Slack in Scheduling & Agile

 

⏲ No, this one is not referring to the slack collaboration tool 😊

⌛ Slack in Critical Path Method (CPM) — Schedule Management

1️⃣ Slack refers to the amount of time a task in a project can be delayed without delaying the project’s overall schedule.
2️⃣ It is a measure of scheduling flexibility.
3️⃣ This is also referred as Float.
4️⃣ Activities on the critical path have zero float because any delay in these activities will directly impact the project’s finish date.

⏳ Slack in Agile (Interesting 💪)

1️⃣ The practice of Slack Time in Extreme Programming (XP) is often overlooked and not deliberately incorporated into sprint planning as a safety measure.
2️⃣ It is intentionally allocated within an iteration to address uncertainties or engage in activities beneficial to the project or team.
3️⃣ During this time, teams have the flexibility to plan specific activities, which can be adjusted based on the prevailing circumstances.
4️⃣ The inclusion of Slack Time in a sprint allows individuals to dedicate time to valuable activities that contribute to the project or enhance team dynamics.

✍ Some activities that can be practiced during Slack time:

✳ Finish any unplanned simple bugs/enhancements quickly
✳ Refactoring of the code (To follow Architecture and Standards) — Love this 🍀
✳ Develop reusable components
✳ Reducing compiler warnings
✳ Automate any manual processes to save time etc.

Please share your thoughts !

DIRFT (Doing It Right the First Time) & Zero Defect (ZD)

🍀 Philip Crosby’s response to the quality crisis was the principle of “doing it right the first time” (DIRFT). The phrase “Do it right the first time” is a quality management principle that emphasizes the importance of performing tasks correctly and accurately from the beginning. It’s often associated with quality management experts like Philip Crosby and is a part of their philosophy to prevent errors and defects, rather than relying on rework or corrections after mistakes have been made. This approach can lead to improved quality, increased efficiency, and cost savings in various processes and industries.

🍀 Crosby also initiated the Zero Defects (ZD) program — Zero Defects is a management tool aimed at the reduction of defects through prevention. It is directed at motivating people to prevent mistakes by developing a constant, conscious desire to do their job right the first time

🍀 DIRFT evaluates to address some of the basic principles for continuous improvements and quality across organization as:

1️⃣ To improve quality, management should be deeply committed
2️⃣ To establish measurements and it helps analyze where the quality problems are
3️⃣ The cost of quality is doing it wrong. And not doing it right from the start
4️⃣ To develop a quality culture in the company
5️⃣ It is important to recognize and value all those members or teams that help meet the objective and to reward them
6️⃣ To keep team informed on the latest tips on quality

#quality #dirft #zerodefect #corsby #projectmanagement

Interesting information on Delphi Technique

 

The Delphi Technique is a structured and systematic method for gathering and information from a group of experts or stakeholders to reach a consensus or make predictions about complex or uncertain issues. This can be used during requirements gathering, risk management etc. It is interesting to know about the two variations of Delphi technique.

➡ Delphi Technique

1️⃣ A way to reach a consensus of experts on a subject, experts on the subject participate in this technique anonymously
2️⃣ A facilitator uses a questionnaire to solicit ideas about the important points related to the subject
3️⃣ The responses are summarized and are then recirculated to the experts for further comments
4️⃣ Consensus may be reached in a few rounds of this process. This helps reduce bias in the data and keep any one person away from having undue influence on the outcome

➡ Wideband Delphi

1️⃣ Wideband Delphi is a variation of the Delphi estimating method where subject matter experts complete multiple rounds of producing estimates individually, with a project team discussion after each round, until a consensus is achieved
2️⃣ For Wideband Delphi, those who created the highest and lowest estimates explain their rationale, following which everyone estimates
3️⃣ The process repeats until convergence is achieved
4️⃣ Planning Poker is a variation of Wideband Delphi

Please let know your thoughts.

Definition of Ready in Agile

 Definition of Ready in Agile

It is good to have a A ‘Definition of Ready’ (DoR). The ‘Definition of Done’ (DoD) is an agreed-upon set of items that must be completed before a project or user story can be considered complete.

The Definition of Ready is most often missed by the teams. It helps to set the criteria that a product backlog item must meet before taken into a sprint. The development team must evaluate and ensure its consideration such as dependencies, estimations, flow, design etc. are ready and can be consulted with the product owner. The below checklist will help in defining a DoR for a story.

