Agile Methodology Project Planning Process

In agile methodology project requirements are collected in the form of user stories. Before defining scope and finalizing the release plan, it is required to calculate a rough estimate of how much work a team can develop in an iteration and the team’s velocity to find out how many user stories they will be able to complete before the release date. This is where estimation becomes a critical factor in project planning.

4.1. Estimation using Story Points

While estimating the relative sizes of different user stories, story points which represent a fixed amount of development effort can be used by the agile team. For example, a small coding task may be assigned 5 story points. If another task is evaluated to take three times of effort then it

Factors that impact velocity

Factors that can negatively impact are as follows:

5.2.1. Burnout and overwork

If a development team have been working a lot of overtime or having under a lot of consistent pressure, they may suffer from burnout which will lead to more mistakes and cause delays consequently can reduce a team's velocity.

5.2.2. Changes in team structure

If new members are joining the team or existing people leaving the team can decrease a team's velocity. People who have experience working together as a cohesive unit are likely to work faster than people who aren't familiar with each other's skills and habits.

5.2.3. Technological complexity

Unanticipated technological complexity in the work can reduce the team's velocity. Similarly, if a team is required to start using a new development tool, language, or technology, it will have to spend more time in adjusting before producing the final outcome.

5.2.4. Miscommunication

Miscommunication among team members or between the team and the customer, or product owner can negatively impact a team's velocity. For example, if the product owner is not clear when providing requirements or doesn't provide sufficient detail, it may lead to unnecessary rework and slow down the team's

The team can then start focusing on developing stories with the highest priorities first. Prioritizing user stories ensures that the most important product features are delivered to the customer first so that the customer can begin deriving value from them.

6.1. Prioritization Factor

But how to determine the relative priority of user stories? The prioritization depends on various factors as follows:

6.1.1. Value

For determining priority of a user story the key factor is the value of implementing that functionality to the customer. The value of a particular deliverable can be measured in different ways. For example, the new functionality will help to raise production or increase user productivity or saving manpower which in turn results in financial benefit to the customer.

6.1.2. Cost

The priority of a user story may be influenced by the cost of developing a feature. For example, implementing a new feature in the customer's business environment may introduce necessary expensive training to users or require a costly change in business processes. In this case the associated costs will reduce the value of the product feature and may force the customer to lower the priority of the relevant user