SU Agile Release Planning Essay

SU Agile Release Planning Essay

SU Agile Release Planning Essay

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Agile Delivery Framework

Brenisha Adedipe

Agile Project Management

Professor Jimmie Flores

February 20, 2021

  

 Develop a project schedule that includes at least four phases and no more than ten tasks under the Agile delivery framework through the use of MS Project or Excel.

Project management is an issue that requires a high level of planning to compile all the milestones and ideas to achieve the intended results. The scheduling process requires the project team and the managers to focus on project management’s key activities and ambiguity (Jahr, 2014). It is often unrealistic to incorporate all the fine details in a plan’s project schedule. In developing a company website, it may not be easy to include all the fine details needed in developing the project. The scheduling will involve classifying the phases so that the project team members can easily understand them. The project schedule will involve five phases: conception and initiation, planning, execution, performance/monitoring, and project close. The five phases are essential in promoting project success. The figure below represents a graphical presentation of the project schedule.

Project Schedule Graphic presentation.

Determine the product vision and provide strategies for conducting the envisioning practice.

In project management, vision is critical in facilitating a project’s success. Project sponsors are keen to understand the vision of a project in approving their funding decisions. Product vision is an issue of consideration in convincing project sponsors of the project’s importance to the organization (Rubel et al., 2010). The vision for the e-commerce website must indicate the ability to improve customer satisfaction. The vision for the e-commerce website will be to make the company the best customer choice due to the convenience and quality. The website should be simple to understand and easy to search for the desired products. The website should display all the firm’s products with their prices. It should also help inform customers of any discounts available in the organization. The website will be interactive to ensure the customers can inquire about any questions that might be confusing in the organization. The website’s interactiveness will help the customers develop confidence in the products. The developed website will also help to track and ascertain customer preferences to promote effective decision-making in company products.

The development of a realistic and effective vision requires to have a good envisioning practice. Envisioning is a key aspect of the strategic planning of a project. It is important to ensure effective strategies are incorporated in the process of envisioning. The first strategy in the firm’s envisioning practice will be to communicate to the employees and brainstorm on the appropriate objectives and goals in an organization. Communication is essential in the envision practice. The stakeholder’s knowledge of a company’s vision is fundamental to ensure they can offer the required support to facilitate the vision. Understanding and appreciating employees’ strategies is essential in promoting organizational success.

The second critical strategy in envision is conducting extensive market research. Market research is vital in creating a good vision that is realistic by analyzing other competitors in the market. The market research will entail determining the positioning of competitors in the market. The analysis will help create a vision that corresponds to the market’s activities.  The market leaders in the industry of operation will act as a referencing level for the company.

The third strategy that will be very important in conducting the envisioning practice is to consider the organizational type and structure. The organization’s type entails issues like the form of ownership and the geographical coverage that the organization covers in delivering its products to the market. The type of business will help determine the best business level that needs to be targeted. The organization’s structure determines the capability of the organization in terms of manpower and other resources that might be needed to achieve success. The structure will help to envision activities that are achievable and project on the best practices to achieve a vision.

The last strategy in the envisioning practice is to project how the dynamic business environment might look five to ten years. In envisioning, it is essential to accept that the business and technological world is changing rapidly and incorporate the change in creating the vision. It will increase the hits and minimize misses on issues regarding appropriate vision. Adopting excellent envisioning strategies will be very fundamental in influencing objectives’ achievement.

Determine the main roles of the Agile project team and explain whether the product manager should be from an IT field or a non-IT-related field.

Teamwork is essential in ensuring the effective achievement of project management’s set objectives. In agile projects, teamwork becomes an essential determinant of the ability to succeed (Raza, 2019). The agile project team contains the project owner, Scrum master, development members, and stakeholders. Each team member has definite roles that they are supposed to play in the project to ensure it has been executed in accordance with the set objectives. The project owner represents the stakeholders of the project. The project is responsible for setting the direction for product development. The owner understands what is needed in a project and communicates to the project development team. The owner also sets the priorities to be achieved in an organization to ensure the project achieves the set objectives. The owner will set the desired design of the e-commerce website that is needed in an organization. The product owner will be the firm CEO and management.

