Agile and Scrum Tools Available
We are providing this collection of tools for your use on agile projects. These tools are based on ideas described in Mike Cohn's books.
Velocity Range Calculator
Many agile and Scrum teams think and talk about velocity as a single value. This can cause problems, however. The right way to think about velocity is as a range of values. The Mountain Goat Software velocity range calculator examines five or more velocity values and determines a 90% confidence interval for your velocity based on the statistical idea of a confidence interval around a median. So, rather than saying, "Our average velocity is Z," a team can say "We are 90% confident that for the remaining X iterations, our velocity will be between Y and Z."
Relative Weighting
Relative weighting can be used by Scrum or agile teams to prioritize user stories, features, or even projects. Each item to be prioritized is given a value from 1 (low) to 9 (high) that indicates the relative benefit of adding that item to the product. An item given an 8 would provide twice the value of an item given a 4. Each item is also given a 1-9 to indicate how much the product would be hurt if the item were not included. Each item's benefit and penalty values are added and compared to the cost of the item (in story points or any other unit) and the priorities are determined.
Theme Screening
Theme screening, like theme scoring and relative weighting, can be used by any agile or Scrum team to prioritize user stories or projects against one another. The simplest of the three prioritization techniques, theme screening starts with the identification of a baseline item. Each other item is compared to the baseline item for a set of factors that will determine priorities.
Theme Scoring
Theme scoring is another prioritization technique that can be used to compare user stories, features, or entire projects against one another. In theme scoring the product owner or stakeholders of an agile or Scrum team identifies a set of criteria that will be important in making prioritization decisions. Each item to be prioritized is assessed on a relative 1-5 scale against each criterion and the priorities are determined.
Planning Poker®
Planning Poker is a collaborative estimating approach loosely based on the Delphi approach developed at the Rand Corporation in the 1940s. The technique has become extremely popular among agile and Scrum teams. In Planning Poker, a group of estimators use a previously agreed upon set of numbers to constrain their estimates. When played in person, these values are printed on cards and held by each estimator, giving Planning Poker its name. Estimates are derived through repeated rounds of discussion and each estimator showing the card with his or her estimate.
Project Success Sliders
Project Success Sliders are a way for key stakeholders or a product owner to convey their expectations to a Scrum or agile team. By default there are six sliders, each of which reflects some dimension by which project success can be determined—for example, delivery of all planned features, quality, meeting an agreed upon schedule. Each slider starts at a value of three along a continuum from one to five. The product owner or key stakeholders then moves sliders up or down to reflect the appropriate mix of factors in determining the success of the project. They are prevented from simply moving all sliders to five by a rule that that every movement up must be offset by a corresponding move down.
Your Trainer—Mike Cohn
You can read more information about agile project management training expert and Certified Scrum Trainer, Mike Cohn.