or if it has no prior experience in dealing with projects.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Limiting factors</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Projects are subjected to certain factors which can affect its execution or commencement such as budget constraints, the technical know-how of the team, working schedule, and at times even cultural differences.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Uncertainty</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Uncertainty in a project can be due to external or internal factors. External factors may include government-imposed rules and regulations, uncertain market changes, and the fluctuating economic climate. Internal factors may comprise of the levels of management's participation in the project, constantly changing company policies, stakeholder's involvement in the project, etc. All these factors affect the scope of the project.</p>
It is a known fact that a project's complexity affects its success. The manner in which a business anticipates fully understands, and addresses the complexity determines whether a project is going to be successful or not.
<h3>Can Agile reduce complexity?</h3>
In traditional project management methods, the complexity in a project is often managed by investing a certain amount of time in the analysis phase with the sole objective of analyzing the levels of complexity and making plans to deal with it. It is based upon the assumption that the time invested in the analysis activity will help to reduce complexity and increase the chances of developing a successful project by using various methods and processes. The investment in time should be considered worthwhile since the analysis can help management to make informed decisions.

Unlike traditional project management methods, in Agile there are no special stages to deal with project complexity. The product owner who is responsible and who oversees the entire project tries to address the complexity levels based upon his or her experience in the subject, in addition to what the team can contribute in terms of efforts and suggestion to deal with complexity. However, there is a big plus point in how the Agile process works and how the inherent product incremental model makes it possible to reduce project complexity to a great level.

In Agile you don't work with the entire project at any given time rather you select a few important features and develop them in short bursts of activity known as sprints. The time spent in developing the features varies from team to team depending upon the team's level of maturity and its hold over the technology used for developing the project. A project may appear to be complex when its overall complexity is considered, but in Agile since you don't have to deal with the entire project during the sprints, the levels of complexity can be easily addressed to by estimating the levels of difficulty in the features and developing them individually. That way you only encounter a fraction of the actual complexity, which can be easily tackled by the team.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;",,Blog,
2524,Types Of Agile Coaches And What Do They Do?,"<div class=""detail-box"">
<div class=""row"">
<p class=""col-lg-20 col-md-20 col-sm-20 col-xs-18 full-width"">People may or may not have heard about the word “Scrum”, but for those who have, a question most commonly asked by them might be “What can Scrum do for me to improve my business?” or “How do I use Scrum to grow?” – A topic most discussed by CEOs, CTOs, project managers, and other senior level executives in a development company or organization when they are faced with choices of adopting a framework to better their work processes and increase the investment returns for their organization. It is important to understand that for a business new to Agile and Scrum a lot depends upon what type of Agile or Scrum coach it hires, and how successfully the coach can help the organization to adopt Agile principles.</p>

<div></div>
Agile can work wonders for you provided it is implemented in an effective way. Agile coaches ensure that business implements the framework in a proper manner. Therefore, a lot depends upon what type of Agile coach do you actually need? You may feel unsure about Agile adoption but serious enough to “give it a try” and see if it can benefit you. On the other hand, you may be aware of the benefits of using Agile but not certain how to start. It’s worth considering the level of Agile coaching you actually need to get started.
<div></div>
<div></div>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-2525 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/AgieCoach.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<div></div>
<div></div>
<h3>What is an Agile coach?</h3>
What is an Agile coach? When the question is asked to different people you’re sure to get different types of answers depending upon whom you’ve asked. The perception of Agile coaching changes from individual to individual, and from company to company. Perhaps the main reason why this happens is that there are no standard definitions explaining Agile coaching, and people have the liberty to interpret the terminology in a manner they deem correct.

So, rather than trying to define exactly what an “Agile coach” is, it would be more worthwhile to comprehend what activities Agile coaching includes, and what does an Agile coach do when he/she is appointed by an organization to facilitate or implement Scrum in their business processes. Coaching needs and activities vary from businesses to businesses based on the type of product to be developed. However, in a typical organization, there are three main areas where management often decide Agile coaching is needed.
<h3>Agile Coach</h3>
An Agile coach can have one or more certifications from a well-known Scrum certification body. Unlike getting certified as a chartered account or a medical practitioner in a particular state or country, there are no formal or authorized “government recognized” Scrum certification issuing authorities. Certification availed from a few Scrum entities like Scrum.Org, Scrum Alliance, Agile Coaching Institute, etc. carry value in the Scrum market, and employers generally search for coaches who have qualified or hold certifications from these type of institutes.

Agile coaches have a sound and relevant experience in at least one Agile discipline – Scrum, XP, or Kanban. They are certified Agile professionals who have achieved a high level of proficiency in their respective fields. They possess sufficient domain knowledge and coaching skills to facilitate and mentor the Scrum process in an organization. An Agile coach trains the development team and the management of Agile principles and practices. He/she contributes at both macro and micro levels, and in addition, resolves all Scrum related issues. Often, Agile coaches promote and act as Scrum ambassadors in organizations which appoint them.

Businesses appoint Agile and Scrum coaches when they decide to go “all the way” with Scrum and want to make sure they benefit from Scrum principles. Coaches are also consulted to discuss ways and means to develop better products, increase the ROI, and improve the current business processes.
<h3>Enterprise Agile Coach</h3>
An Enterprise Agile coach is a person who has achieved some additional skills such as advanced systems coaching, understanding work culture, training organizations in specialized business processes, implementing change management, and creating collaboration and leadership qualities amongst individuals which “regular” Agile coaches may not possess.

An Enterprise Agile coach may work at all levels in an organization and help management in using Agile as a strategic asset for generating consistent and reliable business value by improving current processes through Agile.
<div></div>
&nbsp;

</div>
</div>",,Blog,
2529,Why Is Agile Transformation Difficult?,"<h1>What is the Agile transformation?</h1>
The process of transitioning to Agile, or Agile transformation as it is commonly referred to as, includes transforming an organization still following the work processes prevalent during and before the 1990s era to adopt client-centric <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" title=""Agile Project Management"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileProjectManagement"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Agile processes and methods</a></span>, and to carry out development activities and manage projects as per Agile principles. Agile includes step-by-step processes and supports continuous delivery of workable product features in a fluid and lightweight manner. Also, the actual process is more important in Agile and takes precedence as compared to goals and objectives. When the process is properly carried out, it will eventually result in the delivery of a successful project.

<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-2532 size-full"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Whyagiletransformationisdifficult-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h1>Why can an Agile transformation be hard to implement?</h1>
The concept of change management is not new. Whenever existing processes and methods are challenged by new ones which propose a better way of doing things, it is generally observed that people working in the particular organization become apprehensive about the proposed system and feel uncertain about what changes the new system will include:
<ul>
 	<li>What is the new process?</li>
 	<li>How hard is it?</li>
 	<li>Shall I be able to understand and follow it properly?</li>
 	<li>If I can't deliver results with the new process will the management fire me?</li>
 	<li>What about pay increments and promotions? Will the existing HR policy change?</li>
 	<li>How long will the new process be implemented? Is it temporary or permanent?</li>
 	<li>Will the experience help me in any way if I were to change jobs in the future?</li>
 	<li>Will I have to put in longer working hours after the new system is introduced? 'etc.</li>
</ul>
With Agile, things are not any different. And, it's not just the team members or project managers that loathe change ' the management, senior-level executives, and even top-level stakeholders may feel uncertain about Agile.
<h1>Change management and user acceptance</h1>
One of the main reasons why Agile attracts a lot of discussions whenever it is considered for implementation is because it introduces a wholly new way of working in which senior-level authority is challenged and muted, stress is given more to self-management and self-organization rather than taking direct orders from superiors and following them, and above all becoming accountable for what one does. This is in the antithesis of traditional project management practices in which superiors are considered and treated as more knowledge members of the team and everyone is expected to follow them without asking a lot many questions. The hierarchy structure is challenged by Agile principles which state that everyone on the team is an equal ' there are no bosses who can veto out decisions taken by subordinate team members. From the management's viewpoint, this creates uncertainty. Typically, project managers are hired to deliver the project and remain accountable for it. If the project succeeds, the manager takes the credit. And if the project fails, it might be because the 'team' did not function properly or the levels of dedication was lacking amongst the team members. Whatever the reasons, management often tends to feel comfortable with a working model in which there is a single entity to argue with and to engage with. Agile principles radically challenge this belief since the entire team is actually held accountable for the success or failure of a project even when the product owner is to be held responsible, as per Agile theory. Management generally feels uncomfortable while dealing with entire teams rather than a single person ' the project manager.
<h1>Working at a quicker pace</h1>
<span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" title=""Agile Development"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileDevelopment"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Agile focuses upon quick delivery of workable software</a></span>. The entire product is not developed at a go, rather it is split up into its constituent features, and those features are developed in sets in product incremental cycles known as sprints and tested for regression before they are deployed. This process occurs much quicker as compared to traditional development methodologies. The management and the team have to respond to this fast-paced cyclic development activity. The senior-level personnel is required to spend more time with the team and be more dedicated to the project. In practice, they find it difficult to do this as they have many other important issues to deal with. Feedback and user participation play a very important role in all Agile frameworks since the feedback received from the client and end users is often used as an input for planning further activities. When participation fails, Agile suffers.
<h1>Collaboration and user participation</h1>
One of the biggest advantages of using Agile is that you can respond immediately to changes occurring in the market trends. As end-user requirements change, you can make corresponding changes in the production plan and incorporate those changes. Moreover, even if some of the features have already been developed, Agile makes it possible to update those features in sprints such that the business value contained in the project can be maintained at all times. This is a distinct advantage over traditional project management methods since older models generally cannot respond to changes. Rework is automatically reduced since the functionality is already developed and the developers have to update some additional code to meet new requirements. This means that the client, stakeholders, and end-users have to remain in touch with the latest market trends and work very closely with the sales team to identify new areas of development. This requires efforts as a lot of research is required to be done to ensure that the product being developed remains abreast of competing products in the market.
<h1>Agile training for all</h1>
In most organizations, management consist of a group of top-level individuals who decide what to do and what course of action to take. It is important to present Agile to such individuals in a manner that they can grasp its main advantages and understand how they can possibly benefit from its processes. It is important for the majority, if not all, top-level executives to fully understand and grasp what Agile means, what they would be committing to if they decide to adopt it, and what they stand to gain through change management. There can be hurdles in implementing Agile, however, if people have correct mindsets and they are made to realize that it is beneficial to all, the pitfalls could be avoided and organizations could benefit substantially through Agile transformation.
<h1>To sum it all up</h1>
Organisations have to change existing production processes and accept change management to keep pace with the market competition. It becomes important to tune your work process in order to increase productivity levels by streamlining your workflow and facilitating the team to perform better. Both organizations and development teams face difficulties while transitioning from traditional project management methods and accepting Agile in their work processes. However, it pays to prepare for such a transformation process and plans on how to tackle the hurdles by anticipating issues and problems. Agile coaches play an important part in the transformation process and it is recommended businesses appoint effective coaches who can help them with the transition.",,Blog,
2540,Why Development Teams May Fail To Implement Agile,"""Agile implementation can be difficult for teams new to the framework, and at times development teams fail to implement Agile properly because they fail to identify potential pitfalls in time. The management too should be wary about certain issues that could lead to implementation failure, and take steps to resolve the fundamental issues.""

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2542 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/whydevelopmentteamfail1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h1>Agile implementation and the development team</h1>
As the popularity of Agile based frameworks such as Scrum and XP keeps on increasing, more and more software development businesses and IT companies are migrating towards the frameworks to reap the benefits of Agile. Organisations new to Agile have many expectations, about how, and up to what extent they will benefit from the product incremental cycles and the basic Agile principles which offer and promise a lot to organizations implementing them. In practice, however, the scenario is quite different and instead of benefiting from increased productivity levels, IT businesses tend to face many types of problems while implementing Scrum. If or when the implementation fails, or desired results are not availed through Agile, managements start having second thoughts regarding the practicality of using Agile. While a lot has been discussed as to why Agile might fail, a highly common reason that contributes to the failure is the attitude of Scrum teams and their willingness to accept Agile.
<h1>The reluctance of development teams to accept the Agile framework</h1>
Agile implementation involves changing the current working pattern, especially if you are following traditional development methodologies like Waterfall, and aims to make the development team more self-reliant and self-organizing. In Agile, the team is offered more autonomy. The team is allowed to function in any manner it so desires - as long as it follows Agile principles. However, along with working independence and autonomy comes responsibilities and self-governance - the two aspects most teams fail to uphold in the manner as suggested by Agile.

One of the primary reasons why teams fail to implement Scrum or any other Agile framework for that matter is that it becomes difficult for the individual team members to accept changes and mold their working to suit a new working pattern. As a rule, most people who are habituated to one particular method of working, and who feel comfortable doing what they have been doing since quite some time, do not feel comfortable when exposed to new working conditions and a new set of rules to follow. Changes are not easy for most individuals and management to need to understand this fact. As is often the case, when management decides to introduce Agile, they do so without issuing any prior warnings to the team. The team is not mentally prepared to learn or accept a new method of working – especially a method which may seem to challenge their basic beliefs about how production and development should occur. Agile may seem radically different to people who have developed projects using traditional development methods. It challenges team members, even senior management personnel, to think differently, and to trust each other as far as work is concerned. And therein lies one of the important issues – it is not easy to put trust in somebody whom you have known for a short time, or who do not share your ideas or beliefs. Another issue is understanding a totally new way of working. Some individuals welcome changes while some don't. From the management's point of view, it is difficult to force people to accept new working environment. It is also important to maintain the retention levels of employees since a team is difficult to train, it takes a lot of time in training new employees, and the management may have to invest in trainers and coaches on a frequent basis to train employees as and when they join.
<h1>Why Agile may fail to implement correctly</h1>
<strong>Some of the common issues why teams fail at Agile:</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Teams are not ready to accept changes and new challenges because it does not understand the new method of working</li>
 	<li>Individuals may feel threatened they might not be able to perform well under the proposed system and this could challenge their future growth in the company</li>
 	<li>Old working habits may be difficult to give up, and the team might not be ready to compromise upon its comfort levels – unless forced to do so.</li>
 	<li>Since Agile proposes self-organization and self-management, the management might feel uncomfortable giving up its authority while controlling the team. Agile teams are autonomous and are empowered to decide how to work. It means the management cannot instruct the team how to work – the team decides for itself. This might make the management feel insecure and uncertain since it cannot directly control the team.</li>
 	<li>Teams have a habit of reverting to old habits while working under pressure. Even though a team might have attended training sessions and may be performing well under normal circumstances, it might collapse when told to face challenging situations and stress-associated conditions. The reason could be individuals tend to revert to their original mode of working since they are more accustomed to dealing with work pressure in a process flow they know best – the older way of working.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Agile advantages for the management and stakeholders</h1>
Agile is a framework and not a methodology. Unlike methodologies, Agile principles have to be implemented in a project and stringently monitored to ensure that Agile processes are followed by the team. Only when a team follows what Agile preaches, it can successfully avail the desired results. It is important to know that there are no fixed rules or theories concerning the implementation – teams have to study the framework and decide collectively how to implement it in their projects.

A few suggestions may help teams new to Agile and Scrum plan their project transition in a more successful manner.
<ul>
 	<li><strong>Educate the team</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The first and the foremost activity is to train the development team in the Agile framework and impart sufficient knowledge so the team can grasp the fundamentals. The management should select a trainer who is experienced, and who has the ability to engage on a personal level with the team members. Face-to-face communications can help to resolve many types of misunderstandings, so active participation should be encouraged and promoted between the team and the management. It is generally observed that when teams are properly explained how Agile can help to reduce their burden and increase their productivity, they tend to realize the fact that Agile may, in fact, prove to be useful to them in many ways and help them to perform better at work. Senior management members have to put in enough efforts and convince the team that the Agile way is most suitable for all concerned – the management as well as the team – and planned and sustained development should be the “norm for the day”.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Hold talks and discussions</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile promotes openness and transparency. Above all, Agile principles encourage face-to-face discussions in lieu of emails and in-direct means of communications such as emails and online chats. Perhaps, the main reason why Agile promotes personal communications is that people can easily open up in their discussions when they discuss topics face-to-face. The more the management communicates, the easier it becomes for the teams to present their issues. Discussion can lead to the sharing of ideas. When ideas are shared, it becomes clear what is acceptable to the team, and what is not. Once it is possible for the management to understand and pinpoint the exact issues troubling the teams, it becomes easier to find acceptable solutions. Problems concerning Agile implementation can be effectively resolved only when talks and discussions are held more openly and frequently.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Client participation advantages</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Contrary to the belief, client involvement can actually lead to the improved development and reduced turnaround times. Generally, development teams abhor discussing their work with clients. Most teams believe client involvement can actually slow down the development process, or create problems some way or the other. Actually, this is not true. Agile emphasizes upon client participation. From a practical viewpoint, it is important to “satisfy” the client by giving her/her what is required. The bottom line is to fulfill, or provide, what the client really needs. In most cases, teams take the initiative and present the development based upon its vision as to what the client expects. It is when the client disapproves of the development because it does not support what was originally envisioned, the team starts investigating what kind of development was originally planned, and what has in fact been delivered. Productivity and time are wasted in such cases. Agile, on the other hand, supports a special event – the sprint review - in which it can be ascertained whether the development meets the client’s approval or not. Problems can be detected at an early stage and rectified. Agile can be properly implemented when the client works side-by-side and provides valuable inputs regarding the process flow. Keeping the client satisfied can lead to happy and profitable situations for the entire team in the future.</p>
These are a few common pitfalls which can be analyzed to improve Agile implementation. These are not the only issues concerning the implementation, however, they are most common and usually faced by teams new to Agile and Scrum.",,Blog,
2544,Product Vision And Goals In Scrum,"In Scrum, a project starts when an individual - the client - or a group of people - stakeholders - realize that end users have certain requirements which can be fulfilled by developing a project that can best satisfy their needs. The objective is to deliver a product which has been designed and developed exactly as per the vision was seen by the client - What an ideal product should actually contain, or consist of. The primary reason for developing a project is to earn out of it, therefore it is necessary to reduce operational overheads and keep other expenses in check. One of the best ways of developing a successful project is to develop it as per the client’s needs and to keep to delivering product features on a consistent basis. Moreover, the client is invited to remain closely attached to the development process and confirm the features developed by the team. As a result, the client remains satisfied with how the project is proceeding and offers valuable suggestions from the end user’s perspective. This can further add on to what the project proposes to deliver in terms of its business value. At the same time, care should be taken to develop those features which have a certain market value or business worth. When useful product features having high business values are developed, tested, corrected, and delivered to the client at regular intervals, the project automatically acquires a certain business worth. Scrum proposes to do this in the best possible manner.

Every project needs a vision to steer itself in a proper direction. A properly envisioned project provides a definitive path that can best fulfill the project’s objectives or goals. If a project lacks a clear vision, it will deliver a product that is not as per what the client has envisioned at the project’s onset. This can seriously hamper the product’s potential to earn when it is launched in the market.

In Scrum, a project can successfully deliver a profit-making product only when the project vision is clearly seen, and its goal is precisely defined and followed by the entire team. A vision and its goal are separate entities, and it is important to know how they differ.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2546 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/product-vision-and-goals-in-scrum-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""346"" />
<h1>What is a “vision” in Scrum?</h1>
Visions are basically a reflection of the thought process and are abstract in nature. Visions are different from dreams, in the fact that they are not based upon fantasies and whims of an individual’s inherent desires. A vision can be best understood as an aspirational description explaining what an individual or an organization plans to accomplish or achieve in the near or long-term future. A vision serves as a guide for choosing the current as well as the future course of actions.

In Scrum, the project starts when a client feels it is possible to develop a project that can fulfill certain end-user requirements. Most often, the client is a market-oriented person and has a clear understanding of what users need in the form of a working product. The client “visions” the project in his or her mind, and later<span style=""color: #3366ff;""> <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">conveys that vision to the product owner</a></span> – a person appointed to represent client’s interests, and support his or her vision by developing a product release that closely resembles the working product “seen” by the client. Therefore, the vision fundamentally defines the process used to design and develop the product.
<h1>How should a vision exist in Scrum?</h1>
Project development and its success are affected by several factors. It is, therefore, important to have a vision that can sustain throughout the tenure of the project. So what is it that can sustain the vision on a continuing basis?
<ul>
 	<li>Keep the vision “visible”. Ensure that the team “sees” and understand the project vision at all times.</li>
 	<li>Review the vision at regular intervals. What was envisioned much earlier on – is it practical and viable now?</li>
 	<li>Can the vision change itself, or adapt to changing market conditions and end-user requirements? Does the project vision have enough scope to change itself?</li>
</ul>
<h1>What are the goals in Scrum framework?</h1>
In simple terms, a goal can be understood as an observable and measurable outcome, or result, of one or more objectives required to be achieved within a certain timeframe. Goals are what the vision targets. The vision focuses on accomplishing something and the “something” aspect actually defines the goal.

