TARGETPROCESS USER GUIDE

Transcription

1 TARGETPROCESS USER GUIDE v.2.19 User Guide If you read this document, we definitely have some usability problems in the product. Please report such problems directly to product owner at 1

2 INTRODUCTION...6 PROJECT PLAN STRUCTURE... 6 ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT... 8 GETTING STARTED FLOWS USER INTERFACE: GENERAL PRINCIPLES NAVIGATION LISTS PRODUCTIVITY TIPS Easy Linkage Jump to Entity GENERAL ACTIONS INTEGRATED WINDOWS AUTHENTICATION LOGIN SEARCH CUSTOMIZABLE DASHBOARD TODO LIST CONVERT ENTITIES / CHANGE ENTITY TYPE ADMINISTRATION USER & ROLE MANAGEMENT Add Users Skills and Skills Filtering Roles & Permissions AUDIT HISTORY CUSTOM PRIORITY AND SEVERITY VALUES NOTIFICATIONS DISABLE HTTP ACCESS PLUGINS Add New Profile See Profile Log PROJECTS & PROCESSES PROCESS SETUP Custom Terms Ideal Hours and Abstract Points Effort Units Time Tracking Practice Customization WORKFLOW CUSTOMIZATION FOR USER STORIES, BUGS AND OTHER ENTITIES CUSTOM FIELDS Add Custom Field Custom Fields Functionality PROGRAMS & PROJECTS Add Program Add Project to Program Programs List Manage Teams inside Entire Program Prioritize Projects PROJECT PLANNING: QUICK START

3 CREATE PROJECT TEAM FEATURES (THEMES/EPICS) USER STORIES AND TASKS Quickly Add Tasks to User Story ADD RELEASE PRIORITIZE USER STORIES, FEATURES AND BUGS RELEASE PLANNING ITERATIONS PLANNING VELOCITY SET ITERATION VELOCITY PLAN ITERATIONS ASSIGN TEAM MEMBERS ADD TASKS SPLIT USER STORY FINISH ITERATION RANK CONCEPT PROGRAM LEVEL RELEASE PLANNING ADD PROGRAM RELEASE, GENERATE PROJECT RELEASES AND ITERATIONS PLAN AND TRACK RELEASES PROGRESS TRACKING TASK BOARD DAILY PROGRESS (ACTUAL REMAINING TIME) DASHBOARD COMPONENTS YESTERDAY PROGRESS KANBAN KANBAN PROCESS SETUP KANBAN BOARD Backlog Setting Limits Setting Columns Order KANBAN BOARD IN PROGRAM CUMULATIVE FLOW DIAGRAM LEAD AND CYCLE TIME DEPENDENCIES MANAGEMENT ADD DEPENDENCIES VIEW DEPENDENCIES IMPEDIMENTS MANAGEMENT ADD IMPEDIMENT SEE IMPEDIMENTS PRIVATE/PUBLIC IMPEDIMENTS REPORTS BUG TRACKING BUGS WORKFLOW Add Bug TEST CASE MANAGEMENT

4 TEST CASES CONCEPT OVERVIEW TEST CASES LIBRARY ADD TEST CASES ADD TEST PLAN AND ASSIGN TEST CASES ADD TEST PLAN RUN RUN TEST CASES TEST CASES PRIORITIZATION QUALITY STATS Test Cases for User Story TIME TRACKING ADD TIME USING A TIME SHEET Custom Activity Navigation VIEW SPENT TIME PEOPLE MANAGEMENT ALLOCATIONS Who is overloaded? Who is available for an upcoming project? Who can be re- allocated to another project? What assignments does each person have? Change Allocation LOAD REPORT HELP DESK MODULE HELP DESK SECTIONS REQUESTERS MANAGEMENT COMPANIES MANAGEMENT REQUESTS MANAGEMENT Add Request Manually Add Request from Requests list ISSUES QUEUE CREATE BUGS, FEATURES AND USER STORIES FROM REQUEST TRACK REQUEST- TO- REQUIREMENT RELATIONS MERGE REQUESTS HOW TO USE HELP DESK FOR GENERAL SUPPORT AUTO- REPLY AUTOMATICALLY BIND INCOMING S/REQUESTS TO THE PROJECT SOLUTIONS HELP DESK PORTAL Help Desk Portal Setup and Usage Configuration INTEGRATION PROJECT INBOX Configuration Usage PERSONAL INBOX BIND S TO ENTITIES Bind to Entity Action