The second part of the agile project is the scrum master. The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring team coordination of the team and supporting the project team’s progress (Raza, 2019). The scrum master is responsible for implementing the activities that the product owner directs. Other roles of the Scrum master include coaching the team members, handling administrative issues like conducting meetings and facilitating collaboration issues. Scrum masters must ensure that the team members have the best environment to achieve the set objectives.

The third individual who is part of the agile project team is the development team members. The team members include individuals who are responsible for the product development (Raza, 2019). Every team member has a different task to accomplish depending on the expertise. The team members include people like a product designer, writer, tester, UX specialist, and programmers. The development team’s roles are to perform work sprints as per the requirements and incorporate any product owner changes. The team members will include programmers, computer specialists, business experts, and testers. They will be responsible for ensuring that all the website components are put in place.

The last group of individuals who will play an important role in the agile project team is the stakeholders. Stakeholders are individuals who may not be directly involved in the product development but influence the project’s success. They include investors, external auditors, customers, and production support staff. The end-users of the product will be essential in giving feedback on what needs to be improved regarding the websites. The other stakeholders will be pivotal in ensuring the project’s efficient running through financing and overseeing the project activities. The auditors will ensure that all the resources allocated to the project are directed towards achieving the projects’ success.

Project managers have significant input in defining an organization’s success. A project manager should have the required expertise to achieve organizational objectives (Dupont & Eskerod, 2016). In developing an e-commerce website, the product manager will play an essential role in facilitating a project’s success. The manager will be responsible for ensuring the website’s functionality on mobile devices and ensuring that it achieves the set objectives. The project involves too much computer expertise, and the manager will need to be an IT expert to ensure they are able to understand the functioning of the website effectively. An IT-expert manager will help ensure that all the website activities have been upgraded to the recent technology and the website’s functionality to offer customer satisfaction. The development team members will need to have experts in business-related fields like marketing to advise the manager on the best lightings and coloring that will attract customers and retain them in the organization.

Explain how iteration works in this project. Support your rationale.

In agile projects, iteration is essential in promoting a project’s success. In agile projects, iteration refers to the timebox during which development takes place (Cline, 2015). Iteration helps to set the timeframe within which a certain development occurs in an organization. Iteration helps define the time within which the project team needs to meet and discuss areas that will need to be improved in a project. Iteration works within the first four weeks of a project.

In the project for the development of an e-commerce website for a chain store, iteration will be a continuous process as the project advances from the initiation to its closure. Iteration will be done based on the evaluations that will be done regarding the excellence of the project concerning the set objectives. The website will keep on getting tested on its specification and operations to ensure it operates effectively. After the execution, the customers will be encouraged to give constructive feedback on the project. Monitoring the customers’ feedback will be incorporated to ensure efficiency in the project.

Take a position on whether stories are essential in the Agile delivery framework and explain why or why not. Include at least two feature-story examples to support your explanation.

Stories are essential in the agile delivery framework. In project management, stories transform the project vision to a specific, definable action and project scope. Stories are critical in communicating and teaching the content of a project to the team members. In the agile delivery framework, stories will be precious in ensuring that the project scrub masters can convince and persuade the team members on integrating the objectives with the system quality. One example of stories that will be important will be project owners to the development team on an example of a system that will act as a reference on what they want to achieve in the future. The story will help the team members be more creative and dedicated to achieving the intended objectives. The second feature story that can be important is media stories on the preference of e-commerce sales to customers. It will help understand the features needed to achieve high customer satisfaction on the developed website.

 

 

References

Cline, A. (2015). Overview of an Agile iteration. Agile Development in the Real World, 141-163. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-1679-8_8

Dupont, D. H., & Eskerod, P. (2016). Enhancing project benefit realization through integration of line managers as project benefit managers. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), 779-788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.10.009

Jahr, M. (2014). A hybrid approach to quantitative software project scheduling within Agile frameworks. Project Management Journal, 45(3), 35-45. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21411

Raza, M. (2019). Agile Roles & Responsibilities. Retrieved from https://www.bmc.com/blogs/agile-roles-responsibilities/

Rubel, O., Naik, P. A., & Srinivasan, S. (2010). Optimal advertising when envisioning a product-harm crisis. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1888451