Goals are what Scrum proposes to achieve. The framework defines the project goal in the form of a master list containing all features required to <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">develop the product in entirety - the product backlog</a></span>. The backlog fundamentally reflects the product vision, and functions as a backbone for the entire project development process. As per the Scrum process, product backlog items having high business values are selected for development from the product backlog, and fully functional, shippable product features are delivered to the client through product incremental cycles known as sprints. So, it is the project goal that eventually delivers the product.
<h1>Principles characterizing goals in Scrum</h1>
It is important to have clear goals if product features are to be effectively developed. Ideally, what should goals be like in Scrum? What characteristics should they have to ensure that the final product developed by the team satisfies the business objectives of the project? It is worth knowing what can make goals more effective and meaningful - <strong>SMART:</strong>

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2548 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/product-vision-and-goals-in-scrum-2.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>S = Sustainable</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Is it possible to sustain the goal and follow it? If necessary, can the goal be broken down or changed so it can be easily developed?</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>M = Measurable</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Is it possible to measure the goal, or count how much of it is developed using a tracking processor check-in system?</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>A = Attainable</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Is it possible to attain the goal? Can the team develop the product features effectively without any bugs?</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>R = Realistic</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Can the goal be realistically achieved? Is it humanly possible?</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>T = Time based</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Can the goal be developed within the period allotted for developing it?</p>",,Blog,
2601,SAFe LSE-Lean Systems Engineering,"<h1><span class=""example2"">Introduction</span></h1>
SAFe LSE is the first-ever framework that provides the values, principles, practices, and organizational constructs necessary to build and deploy complex, cyber-physical systems faster with higher quality.
<h1>SAFe LSE Framework</h1>
Designed to meet the growing needs of those building the world’s most complex systems that contain aerospace, mechanical, electrical, fluidics, optics and other elements that are increasingly software intensive, the SAFe LSE framework is based on four primary knowledge pools:
<ul>
 	<li>Classical systems engineering,</li>
 	<li>Lean thinking,</li>
 	<li>Agile and scaled Agile (SAFe) development</li>
 	<li>Lean Product Development.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Summary</h1>
SAFe LSE is a comprehensive set of values, principles and practical guidance that systems builders can use to build large-scale intensive systems (often called cyber-physical systems) in lean agile manner.

SAFe LSE also features about Program Portfolio, Governance for software solutions with visibility and alignment.

Training on SAFe LSE - Please contact me @ http://quickscrum.com/Kernel/CoachProfile/1/5733",,Blog,
2605,How to Know if TDD is Working,"<h1><span class=""example2"">Introduction</span></h1>
How will you know if TDD is working for your teams, program, or organization?

I've noticed that small, independent teams typically don't ask this.  They are so close to the end-points of their value-stream that they can <em>sense</em> whether a new discipline is helping or hindering.

But on larger programs with multiple teams or a big ""roll-out"" or ""push"" for quality practices, leaders want to know whether or not they're getting a return on investment.  Sometimes they ask me, point-blank: ""How long before I recoup the cost of your TDD training and coaching?"" There are a lot of variables, of course; and knowing when you've reached break-even is going to depend on what you've already been measuring.  Frankly, you're not going to be able to measure the change in a metric you're not already measuring.  Nevertheless, you may be able to tell simply by the morale of the teams. In my experience, there's always a direct correlation between happy employees and happy customers. Also, a direct correlation between happy customers and happy stakeholders.  That's the triple-win:  What's truly good for customers and employees is good for stakeholders.

So I've assembled a few notes about quality metrics.
<h1><span class=""example2"">Metrics I like</span></h1>
(Disclaimer: I may have my ""lead"" and ""cycle"" terminology muddled a little. If so I apologize. Please focus on the simplicity of these metrics. I'll fix this post as time allows.)

Here are some metrics I've recommended in the past. I'm not suggesting you must track all of these.
<ul>
 	<li>Average lead time for defect repair: Measure the time between <em>defect-found</em> and <em>defect-fixed, </em>by collecting the dates of these events.  Graph the average over time.</li>
 	<li><span class=""s1"">Average cycle time for defect repair: Measure the time between <em>decide-to-fix-defect</em> and <em>defect-fixed</em></span><em>, </em>by collecting the dates of these events. Graph the average over time.</li>
 	<li>A simple count of unfixed, truly high-priority defects.  Show-stoppers and critical, that sort of thing.  Graph the count over time.</li>
</ul>
Eventually, other quality metrics could be used. Once a team is doing well, Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), which assumes a very short (near-zero) defect lead time, can be used.

On one high-performing team I worked on way back in 2001, we eventually focused on one metric: ""Age of Oldest Defect."" It really got us to dig into one old, ornery, hard-to-reproduce defect with a ridiculously simple workaround (i.e., ""Please take a deep breath and resubmit your request"" usually did the trick, which explains why we weren't compelled to fix it for quite some time). This bug was a great representation of the general rule of bug-fixing: Most bugs are easy to fix once found but very difficult to locate! (Shout out to Al Shalloway of Net Objectives for teaching me that one.)

<span class=""s1"">I also suggest that all teams keep an eye on this one:  </span>Average cycle &amp;/or lead times for User Stories, or Minimal Marketable Features. On the surface, this sounds like a performance metric.  I suppose if the work-items are surely arriving in a most-important-thing-first order, then it's a reasonable proxy for ""performance.""  But its real purpose is to help diagnose and resolve systemic (i.e., ""process"") issues.

What’s truly important about measuring these:
<ul>
 	<li>Start measuring as soon as possible, preferably gaining some idea of what things look like before making broad changes, e.g., before I deliver my <em>Essential Test-Driven Development </em>course, and follow-on TDD coaching, to your teams.</li>
 	<li>The data should be collected as easily as possible: Automatically, or by an unobtrusive, non-managerial, third party. Burdening the team with a lot of measurement overhead is often counterproductive:  The measurement data suffers, productivity suffers, morale suffers.</li>
 	<li>The metrics must be used as ""informational"" and not ""motivational"": They should be available to the team, first and foremost, so that team can watch for trends. Metrics must never be used to reward or punish the team or to pit teams within the same program or organization against each other.</li>
</ul>
If you want (or already have) highly-competitive teams, then consider estimating Cost of Delay and CoD/Duration (aka CD3, estimated by all involved ""levels"" and ""functions""), customer conversions, customer satisfaction, and other Lean Startup metrics; and have your whole organization compete against itself to improve the throughput of real value, and compete against <em>your actual competitors</em>.
<h1>Metrics I didn't mention</h1>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Velocity:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Estimation of story points and the use of <em>velocity</em> may be necessary on a team where the User Stories vary considerably in size.  Velocity is an important planning tool that gives the team an idea of whether the scope they have outlined in the release plan will be completed by the release date.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Story points and velocity (SPs/sprint) give information similar to <em>cycle time</em>, just inverted.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">To illustrate this:  Often Scrum teams who stop using sprints and release plans in favor of continuous flow will switch from s<em>tory points per sprint</em> to <em>average cycle time per story point</em>. Then, if the variation in User Story effort diminishes, they can drop points entirely and measure <em>average cycle time per story</em>.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The problem with using velocity as a metric to track improvements (e.g., the use of TDD) is this:  As things improve, story-point estimates (an estimate of effort, not time) may actually drop for similar stories.  We expect velocity to stabilize, not increase, over time.  Velocity is for planning; it's a poor proxy for productivity.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Code coverage:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">You could measure code-coverage, how much of the code is exercised via tests, particularly unit-tests, and watch the trends, similar to the graph above (they measured <em>number-of-tests</em>).  This is fine, again, if used as an <strong><em>informational</em></strong> metric and not a <strong><em>motivational</em></strong> metric.  Keep in mind that it's easy for an informational metric to be perceived as motivational, which makes it motivational.  The trouble with code-coverage is that it is too much in the hands of those who feel motivated to improve it, and they may subconsciously ""game"" the metric.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">About 10 years ago, I was working with a team who had been given the task of increasing their coverage by 10% each iteration.  When I got there, they were at 80%, and very pleased with themselves.  But as I looked at the tests, I saw a pattern:  No <em>assertions (aka expectations)</em>!  In other words, the tests literally exercised the code but didn't test anything.  When I asked the developers, they looked me in the eyes, straight-faces, and said, ""Well, if the code doesn't throw an exception, it's working.""</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Of course, these junior developers soon understood otherwise, and many went on to do great things in their careers. But they really did think, at the time, they were correctly doing what was required!</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The metrics that I do recommend are more difficult to ""game"" by an individual working alone. Cycle-times are a team metric. (Yes, it's possible a team could conspire to game those metrics, but they would have to do so consciously, and nefariously. If you don't, or can't, trust your team to behave as professionals, no metric or engineering practice is going to help anyway. You will simply fail to produce anything of value.)</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Please always remember: You get what you measure!</p>",,Blog,
2615,One Product Owner means One Project,"<img class=""size-full wp-image-2616 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ProductOwnerTeamStakeholders.png"" alt="""" width=""633"" height=""355"" />

Every time I talk with Agile Coaches the song is the same, there is not good Product Owners. What does a good Product Owner mean? Well, it means that Product Owner works full time as Product Owner because most of the times they are Product Owners and Team Leaders for different projects that are following different approaches (Scrum, Kanban, and Waterfall for instance) at the same time. In fact, the overworked Product Owner is a usual fact that as Agile Coach you have to deal with. Most of the time the cause of this issue is because when companies move from the conventional approach to Agile they keep working the bad habits like everybody has to be busy all day long to justify their salary.
<h1>Product Owner with more than ten projects</h1>
As soon as you read this you should Mario is overreacting or maybe he runs into the worse companies that assign (and consider as well) a lot of projects under only One PO. No, unfortunately, I chatted about this issue with Agile Coach from Canada, US, Sweden, and Netherlands. All of them are dealing with the same situation.
<h1>How can you recognize this bad smell?</h1>
One symptom is when you ask where are the Product Owner and most of the time you got the same answer, He or She is in a meeting. A couple of months ago I was hired by a client that had the problem of poor management of the portfolio of projects. In a few days, I realized that she was in meetings all day long. I wonder when this overworked lady had time enough to attend Scrum teams that worked with her.

This kind lady told me that she was struggling with sixteen (believe me!!) projects. I strongly recommended to her to talk with her manager (or the man in charge of the portfolio) to prioritize a few projects (at least to reduce her workload) to improve her job. After a while, she told me that she was so happy to deal only with four projects!!!

It was to sad to do a Project Planning where there were many dependencies between features in several projects that nobody took into account until the moment that the guy in charge of the portfolio very angry was to admit that many of the projects had to be on hold until someone remove some of the dependencies in order to start with at least one project.

To conclude, if you are working as Product Owner and you have to deal with more than a project you have to consider all the time you need to meet with stakeholders, and team members (Sprint Planning and Review) plus to map all the dependencies that every new project could have!!!

<span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/Kernel/CoachProfile/1/5692"">View My profile </a></span>",,Blog,
2627,Let's start doing scrum it would solve all our problems,"<h1>Let's start doing scrum it would solve all our problems.... not at all!</h1>
First of all, scrum is not the framework to solve problems related to software development. It's intended to help identification of pain points and allowing teams to adapt. How they would use that power is only their choice.

""Scrum is like your mother-in-law, it points out ALL your faults"" - Ken Schwaber
<h1><span class=""example2"">Most important meeting in the scrum... Sprint Retrospective</span></h1>
Sprint Retrospective meeting is a crucial event in the whole scrum framework because it is a time when Scrum Team stops for a moment and looks over all the issues they have experienced in the last iteration. This is exactly the time where the team should focus on two out of three parts of the empirical process: Inspect and Adapt. It's not the time for complaining only about something. It's the time when the team should think about how to solve the problem or prevent it in the future.

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data” - Sherlock Holmes
<h1>Scrum is all about responsibility and engagement!</h1>
The roles in scrum are clearly defined and it's crucial to understand them. Product Owner says 'what' to do (goals, features) but developers are the ones who tell 'how' because at the end of a day they will implement the solution. The responsibility of PO is understanding and explaining the needs of the customers

""If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you'll be amazed by the results"" - General George S. Patton

The responsibility of the development team is to build the solution with high quality to fulfil those needs. Self-organizing is the key to smarter work because it allows changing the way of working to optimizing efficiency in value creation (do less to achieve more).

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all” - Peter Drucker

There is no perfect solution for improving. It's the Scrum Team responsibility to find their own solutions for challenges and use it as a competitive advantage. Improvements take time and require motivation from each member because all of them have to go out of their comfort zone very often to adapt. The price is high but it's worth of it.

""To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often"" - Winston Churchill",,Blog,
2635,What Scrum Team Member Type are YOU?,"<h1 style=""text-align: left;""><span style=""color: #01a28c;"">Practical Scrum Workshop Total Immersion©</span></h1>
<h1><span class=""example2"">What Scrum Team Member Type ARE YOU?</span></h1>
We can relate these characters and strengths to other well-known teams to understand them better. Part of learning about Scrum is learning how to master the dynamics of teams in order to complete the Minimal Viable Product within the Sprint deadline.

The interactions that evolve when people are thrown together in our workshops can help you better understand how Scrum teams work and compare your ideas about your own skill set against others. Here are a few ‘Teams’ you may know to get you thinking. Which character do you think you would most be like?
<h1>Red Dwarf</h1>
A British Sci-Fi comedy based on a small Team trapped together in deep space with the last human alive. Each brings their own special skills to solve unique situations. Possible areas they excel in are:

© Grant Naylor Baby Cow Productions
<table style=""height: 168px;"" border=""1px"" width=""635"">
<tbody>
<tr style=""height: 48px;"">
<td style=""width: 88px; height: 48px;""><strong>Name</strong></td>
<td style=""width: 115px; height: 48px;""><strong>Timekeeper</strong></td>
<td style=""width: 113px; height: 48px;""><strong>Return On Investment</strong></td>
<td style=""width: 90px; height: 48px;""><strong>Design</strong></td>
<td style=""width: 102px; height: 48px;""><strong>Analytics</strong></td>
<td style=""width: 87px; height: 48px;""><strong>Morale booster</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr style=""height: 24px;"">
<td style=""width: 88px; height: 24px;"">Lister</td>
<td style=""width: 115px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 113px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 90px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 102px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 87px; height: 24px;"">YES</td>
</tr>
<tr style=""height: 24px;"">
<td style=""width: 88px; height: 24px;"">Kryton</td>
<td style=""width: 115px; height: 24px;"">YES</td>
<td style=""width: 113px; height: 24px;"">YES</td>
<td style=""width: 90px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 102px; height: 24px;"">YES</td>
<td style=""width: 87px; height: 24px;""></td>
</tr>
<tr style=""height: 24px;"">
<td style=""width: 88px; height: 24px;"">Cat</td>
<td style=""width: 115px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 113px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 90px; height: 24px;"">YES</td>
<td style=""width: 102px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 87px; height: 24px;""></td>
</tr>
<tr style=""height: 24px;"">
<td style=""width: 88px; height: 24px;"">Holly</td>
<td style=""width: 115px; height: 24px;"">YES</td>
<td style=""width: 113px; height: 24px;"">YES</td>
<td style=""width: 90px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 102px; height: 24px;"">YES</td>
<td style=""width: 87px; height: 24px;""></td>
</tr>
<tr style=""height: 24px;"">
<td style=""width: 88px; height: 24px;"">Rimmer</td>
<td style=""width: 115px; height: 24px;"">YES</td>
<td style=""width: 113px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 90px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 102px; height: 24px;""></td>
<td style=""width: 87px; height: 24px;""></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h1>Star Wars</h1>
Set in a galaxy far far away, this team fight against the Dark side of the Force towards ‘A New Hope’…

©Lucasfilm Ltd
<table border=""1px"">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width=""100""><strong>Name</strong></td>
<td width=""111""><strong>Timekeeper</strong></td>
<td width=""110""><strong>Return On Investment</strong></td>
<td width=""101""><strong>Design</strong></td>
<td width=""106""><strong>Analytics</strong></td>
<td width=""89""><strong>Morale booster</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""100"">Master Yoda</td>
<td width=""111"">YES</td>
<td width=""110"">YES</td>
<td width=""101""></td>
<td width=""106""></td>
<td width=""89"">YES</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""100"">Luke Skywalker</td>
<td width=""111""></td>
<td width=""110"">YES</td>
<td width=""101""></td>
<td width=""106""></td>
<td width=""89"">YES</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""100"">Han Solo</td>
<td width=""111""></td>
<td width=""110"">YES</td>
<td width=""101""></td>
<td width=""106"">YES</td>
<td width=""89""></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""100"">Princess Leia</td>
<td width=""111""></td>
<td width=""110"">YES</td>
<td width=""101"">YES</td>
<td width=""106""></td>
<td width=""89""></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""100"">Chewbacca</td>
<td width=""111""></td>
<td width=""110""></td>
<td width=""101""></td>
<td width=""106"">YES</td>
<td width=""89""></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h1>Batman</h1>
The DC comic superhero ‘Dark Knight’ with a team of devoted crime fighting members facing challenges in a City where trials and tribulations never sleep.

© Warner Bros
<table border=""1px"">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width=""100""><strong>Name</strong></td>
<td width=""111""><strong>Timekeeper</strong></td>
<td width=""110""><strong>Return On Investment</strong></td>
<td width=""101""><strong>Design</strong></td>
<td width=""106""><strong>Analytics</strong></td>
<td width=""89""><strong>Morale booster</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""100"">Commissioner Gordon</td>
<td width=""111"">YES</td>
<td width=""110"">YES</td>
<td width=""101""></td>
<td width=""106"">YES</td>
<td width=""89"">YES</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""100"">Batman</td>
<td width=""111"">YES</td>
<td width=""110"">YES</td>
<td width=""101"">YES</td>
<td width=""106"">YES</td>
<td width=""89"">YES</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""100"">Robin</td>
<td width=""111""></td>
<td width=""110""></td>
<td width=""101"">YES</td>
<td width=""106""></td>
<td width=""89""></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""100"">Alfred Pennyworth</td>
<td width=""111"">YES</td>
<td width=""110""></td>
<td width=""101""></td>
<td width=""106"">YES</td>
<td width=""89"">YES</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h1>Summary</h1>
Team dynamics are hardly ever mentioned in Scrum, yet they are a force of nature that evolves out of every team combination that has ever existed.

If the aim of Scrum teams is to work together to move forwards then these dynamic and powerful aspects need to be investigated thus cannot be ignored.

The Practical Scrum Workshops Total Immersion(C) allows newbie teams to test out their own emergent forces and gives them the opportunity to evolve and redirect them once identified.

Who do you most identify with?

Come and test for yourself with Practical Scrum Workshop Total immersion (C) today only from SEO Rescues website. Hurry, Places limited!",,Blog,
2649,How To Plan Effective Sprint Planning Meeting Agenda,"Sprint planning is an important process in Scrum. The sprint planning meeting agenda should be carefully worked out to ensure the success of subsequent daily sprints, and product releases having high business values are consistently obtained through the incremental cycles.
<h1>What is a sprint planning meeting?</h1>
In a sprint planning meeting, the development team commits to a set of high priority product backlog items for development purposes. A sprint backlog containing backlog items with high business values is created from the product backlog. Subsequently, the selected items are decomposed into developable tasks and accepted by individual team members. The meeting is time-boxed.

In Scrum, the product is developed through product incremental cycles known as sprints. During sprint planning, a few important user stories or product backlog items are selected and transferred to a temporary list for development purpose - the sprint backlog. The total number of backlog items to be selected depends upon the team velocity or the rate at which team members develop the product features during the daily sprint cycles. While selecting stories, high priority user stories having a significant “business worth” in the market are picked up from the top of the product backlog. It is important to select user stories having high business values because Scrum principles indicate that the project’s business value should be maintained at all times – even while the product is being developed. By selecting high priority stories, the product features developed through the daily sprints add on to the project’s business value.

In Scrum, the entire project is developed through daily sprints, and the sprint planning meeting ensures that daily sprints remain productive.
<h1 class=""article-title2"">Who participates in sprint planning?</h1>
Sprint planning is a collaborative event in Scrum. It is attended by:
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Product Owner</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The person representing the stakeholders interests in the project and “owns” it on their behalf.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Scrum Master</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The Scrum Master oversees the Scrum process. The person also ensures that Scrum is properly implemented and followed by the team at all times.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Development Team</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Composed of multi-skilled IT professionals, the development team generally consists of five to seven members. The product features are developed by the team through the product incremental cycles.</p>

<h1 class=""article-title2"">Before starting with the sprint meeting</h1>
All the product backlog items should be prioritized in accordance with their business values in the product backlog. Each item should be properly estimated in terms of story point values. Moreover, each backlog items should be “complete” i.e. it should be properly defined in the backlog along with all relevant details such as its description, explanation, acceptance criteria, etc. The product owner should have a clear idea regarding the sprint goal – the objectives of conducting the sprint should be thought of and clearly defined. In addition, the product owner should be clear about how the product features should be developed by the team during the daily sprints.
<h1 class=""article-title2""><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/SprintPlanning"" rel=""noopener"">Sizing the backlog items before sprint planning</a></span></h1>
The most important aspect before starting with sprint planning is that the backlog items should be small so the team can easily develop them. Epics and un-grained large user stories have to be decomposed into smaller and easily manageable user stories before they can be properly understood and effectively developed. If this activity is done prior to sprint planning, a lot of time is saved during the sprint planning sessions.
<h1 class=""article-title2"">Selecting a correct number of product backlog items during sprint planning</h1>
Scrum advocates that a correct number of backlog items should be selected for the sprint during sprint planning sessions. If more number of items are selected for development purposes, the team may fail to develop some of them. It is very important to complete the development of all items contained in the sprint backlog. The development team should not keep any item pending at the end of the sprint. When excessive items are selected, this Scrum principle is defeated.

On the other hand, if less number of backlog items are selected in the sprint backlog, the team members may remain without work in the later part of the sprint. Scrum principles state each member should offer optimum productivity and develop a maximum number of backlog items during the sprint. Resources should offer their best contribution in terms of efforts and productivity. It is important to deliver product increments having high business values to maintain the team velocity and project value at all times – even when the product is being developed.