5 s in Entity View SUPPORT TICKETS Enable Notifications Enable Inbound Integration REPORTS CUSTOM REPORTS Inner Lists / Inner Reports Inline Edit in Custom Reports Custom Report Actions PREDEFINED REPORTS PLANNING REPORTS Release Burn Down Chart Iteration Burn Down Chart User Stories Count by States Burn Down QUALITY ASSURANCE REPORTS Bugs Distribution by Severity Bugs Dynamic Bugs Progress Bugs Count by States Burn Down TEST CASES RUNS REPORTS Test Cases Runs by Release/Iteration/Build Test Cases by User Story TIME TRACKING REPORTS Time Spent Summary PRINTABLE REPORTS SOURCE CONTROL INTEGRATION TAGS TAG ENTITIES SEARCH BY TAG TAGS IN REPORT ENGINE MANAGE TAGS Add Tags Delete Tags Rename Tags MANAGE BUNDLES Add Bundle Add/Remove Tags IMPORT/EXPORT IMPORT FROM CSV EXPORT INTO CSV APPENDIX A. RESOURCES LINKS BOOKS TargetProcess is a Web- based project management tool that powers agile software development processes, focusing on Project Planning, Project Tracking and Bug Tracking practices. TargetProcess supports Extreme Programming and other modern iterative methodologies. 5

6 Introduction This section describes main ideas behind TargetProcess software. It should help you to understand TargetProcess better. Project Plan Structure Each project may consist of several entity types depending on Project size and requirements. The overall structure is shown in the diagram below: Program: Generally this is a large Project. For better manageability, a large Project may be divided into several smaller projects (Project 1 and Project 2 in the illustration above). In most cases a Program is not required, but if you have Projects with several teams, a Program will help organize the work and track progress better. Project: A Project is simply work encompassing one or more features that must be created or modified. Feature (or Epic): A Feature is a high level requirement. Examples are Advanced Search, CSV Import/Export, or Leads Management. In most cases, Features are required for large and medium Projects. Each Feature contains several User Stories. User Story: A User Story is a unit of work that can be used as requirements and as a planning item. For smaller Projects, Features are overhead, so User Stories take all the responsibility. 6

7 Typical examples of User Stories are Search for Contacts, Filterable List of Contacts, or Custom Drop Down Fields. Task: A Task is the smallest planning unit that describes a small piece of functionality. Examples: Add User UI Creation, Add User Controller Implementation, Add User Business Logic Implementation. For large Projects, it is better to use the complete hierarchy. Program - > Project - > Feature - > User Story - > Task However, for small Projects, a simplified hierarchy may be sufficient: Project - > User Story - > Task Hierarchy example: Program: NewWave CRM Project: NewWave CRM Core Feature: Basic Contacts Management User Story: Quick Add Contact Task: UI Design Task: Implement Add Contact Logic User Story: Contacts List Task: Filters Task: List Sorting Task: Contact List Page and Base Logic Task: UI Design User Story: Delete/Undelete Contact Feature: Users Management Feature: Permissions Project: Outlook Sync Feature: Import/Export Contacts to Outlook User Story: Export Contacts Task: Duplicate Checking Development Task: Export Rules Implementation Task: Export UI Implementation User Story: Import Contacts Feature: Import Scheduled Tasks from Outlook Feature: Read s Online Feature, User Story, and Task are planning items that allow creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Let s see how to create a Project plan. 7

8 Iterative Development Support TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide TargetProcess supports iterative development. The iterative project planning approach is described in many sources. We recommend Planning Extreme Programming by Kent Beck and Martin Fowler, if you are new to the concept. Other sources are in Appendix A. Basically, each Project can have several Releases and each Release can have several Iterations. (See the diagram below.) All Iterations should be of equal duration. In this example, we use 2 weeks. 8

9 You may assign Features to Releases, thus creating a high level plan (Road Map). Also you may assign User Stories to Iterations, thus creating a low level plan (Iterations Plan). One Feature can spread over several Iterations. However, you should implement the Feature in the Release, or else split a large Feature into two or more smaller Features. The entire planning process can be described in several steps: 1. Add Requirements a. Add Features b. Add User Stories for Features 2. Create Project Schedule a. Add Releases and Iterations (TargetProcess can generate Iterations for you during Release creation) 3. Assign planning items a. Assign Features to Releases b. Assign User Stories to next Iteration 4. Add details to the plan a. Add Tasks for User Stories 9

10 b. Assign team members to Tasks TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide As a result you will have high level Project plan and a plan for the initial Iteration. You may also plan future Iterations, but this is not required. Such plans will likely be changed after the first Iteration has been completed. Getting Started When you login into TargetProcess first time, you will be redirected to Getting Started section. This section contains basic help on TargetProcess, typical flows and sample project generation. 10

11 Flows Click Show Help link on the left to enable Help Panel. Help panel contains flows and actions. You may navigate flows by clicking steps and execute the action. TargetProcess guides you through the flow and helps to understand panning and tracking process, quality management, requirements management, etc. 11

12 User Interface: General Principles The User Interface in TargetProcess consists of several parts. 1. Project selector allows you to select projects or programs. 2. Main customizable navigation. 3. Search user stories, tasks and other entities by keyword or tag. Jump to exact entity by ID. 4. Main area contains lists, edit forms and all other content. 12

13 Navigation You may customize main menu in TargetProcess. Click More - > Customize Menu. Use drag and drop to create personalized navigation. Every user of TargetProcess can personalize navigation for himself. 13

