• Complete Projects on Time – Discover the 5 principles to meet your budget and deadlines I sent you the link to this eBook and added two additional eBooks as a bonus:
• Don’t Let the Bugs Out. – A guide to Issue Tracking, and it’s role in Software Development
• Faster, Easier and Cheaper Software Development: Is It Possible? – Using Application Lifecycle Management to improve your software development process.
But that’s not all.
In this clip I’m going to show you how to run Agile Development in three simple steps.
Hi, it’s Allison.
In this clip I’m going to show you how to build your project structure in just a few minutes using Elementool’s Scheduling software. We will define a project, iterations and tasks.
When beginning a new project, it is important to first understand what the structure of the project will be. We recommend going with an Agile plan, which is a flexible approach to project management that gives you the ability to make adjustments as needed.
Using this planning structure, you will divide your project into smaller mini-projects, which are known as iterations. Iterations allow for a more controlled development process because clients can offer feedback at the conclusion of each iteration and team members can revise their plans accordingly. We go into more detail about the advantages and the process of iteration planning in Elementool’s Project Management Formula program at www.projectmanagementformula.com.
First you should define the project. You might have one or several projects. Each project contains a list of iterations, and each iteration contains a list of tasks and issues.
To setup a project, you need to follow these steps:
1. Click on Time Estimates.
2. Click on the Add button.
3. Select Add Project.
4. Fill out the project name.
5. The rest of the details on this form are optional.
6. When you’re done, click on the Save button.
Now we have a new project. The next step is to create iterations under this project.
To create iterations, please follow these steps:
1. Make sure the new project’s line is selected.
2. Click on the Add button.
3. Select Add Iteration.
4. An iteration is added to the schedule. Fill in the iteration name.
Each iteration of a project has its own particular list of features. Features are the building blocks of the product that you are creating. For example, on a consumer clothing website, a search engine that allows you to search for an item based on characteristics like style and color is an important feature. Another feature might be the ability to select a size before adding the item to your shopping cart. Once you have a list of features for the project, you will need to write a description of each one, explaining how it should work and what components it needs to include. We recommend using Elementool’s Requirements Management system for defining the project features. Using this tool, you can create the feature list and write the description of each feature. See our Project Management Formula program for more information on features.
Features then must be broken down into workable tasks. For instance, a search engine feature may be broken up into a running search task for a coding expert, and a graphical design task for the graphics expert. Yet another task might be for a copywriter to create text to go along with the search engine feature.
Issues that are stored in your Issue Tracking can also be added to the schedule.
To add a task, please follow these steps:
1. Make sure the Iteration line is selected.
2. Click on the Add button.
3. Select the Add Task option.
4. Type the task name.
To create a task from an issue tracking record, please follow these steps:
1. Make sure the Iteration line is selected.
2. Click on the Add button.
3. Select the Add Issue option.
4. Select the name of the account in which the issue is stored.
5. Type the issue number.
6. Click on Save.
7. The system will display the issue’s title automatically.
Elementool makes it easy to organize tasks, helping to keep each team member on track.
That’s it for now. So simple.
In the next clip I’m going to show you how to build the project schedule and how to assign tasks to team members. Stay tuned…
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to submit them in the comment section below.
Hi, it’s Allison here again. We all know what it’s like to get caught in the procrastination trap. There’s a job that has to be done, but you’re afraid it’s going to be difficult and time consuming, so you put it off till the last minute. Sometimes you’re tired or not feeling motivated to do anything at all.
Other times you’re overwhelmed by small tasks that keep popping up and getting in your way. Or maybe you come into work in the morning and you have no clue what to do that day. You end up spending half the day at the office without getting anything done because you lack a plan. It’s understandable, we’ve all been there, and we’ve all found ourselves procrastinating as a result. The most frustrating thing is that the longer we procrastinate, the more our tasks and worries pile up. Next thing you know, the day is gone, little has been accomplished – and still the work waits. Procrastinating can slow business, upset the boss, create delays, and wreak havoc on your schedule.
Well you know what? It doesn’t have to be like that. I’m going to show you a smart, simple system that can help you eliminate procrastination permanently. With this easy method, you can sharpen your focus, increase your motivation, and get your work done when you need to get it done.
The secret is to start scheduling meetings with yourself. Your daily schedule should always be fully booked. Every morning, spend about 15 minutes determining the day’s schedule. Think of all the tasks that you want to accomplish that day and schedule them in your calendar as if you have a meeting with yourself.