Defintion of Ready (DoR)

✅ User story has a business value 📖
✅ Estimated by the development team ✏
✅ Clear and well-defined 🏹
✅ Achievable within a sprint 🏃‍♂️
✅ Measurable & Testable 📈
✅ User story dependencies have been verified 🤝

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements. Quality is the key to a deliverable and ensuring to conformance in project’s success. Throughout the project lifecycle, measures should be taken to track the quality evolving different metrics to get the desired result. A Quality management plan defines how the project team will implement and fulfils the quality policy of the performing organization. Quality Metrics are the operational definitions that specify the measurements within a project and the expected targets for quality and performance.

The quality planning involves in the process of first determining which quality standards are relevant to the project and then finding out the best methods of adhering to those quality standards. In the realm of project management, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) are distinct concepts and it is important to understand.

Quality Control

It is an inspection-driven process that measures work results to confirm that the project is meeting the relevant quality standards. It entails the inspection and testing of the ultimate project outcomes.

Example:

1. A Quality Control (QC) engineer conducts testing on a software application to detect potential flaws. various testing techniques such as unit testing, integration testing, and system testing, may be employed in this process.
2. Upon discovering a defect within the application, the QC engineer promptly notifies the development team, who subsequently address and resolve the issue.
3. Subsequently, the QC engineer proceeds to reevaluate the application to verify that the defect has indeed been rectified.

Quality Assurance

A management process that defines the quality system or quality policy that a project must adhere to. QA aims to plan quality into the project rather than to inspect quality into a deliverable. It relates to the methods and procedures teams employ to guarantee the quality of their deliverables.

Example:

1. A Quality Assurance (QA) engineer assesses the software development process to uncover any prospective issues related to quality. This evaluation encompasses elements such as project requirements, design documentation, and the testing strategy.
2. Upon detecting a potential quality concern, the QA engineer promptly communicates this matter to the team to resolve it.
3. The QA engineer maintains vigilance over the project’s advancement, ensuring that the development team adheres to the QA plan and that the project remains aligned with its quality objectives.

Final

It is important to understand

• Cost of Conformance: It is the cost associated with the monies spent to attain the expected level of quality. It is also known as the cost of quality.
• Cost of non conformance: This is associated with not satisfying quality expectations. This is also known as the cost of poor quality.

QC and QA are important for ensuring the quality of products and services. QC is focused on identifying and fixing defects, while QA is focused on preventing defects from occurring in the first place.

Remember ‘quality is fit for purpose and use’ — where ‘low grade is acceptable but not low quality’.

PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) — Continuous Improvement

While preparing for ITIL, I learned about PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act), a four-step continuous improvement process and how this approach could help in improved quality and productivity.

The cycle is sometimes referred to as the Shewhart / Deming cycle since it originated with physicist Walter Shewhart in the 1920s. Edwards Deming modified the Shewhart cycle in the 1940s and subsequently applied it to management practices (~Wikipedia).

1️⃣ Plan: In this step, measures for success are agreed. Gap analysis is undertaken and a plan is produced to close the gap through a series of step improvements.
2️⃣ Do: In this stage, the implementation of improvements is conducted to implement any steps needed to close the gaps identified in the Plan phase for further improvement.
3️⃣ Check: Check is more accurately described as Monitoring, Measuring and Reviewing. The results of the implemented improvements are compared with the measures for success identified in the Plan phase.
4️⃣ Act: Improvements will be implemented in this step. The improvements that have been identified are fully implemented.

The PDCA is a Continuous Service Improvement (CSI) process and the first image depicts the process.

On the contrary, the second image frequently garners attention on social media, where humor tends to overshadow factual information. However, on a more earnest note, significant positive transformations can occur when subjected to a continuous improvement process.

#pdca #projectmanagement #deming #shewhart #csi #humor

Stakeholders Matrix

 1️⃣ High power 💪 — High interest 👊 : These stakeholders are decision-makers and have the biggest impact on the project’s success and hence must closely manage their expectations.

2️⃣ High power 💪 — Low Interest 🤚 : These stakeholders need to be kept satisfied even though they aren’t interested because they yield influence/power.

3️⃣ Low power 👎 — High interest 🙌 : These stakeholders should be adequately informed and talk to them to ensure that no major issues are arising.

4️⃣ Low power 👎 — Low interest 👇 : These stakeholders needs to be monitored, they come in low priority.

#stakeholders #projectmanagement #matrix #power #interest #influence