14 Lists All lists in TargetProcess are unified and have several common parts. TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide Context actions Lists item- related actions. For example, if you are in the User Stories list, the following actions available: Add Task, Add Time, Add Bug and Add Test Case. Collapsing Click / to expand/collapse the list. For example, User Stories list contains Tasks. Inline Editing Inline editing is available in User Stories, Bugs, Requests and Features lists. To enable inline editing just double click table row. Change required values and push Enter to save change. You may cancel editing by pushing Escape key. Next/Prev Navigation You may navigate entities in list one by one. Filter entities in list and click any entity to see view page. Right near the entity title there will be Prev/Next links. Click Next link to see next entity in the list. 14

15 Batch actions (delete, copy, update) Select the required items and click the More Actions link in list header. Filters Click the Filter link in the table header to see the filter panel. 15

16 Customizable columns and inner lists To turn off unnecessary columns, click Customize, uncheck columns, and click Save Settings. Productivity Tips Easy Linkage You may quickly reference entities like bugs, user stories, features, etc. when creating comment or description. For example, you are adding a comment to user story and want to add a link to bug with id = 85. You may just type id:85 in comment field and TargetProcess will automatically render this as a link to required bug. 16

17 Jump to Entity You may quickly jump to entity view. Just type entity ID in search field and push Enter. General Actions Integrated Windows Authentication TargetProcess supports Integrated Windows Authentication. Two actions are required to enable it: Enable the Integrated Windows Authentication for TargetProcess virtual folder (Internet Information Services Manager - > right click on TargetProcess virtual folder - > Properties - > Directory Security - > Authentication and access control). IMPORTANT: Disable anonymous access, otherwise integration will not work. 17

18 Specify the Active Directory User Logon Name for users in TargetProcess. (Example: If you setup the Windows domain CompanyUsers and user login ted, then you should specify the Active Directory User Logon Name as CompanyUsers\ted) Then when a user accesses TargetProcess, he will be automatically authenticated and redirected directly to the Dashboard screen. Login After TargetProcess system installation, you can login using the following access parameters: Page: domain>/default.aspx Login: admin Password: admin Important: It is recommended that you change the login and password after the first login! It can be done in People area. Search Search has 3 modes: Project search: In effect when inside a Project. Shows results from the current Project. Jump: Entering an entity ID redirects to the entity view page (for example, type 123 in the search box and click Search button to jump to entity with 123 id). Search by Tag: Type tag:[tagname] to find entities tagged tagname. For example, type tag:"visual Studio" to find all entities tagged Visual Studio. 18

19 You may search in entities like user stories, requests, bugs as well as in comments. Following a search, you may filter the results by entity type (for example, see only Bugs or User Stories in results). Customizable Dashboard You may customize the Dashboard. On a dashboard page, click the Customize dashboard link at the top to enter customization mode. When you are done, click the Finish customizing link at the top right corner. ToDo List TargetProcess provides an integrated ToDo list for all assignments, including User Stories, Tasks, and Bugs. You may do the following actions in ToDo list: Sort assignments by similar columns like Name, Rank, etc Filter assignments by current release or iteration, by state, by custom field value Show/Hide different columns to customize ToDo list for your needs Change states of assignments Add time for assignments 19

20 Convert Entities / Change Entity Type TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide Sometimes is required to convert bug to user story or feature to user story. You may do the following conversions in TargetProcess: Feature Story Task Bug Feature to Yes Story to Yes Yes Yes Task to Yes Bug to Yes Yes To do the conversion, navigate to entity view and find Convert link in the Actions section. Click Convert link and new popup appears: Select required target entity and push Convert button. Current entity will be deleted and new with selected type will be created. 20

21 Administration TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide User & Role Management Add Users Project teams can be composed of system users. To add a user, login to the system and click the People link on the menu. Then click Add - > Person. 21

22 Administrator Active Observer User has unlimited access to all projects. User is able to login into the system. It is possible to reuse licenses by deactivating users. User has read- only access to all projects, but full access to projects that he belongs to as a team member. Skills and Skills Filtering You may use tags to add skills for people and have automatic filtering during people assignments to tasks, stories and bugs. 1. For example, you may create a developer with Java skill. 2. Navigate to project - > Project Admin - > Tags and add Skills_Filter bundle. NOTE: it is absolutely required to create bundle with exactly the same name 3. Add tags like Java, DBA, PHP into Skills_Filter bundle 4. Create user story with Java tag 5. Navigate to user stories list and try to assign a person. 6. Available list will contain only people with Java skill. Roles & Permissions TargetProcess has role- based permissions on add/edit/delete actions. For example, you may prohibit developers from deleting anything in the system. Click the Roles to see the list of roles. 22

23 Note that there are no restrictions on view actions inside a Project. For example, if a developer belongs to the Project A team, she can view all the information inside Project A (bugs, reports, team, etc.). But if she does not belong to Project B, she will not see any information from Project B. Available permissions: 1. Restrict user access to Projects (administrator has full access, while other roles do not). Sometimes you do not want to disclose Project information to a user. For example, you want to add your customer to a Project team, but the customer should not have access to other Projects. 2. Restrict editing and deleting of entities for each role. Audit History TargetProcess stores all information about changed entities (additions, updates and deletions), so you can see who made the change. To see the complete audit history, click the Audit History link. You may filter history records by User, date range and entity type. 23

