46. Cycle Time is not appropriately used for continuous improvement of the Team’s ability to deliver working software
Notes de l'éditeur
To-Do Hours enable us to address the question of “What is the estimated work remaining for the Sprint?” Being able to answer this question on a daily basis empowers The IT Organization to forecast any potential adjustments to its initial Project Delivery estimates/commitments. Since this information is at a micro-level (i.e. Sprint Focus), it will primarily serve as a conversation initiator on Planning for the entire scope of the Project.Without accurate To-Do Hours, Scrum Masters cannot generate Sprint Burn Down reports that reflect the true state of the Sprint
Tracking Effort provides the foundation for calculating Earned Value (EV), so Agile EV calculations like the following can be derived: Schedule Variance, Cost Variance, Story Points Added and Complete, Story Points Added and Incomplete, etc. If we opt to introduce Effort as a Standard, it will make sense to involve Finance in our early discussions on the application of this data. For example, 2 Contract Developers working on a Two Week Sprint, record a total of 156 hours worth of Effort; however, they only bill PCH for 90 hours, so does The Organization want to use Effort, the Billing Amount, or both to calculate the ROI of the project? From, an Team Member’s perspective, we should also investigate if there is any benefit to integrate Version One with Replicon, so that Team Member’s do not have to enter the time worked on Tasks in two separate systems.
Achieving proficiency in managing WIP will exhibit enormous value for Application Support Teams because a combination of Scrum and Kanban is commonly used in these environments where Story Points and quite often Task Hour Estimates are not required.
Without applying a size/complexity swag to each Story, we cannot effectively nor efficiently address the question of “What is the estimated number of Sprints required to deliver the Product Backlog Stories?”
After 2 to 3 Sprints, a Team will be able to establish its Average Velocity. At this point, the Estimated Release/Project Roadmap should be recalculated using the Team’s Actual Velocity. For example, at the start of a Project the Team estimates that it can complete 20 Story Points per Sprint (2 week Sprints). With a Product Backlog Size of 400 Story Points, the Team Estimates that the Project will be completed at 20 Sprints (i.e. 400/20). However, after 2 Sprints, the Team is averaging a Velocity of 15 Story Points, so the revised number of Sprints to complete the project would then be 26 Sprints (i.e. (400-20)/15)
If Resources are shared across multiple Projects and Operational Support Activities, Version One is able to aggregate this data and communicate where any resource is over-allocated. Scrum Masters will then need assistance from PCH Online Leadership in determining which initiatives take priority. If Team Member Capacities are captured for a 60-day period, The Organization will be able to proactively forecast any Resource Constraints, which allows for early in-sourcing/out-sourcing of resources before the bottlenecks impact the delivery of the Project.
The majority of Project Health Metric Calculations factor in the Project Start Date. Whomever provides Project Authorization in The Organization should supply the Project Start Date.
Without a consistent Sprint Length a more effort goes into forecasting Project Delivery Dates. Velocity is the amount of Story Points that a Team can deliver for a Set Sprint Length. If this Sprint Length changes, Velocity needs to be re-calculated (i.e. the Team needs to work for another 2 to 3 Sprints to establish their new Velocity every time there is a change in Sprint Length).
A Team’s proficiency in self-organizing is directly related to the Organization’s ability to assist the Team in removing impediments. Impediment Cycle Time, enables PCH Online Leadership to assess how well Team’s are being supported. For example, if a certain type of Issue consistently has a “high cycle time”, then it may be beneficial to establish a Task Force to investigate elimination the occurrence of the issue and/or reducing its Cycle Time on all projects.