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SpiraPlan ® - Product Information

SpiraPlan ® - Product Information. Accelerating Project Delivery with Agile Project Management. Objectives. After viewing this presentation you will:

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SpiraPlan ® - Product Information

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  1. SpiraPlan® - Product Information Accelerating Project Delivery with Agile Project Management

  2. Objectives • After viewing this presentation you will: • Understand the challenges involved in planning and managing projects and why traditional waterfall methodologies have failed to deliver projects on-time and on-budget. • Have a strong grasp on the project management features provided by SpiraPlan® • Have learned about the benefits of using SpiraPlan® to plan, execute and manage your project

  3. Agenda • Why use Agile Methodologies • Project Management Challenges • SpiraPlan® Overview • Feature Walkthrough • Requirements Management • Release Planning • Iteration Planning • Task Tracking • Bug / Issue Tracking • Source Code Integration • Integration / Migration Options • Synchronization with external bug-trackers • Migration from other systems

  4. Why Agile Methodologies? • Traditionally projects are delivered in a series of phases that are based on increasing levels of certainty around the system being built: • However this approach has some drawbacks: • It is not flexible to changes in customer requirements • Time is wasted building features that nobody needs • The end user cannot give feedback till it’s completed coded • You don’t know how stable the system is until the end Traditional Waterfall Methodology Requirements Gathering Business Design Technical Design Systems Development Unit Testing Integration Testing Acceptance Testing (UAT) Release Complete

  5. The Agile Approach • Instead of phases, projects are broken down into releases and iterations. At the end of each iteration you have a fully functioning system that could be released: Traditional Waterfall Methodology Requirements Gathering Business Design Technical Design Systems Development Unit Testing Integration Testing Acceptance Testing (UAT) Release Complete Agile Methodology Limited Upfront Planning Release #1 Release #2 Release #3 Release #4 It 1 It 2 It 3 It 4 It 5 It 6 It 7 It 8 It 9 It 10 It 11 It 12 Release Complete Iteration N Iteration Planning Development, Continuous Integration, Unit Testing, Functional & Acceptance Testing

  6. The Agile Approach (3) • The requirements for the project do not have to be codified upfront, instead they are prioritized and scheduled for each iteration: • The requirements are composed of ‘stories’ that can be scheduled into a particular release and iteration Release Plan Iteration Tested, Integrated Working System Iteration Plan Iteration Scope

  7. The Agile Approach (3) • There are several different agile methods: • Scrum • Extreme Programming (XP) • Agile Unified Process (AUP) • Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) • They have specific features that make them better suited to different situations, but in general, they follow the same basic agile principles*: • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools • Working software over comprehensive documentation • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation • Responding to change over following a plan *Source: Agile Manifesto - http://agilemanifesto.org

  8. The Existing Project Management Toolkit • Traditionally, Software Development organizations use the following tools to manage their lifecycles: • Requirements stored in MS-Word documents, MS-Excel spreadsheets or expensive tools such a RequisitePro, Doors • High-level project plan (GANTT chart) developed in tools such as Microsoft Project, Primavera and printed out for reference • Project estimates prepared using a combination of the high-level project plan and specialized standalone MS-Excel spreadsheets • Detailed schedules maintained by individual team members using MS-Excel, Whiteboards or Groupware solutions • MS-Access, MS-Excel or standalone web-based bug-tracking system for tracking issues and defects

  9. Project Management Toolkit Challenges • As the static project plan with its discrete phases has become replaced by the more flexible agile approach, the old set of tools no longer works: • The project requirements and scope are not locked-down so the schedule of releases and iterations needs to be connected to the requirements backlog in real-time • The project schedule is constantly evolving, with stories being reallocated to different iterations and team members re-estimating the number of stories they can complete (velocity) • Defects and stories need to be managed in the same environment, with the project estimates and schedules taking account of both at all times • SpiraPlan is explicitly designed to address these issues and provide an integrated solution…

  10. SpiraPlan® Overview

  11. Product Overview • Instead of having to buy separate requirements management, project planning and defect tracking tools, SpiraPlan provides a complete Agile Project Management solution in one package. • SpiraPlan manages your project's requirements, user stories, release plans, iteration plans, tasks, bugs and issues in one environment. Since it’s web based, teams can collaborate in real time and have up to the minute visibility of the project’s status.

