Agile Collection

Sciforma Collection White Paper (v.1, 22 July 2012)

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Contents
A. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 3
1.
2.
3.
4.

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT ................................................................................................................ 4

PURPOSE OF THIS COLLECTION ......................................................................................................... 4
DEFINITIONS ............................................................................................................................... 5
WORKFLOW, PHASES AND OBJECT LIFE CYCLE ..................................................................................... 6

B. WORKSPACES ........................................................................................................ 8
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

BUILD BACKLOGS ......................................................................................................................... 9

REVIEW BACKLOGS ..................................................................................................................... 10
CREATE/MANAGE STORIES ........................................................................................................... 12
MANAGE PROJECT AND ITERATION ................................................................................................. 15
UPDATE TASK BOARD .................................................................................................................. 19

C. USER ROLES ......................................................................................................... 20

1. CREATE/EDIT ITEMS .................................................................................................................... 21
2. PROJECT/ITERATION MANAGER ..................................................................................................... 21

D. REPORTS ............................................................................................................. 22

Agile Collection White Paper

A. Introduction

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1. About This Document

This document is intended to give an overview of the features in the Agile Collection in
Sciforma 5.0; it is not intended to constitute a training handbook.

2. Purpose of This Collection

This solution provides support for projects following the Agile methodology. It can either be
used as a standalone solution (would require the Administration collection) or be installed
on the top of an existing system. This collection provides the following capabilities:

n Definition/modification of User Stories
n Assignment of User Stories to a Backlog Iteration
n Definition/modification of Backlog Iterations
n User Story task creation
n Backlog management and progress overview
n Iteration progress overview
n Project level overview of task progress

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3. Definitions
3.1.

Story
Also called User Story, this is a backlog item that represents a user-submitted feature
request, which often contains background information on the ultimate goal/capability that
the feature would accomplish/provide.

3.2.

Iteration
An iteration is a unit of development similar to a Sprint in which several tasks are assigned
and completed within a short period of time (1-4 weeks).

3.3.

Task
A task is a sub-division of a story. The tasks list of a story represents the items that need to
be accomplished in order to complete and deliver the whole story item.

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4. Workflow, Phases and Object Life Cycle

Data Model

1

Project

3
Iteration

Story
4

Iteration
5

Task

Task

Task
Task

1. Project Creation
2. Iteration Creation (i.e. Workpackage): Iteration may be defined by a duration, a start
date, a release, an estimated budget (points),
3. Stories (i.e. Issues) are created and added to the Project Backlog
4. Stories are - after simulation - attached to an iteration (and moved from the Project
Backlog to the Iteration Backlog)
5. Once a story is assigned to an iteration, it can be broken down into task that will be
assigned to team members
6. A Task Board will be available to keep track of progress. Once all the tasks are
completed, the status of the Story will be automatically updated.
7. To facilitate the time tracking (if needed), the task may be automatically turned into
tasks with assignments.

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Workflow (Statuses)
Stories and Tasks will not have exactly the same statuses but they will correlate at some
point in time. Task Status will be updated manually while the Story Status will always be
automatically calculated.

A Task (in green in the chart) will go through three statuses: Pending (default), In-Progress
(the owner works on it) and Completer (task is done).

A Story (in blue in the chart) is created as New. Once the Story is attached to an iteration, it
will be marked as Planned. After at least one Task has been marked as In-Progress, the
Story will also be moved to In-Progress. When all the Tasks of a Story are completed, the
Story is also considered as Completed.

Finally, a button in the Story form will allow for marking the Story as Accepted.



New

Planned

In-
Progress

Completed

In-
Progress

Completed

Accepted

Pending

Stories can also be set to a Canceled status.

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B. Workspaces

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1. Build Backlogs
This workspace is used for simulating iteration scenarios, which contain various
combinations of user stories. A Project/Iteration Manager will be able to view information
about the outcome of pursuing a particular scenario, which will help them decide which
user stories to assign to the iteration. From there, the desired stories in scenario can be
assigned to an iteration.

Figure 1: Screenshot of the Build Backlogs workspace.

Sidebar Contents
The sidebar in this workspace contains various filters for displaying user stories in the
current scenario. The Utilities section of the sidebar contains a button to assign stories in
the current scenario to an iteration, as well as easily restart simulation of the current
scenario by using the Reset All Items to Out button.

Highlights
n The default Swimlane display contains user stories belonging to the selected iteration. If
a user story is not showing up in the Swimlane, try changing the filter criteria in the
sidebar.
n When assigning a story to an iteration, it is moved from the Project to a Work Package
level. All the tasks follow automatically.
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2. Review Backlogs
With this workspace, a Project/Iteration Manager will be able to view a list of all the user
stories in a project backlog, edit individual stories with the backlog list and create new
stories using a link in the sidebar to the Create/Manage Stories workspace. They will be able
to view a chart displaying information comparing budgeted and assigned story points for all
iterations in order to determine which iterations are over-assigned. The Project/Iteration
Manager can then go to the iteration backlog and remove user stories from iterations in
order to meet the budgeted number of story points.

Figure 2: Screenshot of the Review Backlogs workspace.

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2.1.

Backlog
This tab contains the backlog list and displays items according to the selected iteration and
filter settings in the sidebar.