24 You can see the change history for a specific entity as well on the entity view page. For example, to see changes to a User Story, navigate to the User Stories list and click a User Story name. Then click the History tab. Custom Priority and Severity Values You may customize the values of Priority for Feature, User Story, and Bug as well as Bug Severity. Click Priority link in the menu to see a list of Priorities for all entities. You may delete, edit, or add new Priority. Importance is a numeric representation of Priority. If two entities are of equal Priority, the top priority will be the one with the smallest (numerically) Importance. For example, if you have a Must Have priority with Importance = 0 and another Must Have priority with Importance = 1, then the Must Have priority with the zero Importance receives top priority. Notifications TargetProcess can send notifications when an entity is added or assigned. For example, when a User Story is assigned, TargetProcess can send notifications to: Any role in the project team (Developer, Project Manager or other) The entire project team An assigned user The User Story owner To enable notifications, click Settings in menu. Check the Enable Notifications box, specify SMTP server, port and access parameters if required. 24

25 Then navigate to Workflow and select the required entity (for example, User Story) and click the Assign tab. Disable HTTP Access You may disable HTTP access and allow TargetProcess users to connect via HTTPS only. Navigate to Settings and mark Disable HTTP access checkbox: Plugins Starting from v.2.8 TargetProcess provides plugins architecture. You may create custom plugins using C# API and add them into TargetProcess plugins folder. There is a separate guide that describes plugins architecture and provides information about custom plugins implementations. 25

26 To see installed plugins, navigate to Admin - > Plugins section. All plugins divided into categories and each plugin may have many profiles. Depending on plugin nature, you may have different profiles for different projects for example or based on some other criteria. If plugin supports Synchronizable interface, you may check connection of the plugin or reset synchronization date. If you click Reset Sync Date button, synchronization will be scheduled within specified time frame (setting in plugin profile). This may be useful when you tune plugin settings and want to run synchronization again. Add New Profile To create new plugin profile, click Add Profile link. Profiles for each plugin are different; it is a responsibility of plugin developer to create correct plugin setting. By default TargetProcess has only one plugin installed Bugzilla Integration. Check correspondent section of this user guide see how to configure and use Bugzilla Integration plugin. See Profile Log It is a responsibility of Plugin developer to log all plugin activities. You may see them in Log section. Log contains all sync session with final result (success of failed) and additional information. You may click on record date to see comprehensive details of the sync session results. 26

27 27 TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide

28 Projects & Processes In real life, each Project may have its own unique process. No Project management application can support all possible processes, but TargetProcess goal is to provide great flexibility. The Processes concept makes this possible. Currently a Process consists of Practices and each practice can be customized. Also it is possible to customize Terms, Workflows and Custom Fields for each Process. Supported practices/customizations: Planning o User Story effort is a sum of Tasks effort o Ideal Hours or Points effort units Iterative Development Bug Tracking Time Tracking o Close Assignable if time remaining is zero o Make time description field visible o Mark time description field required Requirements Management Test Case Management Source Control Help Desk 28

29 Process Setup 1. Add process. 2. Set effort units for user stories and features (points or hours). 3. Customize time tracking practice. 4. Customize workflow (for example, add In Progress state for Tasks). 5. Customize terms (for example, rename Bug to Defect). 6. Set custom fields for stories, tasks, features and other entities. TargetProcess supports flexible settings for each Project via the Process concept. Each Process consists of Practices like Planning, Time Tracking, Bug Tracking, etc. It is possible to enable/disable Practices and customize some Practices. For example, if you are starting a very small project and only want to use the Planning module without Bugs, Test Cases and other items, click the Processes link. Then click Add. 29

30 Fill in all required fields, uncheck boxes as needed, and save the new Process. Then you can create the Project and select only that Process for it. Since there will be no Time Tracking, Bug Tracking, and Requirements areas in the newly- created project, the interface will be simpler. 30

31 Custom Terms In TargetProcess you may customize the terminology used in each Process. For example, you may create terminology for Scrum or any other process you have. The following terms may be changed: Release Iteration User Story Feature Bug Impediment Build Solution Click Processes. Then click edit for the Process you want to change and click Terms tab. Fill in any required terms, and save the changes. All Projects that use this Process will now use your custom terms. For example, if you replace Iteration with Sprint, you will not see the word Iteration inside the project, but only the word Sprint. 31

32 Ideal Hours and Abstract Points Effort Units You may customize Practices for each Project. For example, you can set the effort units (Points or Ideal Hours), and you can choose to close/not close a User Story if there is zero time remaining. To customize a Practice, navigate to the Processes list and click the Edit for a Process. Then click the Customize link for a Practice. The Planning practice customization page is shown below. Select the required values and save your changes. For example, you may use Points effort units for one Project and Ideal Hours for another Project. Your choice depends on team experience and personal preferences. Time Tracking Practice Customization You may customize Time Tracking practice with the following settings: Close Task, User Story, or Bug if time remaining is zero Make time description field visible/hidden Mark time description field required/optional 32