  12. Why Choose SpiraPlan? • The top reasons that our customers choose SpiraPlan over other solutions are: • It is a complete solution that includes requirements management, release planning, iteration planning, task estimation and defect tracking all fully integrated from day one. • Highly intuitive web application that provides a complete picture of a project’s status and health yet requires only a web-browser. • Methodology Agnostic – SpiraPlan can be used equally web for any agile methodology – including Scrum, AUP, XP, DSDM • Ability to leverage your existing technology investments. SpiraPlan integrates with many third-party defect-management systems and software configuration management (SCM) systems. • In addition, we provide superb technical support that ensures that enquiries and questions are dealt with in a timely and professional manner.

  13. Develop high-level requirements with initial estimates Prioritize and schedule requirements for each iteration Determine resourcing levels to deliver required features Planning board for easy communication of backlog Decompose requirements into detailed task breakdown Integrated web-based document management. Allocate tasks to developers based on task estimates Load-balance project resources to maximize project velocity Track issues and defects against project schedule View project velocity, burndown and burnup reports Customizable dashboards of key project information Integration with multiple IDEs Feature Snapshot Listed below are some of the many great features that makes SpiraPlan agile project management software the leading choice for companies and organizations worldwide:

  14. SpiraPlan Mingle XPlanner ScrumWorks JIRA & Greenhopper AcuNote AxoSoft OnTime SmartBearQaComplete Competitive Landscape • We believe that SpiraPlan offers an unbeatable combination of capability and affordability: Source: Inflectra Corporation, 2011 Niche Players Challengers Affordability Uncompetitive Incumbents Breadth of Features / Capability

  15. Representative Customers • The following are some of the organizations who are using SpiraPlan to manage their application development lifecycles: Energy & Industrial Financial & Business Services Government Information Technology Healthcare & Bio-Technology Telecommunications Retail & Consumer Goods Transportation & Hospitality

  16. Testimonials • “…My team has used SpiraPlan for over 6 months and have been satisfied with the Project Management and collaboration features of the software. Will definitely use Inflectra products again.“- Dan – Vector One Consulting • “…SpiraPlan from Inflectra is a lifesaver! It was very easy to use, organized, and user-friendly. I will definitely recommend and utilize this program in the future.”- Lindsay Snider • “…We use Inflectra software in many of our projects and we are proud to offer their tools to our customers. It is also big pleasure to cooperate with the Inflectra team.“- Viktor Tarnavskyi – Soflab Technology • “The team here really have a great product on their hands with helpfulness and ease. Who wouldn't use this software for business planning needs?! ...“- Mika

  17. Introduction to Agile using SpiraPlan (1) • The first step is to define the project’s requirements. • This is a hierarchical list of all the features that the system needs to fulfill (in some methodologies they are called user stories) • They can be entered by hand, imported from a variety of tools: • MS-Office documents such as Excel, Word or Project • Modeling tools such as RequisitePro or Enterprise Architect • They can be prioritized, contain attachments, be cross-linked and have project-specific attributes • Don’t worry about getting it all right first time, this is Agile, so the requirements will evolve during the project! Define Requirements

  18. Introduction to Agile using SpiraPlan(2) • Next, plan out the project’s high-level schedule • Include the major releases, minor releases and optionally builds and iterations depending on desired granularity • You can now assign the different lower-level requirements to each of the iterations so that it is possible to start planning the features that will be developed in each release and iteration based on customer priority and business value. • In some methodologies (e.g. Scrum) the requirements list is called the Project Backlog and iterations are called Sprints. Define Requirements Release Planning

  19. Introduction to Agile using SpiraPlan(3) • Now you start the iteration planning (for the first one): • Decompose the requirements into detailed project tasks that can be prioritized and individually estimated. These estimates can be then compared against the top-down requirement estimate • Assign any defects that were raised in the previous release/iteration into the current iteration for resolution • Potentially re-assign the requirements and tasks to different iterations, if there is not enough time/resources to support the planned functionality • In some methodologies (Scrum) this is called ‘sprint planning’ Define Requirements Release Planning Iteration Planning

