Should you create a Feature or a Product Backlog Item?
If you think/hope that the new work item that you are going to create will fit into a single
sprint you should create a Product Backlog Item and then break it down into tasks for your sprint.
If you think/know that the new work item won't fit into a single sprint you should create
a Feature and identify all the Product Backlog Items that the Feature can be broken down into and use
these when planning future sprints.
Features represent work that cannot be completed within one sprint and instead will run over a longer
period of time before it is complete (like epics). They are broken down into Product Backlog Items that
we hope will fit into a single sprint. Features are not estimated as they are by definition large and
unwieldy, instead they have a target date to help priorities and plan releases over time. Features are not
used in sprint planning as they are too big only the Features children in the form of Product Backlog
Items are used for sprint planning and forecasting.
Product Backlog Items represent work that can be completed within one sprint (like user stories) they
are broken down into the tasks that need to be done to complete the work. PBIs are estimated to
enable planning & forecasting using our velocity.
Note- When you define an impediment, all fields are optional except Title. You can also link an
impediment to a PBI/Bug/Feature/Task.
PBIs represent the user story/requirement/Feature.
Q: What is the significance of 'Shared Steps'?
A: Many tests require the same sequence of steps to be performed for multiple test cases. By creating
shared steps, you can define a sequence of steps once and insert it into many test cases. For example, if
each test case requires a tester to log on to the application, you can create a set of shared steps to
perform these actions. You can then add the shared steps to each test case and run the steps using Test
Runner. To specify the sequence of action steps that define a set of shared steps, you must use
Microsoft Test Manager.
Q: What is the importance of "area", "iteration path" and "Tags"? Which one should be used where?
A: all three are used to group/categorize the Work Items which helps in quickly generating queries and
reports on work progress.
Area - organizes Work Items (11) into logical/physical/functional categories or components of sw
product.
Iteration Path - to group Work Items into Released and Sprints.
Tags - additional way (free form) to categorize Work Items. Query result can also be filtered using tags.
Q: What is User Stories?
A: Agile practices tend to focus on the informally communicated needs of users, commonly called User
Stories
Q: Who are Stakeholders?
A: We identify five major stakeholder areas:
the end users,
the business (board of directors, executive management, business management, marketing, and
sales),
customers,
domain experts and developers.
Q: What is code coverage?
A: Code coverage is a measure used to describe the degree to which the source code of a program is
tested by a particular test suite. A program with high code coverage has been more thoroughly
tested and has a lower chance of containing software bugs than a program with low code coverage.
There are several coverage criteria like,
Function coverage - all function called
Statement coverage - has each statement in the program executed?
Branch coverage - (if/ case statements)
Conditional coverage - Boolean expressions
Loop coverage etc
Q: What are various Process Templates which support Agile?
A: - MSF for CMMI Process Improvement
MSF for Agile Software Development
Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum
Q: Does your team track capacity per individual or by activity?
A: If your team tracks remaining work through tasks, they can assess the capacity for a sprint for
individual team members or for different team activities such as development, test, and design.
Q: Does your team use velocity and forecasting?
A: To support forecasting, your team can use the Effort (Scrum), Story Points (Agile), or Size (CMMI)
fields to determine how many items can be completed for a sprint. Also, the velocity chart will show
team progress sprint over sprint.
Q: Does your team support rollup of progress across several teams?
A: Portfolio backlogs let you quickly view a rollup of work in progress across several teams. If a team
member works on more than one team, he can allocate his capacity accordingly for each team.
