Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) Exam Prep Course 7 ... · The product with the highest return on investment versus its risk. C. The MVP seeks to maximize the information learned

Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) Exam Prep

Course 7 – Adaptive Planning

Slide 1

Adaptive Planning

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Slide 2

Adaptive PlanningDomain Tasks – Levels of Planning

1. Plan at multiple levels (strategic, release, iteration, daily) creating appropriate detail by using rolling wave planning & progressive elaboration to balance predictability of outcomes with ability to exploit opportunities.

2. Make planning activities visible & transparent by encouraging participation of key stakeholders & publishing planning results in order to increase commitment level & reduce uncertainty.

3. As the project unfolds, set & manage stakeholder expectations by making increasingly specific levels of commitments in order to ensure common understanding of the expected deliverables.

© Copyright and all rights reserved – Looking Glass Development, LLC.

Domain Tasks – Adaptation4. Adapt the cadence & the planning process based on results of periodic retrospectives about characteristics

&/or the size/complexity/criticality of the project deliverables in order to maximize the value.

5. Inspect & adapt the project plan to reflect changes in requirements, schedule, budget, & shifting priorities based on team learning, delivery experience, stakeholder feedback, & defects in order to maximize business value delivered.

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Slide 3

Adaptive Planning

Domain Tasks – Agile Sizing & Estimation6. Size items by using progressive elaboration techniques in order determine likely

project size independent of team velocity & external variables.

7. Adjust capacity by incorporating maintenance & operations demands & other factors in order to create or update the range estimates.

8. Create initial scope, schedule, & cost range estimates that reflect current high level understanding of the effort necessary to deliver the project in order to develop a starting point for managing the project.

9. Refine scope, schedule, & cost range estimates that reflect the latest understanding of the effort necessary to delivery the project in order to manage the project.

10. Continuously use data from changes in resource capacity, project size & velocity metrics in order to evaluate the estimate to complete.


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Slide 4

The Basic Agile Project Planning Process


Product Vision – Done Every Year.

Product Roadmap – Done every 6 months.

Release Planning – Done every 90 days.

Iteration Planning – Done every 2 to 6 weeks.

Daily Standup – Done every day.

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Slide 5

Adaptive Planning

• Reducing non-value added work suggests planning only once.

• The only way to successfully plan a project is to plan and re-plan.

• This is adaptive planning– Accepting early plans are inaccurate.– Uncertainty drives the need to re-plan.


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Slide 6

Adaptive Planning

Timeboxing• Short, fixed duration periods of time in which

activities or work are undertaken.• Examples include:

– The Daily Scrum Meeting is timeboxed to 15 minutes.

– Iterations or sprints are timeboxed to 2 – 6 weeks.

• Agile locks the time leg of the triangle.


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Slide 7

Adaptive PlanningProgressive Elaboration

• The process of capturing more detail over time as information emerges.

• Where is it used?– Estimates– WBS– Plans – Acceptance criteria– Test scenarios

• Two Types– Prototypes– Rolling Wave Planning


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Slide 8

Adaptive Planning

Rolling Wave Planning• Detailed planning is done for activities in the

near term & only high-level planning is done for the activities to be performed far into the future.

• The project is iteratively planned.• It is a multi-step, intermittent process.


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Slide 9

Adaptive Planning

Process Tailoring• Changing the process over time.

• Answering the questions:– What is going well?– What areas could use improvement?– What should we be doing differently?


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Slide 10

The Agile Pyramid

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Minimally Marketable Features (MMF)


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Slide 11

The Agile Pyramid


Organizational Learning

Lean Thinking

Agile SoftwareDevelopment

XPScrum

Applicability

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Slide 12

The Agile Test Pyramid


Unit Tests

Integration Tests

Acceptance Tests

GUI Tests

UATBeta

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Slide 13

Adaptive Planning

Value-Based Analysis• Process of considering the business value of work

items & then acting accordingly.

• When prioritizing the work, the highest business value is done first.

• In Value-Based Analysis the costs must be offset.


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Slide 14

Adaptive Planning

Value-Based Decomposition & Prioritization

• Eliciting requirements from stakeholders, ranking the requirements, then pulling prioritized requirements into the development process.

• Requirements are initially course grained.


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Slide 15

Adaptive PlanningAgile Games

• Remember the Future– Each stakeholder starts independently.– Spend 20 minutes writing stickies on what world looks like.– Stickies brought together on the wall, duplicates are

removed & items are grouped.

