Coursera Agile Software Development Assignment Answers

Agile software development has become a pivotal methodology in today’s fast-paced and constantly evolving software industry. Coursera's courses on Agile development are designed to offer learners hands-on experience with assignments that mimic real-world scenarios. This article will focus on providing in-depth guidance on typical assignments you might encounter in a Coursera Agile Software Development course and how to approach them effectively.

Understanding Agile Principles

Before diving into specific assignment answers, it is crucial to understand the core principles of Agile software development. Agile is not a specific methodology, but rather a set of values and principles that guide how software development should be approached. The Agile Manifesto outlines four core values:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
• Working software over comprehensive documentation.
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
• Responding to change over following a plan.

Additionally, the 12 principles of Agile support these values. For example, delivering working software frequently, welcoming changing requirements, and ensuring close collaboration between developers and stakeholders are some of the key principles.

Typical Assignments

Agile courses on Coursera generally consist of theoretical understanding coupled with practical assignments. These assignments may vary depending on the specific course but often involve case studies, practical scenarios, and sometimes coding tasks.

Assignment 1: User Story Creation

This assignment typically requires students to create user stories that will serve as a foundation for the Agile process. Here are the steps and a suggested approach to such an assignment:

• Identify the customer needs: The first step is to understand the problem or requirement. For example, let’s say you're working on an e-commerce application. A potential user story could be:
  • As a customer, I want to be able to add items to my cart so that I can purchase multiple items at once.
• Prioritize the user stories: Rank user stories based on their importance. For example, adding items to a cart may be more critical than applying a coupon code.
• Acceptance criteria: Define what constitutes a successful implementation of this user story. For the story above, the acceptance criteria could be:
  • Items must be saved in the cart until purchase.
  • The cart should display the total cost of all items.

Assignment 2: Sprint Planning

Sprint planning is a core Agile practice, and in this assignment, you may be asked to create a plan for a sprint based on the product backlog. Here's a step-by-step guide:

• Review the product backlog: This is the list of all potential features and tasks. Determine which user stories are ready for development.

• Select user stories for the sprint: Based on your team's capacity and the priority of the user stories, select which stories will be worked on during the sprint.

• Break down user stories into tasks: For example, if the user story is to implement a shopping cart, tasks might include creating the cart interface, implementing the backend logic, and testing the functionality.

  Sprint Task	Assigned To	Estimated Hours
  Create cart interface	Developer A	8 hours
  Implement backend logic	Developer B	12 hours
  Testing	Tester C	6 hours

• Estimation and velocity: Use story points or hours to estimate how much work each user story will take and ensure that the team's velocity (the amount of work completed per sprint) is not exceeded.

Assignment 3: Retrospective Report

In this assignment, you might be asked to write a retrospective report on how a sprint was conducted. A typical retrospective would cover:

• What went well: E.g., "The team worked collaboratively and completed all user stories on time."
• What didn’t go well: E.g., "Testing was rushed due to overestimation of development tasks."
• What can be improved: E.g., "Allocate more time to testing in the next sprint, and consider splitting large user stories into smaller, more manageable ones."

Retrospectives are a key part of the continuous improvement cycle in Agile. They provide an opportunity to reflect on the process and identify areas for enhancement in future sprints.

Assignment 4: Agile Metrics

One of the more technical assignments may involve calculating and analyzing Agile metrics such as:

• Velocity: The amount of work completed per sprint. For example, if the team completed 40 story points in Sprint 1 and 50 in Sprint 2, the average velocity would be 45 points per sprint.

• Burndown chart: This visual representation shows the work completed over time. A well-executed sprint will show a consistent decline in remaining work as the sprint progresses.

  Sprint	Planned Work	Completed Work	Velocity
  Sprint 1	40 story points	40 story points	40
  Sprint 2	50 story points	45 story points	45

Using these metrics, students can evaluate the effectiveness of the Agile process in their project and identify areas where adjustments are needed.

Case Study Example

To tie these concepts together, let’s look at a case study example you might encounter in a Coursera assignment. Imagine you are part of a team working on a new feature for a social media platform. The feature is a photo-sharing capability similar to Instagram.

1. User Story: "As a user, I want to be able to upload photos from my device so that I can share them with my followers."
2. Sprint Planning: Break down the user story into tasks such as developing the photo upload interface, implementing the backend storage for images, and creating a feature to edit or delete uploaded photos.
3. Implementation: The team works on these tasks during the sprint, ensuring regular communication with the product owner to clarify requirements.
4. Retrospective: After the sprint, the team reflects on what went well (e.g., clear communication with the product owner) and what didn’t go well (e.g., underestimating the time needed for backend implementation).

Best Practices for Completing Assignments

• Communicate with your team: Agile is highly collaborative. If you're working on a group assignment, make sure everyone is aligned on objectives and deliverables.
• Break down tasks effectively: One of the biggest mistakes students make is not breaking down user stories into small enough tasks. Always ensure that tasks are manageable within a single sprint.
• Focus on delivering working software: Always aim to deliver a working increment of the software, even if it’s a small part of the overall project. This aligns with Agile’s value of working software over comprehensive documentation.

By understanding these principles and how they apply to assignments, you can successfully complete your Coursera Agile Software Development assignments and gain valuable skills for the workplace.