Agile Estimating And Planning

by Cohn, Mike

• ISBN13: 9780131479418
• ISBN10: 0131479415
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-01
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

Agile Estimating and Planning is the definitive, practical guide to estimating and planning agile projects. In this book, Agile Alliance cofounder Mike Cohn discusses the philosophy of agile estimating and planning and shows you exactly how to get the job done, with real-world examples and case studies.

Author Biography

Mike Cohn is the founder of Mountain Goat Software, a process and project management consultancy and training firm

Table of Contents

About the Author	xvii
Foreword	xix
Robert C. Martin
Foreword	xxi
Jim Highsmith
Foreword	xxv
Gabrielle Benefield
Acknowledgments	xxvii
Introduction	xxix
Part I: The Problem and the Goal	1	(32)
The Purpose of Planning	3	(8)
Why Do It?	5	(3)
What Makes a Good Plan?	8	(1)
What Makes Planning Agile?	9	(1)
Summary	10	(1)
Discussion Questions	10	(1)
Why Planning Fails	11	(10)
Planning Is by Activity Rather Than Feature	12	(3)
Multitasking Causes Further Delays	15	(2)
Features Are Not Developed by Priority	17	(1)
We Ignore Uncertainty	17	(1)
Estimates Become Commitments	18	(1)
Summary	18	(1)
Discussion Questions	19	(2)
An Agile Approach	21	(12)
An Agile Approach to Projects	23	(4)
An Agile Approach to Planning	27	(4)
Summary	31	(1)
Discussion Questions	32	(1)
Part II: Estimating Size	33	(44)
Estimating Size with Story Points	35	(8)
Story Points Are Relative	36	(2)
Velocity	38	(2)
Summary	40	(1)
Discussion Questions	41	(2)
Estimating in Ideal Days	43	(6)
Ideal Time and Software Development	44	(2)
Ideal Days as a Measure of Size	46	(1)
One Estimate, Not Many	46	(1)
Summary	47	(1)
Discussion Questions	47	(2)
Techniques for Estimating	49	(12)
Estimates Are Shared	51	(1)
The Estimation Scale	52	(2)
Deriving an Estimate	54	(2)
Planning Poker	56	(3)
Why Planning Poker Works	59	(1)
Summary	60	(1)
Discussion Questions	60	(1)
Re-Estimating	61	(8)
Introducing the SwimStats Website	61	(1)
When Not to Re-Estimate	62	(2)
When to Re-Estimate	64	(2)
Re-Estimating Partially Completed Stories	66	(1)
The Purpose of Re-Estimating	67	(1)
Summary	67	(1)
Discussion Questions	67	(2)
Choosing between Story Points and Ideal Days	69	(8)
Considerations Favoring Story Points	69	(3)
Considerations Favoring Ideal Days	72	(1)
Recommendation	73	(1)
Summary	74	(1)
Discussion Questions	75	(2)
Part III: Planning for Value	77	(54)
Prioritizing Themes	79	(12)
Factors in Prioritization	80	(6)
Combining the Four Factors	86	(1)
Some Examples	86	(2)
Summary	88	(1)
Discussion Questions	89	(2)
Financial Prioritization	91	(20)
Sources of Return	93	(3)
An Example: WebPayroll	96	(6)
Financial Measures	102	(6)
Comparing Returns	108	(1)
Summary	109	(1)
Discussion Questions	109	(2)
Prioritizing Desirability	111	(10)
Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction	112	(5)
Relative Weighting: Another Approach	117	(2)
Summary	119	(1)
Discussion Questions	120	(1)
Splitting User Stories	121	(10)
When to Split a User Story	121	(1)
Splitting across Data Boundaries	122	(2)
Splitting on Operational Boundaries	124	(1)
Removing Cross-Cutting Concerns	125	(1)
Don't Meet Performance Constraints	126	(1)
Split Stories of Mixed Priority	127	(1)
Don't Split a Story into Tasks	127	(1)
Avoid the Temptation of Related Changes	128	(1)
Combining Stories	128	(1)
Summary	129	(1)
Discussion Questions	129	(2)
Part IV: Scheduling	131	(82)
Release Planning Essentials	133	(12)
The Release Plan	134	(4)
Updating the Release Plan	138	(1)
An Example	139	(3)
Summary	142	(1)
Discussion Questions	143	(2)
Iteration Planning	145	(22)
Tasks Are Not Allocated During Iteration Planning	147	(1)
How Iteration and Release Planning Differ	148	(1)
Velocity-Driven Iteration Planning	149	(9)
Commitment-Driven Iteration Planning	158	(4)
My Recommendation	162	(1)
Relating Task Estimates to Story Points	163	(2)
Summary	165	(1)
Discussion Questions	166	(1)
Selecting an Iteration Length	167	(10)
Factors in Selecting an Iteration Length	167	(4)
Making a Decision	171	(2)
Two Case Studies	173	(2)
Summary	175	(1)
Discussion Questions	176	(1)
Estimating Velocity	177	(10)
Use Historical Values	178	(1)
Run an Iteration	179	(2)
Make a Forecast	181	(4)
Which Approach Should I Use?	185	(1)
Summary	186	(1)
Discussion Questions	186	(1)
Buffering Plans for Uncertainty	187	(16)
Feature Buffers	188	(1)
Schedule Buffers	189	(9)
Combining Buffers	198	(1)
A Schedule Buffer Is Not Padding	199	(1)
Some Caveats	199	(1)
Summary	200	(1)
Discussion Questions	201	(2)
Planning the Multiple-Team Project	203	(10)
Establishing a Common Basis for Estimates	204	(1)
Adding Detail to User Stories Sooner	205	(1)
Lookahead Planning	206	(2)
Incorporating Feeding Buffers into the Plan	208	(2)
But This Is So Much Work	210	(1)
Summary	210	(1)
Discussion Questions	211	(2)
Part V: Tracking and Communicating	213	(34)
Monitoring the Release Plan	215	(12)
Tracking the Release	216	(3)
Release Burndown Charts	219	(5)
A Parking-Lot Chart	224	(1)
Summary	225	(1)
Discussion Questions	226	(1)
Monitoring the Iteration Plan	227	(8)
The Task Board	227	(3)
Iteration Burndown Charts	230	(1)
Tracking Effort Expended	231	(1)
Individual Velocity	232	(1)
Summary	232	(1)
Discussion Questions	233	(2)
Communicating about Plans	235	(12)
Communicating the Plan	237	(1)
Communicating Progress	238	(3)
An End-of-Iteration Summary	241	(3)
Summary	244	(1)
Discussion Questions	245	(2)
Part VI: Why Agile Planning Works	247	(12)
Why Agile Planning Works	249	(10)
Replanning Occurs Frequently	249	(1)
Estimates of Size and Duration Are Separated	250	(1)
Plans Are Made at Different Levels	251	(1)
Plans Are Based on Features, Not Tasks	252	(1)
Small Stories Keep Work Flowing	252	(1)
Work in Process Is Eliminated Every Iteration	252	(1)
Tracking Is at the Team Level	253	(1)
Uncertainty Is Acknowledged and Planned For	253	(1)
A Dozen Guidelines for Agile Estimating and Planning	254	(2)
Summary	256	(1)
Discussion Questions	257	(2)
Part VII: A Case Study	259	(54)
A Case Study: Bomb Shelter Studios	261	(52)
Day 1---Monday Morning	262	(8)
Estimating the User Stories	270	(11)
Preparing for Product Research	281	(3)
Iteration and Release Planning, Round 1	284	(18)
Two Weeks Later	302	(1)
Planning the Second Iteration	303	(2)
Two Weeks Later	305	(1)
Revising the Release Plan	305	(3)
Presenting the Revised Plan to Phil	308	(4)
Eighteen Weeks Later	312	(1)
Reference List	313	(6)
Index	319

