One more sprint? 再加一个迭代？-英文

Title: One more sprint?

Author: Keqiang Zhang, Emily Gu, Cynthia Zhang

[this blog is summarized from the conversation about “Agilediscussion”]

 

Problem

One project use scrum to do their job in a big company. After 5 sprints, one more sprint is required by development team. the team said: at the beginning, the requirements are not clear, the scope is not changed, just refined. But the project original schedule and budget are considered as 5 sprints, and the business side will not agree neither increasing money or cutting scope.

 

Analysis is conducted by some people.

 

A:estimation and capability

Normally, this is common problem when the team starts to implementAgile. This involves learning curve. Normally the business part will push hardthat they should keep the same pace as traditional way of development.

  

This means they need to know their capability/velocity. Coachingon the estimation, sprint planning is needed. After two sprints, it should beok.

But how could it be possible to know it's over budget anddeliver later after 5 sprint? it may be a long term estimation and monitorproblem.

 

B:long term estimation and overall progress monitor

After using Scrum, the projects in ABC(another company) lost thecapability of long term estimation

Agile say: deliver the value as early as possible, but Agiledon’t emphasize: what is a whole solution? when to complete?

In Scrum, the product backlog are open to change.

 

Two practice are suitable for adding long term visibility inScrum

1, release plan

2, burn-down chart of whole lifecycle, not only for dailytracking in sprint, one iteration as one dot in burn-down chart.

 

So the long term estimation is monitored. Then the necessarychange could be taken.

To add more iteration/sprint is OK, but it should be monitoredand reasonable.

 

 

But how could it be possible to know it's over budget anddeliver later after 5 sprint? (2 weeks per sprint?)

 

 

C:commitment

development team said "OK. We can not finish, so we needanother sprint".

it seems that the team didn't respect their commitment.

 

C1:Commitment is different in different culture.

In CMMI, Commitment need be tracked and managed.

That is to say, commitment could be changed. So as I think,commitment in English is not same as Chinese culture.   

So Commitment in agile could also be changed in English.  

But in China, somebody use the commitment in Chinese culture.

They use commitment to push/force the team finish the plannedwork, even  over time.   

Anyway, Commitment is so ambiguous.  

 

C2:Personally I don’t fully agree with a few C1's opinions.Commitment in Chinese culture means no changes?

For me, the commitment is same everywhere. No matter it’s inCMMI or in Agile. Probably it changes a bit in different company culture. Likeovertime is pushed. But this isnt’ Agile way.

In Agile, it mainly talks about team, people are committed. Theteam can plan the project roadmap or release plan realistically once they knowtheir velocity. Only in Agile, the commitment is clearer in the short durationlike one or two sprint. The team can deliver the most important features asearly as possible.

The commitment is the features delivered. In waterfall model, itdoesn't mean you cannot over budget and deliver late.

 

D:Fixed budge and time

Normally in Agile, the scope should be flexible. Agile want toselect the most valuable and prioritized features

Agile bring more observation chances in every iteration, soAgile could make the requirements more clear and more attractive.

This is what I think the biggest difference with Waterfall.

  

But for budge, time and scope, it belongs to businessenvironment.

Some Agile consultants/implementer prefer to adjust the businessenvironment to do agile transformation.

I prefer to do agile improvement according to the businessenvironment.   

Even the budge, time and scope are all fixed, Agile can still beimplemented and would be better than the waterfall.