So what is the way out for the product owner? How can the correct number of backlog items be selected in the sprint backlog? The team velocity provides an estimate regarding the capacity of the team members to develop product features during the sprint. <span style=""color: #3366ff;""> <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" rel=""noopener"">Each item in the product backlog</a></span> is estimated with its level of difficulty using story points. The greater the point value, the more time consuming the item is from the development point of view. The product owner should avail a proper estimate by summing up the estimation value of backlog items selected for development and compare it with the team’s current velocity. It is possible to select the correct number of backlog items through the estimation features of the Scrum framework.
<h1 class=""article-title2"">Sprint planning process</h1>
<ul>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The product owner ascertains that a correct number of product backlog items is selected for development and the sprint backlog is created.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The development team should study the backlog items and ask relevant questions if it has any doubts regarding the technical aspects of the product features to be developed in the sprint.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Later, the team decomposes the backlog items into developable tasks.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Tasks are taken up by the team members based on their experience levels and expertise.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The team is ready to start with the daily sprints.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
2710,test,"Reading Distribution chart is quite easy. Let ME explain you[place a link on ME of our brand coach for more details],
X-Axis: Shows Business Value or Priority or Estimated Size or Assigned To

Reading Distribution chart is quite easy. Let ME explain you[place a link on ME of our brand coach for more details],
X-Axis: Shows Business Value or Priority or Estimated Size or Assigned To",,Blog,
2717,Completing All User Stories And Tasks In The Current Sprint,"One of the biggest problems faced by teams new to the Agile process is that they fail to complete some of the user stories at the end of the sprint. It is important to identify the root causes as to why this happens and try to improve upon Agile implementation so sustained product increments can be delivered to the client.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2719 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/task-board-process-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""474"" />
<h1>User stories, tasks, and the ongoing sprint</h1>
Many software development companies and organizations, the world over, now use Agile to develop their IT projects. Agile is become more and more popular by the day, and this is justifiably so because there are several benefits of being Agile and adapting to changes occurring in the product design while the product is being developed. The delivery of shippable product increments is very important to the client, and if the daily sprints are properly carried out, it is possible to maintain a sustained velocity and deliver finished products within time.

A common problem experienced by less experienced Agile teams and organizations new to the Scrum process is some of the tasks often remain incomplete at the end of sprints. The development team fails to develop the entire list of user stories selected in the sprint backlog. This directly affects the sprint goal. This is not a good practice since Agile focuses primarily upon sustained delivery of product increments, and as the tasks aren't completed at the end of the sprint, proper product increments are not delivered to the client. Moreover, the business value attached to the project is also affected. If shippable product features are not developed in time, the product may even end up losing its hold in the market when the release is eventually launched.

So what should the development team due to ""churn out"" releasable user stories and deliver a certain business value to the client? What process should the team follow? Is anything new required to be done to improve the Agile process? Are the ""inspect"" and ""adapt"" principles followed by the team?
<h1>The development team should</h1>
<ul>
 	<li>Be a cross-functional team and each member should possess diverse skills - testing, delivery, integration, coding, design, etc. - required to develop the project.</li>
 	<li>Clearly, understand the sprint goal and the definition of? Done? before starting with the development.</li>
 	<li>Clearly, estimate user stories before committing them to the sprint backlog. The team should be aware of the current team velocity and use those metrics while estimating the stories during sprint planning sessions.</li>
 	<li>Properly segregate user stories in the sprint backlog into easily developable tasks. The tasks should not be granular. User stories should be properly disintegrated into finely developable tasks containing basic functionality.</li>
 	<li>Plan properly, and ensure that the team members take up the tasks based upon their levels of expertise and capabilities. For example, a senior developer should ideally take up complex tasks while a new one ought to develop simple ones which do not consume much time.</li>
 	<li>Each team member should complete a task totally before moving on to the next one. Tasks should not be left ninety or ninety-five percent complete and another task was taken up subsequently simply because a minor technical issue needs to be resolved for the first task. All issues should be successfully resolved and the developer should make sure that the definition of? Done? is properly satisfied for that particular user story.</li>
 	<li>Share ideas and collaborate. The team members should learn from each other and make efforts to develop better ways and techniques to improve upon their skill sets.</li>
 	<li>Self-organise. Each team member understands his or her own responsibilities and remains accountable for his or her actions. Agile advocates self-management and self-organization. These principles should not be misused.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Scrum Master takes an initiative</h1>
The role of a scrum master is very important in <a class=""link-hover"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"" hreflang=""en""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Agile frameworks like Scrum</span></a>, and the success of a sprint depends a lot on how the SM interacts with the team. Here is what an SM should ideally do:
<ul>
 	<li>Ensure that the fundamental Agile principles are properly implemented and followed by the team.</li>
 	<li>Always participate in the daily Scrum.</li>
 	<li>Play a servant-leader role and try to facilitate the proceedings rather than manage them.</li>
 	<li>Suggest, and not advise, how less experienced developers should correctly handle tasks, and how to resolve them.</li>
 	<li>Motivate the team and remain available whenever the team faces a problem. The SM intervenes only when the team fails to resolve an issue.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Dealing with obstacles and stumbling blocks</h1>
If the team lacks an ability to identify potential sprint pitfalls, or if the team members fail to respond quickly when they face a particular technical issue, it could well affect the sprint goal and leave the sprint unfinished. It is important to foresee what kind of problems the team is likely to face when user stories are being committed in the sprint backlog, and the entire team, including the product owner, should have enough experience to predict how the sprint is likely to proceed based upon the stories currently selected for development.

The team should:
<ul>
 	<li>Immediately raise an issue and address it when a team member detects a technical problem.</li>
 	<li>Collaborate and try to resolve the issue with the help of other team members. When and how to do this is up to the team. Generally, sprinting time should only be utilized for developing the user stories. However, when issues have to be resolved on an immediate basis, the team should hold a brief meeting? akin to a daily stand up ? to decide when and how to resolve the issue.</li>
</ul>
Do not overcommit user stories

Sprints can also remain incomplete when the team takes up too many stories than it is capable of handling. The product owner is solely responsible for designing the sprint goal. As per the norms, the PO tries to increase the team velocity, and to achieve this, he/she may press the team to take up more stories. However, it is up to the team to correctly estimate and decide how many stories it is capable of handling, and how many stories should be committed to in the sprint backlog. While the PO? owns? the product backlog, the development team controls the sprint backlog. Hence, it has a right to accept and reject stories based upon the current team velocity.

In real life, there could be other issues and problems regarding user stories as to why they might remain incomplete at the end of sprints. A few common reasons are discussed here since the majority of Agile teams usually face them.",,Blog,
2921,Scrum Planning Meeting,"In Agile Scrum, each iteration cycle begins with a Scrum planning meeting, which is also known as a “sprint planning meeting.” In the meeting, the product owner and the development team select user stories from the product backlog for development purposes. The meeting is time-boxed and can last from four to six hours depending upon how many stories have to be selected, and how much time the team takes in distributing the development tasks amongst themselves.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2924 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/manual-vs-computerised-s-p-m.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""369"" />
<h2>Purpose of Scrum planning meeting</h2>
The scrum planning meeting is basically a discussion between the product owner and the team members. The main idea of holding the sprint planning meeting is to select product backlog items having high business values from the top of the product backlog (provided the product backlog has been refined and organized as per business values linked with the product backlog items). High priority stories are carefully selected and transferred to the sprint backlog for development purposes. Scrum suggests that product features having more importance in terms of their business values, or market worth, should be developed first, followed by less important ones. This is done to ensure that the value of the project does not reduce over time. The PO is responsible for delivering a project having a certain business value to the stakeholders. This is possible when the product features and functionality have a certain financial “worth” in the market based upon how important they are from the end users point of view, and how much the end users are likely to pay for using them. Therefore, the PO selects high-value user stories to maintain the project value at all times, even while the product is currently being developed.
<h2>Accepting and rejecting user stories during the meeting</h2>
While the PO can suggest high priority user stories to the team, the team has the “right” to accept or reject them after giving valid reasons regarding its decisions. A user story may not be defined properly, or the team may fail to understand the acceptance criteria associated with a story. In such cases, the team can inform the PO to update the particular story and “reject” its development for the time being. Stories or product items are added to the sprint backlog only after they are Okayed by both the PO and the development team members.
<h2>Manual vs. computerized Agile boards</h2>
If the Agile team is using manual Agile methods to develop the project, user stories can be “selected” by “pasting” index cards on the Scrum whiteboards. Each index card represents a unique user story. The board may be bifurcated into three columns - “To Do”, “In Progress”, and “Completed” – to indicate the current sprint status. As stories get completed, they are moved from “To Do”, to “In Progress”, and finally in the “Completed” section of the whiteboard. Teams using electronic or digital scrum tools have a “virtual” whiteboard, which generally keeps on updating itself as and when sprint backlog items are created, and user stories are completed.
<h2>Current Scrum planning meeting trends</h2>
Traditionally, the product owner decided which stories should be “picked up” from the product backlog and transferred to the sprint backlog for development purposes. Nowadays, the sprint planning meeting has evolved to become a “single” Scrum event, and the role of the PO has also been changed. Rather than the PO deciding which stories to pick, the entire team takes an active part in the decision process, and the team decides jointly with the PO as to which stories should be selected and how the sprint backlog should be created.",,Blog,
2922,Core Responsibilities Of A Product Owner In Scrum,"The product owner plays a key role in Scrum. Right from planning the project release and incepting the project, the product owner plans, organizes, estimates, and delivers the project business value to the client. In Scrum, the PO ""owns"" the product on behalf of the management and stakeholders - individuals who have appointed him or her to develop the project. From Scrum point of view, development is fundamentally carried out to achieve the releases. A product is never considered as ""complete"" or ""fully developed"", rather, several versions of the product in the form of releases are delivered to the client. So, in a way, the objective in Scrum is to develop a product release having a certain business value to the client - the client launches the release in the market, earns from it, and subsequently plans how more developed versions of the release can be developed using Scrum so the earning activity does not stop. This is one of the main reasons why a product backlog is always dynamic. When a Scrum team works on a particular release, the same backlog may be used for another release - it is not required to rebuild the product backlog right from scratch for each release. The PO is responsible for delivering all these.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2923 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/core-responsibilities.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""300"" />

In practice, the role of a PO is not an easy one to play. There are many responsibilities of a PO, and they can be briefly categorized as:
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Planning the release as per the client's vision of what the product should be like when launched in the market.</li>
 	<li>Designing the sprints so that a certain business value is delivered to the client on a consistent basis.</li>
 	<li>Achieving the product release through daily sprints.</li>
 	<li>Interacting with the client, stakeholders, end-users, etc.</li>
 	<li>Coordinating and dealing with work-related issues.</li>
</ul>
Looking at the role played by the PO from a macro level, these are the common core responsibilities that each PO is liable to fulfill. However, at a micro level, the PO also plans out various activities pertaining to the Scrum process.
<h1>Product owner - A core determinant of the project</h1>
In the scrum, all activities are originated directly, or indirectly, by the PO. Right from planning the project to delivering the release, the PO is held accountable for everything, except for the manner in which the development team develops the product increment, and how the scrum master facilitates the scrum process. The PO has to ensure that the product vision can be distilled into a shippable, concrete, and deliverable product increment having a certain business value for the client. The person also acts as a facilitator to resolve technical issues faced by the team, and to streamline the Scrum process within the team - a core responsibility of a scrum master although not to an extent to which a scrum master performs his or her particular role in the scrum. The PO has to demonstrate the tangible benefits of the product vision to the client and ensure that the client benefits through the periodic product increments. The PO also participates in Scrum rituals or events.

The main tasks of a PO consist of:
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Envisioning the product desired by the client and plan its development.</li>
 	<li>Design an iterative product increment or a sprint release strategy that can incorporate changing market conditions as well as quick modifications of product feature requirements.</li>
 	<li>Distilling high-level product based requirements - Epics - into individually developable and deliverable product backlog items ""PBI"" or user stories linked with a certain acceptance criteria (the Definition of Done and the sprint goal).</li>
 	<li>Prioritizing the product development by ordering the product backlog.</li>
 	<li>Communicating and explaining complex system architecture related issues to the client.</li>
 	<li>Negotiating and resolving all client-side issues and disputes associated with product design, development, and user story priorities</li>
</ul>
A common misconception is to think that the PO actually owns the product. In practice, the PO ""owns"" it with respect to the team, but in reality, represents the client's interests. Technically speaking, a product owner can actually own a product, but in that case, the client and the PO are the same entities as far as scrum is concerned.
<h1>Team responsibilities of the product owner</h1>
As far as the team is concerned, the PO is mainly responsible for:
<ul>
 	<li>Represent the interests of, and act as the ""voice"" of stakeholders, end-users, and customers.</li>
 	<li>Understand project profitability and deliver high investment returns.</li>
 	<li>Manage stakeholders.</li>
 	<li>Maintain communications, and promote collaboration amongst all team members.</li>
 	<li>Undertake on-the-spot tactical decisions and ensure the product development cycle is not hampered.</li>
 	<li>Participate in all Scrum events.</li>
 	<li>Maintain and update the product backlog.</li>
 	<li>Help the team to estimate the development time.</li>
 	<li>Accept user stories as ""Done"" during reviews and provide proper feedback.</li>
 	<li>Monitor the project progress, and advise constant adjustments in the process flow based upon important strategic objectives.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;",,Blog,
2930,What Is Agile Programming?,"Agile programming offers a unique approach towards software development and software project management. Agile helps teams to react positively to the unstable IT market-related conditions, where mostly software-based projects are subjected to during the course of their development. Solutions are offered through product incremental cycles known as “sprints” and the “inspect” and “adapt” <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileDevelopment"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">principles defining all Agile frameworks</a></span>

What Is Agile Programming? In short, Agile programming process provides development teams opportunities to assess how the project is “doing” and which “direction” it is heading to. Agile teams can correct the current process through its events and self-learning activities. Agile events offer an opportunity to evaluate and identify potential pitfalls and rectify erroneous processes and practices. The main development activity is carried out through incremental cycles known as sprints. Each sprint lasts for a predetermined time and cannot extend. The software product is “broken down” into its constituent features and functionalities. During the daily sprints, a few important products feature having high business values are taken up for development by the team. Each day, the team collaborates and works jointly to develop the features. At the end of the sprint, “shippable” and bug-free product features are <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">submitted for approval to the product owner</a></span> and stakeholders who okay the “development”. Sprints are repeated until all product features and functionalities are developed. In the end, each deployable feature and functionality is integrated to form a “working” release of the product envisioned by stakeholders.

In Agile, development is carried out from the end users perspective. Agile believes that customers and clients should remain closely involved with the development activity and confirm the development carried out by the development team. It is very important that product features should be developed in “short bursts” of development activity – the daily sprints – on a consistent basis, and presented to the stakeholders. This is because Agile principles focus upon customer satisfaction and consistent delivery of business value in the project.
<h2>Agile programming</h2>
Agile programming can be very adaptive and dynamic in nature. The main values, which define Agile programming, are:

<img class=""size-full wp-image-2933 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/what-is-agile-programming.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Customer satisfaction</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The highest priority should be to satisfy the client, or the customer, through the continuous and early delivery of valuable product features. Features are developed and added to the product through the product incremental cycles - sprints - and submitted to the customer for approval. Agile emphasizes customer satisfaction at all times.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Adapting to changing requirements</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile welcomes change in the product design or functioning – even late in the development cycle – based upon the client’s and end users requirements. Changes are generally carried out on the basis of feedback received from the client, and in accordance to the inputs received from end users who represent market-based “requirements” and business values.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>3. Frequent delivery</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Product features should be delivered on a frequent basis through sprints lasting from seven to ten days – ideally. Frequent delivery of feature increments encourages quick client feedback. Agile responds positively to feedback. Quicker feedback helps in increasing the business value of product features.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>4. Working together</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile teams collaborate and work as a single “unit” while pursuing project objectives. Shared ideas and resources help to increase productivity and project value.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>5. Motivated individuals</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">One of the biggest factors affecting the productivity levels of a project is the motivation levels of the team members. Agile team members should be self-motivated and open to new ideas and thoughts.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>6. Face-to-face interaction</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Personal or face-to-face interactions are the best form of communication. Personal interactions lead to increased and more effectual communications. Improved communication levels in return result in better solutions and understanding of project related problems and requirements.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>7. Measure progress through work</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">In Agile, the best way to check or measure progress is by delivering frequent and consistent product features development through the sprint cycles. The best way to “measure” project’s progress is to deliver shippable development to the client on a regular basis – and frequently.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>8. Maintaining pace</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The software project should proceed at a constant pace to meet the release date. All events and activities in Agile are time boxed and cannot be extended the time allotted to them.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>9. Simplicity</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The simpler a process, easier it is to follow it. Agile focuses on keeping its processes simple and straightforward so they can be more effective and implementable.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>10. Self-organization</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The Agile framework does not encourage autocratic behavior or delegation of authority from senior members. Rather it suggests self-organization. Team members should realize their responsibilities and organize themselves without anyone having to instruct them. Self-organization also leads to self-management.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>11. Inspect and adapt</strong></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Perhaps the most important principles in Agile, “inspect” and “adapt” are incorporated into the framework to support the self-correction and self-organization Agile virtues. It is important to identify factors affecting the product value and adapt to the changes to the product design and development activity can be improved to make the product more competitive and successful in the market.</p>",,Blog,
2931,When To 'Start' Developing A User Story And Why Stories Often Remain Incomplete At The End Of Sprints,"<h1>User stories and the product owner</h1>
During the sprint planning event, the product owner proposes new product features for development purposes while the development team negotiates with him/her to accept the user stories. It is an important scrum event since it forms the base of all development activities in Agile and Scrum, and gives birth to the product developmental cycles – the sprints – that commence almost immediately after the event. The product owner supports the product vision, and one of his duties is to ensure that stories having high business values are developed in the sprint just about to begin. POs tend to push development teams so stories do not remain incomplete at the end of sprints. There is nothing more “damaging” than an incomplete sprint in Scrum – it adds on to development backlog and reduces the team velocity.
<h1>Why user stories remain incomplete</h1>
In practice, the development team performs under a certain degree of pressure since the tasks have taken up by the team members have to be completed within time. Developers generally prefer to take up easier tasks for development first. The idea is to complete as many numbers of development tasks as possible within the shortest possible time so the team velocity can be increased. However, in the process, developers also tend to follow a practice not recommended from the development point of view – taking up new tasks for development and leaving the current task unfinished because it is consuming more time, is difficult to complete, or there is some problem associated with its development. This is not a good development, but people still follow it at times to show they are “productive”. Productivity is generally thought about in terms of how much work has been completed by a particular team member and marking tasks as “Completed” is a great way to indicate that you are productive. However, it should not be done at the cost of leaving tasks unfinished. It can lead to even more stressful conditions at the far end of the sprint when team members suddenly realize there are incomplete tasks pending and very little time available to develop them.
<h1>What should be done?</h1>
So how is it possible to avoid these type of practices in Scrum where work is not completed in a proper manner, or at a proper time? Should the Scrum process be changed to monitor and check these type of activities? Should the Scrum Master closely monitor the implementation and do something he or she is not supposed to do – micromanage the development process? Actually, the solution can be very simple. The team should be made to understand and follow when to “start” with something, and when to “stop” doing it. It is not difficult to do, and what is more important, it helps to deliver business value to the client – and that too in time. In fact, if the team understand when to “start” with something, it becomes easy to determine when to “stop” doing something that is currently underway since you cannot work on two or more tasks simultaneously.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Keep it simple and straightforward</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The condition is simply – complete the current task and subsequently start with a new one. If the task is difficult to complete by the developer, the team should hold a brief meeting to discuss the issue and make a mental note to include the particular issue in the retrospective sessions held after the sprint has been completed. The point should also be reported in the daily stand upheld the next day. The inspect and adapt principles should be followed to support the self-correction process. Once a solution is found for the issue, it should be implemented immediately, and the team should learn from the experience.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""size-full wp-image-2934 alignnone"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/when-to-start-developing-a-user-story.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""474"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">It is important to know about factors which can possibly lead to situations where a team member might be compelled to leave a task undone:</p>

<h1>Calculating the team velocity</h1>
It is important to know how productive the team is, and what the team can accomplish with regards to development within a sprint. Many times, the Scrum team does not put in enough efforts, or take the velocity parameter seriously. The PO is tempted to include as many stories as possible in the sprint to reduce the total number of iterations. It is essential to meet the release date, and if more stories can be developed in a sprint, the project can be completed well within time. In the haste, the development team takes up more workload that it can possibly handle. This is a scenario typical of teams new to Scrum.

If the current team velocity is properly identified and known, a correct number of product backlog items can be included in the sprint backlog during the sprint planning event. The PO should honor the current team velocity and suggest a more realistic number of stories that the team is capable of developing in the sprint. The team should not be pushed into accepting more stories than it can possibly handle. While working under stressful conditions, the developers may not have enough time to carry out unit tests which could lead to regression later on.
<h1>Learning from the retrospective</h1>
What is so unique about Scrum is that it supports the inspect and adapt principles which are characteristic of all Agile frameworks.<a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileDevelopment"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #0000ff;""> Agile allocates a special event known as the “sprint retrospective”</span></a> to look back and reflect upon the Scrum process – To identify potential pitfalls and find out why the team faced problematic situations, why they occurred, and how they could have been avoided. The retrospective offers a learning experience so the team can self-correct itself. Teams should take the retrospective sessions seriously and hold brainstorming sessions to set up proper call-to-actions and work out effective self-correcting processes. Any problem faced by the team during the sprint can be discussed openly during the sessions and workflow can be altered to ensure that the same situation does not occur again.
<h1>Implementing call-to-actions effectively</h1>
Once possible pitfalls and root causes of problems have been identified, discussed, and solutions worked out, proper call-to-action should be defined and implemented so the team does not face the same issue again. Very often teams simply fail to design properly follow- up plans, or if they are worked out, the team fails to implement them properly. This renders the self-correction process ineffective. Moreover, the inspect and adapt principles remain unfulfilled. It is important to react to inputs during the retrospectives. The inputs should result in actionable outputs in the form of call-to-action. The team should implement what has been decided to do at the end of the meeting.
<h1>Correctly estimating user stories</h1>
The product owner carries out the estimation activity when the product backlog items are defined in the backlog. Generally, the PO estimates the user stories and is often aided by the Scrum Master and the development team during the estimation process. While the PO owns the product backlog, the development team, in fact, owns the sprint backlog, and at the time of sprint planning meeting, the team negotiates with the PO how many stories it can complete in the scheduled sprint. Both the PO and the team work out the total number of stories to be developed based on how the stories have been estimated. A sprint may include a few stories and fewer tasks if the complexity of the stories is large, and more time is required to develop them.