Excerpts

This book could have been called Estimating and Planning Agile Projects. Instead, it's calledAgile Estimating and Planning. The difference may appear subtle, but it's not. The title makes it clear that the estimating and planning processes must themselves be agile. Without agile estimating and planning, we cannot have agile projects. The book is mostly about planning, which I view as answering the question of "What should we build and by when?" However, to answer questions about planning we must also address questions of estimating ("How big is this?") and scheduling ("When will this be done?" and "How much can I have by then?"). This book is organized in seven parts and twenty-three chapters. Each chapter ends with a summary of key points and with a set of discussion questions. Because estimating and planning are meant to be whole-team activities, one of the ways I hope this book will be read is by teams who meet perhaps weekly to discuss what they've read and the questions at the end of each chapter. Because agile software development is popular worldwide, I have tried to avoid writing an overly United States-centric book. To that end, I have used the universal currency symbol, writing amounts such as #xA4;500 instead of perhaps $500 or #x20AC;500 and so on. Part I describes why planning is important, the problems we often encounter, and the goals of an agile approach. Chapter 1 begins the book by describing the purpose of planning, what makes a good plan, and what makes planning agile. The most important reasons why traditional approaches to estimating and planning lead to unsatisfactory results are described in Chapter 2. Finally, Chapter 3 begins with a brief recap of what agility means and then describes the high-level approach to agile estimating and planning taken by the rest of this book. The second part introduces a main tenet of estimating, that estimates of size and duration should be kept separate. Chapters 4 and 5 introduce story points and ideal days, two units appropriate for estimating the size of the features to be developed. Chapter 6 describes techniques for estimating in story points and ideal days, and includes a description of planning poker. Chapter 7 describes when and how to re-estimate, and Chapter 8 offers advice on choosing between story points and ideal days. Part III, "Planning for Value," offers advice on how a project team can make sure they are building the best possible product. Chapter 9 describes the mix of factors that need to be considered when prioritizing features. Chapter 10 presents an approach for modeling the financial return from a feature or feature set and how to compare financial returns so that the team works on the most valuable items first. Chapter 11 includes advice on how to assess and then prioritize the desirability of features to a product's users. Chapter 12 concludes this part with advice on how to split large features into smaller, more manageable ones. In Part IV, we shift our attention and focus on questions around scheduling a project. Chapter 13 begins by looking at the steps involved in scheduling a relatively simple, single-team project. Next, Chapter 14 looks at how to plan an iteration. Chapters 15 and 16 look at how to select an appropriate iteration length for the project and how to estimate a team's initial rate of progress. Chapter 17 looks in detail at how to schedule a project with either a high amount of uncertainty or a greater implication to being wrong about the schedule. This part concludes with Chapter 18, which describes the additional steps necessary in estimating and planning a project being worked on by multiple teams. Once a plan has been established, it must be communicated to the rest of the organization and the team's progress against it monitored. These are the topics of the three chapters of Part V. Chapter 19 looks specifically at monitoring the release plan, while Chapter 20 looks at