Tag: tasks

Four Things That Can Sabotage a Sprint

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

Success and failure are a part of any journey. For agile teams, continuous delivery is the expectation, and that may be a hard thing to achieve. As sprints go on and tasks pile up, we may deter from the path.

Whether your team is beginning their agile journey or are already agile pros, you are bound to encounter a failed sprint at some point.

When do you deem a sprint as failed? Why does a sprint fail? What are the possible reasons, and how can you learn from the mistakes to avoid them in the future? In my article published at TestRail blog – I examine four possible reasons for a failed sprint.

Read the complete article at https://blog.gurock.com/four-things-sabotage-sprint/

Bad Estimation

Estimates cannot be completely accurate every time. But when the agile team fails to see the correct depth or complexity of a task or a user story, the estimates may go haywire, leading to a big diversion from planned timelines within the sprint.

Incoherent Definition of Done

To ensure true completeness, we must list coherent and agreed-upon definitions of done for each type of task we undertake within a sprint, be it development, testing, design, review tasks or test automation. This makes it easier to keep track of the quality of work and get every person’s understanding of the expected work on the same page.

Incomplete Stories

More often than not, user stories being developed in the sprint get stuck at some tricky juncture toward the end. Situations may arise where you reached the last day of the sprint but there are still things holding up the team:

  • Development of the story was completed but testing is still underway
  • Developers and testers paired to conduct tests but some critical issues remain in the feature that need fixing
  • Development and testing are completed but the automation script is yet to be created for regression of the feature (and automation was part of the exit criteria for the user story)
  • Code review is pending, although it is already checked in and working fine
  • Tests for the user story were not added to the test management system even though the tester has performed exploratory tests

Due to any of these reasons or a similar situation, the user story will be incomplete at the end of the sprint. At this point, that feature cannot be deemed fit for release and cannot be counted as delivered.

Technical Debt

In a fast-paced agile environment, we cannot shirk off any part of our work or leave it for later. This becomes technical debt that is hard to pay off. The longer we do not pick up the task, the harder it gets to find the time and spend the effort on it while working on ongoing tasks at the same pace… Continue Reading

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Scrum, Kanban & Scrumban – What’s the difference?

Nishi Grover Garg1 Comment

Agile is a big umbrella that covers a number of different approaches, and there is always scope for more. There are so many flavors because agile is a mindset that allows flexibility in its processes. Two of the more popular approaches are Scrum and Kanban.

Scrum and Kanban apply agile principles in their own way to empower effective delivery cycles. “Scrumban” is a term coined for a hybrid approach making use of both Scrum and Kanban principles.

In my article published at Testrail , I have explore the differences among the three methodologies – Scrum , Kanban and Scrumban. Check it out and see which of these methodologies may be right for you. https://blog.gurock.com/scrum-kanban-scrumban/

Here is a brief about the 3 methodologies –

SCRUM

Scrum is the most popular agile framework. It is iterative and incremental in nature and focuses on tight delivery timelines. The release time frame is split into small iterations called sprints. Work items are planned for each sprint in the form of user stories and tasks, which are prioritized based on value. Teams are small, cross-functional and self-organizing, with a product owner, a ScrumMaster and the development team.

Scrum provides channels for communication through ceremonies such as the sprint planning meeting, the daily standup meeting, the sprint demo, and the sprint retrospective, all of which contribute to the overall pace and a flexible approach to software development.

Scrum Task board

KANBAN

Kanban is focused on continuous delivery based on lean principles. It’s based on the flow of work and just-in-time delivery and promotes process improvement. Kanban aims to eliminate waste, increase productivity and efficiency, and have flexibility in production. The main goals are to limit work in progress (WIP), avoid multitasking and recognize bottlenecks.

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4 ways Task boards can help Agile teams

Nishi Grover Garg1 Comment

A task board is a physical or virtual chart containing all current team tasks at hand and their progress over time. For an agile team, all sprint tasks can be represented on the task board, and their flow over various stages can be tracked in the daily standup meeting. Task boards are a great way to visually representing pieces of work and their status.

Besides helping to organize and track work and being the focal point of the iteration and relevant meetings, task boards can have numerous more benefits for an agile team. In my article published @Gurock, I have discussed four additional ways in which Task boards can help an agile team-> https://blog.gurock.com/agile-task-boards/

Different styles of Task boards

Main points discussed–>

  • Customize the process
  • Visualize their Scrum
  • Improve Commitment and visibility
  • Facilitate Team interactions

Click here to read more ->

‘Co-opetetion’ Among Agile Team Members

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

Agile focuses on motivated individuals acting together toward a common goal. Consequently, agile needs people to collaborate and requires complete transparency, communication, and cooperation, within and across teams. But at the same time, individuals instinctively try to outperform others in order to stand out in their teams.

This transition from individual responsibility to collective ownership is often the hardest part of the cultural shift that teams face when adopting agile. I have looked at ways to encourage healthy competition, more cooperation, and a sense of community among agile teammates in my latest article for Gurock – TestRail blog, the main points being-

  • Showing People the part they played
  • Have Co-workers appreciate each other
  • Measuring personal growth
  • Motivating with extra initiatives
  • Encouraging Collaboration and healthy competetion

Check out the complete article at – https://blog.gurock.com/agile-co-opetiton/ to find ways to encourage healthy competition and better team dynamics in your agile teams!