FAQ Domain 7 Agile Continuous Improvement
Tools and Techniques :
Approved iterations
The term “approved iterations” in the exam content outline is related to iteration (or sprint) reviews. At the end of each iteration, the team holds a review meeting with the stakeholders to demonstrate the new increment built in the iteration. If the product owner is satisfied that the increment has met the iteration goal—the items selected from the backlog for that iteration—then they will“approve” that iteration.
When working in an outsourced environment, approved iterations can be used to control the release of incremental funding payments to a vendor. For example, “Since the work for this iteration has been approved, here’s your payment for this portion of the project.”
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Feedback methods
In addition to helping us clarify requirements, product feedback methods can uncover the need for new features. Often, it isn’t until the customer actually sees the functionality that they will realize additional elements are required. For example, “The order entry screen looks great, but after trying it, we realize we also need a duplicate order function.”
So when we demonstrate functionality to the product owner, it serves two purposes. First, we learn about any differences between what was asked for and what we interpreted and built (the gulf of evaluation). And second, we learn about any new or adjusted functionality that is required (I’ll Know It When I See It: IKIWISI).
3. Fishbone diagram analysis
A fishbone diagram is a visual way to look at cause and effect. It is a more structured approach than some other tools available for brainstorming causes of a problem (e.g., the Five Whys tool). The problem or effect is displayed at the head or mouth of the fish.
4. Five Whys
Five whys (or 5 whys) is an iterative interrogative technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem by repeating the question "Why?". Each answer forms the basis of the next question.
An example of a problem is: The vehicle will not start.
Why? – The battery is dead. (First why)
Why? – The alternator is not functioning. (Second why)
Why? – The alternator belt has broken. (Third why)
Why? – The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and not replaced. (Fourth why)
Why? – The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule. (Fifth why, a root cause)[2]
5. Kaizen
Kaizen is a philosophy of continuous improvement and provides an approach to engage the people who do the work to quickly identify and implement rapid improvement opportunities
6. Learning cycle
Agile learning generally refers to the transfer of agile methods of project work, especially Scrum, to learning processes. Likewise, agile learning proceeds in incremental steps and through an Iterative design that alternates between phases of learning and doing.
At increasingly more granular and significant levels,
questions such as:
» “Does it meet the customer's needs and expectations?”
» “Does it work in all conditions?”
» “Did we break anything while building this?”
The answers to these questions will either solidify our understanding or prompt further analysis and change. Each review or product feedback loop is also a learning cycle where we ask questions such as:
» “How can we improve efficiency?”
» “How canweimprove quality?”
» “How can we share the lessons learned with other groups?”
7. Pre-mortem (rule setting, failure analysis)
Doing a project premortem is to identify potential risks to the project so that we can mitigate them. Although it does involve forecasting the results in a way, that is simply the framework used for identifying risks. With rule-setting and also failure analysis method to define the pre-mortem aforementioned.
8. Process tailoring
One of the most controversial topics within the Agile community is the practice of “tailoring”, which most simply stated, is the process of customizing a specific Agile model or framework for various reasons.
9. Product feedback loop
You may recall the figure below from our discussion of frequent verification and validation in chapter 2.
We can build on that earlier explanation now by adding that these cycles are also reviews that are based on feedback loops.
Each of these feedback loops—whether short and informal or longer and more formal—reveals new information about the product or service we are building and the effectiveness of our knowledge and process. Agile teams need to continually try to confirm their understanding and the correctness of their work like this, since these projects are often unprecedented, and designs are largely invisible until the end product is completed. Product feedback loops help ensure that we are building the right thing in a robust and sustainable way. We continually ask ourselves, at increasingly more granular and significant levels, questions such as:
» “Does it meet the customer's needs and expectations?”
» “Does it work in all conditions?”
» “Did we break anything while building this?”
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10. Retrospectives, introspective
A retrospective, or introspective, is a specialized meeting that may be held after release, or even the entire project. However, this term most often refers to the meeting that is held at the end of each iteration, after the iteration review. Regardless of which part of the project is being reviewed, this meeting is an opportunity for the members of the development team to inspect and improve their methods and teamwork. (Retrospectives can also be scheduled on a regular basis or when required on lean and kanban projects that may not use iterations.) During the retrospective, we grapple with the following questions:
» What is going well?
» What areas could use improvement?
» What should we be doing differently
11. Reviews
Althoughreviews are akey component of all agile methods andhave beenmentioned frequentlyin thisbook, wehaven’t really stopped to explain what they are, or whythey are so important. So far we’ve mostly discussediteration (or sprint) reviews, where the team demonstrates the product increment to the customer. But that is only one type ofreview; ifwe think of agile reviews in a larger context, some of the other topics in this chapter—such as product feedback andretrospectives—are also types ofreviews. So to begin this section onproduct improvement, we’ll take amoment to examine whyagile teams do so many reviews, andhow they fit into the overall agileprocess.