Highlights
n The Review Backlogs workspace is the only place from which a Story and its tasks can be
turned into tasks (and assignments) in the project. This is done while looking at the
Story details (click on the button).
n User Stories can be removed from the iteration backlog using the button.

2.2.

Allocation
The Allocation tab provides a chart comparing budgeted and assigned story points for every
iteration. The iteration data used in generating this graph can be modified within the Build
Backlogs workspace (to edit story allocation) and the Manage Project Iteration workspace
(to modify the iteration budget).

Figure 3: Screenshot of the Allocation tab.

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3. Create/Manage Stories
This workspace is used to create/view user stories, and view/add tasks to the user stories
that would be required to deliver the requested feature.

Sidebar Content
n Reassign Item will move a story and all its tasks from one iteration to another.
n Accept Story (Final Validation) will move a story to the Accepted progress phase.
n Cancel Story (Final State) will permanently cancel a story. Once a story is canceled, it
cannot be reassigned or reaccepted.

Figure 4: Screenshot of the Create/Manage Stories workspace.

Highlights
n Two types of attachments are supported: hyperlinks (documents not to be uploaded
into the database) and a screenshot (which IS uploaded to the database).
n Technically, tasks are [Issues] exactly like the Stories. A complex mechanism is managed
behind the scene to create a virtual hierarchy between Stories and Tasks.

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Notes
n When a task is added to the list, it is created with the default name, <new task>.
n Sending a story back to Unassigned is not supported in the current configuration.
n If a story has been assigned to an iteration, its tasks will also be created within the same
iteration.

3.1.

User Story
The User Story sub tab can be used for viewing/editing the text description of the User
Story (see Figure 4 for a screenshot).

3.2.

Attachments
The Attachments sub tab provides a place for users to store links to documents and upload
screenshots to the database.

Highlights
n To view a document using the document link, simply click on the right arrow button
on the right side of the document URL in the grid.

Figure 5: Screenshot of the Attachments sub tab.

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3.3.

Tasks
The Tasks sub tab displays a list of tasks belonging to the User Story.

Figure 6: Screenshot of the Tasks sub tab.

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4. Manage Project and Iteration

The Manage Project and Iteration workspace can be used to define, view and edit iteration
properties, assign team members to iterations, and monitor individual iteration and whole
project progress using statistics and burn charts.

Figure 7: Screenshot of the Manage Project & Iteration workspace.

Sidebar Content
n Link to Create/Manage Stories workspace.
n Link to the Stories report.

Notes
n All the iterations are automatically created as Work Packages in the project.
n In the Dashboard tab, Remaining Stories describe stories that have not yet been moved
to the Accepted status.

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4.1.

Definition
The Definition tab allows a Project/Iteration Manager to specify product properties,
define/edit an iteration and view a chart of iteration progress in units of story points for all
iterations (see Error! Reference source not found. for screenshot).

Highlights
n New iterations can be created by adding a new line to the grid with the button
n Existing iterations can be deleted using the button.

4.2.

Team
The Team tab allows a Project/Iteration Manager to assign team members to iterations and
then view a chart showing each team members number of available and allocated time in
hours. This is useful for determining whether team members have been over-allocated
within an iteration.

Figure 8: Screenshot of the Team tab.

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4.3.

Dashboard
The Dashboard tab provides tools for determining the status of the entire backlog using
high-level statistics and charts.

Burn Chart
The Burn Chart sub tab provides high-level statistics on the left side (e.g. total number of
user stories in the project backlog, total number of remaining stories to be accepted, etc.).
The chart on the right provides the Project/Iteration Manager with a view of backlog
progress in units of story points for all iterations, and distinguishes between In-Progress,
Planned, Completed and Accepted stories.

Figure 9: Screenshot of the Burn Chart sub tab in Dashboard.

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Velocity
The Velocity sub tab continues to display the same high level statistics on the left side that
were shown in the Burn Chart sub tab. The bar chart on the right conveys, for each
iteration, the portion of backlog items (in story points) that have been delivered, compared
to the portion of backlog items remaining (also in story points).

Figure 10: Screenshot of the Velocity sub tab in Dashboard.

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5. Update Task Board

The Update Task Board workspace provides a convenient way for Project/Iteration
Managers to determine the status of all tasks in a project. The tasks that appear in the
Swimlane can be filtered with the Iteration Backlog dropdown menu.

Notes
n The Swimlane displays progress at the task level only. The progress of the Stories is
automatically calculated based on the progress of its tasks.

Sidebar Content
The sidebar contains Utilities for creating a new story within the Create/Manage Stories
workspace, as well as a link to the Review Backlog workspace using a button labeled
Printable Version.

Figure 11: Screenshot of the Update Task Board workspace.

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C. User Roles

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1. Create/Edit Items
Sciforma Menu
n Label: Agile
n Workspace: Create/Manage Stories

Rights
n Write Issues

2. Project/Iteration Manager
Sciforma Menu
n Label: Agile
n Workspace: Create/Manage Stories
n Workspace: Build Backlogs
n Workspace: Review Backlogs
n Workspace: Manage Project & Iterations
n Workspace: Update Task Board


Rights
n Write Issues
n Write Projects
n Write Tasks

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D. Reports

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Burn Charts

Team Velocity

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Value Delivered

Stories by Theme

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