33 Workflow Customization for User Stories, Bugs and Other Entities You can create a custom Workflow for each entity and for each process. This affects all projects based on the process, so it is recommended that you create the Workflow before starting a Project. Click Processes - > Edit - > Workflows and select an entity type to manage the Workflow. For example, let s change a Workflow for a User Story. The initial Workflow is shown in the diagram below: This User Story has two states: Open and Done. We are going to add an Accepted state that will follow the Done state. Click the Add New State link. 33

34 As you can see, each Entity State (except the final state) should have a Role. Suppose we have three states for a User Story: Open, Done, and Accepted; and we have two Roles: Developer and Product Owner. When a User Story is in the Open state, it may be assigned to Developer. And when the User Story is in the Done state, it should be assigned to a Product Owner. First it is required to add Product Owner role in Admin - > Roles list. Now let s bind Product Owner role to Done state. Click the Edit link for the Done state, and select the Product Owner role. Select Accepted as the next state and click Save. We have defined the Workflow as shown in the diagram below: You may also add rules for each state. Currently, only the Assign to and Notify by rules are available. If you want to assign it to the Project Manager for final verification when the User Story is Done, you would enable the Assign to rule for the Done state (by checking the box), check the Project Manager box, and click the Save Workflow button. If the Project team has a member with the Project Manager role, he will be assigned to all completed User Stories and will see them in his ToDo list. 34

35 Custom Fields TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide Custom fields allow gathering and storing specific information about an entity. Custom fields are available for all entities in TargetProcess (Project, User Story, Bug, Time, etc.) You can create Custom Fields for each entity and for each process. This affects all projects based on the process, so it is recommended that you create custom fields before starting a Project. Add Custom Field Navigate to Click Admin - > Processes - > Edit - > Custom Fields and click the Add link. 35

36 Each custom field relates to a specific entity (User Story, Bug, Project, etc.) Select the desired entity, specify a label that will be visible in the add/edit entity form, select the type of custom field (Text, Checkbox, Drop Down, Date, Rich Text or URL) and save it. It is possible to add the same custom field for several assignable entity types (Bug, User Story, Task, Feature, Request, Test Run). When you select any of the assignable entity type, checkbox list with all the other entity types appears. Just select required entity types. Entity type custom fields You may create special type of custom fields of TargetProcess entity. Thus you can link entities together. For example, you may link Test Case to Bug. To create custom field, navigate to Admin - > Process - > Custom Fields - > Add. Select TargetProcess Entity custom field type and specify other parameters as required. Custom Fields Functionality You will see custom fields on these pages: 1. Add/Edit entity 2. View entity 3. Entities list You may sort and filter by custom fields in lists. Check the Enabled for filter box during custom field creation, if you want to filter data by this custom field in lists. 36

37 Programs & Projects TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide Usually a Program is just a large Project. For better manageability, a large Project may be divided into several smaller Projects. In most cases Programs are not required, but if you have Projects with several teams, Programs will help to organize the work and track progress better. Add Program Click the Add - > Program link on the left to see the Program addition form. Fill in any required fields and save the Program. Add Project to Program Click the Add - > Project link on the left. 37

38 Select a Program from the drop down list, fill in other fields as needed, and save the Project. Programs List Click the Programs link to see the Programs list. Manage Teams inside Entire Program You can manage all Project teams inside a single Program. Navigate to Program and click Team. 38

39 You may reassign people from one Project to another, change allocation percentages and dates, and change roles. Prioritize Projects You may prioritize projects using drag and drop right in projects list. Drop required project row and move it higher or lower in the list. Projects will change rank after re- prioritization. Projects with higher rank have higher priority. So far this information is used in overall ToDo list. Assignments from projects with higher priority will be on top of ToDo list (if the list sorted by Rank). 39

40 Project Planning: Quick Start Basically, the agile planning process consists of the following steps: 1. Add Project. 2. Add TargetProcess users. 3. Create project team (assign several people to the project) 4. Create User Stories. Estimate each User Story using ideal days or points. Two items are important: a. Effort units will remain the same during the whole Project. b. An Iteration s Velocity is measured in the same effort units. 5. Create a Release with Start and End dates and split the Release into several Iterations of equal length. (It is recommended to make each Iteration from 2 weeks to 1 month in length, depending on your environment and Project size.) 6. Assign several the most valuable or risky User Stories to the first Iteration. Assign people to the tasks and stories. Create Project Team A Project team may be created from all available system users. So if you want to add a new team member who does not have a system account, you first create a new account, as described in the Add User section. To create a Project team, choose the Project from projects list, click the Team link. 40

41 Use the Add To Team and Remove From Team buttons to build a team. You may select several users at a time by holding the Ctrl key. You may set roles, possible weekly effort, and allocation parameters for each team member. Note that allocation percentage and allocation end date are important parameters, they influence overall people allocation report. 41

