Project Management Agile and Lean Approaches Syllabus

How does the Kanban Method differ from Scrum regarding cadence and roles?

Kanban is a continuous-flow system with no prescribed fixed-length iterations, no required roles, and continuous delivery; Scrum uses fixed-length sprints, defined roles (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developers), and delivers at sprint boundaries.

State Little's Law as used in flow/queueing.

$$L = \lambda W$$ where $L$ is the average number of items in the system (WIP), $\lambda$ is the average arrival/throughput rate, and $W$ is the average time an item spends in the system (lead time).

Write Little's Law in the form commonly used for Kanban flow metrics (WIP, throughput, cycle time).

$$\text{WIP} = \text{Throughput} \times \text{Cycle Time}$$ equivalently $\text{Cycle Time} = \dfrac{\text{WIP}}{\text{Throughput}}$.

Using Little's Law, if a team has an average WIP of 20 items and a throughput of 4 items per day, what is the average cycle time?

$$\text{Cycle Time} = \frac{\text{WIP}}{\text{Throughput}} = \frac{20}{4} = 5 \text{ days}$$

Define the flow metrics 'lead time,' 'cycle time,' and 'throughput.'

Lead time: total elapsed time from a request being made (or committed) until it is delivered. Cycle time: time from when work actively starts on an item until it is completed. Throughput: number of items completed per unit of time.

What is the standard three-part template for writing a User Story?

'As a <type of user/role>, I want <some goal/feature> so that <some reason/benefit>.'

What does the INVEST acronym stand for as criteria for good user stories?

Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable.

What are the '3 C's' of a user story (Ron Jeffries)?

Card (a written token of the story), Conversation (the discussion to flesh out details), and Confirmation (acceptance criteria/tests that confirm it is done).

What is an epic in relation to user stories?

An epic is a large user story that is too big to complete in a single iteration; it is decomposed into smaller user stories.

Why does agile use relative estimation instead of absolute time estimates?

Humans are better at comparing the relative size of items than estimating absolute duration; relative sizing (e.g., story points) is faster, reduces false precision, and lets velocity convert size into a forecast over time.

What is a story point?

A unitless, relative measure of the overall effort/size/complexity/uncertainty of a user story, used to compare stories rather than express duration directly.

What number sequence is commonly used in Planning Poker, and why?

A modified Fibonacci sequence (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100). The widening gaps reflect that larger items carry greater uncertainty, discouraging false precision for big estimates.

What is Planning Poker?

A consensus-based, gamified relative-estimation technique where team members simultaneously reveal cards with their estimate for an item; divergences are discussed and re-voted until consensus is reached.

Define velocity and how it is used for release forecasting.

Velocity is the amount of work (sum of story points) a team completes in an iteration, averaged over past iterations. Forecast iterations needed $=\dfrac{\text{remaining story points}}{\text{average velocity}}$.

A team has 200 story points of backlog remaining and an average velocity of 25 points per iteration. How many iterations are forecast to remain?

$$\frac{200}{25} = 8 \text{ iterations}$$

What is the difference between release planning and iteration (sprint) planning?

Release planning is longer-horizon: selecting/ordering features and forecasting which will be delivered by a release date using velocity. Iteration planning is short-horizon: the team selects and breaks down the highest-priority items it will commit to for the upcoming iteration.

What is a burndown chart and what do its axes represent?

A burndown chart tracks remaining work over time: the x-axis is time (iterations/days) and the y-axis is remaining work (story points or hours). The line trends down toward zero, showing progress against an ideal line.

What is Extreme Programming (XP), and who created it?

XP is an agile software-development methodology emphasizing engineering practices and high-quality code through short cycles and continuous feedback. It was created by Kent Beck (with Ward Cunningham and Ron Jeffries) in the late 1990s.

Name several core practices of Extreme Programming (XP).

Pair programming, Test-Driven Development (TDD), continuous integration, small/frequent releases, refactoring, simple design, collective code ownership, coding standards, sustainable pace (40-hour week), on-site customer, and the planning game.

What is Test-Driven Development (TDD) and its cycle?

TDD writes an automated test before the code. Its cycle is Red-Green-Refactor: write a failing test (red), write the minimal code to pass it (green), then refactor to improve design while keeping tests passing.

What are the five values of Extreme Programming (XP)?

Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, Courage, and Respect.

