PT M4 - Vocab/Components

Question 1

Hybrid life cycles

Answer 1

They are those projects that, due to their complexity or because they are carried out in different phases, allow you to combine tools from both predictive and agile approaches.

This hybrid lifecycle can be applied either at a specific moment in the project or during its entire lifecycle. As a result, you are able to better adapt the management tools to the different phases of the project. An example would be the lifecycle of a construction project, where in the building design phase you can use agile approaches, and during the construction phase, the predictive approach is more appropriate.

Another example is when you do daily or stand-up meetings to follow up on the daily project inside predictive projects.

Question 2

1 of 3 distinctive characteristics of iterative and incremental management approaches -

Helps to avoid large project deviations. The more uncertainty there is in the project, the shorter the work cycle should be in order to ensure that the path followed is correct. This way, any deviation can be detected early.

Answer 2

Short Feedback Cycles

Question 3

1 of 3 distinctive characteristics of iterative and incremental management approaches -

Helps to add value for the customer as indicated by one of the Principles of the Agile Manifesto. These deliveries also allow for frequent customer feedback and give the ability to know first-hand if the product is in line with the customer’s expectations.

Answer 3

Frequent Deliveries

Question 4

1 of 3 distinctive characteristics of iterative and incremental management approaches -

Means that the client, or any other stakeholder, can change or add objectives or requirements that modify the priorities or the order of work.

Adapting quickly to achieve these goals can be a competitive advantage for companies that want to release new products onto the market on a frequent basis.

Answer 4

The Redefinition of Priorities

Question 5

These intangible groups exist when companies are organized in tight, isolated departments, where each member of a team is not physically in contact with other team members, but instead with people who carry out similar work.

Answer 5

Organizational Silo

An example of an organizational silo would be grouping all programmers together to report to a chief programmer. If you need people with different profiles for a project and they are not together, communication is less effective.

Another disadvantage of this organization is that people multitask and work on several projects at the same time, which means that when they change from one task in one project to another in another project, they lose adaptation time.

Also, another problem with this situation is that team members are influenced by the head of departments they belong to. As such, dedication to the project suffers. By placing team members in the same physical space, outside the influence of the head of the department, you can avoid organizational silos.

Question 6

A type of meeting that is an element of agile project management that occurs after completing each iteration of a project, but can also be used in predictive project environments on a regular basis. This meeting’s objective is to analyze how the team has been working and generate actions designed to improve teamwork by asking: What went well? What went poorly? And what could have been done better? The team then uses this information to improve during the following iteration. This is the moment when the project manager should handle the matter of the uncooperative team member(s). Stakeholders who can contribute knowledge and experience may also participate.

Answer 6

Retrospective Meeting a.k.a. Way of Working (WoW)

Question 7

In these meetings, you define and break down the work that will be done in the iteration. These meetings are divided into two parts.

In the first half, the team analyzes the elements that will be carried out from the product backlog (The list of deliverables that have to be carried out in the project) and defines them exhaustively.

In the second half, the agile team decides how they are going to develop these elements, breaking down the work into tasks.

Answer 7

Iteration Planning Meeting

Question 8

The list of deliverables that have to be carried out in the project.

This agile tool shows only the pending work of a team and that is ordered by stories based on the needs of the clients that the project must resolve. The stories must define and specify the requirements of each element in the backlog, ordering them based on importance or priority. This document is always open, which means new stories can emerge at any time and can be added to the stack.

In this document of a project designing a website, you could have the following stories: home page, payment gateway, product catalog, and customer contact page.

Answer 8

Product Backlog

Question 9

These meetings are daily, and are focused on reporting the state of production and to monitor the projects to see its progress and resolve any impediments that the team members come across in their tasks.

These meetings are 15 minutes long and they should be used to briefly respond to the following three questions: What did you do yesterday? What are you going to do today? Are there any impediments in your way? Each team member must answer each question individually in front of the rest of the team members. Team members, and if necessary the product owner or other stakeholders, take part in these stand-up meetings. These meetings are held standing in front of the project or iteration monitoring board that the team members are working on.

Answer 9

The Daily Stand-Up Meeting.

Question 10

In these meetings, you analyze the work that’s been produced in the iteration. You do not discuss topics related to how the team has been working.