• Prune the Product Tree– Start by drawing a big tree.– Stakeholders add features as leaves to the tree.– Group leaves on branches.– Core features closer to the trunk.


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Slide 16

Adaptive PlanningAgile Games

• Speedboat– A risk management exercise– Done after Prune the Product Tree– Draw picture of sailboat on water.– Positive risks are placed above water “wind” – Negative risks placed below water “drag”– Big negative risks can be “rocks”

• Buy a Feature• Bang for the Buck


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Slide 17

Adaptive PlanningWideband Delphi & Planning Poker

• Wideband Delphi– Starts with group breaking down project into large

components.– Group raises questions & discusses.– Anonymous estimates collected.– Aggregate results on plot.– Assumptions discussed & re-estimated.– Continue until reaching preset range.

• Planning Poker


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Slide 18

Adaptive Planning

Estimation• Agile estimation assumes complexity &

uncertainty.• Estimates are necessary for sizing & approvals,

calculating ROI, etc.• Holistic estimates require inclusion of

development, rollout, & sustainment costs.• Estimates should always be given as ranges.• Estimation must be done continuously.• Team members must do estimates.


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Slide 19

Adaptive Planning

Estimation• Ideal Time - Assumes resources 100% dedicated• Relative Sizing – Often called T-Shirt sizing.• Story Points – Aggregates complexity & time. • Fibonacci Sequence – Another comparison

technique.• Affinity Estimating – Process of grouping

requirements into categories or collections. Used to group similarly sized user stories together.


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Slide 20

Adaptive Planning

Time & Cost Estimation• Determine the size

• Calculate the effort

• Convert effort into a schedule

• Calculate the cost© Copyright and all rights reserved – Looking Glass

Development, LLC.

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Slide 21

What Causes Project Delays?• Unfocused management

• A focus on task management

• Dependencies between steps cause delays to accumulate and advances to be wasted.

• Parkinson’s Law

Adaptive Planning


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Slide 22

What Causes Project Delays?• The “safety” is misplaced

• Student Syndrome

• Lack of performance metrics

• Multi-tasking

Adaptive Planning


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Slide 23

Adaptive Planning

Planning Differences• Trial & demonstration uncover true requirements,

which then require replanning.

• Agile planning is less of an upfront effort & is done more throughout the entire project.

• Midcourse adjustments are the norm.

• Business cases & charters are largely the same.


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Review Questions:

1. When comparing Agile Development to traditional, linear methods which of the following is true?

A. Agile Development requires less planning than traditional, linear methods. B. Agile Development does as much planning as traditional, linear methods. C. Agile Development often requires significantly more planning than

traditional, linear methods. D. Agile Development is more efficient because the planning process is

heavily front loaded.

2. Key to the concept of Agile Planning is the fact that Agilists accepts: A. that early plans are inherently inaccurate which creates constant

uncertainty. B. that plans are an artificial construct of the traditional project manager C. that planning is a necessary evil in the project process. D. that the project planning process does not require strong process or

cadence.

3. Which of the following is NOT a component of timeboxing? A. Timeboxes are short periods of time. B. Timeboxes are fixed periods of time. C. Timeboxes are primarily focused on the length of iterations. D. Timeboxes impact almost every area of an agile project.

4. Which of the following is NOT an example of something in an agile project that is

timeboxed? A. The Daily Scrum B. The Scrum Sprint C. The Sprint Retrospective D. The Agile Project

5. What is the length of a Scrum Sprint according to the original rules of Scrum?

A. 2 to 6 weeks B. 30 days C. 2 weeks D. 6 weeks

6. As an Agile Coach you advise a team that they shouldn't worry about not having all the project details at the beginning of the project because details naturally become apparent as the project progresses. This is an example of what?

A. The agile estimating process B. Progressive elaboration C. Decomposition D. WBS Planning

7. Which of the following is considered a type of progressive elaboration?

A. Rolling wave planning B. WBS decomposition C. Incremental planning components D. Defined iteration planning

8. Which of the following terms represents the concept of the team changes the

process over time to meet the ever changing needs of the project? A. Process tailoring B. WBS decomposition C. Rolling wave planning D. Defined iteration planning

9. Which of the following terms references the sweet spot between products without

the required features that fail the customer before even being used and the products with so many features that they reduce the overall return and increase the organizational risk?

A. The minimally marketable features B. The minimum viable product C. The product backlog D. The baseline featureset

10. Which of the following is NOT a common way of describing the MVP?

A. The sweet spot between products without the required features that fail the customer before even being used and the products with so many features that they reduce the overall return and increase the organizational risk.

