Q1: I am not familiar with Agile or Scrum. What can we do to get a jump start on Agile or Scrum?
A: Training on Agile or Scrum itself is outside of the scope of our SpiraPlan product training. Inflectra’s Enterprise Agile Evangelist maintains his personal site where he teaches Agile and Scrum as well as writing thought leadership pieces in this area. You can check out at https://www.sriramrajagopalan.com
Q2: How can I get up to speed on using SpiraPlan in the Agile or Scrum environment?
A: Please check out the 3-part blog on getting started in using Agile or Scrum with SpiraPlan.
Demystifying a Good Agile Product Backlog --> https://www.inflectra.com/Ideas/Entry/demystifying-a-good-agile-product-backlog-1236.aspx
Understanding the Planning Board for Backlog Refinement --> https://www.inflectra.com/ideas/Entry/understanding-planning-board-for-backlog-refinemen-1243.aspx
How to use Boards in Spira for Agile Ceremonies --> https://www.inflectra.com/Ideas/Entry/how-to-use-boards-in-spira-for-your-agile-ceremoni-1250.aspx
Q3: We are following Agile and only want to use User Stories. Why do we still see “Requirements”?
A: The “Requirement” is an overarching term for many types of requirements that includes both functional and non-functional requirements. These include epics, features, user stories, use cases, acceptance criteria, design elements, etc. Besides, even scaled agile frameworks recognize the word “requirement.” The word “Requirement” will not be removed.
Q4: What is the difference between Sprint and Release?
A: A release is a group of sprints. Just like a major release is made up of phases in a project management context, a release is made up of smaller sprints. Therefore, releases span a longer time frame and focus on the minimum viable product (MVP). The sprints are shorter focusing on the minimally marketable features (MMF). The sprint duration is based on the sustainable pace the team prefers . A release can also be beyond the cumulative duration of all sprints because there may be deployment sprint, benefit transition and sustainment done outside of the sprint but within the release.