Testing can be hard, particularly when time is short because the team has a tight schedule. While working with Rob Falla I learned to use Critical Path Analysis to help my team deliver work on time, which helped me have more time for testing.
Sometimes it is hard to complete the work that a team has committed to in an iteration. It can be that a task that takes a long time overruns the iteration or that a task can not be started until another is finished. You may also find that more than one developer is working in the same areas and that this causes merge conflicts.
We used Critical Path Analysis to analyse all the cards we had taken into the iteration for their size and dependencies. We could then see if there were any ‘large’ cards. If there were any ‘large’ cards, we would need to start on them early in the iteration so that they were completed before the end of the iteration. We also could see which cards were dependent on other cards. If a card was dependent on another being completed then the card it was dependent on would need to be worked on first.
It may be useful to create a chart to help you with the analysis or it may be sufficient to use the analysis to order the team’s backlog. We always created a chart. The chart below is for the work a team that uses t-shirt sizing plans to do in its next iteration. Critical Path Analysis has shown that two streams of work have dependencies. Card 5 is a large card that is dependent on card 2 which is dependent on card 1. It also shows that card 4 is dependent on card 3. Cards 6 and 7 have no dependencies. The chart shows that, for the team to finish their work in the iteration, it would be best for the team to start work in their iteration by working on cards 1 and 3. After looking at the chart the team can also see whether they are likely to complete all the cards within the iteration, and if they need to revise their planned work so that they can complete it within the iteration.
I recently learned at the Profound Deming Book Club that this technique came from Eli Goldratt, and is also known as the Critical Path Method.
Critical Path Analysis helped the team I was a member of delivering quality software on time and gave us more time for testing. Techniques such as Critical Path Analysis are helpful because they help testing, help your team, and broaden your skill set.
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