| In this post we will examine the effectiveness of using | | | | JIRA on the other hand is a bug tracking, issue tracking, |
| light weight online tools for Project Management in | | | | and project management application. It is specifically |
| SCRUM style Agile Software development. The tools | | | | designed with a focus on task achievement, and is |
| we will be using as an example will be the Confluence | | | | flexible to work with. |
| and Jira both of which are maintained by Atlassian | | | | We used Confluence to create individual Browse |
| In keeping with the spirit of the Agile manifesto the idea | | | | Spaces (wiki pages) allowing for effective segregation |
| is the keep any project overhead especially project | | | | of scrum items and project documents. Thus one can |
| documentation to a minimum. The idea is that any | | | | use any online wiki like tool to a similar effect. The idea |
| documentation should be deemed useful rather than | | | | behind having this online wiki is twofold |
| voluminous. Read and writing thousands of lines of | | | | Firstly to create relevant wiki pages to store the |
| documentation for during project execution phase not | | | | Master Requirements Document and any other |
| only takes time away from the actual development | | | | features document and serve as an online document |
| work but in many cases also produces voluminous | | | | repository. Note that in some cases where teams |
| documents that are eventually unused by any party. | | | | were geographically disperse we also created some |
| Human beings by nature want their information to be | | | | additional wiki pages maintaining the up to date contact |
| focused, relevant, useful and concise and no one | | | | information for each developer. |
| wants to pour over reams of irrelevant documentation | | | | Secondly the wiki was used on a daily basis by the |
| that is produced for its own sake and try to abstract | | | | scrum master to recorded the proceedings of the daily |
| any sense from them. This is one of the fundamental | | | | scrum and list out resource wise what each resource |
| drawbacks of the traditional non-agile software | | | | was working on a particular day. This allowed for an |
| development models. | | | | online record of the tasks assigned to each resource |
| In the Scrum methodology the development cycle is | | | | which could be referred to by the rest of the team |
| broken up into Sprints with each sprint focusing on a | | | | and also easily updated by the scrum master daily. |
| definite list of features for the Master product list. In this | | | | The use of JIRA complemented the record keeping |
| methodology one has daily Scrum Meetings that are | | | | ability of confluence and was used for project tracking |
| kept at a fixed time and same time everyday. During | | | | and sprint tracking purposes. We used JIRA to |
| the Scrum each developer answers the three scrum | | | | document the Sprint Cycle and serve as a Sprint |
| questions of what items were worked on the previous | | | | Backlog repository capturing the details of the |
| day, what is the developers target for today, and if | | | | requirements. Thus at the beginning of each sprint the |
| there are any obstacles for the same. The Scrum | | | | items of the sprint were documented within Jira and as |
| allows the team leads to track the progress of each | | | | the sprint cycle progressed we marked off the items |
| developers work while keeping the overall feature list | | | | as they were completed or tracked the percentage |
| in mind. In our projects we typically follow these Scrum | | | | completion of each item. This effectively provided us |
| meetings with Interface meetings that allow the key | | | | with a sprint burn down chart and allowed us on any |
| interface leads of the team to discuss what | | | | given day to visually examine what percentage of |
| parameters each of the other division team is | | | | activities were completed for the Sprint. Any other |
| expecting and what the interface points will be. Thus it | | | | online tool that allows for issue tracking may be |
| becomes important for each team member to know | | | | similarly used to track the progress and effectively |
| what the other is working on. | | | | create a sprint burn down chart. |
| All of the salient items mentioned in the above | | | | Using these readily available light weight online tools |
| paragraph can be efficiently done using online wiki | | | | saves the network team having to setup and maintain |
| tools and online project collaboration tools. In our | | | | a corporate wide collaboration tool and at the same |
| projects in the past we have made use on two of | | | | time keeps the project management process light |
| such lightweight and hosted online tools, Confluence | | | | weight and agile. |
| and Jira. | | | | The above approach also works well for |
| Confluence is an enterprise wiki that makes it easy for | | | | geographically dispersed teams and time-shifted teams |
| teams to collaborate and share knowledge. Additionally | | | | (teams working in different shifts) as the is always an |
| Confluence allow uploading of Project related | | | | online record of the tasks to be worked on , the daily |
| documents and allows for effective collaboration and | | | | progress, status reports, and the overall feature list. |
| a central repository for Project Documentation. | | | | |