The agile framework has only existed since the 1990s and was developed to counter the rigid traditional waterfall project management approach that was popular at the time. Agile became even more popular in 2001 when the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was released.
What is Agile?
The Agile methodology is characterized by adaptability, collaboration, and responsiveness. It takes an iterative approach to project management and product development, emphasizing teamwork, customer input, and the ability to quickly change course based on feedback. The goal is to swiftly deliver products or solutions to market.
It uses cross-functional, self-organizing teams that work alongside customers and end users (the collaboration part of agile) in product development and delivery.
It differs from traditional planning methods because it embraces change and the teams’ willingness to pivot quickly and as needed. Agile also seeks ways to improve, although how it does this is often up to the team implementing it.
What are Sprints?
A sprint is simply a short, time-bound period where a team works as hard and fast as possible to complete a specific amount of work. In software development, that could be shipping a new feature, but it could be anything else in other industries or sectors.
Sprints are what agile and its methodology is built on and getting them right will ensure your team is better able to ship software, deliver products, or meet other goals with few issues or delays.
Key Sprint Terms You Should Understand
To use agile sprints effectively you should understand the terms used around it.
Event
The first is “event”, which is a single sprint representing an iteration in a project’s development cycle. Put another way, an event is a small amount of planned work that a team or team member must complete and then present for review.
Each sprint takes two to four weeks, and the target is decided between the team and product owner beforehand. Each target, also known as a sprint goal, comes from a sprint backlog which is simply a list of tasks the team needs to complete.
User Story
This is a description of a specific product’s feature according to how a user views the product. User stories are crucial because the product is designed for the user, so it is important for teams to serve their users and ensure all products and features align with their needs and wants.
The user story can also describe a user. This description includes their wants and needs and why they want a product or specific feature. Understanding this helps teams develop simple product requirement descriptions that help while they work through the product catalog.
Story Point
Teams use story points to determine how challenging it would be to implement specific parts of the user story. Teams often represent this as a number, with a higher number representing a higher level of difficulty.
Story points allow teams to figure out what their workload will be like while also helping them avoid wasting time trying to estimate this difficulty.
Story Mapping
This is a collaborative process that teams use to create the product backlog. Agile calls it a map because it captures the customer journey, which explains how they use a product.
It starts with a goal that the team breaks into user stories. The team then works through each item on the story map aiming to increase a product’s value to users and customers.
Daily Standup
A daily standup is a short, regular meeting that lasts about 15 minutes. It is typically held by teams in an agile or software development environment, but it is applicable anywhere a team uses agile.
The purpose of daily standups is to allow members to update the team on their progress and any obstacles they may be facing. These meetings are crucial for keeping a team aligned, improving communication, and identifying issues that may be slowing down a project or that might cause it to derail in the future.
Each team plans its daily standups differently, but the common thread between all teams is that they need a way to ensure these meetings are structured and organized and that they meet their goals.
One way to do this is by using an online daily standup tool for planning and running the meetings. These tools are especially useful for remote teams where not everyone can be in the office every day at the same time.
Planning an Agile Sprint
Planning a sprint starts with a team picking the items they will include in the product backlog during a single sprint. This becomes the sprint goal and this process involves everyone on the team. The team or product owner prioritizes the items in the backlog and will usually suggest the items to include in the sprint goal.
Phases of Sprint Planning
The first phase of planning a sprint is the design phase.
Designing a sprint is a one-time thing, and the team can tweak the design at this stage to improve the delivery process. If the design does not work, the team has to start afresh. However, team leaders can avoid this by preparing everything beforehand and letting team members brainstorm before getting to the design phase.
A subsequent meeting helps the team divide the backlog into tasks, the final stage of solidifying the design. The team can also hold daily meetings and check-ins, with remote teams better served by an online daily standup. Here, the team can prioritize tasks and assign them based on priority.
The second stage is the sprint velocity estimation. This process entails the product owner determining how much work the team needs to do in a given sprint. This process’ goal is ensuring each sprint has a different velocity because different features might have different goals and deliverables, for example.
The final stage is allocation. Just like it sounds, allocation entails the scrum master and the team working together to assign different tasks to the most capable team member. The team leader ensures the right people end up with the right tasks, which gives each team member a sense of responsibility as well as task and project ownership.
Agile sprints have become crucial tools in modern software development and product shipping. They help teams stay on track and complete a set amount of work in a given time. Planning them properly also ensures each team member is assigned tasks that best align with their skills, experience, and expertise to ensure the best product outcome.