program selection system

Reasonably accurate estimation of user stories is necessary in order to provide the customer with development schedule predictability. Small stories are usually fairly easy to estimate, but estimates for larger stories are often accompanied by higher degrees of uncertainty. Although a large story may sometimes be broken down into smaller stories for purposes of estimation, this is not always the case.

This workshop proposes a method for enabling a team of developers to rapidly quantify the relative complexities of larger user stories by using “tests” as the unit of estimation.

Groups that are releasing their software to production one or more times per week are doing micro-releases.

Industrial Logic has been doing micro-releases of its Greatest Hits eLearning product (http://industriallogic.com/elearning) for a few years now.

Micro-releasing has simplified our process by eliminating traditional agile planning activities, such as

• estimating user stories
• reconciling estimates
• calculating velocity
• trying to obtain a consistent velocity

How do you quickly and effectively develop a healthy product backlog which you can use as a basis for iteration and release planning?

With the three basic tools - pen, paper and a kitchen timer – The Pomodoro Technique will empower you with the agile abilities of Constant feedback about your working habits, Dedicated decision points to respond to change, Opportunities on a day to day basis to improve your personal process, A sustainable pace also when the deadline is getting closer, Improved quantitative and qualitative estimates, Strategy for how to cope with interruptions and task switching and a Method to regulate complexity. And The Pomodoro Technique fits perfectly inside Scrum and XP.

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Planning is important for all projects, even agile ones. Unfortunately, we’ve all seen so many worthless plans that we’d like to throw planning out altogether. But let’s not give up yet. It is possible to create a project plan that looks forward six to nine months yet is accurate and useful.