Recipe App Agile Project Reflection Report - AI Development Project

This report provides a comprehensive reflection on an agile project focused on developing a recipe application. The document details the project's lifecycle, including seven distinct sprints, each with defined user stories, sprint plans, estimated and actual effort, deliverables, and acceptance criteria. The reflections on each sprint highlight the team's successes, challenges, and areas for improvement, such as communication, testing, and the incorporation of new features. The project also addresses social, legal, and ethical issues through harm, legality, and colleague tests, evaluating potential actions and outcomes. Furthermore, the report reflects on agile processes, emphasizing the importance of effective requirement gathering techniques, such as interviews and surveys, and the roles within an agile team, particularly the Scrum Master. The project's iterative approach and focus on continuous improvement are evident throughout the reflections.

Recipe app
Agile Project - Reflection
4/10/2020

Table of Contents
Journal Entries............................................................................................................................2
Sprint 1...................................................................................................................................2
Sprint 2...................................................................................................................................2
Sprint 3...................................................................................................................................3
Sprint 4...................................................................................................................................4
Sprint 5...................................................................................................................................5
Sprint 6...................................................................................................................................5
Sprint 7...................................................................................................................................6
Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues................................................................................................7
Harm Test...............................................................................................................................7
Legality Test...........................................................................................................................7
Colleague Test........................................................................................................................8
Reflection on Agile Processes....................................................................................................8
Activity 1................................................................................................................................8
Activity 2................................................................................................................................9
Activity 3..............................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12
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Journal Entries
Sprint 1
Sprint number: 1 Start date: 10-04-2020
User story: As a user, I want an automated
system for managing the nutritious recipe
so that I can keep track of my nutritional
in-take on daily basis.
Sprint Plan reference: Link
Goal:
1. Gather all nutritional ingredients of a
diet.
Estimated effort: 1 weeks Actual effort: 1 weeks
Deliverable: Working set of the product Acceptance criteria:
Customer rating – 4.5 or
above
Number of critical
defects - Zero
Review: Link
Reflection: The team could complete the sprint in the determined timeframe and the
working set of the product was accepted. The team could improve on the
communication and collaboration as a unit so that the overall quality and productivity
levels are improved (Brechner, 2015).
Sprint 2
Sprint number: 2 Start date: 27-04-2020
User story: As a user, I want automated Sprint Plan reference: Link
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management automated suggestions for
adding nutritional vegetables so that I may
improve my daily diet.
Goal: Implement a page of suggestions.
Estimated effort: 3 weeks Actual effort: 2.5 weeks
Deliverable: Working set of the product Acceptance criteria:
Customer rating – 4.5 or
above
Number of critical
defects - Zero
Review: Link
Reflection: The team succeeded in completing the sprint requirements and their
implementation with the improvements from the previous sprint in less than the
estimated timeframe. The team can introduce the automated testing tool for carrying
out regression tests.
Sprint 3
Sprint number: 3 Start date: 12-05-2020
User story: As a user, I want to view the
feedback on my performance to that I may
make required changes in my nutritional
diet .
Sprint Plan reference: Link
Goal: Implement page for adding friends.
Implement page for getting suggestion /
feedbacks.
Estimated effort: 3 weeks Actual effort: 3 weeks
Deliverable: Working set of the product Acceptance criteria:
Customer rating – 4.5 or
Review: Link
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above
Number of critical
defects - Zero
Reflection: The team could complete the sprint in the determined timeframe and the
working set of the product was accepted. The team could improve on the customers that
it selected for the acceptance testing. There can be increase diversity that may be
included in the customers selected.
Sprint 4
Sprint number: 4 Start date: 01-06-2020
User story: As a user, I want analytics
visuals of my diet so that I may understand
the strengths and weaknesses effectively
(Schwaber, 2015)
Sprint Plan reference: Link
Goal: Implement analytics page
Estimated effort: 2 weeks Actual effort: 2 weeks
Deliverable: Working set of the product Acceptance criteria:
Customer rating – 4.5 or
above
Number of critical
defects - Zero
Review: Link
Reflection: The integration and the development were done flexibly so that the changes
that were emerging in each stage could be incorporated. I think the team members
could have taken an additional week to further test the overall product developed this
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far.
