Agile Really ?

There is always confusion about Agile & Scrum.  What I have come across while giving interviews and working with a few agile companies. When they say they are agile, they really are only following the scrum approach

1. Agile is the philosophy 

2. Scrum is the Agile approach

One could also say that Agile describes the process and its steps more concisely. Agile is a practice whereas scrum is a procedure to pursue this practice.

Many have a different impression of agile is 

1. Many would quote from the Agile manifesto which says ““Agile is a set of methods and frameworks that embody the principles  and values of the Agile Manifesto”

2. Many would say it is a way of thinking 

3. Then again many would compare it to the waterfall where it differs from that approach as Agile is more iterative incremental approach compare to the waterfall methodology where deliver all at once

What is Agile?

As per the Agile alliance “Agile is the ability to create and respond to change. It is a way of dealing with, and ultimately succeeding in, an uncertain and turbulent environment.”

Why are companies preferring to move into agile than the waterfall approach?

1. Waterfall approach was to deliver in all whole like a product which meant that if there are changes to be made, this could not be achieved and the whole rework needs to be done

2. Higher chance of project failure in the waterfall methodology

3. Feedback from users/stakeholder can be addressed quickly in the agile approach

Currently, many companies still do have a lot of projects which are in the Waterfall. However agile project management is advisable for small teams and start-ups with less number of projects. Since customer satisfaction is of the highest priority of any business, agile project management is highly recommended. Research also indicates 57% of the agile projects have generated higher customer satisfaction

What are user stories?

A typical format of user story is as shown below

• User stories can be categorized as a future requirement captured from the customers. During requirement gathering customers requirement/ features of the particular software can be captured. 
• User stories provide an excellent way to define your product with clarity. The ‘user story’ provides meaningful product discussions, both within the product development team and with external stakeholders. 
• user stories help to achieve cross-team clarity on what to build, for whom, why, and when.
• User stories encourage participation by non-technical members.
• User stories must be written in simple language so as all the members are able to understand the need.

Explain what is a story point in the scrum?
A story point is defined as a unit to estimate the total efforts required to complete or to do the particular task or implementing a backlog.

User stories are not tasks

User stories are not tasks. A single-story may have hundreds of single tasks and all these tasks have to be completed for the story to be successfully delivered. Tasks are about implementation; user stories are about definition.

Understand the product from a realistic perspective. 

The product owner and team need to think from the user's point to understand the need and what is expected from the product.

The product can be described as a backlog of user stories. Never constraint the user stories based on the budget, time and feasibility or cost.

Epic 

Epics are formed higher-level stories which describe a large piece of the functionality.

Effective prioritization process

It is good practice to keep enriching your product backlog with new user stories, describing new user interaction scenarios, ‘random ideas,’ or the output of product innovation activities

What are the disadvantages of the agile model?

1. Not easy to predict: When you encounter a large project, it is not easy to get an idea of how much effort will it require.
2. If the requirements given by the customers are not properly grasped, then the final outcome of the project is not as per customer satisfaction.

How do you know if you are using agile development?

When we use certain things like

1. Test-driven development, 
2. Time-boxed 
3. Taskboard, 
4. Class responsibilities collaborators, 
5. Daily stand up meeting, 
6. Pair programming, 
7. Continuous-integration

reviews and much more, you will get to know that you are using agile development

What is the duration of a scrum sprint?
The duration of a scrum sprint (scrum cycle) depends upon the size of the project and team working on it. The team size may vary from 3-9 members. A scrum script complete in 3-4 weeks. On Average, the duration of a scrum sprint (scrum cycle) is 4 weeks.

What do you understand by Daily Stand-Up?
The daily stand-up is an effective way to motivate the team and make them set a goal for the day. The whole team meets for almost 15 minutes to answer to the following three questions –

What was done yesterday?
What is your plan for today?
Are there any Roadblocks that restricts team member from completing their task?

What is the use of burn-up and burn-down charts?
The burn-up chart shows the amount of completed work in a project.
Whereas a burn-down chart depicts the amount of work remained to complete a project. They are used to trace the progress of a project.
Burn Down chart  -  Simple guide to create a burndown chart  or  

Burn up  chart -  How to create Burnup chart  or  

What does the X and Y-axis of the burndown chart?

In burn down, chart X-axis shows working days and Y-axis shows remaining efforts.

What are the different roles in Scrum?
The three scrum roles i.e. Scrum Master, Product Owner and Team 

Product owner 

1. A product owner is actually the stakeholder of the project. 
2. He represents the project requirements before the team. 
3. He is responsible to have a vision and convey his detailed vision to the team. 
4. He is the starting point of an agile scrum software development project.

Scrum team

1. The scrum team is formed by the collective contribution of individuals who perform for the accomplishment of a particular project. 
2. The team is bound to work for the timely delivery of the requested product.

Scrum Master

1. Scrum master is the leader and the coach for the scrum team 
2. He checks whether the scrum team is executing committed tasks properly. 
3. He is also responsible to increase the efficiency and productivity of the team so that they can achieve the sprint goal effectively.

What are the responsibilities of a Scrum Master?
Key responsibilities of a Scrum Master involves:

1. Tracking and monitoring
2. Understanding requirements properly
3. Work to reach the project goal
4. Process checking master and quality master
5. Protect the team from detachments
6. Improving the performance of the team
7. Lead the meetings and resolve issues
8. Resolution of conflicts and impediments
9. Communication and reporting

When should you use Waterfall model instead of Scrum?

When the requirements are specific and simple, then the waterfall instead of a scrum 

What is the sprint planning meeting?

A sprint planning has all the participants like scrum master, product owner and whole scrum team where they discuss the priority features of the team and product backlog items.

What is a Sprint Retrospective meeting?

This the last part of the sprint or done after the sprint review meeting. Scrum master and the whole team participate in it. They discuss ‘ what was good during the sprint','what was bad',' what needs to be improved'. It generally lasts for 2-3 hrs.