Throughout this course, you will be managing a fictitious project of your choice using SCRUM Agile project management techniques. You will use theMS Excel and Word to help with your Agile project management. This project will involve a series of steps over Weeks 1-5, and will culminate in a final evaluation in Week 6.

Roadmap
Here is a summary of the project milestones and the weeks in which they are due:

• Week 1 – Setup a Visual Studio Online (VSO) account
• Week 2 – Select Project and Write Business Case (business case must include at least 2-3 business milestones)
• Week 3 – Product Backlog (must include at least 3 features, 10 backlog items (e.g., user stories). Also note: there is only one Scrum development team, made of 3 developers.)
• Week 4 – Release Planning (product must have at least 3 releases)
• Week 5 – Sprint Execution (project must have at least 4 sprints)
• Week 6 – Final Video

Your Tasks for This Week
To complete your task for this week, start by selecting a project that is robust enough to fulfill the requirements in Weeks 2-5, noted above. Next, write a business case for your project, incorporating the same level of detail as the Level 0 business case in your textbook. Your business case be written as a paper with headings, and should include:

• Two or three business milestones
• Root cause of the business problem
• Reason for solving the business problem
• Scope of the project
• Risk associated with the project
• Project Planning (cost and schedule)
• Project Balance sheet

The assignment:

• Must be 750-1500 words (3-5 pages) in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must include a business case that is written as a paper with contextual (Level One) headings
• Business case must include the following:
  • Two or three business milestones
  • Root cause of the business problem
  • Reason for solving the business problem
  • Scope of the project
  • Risk associated with the project
  • Project Planning (cost and schedule)
  • Project Balance sheet
• Must describe the steps you took to develop your business case
• Must explain your approach to this assignment and the decisions you made
• Must include a reflection on this learning experience and lessons learned

Note:

Hi Class,

For week 2 this assignment can be developed in MS Word. You can if you want put the the two or three milestones in MS Excel but this is optional.

For weeks 3, 4, and 5 as it appears that the VSO videos are outdated we are going to use MS Excel instead of VSO. Thus, wherever you see VSO in the assignment please use MS Excel. Now given that you are using MS Excel you are free to develop your own format and improve it as you see fit. You do not need to use the MS Excel project template. Just use the plain Excel spreadsheets. In this way, the idea is that you can apply Scrum techniques yet not be tied to a certain Scrum platform but design a format that fits your needs. The key is to enable you to get exposure to an agile technique that is often used and encourage innovation.

Now you may also view the VSO videos to obtain some ideas. However, viewing these videos will be optional.

Where submission of VSO screen shots are requested please submit the Excel worksheets you developed instead.