Clarification needed about Velocity Chart (from Reports menu)

[Karen Gwynn]

I have a few questions about the Velocity Chart from the Reports page:

First, right or wrong, we have setup our iterations to use the same name over time, meaning we currently have four different iterations named Sprint 1.1 (from four different years). I think that, because of this, when the Velocity Chart shows the "last ten sprints," it is aggregating four year's worth of data under each sprint name. Is this correct? If so, that would explain why our numbers are so wonky (we typically complete between 15 and 20 story points per sprint. The chart is showing hundreds!)

Secondly, is it possible to set any parameters for this chart? I don't see any settings, but it may be an issue of permissions or based on our subscription. Anyway, because of the first item, this chart is basically useless for us (unless, I suppose, we go and rename all of our past sprints and adopt a new naming convention).

regards,

[Nik Antonelli]

Hi @Karen Gwynn,

The 'reports' on that page are getting a bit long in the tooth and are due to be deprecated soon. I have an alternative app, that I do 'best endeavours' to help maintain, here: https://github.com/nikantonelli/TeamVelocity

Will this one work for you? It uses the more recent SDK2 which I don't think will be deprecated for a little while yet.

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Karen Gwynn]

Nik,
this does look better. Now, for today's stupid question: how do I deploy something like this. I am quasi-technical (I can do stuff by following instructions, but need more than just, get the code from GitHub!).

Also, I am a Workplace admin, not the subscription admin, can I download or does the subscription admin need to do that?

regards,

[Nik Antonelli]

Hi @Karen Gwynn, you need to pick up the contents of this file: https://github.com/nikantonelli/TeamVelocity/blob/master/deploy/App-uncompressed.html
and paste it into the panel in a Custom HTML app.

Have a look here:https://techdocs.broadcom.com/content/broadcom/techdocs/us/en/ca-enterprise-software/agile-development-and-management/rally-platform-ca-agile-central/rally/customizing-top/use-apps/app-catalog/custom-html.html
​

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

Hi Nik,

I love the idea of a better Velocity chart, but for some reason this app isn't displaying accurate data for me - in some cases the numbers are just very low, in other cases no data loads at all. I'm not getting any console errors, and the chart loads, but doesn't have any data at all. This image shows the two apps side-by-side. Any suggestions how to troubleshoot this one?

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

Hi Terry,

I have just looked at the code and there is a wierdness in there. I can't believe it has been sat there for 5 years!! I have just uploaded a patch. Could you try the new code?

The bug was apparent if you had loads of stories in the team node that weren't in the iterations you were looking at - a quite common scenario anywhere but in my demo/test environment.

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

I don't see any new code there. Is it in the same repo?

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

Oops! I didn't hit the 'go' button. Should be there now.

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

That works! The differences in this app now are:

1. Team Velocity only shows User Story points while the standard velocity chart also includes other work item points (Defects, Test Sets and possibly Defect Suites). I tried a quick hack of the 'model' statement but that didn't work

2. Team Velocity doesn't show unfinished work in iterations, so teams don't get that view of how often they pull in more than they complete. This is accomplished via the story-splitting process, which we hate, but it's really the only reliable view of work completed and not completed in a sprint. The Committed vs. Delivered app, if it were giving accurate data, would fill this need, but it is currently unreliable

Any thoughts on how complicated either of those updates would be?

Thank you for all your continuing efforts to help with these types of things!

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

Hi Terry, try the latest one I have just posted into the repo.....

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

Looks great so far - I'm going to give it a thorough test, but I think this will be a big help!

Thank you, Nik!

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

Terry, if you get a good informative plot, could you send me a screenshot so that I can add it to the repo? All my test/demo data is rubbish.

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Karen Gwynn]

Hey Nik,

I've loaded the updates and my data now displays, although I'm not sure I understand everything. Can you please explain how the data are calculated for each bar: During, After, and Outstanding?

thanks!

[Nik Antonelli]

Hi Karen,

The calculation is done here: https://github.com/nikantonelli/TeamVelocity/blob/feed5ec289f71c63fbd06096711ce594fec888a7/App.js#L202

Basically it is using AcceptedDate as the starting point. If there isn't one, then it goes into the Outstanding bucket for that sprint. If there is one, then the AcceptedDate is checked against the end of the sprint. If before the end, it goes in the 'During', if after the end, it goes in the 'After'. Everything gets added to the Total.

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

how's this:  

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

Hi Terry,

That looks useful. Do you  mind if I add that as the image in the public repo? No mention of the source, of course.

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

Fine with me!

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

Hi Terry, I added an option to stack the bars if that is any use to you (and to not have the team name in the X axis labels).

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

I had actually had that thought (stacking the bars) but didn't want to be too picky. :)  I like the idea! Have you checked in the update yet? I don't see it but would like to test it out.

Thanks!
Terry

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

Should be there with your image in it with commit: c798d8c

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

I like it!  However I just noticed a discrepancy - some of my teams use partial story points. One of the iterations I just looked at has two stories with .5 story points each. These are not counted in this app but are counted in the core Velocity Chart. Is that a quick fix?

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

Hi Terry, I immediately thought of the glib answer..... :-) 

A little bit later on, I will get some time to look into whether supporting fractional user story points is easy to implement - or even why it is not doing it in the first place. It (1/2 point) is not a practice I would recommend as it is too granular. Roughly right rather than precisely wrong, comes to mind.

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

No comment ;-)    I am no agile expert, I just support the tool :)

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

Hi Terry, I changed the data type from int to float in the data store and it shows fractional stories now.

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

Well done! It looks great and yes, now it counts all those fractional stories, regardless of whether or not they make any sense. :)

Thank you!

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Terry Ginzburg]

Hey Nik,

Another question came up as we started playing with this app. When you view it above the lowest level in the hierarchy it breaks out each team/iteration rather than grouping by Iteration name. We'd like to view the data consolidated for a Release Train rather than just looking at each team's iteration data, which is particularly bizarre looking if you don't show the team name.  If you make it group on the x axis based on the title (e.g. Iteration Name or Iteration Name & Team) I would think it would be flexible, so the user could choose whether they want aggregated data or data for each individual team. Is that going too far?  :)

------------------------------
Terry Ginzburg
------------------------------

[Nik Antonelli]

No, not too far. I had been wondering about that and how useful/painful it was. I have changed the "Add name" option to "Separate Teams" and made it combine based on iteration name. The iterations are still those within the timeframe of the two selectors, so you should not get stuff from years ago if you happen to use the same naming convention year-in/year-out.

It was only a five minute fix. :-)

------------------------------
Nik
Ask me a question, I'm All Ears!
Rally Sales Engineer
Rally Software
------------------------------

[Mitch Goldman]

Looks good, Nik!