Sprint 5
Sprint number: 5 Start date: 16-06-2020
User story: As a user, I want to safely log
in and logout of the recipe app so that my
information is kept secure
Sprint Plan reference: Link
Goal: Implement login and logout pages.
Estimated effort: 2 weeks Actual effort: 2 weeks
Deliverable: Working set of the product Acceptance criteria:
Customer rating – 4.5 or
above
Number of critical
defects - Zero
Review: Link
Reflection: I believe the team did fairly well and went as per the plan in terms of design
and development. I think the team could have considered the incorporation of three-
fold authentication in the place of two-fold authentication on the system.
Sprint 6
Sprint number: 6 Start date: 01-07-2020
User story: As a user, I want to make
changes in my account details so that I
may keep the account information updated
Sprint Plan reference: Link
Goal: Implement profile page
Estimated effort: 2 weeks Actual effort: 2 weeks
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Deliverable: Working set of the product Acceptance criteria:
Customer rating – 4.5 or
above
Number of critical
defects - Zero
Review: Link
Reflection: I believe the team did well and went as per the plan in terms of design and
development. I think the team could have taken 3 or 4 days more to further enhance the
visual appeal and the overall look & feel of the interface.
Sprint 7
Sprint number: 7 Start date: 15-07-2020
User story: As a user I want to be able to
view and be ranked on a global leader
board in order to see the progress of
friends and users around the world (goal 1)
As a user I want to receive nutritional
advice on how to achieve my personal end
goal. (goal 2)
As a user I want my daily meal plans to
account for my allergies and dietary
choices (goal 3)
As a user I want to be able to link my
profile with social media in order to share
Sprint Plan reference: Link
Goals:
1. Implement reading users from the
temporary csv into the leaderboard
(Jake, 06/04/2020)
2. Implement a new page for dietary
goals, incorporating Jake’s
nutritional generator (Ethan,
06/04/2020)
3. Research diets to put into the
dietary restriction selection on the
survey screen (Shahram,
06/04/2020)
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my progress with friends and family (goal
4)
4. Implement the ability to link
profile to social media profile
(Sufyan 06/04/2020)
Estimated effort: 3 weeks Actual effort: 3 weeks
Deliverable: Working set of the product Acceptance criteria:
1. When the
leaderboard tab
is clicked, the
highest level
users are
displayed in
descending order
2. Have a new
page, similar to
the page for
workouts, but
for a meal plan
for the day
3. Produce a list of
diets such as
keto,
pescetarian,
vegan, etc. that
we can include
in the survey
4. Be able to link
your profile to a
social media
account such as
Review: Link
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facebook or
twitter
Reflection: I believe the team did well and integrated all of the modules as this was the
final sprint. The system layout, consistency, navigation, and the overall look & feel
were as per the plan. The team could have included the use of diet comparison feature
in the system.
Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues
Harm Test
Stakeholder: Customers (End-Users)
Test applied: Harm Test
Possible Actions: Responsible usage of the system, negligent user behavior
Evaluation, including a ‘best’ action: The responsible usage of the system is the best
action as the user will be able to make sure that the personal information is not shared
with an unauthorized entity and will ensure that the system is logged off once the
session is completed.
Legality Test
Stakeholder: Project Team
Test applied: Legality Test
Possible Actions: Sharing of the production data, Following ethical practices while
dealing with the customer data
Evaluation, including a ‘best’ action: The best action will be to follow the ethical
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practices while handling the customer data. This will ensure that the applicable laws,
such as privacy laws, IT laws, etc. are not violated. The ethical principles will also be
adhered with.
Colleague Test
Stakeholder: Senior managers & Project Client
Test applied: Colleague test
Possible Actions: Evaluation of project changes before approval, approval on the
project changes as they come
Evaluation, including a ‘best’ action: The evaluation of the project changes before
approval will be the best action to make sure that the colleagues in the managerial
boards and the members in the project team are satisfied. The approval of all the
changes without evaluation will put undue burden on the project resources and they
may have to face the outcomes (Kalyani & Mehta, 2019).
Reflection on Agile Processes
Activity 1
It is essential that the estimation of the items to be included in the product backlog for an
agile project is effectively done. The product backlog includes the project requirements that
are extracted and these are then divided among the sprints included in the development
lifecycle. There are several techniques that can be used to gather these requirements. The
conduction of the interviews is one of the processes that may be used. The project client
along with the other project stakeholders is identified in this process. There are interview
questions that are prepared in the next stage and then the conduction of the interview
procedures is done. In this way, the personal expectations of the users and stakeholders
become clear. Another technique that is followed is the use of surveys. Usually, it is not
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possible to carry out the interviews with all the users and stakeholders (Bott & Mesmer,
2019). The surveys can be conducted to target the higher number of users and stakeholders.
