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Strategic Development of Coscine

General software development

The Coscine development team follows the principles and practices of Scrum to work effectively on the maintenance and further development of Coscine. The team consists of different roles such as the Product Owner, who is responsible for prioritizing the product backlog, the Scrum Master, who supports the process and removes obstacles, and the developers, who implement the tickets (so-called issues). As with any Scrum team, the Coscine team plans its sprints, holds daily stand-ups and conducts regular reviews and retrospectives to ensure continuous improvement. The issues that are worked on in the two-week sprints are selected by the product owner. A significant proportion of the issues are part of larger planned strategic developments, the so-called epics.

Epics

To manage new strategic Coscine requirements for further development, we use Epics. In the Scrum domain, Epics are large, overarching user requirements or functionalities that can be divided into smaller, manageable parts (user stories/issues). They often represent a significant function or an important goal and may take several sprints to be fully implemented. To ensure a good overview and FAIR development for our stakeholders, we handle these Epics in a predefined and transparent manner, drawing on elements of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). For project management of strategic development, we use the Epic section in our Coscine GitLab.

Epic Template

For each Epic, a predefined Epic Template must be filled out. The use of the template is mandatory and ensures consistent quality regarding information depth. At the beginning of the template, the status of the Epic is marked. This is done depending on the phase by the Epic initiator, Epic owner, or SAFe coordinator (see role description below).

Epic Phases

There are six official phases for Epics. These are visible on the Coscine SAFe Epic Board. Each Epic is marked with a GitLab label indicating its current stage.

1. Funnel

The Epic initiator creates the Epic using the Epic Template and fills out all points from "Description" to "Nonfunctional Requirements".

2. Review

2.1 Epic Initiator

  • Informs the SAFe coordinator about completing the review
  • Marks status as "Ready for Review" and adds label "Epic::Ready for Review"
  • Presents the Epic at Steering Board Meeting session (max. 5 minutes, focus on "Elevator Pitch", slides not needed)

2.2 SAFe Coordinator

  • Checks status of Epic
  • Invites Epic initiator to next possible Steering Board Meeting session
  • Records date for next Steering Board Meeting in status

2.3 Steering Board

  • Epic moves to analysis backlog -> Vote count equal to or greater than 3 & Epic owner named by SAFe coordinator
  • Epic needs revision -> remains in review; label "Epic::Ready for Review" removed
  • Epic moved back to "Open" (label changed)

3. Analysis Backlog

The Steering Board evaluates at least once per month prioritization of all Epics in Analyzing Backlog. Order marked with labels and position on board (top = highest priority).

4. Analysis

The Coscine Product Owner moves the Epic into the Analyzing line when enough capacity for analysis available. The Epic Owner analyzes the Epic with the Coscine Scrum Team and creates related issues.

5. In Progress

The Product Owner moves the Epic from Analyzing to In Progress, once sufficient development capacity in the upcoming Scum Sprints are available. Epic and all associated issues are developed and implemented.

6. Completed

Development result of the Epic is presented by the Epic Owner at the next Steering Board Meeting and then closed by SAFe Coordinator.

Epic Meetings

Steering Board Meeting

Current stages of Epics presented, discussed, voted on, prioritized.

1-hour meeting occurs biweekly; max 2 Epics discussed per session; these Epics reviewed one week prior with initiators & owners then selected by SAFe Coordinator; invited by SAFe Coordinator.

Participants include RPDM department group leaders & management plus Coscine roles Product Owner & Service Management; guests can be invited anytime e.g., stakeholders discussed Epics.

SAFe Planning Meetings

Depending on group's current structure meets week before Steering Board Meeting with Coscine group leadership Product Owner & Service Managers discussing current Epics' status.

Voting

Each Steering Board Member votes based on the fist of five one of the following numbers for stage decisions (moving an Epic from review to analyzing backlog):

  1. No way! This will not work. I'm not on board.
  2. I see MAJOR issues that we need to resolve.
  3. I see MINOR issues we need to resolve now.
  4. I see minor issues we can resolve later.
  5. I'm fine with this plan as it is. It's a good plan.
  6. I love this! I will champion it. Best plan ever.

Prioritization

The analyzing backlog prioritization is done in an excel sheet. For the prioritization, the participants of the Steering Board agree per part of the prioritization formula (User-Business value + Time Criticality + Risk Reduction) on the following rating numbers:

Possible rating numbers: 1 2 3 5 8 13 20

Department head may decide to multiply the result by a strategic adjustment:

Strategic Fit 0.8 1 1.5