I am new to agile and would appreciate help on project planning and the backlog. I am looking for a backlog template that is appropriate for an IT Project. Also how can I use the MS Project 2016 for an agile project .
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
My recomendation is taking a closer look to Mike Cohn´s book "Agile Estimating and Planning"
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1 reply by DINA MUHAMAD
Jun 16, 2019 6:37 AM
DINA MUHAMAD
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thanks Sergio for the recommendation , I am already watching his videos on YouTube.
My recomendation is taking a closer look to Mike Cohn´s book "Agile Estimating and Planning"
thanks Sergio for the recommendation , I am already watching his videos on YouTube.
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Jun 16, 2019 1:58 PM
Sergio Luis Conte
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You are welcome Dina. It is dificult to find people that talk "seriously" about this topic in a world where if you do not use the word agile in everything you write and said you are consider bad, ugly, dirty and in my case out of fashion. Mike is somebody that deserves to be read.
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Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Your backlog is simply a list of epics, feature, and stories that make up the body of work. They are then prioritized as needed for MVP and delivering business value. This is the role and responsibility of the Product Owner - the 'what'. The Development team determines the 'how'.
For your second question, I would recommend YouTube, Udemy, or MPUG for learning the Agile features of MS Project. Saving Changes...
With regards to using a traditional scheduling tool such as MSP, you can represent each sprint as a single task. Multiple sprints would be linked together (FS) with a milestone at the end signifying a release. This approach will help you track work that is not being done by the agile teams (e.g. governance deliverables) and also be able to get a full labor cost estimate for your project.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Jun 16, 2019 6:37 AM
Replying to DINA MUHAMAD
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thanks Sergio for the recommendation , I am already watching his videos on YouTube.
You are welcome Dina. It is dificult to find people that talk "seriously" about this topic in a world where if you do not use the word agile in everything you write and said you are consider bad, ugly, dirty and in my case out of fashion. Mike is somebody that deserves to be read. Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
In general people tend to laugh when MS project is mentioned in the same sentence with Agile or (product) backlog. Personally I agree with Kiron. The MSP schedule should be at the sprint level and provide details for 'mundene' project tasks like procurement, risk management, financial management etc. leaving the scope management for the Backlog. Saving Changes...
Wade HarshmanScrum Master| GDITIndianapolis, In, United States
Newer versions of MS Project are supposed to support Scrum and Kanban.
I have not personally tested those features, but it's worth exploring if you must use MS Project to manage your backlog.
Kiron's idea could work if your organization insists on using MS Project but won't support an MS Project upgrade. Capture backlog items as rows and move them up and down to prioritize them, or group them under a parent task to distinguish sprint backlogs. I've done something similar; it wasn't great, but it worked. There's no perfect tool, especially when you're given the tool before you've chosen a method. (Imagine a workplace that gives you a screwdriver and then tells you to drive nails!)
But more than managing tools, the more difficult issue is explaining how your team's work gets done to your stakeholders and sponsors. If MS Project helps you do that, great. If not, I would use MS Project to capture only the high level information your organization requires, then find a more appropriate tool for your team to visualize their work. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Jus to comment. First of all let me say I am using MS Project with Scrum based projects today and with Kanban as a tool to use inside Scrum. If you ask me it has no sense but I can not convince corporarte audint that it has no sence so here I am. Adding to it we are using WBS too. So, is not about the version of the tool. Is about you have to change your mind. For example, you do not have a WBS, you have a FBS: Feature Breakdoen Structure. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
I've used MS Project in the manner described by Kiron. You will find that you need to report progress to senior management. Make sure you group sets of sprints around reportable milestones for that very purpose. Saving Changes...
I would tend to agree with Kiron also.
I am presently managing an agile project with 17 - 3 week - sprints.
I created an activity and assigned resources for each sprint in Ms Project and we also plan to do so 5 releases to production so I am creating a milestone for each of these releases.
The releases are determined by prioritizing user stories and determining what we want to get done first in order to try to deliver value to the client as soon as possible.
It's not perfect but this is pretty much the way that I am bringing together the 2 entities of reporting in a traditional waterfall world and integrating bits of "agility" that make sense for my agile development project. Saving Changes...