So, for example, you may write in your planner that from 9am to 10, you are working on a presentation. From 10 to 11, you’ll be returning phone calls. 11 to 12, you’re writing code. 12-1, schedule your lunch. And so on. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well it is! If I can do it, so can you.
Now for your anti-procrastination plan to be successful, you need to follow a few guidelines.
1. Don’t schedule more than 6 activities each day. There’s no sense in over-extending yourself or else you’ll get overwhelmed and then the procrastination problem will be back.
2. Give yourself some free time between activities to catch up on emails, finish activities that require more time, and other small assorted tasks.
3. Always schedule the difficult and high priority activities first. This is really important because you want to get the tough jobs out of the way as soon as you can.
4. When you work on an activity, stay focused on the task. Don’t stop to read emails, check Facebook, or anything else. These are things that can wait until you’re done.
5. Take a 10-minute break every hour. Knowing that you will soon have a bit of time to relax and do whatever you want will make it easier for you to concentrate on the scheduled task.
So, there you have it. Follow this system and you will discover that you can quickly and easily kick procrastination out of your life forever. If you want to learn more, I go into detail on this subject in Elementool’s new Project Management Formula program, so I suggest you check it out!
There are big things happening here at Elementool, and the latest is that we are going agile. Agile planning is a flexible approach to project management that gives you the freedom to make adjustments to your plan when needed.
By dividing projects into smaller iterations, or mini-projects, you are better able to monitor progress and to make important course corrections that will allow you to achieve your objectives while also completing the project close to schedule.
Using the agile approach is going to transform the way you run projects, and we are going to make it even easier for you.We will be releasing several amazing new features in the near future to help you run agile projects using Elementool.
With Elementool, you will be able to setup iterations and define the tasks and issues that should be included in each iteration. This innovative feature will allow you to better plan your team’s work on the project.
Our brand new Scheduling system will enable you to plan your project schedule and carefully track the development progress. As a result,your team will be able to make certain that everything is going according to plan,eliminating costly and time-consuming project delays.
Some of these tracking features include a backlog that you will be able to display right on your Welcome page, allowing you to see the status of each task so that you can easilyfollow the progress of your project.
The Burndown chartis another cool feature that we’re developing. It will enable eachteam member to see how their work is progressing so that they always know whether or not they’re keeping to the schedule plan.
One of the most significant features is the integration between the tools, which is a major benefit since it saves you the need to use API to integrate between different solution providers. This gives your team valuable extra time to spend working on your projects instead of worrying about tool integration. And it costs significantly less to pay for just one system rather than using several different vendors.
If you are new to Agile planning and don’t yet know what terms like Iteration,Burndown, and Backlog mean, don’t worry, because you are going to learn them—and many others—very soon with our exciting new Project Management Formula program, where we’ll teach you the special 5-step formula that will enable you to fully take charge of your projects.
Agile project planningis the wave of the future, and Elementool will be here to help you every step of the way. Stay tuned!
Hi, it’s Allison again. When most people think of three little letters that might save your life, SOS comes to mind. But for me, S-R-S is the ultimate lifesaver when it comes to project management. SRS stands for Software Requirements Specification, which is a document that fully describes the expected behavior of a software system.
Functional requirements are documented in an SRS, as are non-functional requirements such as performance goals and descriptions of quality attributes.
The SRS states the functions and capabilities that a software system needs to provide, as well as the constraints that it must respect. The SRS provides the basis for all subsequent project planning, design, coding, and testing. Virtually everyone involved in the project rely on the SRS. The development team, maintenance staff, testers, technical writers, support people, and the marketing department, This is why this document is so important.
There are many significant benefits to having a SRS document. For starters, the SRS improves communication between your team members by saving and displaying the product feature description in one central location that everybody can easily access. It also prevents confusion within your team by maintaining an up-to-date definition list of all the features included in the project. This way you ensure that everyone develops the same set of features, avoiding a situation in which there are several different versions of product documents out there. And because all that information is available in one document, the SRS makes it easy for new employees to quickly learn the details of the project.
Another benefit that comes from the development of the SRS document is that it ultimately saves you the effort and cost of late-stage re-design and re-testing. That is because putting the SRS together requires all stakeholders to agree on the requirements at the beginning of the project.
