What is Agile or Rapid Development?

There are many different names for modern development practices such as Agile, Scrum, Rapid, Kanban, Lean or Extreme Programming to name a few.  To simplify the jargon, we have adopted the term “Rapid Development” which is not any single approach but a combination of best practices applied and tuned to what works best for Optrua clients.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a term that combines the two words Development and Operations and describes a cultural philosophy, a set of tools, and software engineering best practices.  It brings together everyone in the software development life cycle including developers, IT Operations, end users and stakeholders to increase delivery speed, quality and overall value of software.

Why we use DevOps?

By focusing on correct DevOps processes and practices, we shorten development cycles and bring meaningful innovation to CRM projects faster and at less cost than other approaches. Overall we use DevOps to:

1.       Document and prioritize work items

2.       Improve Communication

3.       Increased Efficiency

4.       Reduce Cost

5.       Reduce mistakes

6.       And … innovate faster

We use Microsoft Azure DevOps Services with all of our clients to track work items and improve collaboration and productivity between end users, developers, quality, IT, and operations.  DevOps is at the center of our rapid development culture.  Let us share it with you!

What is an Iteration?

An iteration is a time box for development activities, typically 2 to 4 weeks in length.  In development circles, this pre-determined amount of time.  For Optrua, we have found that our clients prefer the repeatability and accountability of having monthly iterations. 

Our iterations are always one (1) month long.  This monthly consistency helps develop confidence in the process and will build momentum and excitement with end users.

What is an Epic?

An Epic, is a large chunks of development work that may capture an abstract idea.  It can be broken down into smaller chunks called features.  Epics are a collection of features and may take 3 or more iterations to complete.  Epics provide the team with an efficient way to categorize larger chunks of functionality without getting lost in the weeds.  Examples of Epics are:

• Create Quotes from CRM

• Manage Opportunity Pipeline from CRM

• Have a central place to store all leads

What is a Feature?

A feature is a function of the product that will enhance customer engagement or improve user experience.  Features are a collection of user stories and may take 1 -3 iterations to complete.  Examples of Features are:

• Salespeople can quickly update their forecast on a weekly basis

• Sales managers can easily identify top opportunities

• Address validation automatically happens when an address is entered

What is a User Story?

Is the smallest piece of work that can be completed within an iteration, typically no more than about 8-12 hours of work.  The user story is written from the end users perspective and may be further broken down into individual tasks.  Each user story contains acceptance criteria, so it is clear to everyone (developer, tester, end user) when the story is complete.  Examples of User Stories are:

·       As a Sales person I can add or remove line items to a quote that contain the line item number, Product SLU, Quantity, and a note per line.  Each line item clearly represents something that the customer may purchase.

·       As a sales person, I can update the delivery address for all line items on the quote from the quote header.  This will allow the products to be shipped to a location designated by the customer.

·       As a marketing specialist, I can update notes on a lead after I’ve connected with the prospect.  The notes will flow forward to the Sales person so they can better understand the customer’s needs.

Difference between an Epic, Feature and Story?

Epics, Features and User Stories are all chunks of development work ranging in size from largest to smallest, and in detail from the most abstract to the most complete.  The relationship between Epics, Features and User Stories are shown in the graphic below.

What is a Backlog?

Oxford dictionary defines backlog as an accumulation of something, especially uncompleted work or matters that need to be dealt with.  For a Rapid Development project, your backlog is a list of all the Epics, Features and User Stories (“work items”) that could be completed.  Backlog items may include enhancements, requirements or fixes that will be clearly documented, prioritized, and estimated.

With Optrua, backlog items are also pegged against your business metrics.  This allows us to pick a metric and then see a list of items that could be developed to improve that metric.

Why is a Backlog Important?

Some common problems in implementing and developing software systems are:

• Scope Creep

• Working on low priority items

• Lack of detailed requirements

• Incorrect time estimates

• Poor communication

Working with Optrua’s DevOps culture, tools, and practices including a properly maintained backlog will help reduce these issues, and allow us to deliver enhancements and optimizations to your apps and systems faster.

How do we build a Backlog?

Initially end users and stakeholders are interviewed to get ideas to add to the backlog.  These ideas are classified as Epics, Features, or User Stories and are grouped accordingly. User Stories are related to Features, and Features are related to Epics.

We then get clarification to better understand the business reason for the item, the value this item will contribute, and further specify the item as needed.  Some items will be detailed less (Epics) and some will require detailed design and acceptance criteria (User Story).

Once each backlog item is correctly structured, it is evaluated for effort and brought to the team and project stakeholders for prioritization.  Once prioritized, the backlog item is queued up until it is assigned to an iteration for development.

How do we prioritize Backlog items?

There are always more backlog items than there is time or resources to do them.  Backlog items are prioritized by looking at three (3) factors.

1. First look at business value.  For example, if a company is focusing on Sales Automation as a major investment for an upcoming quarter, backlog items related to Sales Automation may be prioritized higher than an item related to Operations.

2. Second look at user and customer impact.  How is this feature going to benefit the end users and customer?  Will it save users time (reducing operational cost) or will it improve customer engagement (increase revenue), if so it should be prioritized higher.

3. Third look at development & deployment effort.  If one item takes 5 hours and the other takes 20 hours, but those two item are prioritize roughly the same for business value or user impact, do the 5 hour back log item first.

How do we select backlog items for next iteration?

A very simple approach is to select the backlog item with the highest priority and lowest effort, however there may be foundational items or dependencies that need to be completed first.  Overall backlog items are selected by the client in the monthly Iteration Planning meeting.

What is an Iteration Planning meeting?

The Iteration Planning meeting is a monthly meeting between the Technical Team and project stakeholders to determine which backlog items that will go into the next iteration.  This meeting is typically 2 to 4 hours long.

What is backlog grooming?

The backlog is a fluid and living document.  As time goes on, the backlog will grow and shrink.  New backlog items could identify great enhancements or ones that are just wishful thinking.  Some backlog items will be completed, and others may stay on the backlog for months (or years), and others may be removed entirely.

As the backlog is used to drive each iteration, it is important to be up to date with the latest priorities and estimations. As items near selection into the next iteration, additional design notes and requirements may be added for clarification.

A well-maintained backlog will make iteration planning efficient and effective.

What is an Iteration Review meeting?

The Iteration Review meeting is a monthly meeting between the technical team, end users and project stakeholders to review and approve the completed User Stories.  In keeping with our principles of continuous optimization and improvement, feedback on the iteration is discussed to determine what went well and what issues need adjustments.  This meeting is typically 60 to 90 minutes long.

What is a Tenant?

Generically, a Tenant is a collection of cloud computing resources that are purchased by a customer or organization.  For Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365, the Tenant is the container for the Organization that contains users, domains, and software subscriptions.  Microsoft also describes the tenant as the set of services assigned to your organization.

What is an Environment?

People may think of an Environment as a Database, but it is much more than that.  An Environment is a container that may store, manage and share business data, apps, chatbots and flows.  For Dynamics 365 CRM is it a best practice to have 1 dedicated environment for Production and 1 or more other environments for testing and development.