MGT641 Agile Project Management
Week 1 Assignment
Aligning Agile Methodologies
While the course project emphasizes the Scrum methodology, which is discussed in detail in Topic 2, it is important to recognize that there are several agile methodologies in use and that any combination of their features can be integral to the success of an agile project. Because flexibility is key in agile, there may be times when one methodology is best, while at other times a project manager might blend methods together to achieve the most effective results. In this assignment you will act as the project manager whose task is to align the most appropriate methodology or combination of methodologies to solve the given story problems.
Directions:
Complete your readings assignments in Chapter 1 and Chapter 3. You should also review the web site https://kanbanize.com/agile/project-management/methods/ as a resource to complete the "Aligning Agile Methodologies Worksheet" (attached).
Select the most appropriate agile methodology for approaching the project for each of the five story problems. Justify your selection.
In the “Methodology or Combination of Methodologies” column of the worksheet, list the methodology or combination (blend) of methodologies you selected.
In the “Justification of Methodology or Combination of Methodologies” column, write a reflection (50-100 words) for each story problem that addresses the following:
What is the specific problem in the scenario?
Why did you choose the methodology or combination of methodologies? Because there is not necessarily one right or wrong answer, it is important to provide a clear justification for your choice.
Cite evidence from the textbook or other sources in your justification.
Explain how you think each selected methodology differs most significantly from a traditional project management approach.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a scoring guide. Please review the scoring guide prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
MGT641 Agile Project Management
Week 2 Assignment
CLC: Visioning Meeting and Project Charter
This is a CLC assignment.
Review "Agile Project Management CLC Project Overview" and select a project from the list provided in the document. Additional project specifications are included on the “Project Descriptions” document to assist the team in making a decision.
Schedule your visioning meeting and create the project charter and roadmap. In agile, the visioning meeting is a critical step for establishing the vision for the product, which should guide the decision-making process throughout the entire project. In reality, all stakeholders involved in the project should take part in the visioning meeting. This crucial step will help the team and owner align their visions for what the project is supposed to accomplish. Establishing a unified, guiding vision, is central to any project’s success.
Your team should hold a visioning meeting and create the Project Charter, which will serve as the guide for your project. See “Resources for Holding Virtual Meetings” (attached) for suggestions. The objective is for each team member to share his/her vision for the project. The team must then come to a consensus on the following:
The Vision: The vision statement should express the team’s shared understanding of the project’s primary aim. For example, if your team is responsible for developing a new software product, your primary goal may be to improve a given set of employees’ working conditions by making their job tasks easier and more efficient. Think of the vision in terms of the ultimate problem the team is trying to solve.
The Mission: The mission statement should specify the exact objective of the project. In the new software example above, the team’s objective would be to produce software with a given set of features that would accomplish the aim of making job tasks easier and more efficient. Think of the mission in terms of the solution you are producing to solve the problem.
Criteria for Success: The criteria for success is a list of measureable outcomes the team would utilize to determine whether or not the solution developed actually solves the problem it is intended to solve. How would you measure whether or not the software makes employees’ job tasks easier and more efficient?
Project Roadmap: The project roadmap should include major milestones for project completion. What are the team’s plans for accomplishing the goals of the project?
Use “Team Project Charter” to complete your charter. Your team may alter and individualize the template for its own purposes; however, the charter should contain all four sections and it should be no more than one page. Project charters are intended to be a succinct guide to focus a project’s purpose and direction.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a scoring guide. Please review the scoring guide prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
MGT641 Agile Project Management
Week 3 Assignment
CLC: High Level Analysis
This is a CLC.
Now that a vision has been established for the project, your team will complete a High Level Analysis (HLA) to articulate the project idea, map the project’s design, and forecast a preliminary schedule. While an HLA can be a detailed requirements document when complete, your team will produce only selected parts of an HLA, including a use case diagram, a general workflow diagram, and the first version of your product backlog.
Use Case Diagram: The use case diagram should identify the actors, actions, systems, and processes involved in delivering value to end users. For example, if your team is responsible for developing a new software product, your use case diagram should visually represent all of the interactions among the people, processes, and systems required to deliver the software to end users. The ultimate goal of the use case diagram is to articulate the team’s understanding of what the product owner wants and what the requirements are. Keep in mind, since this is part of a High Level Analysis, the diagram need only provide an overview of major operations and interactions. The diagram will be used to further break down project requirements in the workflow and backlog.
