Skip to content
BestOutcome Logo
Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Agile

  • The Agile functionality is accessible through any Project (not Programmes or BCPs). As usual, its visibility can be controlled by Admins via the UI Group functionality. By default, it is available in the ‘All’ UI Group. Admins will need to add it to other UI Groups as required.
  • The Agile tab provides an alternative to the Milestone Plan and Gantt Chart of the Delivery tab. Both the Agile and Delivery tabs could be used in the one plan, but information is not shared between them – they are independent.
  • The Agile Methodology has a few important concepts. o Story – a software feature described from a user perspective. It achieves a user activity. It is atomic in that it is either implemented or not – it is considered fully implemented if the user can complete the target activity. A Story can be either a User Story or a Technical Story. A Story would typically require between 2 and 10 days effort from the development team.
    • Sprint – A fixed time-bounded release cycle. It contains a collection of Stories to be delivered during that release. The Stories are added to or removed from the collection during the Sprint, in order to ensure the fixed end date is achieved. A project consists of several Sprints.
    • Story Stage – when the code for a Story is being developed during a Sprint, it moves through several stages such as – Not Started, In Progress, Completed, Blocked. Admins can customize these names in the Admin > Agile Definitions menu. (Type in the cell to rename).
    • Agile Task – A Story may consist of several tasks which must be completed in order to complete the whole Story. These are distinct from the Tasks created in the Gantt page and hence they are called Agile Tasks. Agile Tasks can be assigned to a Person.
    • Story Points – A Story is allocated several Story Points based on the amount of effort required to complete it. A project manager can use any consistent scale to determine the number of story points

in a story. Often estimate of man-days is used as a first approximation. The scale can be more sophisticated, considering the different skill levels of team members.

  • Velocity – the number of story points completed in a Sprint. After several completed Sprints, the project manager can use this number to estimate the number of Sprints required to complete the project.
  • Backlog – The set of Stories that have not yet been allocated to a Sprint.

Product Backlog Page

  • This page allows project managers to create Sprints and Stories and to move Stories between the Backlog and Sprints, or between 2 Sprints.

  • The page now has 2 views – o Side-by-side view – the default view (see screenshot) o All Stories – all stories appear in one table. They can be sorted by Sprint, Priority and other fields.
  • Stories can be moved to Sprints via the Sprint Dropdown in it’s row.
  • The left pane usually shows the Backlog and the right pane, the current Sprint. However, by using the down arrows above each pane, a user can choose which Sprints he wants to deal with.
  • Adding a Sprint (Runner icon in toolbar at top) will add the new Sprint to the right pane.
  • Adding a Story (Book icon in toolbar at top) will add the new Story to the left pane.
  • Reordering Sprints (Calendar icon in toolbar at top) will order the Sprints by date. This affects the order they appear in the dropdowns and the order they appear in the Burndown page. Otherwise, they appear in the order they were entered.
  • The Team Capacity field allows the Project Manager to specify the average number of Story Points the team can complete in a Sprint. This will be used to calculate the number of Sprints required as shown in the Burndown page (see below).

Sprints Page

  • This page is shows all the Sprints that have been created within the plan.
  • Ability to create a sequence of Sprints, with minimal input e.g. specifying number, start date, sprint duration (which defaults to the setting in Admin >Agile Definitions).
  • New long text fields – Goal, Retrospective, Review, and a Completed checkbox.
  • When Sprints are created, the Name and End Date of the Sprint is used to create a Milestone in the Milestone plan and Gantt pages.
    • Such Milestones which relate to a sprint will inherit Planned (End)Date first then Revised date after that
    • The shared dates can be updated in any page in which Milestone occurs and such changes feed through to the other pages.
    • Milestone and Gantt pages have optional SprintID column; Sprint page show optional MilestoneID column.
    • Cog options on the Milestone Plan page allow deletion of both Milestone + Sprint if they are linked, or just one of these i.e. the one selected for deletion

ScrumBan Page

  • This page is essentially a Kanban page, allows the project manager to manage the progress of the Stories. Stories can be moved between stages via drag-drop.
  • With a Story, Agile Tasks can be added (click the + at the bottom of the Story) and assigned to a person (double click the task).
  • Each task can be marked as Complete, so the project manager can see how each Story is progressing.
  • Stories themselves can be edited by hovering over the Story and clicking the cog icon at its top right.
  • There are 6 State columns whose names and visibility can be toggled on the Admin > Agile Definitions page.
  • Cog settings on this page allow all Task information on Stories to be Shown or Hidden.
  • The Total Estimate to Complete (ETC) is automatically calculated from the ETC of the constituent tasks.

Burndown Page

This page shows the classic Agile Burndown page. This shows the progress of the project across Sprints which appear on the X-axis. (The sprint number shown here is the Display Order in the Sprint popup). The Y-axis shows the number of Story Points remaining.

  • The number of sprints is determined by either the Total Story Points / Team Capacity per Sprint o OR The number of Sprints that have been manually created in the Product Backlog page, whichever is larger.
  • The page will only be useful if suitable values have been supplied for both the Team Capacity and the Story Points of at least the Stories in the initial sprints. (To get a full analysis, you need Story Points on all Stories including those in the Backlog).
  • The Estimated Burndown line (blue) shows the theoretical total number of Story points remaining, at the end of the Sprint on the X-axis, based on an equal number of Story Points completed per Sprint. It forms the baseline against which to compare Actual progress.
    • At the top left, at project start, it shows the total number of Story Points to be completed in the project i.e. the sum of all the Story Points in all the Sprints.
    • At the bottom right, at the end of the last sprint, it shows the zero.
  • The Actual Burndown line (red) shows the actual number of Story points remaining at the end of the Sprint. Before the first Sprint, at the top left, it will equal the Estimated Burndown line. But thereafter, it will vary, usually tracking somewhere near the Estimated Burndown line (blue) for those Sprints which are completed. So red above blue is bad (more points remaining than expected), and red below blue is good (fewer points remaining than expected).
  • The Velocity line shows the number of Story Points completed in each Sprint.