A common problem faced by teams in the early instances of Scrum implementation i.e. when teams are new to the Scrum process is they often fail to estimate stories correctly. Scrum advocates relative estimation rather than estimating absolute values in terms of how complex the development could be. This can prove to be confusing to the team in the early stages since people are more used to absolute estimations. The entire team should understand the estimation process and correctly estimate the stories before accepting them for development purposes.",,Blog,
2968,How to write user stories?,"<p class=""article-text"">User stories in Scrum are a short description of a particular product feature or functionality to be developed in the project. User stories are generally written from the end user’s perspective. This is important because Agile concentrates upon the requirements of people who are actually going to use a product or its features. This generally includes the end user, but stakeholders can also request “feature” based requirements if they feel it can enhance the product’s worth in the market. Sometimes, team members may feel a product feature can be further enhanced and made more “user-friendly” if it contains an added functionality. Therefore, they may request additional functionality to be included in a feature. Since user stories are important in Scrum, they should be written in a specific manner to ensure they are effective and useful.</p>
<p class=""article-text"">How to write user stories? Stories can be written in many ways. Scrum is a framework, therefore, it does not prescribe exact definitions and rules about how activities should be actually carried out in a project. Rather it provides guidelines and Agile teams have to implement those guidelines in their projects to avail Agile benefits. Generally, user stories follow a “standard” format used by most professionals.</p>
As a <strong>&lt;user&gt;</strong> I want <strong>&lt;some activity&gt;</strong> so that <strong>&lt;some result or goal&gt;</strong>

For example:

As a <strong>&lt;Smart phone retailer&gt;</strong> I want <strong>&lt;to create an online smartphone gallery&gt;</strong> so that <strong>&lt;I can sell my smart phones&gt;</strong>

Traditionally, user stories used to be written down on index cards and “pasted” on Scrum whiteboards so every team member could refer to them from time to time. Some organisations still follow traditional Scrum practices and use the whiteboards. Another option is to use computerised or digital Scrum tools or applications which offer features to create and manage user stories in the project.
<h2 class=""article-title2"">What to focus upon while writing user stories</h2>
User stories are very important. It is important to keep a few points in mind while writing them. It is imperative that the stories be useful, developable, meaningful, and testable. Moreover, they should possess a certain “business value” once they are developed.
<h3><strong>Should be valuable</strong></h3>
Each story represents a product feature or a functionality. The feature should be “valuable” i.e. it should have a certain importance or “worth” from the market point of view. Meaningful user stories that result in useful and important functionality from the end user’s perspective carry more business value and make the product more “valuable”. Stories should be written such that the features they “include” are used more often by end users. They should have a certain “rationale” and justify why they are needed. When user stories carry a high value, the final product automatically assumes a certain “market worth” once all of the stories are integrated to form a working “release” of the product.
<h3><strong>Target a particular “user”</strong></h3>
Agile Scrum focuses primarily on end users and stakeholders. They decide how much a particular feature is worth and whether it should be developed or not. Stories are generally written from the end user’s perspective. However, if the development team feels a certain feature or functionality can increase the product’s worth or value, or if the functionality is needed for technical reasons, it can suggest stories and have them<span style=""color: #3366ff;""> “accepted” by the product owner</span> for development purposes. Each story should focus upon a specific end user or a customer. Stories can be effectively developed only if they are written keeping a certain “audience” or user in mind. That way, it becomes easy to define the “need” aspect, and how the story should ideally function. Moreover, each story, when designed, should have a specific objective and reason why it is needed, and why it should exist in the product backlog.
<h3><strong>Have clear “acceptance criteria”</strong></h3>
Stories are written to fulfill a certain objective. It is highly important to adjudge whether a particular user story can fulfill the purpose for which it has been developed. Acceptance criteria are unique conditions or benchmark parameters linked with each user story. After a story is developed, it is “checked” whether the “acceptance” conditions are successfully met, and whether the story functions in the manner as originally envisioned. It becomes meaningless if the story cannot satisfy the primary objective for which it has been written or designed. An acceptance criterion helps to determine if a story has been developed successfully, and is deployable or “shippable”. In Scrum, only shippable user stories should be developed through the daily sprints.
<h3><strong>Should be testable</strong></h3>
Scrum stresses upon bug-free functionality. Each story should be linked with certain acceptance criteria and should be testable. Stories designed to develop product functionality and features should be linked with proper technical “acceptance” criteria so they can be tested. Other stories concentrating upon documentation, creation of user manual, online help features etc. i.e. functionality which is not “codeable” but needed directly or indirectly to support, or complement, the development activity should be associated with certain quality approval parameters so that they can assume a certain standard and “quality” status once they are created. In short, every story – technical or otherwise - should be testable, and tested thoroughly before being accepted as “Done”.
<h3><strong>Be small and easily developable</strong></h3>
It becomes easy to <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" target=""_blank"">manage and develop user stories</a></span> if they are concise, or small. Smaller stories can be easily taken up for development during the daily sprints, and since they can be easily tested, the sprint cycle can sustain the team velocity through the development and delivery of small product functionality. Consistent and sustained product increments are possible only when user stories are small, manageable, and easily developable.
<h3><strong>Described properly in details</strong></h3>
A user story includes several “parts” i.e. its description, serial or index number, explanation, its business value in terms of story points, the “nature” of the story – whether the story is a “bug” to be rectified or a standard product feature/functionality – and any other information which can make the user story more “understandable”. Well defined and clearly stated stories can make development activity easy since the team becomes quite clear about how the feature is to be developed, and how the acceptance criteria should be ideally met to make the stories shippable.",,Blog,
2976,What is user stories?,"In Scrum, a user story is a short and simple description of a product feature. A stakeholder, an end user, or a team member may request a feature. In Scrum, the product is “manufactured” by developing the product features existing as user stories in the <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">product backlog</a></span> – a master list containing all functionality and features required to develop a working model of the product – through the daily product incremental cycles known as sprints.

What is user stories? In simple terms, a user story can be understood as an independent product “part” that is required to be developed by programmers or developers in the daily sprint cycle. In Scrum, the entire product is broken down into its constituent features and functionalities. Each feature or functionality is described as a user story in the product backlog. At the time of development, few user stories having high business values are taken from the top of the product backlog (the backlog has to be “groomed” or prioritized as per the business value or “market worth” of each story “contained” in it) and transferred to a “sprint backlog”. The sprint backlog is “processed” for development in the sprint cycle. Each working day, developers “work” upon a particular story and develop it using a programming language (C++, Visual Basic, etc.) or a web development platform (PHP, Java, Joomla, Ruby, etc.). Each sprint “extends” for a predetermined period. It cannot be extended. The user story has to be developed before the sprint ends. Once a story is developed, it is presented for “verification” to the product owner and stakeholders. The story is accepted as “Done” when they okay the development. Each story, when developed, results in a fully functional, bug-free, and deployable product feature. After all user stories are developed, they are “integrated” to form a working version of the final deployable product.
<h2 class=""article-title2"">What to consider while writing Scrum stories</h2>
User stories are <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">essential to Scrum and they help to organize</a></span> and prioritize the development activity. Ideally, while writing Scrum stories, the fundamental Agile virtues, which are:
<ul>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Continuous delivery of product features</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Face-to-face interactions between the team and end-users</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Collaboration</li>
</ul>
Should be “utilized” to avail an “in-depth” insight as to what the feature really is, and what should it actually consist of to be useful to the end-user.

The story should focus upon:

<em><strong>Actor</strong></em>
The person or thing (noun) using the feature or service.
<em><strong>Narrative</strong></em>
What is required, or needed to be done (verb).
<em><strong>Goal</strong></em>
The outcome or result desired out of the activity.

In Agile, <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" target=""_blank"">user stories</a> should also include the acceptance criteria – “what” should be done, and in what “manner” - for quality assurance purposes. Each story when developed should be thoroughly tested and bug-free. In addition, stories have to be documented and should be “shippable” i.e. ready for deployment to the end user.
<h2>How to write user stories</h2>
It is not difficult to write user stories. A team member may write a user story in a number of ways, however, for the stories to be effective and usable, it is imperative they are written from the end user’s point-of-view and perspective. Scrum focuses primarily on the end user and stakeholders. Scrum events and activities are designed primarily keeping these two entities in mind. When user stories are written from the user’s point of view, they end up reflecting a true picture of what its features ideally should be from the market’s perspective. That way, stories can become more useful, effective, and possess a certain “business value”

Typically, user stories should follow a certain “format” while they are drafted:

As a <strong>[some type of user]</strong> I want <strong>[to do “something” or fulfill a certain objective]</strong> so that <strong>[something can “occur”]</strong>

For example:

As a <strong>[product promoter]</strong> I want <strong>[to upload a video from my local machine]</strong> so that <strong>[any user can view it]</strong>

From the software developer’s perspective, a user story ought to be written as:
As a <strong>[role]</strong> I want <strong>[feature]</strong> so that <strong>[goal]</strong>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;",,Blog,
2992,Scrum Tool,"QuickScrum helps to unlock the power of Agile Scrum into your projects – whether you are a “seasoned” Agile professional or a novice - just starting with Scrum – you can get started with Scrum implementation and get your projects “going” right away!

The <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ScrumTool"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Scrum tool</a></span> plays an indispensable part in planning and developing your software projects.
<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">It can help you:</h3>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-60"">
 	<li>Create and estimate user stories.</li>
 	<li>Effortlessly create and maintain product backlogs.</li>
 	<li>Define and design your sprints.</li>
 	<li>Identify team progress and velocity through dynamically generated burndown and velocity charts.</li>
 	<li>Visualise the entire team activity on a “single” platform.</li>
 	<li>Avail customized reports to get an insight about your project’s status.</li>
</ul>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-3013 alignnone"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/scrum-tool-article-main.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""409"" />
<h2>QuickScrum <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Scrum tool</a></span> advantages</h2>
The tool offers many benefits and is a “must have” for all Scrum whiteboard users. The tool offers several facilities and features that are not found, and not possible to have while using a traditional whiteboard. It offers an “automated” Scrum implementation solution for the entire team.
<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">1. Search anything at your fingertips</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">A trademark feature of the tool, very few other Scrum tools offers a facility wherein you can search for any type of project related information without leaving your current page. Envisioned and designed specially to aid the Scrum team, the search features to ensure you have quick and easy access to any aspect or information pertaining to your ongoing project. Find, check, edit, and delete whatever you need to – instantly!</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. Manage product backlogs of any size and complexity</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Product backlogs form the “heart” of a Scrum based software project. The tool supports the creation of new user stories, their modification, and removal. It is very easy to create, search, and list out user stories based upon your specific searching criteria. The product backlog management supports drag-and-drop features which help in the backlog grooming activity. It is easy to carry out the backlog refinement sessions with the entire team using the backlog management features. What’s more, you can create and maintain product backlogs of any size and complexity.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">3. Plan multiple sprints simultaneously</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Multiple sprints can be designed and planned on a single page.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">4. Access Scrum taskboard from anywhere</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Very essential for distributed or disjoint development teams, the tool offers a common, shared access to all team members. Each member can log on and view instant updates on the taskboard. The taskboard helps to foster collaboration through live updates of activity carried out by other team members. The taskboard features can be accessed from anywhere.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">5. Live Burndown charts</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Generate burndown charts that display the most current team progress. Compare ideal team progress with your current team velocity and monitor projects in a dynamic way. An essential tool for product owners and scrum masters to keep track of current team activity and progress.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">6. Instant team activity log</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Whatever activity you do – whether the tool users create a new user story, add, or update tasks – everything is “logged” and displayed “live” in the activity log section of the tool. See what other team members are currently up to and “doing” in the tool.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">7. Detailed velocity charts</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Informative and visually appealing velocity charts exhibit the current team velocity.</p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">8. Resources workload and summary</h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The QuickSCrum tool displays tasks linked to individual resources and their task statuses, in terms of time available, associated with each team member. The resource workload summary is exhibited, so it can be identified how much additional work can be taken up and completed by the programmers.</p>",,Blog,
2993,Breaking Down The Agile Manifesto And Understanding It,"The popularity of <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Agile frameworks, especially XP and Scrum</span></a><span style=""color: #0000ff;"">,</span> is increasing by the day, and more and more organizations are deciding in favor of using these frameworks to execute their projects. Agile proposes many advantages – frequent and reliable product increments, delivering product features having high business values, and above all – delivery of shippable product features even while the development process is underway. However, a major issue with Agile and all Agile based frameworks is that the framework has to be properly understood and later implemented in the project. Moreover, the implementation should be carried out keeping Agile principles in mind. More than often, businesses fail to benefit from Agile simply because the management has not understood the basic principles behind the framework, or has failed to implement those principles in a proper manner.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3000 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/breaking-down-the-a-manifesto-and-understanding-it-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />
<h3><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.agilealliance.org/the-alliance/the-agile-manifesto/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">The Agile manifesto</a></span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Since it was developed in 2001, thousands of individuals including project managers, software professionals, and C level executives have endorsed the Agile manifesto. Hundreds of books and references have been written to discuss what the guide has to say, and how it should be interpreted. The manifesto has drastically changed the way in which organizations and individuals develop software projects. The manifesto packs a lot of punch for its 68 words which have been written by 17 software professionals over two days meet at a ski resort.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The principles of Agile are stated in the official guide written by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. The guide functions as a bible for all Agile groups and Agile professionals. People refer to the guide when in doubt, or when they wish to clarify a particular point during Agile framework implementation. For individuals interested in Agile, it is very important to understand the guide and interpret what it has to say.</p>

<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px; text-align: center;""><a class=""link-hover"" href=""http://www.agilealliance.org/the-alliance/the-agile-manifesto/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Manifesto for Agile Software Development</span></u></a></h4>
<p style=""text-align: center;""><i>We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do</i></p>
<p style=""text-align: center;""><i>it.</i></p>
<p style=""text-align: center;""><i>Through this work we have come to value:</i>
<i>Individuals and interactions over processes and tools</i>
<i>Working software over comprehensive documentation</i>
<i>Customer collaboration over contract negotiation</i>
<i>Responding to change over following a plan</i>
<i>That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.</i></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>We</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">To start with, the manifesto states “We” i.e. it emphasis that Agile is not a solo endeavor. It involves group activity and people have to collaborate while working, at every level, and at every instant. Development teams, project teams, and organization have to work jointly as a composite unit and rely upon each other for completing work.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>are uncovering</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Here, the guide suggests that Agile does not offer the one-size-fits-all type of solutions. Agile cannot be standardized and implemented in a project. People involved with Agile processes have to put in efforts and strive to seek answers through discussions and collaborations. Answers have to be discovered through experimentation, and the “adapt” and “inspect” principles which are so dear to Agile. It is important to explore new ideas and eliminate those activities which are counterproductive or not effective.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>better ways of developing software</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Nobody is perfect. Also, no framework or methodology can be perfect. Instead of concentrating upon perfection, the Agile team ought to concentrate more on improving the current work process and finding better ways of doing things. Small improvements, gradual but consistent, should be incorporated in the process to make it more efficient and result oriented.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>by doing it</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The bottom line – build the software and deliver it. The best way of finding out whether something works or not is to build it and try it out. Failures should be seen as learning lessons, and the team should learn from them. Better methods of working originate from experimentation and the learning process. Rather than spending undue time thinking over whether something will work properly or not, it is better to do it and learn from the results availed through the implementation.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>and helping others do it.</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile is all about sharing. People have to share their ideas and experiences with each other. It is not required to make a mistake and learn from it – one can learn from the mistakes made by others. Knowledge should be shared and opinions sought for. Senior team members should try to foster a healthy working environment, and act as mentors for those new to Agile.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Through this work we have come to value:</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The manifesto was envisioned and drafted by 17 seasoned professionals closely involved with various project development methodologies and processes. They represent the core market requirements. Through their experiences and knowledge, the manifesto was designed to target what clients really desire in a project, and how the team should function to satisfy those requirements in the best possible manner by delivering time bound projects having high business values. Agile principles should be taken seriously and valued by all concerned.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Individuals and interactions over processes and tools</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Bob Martin has correctly described Agile as “a set of values based on trust and respect for each other and promoting organizational models based on people, collaboration, and building the types of organizational communities in which we would want to work.” The Agile team should primarily focus upon working together while developing the project, and ensure that a productive and healthy working environment prevails at the place of work. If anything – tools, processes, or activity – disrupts the way in which individuals closely work together, serious thoughts and considerations should be given to the issue, and the impediment should be removed without wasting further time.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Working software over comprehensive documentation</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">All Agile frameworks including Scrum focus upon the delivery of working software releases through product increment cycles. The main goal is to deliver product features on a frequent and consistent basis to the client. Resources and time should not be wasted over lengthy documentation. Instead, the team should focus on delivering the business value to the client. If you have to decide between spending time and efforts over completing the documentation formalities, and in delivering the software, you should opt for the latter. The reason why Agile discourages comprehensive documentation is that people would then require more and more time to read the stuff, analyze what they have understood, and spend even more time wondering what to do next. As a result, they would actually find less time to work on the project and complete it.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Customer collaboration over contract negotiation</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The client is the most important entity in Agile. The process invites stakeholders’ participation and encourages them to become involved with the development process. Agile proposes to deliver high quality working software that meets the actual, and exact, requirements as specified by the client. The team should concentrate more on collaborating with the customer and delivering the business value, rather than sticking to contract conditions and legal formalities. It means that the team should try to focus on delivering what the customer really needs rather than honoring and following what the contract says.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Responding to change over following a plan</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile is recommended and ideally suited for developing projects prone to changing market conditions. It thrives in situations where the product design is liable to change with time. Changes occurring in the features and functionality associated with the product can be easily incorporated in the process flow, and developed by the team. The unique aspect about Agile is that the changes can be incorporated even when the team is developing the product, and changes can be carried out even late in the product development cycle. The team should be positive towards changes and welcome it. Changes offer an opportunity to deliver something that is even better than what was originally planned.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Agile is a framework. The principles have to be implemented in a workflow or development process, to mold it so it can be more effective. Agile does not suggest you do away with traditional tools and development processes. It merely offers a way of making your existing development process more effective and productive through its principles. The ultimate objective is to deliver a valuable product to the client and foster good relations with him or her.</p>",,Blog,
3020,Agile Software Development Model,"<h2>An overview of the Agile<strong> software development model</strong></h2>
In Agile small teams collaborate and work jointly to develop the product in “stages”. The product is not developed as a “whole”. Rather, it is segregated into its fundamental components i.e. the software product is broken down into its features and functionality, and the development of the product occurs in “bits” and “pieces”. At a time, few product features are taken up for development and developed in incremental product cycles known as sprints.