General Workflow Diagram: The general workflow diagram should break down the workflow for completing the major milestones in the project. Using your use case diagram, map the project’s progression to demonstrate the order in which major steps in the project should be undertaken. This provides all team members with a shared understanding of the project’s scope and direction.
Product Backlog: Complete the first version of your product backlog using the attached “Product Backlog” template. The product backlog is the comprehensive and prioritized list of all of the features for your product. The backlog is a living document in that features may be added, deleted, or reprioritized as the product owner demands new features or as there are shifts in priorities as the project develops. The backlog is also used to plan your team’s sprints. Try to make your backlog as comprehensive as possible at this point; however, be prepared to revise and add to it as you work through your project and learn more about what it requires.
Note on Diagramming Tools: You are not required to use a specific tool to create your diagrams. Use case and workflow diagrams can be made in Microsoft Visio or with the drawing tools in Word. There are also several diagramming tools available on the Internet (e.g., Smartdraw.com, Gliffy.com, and draw.io). Some are open source or offer free trials. Investigate the saving and sharing options when choosing a tool. For example, some tools only save to PDFs, which are not editable. You are encouraged to investigate your options and select what works best for your team. You must be able to save and submit or otherwise share your diagram with the instructor.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a scoring guide. Please review the scoring guide prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
MGT641 Agile Project Management
Week 4 Assignment
CLC: Release Planning
This is a CLC assignment.
Now that the High Level Analysis is complete, it is time to further divide the backlog into feature releases and develop user stories for sprint planning. For this assignment your team should:
Hold a release planning meeting.
Create the release plan for the project.
Develop three user stories, which will later be used to plan the team’s iterations or sprints.
See “Resources for Holding Virtual Meetings” (attached) for suggestions related to holding your release planning meeting. Submit a release plan and three user stories for your project to the instructor by the end of Topic 4. Review “Release Planning and User Stories” (attached) for additional information on completing this assignment.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a scoring guide. Please review the scoring guide prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
MGT641 Agile Project Management
Week 5 Assignment
CLC: Sprint 1 -- Sprint Planning, Sprint Board, and Sprint Retrospective
This is a CLC assignment.
For this assignment, you will use the team’s release plan to plan the first sprint for your project. Sprints are short intervals (usually 1-4 weeks in length, with 2 weeks being most common) in which the team works to complete a selected list of features related to a specific release. For example, in the scenario where your team is building a software product to streamline employee’s job tasks, the project was broken into three distinct phases during release planning. Sprint planning will further subdivide a release into multiple intervals (sprints) to get all the features required for a release completed within in a specified timeframe. The team’s Scrum master plays an integral role in managing a team’s sprint. For the purposes of this course, your team will engage in three 1-week sprints.
Your deliverables for this module are a sprint board for 90 story points worth of features and a sprint retrospective due by the end of Topic 5. The sprint retrospective should summarize the sprint planning and discuss the team’s effort in estimating the backlog. Use the “Sprint Retrospective” template (attached) to complete this portion of the assignment. Make sure the retrospective:
Identifies the Scrum master.
Includes the user story that guided the sprint planning.
Explains what method the team used to estimate and create the sprint backlog.
Explains the challenges the team faced in estimating and planning its first sprint and what the team will improve upon for the next sprint.
The team will also create a sprint board, which may be submitted in a variety of formats. Review “Resources for Sprint Planning” (attached) for additional information on completing your assignment.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a scoring guide. Please review the scoring guide prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
MGT641 Agile Project Management
Week 6 Assignment
CLC: Sprint 2 -- Roadblocks and Stand-Up Meetings
This is a CLC assignment.
Assume that your team’s first sprint went very successfully. Your estimations were fairly accurate and your team was able to accomplish all the tasks it forecasted it could complete. You are now ready to plan Sprint #2. For this sprint, your team must accomplish the following:
Select a new Scrum master.
Select another user story.
Plan the second sprint worth 90 story points (including estimating with Planning Poker or another method and updating the sprint board).
