Agile Project Planning: The Nerdiness That Will Save Your Life
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Learn the essentials of Agile project planning and management to reach goals efficiently in an imperfect world of constraints. Understand research, production, deliverables, iteration, and user requirements.
Agile Project Planning: The Nerdiness That Will Save Your Life
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Agile Project Planning The nerdiness that will save your life
Zoe Fraade-Blanar (that’s me!)Fraade@gmail.comwww.binaryspark.com@zfrabla
Making the Switch 1) Research 2) Production The Project Cycle 3) Party Do it again
Agile! • Iteration around a short timeframe • Team members make their own roles • Face to face communication • Constant interaction with the customer • Generate lots of working concepts! (that’s the big one!)
Project Management! Reaching a goal in an imperfect world characterized by constraints
Some Constraints! • Time • Start and end points • Doing things takes time • Only 24 hours in a day • Resources • People • Money • Skills • Scope! (what we can reasonably hope to accomplish)
Planning! • Understand the problem • Identify the team • Define the scope to guard against… FEATURE CREEP
More planning vocab! Deliverables: Outputs from each stage of a project IE: A list of Requirements • Must be wooden • Must be less than 5 lbs to stay on the tree • 5 inches by 5 inch interior • Little foot thingy for the bird to stand on • Hole too small for a squirrel to enter • Weatherproof, no-lead paint
Planning: Project plan(AKA, the WBS)! • 1. Scout Location • 1.1 Scope out location • 1.2 Get mom’s approval to mess with a tree • 2. Get Materials • 2.1 Create list of matterials • 2.2 Drive to Home Depot • 2.3 Select wood • 2.4 Select nails • 2.5 Select paint and brushes • 2.6 Select hammer • 2.7 Pay for materials • 3. Build • 3.1 Measure and cut wood • 3.2 Paint wood • 3.3 Allow to dry • 3.4 Assemble • 4 Install • 4.1 Climb tree • 4.2 Nail into place Responsible • 3.1: Fred • 3.2: Joe • 3.3: Me • 3.4 Everyone Time it will take • 1 hour • 1 hour • 5 hours • 2 hours
Requirements are the awesomeness Requirement (re-kwire-ment) is a statement about an intended product specifying what it should do or how it should perform.
How to get ‘em • Identify the problem space you want to solve for! • Identify your participants. Who’s gonnareaaaaly be using this product? • Do a test run! Don’t make the pancake error!
Data gathering! Getting that research where it belongs (in your head) • Interviews! Yes indeed. • Focus groups. Listen in while they hash it out. • Questionnaires and polls. Sorta. • Researching reactions to similar products. Save yourself some trouble, eh?
If you asked… You’d probably design…
Susan the Soccer Mom wants: • Safe • Holds a lot of kids • Looks shinier than the other mom’s • Brady the Banker wants: • Fast • Fun • Sounds impressive to the interns • Craig the Cowboy wants: • Reliable • Haul big loads • Room for groupies
Fred • Background • 42, male, shoe store clerk • Lives with daughter, age 10 • Degree in neo-victorian poetry • Reluctant technology user • Doesn’t like change or taking chances • Motivations • Staying in touch with his mom • Visiting his mom • Sending stuff to his mom • Saving money for daughter’s college • Keeping his job • Frustrations • Disruptions to routine • His low computer connection speed • His Boss
Use-Cases: • The user needs to be able to search for kittens • The user needs to be able to find discount kittens • The user needs to be able to view kittens • The user needs to be able to pay
Requirements: the cheat sheet! • Identify the problem space.! • Identify likely personas! • Collect information on the backgrounds motivations, and frustrations of your persona! • Brainstorm ways to accommodate them! • Diagram out your use-cases from the user’s point of view!!!11!
Prototype! Def: A manifestation of a design that allows stakeholders to interact with it and explore its suitability High-fidelity Low-fidelity
Physical stuff we can make • Userflow Diagrams – What do we want the user to do • Wireframe layouts – How do we want them to do it • Mockups – Make it all look pretty
Title of Project One sentence describing what the project does and who it’s for: The elevator pitch
How does it work? student Asks question Teacher student website student Answers question Database Gets scholarship for being smart
Background and effects: What specific problem is this system a response to? What user population is this for? What is their motivation to use the project? What are the user requirements to be able to use it correctly?