Estimation and Tracking

MSIN 0019
Introduction to Software Engineering
Niall Roche
Faculty of Engineering
n.roche@ucl.ac.uk
Be Realistic on the project scope

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What is the definition of “Done”
▪ Definition of Done for a feature (story or product backlog
item)
▪ Definition of Done for a sprint (collection of features
developed within a sprint)
▪ Definition of Done for a release (potentially shippable state)

▪ Can we do this activity for each feature? If not, then

▪ Can we do this activity for each sprint? If not, then
▪ We have to do this activity for our release!

https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2
008/september/what-is-definition-of-done-(dod)
root causes for impediments
▪ Team does not have the skillset to incorporate activities into
the definition of done for a sprint or for a feature.
▪ Team does not have the right set of tools. (Example:
continuous integration environment, automated build,
servers etc.)
▪ Team members are executing their sprint in mini-waterfalls.

https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2
008/september/what-is-definition-of-done-(dod)
What is the definition of “Done”
▪ Code completed (but not tested)
▪ Code well documented and clear
▪ Unit tests present and passed
▪ Acceptance criteria past
— Considerations such as security and performance
▪ Integration tests past
▪ Product owner satisfied
— Target users are satisfied
▪ Build passing
— Is the a release plan – does it need a rollback strategy
▪ Deployed without issue
The Three Things That Must Go Into Each Sprint

https://dzone.com/articles/sprint-planning-for-agile-teams-that-have-lots-of
Estimation (recap)
▪ Estimate effort
needed for each story
to select for next
iteration backlog.
▪ Scale based on
Fibonacci sequence
(relative effort not real
hours)

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Ranking Cards
Estimations
Effort Estimation
(Man Days / Story
Points)
Business Value
Timing Value
Opportunity Cost
Cost of Delay
Formalised Estimation Techniques

Common
Software
Measurement
International
Consortium
(COSMIC)
Function Point
method
Good Enough is Good Enough:
Basics of Paired Comparison

C A D

Estimate the relative sizes for all pairs:

I think A is 3 times as large as D.
I think A is half the size of B.
I think B is 6 times as large as D.
Experiment Result

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Experiment Result
▪ Planning poker and paired comparison show a vast
improvement in precision over ad-hoc methods.

Miranda, Eduardo, An Evaluation of the Paired Comparisons Method for Software Sizing,
Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering, 2000.
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Planning Poker
The Fibonacci sequence is named after Italian
mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci.

His 1202 book Liber Abaci introduced the sequence to

Western European mathematics
Productivity Tracking -
Burndown Charts
Or more like this in Reality…..
another fairly typical example…
Enhanced Burndown Chart

https://help.rallydev.com/enhanced-burndown-chart
Refactoring and Quality work is
always worthwhile…..
Factors that can have a major impact
on productivity

Fragmentation of project teams Experienced Agile SW factories are

Small teams are more productive
impacts productivity significantly more productive, not first timers
Development productivity 1 Productivity decay
Complexity units per man-week Complexity units per man-week, Productivity
indexed
-24% +27%
300 -14% per extra site

200 100 -14%

76 63 57 52 48
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 First pilot Continuous roll-out
Team size 1 2 3 4 5 6 Time
# FTEs in peak phase # SW dev. sites

1 Industry average
SOURCE: >1,300 software projects in the McKinsey Numetrics Industry Database
A New Measurement-Complexity Units

Link to the Full Presentation

The Numetrics Approach
Summary
▪ Definitions of done
▪ Overview of estimation techniques
▪ Tracking techniques and burndown charts

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