How does the Agile software development model work? In Agile, the actual development process starts with the creation of a “main” list containing all the product features. The list is called the product backlog. Each “item” in the backlog is explicitly defined, and explained, as to how it should be ideally developed. The list items are known as product backlog items or user stories. Once the backlog is created, a special event known as sprint planning meeting is held to plan the daily sprint. In the meeting, the product owner selects some of the important user stories from the product backlog and transfers them to a temporary “development” list known as the “sprint backlog”. The development team members distribute user stories amongst themselves based upon their levels of expertise. Product features are developed on a daily basis through the daily sprint cycles. At the end of the sprint, development is presented to the product owner and stakeholders for verification purposes. Once they Okay the development, it is accepted as “Done” and the entire sprint process is repeated by conducting another sprint planning meeting, and once again creating a unique sprint backlog that is “processed” to develop another “set” of product features. The sprint cycles are repeated until all the product features are developed. In the end, the features and functionality developed through the daily sprints are integrated to form the complete functional product that is ready for deployment.
<h2><strong>Main features of </strong>an Agile<strong> software model</strong></h2>
The Agile software model is simple and easy to understand.
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>The PO creates a prioritized list containing all product features and functionality – the product backlog.</li>
 	<li>At the time of sprint planning, the team selects a small “portion” from top of the product backlog and creates a sprint backlog for development purposes. The team decides which team member should develop which of the user stories i.e. the team members distribute work amongst themselves.</li>
 	<li>The team carries out the development activity through the daily sprints. The sprint duration is fixed, and the team members have to develop their tasks within the sprint period. A sprint cannot be extended.</li>
 	<li>The productivity offered through the daily sprints should be bug-free and “shippable” i.e. ready for deployment.</li>
 	<li>The sprint process ends with the review event which is closely followed by the retrospective sessions.</li>
 	<li>The scrum master ensures that the framework is properly followed by everyone on the team. He or she keeps the team focused and ensures that daily sprints are successfully completed.</li>
 	<li>The entire process cycle is repeated until all the product features are developed and the product is ready for deployment.</li>
</ul>
<h2><strong>Roles in the Agile software process model</strong></h2>
Three main roles that play an important part in the working of the Agile software process model are:

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3021 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/agile-software-development-model.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""684"" />
<h3>1. Product Owner</h3>
A <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">product owner “owns” the project</a></span> on behalf of stakeholders and project owners. The PO is primarily responsible for the success or failure of the entire project. The main responsibility of the PO is to support the product “vision” as seen by the stakeholders and nurture it in accordance with their wishes. The PO is also responsible for creating and maintaining the product backlog. The PO may seek the help of scrum master and team members to groom and maintain the backlog. Other responsibilities of the PO include designing the sprints, creating the sprint backlog (the sprint backlog is actually “owned” by the development team), verifying the development carried out in sprint review meetings, and supporting self-learning and self-correction sessions during the sprint retrospective meetings. The PO acts as an “interpreter” between the Agile team and the stakeholders. He or she tries to resolve problems by taking up issues and finding solutions for them that are acceptable by all.
<h3>2. Scrum Master</h3>
The scrum master is primarily responsible for supervising Agile Scrum implementation in the project. He or she does not take an active part in the development process but keeps an eye on how the team members work and implement Scrum. If the team faces any problems, the scrum master tries to resolve them. Certain problems and issues pertaining to stakeholder participation may be “transferred” to the PO for resolution. Typically, the scrum master should play a servant leader role and maintain harmonious and conducive working environment.
<h3>3. Development Team</h3>
The development team forms the “heart” of the Scrum process and is primarily responsible for developing product features through the product incremental cycles - sprints. At times, the teams may be disjointed or distributed. In such cases, each member, wherever he or she is currently located, should be aware of what is planned for development and put in efforts to collaborate and work together with other team members while developing the tasks taken up by him or her. The team may also work in “pairs”.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;",,Blog,
3027,Software planning process,"In Agile, the software planning process primarily depends upon a single key metric – the development team velocity. Team velocity represents the work done by the development team during a single iteration cycle. It is a changing, and evolving, “average” metric value used often during the software planning process – usually during the sprint planning sessions. The velocity provides an estimate of the team’s current capability to develop product features. The product owner makes extensive use of the velocity metric during the software planning process.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3030 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/software-planning-process.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""350"" />

The software planning process occurs in two stages – when the product is initially envisioned by the stakeholders and the entire project is planned and during the sprint planning sessions.
<h2>The project release and estimation</h2>
Project planning is not an elaborate process in Agile. It commences when the stakeholders or the client envisions a product having a certain monitory significance. The stakeholders convey their idea to the product owner – a person who represents their interests in the project – and instructs him or her to “plan” the project. All the dynamics pertaining to the project are carefully thought about and worked out by the PO and the stakeholders. One of the most important criteria is to estimate in how much time the project is likely to get completed. The PO is required to plan a tentative “release date” i.e. when the project is expected to be completed. Estimation and velocity metrics help the PO to set up a probable release date.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Estimation</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">The PO creates the product backlog</a></span>, which contains the list of user stories or product backlog items depicting the product features and functionality to be developed during the project. Each user story has a certain business value linked to it. In Agile, only features having high business values are developed so the project can maintain its market worth at all times. Each user story is estimated in the backlog. Depending upon its estimation, each story can be developed within a certain duration by the development team members. Since the team velocity is not available at the project’s onset, the PO assumes an arbitrary value for the velocity metric based upon his or her personal experience.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Velocity</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Velocity is the rate at which user stories are developed during the daily sprints – the product incremental cycles. The <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ProductBacklog"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">development activity can commence once the product backlog is created</a></span>. So, the very first sprint may have the velocity as zero on the first day of the first sprint cycle. As development is carried out daily in the sprint, the velocity starts increasing. The final velocity value can be “calculated” once an entire sprint is completed. As sprints keep on progressing and the features keep on being developed, the velocity metric assumes a more realistic value.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The estimation metric indicates how complicated and extensive the project is likely to be. The velocity metric conveys in how much time the team can develop the product. The PO balances these two metrics while providing the project release date.</p>

<h3>Sprint planning sessions</h3>
In Agile, the product is developed in bits and pieces through the product incremental cycles know as sprints. A sprint has to be “planned” before it can commence. This is done through the sprint planning meeting. During the meeting, the PO selects some of the high priority product backlog items and transfers them to the sprint backlog. This is where the estimation and velocity metrics come in. The PO cannot select the total number of items on a random basis. As per Agile principles, all the product items taken up for development in a sprint have to be completed by the time the sprint gets over. User stories should not remain incomplete at the end of sprints. If the PO misjudges and takes up more stories for development purposes than the team can handle, they are most likely to remain incomplete at the end of sprints. This is not acceptable in Agile.

On the other hand, if the PO selects fewer stories, the team will remain “free” and unoccupied at the far end of the sprint. It means the team is not performing at its full capacity – again not acceptable to Agile.

Therefore, it is important to balance the two factors – pick up enough stories so the team can handle it, and developing the stories in the correct manner so they can become “acceptable” once they are developed. The PO can achieve this balance by “adjusting” both metrics.",,Blog,
3028,What is Agile model in SDLC?,"The Agile development model is based upon the product incremental model. While discussing Agile in reference to software development, the software product features are developed through quickly repeating “production” cycles. Typically, small product increments are developed at the end of each cycle. As the cycles keep on repeating, more and more features are developed and functionality is ”added” up towards the final product release. Development carried out in each cycle is thoroughly tested for any designing or development flaws, bugs, and instances of regression likely to occur. Only “shippable” product increments are to be developed through the incremental cycles to ensure that high quality of the product features is maintained at all times.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3029 alignnone"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/what-is-agile-model-in-sdlc.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""400"" />

What is an Agile model in SDLC? In a nutshell, SDLC stands for “System Development Life Cycle”. Since the Agile model is based upon SDLC structure, it means Agile exhibits features typical of SDLC methods of development. The actual production process occurs through product increment cycles known as “sprints”.

There are several frameworks and methodologies under the Agile “umbrella”. They include Scrum, Extreme Programming or “XP”, Kanban etc.
<h2>Advantages of Agile SDLC</h2>
There are several advantages of Agile SDLC model.
<ul>
 	<li>Increased customer or client satisfaction levels are availed by the rapid and continuous delivery of bug-free product features.</li>
 	<li>People and personal interactions are considered more important than processes and tools. This improves team involvement and increases productivity since each person feels responsible for his or her work.</li>
 	<li>Fully functional product features having high business values are delivered on a frequent basis.</li>
 	<li>Personal or face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication. Personal involvement leads to accountability. Greater accountability results in increased productivity.</li>
 	<li>The client and project owners are closely involved with the development work. They remain constantly appraised of all development activity. They clear the Story features. This can lead to the completion of successful projects.</li>
 	<li>The team makes constant efforts to self-learn and improve the current working process.</li>
 	<li>Changing market conditions and changes in the product design can be easily and effortlessly incorporated into the production cycle – even late in the product development cycle.</li>
</ul>
<h2>When should Agile SDLC model be used?</h2>
There are several indications of using Agile SDLC model. Perhaps, the most common reason why an Agile model is used is that changes can be readily incorporated into the project design. If the nature of the product were such that some, or many of the product features are likely to change over time, and the changes need to be incorporated in the product development cycle, Agile SDLC would be recommended. Agile frameworks are specially designed to incorporate changes – even late during the product design and production.

Secondly, almost new “extra” cost is incurred while incorporating the changes. The product is developed in an incremental manner. If a particular feature needs to be changed, the user story can be simply “updated” with the new acceptance criterion and feature description. During sprint planning, the story can be picked up for development purposes and “manufactured”.

Agile pre-supposes that the product is going to “change” with time and the entire model is based upon this assumption. New development can be easily introduced and existing can be effortlessly changed by the development team. At the most, the team loses a couple of day’s work depending upon the scope and nature of change. This is not possible with traditional Waterfall methods.

No special planning is required to incorporate the changes. A routine Agile process is more than sufficient to cater to the changes. The model is not required to be changed or modified in any manner to support the changes.",,Blog,
3033,What is Agile model?,"In the past, during the late 1990’s, many development methodologies started attracting public attention since they proposed a better way of developing projects. Each methodology or framework was inherently based upon traditional and old ideas as to what ideal project development ought to include. However, they all had one thing in common. There was a fundamental need to collaborate, and the development team should interact closely with the project owners to build a product that could compete and sustain itself in a competitive market. Moreover, product development should be quick, with time least spent upon working protocols and responding to authority. As a result, the concept of a tight, self-organizing team capable of delivering timed productivity and early product releases emerged. The Agile model is based upon these market-oriented needs and is specially designed to produce quick product increments through repetitive and sustained product development cycles known as sprints.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3034 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/manual-vs-computerised-s-p-m-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""369"" />

What is an Agile model? It is not that difficult to understand Agile. Agile believes that each project should be handled uniquely, and existing development methods should be “molded” to suit the project development process in the best manner possible. In Agile, each activity is time-boxed and has to be completed within the time specially allotted for it. Agile processes should not extend the time limit under any circumstances. The project is not developed “as a whole”. Rather, it is broken down into its constituent parts – the product features and functionalities – and each part is developed independently. Development is carried out in product incremental cycles known as daily sprints. Each sprint should result in a successful “feature” release that is tested, bug-free, and deployable. The productivity “churned” out at the end of the<span style=""color: #3366ff;""> sprint is verified by the product owner</span> and stakeholders. The daily sprints are repeated until all the constituent product features are developed. Once developed, all features are integrated to form a complete working product.
<h2><strong>Incremental and iterative nature of an Agile model</strong></h2>
The Agile model is highly flexible. It provides an opportunity to “change” the direction even after the development process begins. It is possible to incorporate the changes at any time while the development activity is underway – even late in the product development cycle. This is possible through rapid development and delivery of “shippable” product features through the incremental sprint cycles.
The Agile model is incremental and iterative.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Why incremental?</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The entire product is not manufactured at once. It is produced in bits and pieces through the sprint cycles. Small “portions” of the product, in the form of features and functionality, keep on being developed by the team on a consistent basis. They “add” on to the product. Once all the features are developed, they can be “summed” up by integrating them to form a workable product. The product is built in small increments.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Why iterative?</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">The sprint development should be consistent and sustained. Sprint cycles have to keep on repeating until sufficient sprints are carried out and sufficient product features are developed. Since the sprint cycles have to be repetitive, the Agile development process is iterative.</p>

<h2><strong>Agile process models</strong></h2>
The Agile ‘umbrella” includes several frameworks and methodologies. The most popular Agile process models are Scrum, XP, Kanban, etc. Agile Scrum and XP are most commonly used for developing software projects.
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>1. Extreme Programming “XP”</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Typically featuring very short and frequent product releases, the XP development cycle is perhaps the “shortest” of all Agile process and models. However, in Agile, catering to exceptions is a part and parcel of the framework, and so the XP sprint cycle may extend beyond its normal tenure of seven to ten days. XP also features paired programming i.e. two or more developers collaborate and work together to develop the user stories (product features). The team develops and writes the product features. Emphasis is given to time estimation i.e. each feature development has to be estimated and completed within its stipulated time. The acceptance criterions or conditions required to mark the development as “complete” are carefully stated and followed during the development activity. Even though XP supports changes to the product design since it falls within the Agile umbrella, it is generally preferred for shorter software development projects where the product design is not likely to undergo major “structural” changes.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>2. Scrum</strong></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Scrum offers a way for small and large development teams to collaborate and work together and develop the product. It is especially recommended when the product design is likely to change over time. The framework is specially designed to support all types of changes – big and small alike – even late in the product development cycle. Development is achieved through product incremental cycles – sprints – on a consistent and sustained basis. The product is manufactured through product increments, in bits and pieces. Each piece is designed and developed independently. It is thoroughly tested and documented before it is “released”. The development process is fundamentally based upon the feedback received from other team members and the stakeholders. The product is designed and built exactly as per the client’s vision. The client is closely involved with the development team during the product development process and confirms the productivity offered by the team.</p>",,Blog,
3039,The manifesto for Agile software development,"Agile was envisioned in February 2001, when seventeen software professionals met at a distant ski resort in Snowbird, Utah. Besides skiing, they also spent some time reflecting upon how the core principles of Agile should be defined, and how Agile should be used for software development purposes. Although these professionals were coming from varied backgrounds, and they had their subtle differences, they all had one thing in common. They shared a common objective of uncovering better ways to develop software and help others do the same. Even while their opinions differed as to what Agile principles ideally ought to be like and include, they agreed upon some common values which formed the <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://agilemanifesto.org/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">base of the Agile manifesto</a></span>
<h4>The manifesto for Agile software development includes four main values.</h4>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Individuals and interactions over processes and tools</li>
 	<li>Working software over comprehensive documentation</li>
 	<li>Customer collaboration over contract negotiation</li>
 	<li>Responding to change over following a plan</li>
</ul>
<h2 class=""article-title2""><strong>Agile software development manifesto principles</strong></h2>
The <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Agile software development manifesto</a></span> includes twelve principles.
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li class=""article-text"">The highest priority is to satisfy the client, or the customer, by delivering valuable software to him or her on a sustained and consistent basis.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Be open to changes in the product design or requirements – even late in the development process – and incorporate those changes into the project.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Deliver working product feature releases on a frequent basis, ranging from a week to even months, through the product development cycles, with a special emphasis upon shorter product releases.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The client and stakeholders should collaborate daily and work together with the development team during the project.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The project should include motivated individuals. They should be given a conducive environment and all the support to develop the project. They should also be trusted to “get the work done”.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The most effective and efficient way to convey or share information is through face-to-face interactions.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The main objective is to deliver working software features. The success of the project should be “measured” on the basis of how frequently, and how many product features are delivered to the client.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The development process should be consistent and regular. Every team member should maintain a constant “pace” at all times.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Continuous attention should be paid to technical excellence and sound project design.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The Agile process should be simple and straightforward so it can be easily followed.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Best architectures, sound product designs, and requirements should emerge from self-motivated and self-organizing teams.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The team should constantly reflect upon how to improve its working and find new ways and means to complete the project on time, and in a successful manner.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
3044,What is Agile method?,"<p class=""article-text"">The Agile method can be understood as a model based upon the incremental product development process with a special focus upon process adaptability and client satisfaction. A cross-function development team collaborates to develop the product through incremental product cycles which keep on repeating on a consistent basis until the entire product is developed.</p>
<p class=""article-text"">What is the Agile method? In Agile, the product is “manufactured” through incremental cycles known as sprints. The entire product is not manufactured “at a go” like it is done in traditional Waterfall method. Instead, the product is <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" target=""_blank"">built in “bits” and “pieces” through sprint cycles</a>. At the end of each sprint, “some” product features and functionality is developed by the team. Each feature is properly tested, documented, and presented to the product owner and stakeholders for “verification” purposes. Once they Okay the development, it is accepted as “Done”. The sprint cycles are repeated until all the product features are developed. Subsequently, the features and functionality are integrated to form a complete working product.</p>

<h2 class=""article-title2"">Fundamental principles followed in Agile methodology process</h2>
In a true sense, Agile is not a methodology, but a framework. However, many individuals still refer to Agile as a “methodology”. The Agile process is much different as compared to traditional development approaches like Waterfall. Agile believes that each process should be “handled” uniquely based upon the nature and complexity of the product to be developed. Moreover, each project has to be “tailored” as per Agile principles to avail the maximum benefit in terms of team productivity and a successful project release. Therefore, Agile has to be “implemented” in a project.
<p class=""article-text"">A few fundamental principles define the Agile methodology process.</p>
<p class=""article-text""><strong>Individuals and interactions</strong>
Self-organised and self-motivated teams collaborate and interact to develop the product. The teams may be situated in a common “location” or may be disjointed. The team members may work independently or in pairs (paired programming).</p>
<strong>Working software</strong>
Developed and “working” software takes precedence over documentation and management protocols. The best method of “defining” productivity is to develop bug-free and deployable software that is accepted by the client(s).

<strong>Customer collaboration</strong>
The client, or the customer, remains closely involved with the development activity and “clears” all “development” offered by the Agile team. Client interaction and collaboration form an inherent part of the Agile process.

<strong>Responding to changes</strong>
The framework facilitates any changes, as and when required, to be incorporated in the product design and development – even late during in the product development cycle. Changes in the product features and functionality can, and should, be quickly incorporated in the product design.
<h2 class=""article-title2"">Advantages of Agile approaches and development</h2>
<p class=""article-text"">Agile approaches offer several benefits.</p>

<ul>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Offers a practical and realistic approach towards software development.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Promotes and encourages teamwork as well as cross training. Individual team members “contribute” more towards development.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Product functionality can not only be developed quickly but also <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">demonstrated to the product owners</a></span>, project owners and stakeholders.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Resources requirements are kept at a minimum. Operation overheads are significantly reduced.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Ideally suited for developing products whose “design” and functionality is likely to change with time. However, other projects can also be successfully developed using an Agile framework</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Early and sustained delivery of product features and functionality.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Very few rules and principles to be followed. The framework can be easily implemented if the process is understood and known properly.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Involves very “little” planning in the initial stages. Once production begins, the time required to develop the product is further reduced to a bare minimum – the team has to think about what needs to be developed “at the moment” rather than “thinking” about the entire product development.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The development team is able to perform better and offer more meaningful productivity owing to collaborative efforts.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;",,Blog,
3045,Dealing With Project Risks In Agile And Traditional Project Management Methods,"Projects generally start with an idea or a concept, and as ideas take shape, the documentation related to the project starts getting populated with several types of details – the feasibility aspect, sourcing of funds, the product vision, deciding the team, etc. These dynamics play an important part in planning the project. However, there is one parameter which can significantly affect the success of a project – the risks associated with the particular project – and even though experienced project managers try their level best to provide plans for contingencies, in practice there always exists a possibility that you don’t have a plan “B” and a plan “C” to deal with unforeseen circumstances that can arise over time as the project commences. In real life it is almost next to impossible to plan a perfect project in which risks don’t exist – they’re going to be there and will surface when you least expect them to do so. A practical approach would be to have a mechanism in place that can deal with risks as and when they arise, rather than spend time and efforts in planning the “perfect” project in which they can be avoided in totality.

Just like in any other project management framework or methodology, product owners or project managers have to deal with risk mitigation to ensure that the project is successful. It’s worth taking a look at how risks can be resolved using Waterfall or traditional project management techniques and Agile.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3047 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/DealingWithProjectRisk.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""450"" />
<h3>1. Identification</h3>
You can remove a risk provided you can identify its occurrence in the first place; therefore the first step in risk management is to identify potential risks. Whenever a project is incepted, the management and all senior members of the team carefully study the documentation and try to identify the probable risk areas. Based upon their analysis, they make changes in the proposed work processes and try to eliminate the risks before they can occur. At times, if system architects are employed to work for the team, they study entire processes and present potential pitfalls before the team so risks can be collectively dealt with. This is a typical scenario in the case of organizations following traditional project management methods which do not have an “in-built” plan to deal with risk mitigation.

Agile does not have any provisions for identifying risks. When a project is envisioned in Agile, the client conveys the product vision to a product owner, who can be compared to a project manager in traditional management systems. The product owner is responsible for the outcome of the project and usually, he/she tries to identify risks by analyzing the project. The PO may take the help of other team members if a team has been decided at that time. It is important to know that even though Agile does not directly support any activity for identifying risks, its working process is more than adequate in identifying risks at any stage of project development. The framework is geared to operate upon the “inspect” and “adapt” principles which highlight risks when they manifest themselves or are likely to occur. The ongoing retrospective sessions in Agile aid in identifying potential risks provided the team is practicing Agile in a proper manner.
<h3>2. Analysis</h3>
Analyzing risks after they are detected can be difficult or easy depending upon their nature and complexity. Risks can be of any type – operational, conceptual, development associated, and even due to the technology used to develop the project. Typically project managers, decision makers, subject matter experts, and stakeholders may participate in technical discussions to get a clear insight into the root cause of the risk and how it should be ideally dealt with. Risk analysis is a specialized subject. Businesses may have to hire individuals specially trained in the subject to analyze project-related risks if the project is very large or very complex in nature.

Agile risks are analyzed when the team becomes aware of them. The biggest plus point is that the entire team collaborates and tries to mitigate risks, rather than a single person, or a group of senior members. Agile teams are self-organizing and self-managing. Moreover, teams are cross-functional i.e. a single team member is competent in more than one activities. This further ad on to the proper detection and analysis of risks since the team is familiar with the ground reality and often has the maturity to anticipate where the risks lie and how they can possibly occur.
<h3>3. Plan</h3>
Once risks are identified and analyzed, plans should be made to remove them. Depending upon the type of risk and when it’s likely to occur, plans have to be made to mitigate them at the project planning level or at the development and implementation level by finding alternative solutions to deal with them. This is the most important part of the project as the project manager has to account for the project if proper planning is not done to eradicate risks.

In Agile, when a risk is identified and analyzed, the entire team gets together and plans how to remove them. Inputs and opinion may also be taken from other technically sound personnel or even stakeholders if the product owner and the team feel that their participation can be helpful. The biggest advantage of Agile is that the framework can be implemented by the team in any manner it considers suitable, so provisions can be made to incorporate special processes to deal with risk mitigation – the flexibility of Agile frameworks allow that.
<h3>4. Removal</h3>
The actual removal of risks is crucial to executing a successful project. This is an important part of project management as it has to be ensured that the root causes of risks are addressed in a proper manner and steps are taken to remove them. Often, risks are removed, and it is later discovered that bug reappears, thus proving that their removal was not properly addressed.",,Blog,
3049,5 Ways How To Retain Clients And Make Your Prospects Stay With You Longer,"Clients are essential for almost all types of organizations since they are the direct sources through which businesses can earn their profits. It is important to summarise three important facts stating their importance:
<ul>
 	<li>Organisations can make money only if they sell products or services to clients</li>
 	<li>Repeat business forms the backbone of sales and helps to generate continuous revenue</li>
 	<li>If organizations do not satisfy clients and gain their loyalty they will end up struggling or shut down</li>
</ul>
At times, businesses have to go to extreme lengths to retain clients. As per one estimate, it may cost up to five times as much to find new clients as compared to retaining them. The client-organization relationship is also very important for future growth and therefore it is valued highly. While it is important to ensure that client experience should be rewarding for both the business and the client, it is worthwhile to remember you are only just as successful as your last client thinks you are, and therefore efforts should be made to retain them at all costs.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3050 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GBharti-MarketingDigital-MarketingQuickScrumGraphicsArticle-Graphics5-Ways-How-To-Retain-Clien.jpg"" alt="""" width=""750"" height=""450"" />
<h1>Status reporting</h1>
Providing timely feedback to the client goes a long way in fostering trust. When timed, accurate, and detailed reports are sent as feedback in response to client inquiries or clarifications, it helps him or her to get a whole picture of what was done to resolve a particular query or what efforts were put in by the team to accomplish a particular task. It conveys that you are concerned about the project and taking it seriously.

