Sample MIS608 Agile Project Management Report

MIS608 Agile Project Management Report

Task Summary

In this group project, you will need to form a team of 5-6 students.

Your team will be required to produce a 2500 word report for your case organisation.

Your team are Agile domain specialists and you are required to produce a report for the company to help them undertake an Agile transformation within an area of their business. You will need to cover the following knowledge areas in accordance with the requirements of the case study to demonstrate that you are able to apply your theoretical understanding of the concepts to an authentic case study. The concepts are listed in no order, and it is up to the team to decide which order they should be addressed in the report to best convey the required response to your client:

1. Product Vison and Roadmap
2. Release planning and cadence
3. Agile requirements
4. Lean Startup tools used in Agile
5. Agile estimating and planning
6. Agile ceremonies
7. Agile velocity
8. Scaling agile

As part of the project the group will select to either use Kanban/Scrum as an Agile project management practice and are required to attach a snapshot of either their Scrum boards or Kanban each week at the conclusion of each weekly Sprint in the appendices of the report, making clear which practice was a selected and why.

Please refer to the Task Instructions for details on how to complete this task.

Context

Agile teams and agile ways of working are becoming more prevalent in workplaces and it is likely that you will be a part of an agile team in your career. However, agile is very different from the more traditional ‘waterfall project management practice. This assessment will ensure that you are well-versed in the philosophies and practice associated with Agile so that you have sufficient knowledge to join and agile team or implement agile practices in your future career.

Solution

Introduction

Frederick's is a reputed grocer that is interested in endeavouring into the digital space. The company has created a team that will solely be responsible for technical innovations and has partnered up with Pear Platforms to provide the company with required online applications, ai resources, and other technological solutions. The company is also interested in seeking consultancy regarding how to implement agile methodologies to make sure that the company's digital platforms will be able to hold their own in a highly competitive online marketplace. This report will attempt to provide consultancy to Frederick's regarding how to implement agility in such a way so that rampant online fraud activities can be combated. For Assignment help Agile methodology is a widely used and celebrated project management approach that practices adaptability and flexibility, which can combat rapidly evolving challenges. These specific methodologies provide development teams with the ability to respond quickly and change their approach regarding certain needs of the clients. Agile methods will be useful in providing consultancy regarding how to reduce potential frauds in the company's digital applications. Agile methodology is utmost crucial in order to achieve a better result concerning a project (Layton, 2017). It is significantly more useful in comparison to the traditional waterfall model. The body of the report will include an accurate road map, discussions regarding cadence, necessities, necessary tools, planning techniques, ceremonies, the optimised velocity of the project, and how to scale the agile product.

Important Elements of the Agile Product

A product vision and roadmap

It has been argued that creating a good in-house team and providing customer solutions for companies can help in increasing the chances of success regarding agile management of certain products. In this case, the product development team will focus on creating an algorithm that is based on machine learning to make sure that the fraudulent requests that will be targeted toward the digital applications of Frederick's are properly identified and recognised. The algorithm will be capable of handling sophisticated and rudimentary fraudulent requests, which will be beneficial in reducing the amount of digital fraud and cybercrimes that will target the newly created applications of Frederick's. Fraudulent activities such as credit card fraud are extremely prevalent worldwide (Dornadula & Geetha, 2019). This section will provide a road map as to how the product development team will achieve this vision. At first, the team members that are operating from the in-house team will make sure that all the requirements of the client, which in this case is Frederick's, are noted down. A proper analysis of this requirement list will be conducted next. The team will properly rearrange the necessities based on the priority levels of those demands; after that, the company will be creating epics based on the priority list. The epics will be broken down into flexible user stories that will be worked on by separate micro teams consisting of team managers and developers. By optimising the number of sprints that are needed for the process and reducing unnecessary backlogs, the in-house team will be able to develop the product by using agile approaches efficiently.