Answer 10

The Iteration Review Meeting. (Agile Projects)

Question 11

Work cycle that lasts between two and six weeks, but can extend up to 8 weeks. This timeline should last as long as necessary, with a preference to the shortest possible time

Answer 11

Iteration

Question 12

In this meeting, the client or the product owner checks if the deliverable meets the agreed requirements before validating the product. If the team is working in iterations, at the end of the review meeting, the team and the client (or product owner) agree when the next iteration will begin. This meeting is held at the end of each iteration. In predictive projects, it is held at the end of the project

Answer 12

Review Meeting

Question 13

This meeting has two parts. In the first part, the product owner explains to the team which deliverable they need to achieve at the end of the iteration. He also clarifies any doubts the team members may have.

In the second part, the team gets organized, prepares the sprint backlog with the tasks to be performed, and assigns them to each member of the team. At the end of the this meeting, the team should be ready to start the sprint.

An example of a sprint backlog for the start page of a website deliverable would be: write text, get photos, design main menu, program main menu, etc.

Answer 13

The Planning Meeting

Question 14

The result of each iteration or sprint. During the iteration, the team elaborates the story or stories that is agreed to elaborate. In the planning meeting, the stories are broken down into tasks, and each team member work on them. At the end of the iteration, the story must meet the requirements. This result is called an _____

Answer 14

Increment

Question 15

The set of tasks or activities that team members must perform to get the stories they are going to develop in a sprint.

The set of tasks to be performed by the team during an iteration.

Each of these tasks must have at least one description, include the person responsible for performing it, and an estimate of the effort required to carry it out.

Answer 15

The Iteration Backlog

An example of an iteration backlog for the home page of a website would be to: write text, get photos, design the menu, and program the menu, etc.

Question 16

The tool that shows all the deliverables that need to be done in predictive, not agile, approaches. Unlike the product backlog, which is continually refined as the project progresses, the WBS is known from the beginning in a predictive project, and the changes it undergoes are usually minimal.

Answer 16

The Work Breakdown Structure

Question 17

The agile tool that shows only the pending work of a team and that is ordered by stories. The product owner creates the stories that make up this tool based on the customer needs that the project must solve. This tool is divided into stores based on the needs of the clients that the project must resolve. The stories must define and specify the requirements of each element in the backlog, ordering them based on importance or priority. This tool is always open, which means new stories can emerge at any time and can be added to the stack.

Answer 17

The Product Backlog

Question 18

The person in charge of guiding the team, classifying the work based on its commercial value, and working with them on a daily basis to provide feedback on the product and establish the steps for the next delivery to be developed.

This person is in charge of learning the needs and expectations from the client in an agile project. This individual is responsible for the business orientation of the product, and so they meet with clients and possible product users to identify their requirements. They will also meet periodically with the development team to make sure that the work is in line with the requirements.

This person defines the backlog of work to be done by the production team and is in charge of prioritizing and organizing the elements of this list.

Responsible for prioritizing the order of stories or deliverables, clearly describing each of them, and estimating the effort necessary to achieve them. If the product owner thinks that a story is too big to be developed in one iteration, they should break it up into two smaller stories.

Answer 18

The Product Owner

Question 19

The person responsible for providing service to the team, allowing it to perform at its full capacity. He or she is responsible for eliminating any operational impediments that the team may come across.

Answer 19

The Team Facilitator

Question 20

This person/role is usually associated with traditional projects, not agile ones, and their role is to provide high-level support to the project. This means tasks like analyzing viability studies and authorizing the project if it provides sufficient business value.

Answer 20

The Sponsor

Question 21

The basis on which the team will develop its work. The ____ should help to maintain a sustainable rhythm of work, making sure that the way of working is viable and can be repeated in the future. You cannot force your team to work overtime simply because you want to do more work than is possible in the time available.
For example, the number of hours each member is available, rules of behavior, etc.

Answer 21

Team Values

Question 22

Rules that facilitate coordination between team members, such as meeting times, how communication will be conducted, and hygiene and clothing if necessary, etc.

Answer 22

Ground Rules

Question 23

Those who have extensive knowledge in a specific area, and who also have knowledge in other areas, but not as extensive.