  20. Introduction to Agile using SpiraPlan(4) • Now you can schedule the team members and load balance the task resourcing allocation: • Assign the discrete project tasks and defects to the members of the development team staffed to the iteration • Team members view their individual schedule and task assignments to determine if they can perform all the tasks • The detailed task schedule is updated by the team members, with the release/iteration schedule reflecting the updates so that the management can make changes to the master schedule Define Requirements Release Planning Iteration Planning Schedule & Resourcing

  21. Introduction to Agile using SpiraPlan (5) • Real-time status of the progress of the iteration and release is visible by the management during execution: • The team members update the actual effort, remaining effort and predicted end-date values of their various tasks as they complete the assigned workload • When tasks are completed, or if exception conditions occur (late starting tasks, late finishing tasks, overruns, etc.), the status of the overall iteration and release is updated to give early indication of needed management intervention • In addition the progress of the tasks is linked back to the original requirements, so there is full requirements traceability Define Requirements Release Planning Iteration Planning Schedule &Resourcing Tracking & Reporting

  22. Feature Walkthrough

  23. Personalized ‘My Page’ Upon login to SpiraPlan, you are presented with a personalized ‘dashboard’ of all your key information, consolidated onto a single page for you to take immediate action. RSS Feeds of your information are available

  24. Project Home Page Each project has a dashboard home-page that summarizes all of the information regarding the project into a comprehensive, easily digestible form. It provides a “one-stop-shop” for people interested in understanding the overall status and health of the project at a glance.It includes key graphs such as task burndown and team velocity

  25. Project Portfolio Management Projects in SpiraPlan can be organized into Project Groups that belong to a common organization, customer or division. This allows you to view a summary project group dashboard that lets you view the aggregate status of the group as whole as well as compare the relative health of the different projects in the group.

  26. Requirements Management You have the ability to create and manage project requirements, user stories and use cases in a hierarchical organization. Requirements can be prioritized, estimated and also associated with a specific release. Each requirement is displayed with its associated development task progress.

  27. Requirements Elaboration (Tasks) Each requirement can then be decomposed into its low-level assignable work items called ‘tasks’. Each can be separately estimated to validate the overall high-level requirement story-point estimate.

  28. Release Planning You have the ability to create a master release schedule containing all the major milestone releases together with the individual iterations – smaller releases of the system delivered every 4-6 weeks.

  29. Iteration Planning The requirements (user stories), tasks and outstanding incidents (bugs, issues) can be scheduled against the different iterations in the release. The system will calculate the available effort as requirements are added.

  30. Agile / Scrum Planning Board The Planning Board allows teams to easily visualize the requirements, tasks and incidents assigned to each iteration. You can drill-down to see the items assigned to each developer in iteration for load-balancing. Drag-and-drop editing and color-coding maximize efficiency.

  31. Task Progress Tracking SpiraPlan provides the ability to edit assign and track the project tasks. You can search, filter and sort the list of tasks to quickly find those that are behind schedule or are late starting. This allows you to track the progress of the tasks in the system and determine if tasks are suffering from schedule overrun or estimate inflation. In addition you can compare actuals for continuous process improvement.

  32. Resource Tracking Once the requirements, tasks and incidents have been scheduled against the iteration plan, you can use the Resource Tracking screens to view the total assigned workload for the members of the project and determine the resource assignments and perform load balancing if necessary.

  33. Bug / Issue Tracking The system provides the ability to create, edit, assign, track, manage and close incidents (i.e. bugs, issues, risks, defects, enhancements) that are raised during the testing of the software system under development.

  34. Document Management All documents and web links uploaded to the system are available in the integrated document management system. This allows you to organize the documents into folders, categorize by document types and associate with meta-tags. Once uploaded, users can search, sort and filter the documents as well as find dynamically related items through the meta-tag hyperlinks.

