IF you have experience in writing documentation for/as a project manager using Jira, rally, or kanban tools, you will understand the requirement. Company BackgroundSBM is a large IT company with offices all around the world. The company offers a wide range of products and services. One of the reasons for their success is their ability to invent and find new uses for the technology. SBM’s emerging technologies division is always monitoring new technology and figuring out ways in which it can serve the community. It oversees the execution of the Smart Weather project.Smart WeatherA product owner in the new technology division came up with the idea of creating a weather portal to provide weather-based services. The basic idea of the weather portal is to pull weather forecasts for any location from multiple public services and aggregate them for the common user. The data can be put to several uses.The main system will comprise of a web portal and a set of apps available on all popular mobile operating systems. Apart from this, clients can ask for specific services or apps based on the data that is collated.Backlog for Main PortalWork ItemsIntegrate with number of publicly available weather services based on locationDetect location using GPS (if on a device) or IPCreate a schema for storing weather data based on locationWrite logic for aggregating the data from multiple weather servicesProvide severe weather advisory (push for app users)Create placeholders for advertising on portal and appShow current weather statusShow 5-day forecast by defaultLink to 15-day forecastLink to long-range forecastShow satellite images on a mapShow time-lapse videos of satellite forecastMake site responsive or accessible from mobiles and tabletsPublish API/services for client appsCreate apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and BlackberryApart from creating, maintaining, and enhancing the main portal, there are several client projects that are lined up.Project 1 – BigBucks CaféBigBucks Café is a leading retail chain of premium coffee shops. They would like to use weather data to customize their products and manage their day-to-day operations. The backlog looks like this:Work ItemsIntegrate with the Smart Weather services to get store-specific weather dataUse weather data to decide advertising strategy – ice creams when the weather is hot, coffee when the weather is coldOrder supplies based on weather – more hot supplies during cold weather and more cold ones during hot or rainy weatherMap supply packages based on weatherSummer order – adjust quantities before placing the order and pick up the summer packageWinter order – adjust quantities before placing the order and pick up the winter packageDetermine promotions and pricing based on weatherProject 2 – LeViva Life InsuranceLeViva life insurance is one of the world’s biggest insurers. The company would like to use the weather data to serve its customers through an app. The backlog looks like this:Work ItemsIntegrate with the Smart Weather services to get location-specific weather dataMap health tips with weatherProvide health tips based on the weatherAllow users to report symptoms and ask for remediesAllow one-click calling to a nurse or a nearby dispensaryShow the nearest pharmacy and dispensary on a mapAllow sponsored links – e.g. winter jackets during cold weather, flu medicines when pollen is highTake the following steps to complete the projectStep 1 – Conceptualize a software project, which can be delivered by a team over a few sprints.A sprint cycle of minimum 5 days should be selected.
Plan the project so that a minimum viable product can be released every sprint.
Step 2 – Refine the backlog (work items) for the software product.Consider which of the work items are epics (need to be broken down into stories) and which are stories.
Rewrite stories for better clarity.
Step 3 – Prepare stories for at least three sprints.Enter the backlog in JIRA and create 3 sprints. Assign stories to different sprints.
Step 4 – Start sprint one.Assign a duration and sprint goal. Move stories along the sprint board to indicate the work that is started and completed during the sprint.
Take a few screenshots of the sprint board with stories in different states
Step 5 – Complete the sprint. Enable reports and take one or two reports of the sprint.Step 6 – Submit a word document containing basic information about the project and a few screenshots and reports. For example:Screenshot of the initial scoreboard of the project (which consists of the to-do list, work-in-progress, and done).
Screenshot of the final scoreboard of the project (which has all the issues mentioned under done).