With offshoring activities on the rise, more and more work is now being done by remote or distantly located teams, and it is very common to see teams placed in India, Indonesia, or China handling projects for overseas clients. Apart from cultural differences and varying attitudes towards work, some of the biggest issues faced by offshoring companies and project managers in remote teams are a lack in collaboration levels and not executing projects jointly as a team, but rather completing them through individual efforts. When clients hire teams to execute their projects, they expect the entire team to contribute as a whole. Clients often feel uncertain about how their remote teams are performing and try to ascertain that resources hired by them are justifying their pay scales. In such cases, detailed reports can help to reassure clients that everything is OK and they are getting their money worth by investing in remote teams. This case is true when proper productivity levels are demonstrated to the client in addition to the reports.
<h1>Frequent delivery</h1>
Contrary to the belief that people living in different parts of the world are culturally different and may have their own unique priorities while doing business, it is a fact that human nature is not different after all when it comes to money and project deliverables. Whether you are doing a project for an American or a Singapore client, your client is going to feel impatient after a few weeks and press you to deliver and/or increase your productivity levels. Successful entrepreneurs and business persons are usually demanding and may also be aggressive while pursuing goals and objectives. They feel confident about progress when they see something tangible emerging out of the project in terms of business value, or hard-core profit.

One of the best ways to assure clients that enough and proper work is being done by the team and that the project is proceeding as per plan is to deliver small ""chunks"" of productivity or a few products features at regular intervals of time. This is a core characteristic of all Agile frameworks and helps Agile to take a lead over other project management methodologies. Agile recommends that functionality is delivered to clients in ""bits and pieces"", but at regular intervals, and each feature developed in the sprint should possess a certain business value that is useful to the client. Moreover, the delivery of features should be regular and on time. Agile can speed up frequent delivery of product features.
<h1>Increased collaboration</h1>
Businesses prefer making quick profits. If the organization is a public venture, or funds have been collected from stakeholders and investors, it may become even more important to generate quick profits and mention them in an annual report and general body meetings. Considering the intense competition levels in the market, it has become imperative for businesses to speed up development work and complete projects sooner by using emergent technologies rather than development projects using traditional development methods and techniques. New technologies offer many benefits which can speed up project execution, however, there is a catch involved - people have to collaborate and gather feedback from the development process before analyzing it and fine-tuning the process to make it more effective and productive.

Collaboration plays a crucial part in managing projects nowadays and more and more organizations encourage development teams, sales departments, and R&amp;D teams to share their findings while pursuing milestones and achieving goals.<span style=""color: #3366ff;""> <strong><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" title=""Agile Project Management"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/AgileProjectManagement"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">Agile and Scrum</a></strong></span> emphasize upon maintaining high collaboration and transparency levels amongst team members. Individuals have to share their knowledge and experience and concentrate upon group efforts while delivering productivity. Increased collaboration levels make teamwork easier and more effective.
<h1>Budget management</h1>
Most of the times you have to use the money to develop your projects. The source of funding could be many - investors, stakeholders, start-up capital generated through campaigns, banks, etc. Investors expect management and managers to make proper use of funds invested by them in the project. So it is important to manage the funds properly and maintain proper accounts so they can be easily audited. A worst-case scenario for a CFO would be to explain a group of investors why certain account details in the balance sheet do not add up properly. The distrust created could make investors stop investing further funds in the project. A recommended way to maintain good rapport with investors is to have the accounts audited periodically and present the audit report to the investors before they demand it.

Project costs and budgets also depend a lot upon the particular management methodology used to develop a project. All <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><strong><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" title=""Scrum Project Management"" href=""https://www.quickscrum.com/Home/ScrumProjectManagement"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">project management frameworks</a></strong></span> propose efficient and reliable project execution - but in practice, the models vary in their reliability and efficiency. There is no such framework which guarantees hundred percent reliability since it is up to the team how efficiently and precisely it implements a management model. A rule of the thumb is longer a project takes to become productive and start earning money, the more funds it will consume to sustain itself. Therefore, efforts should be made to use an ideal project management model that the team feels comfortable in using and which can support quick and efficient project development. By reducing the development time, projects can be made more profitable.
<h1>Team control</h1>
Teams can become productive when they are properly guided and controlled. A good project manager or a team leader will prefer playing a servant-leader role and try to facilitate the development process rather than order team members to complete their tasks and maintain an authoritative approach. Disciplined and self-managed teams do not require strong leadership, as is the case with Agile frameworks. However, in all other project management methodologies and frameworks the team leader plays an important part in leading the team forward and making sure that it accomplishes the project goals and objectives.
<h1>Summary</h1>
The term “client” has a broad scope and should be interpreted as such. The client could be a single individual, a group of investors, or stakeholders who’ve invested in the project. Even when the scope changes from project to project, the “client” entity should exist for each project even when the client is doing both – simultaneously investing the funds and developing the project. The term is used for a specific purpose since the business value in the project should be delivered to the individual who plays the role of a client.

The above mentioned five pointers generally count for retaining clients. However, these pointers may vary from project to project and the type of management involved with sponsoring the project. In each case, it is important to remain accountable for the project and let the client know how the project is proceeding. Client participation and collaboration in the project can further foster client-developer/client-management relationship.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;",,Blog,
3059,Scrum Sprints,"<h1>What are the Scrum sprints?</h1>
While developing a product, a “sprint” is a predetermined period of time in which specific work needs to be completed and presented for verification or review purposes. Scrum sprints form the “base” of all development related activities i.e. the entire product is developed through consistent and sustained sprints.
<h1>Specifics of an Agile Scrum sprint</h1>
In Scrum, a product is developed, or “work” is carried out through sustained production cycles (work cycles). These cycles are known as sprints. Traditionally, an Agile Scrum sprint lasted from two weeks to one month. The sprint duration used to be decided, and it still is, while the project is initially planned. The duration is thoughtfully worked out during the <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">project released by the product owner</a></span>, experienced Agile team members, and the stakeholders. Once the sprint duration is “fixed”, it cannot be changed. Agile principles strongly recommend that the duration of a sprint in Scrum should not be changed under any circumstances after it is decided. In course of time, sprints have evolved to last for approximately one week to ten days. The sprint duration has significantly decreased owing to stiff market competition and the need to develop products even quicker.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3061 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/what-is-sprint-planning-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""508"" />
<h1>Objectives of a sprint in Scrum</h1>
The main purpose of “designing” a sprint in Scrum is to create shippable product features through the product incremental cycles. Even when the product to be developed has few features and can be easily developed in a traditional way, if Scrum is implemented while developing the product, sprints have to be planned to carry out the development activity. Sprint planning is an inherent part of the Scrum framework, and product development is only possible through it. The main reason why Scrum advocates development through sprints is because each sprint is “time-bound” and the development team is forced to complete a certain “portion” of the product features (user stories in the sprint backlog) within the stipulated period. This leads to the timely development of the features, which can be later incorporated to “form” the complete product at the far end of the project. Scrum supports development in small chunks of development activity through the sprints. The “chunks” lead to the formation of the actual product.
<h1>Event supporting Agile sprint Scrum</h1>
Scrum supports a special event called a sprint planning meeting in which the sprint product incremental cycle is designed by the product owner and the team members. Traditionally, the product owner played a dominant role while planning the sprints, but Scrum has now evolved to enhance the interaction of team members in the product planning activities. During the meeting, important user stories or product features are taken up for development purposes from the product backlog. Typically, these stories have high business values and contribute towards the product’s “worth” in the market after they are developed and integrated. While the PO can decide which of the stories should be taken up for development, the development team members have the “power” to accept or reject them after providing valid and acceptable reasons. Once the sprint is decided, the PO cannot add additional product features for development, halt the sprint midway, or micromanage the development activity.",,Blog,
3060,Product Owner,"<h1 style=""text-align: center;""><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><strong><em>The Overworked Product Owner<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-3062 size-full"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ProductOwnerTeamStakeholders-300x168-1.png"" alt="""" width=""300"" height=""168"" /></em></strong></span></h1>
The role of the Product Owner is so critical to give that person more duties than being only a full-time Product Owner. Unfortunately, many companies prefer to assign this role to a manager who has to attend several projects, corporate meetings, visit clients, and other staff that not allow him to focus on delivering a successful product to the market.

My last two clients chose Product Owners that were with other projects (some of them following waterfall) so they have never been with team members every day so they produce delays to get some answers from them and frustration to team members that have to wait many times to obtain their feedback.
<h4>Worse scenario</h4>
In addition, there is another worse scenario. Which is it? The worse scenario is when the Product Owner has to attend other remote projects that take a lot of time and effort from him. Finally, he has to split his day between calls, remote conference and several meetings.
<h4>Bad experience</h4>
One of my worst experiences dealing with Product Owners was in a multinational company who has an IT director that interrupted every Product Owner assigning them more duties and projects. As soon as I talked with the director recommended to him to replace each Product Owner because all of them were so busy to attend Sprint Planning (don’t mention daily meeting), Sprint Review or demo, etc. His answer shocked me because he admitted that it was his fault to give more duties and projects to each Product Owner. Fortunately, he got my point and hired others Product Owners who only were focused on their projects.

Many times Product Owners are not empowered to say: “No” sorry I can’t take any more project because this position is too demanding for me and I want to do my job well and full time.

Last but not least, Scrum Master has to help to Product Owners when they are so busy to write user stories, prioritize the backlog and so on but the role of Product Owner is very important to do many things at the same time.

<span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/Kernel/CoachProfile/1/5692"">View My profile</a></span>

&nbsp;",,Blog,
3065,Software Development Activities In The IT Field,"<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Individuals who are associated with the IT industry and computers generally use the term ""software development"" to describe the particular kind of work, or activity, they are currently doing or involved with. The terminology is very loosely used by most </span>people<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> and can include almost any type of computer programming activity - including testing, debugging, document creation, deployment, developing and maintaining application frameworks, and even customizing operating systems as well as platforms. There is a trend to mention one's profession, or one's mode of professional engagement as ""software development"" while the person may be working as an application developer, a Java or VBScript web developer, an Android or iOS mobile apps creator, or even developing scripts for WordPress based themes.</span>

<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">The fact is, the words ""software development"" are extensively used to refer to almost any type of IT related work, or activity, and generally denotes a development of ""computerizable"" code, in any way or manner, and of any ""kind"". The following list provides a rough idea regarding the scope of development related activities in the IT field. The list is periodically updated and keeps on evolving to include the new scope of software development.</span>

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3072 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/software-development-activities-in-the-it-field-1.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""350"" />
<h2>Languages and scripts</h2>
<h3><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">1. Scripts and scripting languages:</span></h3>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">HTML / HTML5 / DHTML / XHTML</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Active Server Pages - ASP</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">VBScript</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">JScript and JavaScript</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Personal Home Page - PHP</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">ColdFusion (ColdFusion Markup Language - CFML)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Ajax</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Ruby (Ruby on Rails)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Python</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">AppleScript</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">TypeScript</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Job Control Language - JCL</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Unix Shell scripts - </span>ksh<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">, </span>csh<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">, bash, sh, and others</span></li>
</ul>
<h3><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">2. Assembly languages:</span></h3>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Autocoder (used for programming mainframe systems such as IBM 1401 and 1440)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">BAL (Basic AssembLer used for coding IBM System/360 and other mainframe systems)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">FAP (Fortran Assembly Program for encoding IBM mainframes 709, 7090, and 7094)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">GAS (</span>the acronym<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> for GNU Assembler)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">HLA (</span>the acronym<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> for </span>High-Level<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> Assembly)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">MASM (</span>the acronym<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> for Microsoft Macro Assembler)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">MI (</span>the acronym<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> for Machine Interface)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Motorola 68k Assembly (used for encoding Motorola 68000 family CPUs)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">NASM (</span>the acronym<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> for Netwide Assembler)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">PASM</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">TASM (Turbo Assembler developed by Borland)</span></li>
</ul>
<h3><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">3. Authoring languages:</span></h3>
<ul>
 	<li>PILOT</li>
</ul>
<h3><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">4. Command line interface languages:</span></h3>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">4DOS (extended command line shell for IBM PC family)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">csh and tcsh (C-like shell developed by Bill Joy while at UC Berkeley)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">CLIST</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">DCL DIGITAL Command Language (for DEC, Compaq, HP)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">DOS batch language (standard batch language for IBM PCs and clones running under MS-DOS, PC DOS, and DR-DOS before Windows)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">EXEC 2</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">JCL (</span>a punch<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> card oriented batch language used in IBM Systems and 360 family mainframes)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">REXX</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">TACL (</span>the acronym<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> for Tandem Advanced Command Language)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Windows batch language (as understood by COMMAND.COM and used by accessing the Command Prompt)</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Windows PowerShell</span></li>
</ul>
<h3><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">5. Compiled languages:</span></h3>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Ada</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">ALGOL</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">BASIC</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">C</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">C++</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">CLIPPER 5.3</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">C#</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">COBOL</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Cobra</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Common Lisp</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Delphi</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Fortran</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Pascal</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Visual Basic</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">visual FoxPro</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Visual Prolog</span></li>
</ul>
<h3><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">6. Educational languages:</span></h3>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Alice</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Logo</span></li>
</ul>
<h2><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Mobile operating systems and applications development</span></h2>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Android</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Symbian</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Apple iOS</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Blackberry OS</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Windows OS</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Palm OS</span></li>
</ul>
<h2>Portals and websites</h2>
<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">1. Web portals</span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Early types of portals, which originated, and are still being developed, ever since the World Wide Web or the internet started becoming popular amongst the masses. These portals and websites exhibit assimilated content and typically display links supporting searching facilities.</span></p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">2. E-commerce portals</span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">E-commerce portals, also known as e-business portals help to share information with customers, partners, and suppliers. They generally support an online payment gateway or an ""online transactions"" processing component. The portals provide information, and in addition, describe products and services. E-commerce portals try to increase customer-relationships and lower the product/service costs.</span></p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">3. Self-service portals</span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">E-commerce portals, also known as e-business portals help to share information with customers, partners, and suppliers. They generally support an online payment gateway or an ""online transactions"" processing component. The portals provide information, and in </span>addition<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">, describe products and services. E-commerce portals try to increase customer-relationships and lower the product/service costs.</span></p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">4. Business intelligence portals</span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Also known as decision portals, business intelligence portals aid online users in making important decisions. Besides allowing users to submit query and avail reports across multiple data storages, business intelligence portals have many built-in facilities and tools that can help to generate targeted reports.</span></p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">5. Collaboration portals</span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">These types of portals provide information pertaining to geographically dispersed workforces and help to interact with people and projects sharing a common cause or belief. Typically, collaboration portals provide generic tools supporting chat and whiteboards, in addition to threaded discussions and streams which help to share maps and documents.</span></p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">6. Enterprise information portal</span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Generally<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">, of complex nature, enterprise information portals are highly </span>tailored<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> and offer a unique experience to the visitors. Various legacy systems offer functionality to carry out predefined </span>business-related<span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';""> processes.</span></p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">7. e-learning portals</span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Supporting online education, e-Learning portals aim to help and guide students by offering an organized and structured learning experience. These portals also offer testing facilities to evaluate your learning and provide appropriate feedback to the students.</span></p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">8. Communication portals</span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">Communication portals, as the name rightly suggests, fundamentally support communications and messaging facilities through emails, voice messages, mobile linkups, web feeds, etc. in a manner that allows access from across multiple interfaces and locations. The users can configure how to use the facilities.</span></p>

<h3 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">9. Social networking portals</span></h3>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><span style=""font-family: 'proxima nova regular';"">These types of portals can be individual or groups based, and primarily aim to improve and enhance social communications between like-minded individuals, or those who share a common idea or belief. Typically, members subscribe and log into the portal and subsequently start sharing their ideas and thoughts with other member groups and individuals.</span></p>",,Blog,
3070,Tracking Time With Trello Using Scrum Application,"<h1 style=""text-align: left;""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Tracking time with Trello</span></h1>
The story always goes like this.

Once upon a time, everyone was excited. A team made with best performers from the company and a few more top guns from outside. Management fully aligned. The budget approved, with promises for more. This was the project to take us to the next level.

That was then. With a few months of unlimited budget and little management oversight, we come to now...

In a bid to get the best software out, the project had gone into a vicious circle of re-iterating the same features. There is no demo to show. Budgets are frozen. Management realigns priorities. Once the envy of everyone, this is now the team to avoid.

There are many lessons to be learned from this familiar occurrence of events. I would like to focus on one: to achieve big milestones, it is the baby steps that we need to worry about.

Agile has given teams flexibility. Using <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://trello.com/"">trello</a></span> makes it super simple to organize projects with a list of todos.

However, to ensure alignment with business objectives, teams must make sure that dollars spent can be accounted for. Without proper tracking, it is easy to spend valuable effort on features with little business value and what’s worse, not even realize it.

In this article, which is the first of a series, I am going to show how my team at <a href=""http://www.riksof.com/"">RIKSOF</a> tracks time on trello cards. In subsequent posts, I will share important metrics we generate from this data.
<h1>Checklists as work logs</h1>
Trello does not have a built-in feature for time tracking. So, this is how we do it:
<ul>
 	<li>Make a checklist named Work Log for each card.</li>
 	<li>Every contributor puts in the time they plan to spend on the task today. They also mark as complete entries that were made yesterday and executed as planned.</li>
 	<li>We use a standard format so that our script can easily parse entries.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Daily Scrum for Trello</h1>
RIKSOF has built a <a href=""http://www.riksof.com/trello/scrum-tool.html""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">scrum application</span></a> that uses Trello API to get the work logs information. The application is useful in conducting daily meetings. (Note: It is built in JavaScript and no information is sent to our servers).

Using the planned and completed entries, planned and spent hours are calculated for each card. Every card is also automatically categorized with these states:
<ul>
 	<li><em>Completed</em>: commitments from the last <a href=""https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28software_development%29""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">scrum</span></a> were fulfilled.</li>
 	<li><em>Incomplete:</em> developer missed targets from the last scrum.</li>
 	<li><em>Slipping</em>: when a card has consumed above average hours.</li>
 	<li><em>Planned: </em>what will be done today.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Conclusion</h1>
Reporting effort required from the team has been kept to a minimum. We ensure that all subsequent reporting demands are met through the work log.

You can already start to see interesting project information. For instance, on a week to week basis, we can see if a team accomplishes its planned activities. Using total hours on a card we are now also able to measure if our trello cards are rightly sized.

In my next post, I will introduce you to another trello application that gives interesting project-wide metrics with no additional effort.
<h1>About the Author</h1>
Khurram Ali is a Co-Founder and CEO of RIKSOF<span style=""color: #3366ff;"">,</span> a <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.riksof.com/"">mobile and web application development company</a>.</span> Khurram has been in the industry for 15 years with a track record of building highly successful global software teams. You can find him on twitter @mkhurramali",,Blog,
3091,Entrepreneurs and Automation,"We have seen many tech startup shutdowns due to the traditional and manual way of working. It’s hard to accept failure, especially when entrepreneurs have passed through many emotional phases and sacrifice.
<ul>
 	<li><strong>Money crisis</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Entrepreneurs are always under pressure to sustain the start-up until they get external funding or paying customers. Meanwhile, they have to manage overall operational cost from their hard earned money thus feeling for money crisis is almost there all the time.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Frustration</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">For Entrepreneurs, frustration is the shadow. They plan something amazing every day and fail quite most of the time. They really can’t avoid it.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Insecurity</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Entrepreneurs face many road blockers in the day to day life. However, their biggest challenges, like insecurity and self-doubt comes from within. Entrepreneurs often feel insecure in their actions and this can be critical to their work performance decision making and success.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Self-worth issues</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">During the journey of entrepreneurship, there are many failures and those make you feel that you aren’t worth anything.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Anxiety</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Entrepreneurs are managing multiple portfolios such as Customers acquisition, Monthly expenditure, Product development, Team management, Building right team &amp; much more. Doing all these with limited time and resources require them to work immensely under stress that leads to the anxiety.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Addiction </strong>to<strong> work</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Entrepreneurs are passionate by nature. Because of the many roles and responsibilities, they become addictive and obsessive. The habitual entrepreneurs display symptoms of behavioral addictions such as obsessive thoughts, withdrawal-engagement cycles, and negative emotional outcomes.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Sleep disorders</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Sleep disorders have become common among entrepreneurs. Due to higher ambition, they keep working to meet the optimistic deadlines and they mess up the sleep schedule. Lack of sleep affects the productivity.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Family relationships suffer &amp; No social life</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Limited time, money and resources enforce you to put your energy behind your idea execution only. Thus no or limited time to your family. Even when you sit with them, you discuss your business, customer, hurdles, and opportunities while they expect your quality time to discuss personal issues, commitments etc.</p>
<em>I am not trying to scare you, so many entrepreneurs have experienced the same during start-up journey. Don’t let hard scarifies collapsed because of lack of processes and automation.</em>
<h1 style=""text-align: center;""><strong>Implement Agile &amp; DevOps now!</strong></h1>
Many of the start-up companies waste lots of time behind manual work and internal processes issues. Here is just an introduction of DevOps &amp; what it brings you.