Given that estimating costs and developing a project schedule can be a challenge for any project manager, the SRS document provides a great deal of help in that area as well by acting as a basis for creating such estimates.
Other benefits of utilizing an SRS document include its ability to provide a basis for enhancement of the product at a later time. The SRS can also provide a baseline when it comes time to develop plans for validation and verification.
Furthermore, the Software Requirements Specification functions as a contract between the client and your company. Once the SRS is complete, you can simply send it to your clients, and it will act as an agreement of what should be developed.
Now I initially planned to give you a template of an SRS document that you can use to create your own. But then I thought, why do that, when you can just use Elementool’s Requirements Management to automatically create SRS documents, in seconds, right from your feature requirements list? Simply:
Go to the ‘View Requirements’ page.
Click on the Print Requirements button.
On the right side, select the features you wish to include in the SRS document.
Move them to the left side.
Click on the Print Document button.
And, voila, I have an SRS document ready in less than 10 seconds.
I’m Allison and I’m going to teach you Scrum Agile Development in three simple steps.
This is a special video I created just for Elementool’s clients and the people on our mailing list.
So if you’re watching this, you are one of the special lucky people who, within a few minutes, will have a system that will help you to improve your development performance immediately.
In many cases when you develop a software project, you know how it starts but you cannot predict what will happen after a few weeks of development. As a result, it becomes difficult to keep track of the project progress. If you’ve ever felt that things get out of control, you know what I mean.
Delays cause the project to cost more, because you need to pay for additional development time. They also cause your clients to get upset and this is something we want to prevent.
Scrum enables you to keep everything visible. It allows the team to know exactly what’s going on and make adjustments to the project to keep it moving forward.
With Scrum you build pieces of the software. The client can experience each part and determine what to do next. This way you have control over the progress of the project and the power to prevent delays.
Let’s get started:
Step # 1 – Create a Backlog
The project backlog is a list of all the features that clients would like to have as part of the complete product. It includes the client’s dreams and wishes. But it doesn’t mean that everything will be developed, as we’ll see later. The Backlog is created by the Product Owner. The Product Owner represents the interest of the people who ordered the product – the clients.
Step #2 – Estimate and Prioritize
After completing the Backlog list the Product Owner estimates how long it would take to develop each item on the list. There are different ways to estimate and I’ll explain them in another clip. Next comes prioritization. The goal is to focus on what brings value to the business. The Product Owner sorts the backlog items by priority, from the most important at the top to the least important at the bottom, picks the features that should be included in the release and creates the Release Backlog.
Step # 3 – Sprint
Here is when most of the work is being done. Sprints are development units between 3 to 30 days. A project usually includes several sprints.
At the beginning of each sprint the team will have a Sprint Planning meeting. In this meeting the Product Owner and the team get together to decide what will be done in the new sprint. They select items of the highest priority from the Release Backlog. The Product Owner describes to the team what is desired and the team decides how much of what is desired they can complete in this sprint.
The Sprint Planning meeting has two parts:
The first part is spent with the Product Owner to decide which features to develop.
In the second part of the meeting the team plans out the sprint. The selected tasks are placed in the sprint backlog and assigned to the team members.
Everyday the team meets for a short 15 minute meeting called “Daily Scrum”. In this meeting each team member answers three questions:
• What have you done on this project since the last daily scrum meeting?
• What do you plan on doing on this project between now and the next scrum meeting?
• What stands in your way to meet your commitments to this sprint and this project?
The purpose of Daily Scrum is to synchronize the work of all team members and address any issues that might delay the work progress.
In every sprint the team must complete the work that was defined for this sprint. Bugs that are related to the features on the Sprint Backlog should also be fixed as part of the sprint.
At the end of each sprint, a Sprint Review meeting is held. In this meeting the team presents what was developed during the sprint to the Product owner and other Stakeholders. This meeting helps to decide what the team should do next. The clients can see the project progress and submit feedback. It prevents the risk of developing features that the client didn’t ask for. Also, in case of a delay in the development process, the sprint will not be completed on time and that will indicate to everyone that there is a problem and something needs to be done.
Repeat step 3 until all features on the Release Backlog are developed and the product is ready to be released.
That’s it. So easy. As you can see, Scrum is a simple and effective way to have control over your development process and make sure things go according to plan.
I created a flowchart for you of the three steps. You can download it using the link below.
