Part 10: Major Changes in the WBS -- Agile in Action.

Development of the Project Plan itself has proceeded relatively smoothly until last week when there were unanticipated and major changes in top management. Erica Kelly resigned, and the Board of Directors, concerned with the downturn of business and future growth prospects -- occasioned, in part, by protectionist tariffs -- decided to sell the business. It was purchased immediately by a rising Egyptian entrepreneur, Mustafa (Mike) Mahmoud. With an MBA from Golden Gate University, he had made millions trading in ancient antiquities and artifacts in the Middle East.

Chairman Mahmoud felt strongly that, with its track record of growth and sales, operating in a freer market and with his successful trading expertise, JMP would become a powerhouse in the antiquities field. Although well-familiar (through GGU) with modern management precepts such as Agile, he -- as you might suspect about one dealing with antiquities -- is also an avid proponent of traditional Egyptian cultural identity and national growth.

Chairman Mahmoud immediately implementeda number of key changes:

1.The JMP headquarters would move to Cairo.

2.While Arabish, the chat communications dialect, could be used informally, all formal business transactions, forms, documents and records would be primarily in Egyptian Arabic.

3.The scope of the objets d'art and collectables would be expanded to include major inventory in Middle Eastern artifacts.

4.The firm would immediately start incorporating Agile concepts in a phased manner. Already well along in terms of planning, the actual implementation of the E-Commerce project could continue in the predictive (waterfall) mode, but as a first step in the firm's transition to Agile, the changes here necessitated in the Project Plan [our concern in this Capstone Project] will be accomplished using Scrum.

To comply with the Chairman's guidance for transitioning to Agile, you need to use the Scrum frameworkto address and implement the new changes (deliverables). You will develop user stories, plan for the team meetings, tools, roles, and responsibilities. Your product backlog, should be formulated and prioritized by the Product Owner, and will include all the new changes. Scrum is based on Iterative cycles "Sprints" -- the defined period for creating a feature.

Every sprint begins with a sprint planning meeting in which your team meets to define the tasks for the next sprint. You need to create the sprint backlog which is a list of tasks to be completed during the that sprint. Each Sprint "Iteration" in which the team creates the increment of a working product, will be to complete the appropriate stories. You need to deliver those stories through the daily work. For every day, your team will have a daily standup to agree on the daily work and share feedback. For your Sprints, you need to include the Sprint Review (Focus on the product being developed "Deliverable.") and the Sprint Retrospective (Focus on the process. What went right and areas for improvement?)

Finally, for purposes of this Capstone Team Project, you need to document the above planning and collaboration efforts. (In actual Agile, documentation is more limited.)

To accommodate the above changes, Chairman Mahmoud increased the budgetceiling by $500,000; he also increased the time period by three months. Specific requirements are listed below:

Task 1. Documentation of assigning Roles and creating the high-level Product Backlog.

In this task, you need to list all the roles in the scrum, provide a definition for each role and assign your team members to those roles. You also need to create the Product Backlog. Your Product Backlog should include the high-level key changes that Chairman Mahmoud implemented. The Product Backlog should also include, as a one of its items, the requirement to replace/modify the various Management Deliverables (things like the WBS, Schedule and Budget) that must be updated to accomplish the rest of the Product Backlog.Call it "Management Deliverables," if you want. PLACE IN THE AGILE IN ACTION: WBS SECTION OF THE FINAL DOCUMENTATION.

Task 2. Documentation of your Iterations that come up with the WBS and the Sprint Backlog (for at least two Sprints)

In Agile, the team then would take the high-level key changes of the Product Backlog and break them down into multiple Sprints "Iterations." Among the first of the key changes to be addressed would be the "Management Deliverables" (or whatever you've called it.) Clearly, one of the critical Management Deliverables would be revising the WBS. Plan on doing this in at least two sprints. In this task you need to design a Sprint Backlog (which is a list of tasks to be completed during that particular sprint) for each of the two sprints. PLACE IN THE AGILE IN ACTION: WBS SECTION OF THE FINAL DOCUMENTATION.