Hold daily stand-up meetings (a minimum of three).
Complete a Sprint Retrospective.
Note: The instructor will introduce a roadblock during this topic. Your team must account for this roadblock during sprint planning.
Deliverables to be submitted at the end of Topic 6 include:
An updated sprint board worth 90 story points (include this week’s user story accounting for the roadblock.)
A report documenting the daily stand-up meetings. Use the “Daily Stand-Up Report” template to record meeting outcomes.
The Sprint Retrospective. Use the "Sprint Retrospective Template."
Review the “Resources for Holding Virtual Meetings” and “Daily Stand-Up Report” templates (attached) for additional instructions on holding and reporting on your stand-up meetings.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a scoring guide. Please review the scoring guide prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
MGT641 Agile Project Management
Week 7 Assignment
CLC: Sprint 3 -- Evolving Requirements
This is a CLC assignment.
Your team has successfully completed a second sprint. Hopefully your team was able to adapt to the roadblock that was presented in the project. The Topic 7 assignment is very similar to last week’s assignment. Your team will select a third user story, estimate and plan the sprint, and produce an updated sprint board. Instead of a roadblock; however, the instructor will introduce a new feature requested by your product owner. The team is expected to account for the new feature in its sprint plan for this week. Additionally, your team will hold a sprint retrospective meeting and produce a sprint retrospective. Submit the following deliverables by the end of Topic 7:
An updated sprint board worth 90 story points (include this week’s user story accounting for the newly requested feature.)
A Sprint Retrospective.
Remember to select a new Scrum master, who will organize and facilitate the sprint retrospective and submit the deliverables. Review “Resources for Holding Virtual Meetings” and the “Sprint Retrospective” template (attached) for additional instructions on holding and your sprint retrospective.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a scoring guide. Please review the scoring guide prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
MGT641 Agile Project Management
Week 8 Assignment
CLC: Project Retrospective Meeting
This is a CLC assignment.
The final step in the agile project-development process is the project retrospective meeting held upon the project’s completion. The project retrospective serves two purposes. The first is celebratory. Celebrating a job well done can improve an agile team’s morale and performance. Second, like a sprint retrospective, the project retrospective is an opportunity to evaluate a project and identify areas of improvement for the next project. It focuses on similar questions. What went well in this project? What were the problem areas? What can we take forward into the next project to improve our team’s performance?
All team members should attend the meeting. The product owner and members of management also may be invited, unless their presence would intimidate or otherwise prevent the team from openly voicing their perspectives. The meeting should be facilitated by a relatively disinterested facilitator whose primary role is to accomplish the meeting agenda and encourage positive interactions. As is the case with a sprint retrospective, the meeting should not be allowed to degenerate into a complaint session. The goal is to identify actionable items to promote future progress.
For your final CLC assignment, your team will hold a project retrospective meeting with the goal of building consensus about your team’s successes and challenges, and identifying improvements that could be carried out in the future if this agile team continued to work together on additional projects. Like your sprint retrospective, you are evaluating your team’s efforts in implementing agile practices in completing the course’s CLC deliverables during the course. All team members should take their own meeting notes. While you will report some of the meeting’s findings on the attached “Project Retrospective Meeting Report,” each team member will also compose their own individual Project Retrospective Report. For the meeting assignment:
Select a facilitator (must be a team member) to organize and direct the meeting.
The facilitator should compose a meeting agenda and distribute it to all team members prior to the meeting. The agenda should ensure all team members share their perspective and direct the team to identify what worked well in the project, what did not work well, and what the team could do better next time around.
Hold your project retrospective meeting and complete “Project Retrospective Meeting Report.” template.
The facilitator should submit the report by the end of the module.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a scoring guide. Please review the scoring guide prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
MGT641 Agile Project Management
Week 8 Assignment
Benchmark - Project Retrospective Report
In 250-500 words, complete and submit the attached "Project Retrospective Report." Your team will need to hold its Project Retrospective Meeting prior to your completion of the report.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.
Benchmark Information
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competency:
MBA Project Management
5.3: Use evaluation measures during and after projects that support flexibility, efficiency, and continual improvement within teams and organizations.