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12. Value stream mapping
Value streammappingis a leanmanufacturing technique that hasbeen adoptedbyagile methods. The goal ofthis technique is to optimize the flow ofinformation or materials required to complete a process, thereby reducing the time it takes to create value and eliminating wasteful or unnecessary work.
Invalue stream mapping, we create a visualmap of a process flow, so that we canidentify where delays, waste, andconstraints are occurring. Once weidentify the areas that couldbe improvedin the process, we can thenlook for ways to remove those problems andmake the processmore efficient.
The value stream mapping process involves the followingsteps:
1. Identify the product or service to be analyzed.
2. Create a value streammap of the current process,identifyingsteps, queues, delays, and information flows.
3. Review the map to find delays, waste, and constraints.
4. Create anew value stream map of the desired future state of the process, optimized to remove or
reduce delays, waste, and constraints.
5. Develop a roadmap for creating the optimized state.
6. Plan to revisit the process in the future to continually refine and optimizeit.
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Knowledge and Skills:
13. Agile hybrid models
Hybrid Agile is the combination of Agile methods with other non-Agile techniques
14. Continuous improvement
Continuous Improvement—People
In this section, we’ll get into the nitty-gritty ofhow agile teams evaluate themselves andidentify areas for improvement by examining the retrospective process and team self-assessments.Ofthese two topics, agile retrospectives are muchmore important for the exam, since these are the primary events for learning, reflection, andreadjustment onan agileproject.Retrospectives are common to allagilemethods, and serve as the main trigger for drivingchanges inall three areas—process,product, andpeople.
Infeet, we couldhave coveredretrospectivesineither ofthe earlier sections ofthis chapter, since they canleadto improvementsinprocess orproduct,as wellas people.However,retrospectives are fundamentallyaboutpeople, since theyaremeetingsheldfor andby the teammembers. (Althoughthese meetings are usually definedas beingonly for the development team, onsomeprojects other keystakeholders are alsoinvitedtoparticipate.)
15. Continuous Improvement—Product
Just as we continuously refine our processes, so do we continuously improve the evolvingproduct. We’ve said that agile methods rely oniterative andincremental development—and these are both forms of continuous improvement,in which customer feedback steers us toward the ultimate solution.
Whenwebuildin smallincrements and get feedback, the product evolves toward the true business requirements—and sometimes the true business requirements maybe quite different from the originally statedrequirements, as the creative process illuminates better options.By this cycle of developingin smallincrements, reviewing, discussinghow to improve, and then doingsome more development and maybe enhancing a few things, the product or solution is incrementally built through a process of continuous improvement.
16. PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
The final topic in the exam content outline that we’ll cover is PMI’s Code ofEthics andProfessional Conduct.While this isn’t an agile topic,it is verymuchalignedwithagile’s core value ofrespect for other people. Also,PMIexpects every applicant for thePMI-ACP credentialto follow this code—youwon’t be able to complete the exam applicationprocess without agreeing tobeboundbyit. So let’s take alook and see what you are getting yourselfinto.
PMI’s Code ofEthics andProfessional Conduct is a document that outlines four areas ofprofessional behavior to conduct ourselvesby—Responsibility,Respect, Fairness, andHonesty.Each area of the code has a set of aspirational standards anda set ofmandatory standards. The aspirational standards describe the idealsPMIis askingpractitioners to strive for, or aspire to. Themandatory standards are behaviors PMIexpects allpractitioners to follow. The structure of the Codeis shownbelow,in apartially expanded mindmap of the aspirational components of the Responsibility section.
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17. Principles of systems thinking (complex, adaptive, chaos)
Complex adaptive systems thinking is an approach that challenges simple cause and effect assumptions, and instead sees healthcare and other systems as a dynamic process. One where the interactions and relationships of different components simultaneously affect and are shaped by the system.
Complex Adaptive Systems are characterized by a high degree of adaptive capacity, giving them resilience in the face of perturbation. Other important properties are adaptation (or homeostasis), communication, cooperation, specialization, spatial and temporal organization, and reproduction.
18. Process analysis
Agile analysis is highly evolutionary and collaborative process where developers and project stakeholders actively work together on a just-in-time (JIT) basis to understand the domain, to identify what needs to be built, to estimate that functionality, to prioritize the functionality, and in the process optionally producing artifacts that are just barely good enough.
http://agilemodeling.com/essays/agileAnalysis.htm
19. Self-assessment tools and techniques
A self-assessment is an evaluation of your actions and attitudes. Self-assessment tools offer a method for gathering information about yourself to more easily decide on a career that fits into these criteria.
Important elements of self-assessment tests include:
Values — The things most important to you
Interests — What you enjoy doing most
Personality — Your individual traits, needs, attitudes, motivations
Aptitude — Activities you are good at, be they in-born or skills you’ve acquired
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