Agile Planning & Project Management

In this session we will shatter the myth that agile teams can’t plan. We’ll start by looking at the benefits of the short cycles of iterative and incremental development. We’ll then look at the six different levels of planning that occur in agile organizations. We’ll see what user stories are and why they’ve become the preferred approach to planning and managing the work of an agile team. We’ll look at how user stories are estimated with the popular Planning Poker technique. To do that we’ll discuss the merits of relative estimating and abstract approaches such as story points and what a point really means. With an initial plan created, we’ll look at how agile teams use the concept of velocity to measure and predict progress. We’ll also look at information radiatiors such as task boards and burndown charts. We’ll conclude by looking at how these concepts can be applied to complex situations such as fixed-date and fixed-scope projects.

• Look back at how the Agile methods and practices emerged
• Discuss the Agile Manifesto and 12 Principles and their resulting impact on the way that we do software development today
• Describe what it’s like to work on Agile Project
• Describe what you can do next Monday to get started