Each cycle begins with the identification and prioritization of high level features. These features are grouped together into a release and a 1st iteration. The Project Manager facilitates this with the Product Manager and the Development Lead, to get rough estimates for delivery of the features. From then on the team refines the scope of the Release Plan in each iteration through continuous planning and clearer understanding of the product vision, giving a more accurate plan for features that will be delivered.

Feature Estimation

Digitalavenues follows a Feature Breakdown approach in its planning process. Features are broken down into units that can be estimated, provides a business value and can be delivered in one iteration.

Features are organized into a Product Backlog, that are prioritized and stored in Digital Avenues Team System (DTS). The development team uses relative estimation techniques to assign Story Points to the features.

Release Planning

Digital Avenues uses its Team Velocity metric, Feature priorities and Feature estimates to arrive at the number of iteration required for a particular Release. As more information is discovered about the project, the scope is fine tuned and the Release Plan adjusted. The features that are part of an iteration  is available as reports from the DTS .

Iteration Planning

Once the features to be delivered in a  Iteration is fixed, the Team breaks down each feature into tasks and estimated time necessary for the work. This list of tasks is called a Iteration Backlog and documented in the DTS tool. For future iterations these estimates and actual hours are reviewed for a more accurate assessment of the velocity. The Project Manager facilitates this and oversees the completeness of the exercises. Following agile practices, the developer chooses the features that the want to work on rather than being assigned.

Iteration Tracking

Digital Avenues has its own time tracking tool that captures time as the developers work on a particular task. On a daily basis, the developers update the time worked and remaining effort on individual tasks in the Iteration Backlog.

During the iteration the estimated time may go up or down. The progress is reviewed using a “Iteration Burndown” chart. One of the agile practice s is a daily standup meeting, among the team members. The team documents a short blog  that communicates the achievements for the day, next days plans and issues faced by the team member.

Digital Avenues uses Team Velocity, which is the Sum of Story Points delivered per iteration by a team, to adjust future estimation of projects.

InsiteAvenue portal is used for all communication at Digital Avenues. This provides an always on and persistent communication mechanism that provides the same story to all the parties involved. The project managers post their weekly plans, updates and announcements in this portal .

Quality Tracking

The Team System is integrated with Version Management software and Continuous Integration software. Digital Avenues uses a Test Driven Development approach, wherever applicable. The system is tested using automated scripts and manual test steps. All bugs are logged in the Team Systems’ bug tracking functionality. These are tracked as the part of the Product Backlog and tracked to closure. The database of bugs also provide metrics on the quality of the product being delivered by the team.

Post Project Review

After the conclusion of each iteration and release, Digital Avenues conducts lessons learned sessions, reviews the iteration real hours and the velocity for future planning cycles.