B. The product with the highest return on investment versus its risk. C. The MVP seeks to maximize the information learned about the customer

regardless of dollar spent. D. The MVP has just those core features that allow the product to be

deployed, and no more.

11. Which of the following has just the core features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more?

A. The minimally marketable features B. The minimum viable product C. The product backlog D. The baseline featureset

12. Which of the following provides a a strategy targeted at avoiding building

products that customers do not want, that seeks to maximize the information learned about the customer per dollar spent?

A. The product backlog B. The baseline featureset C. The minimally marketable features D. The minimum viable product

13. Which of the following represents the smallest set of functionality that must be

realized in order for the customer to perceive value? A. The minimally marketable features B. The minimum viable product C. The product backlog D. The baseline featureset

14. In examining the Agile Pyramid, what is found beneath the concepts of Lean

Thinking? A. XP B. Scrum C. Agile software development D. Organizational learning

15. Which of the following types of tests sits at the bottom of the Agile Test Pyramid?

A. GUI tests B. UAT / Beta tests C. Integration tests D. Unit tests

16. What kind of tests have purpose of the customer determining if the delivered functionality works as promised?

A. UAT beta tests B. Acceptance tests C. Integration tests D. Unit tests

17. The BEST definition of value-based analysis is:

A. The process of prioritizing features of greatest value to the customer highest.

B. The process of ordering features based on cost. C. The process of modeling the project's featureset based on the

organization's definition of value. D. The process of prioritizing features based on organizational revenue

impact.

18. What is the goal of most agile games? A. To help the team define the minimally viable product. B. To present an engaging way for the team to work with each other and the

customer to discover new information needed to succeed. C. To present an engaging way for the team to work with the customer to

define the definition of success. D. To help the customer understand the agile process used by the team.

19. Which agile game has the group spends the first 20-minutes of the exercise

writing independent thoughts down on the PostIts™ representing what a perfect outcome would look like for the team and customer where each stickie represents a unique and independent idea.

A. Prune the product tree B. Buy a feature C. Remember the future D. Bang for the buck

20. Which of the following agile games focuses the group on potential project risks?

A. Wideband Delphi B. Remember the future C. Bank for the buck D. Speedboat

21. Which agile technique is designed to overcome the influence of a single resource and gain the advantages that come from have the entire group provide opinions?

A. Planning poker B. Speedboat C. Prune the product tree D. Remember the future

22. Agilist generally attempt to complete what kind of estimate?

A. Complete B. Holistic C. Accurate D. Complex

23. What is the agile concept using in estimating that requires resources to be 100%

dedicated to a single project? A. Affinity estimating B. Fibonacci sequencing C. Complete time D. Ideal time

24. Another name for the agile practice of Relative Sizing is:

A. Fibonacci sequencing B. Affinity estimating C. T-shirt sizing D. Delphi technique

25. Your team has just completed its 3rd sprint where your delivered 14 story points,

but had forecast delivering 18. At this point you should: A. Conduct your retrospective. B. Conduct your sprint review. C. Adjust your plan to show the forecast of 14 points. D. Place the uncompleted stories back on the product backlog.

26. You boss is comparing your team's productivity to another. Your team is currently producing 30 story points per sprint and the other team is completing 60. Your boss wants to know why they are 100% more productive. What do you tell them?

A. The teams are not the same size so their productivity won't be either. B. The projects are for entirely different departments therefore the projects

can't be compared. C. Story points are unique to each project so their 60 has no comparison to

your 30. D. You team has had a difficult time with the project and will do better.

Answer Key:

1. C LGd course manual p. 210 - Agile Development argue that the only way to successfully plan a project is to plan and then re-plan, and then re-plan some more. That’s right, Agile Development plans as much, if not more than linear development. The difference is that Linear Development pushes most, if not all, of this planning to the beginning of the project whereas Agile cycles through planning constantly as information becomes available.

2. A LGd course manual p. 210 - The concept of Adaptive Planning accepts that early plans are inherently inaccurate which creates constant uncertainty, and it is this uncertainty that drives the need to re-plan. And, unlike what many traditionalists would have you believe this process does have structure and cadence that is key.

3. C LGd course manual p. 210 - Timeboxing represents short, fixed-duration periods of time in which the activities or work of the project take place. Timeboxing creates a difference from linear development. Instead of locking the scope of the project, timeboxing fixes the amount of time used for the phase, iteration, or meeting. Common examples of timeboxing include the Daily Scrum Meeting that is timeboxed to fifteen minutes, or a Scrum Sprint that is timeboxed to between two and six weeks.