Also, the conduction of the surveys can be easily done through the web portals and social
media. For example, the use of Google forms can be done and these may be shared over the
emails and social media channels. The response received is then analysed to understand the
user expectations. The requirements for product backlog are defined on the basis of the same.
There is usually a system or a process that is in place and the product is developed to improve
or modify the existing process. In such cases, the use of observations is an effective technique
that provides the drawbacks of the existing system/process. It helps in the determination of
the improvements and the changes that shall be made. The definition of the requirements
becomes easier as an outcome.
I also used some of these techniques to gather the requirements for product backlog for the
diet recipe app. I used the survey technique and developed a questionnaire that covered the
different aspects of the system. The questions that I included in the survey were based on
content management, assessments, feedback, etc. These questions were both open and close
ended questions (Khalid et al., 2020). I launched the survey as a Google form and shared the
information on mails and the social media platforms. I could receive a lot of responses from
the potential end-users which enabled me and my team to determine the requirements for the
project. My team also conducted the interviews with the project stakeholders and the end-
users. I used the interview technique to understand their expectations from the system. I
developed the interview questions and out team also formed the interview panels. All of these
panels carried out the personal interviews and sessions and the response provided by the
potential end-users were recorded. This gave me the ability to understand the project
requirements and out team could develop the product backlog on the basis of the same.
Activity 2
There are several resources present in an agile team and there are three major roles that are
defined for the agile projects. One of these roles is the Scrum Master. The resource has a lot
of relevance in the agile projects and contributes a lot in managing the self-organizing teams
in the agile projects. The agile projects comprise of the team members and they are asked to
manage the project issues and activities on their own. However, it is necessary that there is a
primary point of contact that may be available. The Scrum Master plays that role. There is a
daily stand-up meeting that is a part of the agile scrum projects. This is a daily meeting of 15
minutes in which all the agile team members participate and provide their updates and discuss
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the activities for the day (Rajasekaran, 2015). These meetings are facilitated by the Scrum
Master. The teams get to know about the project updates and get the medium to interact with
one another through these meetings. It has also been seen that there are certain issues that
crop up among the members of the agile teams. Although the team members make sure that
the minute conflicts can be resolved on their own. However, there are still certain issues that
may not be solved by the self-organizing teams. In such cases, the Scrum Master intervenes
and makes sure that the project conflicts are avoided and are resolved so that the continuity of
the project processes can be maintained.
In our project, the Scrum Master that was involved in the project was skilled and made sure
that there were certain virtues that the team members followed while carrying out the project
tasks. The Scrum Master in out project laid a lot of focus on the communication and
collaboration levels. The Scrum Master made sure that the daily stand-up meeting was
attended by all the members in the team and the team was required to acknowledge in the
case they could not attend the meeting due to certain reason. There was a scenario in the
project when there were conflicts among the team members on one of the user stories. I was
also involved in the conflict and it was primarily because of the difference in the view points
of the members involved. We tried our best to resolve the issues but could not succeed in the
same. We took the matter to the Scrum Master so that it could be resolved. The Scrum Master
called an immediate meeting and the viewpoints of all the resources involved were put
forward (Tkachenko & Sivokoz, 2017). The Scrum Master evaluated the scenario and asked
for the feedback of the employees that were not involved in the scenario. There was a
collective decision taken at the end and all of the members in the team agreed to the same. I
could understand the value and the level of authority that the Scrum Master has in the agile
team. In our project, the adequate display of the authority was done.
Activity 3
In every project, it is necessary that the self and team learnings are recorded and are carefully
managed. This holds true for the agile projects as well. These are essential not only because
of the need to keep a track of the personal learnings during the project. However, these are
necessary so that the reflective learning can be beneficial for the personal and team growth. It
is also essential so that the future team may use these learnings as their reference points.
There are several ways in which the teams can maintain records of the personal and team
learnings in the agile projects. One of the ways is to maintain a personal learning record in
the form of journal entries. Every agile project team member may be asked to maintain such a
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