Agile software development for a successful online platform, part 2

Part 1 covered the story map and mockup, the two tools of the concept phase. Now come the two that are in use during implementation and operations.

Step 3: planning implementation with Jira

We plan the development team’s work in Jira. The practical advantage lies in its connections to the other tools, including StoriesOnBoard and Confluence.

Prioritisation in the backlog

The epics and user stories from the story map are transferred to Jira at the push of a button. In the backlog, the product owner puts stories, bugs and tasks in order, so it is always clear what comes next. The upcoming stories are specified in more detail for implementation.

• Bugs: unwanted system behaviour. Also recorded in Jira and scheduled into a sprint.
• Tasks: work with no direct link to a function, such as ‘Create mockup for ticket management’ or ‘Set up story map for the web shop’.

Implementation in the sprint

Based on the order in the backlog, we plan the tasks in sprints, which for us are three-week time slots. During the sprint, the development team keeps the status of each task up to date, and this status is also visible in the story map in real time. A story passes through seven stages:

• Open: recorded, implementation not yet started.
• In Progress: development is under way.
• Work completed: development finished, ready for review by the product owner.
• Ready for customer review: deployed to the acceptance system.
• Review completed: tested and ready to be rolled out to production.
• Live on production: released to production.
• Closed: completed, documented and accepted.

Step 4: documenting with Confluence

Once a function is live, it is documented. This pays off later: in error analysis, when onboarding new people and for the user manual. Complex relationships can still be looked up years later instead of having to be reconstructed.

We use Confluence for this, wiki software with comments, tasks and simultaneous work on a page. You have access to your area at any time and can export pages when needed. Besides how the system works, we record two things there:

• Glossary: all technical terms defined together, so that ‘customer’, ‘order’ or ‘client’ mean the same thing to both sides.
• Meeting notes: decisions remain traceable, open tasks are assigned to a person.

Four tools, one goal: the status of the project can be seen at any time, from the first story to the documented function in production. For us, agile does not mean ‘everything is flexible’, but keeping the overall picture in view and keeping you involved in the process.