4. D LGd course manual p. 210 - Common examples of timeboxing include the Daily Scrum Meeting that is timeboxed to fifteen minutes, or a Scrum Sprint that is timeboxed to between two and six weeks.

5. B LGd course manual p. 210 - The key to this question is the "original rules of Scrum." Most current implementations of Scrum set a sprint duration at the beginning of the project between 2 and 6 weeks, the original rules said a sprint's length was 30 days.

6. B LGd course manual p. 211 - Timeboxing is combined with another key Agile concept, Progressive Elaboration which is the process of capturing more detail

over time as that information emerges. This concept sets the team up for greater success because it does not put pressure on the team to know everything up front. Progressive Elaboration is used constantly throughout the Agile process including estimating, Work Breakdown Structures, planning, acceptance criteria definition, and the entire testing process.

7. A LGd course manual p. 211 - Rolling wave planning is detailed planning done for activities in the near term. Only high-level planning is done for necessary activities to be performed far into the future. When Rolling Wave Planning is used the team focuses on the detailed information they know. This information typically applies most to near term items. As the project moves forward the team adds more details to their plans. The is both an iterative and intermittent process.

8. A LGd course manual p. 211 - Process tailoring is actually a very easy idea. It is the concept that the team changes the process over time to meet the ever changing needs of the project. Process Tailoring requires the team to answer a series of questions including: What is going well? What areas could use improvement? What should the team do differently? It is a form of progressive elaboration.

9. B LGd course manual p. 212 - The Minimum Viable Product is defined as the product with the highest return on investment versus its risk. It is the sweet spot between products without the required features that fail the customer before even being used and the products with so many features that they reduce the overall return and increase the organizational risk. Often referred to as the MVP, the term Minimum Viable Product was first used by Frank Robinson and then popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. A minimum viable product has just those core features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more.

10. C LGd course manual p. 212 - The Minimum Viable Product is defined as the product with the highest return on investment versus its risk. It is the sweet spot between products without the required features that fail the customer before even being used and the products with so many features that they reduce the overall return and increase the organizational risk. Often referred to as the MVP, the term Minimum Viable Product was first used by Frank Robinson and then

popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. A minimum viable product has just those core features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more. The product is typically deployed to a subset of possible customers, such as early adopters that are thought to be more forgiving, more likely to give feedback, and able to grasp a product vision from an early prototype or marketing information. It is a strategy targeted at avoiding building products that customers do not want, that seeks to maximize the information learned about the customer per dollar spent.

11. B LGd course manual p. 212 - The Minimum Viable Product is defined as the product with the highest return on investment versus its risk. It is the sweet spot between products without the required features that fail the customer before even being used and the products with so many features that they reduce the overall return and increase the organizational risk. Often referred to as the MVP, the term Minimum Viable Product was first used by Frank Robinson and then popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. A minimum viable product has just those core features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more. The product is typically deployed to a subset of possible customers, such as early adopters that are thought to be more forgiving, more likely to give feedback, and able to grasp a product vision from an early prototype or marketing information. It is a strategy targeted at avoiding building products that customers do not want, that seeks to maximize the information learned about the customer per dollar spent.

12. D LGd course manual p. 212 - The Minimum Viable Product is defined as the product with the highest return on investment versus its risk. It is the sweet spot between products without the required features that fail the customer before even being used and the products with so many features that they reduce the overall return and increase the organizational risk. Often referred to as the MVP, the term Minimum Viable Product was first used by Frank Robinson and then popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. A minimum viable product has just those core features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more. The product is typically deployed to a subset of possible customers, such as early adopters that are thought to be more forgiving, more likely to give feedback, and able to grasp a product vision from an early prototype or marketing information. It is a strategy targeted at avoiding building products that customers do not want, that seeks to maximize the information learned about the customer per dollar spent.

13. A LGd course manual p. 212 - Above the MVP is the MMF, or the Minimally Marketable Features. The MMF represents the smallest set of functionality that must be realized in order for the customer to perceive value.

14. D LGd course manual p. 213 - At the bottom of the pyramid is basic organizational learning. This is getting better over time, making mistakes, and learning from them. Above this level is Lean Thinking which describes a way of examining and viewing projects. Its ideas largely come from the manufacturing arena, and it’s ideas are adaptable to most projects. Above this are the basics of Agile Software Development described by the Agile Principles and the Agile Manifesto. At the top of this pyramid are the specific Agile Methodologies of Extreme Programming and Scrum.