42 Features (Themes/Epics) High- level requirements are represented by the Features concept in TargetProcess. A Feature is larger than a User Story, and one feature may contain several User Stories. In some sources Features are called Themes or Epics. Features are similar in behavior to User Stories but with these exceptions: 1. Features can only be assigned to Releases, not to Iterations. 2. Features can spread over several Releases. User Stories and Tasks Choose a Project and click the Add - > User Story link on the left. 42

43 There is only one mandatory field: Name. You may assign a User Story to two developers (simple pair programming support). Alternatively, you may assign it only to a Release, thus creating a Release Back Log. Business Value indicates User Story importance from the customer s point of view. The most valuable User Stories should be implemented as early as possible. You may assign a User Story to Iteration using the Release/Iteration drop- down (by default, a new User Story is put into the Back Log.) You will often add several User Stories in a row. Use the Save & Add New button to facilitate this process. The most complex thing about a User Story is effort. In TargetProcess, effort is measured in one of two possible units: Ideal Hours or Points. You may select effort units for your Project by customizing the Project s process (see the Process Setup section). There are two possible cases for User Story effort calculation: 1. A User Story (US) can be considered a Task with its own effort included in the total User Story effort. So US Total Effort = Sum(Tasks Developer Effort) + US Developer Effort 2. A User story is just a container and its effort is a sum of all related Tasks effort. US Total Effort = Sum(Tasks Developer Effort) Quickly Add Tasks to User Story You may quickly create tasks when adding or editing user story. There is Tasks section in the bottom of the form. You may type task name, set task effort and click Add link. All these tasks will be created after Save action. 43

44 Add Release Chose a Project, then click Add - > Release TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide TargetProcess will automatically generate Iterations for the new Release. You must set Start Date, Finish Date and Iteration duration in days. Then save the Release. The system will create required Iterations with default names (like Iteration #1.1). Prioritize User Stories, Features and Bugs A common task for a Project Manager/Product Owner is prioritizing User Stories and Bugs. For example, you may have 5 Must Have User Stories and 10 Fix ASAP Bugs. It may appear that 3 of the Bugs are most important in the current Iteration, then the 5 User Stories should be implemented, and then the other Bugs should be fixed if possible. The Prioritize tab in the Planning area supports this scenario. 44

45 You may reorder User Stories, Bugs and Features using drag and drop. Prioritization changes Rank of User Story or Bug. You may prioritize entities in Backlog or select Release or Iteration in the filter to prioritize entities assigned to specific Release or Iteration. 45

46 Release Planning TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide TargetProcess supports high- level Release planning by assigning Features, User Stories and Bugs to Releases. 1. Add releases. 2. Add features and user stories. 3. Prioritize user stories. 4. Navigate to Release Plan and assign features and user stories to the releases. Click the Release Plan link. 46

47 Left area contains project backlog. It contains Features, User Stories and Bugs. You may o Filter backlog to see only features, for example; o Sort backlog by name, priority and effort; o Right click on item to see additional details. Right area contains releases timeline with current and future releases. You may expand releases to see all assigned items. There is a timeline switcher on the top. You may select between Weeks scale and Months scale. To assign a Feature, User Story or Bug you may drag and drop it on the Release area (on the right). You may reassign item from one release to another. Expand release details, drag the item and drop it into required release box. Each Feature may contain several User Stories, and User Stories can be assigned to different Releases. For example, you can release Feature A in Release #2, but still have some User Stories implemented in Release #1. In this case, the Feature will have a different effort in each Release. If you move a Feature to another Release, all open and not started User Stories will move with this Feature, while all closed and in progress User Stories stay in the previous Release. You may right click on user stories and features to see details like Description, State and Assigned people. 47

48 Iterations Planning 1. Add releases and iterations. 2. Add features and user stories. 3. Plan iterations using Iteration Plan section. 4. Break user stories to small tasks. 5. Assign tasks to people from the project team. First, let s examine Iteration Velocity concept. Velocity The Iteration Velocity is the sum of all implemented User Stories effort during the Iteration. For example, during the Iteration #1, assume you have implemented the following User Stories User Story Users Authentication Users contact information management Forms validation Internal mailing engine Effort 4 points 3 points 2 points 7 points The Velocity of the first Iteration will be: Velocity = = 16 points Then you set the Velocity of the next Iteration based on the average Velocity of all previous Iterations. In our case, the predicted Velocity of Iteration #2 will be exactly 16 points. Using this iterative approach, you get significant advantages: 48

49 You can predict with very good accuracy how much effort the project team will accomplish during the next Iteration, and you can make fair prediction about the true Release date. The most valuable Features and Requirements will be implemented first. This is good for the customer and for the Project as well. You can easily change the plan based on the customer s real needs. System requirements will change, and change requests are handled much more efficiently. Set Iteration Velocity Choose Project, click the Iterations link to see the Iterations list. Find the required Iteration and click Edit. Fill in the Velocity field and save the Iteration. Plan Iterations Let s see how TargetProcess can help you in agile project planning. It is possible to assign a User Story to Iteration while adding the User Story, but the more common practice is to plan Iterations using the Iteration Plan page. An Iteration Plan consists of three lists, which contain User Stories and Bugs. You may select any Iteration in any list and have quite a flexible playground for Iteration planning. Planning itself is easy, just drag the User Story or Bug you want to assign and drop it on the required Iteration. (Available drop zones will be highlighted.) In the diagram below, we assign a Bug to Iteration #

