How to plan iterations in EA

[Fredrik Israelsson]

Dear All,
I am trying to find a way to make iteration planning visible in EA. All I want to play with is a bunch of use cases and some system developers, recorded as resources in the model.
I want to be able to associate use cases with different iterations. The iterations should have a dead line, and it should be possible to view the iterations along a time line. One or more resources should be associated with use cases, making it possible to generate some sort of burndown graph, telling how big part of the use cases in a given iteration has been implemented.
In short, I want to use EA as an agile project planning tool. Is this possible? Have some of you done it? If so, could you please give me some ideas to start with?

Thank you very much!
Regards,
Fredrik

[Jeff Cantrill]

Fredrik,

I have been trying to do the same thing, but I don't think EA out of the box supports this usage model in an agreeable way.  The best that I have been able to do is use features (or usecases) with a 'Story' sterotype, coupled with a 'Metric' entry for story points, coupled with resources as you describe.  To represent iterations, I was thinking of either using a digram that represents a specific iteration and attaching a 'planning' resource in order to target the start and end dates.

It's all very hoaky and I think it begs for a custom add in.......hmmmm...

[Fredrik Israelsson]

Thanks!
In some way, it feels good to know that I am not the only one having a hard time with this.
I could cope with leaving a lot of the details in agile planning behind. Would just like to view a backlog, listing all use cases sorted by priority, and then have the possibility to chop the backlog up in chunks that would represent my iterations.

/Fredrik

[Oliver F.]

Take a look at TimeArchitect which is an extremely helpful EA addin:

http://www.timearchitect.net

You can track efforts and progress through gantt charts and a backlog like spreadsheet by assigning values to the elements which are to process.

SolutionsReality is rather responsive to feature requests and such.

HTH

Oliver

[Jeff Cantrill]

Fredrik,

Another option I am tinkering with is creating a UML profile that has tagged values of things like 'story points' and 'start date' and 'end date'.  The profile combined with a custom add-in that knows how to process stories and iterations would do the trick of creating burn down charts.

I'm having issues actually creating the profile, but that is another story; no pun intended.  I'll keep you updated on my progress.

[Oliver F.]

Fredrik,

Another option I am tinkering with is creating a UML profile that has tagged values of things like 'story points' and 'start date' and 'end date'.  The profile combined with a custom add-in that knows how to process stories and iterations would do the trick of creating burn down charts.

This is exactly what TimeArchitect is doing. Licenses are cheaper than investing several hours of doityourself

Oliver

[OneCent]

a small time architect question - if we would use TA, do i nead a licence for every user that works with the modell? Or is it enough when the PM, QM ... has one?

Cheersm OneCent

[Oliver F.]

a small time architect question - if we would use TA, do i nead a licence for every user that works with the modell? Or is it enough when the PM, QM ... has one?

Propably Matt Ellis from Solutions Reality would give you the answer that everybody needs one- can't blam him on this

In fact to get the best out of it developers should have it installed as well so they can track themselves, assign themselves to tasks and see who is working on which element in the model. To have a good view of the backlog is a rather efficient way of cooperation inside a model.

However there is also a (minimalistic) scenario in which developers just fill out the resource tab of the elements and the associated tagged values in EA while the project manager runs the calculations over it to create the backlog and publishes it on the web or exports it into Excel or MSProject.
To figure out your way I suggest you test drive the 30days evaluation version and see how far you will get with both scenarios.

HTH

Oliver

[Jeff Cantrill]

Fredrik,

Another option I am tinkering with is creating a UML profile that has tagged values of things like 'story points' and 'start date' and 'end date'.  The profile combined with a custom add-in that knows how to process stories and iterations would do the trick of creating burn down charts.

This is exactly what TimeArchitect is doing. Licenses are cheaper than investing several hours of doityourself

Oliver

I would beg the differ with regards to this add-in doing exactly what is requested.  It is designed around a typical project management tool with Ghant charts and the like.  It is not an 'Agile' tool per se which would display things like burn down and velocity.  Effort is not necessarily quantified a value of hours and days.