15. D LGd course manual p. 213 - The third use of the Agile Triangle is called the Agile Test Pyramid. At the lowest level are the individual unit tests. These tests cover the individual features, are automated and done by the developer who writes the code.

16. B LGd course manual p. 213 - The third level of the Agile Testing Pyramid are the Acceptance Tests. These tests are typically run by a quality assurance group or other group that represents the business. The purpose of these tests is for the customer to determine if the delivered functionality works as promised.

17. A LGd course manual p. 213 - Value-based analysis demands the team prioritize the features and/or the work of the project in a way that always ranks the items of greatest value to the customer highest. However, this process cannot be done blindly and must include the cost of delivering the feature as part of its calculation of value. True Agile Planning requires the leader to initiate this process even earlier at the point of eliciting the requirements from stakeholders, before ranking the requirements, and then pulling the prioritized requirements into the development process.

18. B LGd course manual p. 214 - The goal of almost every Agile game is to present an engaging way for the team to work with each other and the customer to discover new information needed to succeed.

19. C LGd course manual p. 214 - is a brainstorming game designed for teams and customers who are meeting in a conference room or other shared space. It focused the group on the conditions of a future state to determine what is important to everyone. Each member of the group works independently with a pad of PostIt Notes™. The group spends the first 20 minutes of the exercise writing independent thoughts down on the PostIts™ representing what a perfect future would look like for the team and customer. It is important that each stickie represents a unique and independent idea. Once the team has completed their writing exercise they are brought back together. The stickies are then brought together on a whiteboard or wall so duplicates can be removed and like items grouped.

20. D LGd course manual p. 214 - Speedboat — This is a risk management exercise designed to work in conjunction with requirements gathering games such as Prune the Product Tree. In this exercise, the facilitator draws an image of a sailboat on a body of water. The group then proceeds to review the project requirements or features with a focus on discovering potential project risks. Speedboat uses the same 3” x 3” PostIts™ that the last game used. However, in this game they are used to represent potential project risks. Positive risks are placed in the sky and represent “wind” that can push the project forward. Negative risks are placed below the waterline and represent drag on the sailboat. Really big negative risks represent rocks that can potentially damage the hull of the boat and must be avoided at all costs.

21. A LGd course manual p. 216 - Perhaps no Agile tool is as well known as Planning Poker. There are many different ways to do Planning Poker including regular playing cards and apps for both iDevices and Android phones or tablets. Regardless of the specific tool, they all work similarly. Planning Poker is similar to a Delphi technique for gathering estimates on a project. A Delphi Technique is used to overcome the influence of a single resource and gain the advantages that come from having an entire group provide opinions about how long and/or difficult project work is expected to be.

22. B LGd course manual p. 217 - Agilists try to create holistic estimates. A holistic estimate requires the inclusion of development costs, rollout costs, and sustainment costs as this additional information can significantly impact key decisions.

23. D LGd course manual p. 218 - Ideal time is something every Agilist must consider regardless of the estimating technique used. Many projects struggle with their estimates because the planner assumes the resource is more dedicated than they are so they respond by adding significant safety to estimates. Ideal Time is an Agile concept that attempts to address this issue. It requires the Agilist to overtly state that resources are 100% dedicated to a single project. In Agile Development, multi-project assignments are not allowed.

24. C LGd course manual p.218 - This is a technique often used in the very early stages of a project. It is often called T-Shirt sizing. This technique is comparative in nature and the estimates never represent actual expectations. Instead, a relative estimate allows the team to compare the size and complexity of one User Story against another. If one story is worth 5 Story Points we can then compare the next story to the first. Is it larger or smaller than the first? Is it easier or harder to produce than the first? Common Relative Sizing methods make use of T-Shirt sizes (Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large) or Planning Poker values.

25. D LGd course manual p.209 - Agile development does not require the team to complete all the committed stories in every sprint. In fact, this tends to be the exception. When the team fails to complete stories in a sprint they are placed back in the product backlog to be reprioritized and worked in future sprints. Once this is done the team can turn their attention to the review and retrospective. You should never erase the orginal plan as it prevents the team from determining their actual candence.

26. C LGd course manual p. 217 - When using story points it is critical that you remember that each project creates its own scale for the value of each point. Therefore, it is impossible to compare the value of productivity from one project to another using only story points.

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Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) Exam Prep Course 7 ... · The product with the highest return on investment versus its risk. C. The MVP seeks to maximize the information learned