Answer 23

T-Type Professionals

T-type professionals are extremely valuable in agile teams, because they help to carry out different types of work, bring projects together, and help fill gaps in tasks that do not have specialists. Companies that have many T-profiles among their employees have an easier time creating agile team than those that do not.

Question 24

Those who only have extensive knowledge in one specific area and work on specific tasks in projects.

Answer 24

I-Type Professionals

The problem with creating teams with only type-I profiles is that there may be tasks that no team member knows how to do.

Question 25

A graphical control method used to visualize the progress of tasks during a sprint or iteration. This chart measures the work still to be done in an iteration.

Pending work is measured in points of effort, for example, effective hours of work left to achieve the goal. On a daily basis, the team estimates how many points remain to be done to finish the products in the current iteration. Additionally, this chart measures the progress of a team as a whole, not for each individual member

Answer 25

Burn Down Chart

Question 26

The maximum time that a team member, or the team as a whole, can spend on a project.

Answer 26

Available Time

Question 27

The term for the the sum of story points completed effectively in each iteration.

Answer 27

Velocity

Velocity measures how much work can be done in one iteration. This will vary based on the number of team members and the length of the iteration. If a team is larger, velocity will increase because more work can be done in the same time. Likewise, if the iterations’ duration decreases, velocity will also increase because the team has less time to do more work

Question 28

The effort that must be made to achieve each of the stories that make up the product backlog. This ____ will be carried out throughout the different iterations.

Answer 28

Work

Question 29

Measures the percentage of time that the team uses efficiently to carry out productive and value-adding work.

Answer 29

The dedication factor of a team

If the dedication factor is 60 percent, this means that out of every 100 available hours, only 60 are used, so if the team has 300 hours for the next iteration, it will only use 300 x .6 = 180 hours. Considering that the points are equivalent to effective hours, the number of stories that the team will be able to develop in the iteration should not exceed 180 points.

Question 30

The time that is used to do other tasks that do not add value to the product or project deliverables.

Examples of this are interruptions due to unnecessary calls, attending meetings that you should not have to attend, helping colleagues with work from other projects, etc.

Answer 30

Waste

Question 31

This chart shows the work carried out. It is used to make projections about when the product will be completed.

Answer 31

The Burn Up Chart a.k.a. The Product Graph

For example, if the team has an average of 100 story points per iteration, and it estimate that there are another 500 points remaining, the team will estimate that there are about five iterations remaining.

Question 32

A tool used to measure progress in predictive projects where the percentage of work done is usually measured, and where tasks are sequential. Tasks are usually shown as bars proportional to the duration of each of the activities they represent.

Answer 32

Gantt Chart

Question 33

Indicates the roles and responsibilities assumed by each of the team members and any other stakeholders. It helps to identify the tasks developed by the people who participate and collaborate in the project, but it does not help to measure its progress.

Answer 33

RACI Matrix

Question 34

An agile management technique that consists of working in iterations of two or three weeks to quickly and frequently finish deliverables in a project. The team members distribute all the tasks among themselves and move them across the scrum board, changing their status according to the progress that they make with each one. The team should work in an autonomous and independent way.

Answer 34

Scrum

Question 35

How many statuses appear on a Kanban Board

Answer 35

Depends on the workflow you want to represent. On a Kanban board, each status is a step that you have to complete to finish the final product or service. For that reason, the number of statuses that the board has depends on the project you are working on.

Question 36

Transferring the way an agile team works to the entire company.

Answer 36

Scaling

One of the objectives when scaling agile principles to the entire organization is to provide the organization with tools that allow it to adapt quickly to changes in its environment.

Question 37

A technique used when two or more Scrum teams that work in parallel sharing the same product stack from the same project need to coordinate their work. A representative from each team attends a meeting with the other team representatives two or three times a week. The goal is to ensure that the teams coordinate work and remove impediments in order to optimize the efficiency of all teams.

Answer 37

Scrum of Scrums

Question 38

Focuses on providing a knowledge base to scale work agilely across all levels of the company. It is primarily based on having an economic vision, applying the same way of thinking to the entire organization, and building incrementally with fast and integrated learning cycles.

Answer 38

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

Question 39

A framework for organizing multiple development teams towards a common goal that extends the Scrum method. The basic organizing principle is to retain as far as possible the elements of the conventional single-team Scrum model. Several teams work in parallel sharing the same product stack.