What is Feature-Driven Development (FDD), and who created it?

FDD is a model-driven, short-iteration agile process organized around delivering client-valued features. It was developed by Jeff De Luca and Peter Coad in the late 1990s.

List the five processes (activities) of Feature-Driven Development (FDD).

1) Develop an Overall Model; 2) Build a Features List; 3) Plan by Feature; 4) Design by Feature; 5) Build by Feature.

What is the FDD template for naming a feature?

'<action> the <result> <by|for|of|to> a(n) <object>' — for example, 'Calculate the total of a sale.'

What are Crystal methods and who created the family?

Crystal is a family of lightweight, human-powered agile methodologies created by Alistair Cockburn that are tailored to project size and criticality; members are color-coded (e.g., Crystal Clear, Yellow, Orange, Red).

How does the Crystal family select which method variant to use (its two dimensions)?

By project size (number of people—driving the color, e.g., Clear for small teams) and by criticality (potential loss: Comfort, Discretionary money, Essential money, Life). Larger/more-critical projects need more ceremony.

What does DSDM stand for, and what is its defining constraint?

Dynamic Systems Development Method. It fixes time, cost, and quality up front and flexes scope/features, using MoSCoW prioritization to guarantee delivery of the essentials on time and budget.

What does the MoSCoW prioritization acronym (used in DSDM) stand for?

Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have (this time). It classifies requirements by priority to protect the timebox.

Name three of the eight principles of DSDM.

Examples include: Focus on the business need; Deliver on time; Collaborate; Never compromise quality; Build incrementally from firm foundations; Develop iteratively; Communicate continuously and clearly; Demonstrate control. (Any three are correct.)

What is the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), and at what levels does it operate?

SAFe is a framework for applying Lean-Agile practices at enterprise scale. Its configurations span levels: Team, Program (Essential/ART), Large Solution, and Portfolio.

In SAFe, what is an Agile Release Train (ART) and a Program Increment (PI)?

An ART is a long-lived team-of-agile-teams (typically 50-125 people) that delivers value together. A PI is a fixed timebox (typically 8-12 weeks) during which the ART delivers incremental value, kicked off by PI Planning.

What is Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), and who created it?

LeSS, created by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde, scales Scrum by applying single-team Scrum principles to multiple teams working on one product with one Product Owner and one Product Backlog, adding minimal extra process.

What are the two configurations of LeSS and their team ranges?

LeSS ('basic') for 2-8 teams (up to ~50 people), and LeSS Huge for 8+ teams (hundreds of people), which introduces Requirement Areas and Area Product Owners.

What is Disciplined Agile (DA), and what is its central idea?

DA (Disciplined Agile Delivery), now stewarded by PMI, is a hybrid process-decision toolkit. Its central idea is being 'goal-driven' and offering context-sensitive choices—teams choose their Way of Working (WoW) from options rather than following one prescriptive method.

What life-cycle options does Disciplined Agile support?

DA supports multiple life cycles, including Agile (Scrum-based), Lean (Kanban-based), Continuous Delivery: Agile, Continuous Delivery: Lean, and Exploratory (Lean Startup).

What is the 'Scrum of Scrums' technique?

A scaling technique where representatives (ambassadors) from multiple Scrum teams meet regularly (often daily/several times a week) to coordinate work, integrate efforts, and surface cross-team dependencies and impediments.

In a Scrum of Scrums, what three questions are typically addressed (analogous to the daily scrum)?

What has your team done since we last met that affects other teams? What will your team do before we meet again that affects other teams? Are there any impediments or dependencies blocking your team or that could block another team?

Compare SAFe and LeSS in terms of prescriptiveness and structure.

SAFe is more prescriptive and structured, adding new roles and layers (ARTs, PIs, portfolio level) suited to large enterprises. LeSS is minimalist, keeping standard Scrum with one Product Owner/Backlog and adding as little as possible, emphasizing descaling the organization.

What is a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) and what does the vertical distance between bands show?

A CFD is an area chart tracking the number of work items in each workflow state over time. The vertical distance (band height) for the 'in progress' states represents WIP, and the horizontal distance between the arrival and departure lines approximates lead time.

What is the difference between iterative and incremental development?

Incremental means building and delivering the product in successive pieces (increments), each adding functionality. Iterative means refining/reworking the product through repeated cycles based on feedback. Agile typically combines both: incremental delivery with iterative refinement.