Agile software development and Scrum
Project Planning and Project life cycle
Salween Solutions uses an agile approach to software development projects. This ensures that the clients can test, review and make changes to the software throughout the project without affecting timeframes, or even costs, resulting in better software that is more suited to what is actually needed.
User Stories
User stories are brief descriptions, consisting of one or two sentences, of what the software will do for the client or user. The requirements are written from the client’s point of view and include a minimum or IT terminology. This is so the system is described in a way that everyone understands and ensures the features have actual business value.
Story Points
Salween Solutions allocates the user stories a number story points. This is an arbitrary number used to measure the effort required to implement a feature on a project. In simple terms it’s a number that tells the team how “hard” the development is. “Hard” could be related to complexity, unknowns or effort.
Feature Prioritization, Iterations and Changes
When the project starts, we sit down with the client and prioritize features in a range from “must have” to “nice to have” and features in-between.
We then deliver a usable version of the software scheduled on a fixed iteration. Usually every two weeks. This means the customer can test the software and request changes to make sure the software will do the job. We then calculate how many story points for the changes necessary.
To keep the project on time and on budget, we can use the story points allocated to some of the lower priority features for the necessary changes.
Sprints
A sprint is the features, changes and work that goes in to the application between the iterations. After the updated application is delivered and review. We can reevaluate what will go in to the next sprint. (E.g. Change this feature, postpone this)
If you have any questions about how we use agile methodologies or how it will work in your project please contact us.