Release Planning and Cadence

Preparing a proper release planning is important as it can help the product development team make sure that the product is progressing according to plans and will be following the gradual deliverance plan of the product. Release Planning becomes increasingly complex as user stories go up. However, as this product development team has to deal with small user stories, the planning is rather straightforward. Release planning is essential for projects such as the algorithm development project taken up by the product development team. It ensures that the product will continue to be released in small stages. Each stage will be containing separate versions of the product, which will make it easier to detect any problems with the release and the version of the product. This is beneficial as it lets the clients of the product provide their feedbacks regarding how the client is operating. This feedback can be taken into account for the next release session. Every stage of release will be segmented into several sprints, which will increase the efficiency of the development process. This will also let the employees operating the algorithm be accustomed to using the algorithm slowly. Cadence is the factor that determines how many work hours, weeks, or days will each sprint need. The cadence of a product development project is decided by how difficult it is to achieve the objective is its importance, and other factors such as the nature of the product. A cadence of three weeks will be appropriate for developing this specific product.

Agile Requirements

Agile requirements are defined as activities that must be executed to satisfy clients' demands. The necessities of the clients are the most important thing in taking up an agile project. Prioritising certain requirements based on their importance and the average time spent to complete them is incredibly important in developing a product in an agile manner. Various elements altogether form the requirements of a certain agile project. Some of them will be discussed in detail in this section.

Epics- Epic is defined as a relatively bigger agile requirement that can be segmented into smaller parts handled in a sprint. Epic is essential for creating a proper way to sort the work that is needed to be done and to prioritise work requirements that are relatively more important. Usually, in the product development process, each epic is segmented into several separate user stories handled by separate teams. The conversion of Epics into User Stories has garnered academic attention. Epics are known for being complicated and taking a significant amount of time to be complicated which is why user stories can be beneficial in agile product development. Creating Epics that will reflect the necessities of Frederick's properly is important, and the in-house development team will be committed to it.

User stories- As discussed above, user stories are segments of an epic that can be worked on by teams that are smaller in size. User stories are created by taking into account the preferences of the client. User stories are generally worked on in a single, separated sprint and are relatively easier to handle than large epics. These are essential in conserving user requirements.

Backlogs- A product backlog in agile management refers to the catalogue of requirements that are organised based on the priority level of each requirement. A product backlog is a tool that can be used to plan, review, and structure sprints in such a way that the most important tasks are delivered first. Backlogs are process-centric constructs. Project backlog can be improved by using Scrum and Kanban method (Rossberg, 2019).

Prioritisation- Prioritisation is a tool that can help the product development team to find out which deliverables are the most important and must be delivered faster. Prioritisation is done generally by the client, which in this case is Frederick's. Prioritisation is important as it can be beneficial in many steps of product development, such as planning and operation.

Lean Startup Tools used in Agile

As the technological industry prospers even more, there has been an abundance of tools that can help product development teams to execute the development of a product by using agile and lean tools. The product development team will create a machine learning algorithm that will hopefully help Frederick's reduce the number of digital frauds and scams. The development team will use such lean and agile tools that are cost-effective and can also get the job done rather efficiently. Usage of the software that can enable the product team to use agile procedures will be adopted by the development team. Zepel is one of those tools that will be utilised. Zepel provides the team with a digital interface that can easily create subsections that will help the team manage user stories, procedures, tasks, and certain procedures that are best executed through online platforms. The use of Zepel can be beneficial for the product team as it can provide certain tools and digital solutions for problems related to organising, prioritising, and allocating tasks and team members. Another tool that will be used in the lean procedure is GitHub project management. GitHub is a site that is used by the development team for the development of the algorithm. The popularity of GitHub is rapidly increasing. The project management software will help the platform become more accessible and provide certain functionalities that are beneficial to the execution of the project. Other than that, the analytical and managerial tools and services provided by Google, such as the g suite and google analytics, will also be used for the project.

Agile Estimating and Planning

Agile planning and estimation are extremely important to the success of the product development as it helps the product development team with knowledge regarding the potential risks that can pop up in the execution of the product development. It can also help to provide an outline of interesting and important elements of the project development procedure. A proper estimation can help ensure that the project will abide by the time and cost-related restraints, which will, in turn, ensure that the project is completed in due time. In this case, the algorithm developed by the project development team will be completed through a complicated procedure. A proper estimation will help in making sure that the algorithm will be developed within the required time limit and it will be affordable by the client, which in this case is Frederick's. Proper planning will help the project development team to make sure that the entirety of the humongous task is properly broken down into smaller segments that can be achieved in singular sprints. This will severely turn down the complexity of the project and will streamline the procedures that will be required. It will also help the project team members not to become confused and focus on a singular task at a time. Planning poker and affinity mapping are some of the estimation techniques which will be taken up by the company. Planning poker is widely used as a preferred estimation technique.

