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InfoQ Homepage News Target Process 2.7: Agile Project Management tool for Distributed Teams

Target Process 2.7: Agile Project Management tool for Distributed Teams

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Target Process 2.7 has been released, the tool has been mentioned here previously for its 2.0 and 2.3 releases. Target Process is an Agile Process Management tool that automates many of the tasks associated with an agile project. It helps simplify planning, tracking and QA. It provides real time reports, historical data and allows upper management to see the status of several projects at a glance. A number of new features have been added since we last wrote about it, including Visual Iteration Planning and Program Level Release Planning.

Visual Iteration Planning

This clever feature displays a large box that shows you much "room" is left in your iteration (based on your previous iterations velocity). Inside the box are the stories that the team has committed to for the iteration, each with its estimated size.

In addition, bugs are marked with a red bar and a small icon. This seems like a very elegant way of planning

Program Level Release Planning

Have a large product with several teams? This new feature makes it easier to track a number of projects within a single program. It makes it possible to see how releases will line up.

Their site includes a Quick Tour and an option to try for 30 days. Target Process is available as either an hosted service or an application installed in your webserver.

Many Agile coaches recommend that co-located teams start off using index cards and a task board because holding the daily scrum in front of the task board will help the team interact more. Electronic tools are normally recommended only when the team is distributed around a number of locations.

In release 2.5 an Individual Velocity Report was introduced. Some caution is required when using this feature. In the past some companies have used similar measures to track and reward individuals to the detriment of the team's performance. Agile methods are predicated on the belief that the value created by the team is greater than the sum of the individuals. A focus on the performance and reward of individuals can motivate team members to look out for themselves and not the team. This might manifest itself with some team members refusing to coach or avoiding parts of the project that might not make them look good.

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