50 Also you are prioritizing User Stories and Bugs during Iteration planning, thus having top priority items first in developers ToDo lists. This almost completely eliminates questions like What should I work on first? Sometimes you don t want to change priorities during iteration planning. For example, Product Owner already set required priorities and you should not change them. In this case you may disable prioritization. Click Customize link and unmark the checkbox shown on the picture below Also you may filter User Stories and Bugs in any list (backlog and iteration). Click on Filter link, select required filters and push Filter button. Assign Team Members You can assign User Stories, Tasks and Bugs to team members. Click the Assign Team Members tab. 50

51 The list on the left contains unassigned Bugs, Tasks and User Stories. The list on the right contains all team members. You can assign a User Story or Bug by dragging and dropping it on a developer. Bug will immediately appear in corresponding ToDo lists. For example, you can assign the Javascript error in FireFox Bug to Jerry Mouse. When Jerry logs in, he will see this Bug in his ToDo list. Add Tasks Quite often it is necessary to split a User Story into several Tasks, especially if the User Story is quite large and should be implemented by two or more people. For example, a Simple Shopping Cart User Story may have several Tasks: Create GUI design of shopping cart Implement business classes (ShoppingCart, Order) Create database tables To add Tasks for a particular User Story, navigate to the User Stories list. Find the required User Story and select Task from the Add menu. You must specify a Task Name; other fields are optional. Split User Story Sometimes you may need to split a large User Story into two smaller User Stories. Navigate to a specific User Story view page and click the Split link in the Actions list to see the Split area. 51

52 TargetProcess immediately creates a new User Story and you may: Move several Tasks to the new User Story, Cut and Paste part of the description from the original to the new User Story, and Assign the new User Story to a specific Iteration or Release. Set user story effort. Assign user story to team member. Click Save & Exit to apply the changes or Undo to delete the new User Story. Finish Iteration When the Iteration end date has passed, you may still have open User Stories. Usually you will want to move all open User Stories to the next Iteration. Navigate to Iterations and find the Finish link. 52

53 You will see two options available: 1. Split in progress User Stories that have Tasks and move not started User Stories to the next Iteration. 2. Move all open User Stories to the next Iteration. Click one of the two buttons as needed. NOTE: It is not possible to Undo the Finish Iteration action. Rank Concept Prioritizing items, you assign them specific Rank that is visible in User Stories List, Bug List and ToDo. Rank is an order of items in Prioritize list. Rank has some rules: It exists only for open User Stories and Bugs Higher rank means higher importance All Tasks within User Story inherit User Story s rank. For example, if you have User Story with rank 34, all tasks in this User Story will have rank 34 53

54 Program Level Release Planning Program Level Release Planning allows to create releases and iterations for all projects inside program and to plan program and projects release on the one screen. Add Program Release, Generate Project Releases and Iterations There are two concepts of Release in TargetProcess: Program Release release of whole program. It combines several projects releases and set one final release date that is a good reference point for all projects. Project Release release of a single project. To add Program Release go to specific program, click Add - > Release link. You will see a form for release addition. 54

55 It is required to specify release name, start and end dates. Also you may generate releases in all projects inside program as well as iterations. All generated iterations will have equal duration. Plan and Track Releases Click Release Plan link to navigate to Program Level Release Plan. This screen consists of two sections: Backlog on the left and Release plan diagram on the right. 55

56 1. Program backlog contains all user stories and features from all projects inside current program. You may filter backlog items by project and sort them by name, priority and effort. 2. Release plan shows all current and future releases for all projects. Current releases marked blue color. 3. Current release for project contains all user stories and features assigned. Each release has total assigned effort and progress information as well as forecasted release date. If forecasted date exceeds original release date you will see dashed blue border on the right. Also you may use +/- buttons to expand/collapse assigned items. 4. Program release deadline and forecasted program release dates. 5. Each item (user story or feature) has effort and name. Color of the item represents priority (green items have top priority while white items have lower priority). Done items marked gray color. Use drag and drop to assign features and user stories to release. The following assignments can be used: Assign user stories and features from backlog to release (to any project). If you assign user story from Project A backlog to Project B release it will be moved to Project B Assign user stories and features from release to release in the same project Assign user stories and features from release to release in different projects (in this case user story will be moved from one project to another) 56

57 You may edit release start and end dates. Right click release bar and context menu will appear. Modify required values and click Save link. Progress Tracking The Reports tab contains all available reports and charts. The Progress section in the Tracking area is the main feature for daily Iteration tracking. 57

58 The Task Board powers daily Tasks management activity. TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide Also there are several dashboard components for progress tracking: Progress Summary Time Spent Summary And there is a Yesterday tab in the Dashboards area that shows what happened yesterday. Task Board The Task Board is an area that powers effective Tasks management. When all User Stories are set for Iteration, this is the best place to manage Tasks. Click Task Board. The Task Board provides the following actions: Change Task state (from open to done, for example) Assign/Re- assign people to Tasks and User Stories Update remaining time for Tasks Show Tasks for a specific person See User Story Impediments You can customize the Task Board view. You can setup a very simple layout with a minimum of detail or a complex one with many details. Click the Customize link and uncheck boxes as desired to hide specific information. 58