<strong>What is DevOps?</strong>

In traditional organizations, there are different groups for development and operations. The development team is responsible for writing code and delivering software. The Ops team is responsible for deploying releases, managing systems, security, and environmental stability. DevOps is a Philosophy or Method to bring them (Dev and Ops) together to improve the overall development, deployment, and management process.

DevOps remove the interruptions of communication between operation and development. The primary focus of DevOps is on efficiency and reducing risk while building and deploying software. Avoid situation with atomize testing like, “Sorry the deployment failed. We didn’t test on that platform.” It promotes collaboration to solve problems experienced by both teams.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3094 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Devops_Banner_1.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""300"" />

According to puppet lab survey, Companies that incorporate DevOps practices get more done, plain and simple. They deploy code up to 30 times more frequently than their competition. And less than 50% of their deployments fail.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3096 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Devops_Banner_2.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />

<strong>Releasing Software</strong>
Continuous software delivery can increase companies' speed to market with high-quality digital products and services.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3100 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Devops_Banner-_4.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""187"" />

<strong>The difference between traditional and DevOps delivery</strong>
<table border=""1"" width=""100%"" align=""center"">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width=""160""><strong> </strong></td>
<td width=""208""><strong>Traditional Delivery</strong></td>
<td width=""200""><strong>Continuous Delivery</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""160""><strong>Time to delivery</strong></td>
<td width=""208"">Internal software release once every 3-6 months</td>
<td width=""200"">Internal software release multiple times a week (or daily)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""160""><strong>Quality and testing</strong></td>
<td width=""208"">Manual testing of up to 50% of software releases performed by large teams</td>
<td width=""200"">Automated testing with more than 80% coverage requires limited human intervention to validate</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""160""><strong>Software deployment</strong></td>
<td width=""208"">Manual deployment of software can take 30-50 individual steps</td>
<td width=""200"">Fully automated deployment of software requires only one-click to launch more than 50 steps at a time</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""160""><strong>Monitoring and support</strong></td>
<td width=""208"">Reactive software-monitoring issues, downtime reported to users in hours, days</td>
<td width=""200"">Proactive software health-monitoring issues, downtime reported to users in seconds; preventive actions were taken at thresholds</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=""160""><strong>Infrastructure setup</strong></td>
<td width=""208"">Infrastructure setup can take 3-4 weeks or longer, manual and highly error-prone process</td>
<td width=""200"">Automated provisioning of new infrastructure setup and configuration in less than 10 minutes end to end</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Manual testing uses up resources, which can be seen as a waste by developers, especially when they have other important projects to work on. This is exactly why automating tests is important

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3101 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Devops_Banner_5.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />

<strong>Benefits of DevOps</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Increase efficiency – less waste</li>
 	<li>Decrease time to commit software changes</li>
 	<li>Automate tests</li>
 	<li>Identify defects/issues quickly</li>
 	<li>Automate the build process</li>
 	<li>Simplify the deployment process</li>
 	<li>Make deployments reproducible</li>
 	<li>Quicker mitigation of software defects</li>
 	<li>Better resource management</li>
 	<li>Reduced human errors</li>
 	<li>Enhanced version control</li>
 	<li>Stable operating environment</li>
</ul>
Quickscrum is one of the fastest growing companies focusing on agile tools - Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps Implementation. <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://quickscrum.com/Home/TalkToExpert""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Talk to our experts</span></u></a></span> to implement Agile and DevOps for better collaboration and productivity.",,Blog,
3117,Why tech start-ups fail?,"In general, Start-ups have been created with a great vision and emotions to convert a tiny organization to larger one catering customers worldwide. However, only a few start-up success stories are inspiring while countless start-ups fail in no time. So why the start-up fails? Here are a few common reasons for tech start-up failure.

<img class=""aligncenter wp-image-3121 size-full"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/TimeToMarket.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h1>Lack of domain knowledge</h1>
Tech Start-up focuses on the development of web or mobile solution cater to the specific customer segment. Many times core team do not have enough knowledge about end-user needs or target market. This leads towards creating a wrong product roadmap just on the basis of assumption and hence the final solution is disastrous. In the initial phase, it is very difficult or even rare sometimes to hire an expert with detailed knowledge of the domain.
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Recommendation</h4>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Start development with whatever known using an existing team/resources</li>
 	<li>Emphasis on iterative development (1-4 weeks)</li>
 	<li>Demonstrate enhancement to end users at the end of every iteration</li>
 	<li>Get feedback from at least 3-5 different users and take their opinions about features, usability experience, performance, and design</li>
 	<li>Plan next iterations basis on end-user feedback</li>
</ul>
<h1>Slower and in-frequent product delivery</h1>
Start-up mindset is having lots of ideas and excitement to deliver them quickly without proper research of end users’ need. Excitement creates improper planning, wrong pressure among the team and that leads to poor quality product. In the competitive era, Product-delivery with <em>constant</em> speed is a new strategic weapon and a key differentiator in business success.
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Recommendation</h4>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Achieve the high level of Automation through DevOps</li>
 	<li>Bring agility among team members</li>
 	<li>Iterative planning</li>
 	<li>Focus on high business value features. Remember that only 20% of features are being used frequently</li>
</ul>
<h1><strong>Technical debt</strong></h1>
Technical debt is a term which reflects that extra work arises because of improper implementation of code by the team instead of choosing the best solution. Few reasons behind technical debts are Lack of skills, Extreme delivery pressure, Understanding gap and Lack of collaboration
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Recommendation</h4>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Automatic code monitoring for Coding standard, Cyclomatic complexity, Code duplication</li>
 	<li>Implement test automation</li>
 	<li>Stick to Iterative planning &amp; no change within it (1-4 weeks)</li>
 	<li>Emphasis on refactoring of code on regular basis &amp; make it as a part of Definition of Done</li>
</ul>
<h1><strong>Time to Market</strong></h1>
Time to market is a critical factor for start-up success. Focusing on value creation from the Day 1 is crucial for any start-up.
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Recommendation</h4>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Focus on high business value features. Remember that only 20% of features are being used frequently. Put your money and energy toward making them perfect</li>
 	<li>Implement DevOps to accelerate idea to production at least 30x faster</li>
</ul>
<h1><strong>Ignoring the actual Customer need</strong></h1>
A good product idea and a strong technical team are not a guarantee of a sustainable business. To meet end-user need should be the key objective of any start-up. Many times start-up founders think that they know what the customer wants or expects, so they only focus on their passion to build the product and the end user only gets it in their way not like what they want.
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Recommendation<strong>
</strong></h4>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Regular interaction with end users at the end of every iteration</li>
 	<li>Get feedback from at least 3-5 different users and take their opinions about features, usability experience, performance, and design</li>
 	<li>Plan next iterations based on end-user feedback</li>
</ul>
<h1><strong>Too much emphasis on raising money</strong></h1>
Raising money is a very time-consuming job. It is a full-time job top of building your business. Start-up founders should ask this question to themselves, Is it really worth to spend your time and attention on raising money from the beginning of startup? Focusing too much on raising money can take away your focus from what really matters to your business.
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;"">Recommendation</h4>
<ul class=""custom-padding-left-30"">
 	<li>Focus on value creation</li>
</ul>
Quickscrum is one of the fastest growing companies focusing on agile tools - Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps Implementation. <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""https://quickscrum.com/Home/TalkToExpert""><u><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Talk to our experts</span></u></a> </span>to implement Agile and DevOps for better collaboration and productivity.
<h4 style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong> </strong></h4>",,Blog,
3143,Two Main Problems Faced During Agile Implementation,"One of the main issues with Agile implementation is that organizations more than often fail to benefit from the benefits proposed by the framework. Organisations have high hopes, and lots of expectations when they decide to use Agile, and it is not uncommon for businesses to think in terms of increased business opportunities and enhanced earnings using the framework. Agile is eventually implemented after many discussions, and as the implementation process commences, the management realizes that things are not as easy and simple as originally envisioned. Iterative development cycles fail to deliver successful stories, the correct business value is not offered to the client, and the team may seem to be struggling with Agile processes and principles. Perhaps the main reason why this happens is that:
<ul>
 	<li>The team and the management have not fully grasped Agile, and</li>
 	<li>The management has not correctly identified the need for Agile based development.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Failure to understand and follow Agile processes</h3>
Agile principles are very easy to understand and follow but difficult to practice. The team needs to mold its working as per the principles, and this requires a certain degree of mental discipline. Often, team members are not ready for this. They are not committed enough. All Agile based frameworks such as Scrum support collaboration and teamwork. The “inspect” and “adapt” principles help to improve the feedback system which is very important to Agile. This is possible only when the team is ready to share ideas and accept Agile wholeheartedly. When the management decides to implement Agile, the team is often reluctant to accept new changes, and views the implementation process as a “company decision” - A typical scenario where the team is forced to accept what the management decides.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3149 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h4>Possible solution:</h4>
A lot depends upon how the management decides to introduce Agile to its teams. While some organizations favor a gradual transition from existing development methodologies to Agile, a few businesses may still support “sudden-death” format in which organizations abruptly change over to a new working process overnight. Whatever the process, the management should give some time to the team so it can prepare itself mentally to accept the changes. People need time to understand newer processes. If a team is made to follow new processes all of a sudden, it could lead to reluctance and resentment. Incentives and perks are great morale boosters. If the company cannot afford to reward the team financially to accept the Agile process, it should do everything in its power to make the transition more appealing and acceptable. Training sessions can be conducted so the team can understand the framework, and what it proposes to do. Above all, team members should be made to realize that Agile processes can help them to increase their productivity, which, in turn, could lead to higher incentives since the company benefits through the new process as well as individual efforts of the team members.
<h3>Comparing Agile to Waterfall methods</h3>
A second common problem faced during Agile implementation is introducing the framework to teams following Waterfall and traditional development methods. People following a particular methodology get used to it over time and have a tendency to reject new methods and ideas – at least mentally. With Waterfall, most development teams seem to make it a habit all over the world to compare Agile with Waterfall and start picking faults with Agile. It would seem that Waterfall has a dedicated fan club with highly loyal subscribers, who simply refuse to give up Waterfall. This mentality creates a serious hurdle for Agile coaches promoting the process to potential clients. When efforts are made to introduce Agile to Waterfall teams, teams fail to make serious efforts in embracing Agile – simply because Waterfall still exists and can be followed.

<img class=""size-full wp-image-3150 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2.jpg"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""500"" />
<h4>Possible solution:</h4>
<div class=""detail-box articledetail"">

It can be difficult to remove old habits since most development teams tend to remain skeptical about adopting newer methods. The possible way out for the management would be to coach the benefits of the proposed system and encourage the team to accept new ideas and methods. A reward and penalty based system could possibly solve the issue. The management could make the adoption process mandatory and evaluate the team based upon the performance it delivers. The role of senior team members is important too – they can lead by example. If seniors start adopting the process, the rest of the team would be inclined to follow. It would be up to the management to decide which process is suitable and effective, however, whichever process it chooses to adopt, Agile should be understood and followed keeping the basic principles in mind to avail positive results through its implementation.

</div>
<div></div>
&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;",,Blog,
3161,How Can A Scrum Master Carry Out The Servant Leader Role In Scrum,"<h2>The servant-leader role</h2>
Many Scrum reference books mention that a scrum master should ideally play a servant-leader role. Several explanations exist as to what a servant-leader role should be like, however, in a nutshell, the role can be understood as:
<ul>
 	<li>To maintain a positive attitude towards the team members</li>
 	<li>Be sensitive to the team's needs</li>
 	<li>If possible maintain personal contact with the team members</li>
 	<li>Understand the team's difficulties and problems</li>
 	<li>Put in efforts and try to resolve problems faced by team members</li>
 	<li>Act as a facilitator and try to streamline the Scrum process</li>
 	<li>Contribute in a proactive manner towards the fulfillment of project goals and objectives</li>
</ul>
It is important to collaborate in the scrum and help team members when they face certain problems and issues. The scrum master plays a central role in facilitating the scrum process and streamlining the development activity. A few pointers can help to understand how the servant-leader role can be effectively played by a scrum master:
<h3>1. Be a good listener</h3>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-3167 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/be-a-good-listener.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""541"" />

A person who is a good listener can easily retain information and make informed decisions. It is easier to resolve issues when you have relevant facts. A scrum master should be a good listener and think with an open mind. A good place to start would be the daily scrum. Team members state their progress, explain what they plan to do on that particular day, and report any problems faced by them. Extrovert team members do not find it difficult to express what they feel. However, certain individuals may find it awkward to open up or voice their concerns. Scrum masters should encourage such team members to open up and make it easier for them to express what they feel.

A scrum master facilitates the scrum process without taking an active part. S/he is also responsible for resolving issues, and promoting self-growth. Teams can grow if effective solutions are found, and to find positive solutions, it is important to listen first.
<h3>2. Be aware of issues and problems</h3>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-3173 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/be-aware-about-issues-and-problems.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""369"" />

Scrum actively supports self-correction activities through various events like sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives. Issues and problems can only be solved if they are identified first. For that, a scrum master should develop a holistic view and initially understand a problem at a macro level. It is important to get an overall idea about the issue first and subsequently analyze it further at a micro level. A top-down approach is often recommended to understand problems so they can be easily resolved.

A scrum master should help the team to understand the problem, and later aid the team in solving it. S/he should not actively resolve any issues but guide the team members in understanding it so they can find a proper solution. Problems should be properly identified if they exist.
<h3>3. Be persuasive rather than autocratic</h3>
<img class=""size-full wp-image-3176 aligncenter"" src=""http://137.116.134.50/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/be-persuasive-rather-than-autocratic.png"" alt="""" width=""830"" height=""217"" />

Quite often, traditional managers can be very autocratic when they delegate their authority. Scrum supports empowerment. Self-analysing and self-organizing teams decide the best course of action. At times, it becomes necessary to advise the team to follow the Scrum process or carry out a particular activity. Generally, the teams respond positively by listening to the scrum master and engaging with the task. However, if the team fails to respond in time, or fails to respond positively, it may be required to engage with the team so it can comply. This is where the attitude comes in - the scrum master can either instruct the team or discuss out the issue and persuade the team to respond positively.

An autocratic attitude is frowned upon by the team, and at an individual level, it may become difficult to avail the team member's cooperation. The servant-leader role suggests that a scrum master should refrain from delegating his or her authority. Instead, the person should persuade the team member to cooperate.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;",,Blog,
3528,Regular Page,,,Blog,
3529,How Does License Activation Work?,"WordPress is a powerful semantic publishing platform, and it comes with a great set of features designed to make your experience as a publisher on the Internet as easy, pleasant and appealing as possible. We are proud to offer you a freely distributed, standards-compliant, fast, light and free content management system, with sensible default settings and features, and an extremely customizable core.

The following is a list of some of the features that come standard with WordPress, however there are literally tens of thousands of plugins that extend what WordPress does, so the actual functionality is nearly limitless. You are also free to do whatever you like with the WordPress code, extend it or modify in any way or use it for commercial projects without any licensing fees. That is the beauty of free software, free meaning not only price but also the freedom to have complete control over it.
<h2>Also Were Appear Great Together Together</h2>
Living one saw in the them face you'll Good, grass air him you <strong>open</strong> bring one brought signs, fowl. Light. Man brought two morning subdue land open make grass i winged seasons air <strong>living</strong> called male moved. Unto shall. Whales. Isn't meat days. Shall day hath you're creepeth fill his days given gathered. Male sea make it fish. Won't tree also. Day won't. Hath won't spirit be they're, divided forth<strong>fowl</strong> deep. May open you'll.
<h3>Void</h3>
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<h3>Air Darkness Days</h3>
Likeness us. Made fly signs give. Good make grass have fowl one Sixth, moving creeping cattle whales said <strong>Fill</strong> beast. Meat. Bearing of god third, female. Their green morning all beast <em>over</em> in doesn't And. <strong>It</strong> wherein together made. Darkness.
<h3>Kind</h3>
Fill very seed. Third above land dominion their saying shall creeping dry man the hath moving. Grass moved. I great made there won't in. Of male creature there whales. Saw may image first herb she'd <em>they're</em> <em>shall</em> moved all said him every. Beginning forth can't female Have night air spirit were brought lights air fruitful. Day, seed, isn't creepeth lights brought fowl. After created created. Can't place waters stars. Sixth given air called let meat creature all female, creature kind.
<h2>Lists</h2>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;"">Lists within lists do not break the ordered list numbering order</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;"">Your list styles go deep enough.</span></li>
</ul>
<h3>Ordered - Unordered - Ordered</h3>
<ol>
 	<li>ordered item</li>
 	<li>ordered item
<ul>
 	<li><strong>unordered</strong></li>
 	<li><strong>unordered</strong>
<ol>
 	<li>ordered item</li>
 	<li>ordered item</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
 	<li>ordered item</li>
 	<li>ordered item</li>
</ol>
<h3>Ordered - Unordered - Unordered</h3>
<ol>
 	<li>ordered item</li>
 	<li>ordered item
<ul>
 	<li><strong>unordered</strong></li>
 	<li><strong>unordered</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
 	<li>ordered item</li>
 	<li>ordered item</li>
</ol>
<h3>Unordered - Ordered - Unordered</h3>
<ul>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
 	<li>unordered item
<ol>
 	<li>ordered</li>
 	<li>ordered
<ul>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
</ul>
<h3>Unordered - Unordered - Ordered</h3>
<ul>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
 	<li>unordered item
<ul>
 	<li>unordered</li>
 	<li>unordered
<ol>
 	<li><strong>ordered item</strong></li>
 	<li><strong>ordered item</strong></li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
 	<li>unordered item</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
3666,Burndown Chart by Count,"<span style=""color: #333333;"">A Burndown Chart shows the <strong>amount of work remaining </strong>by the total number of workitem remaining on a specific day within a timebox. It quickly reveals,</span>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">How much work your <strong>team has completed</strong> since start date of <strong>timebox (iteration/sprint)?</strong></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">Is your team progressing well towards your <strong>timebox goal (iteration/sprint)?</strong></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">How much work is still <strong>left to do</strong> to achieve the defined <strong>timebox goal</strong>?</span></li>
</ul>
<span style=""color: #333333;"">Here you'll learn how to:</span>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#a1"">How to Read the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#filter"">Filter the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#drilldown"">Drill down the char</a>t</span></li>
 	<li id=""a1""><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#Howtouse"">How to use the chart</a></span></li>
</ul>
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">How to Read</span></h1>
<span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>X-Axis:</strong> Shows <strong>timebox days</strong></span>

<span style=""color: #333333;""><strong id=""filter"">Y-Axis</strong>: </span>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>Planned Scope: </strong>Total number of workitems planned for a specific timebox. </span></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong> Ideal Remaining Work: </strong>Total number of workitems ideally remaining (not completed) by a specific day.</span></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>Actual Remaining Work:</strong> Total number of workitems actually remaining (not completed) by a specific day. </span></p>
<span style=""font-size: 12px;"">[Note] : Planned Scope is calculated at the start of the timebox. If the scope is changed after timebox is started, It doesn't get reflected in the chart. As agile does not permit to change the scope once the timebox is started, Quickscrum team has not considered it yet.</span>
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">Filters</span></h1>
You can filter the burndown chart by <strong id=""drilldown"">Active</strong> and <strong>Completed</strong> Timebox (iteration/sprint).
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">Drilldown</span></h1>
<span style=""color: #333333;"">Just viewing chart doesn’t help you enough until you can view associated workitems and act upon.</span>

<span style=""color: #333333;"">To view associated work items,</span>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">Click on any data point</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">Workitems get displayed just <strong>right below the chart</strong></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">Perform <strong>Quick Edit</strong> over a workitem</span></li>
</ul>
<span style=""color: #333333;""> Burndown chart displays all workitems related to timebox as shown in the image below.</span>

<img id=""Howtouse"" class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4057"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/burndown.png"" alt="""" width=""1109"" height=""549"" />
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">How to Use</span></h1>
<span style=""color: #333333;"">It is recommended to track Burndown chart on daily basis ideally in a short meeting performed in the morning with the whole team.</span>

<span style=""color: #333333;"">You should compare <strong>Ideal work Remaining</strong> with <strong>Actual work Remaining. </strong></span>",,Blog,
3819,What is Agile method?,"<p class=""article-text"">The Agile method can be understood as a model based on the incremental product development process with a special focus on process adaptability and client satisfaction. A cross-function development team collaborates to develop the product through incremental product cycles which keep on repeating on a consistent basis until the entire product is developed.</p>
<p class=""article-text"">What is the Agile method? In Agile, the product is “manufactured” through incremental cycles known as sprints. The entire product is not manufactured “at a go” like it is done in traditional Waterfall method. Instead, the product is <a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" target=""_blank"">built in “bits” and “pieces” through sprint cycles</a>. At the end of each sprint, “some” product features and functionality is developed by the team. Each feature is properly tested, documented, and presented to the product owner and stakeholders for “verification” purposes. Once they Okay the development, it is accepted as “Done”. The sprint cycles are repeated until all the product features are developed. Subsequently, the features and functionality are integrated to form a complete working product.</p>

