36C10B18Q3117-002.docx

ATTACHMENT XXX:

Best Practices for Agile Processes:

Agile Process Management The Contractor shall follow Agile best practices and adhere to objectives defined in the U.S. Digital Services Playbook.

The Contractor shall:

a. Coordinate, develop and update project management artifacts in accordance with VA Enterprise Portfolio Management Division (EPMD).

b. Define the project scope, and establish a communication and reporting process with supplemental dashboard reporting via live data.

c. Develop a Work Plan that depicts the work to be performed and the schedule for the planned increment.

d. Provide deliverables in an incremental, fast-paced style of software development to reduce the risk of failure.

e. Deliver working software into users’ hand at the end of each increment to give the product development team opportunities to adjust based on user feedback about the service.

f. Deliver a functioning Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that solves a core user need as soon as possible, no longer than 90 days from the beginning of the project using a beta or test period if needed.

g. Ensure the individuals building the product services communicate closely using techniques such as launch meetings, war rooms, daily standups and team collaboration chat tools.

h. Keep product delivery teams small and focused; limit organizational layers that separate these teams from business/technical owners.

i. Develop, coordinate and manage project elements including, but not limited to product vision, program objectives, epics, user stories, features and bugs, backlog, sprint planning, schedules with milestones, budget, risk, action items, and lesson learned, artifacts and deliverables.

j. Coordinate with partner vendor teams and key stakeholder project planning and execution.

k. Conduct daily project status scrums with detailed breakdown of work to be done, completed and decisions to be made.

l. Analyze any change request and backlog prioritization in coordination with project team members to estimate the level of efforts required for implementation.

m. Track of the project related task in agile lifecycle management issue tracking tool.

n. Ensure a source code version control system is used and code reviews are conducted to ensure quality.

o. Give entire project team access to the issue tracker and source code control version tracking tool.

p. Utilize the following incremental release approaches: Weekly releases; Biweekly releases; Monthly releases; Quarterly releases; Ad hoc releases; Hot fix; Bug fix;

Emergency fix; and 1 & 2 week sprints in order to incorporate the continuous release process in the mobile program

Agile Testing and Validation:

The Contractor shall ensure that applications and services supported by the Contractor, meet the required specifications and requirements for various projects. The Contractor shall engage in Quality Control (QC) activities with mobile application software development teams throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (CDLC) and migration process for various VA projects such as:

a. Validate test documentation and deliverables to ensure they clearly and concisely show results, trends, progress and performance against objectives

b. Design of test strategies, processes and test data

c. Planning and participating in testing efforts comprised of teams of cross-organizational testers

d. Requirement reviews, including user stories and spics

e. Implementation plan reviews

f. Test plan reviews, including user stories and epics

g. Test case automation reviews

h. Validation reviews

i. Operational reviews

The Contractor shall provide testing support in multiple VA environments. The Contractor shall plan, conduct, and report the results of integrated testing to assess and correct the functionality of inter-related functionalities and modules which must eventually work or communicate with each other.

Agile Requirements Management The Contractor shall ensure the completeness and accuracy of VA.gov Modernization business, technical, architectural, and security requirements for all environments.

The Contractor shall:

a. Clarify requirements with project/product team.

b. Ensure that requirements adhere to agile process.

c. Work with product teams and stakeholders to capture requirements accurately and ensure that the acceptance criteria describes the “done” state.

d. Coordinate with appropriate team members to assist with requirements writing.

e. Work collaboratively with the Engineering Change Control Board (ECCB).

f. Provide Requirements Management Plan (RMP).

g. Provide Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) for each Project.

h. Help product teams determine when a requirement is “done”.

i. Manage and maintain project/product documentation.

j. Plan and lead requirements elicitation sessions to gather requirements from various project/product teams and stakeholders.

k. Develop flow charts, architectural/technical diagrams, illustrations and other artifacts that clarify/illustrate requirements.

l. Document business/technical dependency or third parties’ services when enhancing or adding system/components to existing or new applications, including: architectural/technical diagrams, illustrations, and other artifacts that clarify/illustrate requirements.

m. Develop business/technical specs outlining design approaches with pros/cons and short-term/long-term impacts.

n. Engage project/product teams and stakeholders are throughout the life of projects