Monday, November 8, 2010

Manoj Vadakkan on Agile Project Management Estimation


[This article was originally published at AgileScout.com. You can find them on Twitter at @agilescout]



There was a Time Before Agile: 

Before Agile most shops "gathered" requirements from the beginning.

UAT usually was an afterthought and usually left behind in the development process and estimation was done long before the work was even initiated. 

"The actual work always took longer to do than estimated."

Taking baby steps towards Agile:
  • Start small with baby steps in fixed sprint length
  • Run tests after each iterations
  • Start estimation through user stories
  • Get customer feedback


Manoj uses the following Estimation Techniques for User Stories:
  • Planning Poker 
  • T-shirt sizing 
  • Ordered piles 


Manoj defines "Velocity" as how many story points a team can complete within an iteration.

How do you average your velocity?
1. Take out outliers (highest and lowest velocity #)
2. Take best velocity (after outliers taken out)
3. Take lowest velocity (after outliers taken out)
4. Have conversation with your customer around the lowest and best velocity after taking out the outliers. 

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