Agile Development is a software Development model that responds to rapidly changing requirements. Scrum, as a classic agile development framework, has been widely adopted by enterprises. In the “Scrum Guide,” Ken Schwaber, the father of Scrum, emphasized the importance of an iteration (Sprint) timebox, where once an iteration has begun, the iteration cycle is fixed and cannot be extended or shortened at will. Why does Scrum have a fixed iteration cycle?
Advantages of fixed iteration cycles
Scrum adopts an iterative and incremental approach to optimize predictability and manage risks. Transparency, review, and adjustment are the three pillars of Scrum. A fixed iteration cycle can not only help the team form a good rhythm of collaboration, but also is an important means to achieve transparency, timely review and adjustment of the project. So, what are the specific advantages of the fixed iteration cycle adopted by Scrum?
1. Simplify project planning and tracking
When the iteration cycle is fixed and the team is relatively stable, and the amount required to complete development and test in each iteration is relatively stable, the Scrum team can measure the amount required to deliver in each iteration — the “iteration rate.” When we need to release a milestone release, we can plan how many iterations it will take to complete the release based on the average iteration rate, making it more rational to plan. For example, if a project has 100 story points and we estimate that the team’s iteration rate is 20 story points per iteration, the project is expected to take 5 iterations. The next step is to prioritize stories based on business value and plan them into iterations for continuous incremental development.
In an iterative development process, the product owner (PO) must constantly review Scrum artifacts and progress toward achieving the iteration goals to detect deviations. Scrum’s iteration planning meetings, daily station meetings, review meetings, and retrospective meetings are important events for review. In addition, project managers can use visual tools such as burnout charts to understand the amount of work remaining in the current iteration, anticipate risks in advance, and take action to ensure that iterations are delivered on time.
ONES Project “Burnout Chart”
2. Improve team collaboration efficiency
Project development requires collaboration between multiple roles and departments. Fixed iteration cycles can establish a sense of team rhythm and form work habits. Everyone knows when to carry out each part of the iteration, which greatly reduces the cost of communication and collaboration. From requirements gathering and management to iteration planning, tracking, and iteration review, ONES provides professional support for the whole process of agile R&D, facilitating efficient collaboration among team roles. For example, in the daily station meeting, the team visualized the value flow of the iteration through the ONES Project “Agile Kanban”, understood the task progress and current problems, promoted the information communication between teams, and ensured the orderly progress of the iteration.
ONES Project “Agile Kanban”
In addition, team members can record and deposit important documents in the project through The ONES Wiki, forming a shared knowledge base for the team, and can comment and feedback online, improving the efficiency of team communication.
ONES Wiki Knowledge base management
3. Continuous improvement of team products and processes
Ken Schwaber said in his talk that “Scrum Works with Idiots” mean that fixed iteration cycles allow team members to be updated on the development of the project on a regular basis, improve team transparency, and identify problems in the iteration and improve on them. At the end of an iteration, the team can routinely gather internal and external feedback to subsume requirements for the next iteration. Use ONES Desk to easily collect, track, manage and solve customer feedback to improve service efficiency. During the project review, combined with the objective data in the historical report of ONES Performance, analyzed the improvement of team efficiency, so as to achieve continuous improvement of team work.
R&d Performance management
The length of the iteration cycle
Given that there are so many benefits to the team from a fixed iteration cycle, how long of an iteration cycle is appropriate for the team? The development team can come together to discuss an appropriate iteration length based on past experience, which is usually limited to one month. If iterations are too long, the team’s definition of “what to build” tends to change, increasing project complexity and risk. Short iterations have obvious advantages in terms of product planning, delivery efficiency, quality and trial and error cost, while long iterations have obvious advantages in terms of demand integrity, frequency and work intensity. When developing a fast-paced product, or a product exploring an unknown market area, or a product with a high risk of technical feasibility, often requiring frequent adjustments to the product form in response to market feedback, it is better to use short iterations to accommodate the risk of change.
Build the MVP quickly, then launch it to market for feedback, and scale it up as the product solution matches the market. Mastering agile thinking, using the right R&D management tools, running fast and iterating quickly are the best ways to achieve a lean startup.
ONES provides r&d teams with excellent agile R&D practices to help enterprises with efficient R&D. To learn more about The ONES Agile R&D management solutions, please visit our free trial website.