Agile Garden Development - Sprint 1

It all started with a flagpole… I wanted to have one in my yard.  A lot of homes in my area just put them up in the middle of the lawn.  I wanted something a little more than that.  I wanted it to be part of a picture.  I like to garden, so I started planning things out.

While beginning to plan out what I was going to do, I decided to incorporate an agile approach to the whole project.  I realized I would also get to see what it was like to be in positions of the development that were outside of just testing it… I was going to be:

• ·         The primary stakeholder
• ·         The project manager
• ·         The Business Analyst
• ·         The developer
• ·         The tester
• ·         The end user

An interesting concept…

First, as the primary stakeholder, I needed to determine what I wanted to have and how much I was willing to spend.  I wanted a garden that housed the flag and had limited maintenance.  I set the cost I was willing to spend.

As the project manager, I began to accumulate what I needed in order to begin the project:

• ·         Flag pole kit
• ·         Mulch
• ·         Available garden tools
• ·         Containers
• ·         Plants

As the Business Analyst, I put together the Sprint in the order that I felt things needed to be done and I gathered the requirements to the best of my ability.  For Sprint 1:

• ·         Select the location
• ·         Dig up the sod
• ·         Install the flag pole
• ·         Mulch the area

As the developer, I began to do the work.

•       In the selected location, I began to dig up the sod.  The terrain was difficult as the location selected by the BA had a lot of root sections.  (The location was selected to remove a second obstacle from yard maintenance:  a tree that caused an allergic reaction in the stakeholder when mowing the lawn.  Since it was not a severe reaction, the stakeholder preferred to let the questionable tree live, but when approached with the idea that another garden was being installed, she was delighted to suggest encompassing that same tree. 
•   The digging up of the sod took a little longer than expected due to the roots.  The complexity of the roots was not planned for in the estimation, so that was a bit off. 
•    Velocity was beginning to be affected, but when realizing what was happening in Scrum, the Project Manager went in behind the scenes to eliminate a potential impediment by calling in another developer (my 18-year-old daughter).  While the second developer had not yet had any experience in developing gardens, the task was straightforward enough that training her did not slow down the process and did help prevent a major hit in velocity.

QA came in behind the scenes and read the requirements for installing the flag pole.  They found several issues that would prevent developers from carrying out their task:

·   Three inches of rock was needed

·         Three inches of sand was needed

·         Concrete was needed

This was reported in an impromptu meeting…

The Business Analyst and the developers were stunned… how did we miss that?  The Project Manager went to the primary stakeholder and informed her of the situation.  She gave her blessing to the funds for rectifying what was found.  Development continued…

The developers:

• ·         Began installation of the flagpole
• ·         Began to lay down the mulch

They also ran out of time…  The first Sprint ended… 

Next Up:  The first Demo/Review/Retrospective....