Data With Purpose

Agile Software Development: the Artefacts

Written by

Paola Di Cretico

in

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Scrum is a framework for developing complex products. It is an interactive, incremental approach to optimise predictability and control risk.

The Scrum Artefacts

Scrum artefacts are tangible by-products produced during the product development. These artefacts consist of the requirements for the overall project and for each individual phase.

PRODUCT BACKLOG

The product backlog is an evolving, dynamic, and ranked list of requirements that may be needed to build the product. The product owner is responsible for the product backlog, including its content and ranking.

The product backlog lists all features, functions, requirements, enhancements, and fixes that constitute the changes to be made to the product in future releases. In agile terminology, the product backlog items are called user stories.

The user stories are the smallest units of work, and their goal is to deliver customer value at the end of the iteration. A good user story should be:

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD QUALITY USER STORY: INVEST
Letter Meaning Description
I Independent The user story should be self-contained so that there is no dependency on another story.
N Negotiable User stories, up until the start of the iteration, can be rewritten and re-ranked.
V Valuable A user story must deliver value to the end user
E Estimable The story is precise and concise so that the development team can estimate it.
S Small The user story development should conclude at the end of the iteration.
T Testable The user story and/or its related description must provide the necessary information to enable test development.

EPICS

Epics are feature-level work that encompasses many user stories. Epics are:

  • A Group of related user stories.
  • They use the same wording and format as the user story:
    • Short description;
    • Acceptance criteria;
    • Estimate.
  •  Should not be worked on directly.
  • It can be considered a project.
  • Its work can span multiple releases and encompass multiple products.

The Epic is typically used to monitor and track development work in the lead-up to the product release/launch.

THEMES

Themes are feature-level work that encompasses many epics. They are:

  • A Group of related Epics.
  • They use the same wording and format as the Epics:
    • Short description;
    • Acceptance criteria;
    • Estimate.
  •  It’s a tracking tool to monitor the overall direction.
  • It’s considered a Portfolio.
  • It is also called an Adventure.

The Theme is typically used to discuss with the CEO and board members to track the overall strategic direction.

 

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