Agile Ceremonies

Agile ceremonies are defined as activities that are taken up by the project development team members in order to make sure that all the team members are on the same page regarding the development of a certain product. Agile Ceremonies are extremely beneficial. Every agile methodology necessitates the need of creating proper agile ceremonies as these ceremonies can be beneficial in making sure that all stakeholders of the development project agree to the procedures that will be taken up in each sprint, enhance their capabilities and update the scope of the product development process by taking the client's feedback into account, along with making sure that the project is completed properly. Four major agile ceremonies can be observed in any agile methodology. The product development team will take up every four of these agile ceremonies to make sure that communication and collaboration between team members are at their highest.

Sprint planning will be taken up to help the company gain perspective regarding user stories, backlogs, and future tasks. It is critical to the success of any agile project. The scrum master, individuals that represent Frederick’s, and the team that will be in charge of developing the algorithm will be a part of this ceremony.
The daily stand-up is a ceremony that requires the participation of the team members and the scrum masters. It is a widely adopted communication technique. The daily stand-up of the project development team will consist of 15 minutes. It will include discussions regarding sprint management and certain difficulties that have come up since the previous stand-up. A stand-up will be useful in making sure that the team individuals are collaborating and contributing to each other's success which is beneficial for the overall success of the product development.

Sprint review, as its name suggests, consists of in-depth discussion regarding the sprint. It is organised at the termination of every sprint. Sprint review is necessary for gauging the progress of the development team and also to make sure that the project development is progressing as expected. It involves the product owner, the development team, and the scrum master.

Sprint retrospect is the final agile ceremony where all stakeholders of the project do the review of the procedures taken up in the previous sprints. This ceremony is important as problems that have popped up in previous prints are solved here by the contribution of each stakeholder. It is incredibly useful in continually enhancing the procedures.

Agile Velocity

Agile velocity refers to a measurement method that can gauge the rate of product development. Measuring agile velocity is simple enough and is done by measuring work done divided by total sprints (Le, 2018). Generally, agile velocity is calculated by measuring the average time for the development team to complete one Sprint. The total number of story points that have been completed divided by the number of sprints will be used as the formula to measure agile velocity for the product. This data will then be used to estimate the total velocity of the completion of the project. It is beneficial in making sure that the development process is efficient.

Scaling Agile

If the algorithm successfully combats potential frauds and safeguards Frederick's digital applications, more people will be interested in using said applications. This is when upscaling will be needed to satisfy the demands of the increasing customer base. Several scaling frameworks such as nexus, large enterprise scaled scrum, scrum of scrums, and others can be taken up to improve the functionality of the product and to scale its purpose. Agile scaling tries to provide reasonable and sustainable scaling solutions (Appelo, 2019).

Conclusion

The retailing and grocery industries have seen a lot of recent disruption because of the technical revolution taking place for the last years. Technology has ensured that the world wide web is a tool that can be used to achieve further convenience for customers in their day-to-day operations. Recent years have seen the domination of Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and other online retailing companies that have taken strides to ensure that their services are available and convenient for people to access through sophisticated digital solutions. The benefits of having an online platform can be noted and is a point of significant concern for traditional retailers and grocers. To compete with the e-commerce companies, these traditional companies need to implement technological solutions and novel online interfaces properly, or they will not be able to hold onto their grounds. Frederick's is one of such companies recently attempting to expand their facilities to the digital space. The company is collaborating with digital solution providers to develop proper digital applications that will further their goals. The company has sought consultancy regarding how to reduce potential fraud in its digital platforms. Agile methodology has taken the world by storm by proving that for certain projects, it is the most efficient and reliable project management approach. This consultation report Provides detailed information regarding how the in-house product development team will adopt an agile methodology to create the required product to combat potential frauds and scams. The proper description of each element of Agile methodology is provided in this report to educate the company officials and other interested stakeholders regarding how the project development team will work.

References