Each iteration ends with a retrospective workshop called
Evaluate which is used to evaluate the products, the process and the velocity of the team. Project metrics are distilled and applied to re-evaluate estimations and project planning.
The smart use cases that were attempted but not completed should be mentioned, but the focus in the Evaluate workshop should be on the working software. This is the opportunity for the team to show off what it has achieved during the iteration. The smart use cases that were produced during the
Build stage are demonstrated to the stakeholders.
The Evaluate workshop should be attended by the Project Owner, User(s), Project Manager and all team members. This is done to ensure that people who have developed the software are there to answer any questions from the stakeholders and also improves the communication in the team, with each team member further strengthening the teams understanding of the product and stakeholder expectations. The stakeholders can give better feedback after seeing working software rather than on abstract IT diagrams.
This feedback helps the team and project owner to tune the approach (whenever necessary) and plan better for the next iteration.
Smart
Goals
- Inform. Inform the stakeholders about the progress and the results of the iteration.
- Tune. Tune the approach (whenever necessary).
- Plan. Use the experiences and feedback to plan better for the next iteration.
===Steps=== - Demonstrate. Demonstrate the working software to the stakeholders in a workshop. The Evaluate workshop should be attended by the Project Owner, User(s), Project Manager and all team members. This is done to ensure that people who have developed the software are there to answer any questions from the stakeholders and also improves the communication in the team, with each team member further strengthening the teams understanding of the product and stakeholder expectations.
- Feedback. Get feedback from the stakeholders about the progress and produced smart use cases. The stakeholders can give better feedback after seeing working software rather than on abstract IT diagrams.
- Evaluate. Evaluate the process and the velocity of the team.
- Distill metrics. Distill project metrics such as the velocity of the team. These are used to to re-evaluate estimations and project planning.
===Techniques used=== - Nice technique, such as smart estimate, or use case diagram
- Nice technique, such as smart estimate, or use case diagram
- Nice technique, such as smart estimate, or use case diagram
Note that the retrospective (review of the last iteration) is usually the starting point of the planning meeting (for the next iteration) in the MediaMine approach. We do not organize two separate meetings for those two meetings.
Stefaan van Royen. MediaMine
In some cases it is usefull to split up the evaluation in 2 sessions. One for evaluating only with the team, the other with the customer en users. The seperate session with the team is usefull when the team is less skilled. The session is used for helping the team learn and improve. The downside of splitting up the evaluation is losing feedback from the customer and users and hiding project issues which could be important for the customer and users.
Robert de Wolff