Answer 39

Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)

Question 40

Indicates the distribution of personnel by departments, such as the technical department, commercial department, financial department, etc. This type of functional organization organizes people into tight departments or organizational silos, which prevents the implementation of various agile principles, such as favoring direct communication or the exclusive dedication of team members to the project.

Answer 40

A Functional Organization Chart

Question 41

A technique used to control the flow of operations or work in a process. It is often applied in the management of repetitive operations and jobs, such as industrial or manufacturing environments.

Answer 41

Kanban

Question 42

Who defines the duration of the iterations in a project that is developed using Scrum or another agile method?

Answer 42

The Product Owner

The product owner is responsible for prioritizing the order of stories or deliverables, clearly describing each of them, and estimating the effort necessary to achieve them. If the product owner thinks that a story is too big to be developed in one iteration, they should break it up into two smaller stories.

Question 43

This group can decide on how the work is going to be carried out and how the tasks are distributed among different members. Once the product owner describes the stories they want to make during the iteration, this group decides how many of them can feasibly take place in the iteration, based on the effort required for each one.

For example, if an iteration lasts 10 days and the team is made up of four people who work eight hours a day, you have 10 x 4 x 8 = 320 hours. If the team dedication is 80% (meaning that it works efficiently only 80% of the time available), maximum effort during the iteration is 0.8 x 320 = 256 hours.

Answer 43

The Team

Question 44

A facilitator that develops and implements the agile work dynamics that the teams in the organization will follow to ensure optimal performance. This roles responsibility includes training the team in the agile method of work to be followed, and advising on the duration of the iterations, that is, how long they have to carry out the tasks of each iteration. However, the final decision corresponds to the product owner, who is the person that agreed to the dates of the different deliveries with the client.

Answer 44

The Scrum Master

Question 45

Includes the different status states that tasks go through during their development. It is possible that not all the tasks go through all the status states.

Answer 45

Kanban Board

Question 46

When to deploy an approach -

Degree of change is low and frequency of delivery is high

Answer 46

Incremental

An example of this would be a development of 500 homes, where you carry out delivery phases to build them in groups of 50. The requirements are known at the beginning and the changes will be minimal and only include those essential to improve the process. The advantage of this approach is that you do not have to wait until the end of the project to add value for the customer.

Question 47

When to deploy an approach -

Degree of change is high and the frequency of delivery is low

Answer 47

• Iterative:

An example of an iterative approach is the development of a vaccine. To achieve this, you must carry out iterations and tests, and with the result of each iteration you draw conclusions to improve the product. However, during these intermediate steps, the product is of little use. Only on concluding the process, can the product be delivered to the customer or user. Working through iterations means working with cycles of between two and six weeks during which time the team performs the agreed stories and deliverables. At the end of the iteration, the client validates the deliverables carried out and agrees to when the next iteration or work cycle will begin.

Question 48

When to deploy an approach -

Degree of change and frequency of delivery are high

Answer 48

• Agile:

An example of this is software development, where you can frequently deliver part of the final product and put it into operation immediately.

Question 49

When to deploy an approach -

Degree of change and frequency of delivery are low

Answer 49

• Predictive:

This is the case with construction projects, where you must plan well to avoid changes, because such changes are expensive to implement. Also the product is only of value at the end of the project, that is, when the building is finished.

Question 50

What an Agile Principle Means -

“Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential”

Answer 50

Means that you must try to eliminate all those jobs that do not add value to the final result. This is because agile approaches are aimed at adding value to the client, early and frequently. For this reason, it is always necessary to question that work you do in the projects and if they are necessary to add real value to the final product. Those that do not should be eliminated or minimized.
For example, although a team coordination meeting may be necessary for organizational reasons, it does not add value to the product directly, and so it must be efficient and its duration must not be excessive.

Question 51

What an Agile Value Means -

Individuals and interaction come before processes and tools

Answer 51

Means that knowledge is in the people, and therefore interaction between team members must be facilitated. On the other hand, in predictive methods, knowledge or know-how is in the process.

Question 52

What an Agile Value Means -

Software that works before full documentation

Answer 52

Based on delivering products with value, where the measure of progress is in the finished product, not a product that is almost finished. It is useless to create a lot of documentation if the product obtained does not meet the agreed requirements.