59 Daily Progress (Actual Remaining Time) TargetProcess v.2.19 User Guide The only way to get actual information about User Story/Task completeness is to ask the developer. TargetProcess does exactly that. When a developer adds a time record, she should enter a remaining time value as well. Using this information, actual work remaining can be calculated. The table below shows daily remaining time for each User Story and Task for the current Iteration. If remaining time increased in compared to the previous day, it will be highlighted in red. If remaining time decreased, it will be highlighted in green. Thus you see daily team progress and can identify problematic Tasks and User Stories. Also you can see how much time has been spent on each Task. You can move your mouse over a time remaining cell to see a tool tip as shown below. Dashboard Components The Progress Summary component answers the most important question in software development: When will the release be completed? This knowledge comes from the historical data analysis and the remaining work calculation. TargetProcess forecasts the Release finish date and shows the current Release and Iteration progress. 59

60 Yesterday Progress The usual questions every Project Manager asks herself in the morning are these: What did we accomplish yesterday? Are there any new requirements from the customer? How did our team members spend their time yesterday, and were there any problems? The answers are on the Yesterday Dashboard screen. Kanban Starting from v.2.15, TargetProcess supports Kanban process. There are many good introduction articles about Kanban, you may check them at and- kanban- software- development.html Kanban Process Setup First it is required to create a new process for Kanban. Navigate to Processes and add a process. Then it is required to change workflow for User Story (if you are going to use Bugs in your Kanban projects, it is required to modify workflow for Bug as well). Simplest setup may contain 4 states: Open, Planned, In Progress, Done. 60

61 You need to add Planned state and In Progress state. Planned state shows that User Story is moved from Backlog and is ready for implementation. Make sure that you select Planned option below the state name. In Progress state shows that User Story is in development now, so Developer is responsible for it. 61

62 Then you need to set Kanban process for a project. Navigate to projects list, click Edit for the project and select Kanban process. Kanban Board Kanban Board shows flow of User Stories and Bugs. Left panel is a project Backlog it contains User Stories and Bugs in Initial state (Open or New for example). 62

63 Central panel represents User Stories states as columns. To change User Story state, just drag required story and drop it into the required state column. Note that if you did not configure state transition in Workflow, it will be impossible to move Story into this state. For example, if there is no transition in Workflow from Planned to Done state, it will be disabled on Kanban Board as well. 63

64 User Stories in columns are sorted by Priority. Color of the User Story represents priority. Green User Story has high priority, while light green User Story has low priority. Done area in the bottom of the Kanban Board shows 10 latest completed User Stories. You may click to links inside User Stories boxes to navigate to User Story view. Backlog Backlog contains User Stories and Bugs in Open state. You may filter it by keyword and by tag. Also you may sort User Stories in backlog by Name, Priority and Effort. Setting Limits One of the most important thing in Kanban is limiting work in progress (WIP). For example, there should be no more than 2 user stories In Progress, or 7 user stories in Planned state. Kanban Board in TargetProcess supports limits and highlights columns if limit is exceeded. To set limit for states, click Customize icon in the right top corner, then click Limits. Specify required limits and click Apply button. 64

65 Setting Columns Order You may change columns Order. Click Customize icon in the right top corner, then click Order. User Drag and Drop to change columns order and click Apply button. Complex Kanban Board with User Stories and Bugs, many states and limits may look like this: 65

66 As you see, this Kanban Board represents quite complex workflow and limits on almost all states are already exceeded. It is a clear sign of serious troubles in development process. Kanban Board in Program Kanban Board is available in Program area. In this case it shows all stories and bugs from all projects that related to the current program. In Backlog you have an additional filter by project. Also stories and bugs are sorted by Priority, not by exact Rank. The reason is that Rank is project- specific in TargetProcess and you may have two user stories from different projects with the same Rank. 66

67 To see related project for a user story or a bug, move mouse cursor over the story/bug card and check tooltip. Cumulative Flow Diagram A cumulative flow diagram (CFD) helps to track User Stories and Bugs by state. It helps to track average cycle time. Cycle time helps answer the question if I asked you to start on feature x when will it go live? Also it shows work in progress (WIP) and helps to find bottlenecks. Cumulative flow diagram in TargetProcess shows 3 states: ToDo User Stories and Bugs that were added into the system, but not started so far. In Progress User Stories and Bugs that already started but not completed. Completed User Stories and Bugs that were completed. You may specify duration for CFD and grouping (days, weeks, months). Also you may see total effort on Y axis or just count of User Stories and Bugs. 67

68 Lead and Cycle Time Lead and Cycle time are two very important metrics in Kanban. Here is the picture that shows a difference between Lead and Cycle time. Lead and Cycle time report is available in Project - > Reports area. 68