<h1 class=""article-title2"">Fundamental principles followed in Agile methodology process</h1>
<p class=""article-text"">In a true sense, Agile is not a methodology, but a framework. However, many individuals still refer to Agile as a “methodology”. The Agile process is much different as compared to traditional development approaches like Waterfall. Agile believes that each process should be “handled” uniquely based upon the nature and complexity of the product to be developed. Moreover, each project has to be “tailored” as per Agile principles to avail the maximum benefit in terms of team productivity and a successful project release. Therefore, Agile has to be “implemented” in a project.</p>
<p class=""article-text"">A few fundamental principles define the Agile methodology process.</p>
<p class=""article-text""><strong>Individuals and interactions</strong>
Self-organized and self-motivated teams collaborate and interact to develop the product. The teams may be situated in a common “location” or may be disjointed. The team members may work independently or in pairs (paired programming).</p>
<p class=""article-text""><strong>Working software</strong>
Developed and “working” software takes precedence over documentation and management protocols. The best method of “defining” productivity is to develop bug-free and deployable software that is accepted by the client(s).</p>
<p class=""article-text""><strong>Customer collaboration</strong>
The client, or the customer, remains closely involved with the development activity and “clears” all “development” offered by the Agile team. Client interaction and collaboration forms are an inherent part of the Agile process.</p>
<p class=""article-text""><strong>Responding to changes</strong>
The framework facilitates any changes, as and when required, to be incorporated in the product design and development – even late during in the product development cycle. Changes in the product features and functionality can, and should, be quickly incorporated in the product design.</p>

<h1 class=""article-title2"">Advantages of Agile approaches and development</h1>
<p class=""article-text"">Agile approaches offer several benefits.</p>

<ul>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Offers a practical and realistic approach towards software development.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Promotes and encourages teamwork as well as cross training. Individual team members “contribute” more towards development.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Product functionality can not only be developed quickly but also <span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a class=""link-hover"" dir=""ltr"" style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""http://www.quickscrum.com/"" target=""_blank"" rel=""noopener"">demonstrated to the product owners</a></span>, project owners, and stakeholders.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Resources requirements are kept at a minimum. Operation overheads are significantly reduced.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Ideally suited for developing products whose “design” and functionality is likely to change with time. However, other projects can also be successfully developed using the Agile framework</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Early and sustained delivery of product features and functionality.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Very few rules and principles to be followed. The framework can be easily implemented if the process is understood and known properly.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">Involves very “little” planning in the initial stages. Once production begins, the time required to develop the product is further reduced to a bare minimum – the team has to think about what needs to be developed “at the moment” rather than “thinking” about the entire product development.</li>
 	<li class=""article-text"">The development team is able to perform better and offer more meaningful productivity owing to collaborative efforts.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
3837,Burnup Chart by Count,"A Burnup Chart shows the <strong>amount of work completed </strong><span style=""color: #333333;"">by the total number of workitem completed on a specific day within a timebox</span>. It quickly reveals,
<ul>
 	<li>How much work your <strong>team has been completed</strong> since the start date of <strong>timebox (iteration/sprint)?</strong></li>
 	<li>What was the <strong>Planned Scope</strong> of the timebox at the start of the <strong>timebox (iteration/sprint)?</strong></li>
 	<li>Is your team progressing well towards your <strong>timebox goal (iteration/sprint)?</strong></li>
 	<li>How much work <strong>should have been completed</strong> at a point of time within a timebox can be tracked?</li>
 	<li>How much work is still <strong>left to do</strong> to achieve the defined goal?</li>
 	<li><strong>Ideal work </strong>team should have completed by any specific day.</li>
</ul>
Here you'll learn how to:
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#a1"">How to Read the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#filter"">Filter the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#drilldown"">Drill down the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li id=""a1""><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#Howtouse"">How to use the chart</a></span></li>
</ul>
<h1 style=""text-align: left;""><span style=""color: #333333;"">How to Read</span></h1>
<strong>X-Axis:</strong> Shows <strong>timebox days.</strong>

<strong>Y-Axis</strong>:
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>Planned Scope: </strong>Total Planned scope by the number of workitems </span></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong> Ideal Completed Work: </strong>Ideal work completed by the number of workitems completed on a specific day</span></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>Actual Completed Work:</strong> Actual work completed by the number of workitems completed on a specific day</span></p>

<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">Filters</span></h1>
You can view burnup chart for <strong id=""drilldown"">Active</strong> and <strong>Completed</strong> Timebox (iteration/sprint).
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">Drilldown</span></h1>
Just viewing chart doesn’t help you enough until you can view associated work items and act upon.

To view associated work items,
<ul>
 	<li>Click on any data point</li>
 	<li>Work-items get displayed just <strong>right below the chart</strong></li>
 	<li>Perform <strong>In-line editing</strong> over any single work item</li>
</ul>
Burnup chart displays all workitems related to timebox as shown in the image below.

<img id=""Howtouse"" class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4541"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/sprint-burnup.png"" alt="""" width=""1637"" height=""710"" />
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">How to Use </span></h1>
It is recommended to track Burnup chart on daily basis ideally in a short meeting performed in the morning with the whole team.
<ul>
 	<li>You should compare <strong>Ideal work completed</strong> with <strong>Actual work completed.</strong></li>
 	<li>At the end of the timebox, you can compare if the <strong>Actual work completed</strong> with the <strong>Planned Scope</strong>.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
4826,Getting Started With Kanban,"Quickscrum is a project management tool that helps your team to <strong>Collaborate Better, Achieve Goals faster </strong>and <strong>Improve Continuously</strong> via various processes like Kanban.

In about 10 minutes, you will have a quick understanding of how you can manage your work on Kanban framework.
<ul>
 	<li><a href=""#AddProject""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 1 : Add a Project and Invite Team Members</span></a></li>
 	<li><a href=""#ManageYourKanban""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 2 : Manage Your Kanban Backlog</span></a></li>
 	<li><a href=""#IntroductionofKanplan""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 3 : Introduction of Kanplan</span></a></li>
 	<li><a href=""#WorkonYourKanbanboard""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 4 : Work on Your Kanban board</span></a></li>
 	<li><a href=""#LogYourEfforts""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 5 : Log Your Efforts</span></a></li>
 	<li><a href=""#MonitorYourWork""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 6 : Monitor Your Work</span></a></li>
</ul>
<strong><a id=""AddProject""></a>Add a Project and Invite Team Members</strong>

Let us add your first project and invite team members.
<ul>
 	<li>You can create your first project in which you will select the process as a “<strong>KANBAN</strong>” and manage all the cards within it.</li>
 	<li>Once you select your process as “<strong>KANBAN</strong>”, you have to invite all the team members that you want to be a part of your project and then click on the Add button.</li>
 	<li><a id=""ManageYourKanban""></a>Click on that particular ""<strong>KANBAN</strong>"" project, to start managing your work within it.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]

<strong>Manage Your Kanban Backlog</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>List out all your requirements in a form of user stories on the Kanban backlog.</li>
 	<li>Provide the user story requirements in the user story description or within an attached file, so it will be referring to the assigned user about the work that they’ll be doing.</li>
 	<li><a id=""IntroductionofKanplan""></a>Set the prioritization and the business value on each user story (requirement) and then start doing Kanplan.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]

<strong>Introduction of Kanplan</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Move your prioritized user stories from Kanban Backlog to the Kanban board, by simply drag &amp; drop to start working on those user stories.</li>
 	<li>You may drag particular or multiple user stories from the Kanban backlog to the Kanban board, during the Kanplan phase.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li><a id=""WorkonYourKanbanboard""></a>Assign the Kanban user stories to its responsible person, so they’ll start working on it.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]

<strong>Work on Your Kanban board</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Go to the Kanban board from Kanban Projects.</li>
 	<li>Once you start working on your assigned user story, move that user story status from To Do to In Progress.</li>
 	<li>The assigned user can split their user story work into the tasks.</li>
 	<li>Move the user story to completed phase once your work is completed.</li>
 	<li>You can “Archive your User stories” from Kanban board to Archive backlog.</li>
 	<li><a id=""LogYourEfforts""></a>Configure the Kanban board lanes from the workflow, to add new phases while implementing the process.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]

<strong>Log Your Efforts</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>When you are working on your user stories, go to Timesheet tab to log your efforts into a user story.</li>
 	<li>You can log your efforts independently on the Timesheet module.</li>
 	<li>Timesheet module logs all the efforts that you’ve added in your tasks or user stories, which is useful for <a id=""MonitorYourWork""></a>reviewing the work done by all the members.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]

<strong>Monitor Your Work</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Review your Kanban work in different reports such as Speed (Which tracks Lead Time VS Cycle Time) Velocity, Effort Variance, Distribution and many more.</li>
 	<li>All the reports are well elaborated within their drill-down format.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]",,Blog,
4833,Getting Started With Scrum,"Quickscrum is a project management tool that helps your team to <strong>Collaborate Better, Achieve Goals faster</strong> and<strong> Improve Continuously</strong> via various processes like Scrum.

In about 10 minutes, you will have a quick understanding of how you can manage your work on the Scrum framework.
<ul>
 	<li><a href=""#AddProject""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 1 : Add a Project and Invite Team Members</span></a></li>
 	<li><a href=""#RefineBacklog""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 2 : Refine Your Backlog</span></a></li>
 	<li><a href=""#PlanYourSprints""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 3 : Plan Your Sprints</span></a></li>
 	<li id=""a1""><a href=""#WorkonYourScrumboard""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 4 : Work on Your Scrumboard</span></a></li>
 	<li><a href=""#LogYourEfforts""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 5 : Log Your Efforts</span></a></li>
 	<li><a href=""#MonitorYourWork""><span style=""color: #3366ff;"">Step 6 : Monitor Your Work</span></a></li>
</ul>
<strong><a id=""AddProject""></a>Add a Project and Invite Team Members</strong>

Let us add your first project and invite team members.
<ul>
 	<li>You can create your first project in which you will select the process as a “SCRUM” and manage all the user stories within it.</li>
 	<li>Once you select your process as “SCRUM”, you have to invite all the team members that you want to be a part of your project and then click on the Add button.</li>
 	<li>Click on that particular SCRUM project, to start managing your work within it.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]
<p style=""text-align: left;""><a id=""RefineBacklog""></a>Click here to go through step by step guide: “<a href=""http://localhost/qs-guide/article/add-project/""><u>How to Add a Project</u></a>”</p>
<strong>Refine Your Backlog</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>List out all your requirements in a form of user stories on the backlog.</li>
 	<li>Add the criteria’s within a description or attach the file within the user story, so it will be referring to the assigned user about the work they’ll be doing.</li>
 	<li>Set the prioritization and the business value of each user story (requirement) and then start planning your work</li>
</ul>
[GIF]

<a id=""PlanYourSprints""></a>Click here to go through step by step guide: “<u><a href=""http://localhost/qs-guide/article/add-story/"">How to Add a User Story</a>""</u>

<strong>Plan Your Sprints</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Create your sprints, set team availability and manage your user stories within it.</li>
 	<li>Drag all your highly valuable and most prioritized user stories to your sprints.</li>
 	<li>Drag particular or multiple user stories from the backlog section to the sprint in order to plan it.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>Assign the user story to its responsible person.</li>
 	<li>The assigned user can split their user story work into the tasks.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]

<a id=""WorkonYourScrumboard""></a>Click here to know: “<a href=""http://localhost/qs-guide/article/plan-sprint/""><u>How to Plan your Sprint</u></a>”

<strong>Work on Your Scrum board</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Select your particular Sprint from the filter.</li>
 	<li>When you start working you can update your work status by moving your user stories from one lane to another lane.</li>
 	<li>Configure the scrum board lanes from the workflow to add new phases while implementing the process.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]

<a id=""LogYourEfforts""></a>Click here to know: “<a href=""http://localhost/qs-guide/article/manage-board/""><u>How to execute your Work on Scrum board</u></a>”

<strong>Log Your Efforts</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>When you are working on your user stories or tasks, go to Timesheet tab to log your efforts into user stories or tasks.</li>
 	<li>You can log your efforts independently on the Timesheet module.</li>
 	<li>Timesheet module logs all the efforts that you’ve added in your tasks or user stories, which is useful for reviewing the work done by all the members.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]

<a id=""MonitorYourWork""></a>Click here to know: “<a href=""http://localhost/qs-guide/article/add-efforts/""><u>How to Log your Efforts</u></a>”

<strong>Monitor Your Work</strong>
<ul>
 	<li>Review your work in different reports such as Burndown, Velocity, Effort Variance, Distribution and many more.</li>
 	<li>All the reports are well elaborated within their drill-down format.</li>
 	<li>Tracking your work history from the Activities.</li>
</ul>
[GIF]",,Blog,
4894,Delete Efforts,"There can be times when you want delete effort which has been mistakenly added or is not needed. It can be done within Quickscrum by,
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">1. Clicking on the <strong>Delete</strong> option from the action menu of the Logged efforts on Timesheet.</p>
<p style=""text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4155"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/10-2.jpg"" alt="""" width=""615"" height=""390"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. Click on the <strong>OK</strong> button from the popup to delete the logged efforts.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4091"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/effort-delete-popup.png"" alt="""" width=""496"" height=""191"" /></p>",,Blog,
4921,Delete Project,"Some projects might are short-term and can be completed within a time frame. You might want to delete such projects.

To delete a particular project from the project section,
<ol>
 	<li>Click on <strong>Quickscrum logo</strong> which will lead you to Projects Page.</li>
</ol>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4513"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/07-7.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1366"" height=""662"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. Click on Delete option from the action menu of the project.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4773"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/6-1.png"" alt="""" width=""1353"" height=""580"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">3. Click on OK, to delete the project.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4546"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/10-6.jpg"" alt="""" width=""484"" height=""177"" /></p>
&nbsp;",,Blog,
4950,Delete User,"When a User leaves any a project and you might want to delete that user. It can be done by

Delete a User,
<ol>
 	<li>Click on <strong>Quickscrum logo</strong> which will lead you to Projects Page.</li>
</ol>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4513"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/07-7.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1366"" height=""662"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. From here, click on the <strong>Project</strong> to view it.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4750"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1.png"" alt="""" width=""1365"" height=""658"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">3. Click on <strong>setting</strong> icon available on the right top corner. Setting icon is only available to an administrator.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4025"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/add-effort-category-1.png"" alt="""" width=""294"" height=""115"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">4. Click on <strong>User </strong>in the left menu.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4236"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/user-tab.png"" alt="""" width=""1366"" height=""528"" /></p>
<p style=""font-weight: 400; padding-left: 30px;"">5. Click on <b><strong>Delete</strong></b> option in action menu.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4266"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/user-delete.png"" alt="""" width=""1366"" height=""528"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">6. Click on  <strong>OK</strong> to give confirmation to delete users. If this user is assigned to an item, it will automatically be unassigned.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4091"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/effort-delete-popup.png"" alt="""" width=""496"" height=""191"" /></p>

<h1 style=""font-weight: 400;"">Search Users</h1>
To Search an item priority,
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">1.<span style=""font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: xx-small;"">  </span>Type a user's name in the textbox.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4273"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/user-search.png"" alt="""" width=""1366"" height=""528"" /></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;"">2. Press an enter button or click on the <strong>icon</strong>.</p>",,Blog,
5000,Sort Workitems,"Quickscrum provides extremely friendly <strong>sorting feature</strong> within backlog. <strong>Workitems</strong> can be sorted by three orders,
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>Ascending Order</strong>: Workitems are displayed in ascending order.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>Descending <b>Order </b>: </strong>Workitems are displayed in descending order.</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><strong>Default <b>Order </b>: </strong>By default newly created workitems are displayed on the top.</p>
To sort workitems by specific order,

Click on the <strong>column header</strong> such as name, code, business value etc.
<p style=""text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;""><img class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4377"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/04-4.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1124"" height=""427"" /></p>
There are three ways you can sort workitems,
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>First Click</strong> : Sort workitems by ascending order</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Second Click</strong> : Sort workitems by descending order</p>
<p style=""padding-left: 30px;""><strong>Third Click</strong> : Sort workitems by default order.</p>",,Blog,
5146,Burndown Chart by Estimated Size,"<span style=""color: #333333;"">A Burndown Chart shows the <strong>amount of work remaining </strong>by the sum of estimated size for the number of workitem remaining on a specific day within a timebox. It quickly reveals,</span>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">How much work your <strong>team has completed</strong> since start date of <strong>timebox (iteration/sprint)?</strong></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">Is your team progressing well towards your <strong>timebox goal (iteration/sprint)?</strong></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">How much work is still <strong>left to do</strong> to achieve the defined <strong>timebox goal</strong>?</span></li>
</ul>
<span style=""color: #333333;"">Here you'll learn how to:</span>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#a1"">How to Read the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#filter"">Filter the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#drilldown"">Drill down the char</a>t</span></li>
 	<li id=""a1""><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#Howtouse"">How to use the chart</a></span></li>
</ul>
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">How to Read</span></h1>
<span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>X-Axis:</strong> Shows <strong>timebox days</strong></span>

<span style=""color: #333333;""><strong id=""filter"">Y-Axis</strong>: </span>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>Planned Scope: </strong>Total Planned scope by the sum of estimated size for the number of workitems</span></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong> Ideal Remaining Work: </strong>Ideal work remaining by the sum of estimated size number of workitems remaining on a specific day</span></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>Actual Remaining Work:</strong> Actual work remaining by the sum of estimated size number of workitems remaining on a specific day</span></p>
<span style=""font-size: 12px;"">[Note]: Planned Scope is calculated at the start of the timebox. If scope change is performed after timebox is started, It doesn't get reflected in the chart. As agile does not permit to change scope within a specific timebox, Quickscrum team has not considered it yet.</span>
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">Filters</span></h1>
You can view burndown chart for <strong id=""drilldown"">Active</strong> and <strong>Completed</strong> Timebox (iteration/sprint).
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">Drilldown</span></h1>
<span style=""color: #333333;"">Just viewing chart doesn’t help you enough until you can view associated workitems and act upon.</span>

<span style=""color: #333333;"">To view associated work items,</span>
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">Click on any data point</span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">Work items get displayed just <strong>right below the chart</strong></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #333333;"">Perform <strong>In-line editing</strong> over any single a workitem</span></li>
</ul>
<span style=""color: #333333;""> Burndown chart displays all workitems related to timebox as shown in the image below.</span>

<img id=""Howtouse"" class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4057"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/burndown.png"" alt="""" width=""1109"" height=""549"" />
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">How to Use</span></h1>
<span style=""color: #333333;"">It is recommended to track Burndown chart on daily basis ideally in a short meeting performed in the morning with the whole team.</span>

<span style=""color: #333333;"">You should compare <strong>Ideal work Remaining</strong> with <strong>Actual work Remaining. </strong></span>",,Blog,
5166,Burnup Chart by Estimated Size,"A Burnup Chart shows the <strong>amount of work completed</strong> <span style=""color: #333333;"">by the sum of estimated size for the number of workitems</span><span style=""color: #333333;""> completed on a specific day within a timebox</span>. It quickly reveals,
<ul>
 	<li>How much work your <strong>team has been completed</strong> since the start date of <strong>timebox (iteration/sprint)?</strong></li>
 	<li>What was the <strong>Planned Scope</strong> of the timebox at the start of the <strong>timebox (iteration/sprint)?</strong></li>
 	<li>Is your team progressing well towards your <strong>timebox goal (iteration/sprint)?</strong></li>
 	<li>How much work <strong>should have been completed</strong> at a point of time within a timebox can be tracked?</li>
 	<li>How much work is still <strong>left to do</strong> to achieve the defined goal?</li>
 	<li><strong>Ideal work </strong>team should have completed by any specific day.</li>
</ul>
Here you'll learn how to:
<ul>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#a1"">How to Read the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#filter"">Filter the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#drilldown"">Drill down the chart</a></span></li>
 	<li id=""a1""><span style=""color: #3366ff;""><a style=""color: #3366ff;"" href=""#Howtouse"">How to use the chart</a></span></li>
</ul>
<h1 style=""text-align: left;""><span style=""color: #333333;"">How to Read</span></h1>
<strong>X-Axis:</strong> Shows <strong>timebox days.</strong>

<strong>Y-Axis</strong>:
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>Planned Scope: </strong>Total Planned scope by the sum of estimated size for the number of workitems</span></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong> Ideal Completed Work: </strong>Ideal work completed by the sum of estimated size number of workitems completed on a specific day</span></p>
<p style=""padding-left: 60px;""><span style=""color: #333333;""><strong>Actual Completed Work:</strong> Actual work completed by the sum of estimated size number of workitems completed on a specific day</span></p>

<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">Filters</span></h1>
You can view burnup chart for <strong id=""drilldown"">Active</strong> and <strong>Completed</strong> Timebox (iteration/sprint).
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">Drilldown</span></h1>
Just viewing chart doesn’t help you enough until you can view associated work items and act upon.

To view associated work items,
<ul>
 	<li>Click on any data point</li>
 	<li>Work-items get displayed just <strong>right below the chart</strong></li>
 	<li>Perform <strong>In-line editing</strong> over any single work item</li>
</ul>
Burnup chart displays all workitems related to timebox as shown in the image below.

<img id=""Howtouse"" class=""alignnone size-full wp-image-4541"" src=""http://localhost/qs-guide/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/sprint-burnup.png"" alt="""" width=""1637"" height=""710"" />
<h1><span style=""color: #333333;"">How to Use </span></h1>
It is recommended to track Burnup chart on daily basis ideally in a short meeting performed in the morning with the whole team.
<ul>
 	<li>You should compare <strong>Ideal work completed</strong> with <strong>Actual work completed.</strong></li>
 	<li>At the end of the timebox, you can compare if the <strong>Actual work completed</strong> with the <strong>Planned Scope</strong>.</li>
</ul>",,Blog,
6672,Plan Workitems on Timeline,,,Blog,
6675,View Timeline By,,,Blog,
6676,Filter Timeline,,,Blog,
6677,Plan Workitems on Calendar,,,Blog,
6678,View Calendar By,,,Blog,
6679,Filter Calendar,,,Blog,