Question 53

What an Agile Principle Means -

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility

Answer 53

This principle means that it is important to have the best people on the team and choose the best techniques to carry out the work in order to get things right first time. This will avoid doing rework.

Question 54

What an Agile Principle Means -

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software

Answer 54

This value means that if you deliver a valuable product to the customer on a frequent basis, you will get feedback from him sooner, which will allow you to better understand his opinion about the product and continue to improve it.

Question 55

What an Agile Principle Means -

Customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of useful software

Answer 55

It indicated that you should work on products that add value to the customer, providing deliverables that are useful. These deliverables must be carried out as quickly as possible. This is so that customer feedback can be obtained, and you can know if the developed product meets the requirements set.

Question 56

What an Agile Principle Means -

Working software is the principal measure of progress

Answer 56

It’s indicating that only when the product is finished and validated by the client can the project be considered to have advanced. Even if you have worked long hours, if the product does not work when it is shown to the customer, there will be no progress.

Question 57

What an Agile Principle Means -

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good

Answer 57

It’s indicating that the best way to add value and avoid wasting time is to train the team with the best professionals and apply the best available techniques during the development of the agile project.

Question 58

What an Agile Value Means -

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Answer 58

It indicates that since environments change, it is better to have good professionals and encourage their interaction so that they adapt better to change than to use processes and tools that are slower and more bureaucratic. Although processes and tools are necessary, people, and iterations are more important.

Question 59

What an Agile Value Means -

Responding to change over following a plan

Answer 59

It indicates that it is more important to react quickly to change and adapt quickly to new circumstances than to be bureaucratic and slow in reaction.

Question 60

Servant Leader

Answer 60

An agile project leader is a facilitator who is a servant leader. That is to say, the leader is at the service of the team to help them in the development of the project both from a technical point of view (making sure that they understand the work to be done) and from a logistical point of view (ensuring that they work as comfortably as possible). Therefore, it is essential to be a good communicator and listener, as well as to understand all members of the team.

Question 61

The people responsible for doing the productive work and getting the product delivered to the customer.

This group must be multidisciplinary, capable of carrying out all the necessary work to achieve the expected results.

Answer 61

Team Members

Question 62

The Performance of each team member

Answer 62

The performance of each team member would be achieved by measuring the time spent on project tasks minus the estimated time, divided by the initial estimate that was required to complete each task.

An example of performance would be if it was estimated that a person should complete a task in 10 hours, and it actually took 12 hours. In that case, they would be dedicating 20 percent more than the estimated time.

Question 63

This is an indicator of the Earned Value Method, which is used to measure the degree of progress of a predictive project on a specific date. The ___ is calculated on a specific date by dividing the Planned Cost of Work Performed by the Planned Cost of Planned Work.

Answer 63

Schedule Performance Index SPI

The SPI is calculated on a specific date by dividing the Planned Cost of Work Performed by the Planned Cost of Planned Work.

In other words, if tasks A and B should have been carried out by December 31, with a budgeted cost of $100 each, the planned cost of the planned work would be $200. However, if only task A has actually been performed, the planned cost of the work performed would be $100. The SPI would be 100/200 = 0.5

Question 64

An indicator of the Earned Value Method, which is used to measure the degree of progress of a predictive project on a specific date.

Answer 64

Schedule Variance (SV)

SV is calculated on a specific date by subtracting the Planned Cost of Work Performed from the Planned Cost of Planned Work.
Using the same example above, the SV would be 100-200 = -100

Question 65

In a project that is managed with an agile approach, at what point does the client define the requirements of the deliverables?

Answer 65

The client defines the requirements of the deliverables throughout the project. The client defines the requirements based on the feedback obtained from previous iterations. In a changing environment, the client specifies the characteristics of the final product iteration by iteration. The client works with the deliverables and feedback they receive to specify the requirements of the next deliverables.

For example, if the project is to make a website and part of it has been delivered, new ideas may arise for the parts that are still pending.

Question 66

Measured in points. Points can be actual hours of work, lines of code required to perform a function, etc. The sum of the effort of the tasks assigned must be balanced among all team members. The effort of all tasks assigned to each team member must be reasonable and achievable during the iteration. Effort must be distributed proportionally and equally among the team members.

Answer 66

Effort