Iteration Closeout Process in RTC
There appears to be no feature for "sprint closeout". Right-clicking on an iteration, selecting "Close Iteration", and having the software automatically check that there are no remaining open items in the sprint would be a nice addition. Even better would be a semi-automated way to move incomplete tasks from one sprint to the next by splitting the story. But without those, here is what I gather is the sprint closeout process, at least for 2.0. Please correct me if there is a better way of doing any of this.
Update Status for Work Items and Move if Needed
Either view the Iteration Plan or Run a query for open Work Items in the Current Iteration.
For each open item, update the status as appropriate and/or move the item to a new Iteration or to a Backlog. You may wish to move the item back to the Product Backlog or a Release Backlog, as appropriate, if it will not be done in the next Iteration.
If some Tasks of a Story were completed but others were not, move the incomplete Tasks to a Story in a Backlog or another Iteration. Create a new Story if needed.
A single Story cannot bridge two Iterations and every Task must have a Story as a Parent.
Once all the Tasks of a Story are marked Done (or moved to a different Story), mark the Story as Complete.
Once all Stories and Tasks remaining in the Current Iteration are marked Done you are ready to close the Iteration.
Caveat: there is no official closeout process that checks the Iteration to make sure all items are indeed closed. Its up to the Project Manager to do this.
Change Iteration Settings
Go to the Overview tab for and look at the Timelines list on the right.
Go to the Iteration you just finished zeroing out and right-click on it and select Edit Properties.
Uncheck the box that says A release is scheduled for this iteration.
Right-click on the new Iteration and select Set as Current.
Is there a better way of doing any of this? Did I miss anything?
Update Status for Work Items and Move if Needed
Either view the Iteration Plan or Run a query for open Work Items in the Current Iteration.
For each open item, update the status as appropriate and/or move the item to a new Iteration or to a Backlog. You may wish to move the item back to the Product Backlog or a Release Backlog, as appropriate, if it will not be done in the next Iteration.
If some Tasks of a Story were completed but others were not, move the incomplete Tasks to a Story in a Backlog or another Iteration. Create a new Story if needed.
A single Story cannot bridge two Iterations and every Task must have a Story as a Parent.
Once all the Tasks of a Story are marked Done (or moved to a different Story), mark the Story as Complete.
Once all Stories and Tasks remaining in the Current Iteration are marked Done you are ready to close the Iteration.
Caveat: there is no official closeout process that checks the Iteration to make sure all items are indeed closed. Its up to the Project Manager to do this.
Change Iteration Settings
Go to the Overview tab for and look at the Timelines list on the right.
Go to the Iteration you just finished zeroing out and right-click on it and select Edit Properties.
Uncheck the box that says A release is scheduled for this iteration.
Right-click on the new Iteration and select Set as Current.
Is there a better way of doing any of this? Did I miss anything?
3 answers
There is a "continue" operation available on a work item in the context
of a plan. This automates most of the process described below, but I
believe you have to invoke this operation on one work item at a time.
Note though that doing this operation one work item at a time is
normally not an issue, because you would expect only a few (ideally,
zero) work items to still be open at the end of a sprint. If there are
more than a small number of work items still open at the end of a
sprint, then this is probably a red flag on how you are managing the
sprint workload, because you would want to be aware of whether or not a
task would be completed in a given sprint well before the end of the
sprint, and do that load balancing before then.
Cheers,
Geoff
On 2/15/2011 1:23 PM, mshkolnik wrote:
of a plan. This automates most of the process described below, but I
believe you have to invoke this operation on one work item at a time.
Note though that doing this operation one work item at a time is
normally not an issue, because you would expect only a few (ideally,
zero) work items to still be open at the end of a sprint. If there are
more than a small number of work items still open at the end of a
sprint, then this is probably a red flag on how you are managing the
sprint workload, because you would want to be aware of whether or not a
task would be completed in a given sprint well before the end of the
sprint, and do that load balancing before then.
Cheers,
Geoff
On 2/15/2011 1:23 PM, mshkolnik wrote:
There appears to be no feature for "sprint closeout".
Right-clicking on an iteration, selecting "Close
Iteration", and having the software automatically check that
there are no remaining open items in the sprint would be a nice
addition. Even better would be a semi-automated way to move
incomplete tasks from one sprint to the next by splitting the story.
But without those, here is what I gather is the sprint closeout
process, at least for 2.0. Please correct me if there is a better way
of doing any of this.
Update Status for Work Items and Move if Needed
Either view the Iteration Plan or Run a query for open Work Items
in the Current Iteration.
For each open item, update the status as appropriate and/or move
the item to a new Iteration or to a Backlog. You may wish to move the
item back to the Product Backlog or a Release Backlog, as appropriate,
if it will not be done in the next Iteration.
If some Tasks of a Story were completed but others were not, move
the incomplete Tasks to a Story in a Backlog or another Iteration.
Create a new Story if needed.
A single Story cannot bridge two Iterations and every Task must
have a Story as a Parent.
Once all the Tasks of a Story are marked Done (or moved to a
different Story), mark the Story as Complete.
Once all Stories and Tasks remaining in the Current Iteration are
marked Done you are ready to close the Iteration.
Caveat: there is no official closeout process that checks the
Iteration to make sure all items are indeed closed. Its up to the
Project Manager to do this.
Change Iteration Settings
Go to the Overview tab for and look at the Timelines
list on the right.
Go to the Iteration you just finished zeroing out and right-click
on it and select Edit Properties.
Uncheck the box that says A release is scheduled for this
iteration.
Right-click on the new Iteration and select Set as Current.
Is there a better way of doing any of this? Did I miss anything?