MSF for CMMI Process Improvement Visual Studio Team System logo

Activity:

Select Iteration Backlog (CMMI Level 3 : RD 3.4 )

Participating Roles

Responsible:

Project Manager

Business Analyst

Architect

Developer

Tester

Accountable:

Project Manager

Consult:

Any

Informed:

All

Overview

Entry Criteria

  • The outstanding list of approved project scenarios.
  • The outstanding list of approved project qualities of service.
  • The outstanding list of approved project product requirements including functional, operational, security, and interface requirements.
  • The list of open bug work items for the project.
  • The list of approved change requests.

Sub-Activities

1

Re-assess and Reprioritize Customer Requirements

  • Revisit the Kano analysis prepared in the Planning Track. Select the more attractive scenarios and qualities of service requirements and re-assess the Kano analysis in the light of more recent information.
  • Reprioritize the list of scenarios and qualities of service based on any updated Kano analysis.
  • Based on data for the most recent iteration, sort approximately the same number of the more attractive customer requirements into a single ordered list. This will give you a first pass ordered list of customer requirements for this iteration.

2

Decide a Balance of New Requirements versus Rework and Changes

  • Agree upon a balance of work items between new customer requirements and existing bug work items, change requests, or project product requirements.
  • In the early stages of a project, there may be more emphasis on essential product requirements to build an infrastructure upon which to hang the customer requirements.
  • In the mid-life of a project, the emphasis will be more on customer requirements.
  • During the Stabilize Track the emphasis will be on fixes to bug work items, and change requests.

3

Draw a Line

  • Based on the agreed upon balance of customer requirements against other work items, draw a line on the order list of customer requirements.
  • Mark each of the work items associated with those above the line as included in this iteration.

4

Triage Bugs, Change Requests, and Product Requirements

  • Triage the bugs, change requests, and product requirements and fill up the slack in the planned iteration backlog.

5

Select a Reserve List

  • Select a reserve (or buffer) of additional customer or product requirements, bugs, or change requests which would be nice to include in the planned iteration. These will be accepted and worked on in the event that the iteration plan is underestimated and there is additional capacity available.

6

Publish for Review

  • Publish the proposed list for review while the remainder of the iteration planning workstream activities are in progress.
  • The project manager should gather feedback and make changes to the iteration backlog as appropriate.

Exit Criteria

(C) 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

MSF for CMMI Process Improvement: Build 050707