The Agile Methodology has been chosen for the VMS Project as it provides a versatile structure for developing an effective solution that focus on the customers. The Scrum Framework in particular, is centred around continuous learning and adjustment to fluctuating factors. It acknowledges the fact that the team doesn't know everything at the start of the project and will evolve through experience. This means that the team can adapt to changing conditions and re-prioritisation built within the process through the short release cycles ultimately enabling them to constantly learn and improve. This in turn will save large amounts of time, cost, and resources given to the project.
The first stage of Scrum in the Agile Methodology is setting up the project foundations. These includes the sprint planning, putting together the sprint backlog, and deciding on the scrum roles.
The scrum roles have been divided accordingly into different roles including the Project Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team. The roles were distributed based on the individual's skills and experience to ensure that the work produced is at a high quality. The team took the initiative to be self-organising and adapt to each other to allow for the best outcomes. Furthermore, they will be cross-functional to ensure that each member can work independently in successfully achieving the outcomes. The roles are as follows:
- Product Owner: Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
- Scrum Master: Bryan Colin
- Development Team: Adam Airey, Pornmonireachsak Aun, Dylan Cai, Kunyang Dai, and Jasmina Dang
The Project Owner is responsible for the product backlog and has a say in prioritising the user stories, requirements and changes. The Product backlog will contain all necessary requirements to effectively create the VMS and is thus presented at an ordered list. It is important for the Agile Backlog to be well-prioritised as it not only makes the release and iteration planning easier, it demonstrates all the aspects the team intends to spent time on including the work the customer do not see. The user stories will be used for the product backlog as it breaks down the user needs and requirements which ultimately allow the team to create a roadmap for building the system. The backlog will be prioritised based on the importance in each sprint. The list of user stories can be found in the Week 2 Product Backlog Tab.
Sprint Planning is an event in Scrum that kicks off the beginning of the sprint. This event is to define what can be delivered in the sprint and how the work can be achieved. Sprint is a set period of time where all the work is done and is done in collaboration with the whole scrum team. The planning meeting will involve the scrum master, project owner, and development team who will decide how the produce will proceed and a plan will then be developed for their own use.It is also this meeting where the team discusses "The Definition of Done" on each of the user stories to ensure that the work is completed in a timely manner. The team defines The Definition of Done when:
- All Prototypes & Models have been completed to its best abilities
- UML diagrams have been reviewed by two member in the development team as well as the project owner & product owner
- Feedback has been provided to the author of the diagrams
The backlog is accessed in this meeting and will have user stories split up into sprint as shown in the table below:
| Sprint | Duration | User Story ID | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 001, 002, 005, 006, 007, 008 | To set up VMS allowing users to register and login in order to achieve the expectations of the owner and the manager |
| 2 | 2 | 003, 004, 009, 010, 011 | To create a notification and mapping vaccine system to make the Vaccination Process more efficient |
Also known as daily stand-ups, the daily scrum meetings are a great way for the team to understand each other's progress as well as help flag any team blockers. It also strengthens the team when everyone shares the progress that they are contributing. The regular intervals or these meetings also keeps everyone excited about the team's overall contribution to the organisation, thus leading to ultimately transparency found throughout the team. Every member answers these three questions to generate structure to the meetings as they should only be 5 minutes long:
- What did I work on yesterday?
- What did I work on today?
- What issues are blocking me?
Any blockers that were brought up during these meetings were openly discussed within the team and management to derive a solution where each meeting had a limit of 5-10 minutes max.
The execution of all the two sprints were successful as a result of the effective implementation of the Agile Methodology (in particular Scrum) which allowed for the incremental succession of tasks being completed as well as enabling effective communication between the development team and management. From the sprint planning, all the way to the daily scrum meeting, the team was able to complete their tasks within a timely manner through having a sprint review. Although the system is not ready for deployment nor for sale, the working model has been developed and reviewed by the product owner. Some of the work showcased include the UML diagrams, Project Objectives and a low fidelity prototype of the system. A sprint review is a celebration of completing the tasks on time based on what the team defines 'The definition of done' on each of the work items and was done at the end of Sprint 1 and 2.
The sprint retrospective is when the team reflects on the past in order to improve in the future. In this case, a retrospective was done after Sprint 1 as it gave the team a chance to reflect on their work and abilities on take on tasks and determine whether or not they are able to continue with this work for Sprint 2. This is a great way for the team to reflect on how to become more effective, then fine tune and adjust it behaviour accordingly. The team found that by having these retrospectives, they significantly improved their work ethic by the time Sprint 2 came about, indicating the importance of reflection in team work.