  35. Document Version Tracking Once uploaded to the central knowledge repository, revisions to the documents can be uploaded so that there is complete audit trail of all changes made to artifacts and associated documentation in the project.

  36. Instant Messaging & Collaboration SpiraPlan includes an integrated instant-messenger that lets users collaborate and communicate in real-time regardless of geographic location. The discussions can be codified and tagged against specific artifacts in the system, so that they become part of the artifact discussion thread.

  37. Customizable Incident Fields You can customize each of the fields used in the Incident tracking module to suit your own business needs - including incident type, status, priority and severity. You can even associate your own color schemes with the different priorities and severities.

  38. Customizable Workflows & Notifications Different types of incident, requirement and task can follow their own customized workflow. This allows you to tailor SpiraPlan to the business processes used by your organization. Each workflow consists of a customizable set of steps and transitions. In addition each transition can be used to send email notifications to the detector, owner or users in a certain project group.

  39. Attachments & Screenshot Capture You can upload document attachments to Requirements, Tasks, Releases and Incidents in the system. Each of these artifacts includes an attachment view that allows users to view the existing attachments, delete an existing attachment and upload new documents from their workstation. In addition, there is a built-in screen capture utility for quickly adding screenshots to a test execution or incident report

  40. Software Configuration Management (SCM) SpiraPlan allows you to link your existing software configuration management (SCM) repositories to a particular project. When this is done, you can browse the contents of the repository (folders, files and revisions) directly in the SpiraPlan web interface.

  41. Source Code Integration In addition to being able to view the contents of the source code repository, using SpiraPlan you can link artifacts in the system to specific source code revisions. This allows you to associate implemented requirements, completed tasks or resolved defects/incidents with the corresponding code changes. This provides end-to-end traceability from requirements to software code.

  42. Build Management SpiraPlan provides the ability to integrate with continuous integration build servers such as Hudson and CruiseControl so that the status of builds can be recorded in SpiraPlan and linked to source code revisions and incidents. This provides traceability for each build, so that you can see what was changed in each build and what was fixed.

  43. Customizable Reporting Dashboard SpiraPlan includes an extensive reports library that can display information such as Requirements Progress, Release Plan Status, Task Progress and Incident Status. SpiraPlan allows you to build a customized reporting dashboard featuring your frequently-used graphs, charts and reports. The graphs available include: Project Velocity, Burndown, Burnup, Bug Discovery Rates, and Incident Aging. Supported formats include HTML, XML, Word, Excel.

  44. Timecard Submission SpiraPlan includes a built-in timecard entry system that lets developers quickly and easily enter the time spent each day on their assigned tasks and incidents.

  45. Change History Tracking All of the changes made to a particular artifact in the system are tracked by SpiraPlan, so that at any time you can view the complete audit trail of all the changes made to an artifact, including the date of the change, who made the change, and what information was changed. SpiraPlan features full version-control capabilities that allow you to rollback specific changes and revert the artifact back to a prior revision.

  46. Artifact Associations Each requirement can be linked to an unlimited number of other requirements, incidents and source code revisions, providing traceability between related artifacts. For example a change request incident that turns into a new requirement can be associated to preserve the pedigree of the requirement.

  47. Custom Properties In addition to the built-in fields that are associated with each type of artifact, you can also define custom properties for each type of artifact in the system. The system supports a variety of different field types including: text, rich-text, dropdownlists, user selectors, and date-fields

  48. Visual Studio & Eclipse IDE Integration Developers can work on assigned requirements, tasks and incidents directly inside their Integrated Development Environment (IDE). SpiraPlan has plug-ins available for both Eclipse and Visual Studio. Research has shown that allowing developers to use the same tool to develop their code and manage their workload enhances efficiency and improves data accuracy.

  49. Email Integration SpiraPlan has a built-in email notification engine that lets you define custom email templates and notification events. This enables the system to send out notifications when specific events occur (e.g. user is assigned a test case, the priority of a requirement changes, etc.). In addition, SpiraPlan can connect to your email system and retrieve users’ comments and attach them to the appropriate artifact in the system. It can also create new incidents directly from emails, saving users’ time.

  50. Integration / Migration Options

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