Managing Agile Open-Source Software Projects with Visual Studio Online

by Brian Blackman, Gordon Beeming, Michael Fourie, Willy-Peter Schaub

Overview

With this ebook, the ALM Rangers share their best practices in managing solution requirements and shipping solutions in an agile environment, an environment where transparency, simplicity, and trust prevail. The ebook is for Agile development teams and their Scrum Masters who want to explore and learn from the authors’ “dogfooding” experiences and their continuous adaptation of software requirements management. Product Owners and other stakeholders will also find value in this ebook by learning how they can support their Agile development teams and by gaining an understanding of the constraints of open-source community projects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509300693
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	04/16/2015
Series:	Developer Reference
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	150
Sales rank:	322,140
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

&>MSDN Magazine articles and contributed to numerous ALM Ranger publications and solutions over the last seven years.

Gordon Beeming is a software developer at Derivco in the sunny city of Durban, South Africa. He spends most his time hacking away at the keyboard in Visual Studio or with his family relaxing. He is a Visual Studio ALM Ranger, Visual Studio ALM MVP, and a member of the Friends of Redgate. He is also the author of Team Foundation Server 2013 Customization, which can be found on packtpub.com. His blog is at binary-stuff.com, and you can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/gordonbeeming.

Michael Fourie started his studies in electronic engineering, where he was introduced to the wonders of computing (mostly in Smalltalk!) and has spent the last 16 years rebooting. He is an independent consultant with extensive software development experience, currently specializing in build and deployment automation to support continuous delivery. He is a technical author and has written for MSDN Magazine and contributed to various books and publications. He is a multiawarded Microsoft ALM MVP and Distinguished ALM Ranger. Reach him via his blog at freetodev.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikefourie.

Willy-Peter Schaub started his IT career in the early 1980s during his electrical engineering studies, focusing on the BTOS/CTOS operating systems until he moved over primarily to Microsoft technologies in the early ‘90s. Since then, his passion has been to investigate, research, and evangelize technology and best practices, striving for simplicity and maintainability in software engineering. Apart from writing books such as .NET Enterprise Solutions ... Best Practices, .NET Enterprise Solutions … Interoperability for the Connoisseur, and Software Engineers on their way to Pluto, his varied and extreme interests include scuba diving, cycling, science fiction, astronomy, and most importantly his family. He dedicates this latest adventure to Alexander and his two brothers, Jacques and Thorsten. Keep on smiling and remember, it is up to you. Never, ever give up on your dreams!

Table of Contents

Foreword     7
Preface     8
Introduction     9
Who should read this book     9
Assumptions     9
This book might not be for you if . . .      9
Organization of this book     9
System requirements     10
Downloads: Toolbox samples     10
We need your candid feedback     11
Conventions and features in this book     11
Errata, updates, & book support     11
Free ebooks from Microsoft Press     12
We want to hear from you     12
Stay in touch     12
About us     13
Authors     13
Brian Blackman     13
Gordon Beeming     13
Michael Fourie     13
Willy-Peter Schaub     13
Coauthors and editors     14
Bijan Javidi     14
Jeff Beehler     14
Patricia Wagner     14
Acknowledgments     14
Chapter 1: Triage of ideas     15
Flights of ideas     15
Roles, responsibilities, and ownership     15
Idea management     16
Capturing ideas     16
Triaging ideas to meet priorities, strategies, and return on investment (ROI)      19
Identify passionate owners     23
Planning the kickoff to enable innovative teams     25
Motivation     25
Vision     26
Categorize solution     26
Objectives     27
Features     28
Roadmap     29
What about the orphaned ideas?      30
Scaling flights . . . how many are too many?      31
Visibility from start to finish     33
Dogfooding case study: Venturing into the cloud     37
Background information     38
Requirements and ownership triage     38
Key learnings     40
Chapter 2: Getting ready     41
Training-research-plan (TRP)      41
It all starts with the kickoff!      42
Planning the meeting     42
Hosting the meeting     43
Organizing the team     43
Objectives     44
Team structure     44
Portfolio “ideas” level     45
Solution “flights” level     45
Team “feature” level     45
Team infrastructure     45
Training . . . learning new things from the SMEs     50
Research . . . investigate and model requirements     51
Planning     51
Estimating and prioritization fundamentals     52
Release planning: Offline preparations     57
Release planning: virtualFace-to-virtualFace (vFace-to-vFace)      61
Schedule the infamous worldwide scrums     63
Summary of our process and requirement rudiments     63
Glimpse of tomorrow . . . tracking with an informative board     65
Dogfooding case study: Where is the fire?      66
Evidence from the field     66
Training-research-planning (TRP) as a remedy?      68
Key learnings     68
Chapter 3: Building the working solutions     69
Development (DEV) sprints     69
Team realizes features with stories     70
Running through the sprint     71
Pushing or pulling stories to team members?      71
Fixed or variable cadence?      72
Repetition!      72
Sprint objectives rule the deliverable     74
(Bi-)weekly scrum     74
Regular scrum of scrums     76
Coping to work in isolation     77
Metrics are another key     83
Key deliverables     84
Planning     85
Deliver on demand with silent preview releases     89
Dealing with bugs     90
Self-describing bugs     90
Triage     90
Resolve     91
Dealing with impediments     91
Dealing with scope creep     92
Dealing with critical chickens     92
Dogfooding case study: Triage quadrant     93
Background information     93
The quadrant triage experience     93
Key learnings     95
Chapter 4: Raising the quality bar     96
Quality and planning (QP)      96
What it is not     96
Hardening     96
Stabilize deliverables     97
Quality essentials     99
Copyediting/Reviews     100
Shippable release     101
Innovate for next time     105
Planning what is next     105
Product Owner sign off     105
Announcement and noisy release     106
Why do we ship on CodePlex and not VSO?      107
Dogfooding case study: vsarVersionControl and vsarTreasureMap ship ringing victory bells differently     107
Background information     107
Different strategies, same objective … “land”      107
Innovate elsewhere     109
Keep everyone busy and informed     109
Make noise     109
Key learnings     110
Appendix A: Supporting toolbox     111
Triage of ideas     111
Gems and checklists     111
Getting ready     114
Gems and checklists     114
Templates: Email      115
Templates: Survey     119
General templates     121
Acceptance criteria (Context: Customer == Product Owner)      121
Definition of done (DoD)      121
Ship-it checklist     122
Work items     123
Building the working solutions     124
Gems and checklists     124
Raising the quality bar     125
Gems and checklists     125
Eating your own dogfood is key     126
Gems and checklists     126
Tooling     128
Controlled Vocabulary: Walkthrough     130
Appendix B: Eating your own dogfood is key     132
Agility is key     132
ALM Rangers manifesto     132
Microsoft Solutions Framework     133
Agile Manifesto     133
Lean     134
Scrum     134
Kanban     135
SAFe     136
Using technology wisely     136
Team Foundation Server     136
Visual Studio Online     136
CodePlex     136
Collaboration     137
Adapting to reality     138
One maintainable environment . . . simplicity rules     138
Personas are the glue     142
Case study: ALM Readiness Treasure Map . . . walking the plank     145
Background information     145
Team and their use of technology     146
Key learnings     146
Afterword: We are definitely not dysfunctional!      147
Context: “Our final sprint is blocked and potentially delayed again.”      147
Influenced by giants     148
Ruck == Loose Scrum == Scrum != Dysfunctional     149
What’s Next?      150
It’s up to you now     150
Continuous innovation     150
Further information     150
References     151