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         Communication Aspects in Software Engineering

1 July 2009

Agile Project Management with Scrum

Filed under: Agile,Book Review — Tags: , — admin @ 21:04

About Scrum we like the philosophy and the following practices:

  • Feature prioritisation sessions
  • Undisturbed iterations (called Sprints)
  • Functionality presentation sessions
  • Self-organising teams

In a nutshell, SCRUM principles are as follows:

  • All management responsibilities are divided between 3 Scrum roles:
    • The Product Owner focus is focused on Return On Investment (ROI)
    • The Team is responsible for developing functionality. Teams are self-managing, self-organising, cross-functional and they are responsible for figuring out how to turn Product Backlog into an increment of functionality.
    • The Scrum Master fills the position normally occupied by the Project Manager. He is responsible for the Scrum process. Like a sheep-dog, he’s responsible for keeping the flock together (focused) and keeping the wolves away (undistracted).
  • Each Sprint is an iteration of 30 consecutive calendar days
    • A Sprint starts with a planning meeting, where the Product Owner presents the highest priority Product Backlog (4 hours) and the Team plans out the Sprint (another 4 hours).
    • A Sprint finishes with a Sprint review meeting (4 hours), where the team present what was developed. Then the Scrum Master holds a Scrum retrospective meeting with the team.
  • Artefacts:
    • A Product Backlog lists the features with estimates, associated Sprint and remaining work (days) – maintained by the Product Owner
    • A Sprint Backlog lists the tasks, which the team defines for turning the Product Backlog they selected into an increment of functionality, associated with the Originator, the person Responsible, the Status and the hours of work remaining – maintained by the Scrum Master -No Gantt-chart
  • Rules:

For more information, get the book form Ken Schwaber – Agile project Management with Scrum – click on the image below:

22 June 2009

TFS for Project Management

Filed under: Agile,Project Management — Tags: , , — admin @ 19:31

Team Foundation Server (TFS) is a Microsoft offering for source control, data collection, reporting, and project tracking, and is intended for collaborative software development projects.
It is not just a bug tracking tool.

It is available either as stand-alone software, or as the server side back end platform for Visual Studio Team System (VSTS).

TFS Architecture:


When creating a project, there are 2 project templates to choose from:

  1. MSF Agile:
    • Provide Work items and Processes that support Agile programming approach
  2. MSF CMMI
    • Based on MSF Agile, it stretches the Agile approach to comply with CMMI Maturity level 3.
    • It is 150% larger than MSF Agile, for example MSF Agile has 25 work product artefacts, MSF CMMI has 59.

TFS manages pretty much everything as Work Items:
The recommended links organisation is as follows:

Queries and reports can be developed in order to retreive any data from TFS. There are existing reports, such as Bugs rate and Remaining work.SharePoint Web Access allows web access to all the information in TFS: Work items, Queires, Reports, Documents, Source Control, Builds and also Timesheets. SharePoint can be used by project Stakeholders, including the Customer if you wish.

SharePoint Project Portal provides documents repositories for projects and Wiki features.

The Integration of TFS and Excel allows to extract any data from TFS into Excel, using queries. The data is copied in the spreadsheet and can be refreshed from TFS at the press of a button. The data can also be edited in Excel and be published in TFS. Charts can then be developed in Excel.

It is also possible to develop pivot-table that access the TFS database directly (instead of running a TFS query).

There are also plug-ins to TFS, such as:

  • Calibre VSTS Add-in, which allows synchronisation of requirements with the tool from Borland
  • Test Director Synchronisation Engine, which allows synchronisation of bugs with the Quality Centre.

Also TFS Power Tools, to be downloaded, offer very interesting features, such as:

  • Process Template Editor
  • Work Item Editor
  • Custom check-in policies
  • TFS Server Manager
  • TFS Client Tool
  • Alert Editor

Finally TFS 2010 will offer the following additional features:

  • Architecture Explorer, which is a graphical visualisation of code
  • 7 diagrams UML supported, for design and share diagrams
  • Tools for test cases management, such as tooling for better documentation & test
  • Test Impact View, which allows to run tests impacted by a code change only
  • Enhanced Vision Control, with gated check-in, branch visualisation & build workflow

9 March 2009

TFS – Federating Software Engineering

Filed under: Agile,Project Management — Tags: , — admin @ 19:58

Years ago in the manufacturing industry, ERP solutions federated all the information in one place, in order to optimise processes and costs.

The coming generation of tools for Software Engineering Project Management are on their way to doing just that. There is still a long way to go, but the trend is there.

Team Foundation Server (TFS) is a Microsoft offering for source control, data collection, reporting, and project tracking, and is intended for collaborative software development projects.

It is one of the best tools out there today for managing and federating the information of Software Engineering projects and for Project Management.

When creating a project within TFS, there are 2 project templates to choose from:
–MSF Agile provides Work items and Processes that support Agile programming approach
–MSF CMMI is based on MSF Agile, and it stretches the Agile approach to comply with CMMI Maturity level 3. It is 150% larger than MSF Agile, for example MSF Agile has 25 work product artifacts, MSF CMMI has 59.

In TFS, everything in managed as a Work Item. The Work Items available, when using MSF Agile, are Scenario, Task, Bug, Risk and Quality of Service Requirement.
It is however possible and easy to add other work items, such as Test Case and Requirement.

In their presentations about TFS, Microsoft recommend the following links organisation:
Queries can be created to research Work Items.

Reports can be developed and run to provide all sorts of information and calculated measures about Work Items and projects, such as Bugs rate and Remaining work for example.

SharePoint Web Access is the Web Interface that provides access to all the TFS functionality through a web-based application. Timesheets can be entered using SharePoint Web Access.

Customers can be given access to the information about their projects through SharePoint Web Access, and can monitor their progress. This can decrease significantly the need for reporting.

The TFS solution also provides a Portal as a single point of storage for documents, which can be organised by project for example. It also has a wiki-like feature.

It possible to export the information in TFS into EXCEL spreadsheets, which can be updated / refreshed at the click of a button. This information can be instanciated in tables or in pivot-tables. It is also possible to modify the information in the spreadsheet and upload it back in TFS. Some teams choose to upload their requirements this way.

They are also add-ins that allow integration with third party products, such as Caliber and Test Director.

The Power Tools, which must be downloaded and installed separately, allow to create and edit processes and work items, and much more.

The 2010 edition of TFS will provide the following functionality:

  • Architecture Explorer provide a graphical visualisation of the code
  • 7 UML diagrams will be supported (the Microsoft Diagrams won’t be supported, though Microsoft is working on their Oslo model-driven development strategy)
  • Tools for test cases management
  • Test Impact View – run tests impacted by a code change only
  • Enhanced Vision Control – gated check-in, branch visualisation and build worklfow

What do you like or dislike about TFS? leave comments below.

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