Time tracking is something we’ve always done at our Web design and development agency, Pelago. When we transitioned into a SaaS company five years ago, with our flagship online software Intervals, the time tracking practices followed with us. Agile development just came naturally to us, and our time tracking habits dovetailed with our rendition of Scrum. As we continue to iterate over our Scrum processes, we have discovered one indispensable fact — time tracking is the key to better sprint planning.

1. Better Sprint Planning through Time Tracking
Time tracking is something we’ve always done at our Web design and
development agency, Pelago. When we transitioned into a SaaS
company five years ago, with our flagship online software Intervals, the
time tracking practices followed with us. Agile development just came
naturally to us, and our time tracking habits dovetailed with our
rendition of Scrum. As we continue to iterate over our Scrum processes,
we have discovered one indispensable fact — time tracking is the key
to better sprint planning.

2. Points as Time
Sprints are defined by the number of weeks they will take. Agile
development practices recommend planning sprints lasting two, three
or four weeks. Since we are designating the length or our sprints using
units of time, it makes sense to us to do the same for our stories. Points
equal time. To avoid the trap of over-analyzing the amount of time for
each story, we have a preset list of bracketed points to choose from —
0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, 40, 100 are the only estimates allowed. This helps our
development team answer the question “how big is this story?” as well
as thinking through how many hours this story will require.

3. In our experience, the estimated amount of effort is different from the
actual amount of effort. The word “effort” can be too abstract and
interpreted differently by our development team and Scrum master
during the sprint planning process. Time tracking data gives us an
objective unit of measurement and common ground to keep the team’s
sprint commitments in check. What is lacking in using points is that we
can’t look back at past sprints and compare actual points against the
original estimate. Time tracking data let’s us do that. Our sprint plans
become more refined and accurate moving forward because we have
an unobstructed view looking back.

4. Velocity as Time
Velocity is defined as the amount of effort a development team can
commit to one sprint. We look at velocity as the average number of
weekly hours worked by our team for the past several weeks. Because
we’ve tracked our time on past sprints, we know how many hours per
week our team can handle. Our three-week sprints have a velocity of
three times that number Our sprint planning is complete once we have
committed to a list of tasks whose total estimated points are equal to
our velocity.

5. Time tracking adds perspective and value to Scrum teams using
velocity to plan and track sprints. Let’s say, for whatever reason, your
team loses a member. How much effort did that person contribute to
your overall velocity? If we’ve been tracking our time using online
software, the answer is just a few clicks away. We can find out how
much time that person contributed to each sprint, as well as the type of
work they performed. The Product owner and Scrum team can use this
data to adjust the velocity and plan the next sprint more accurately.

6. Predict, Track, Learn, Repeat…
Scrum sprints are an iterative process. The goal of Agile development is
to continually deliver something of value every few weeks. Teams iterate
over the product to meet these goals, but they also iterate over their
process. Each sprint should be more successful than its predecessor.
Sprint retrospectives are held at the end of each sprint to discuss what
was successful and what wasn’t, and how we can improve. Time
tracking data gives the team an objective measure of the last sprint
and provides a platform for more accurate point predictions on the next
sprint.

7. Time is the common unit of measurement we use for establishing sprint
length, velocity, and points. Once we have all three on the same terms,
our development team can fully understand expectations, and the
Scrum master has a baseline for holding the team accountable to its
commitment.

8. Check out the Inter vals blog for more ar ticles…
The Inter vals Blog
A collection of useful tips, tales and opinions based on decades of
collective experience designing and developing web sites and web-
based applications.
www.myinter vals.com/blog
Photo credits:
Time passages by Robert S. Donovan
Velocity by Phillip Clifford
Today’s Repeating Pattern by Kevin Dooley