Workflow
Agile is focused on iterative delivery. This impacts how a team break downs their work and manages their work through the software development lifecycle. SDLC tools help manage this work.
Work breakdown¶
In agile, stories form the basis of work items. Epics are a larger theme around a collection of stories, or they can be seen as a longer-lived goal. Subtasks can be broken out during sprint planning as a team or in-sprint by engineers.
| Ticket | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Epic | Large bodies of work, feature focused or higher, spans multiple sprints | 1-4 iterations |
| Story | Typical unit of work, driven by the product owner | 1 day |
| Subtask | Small amount of work that lives under a story or task | < 1 day |
Workflow¶
Backlog. The backlog is a list of all work items that are waiting to be brought in for development. In Kanban, items are pulled from backlog; in Scrum, items are brought in a planning.
Kanban Board. Teams use kanban boards to track their work in progress (WIP), using columns To Do, In Progress, and Done. During standup, teams may "walk the board" and review the status or blockers of each item on the board.
"Using WIP limits can help your team reduce multitasking and focus on finishing the work that matters most." - Dominica DeGrandis