Capture feature data

The license package Lean Portfolio Management is required to work with features. The use case Portfolio Backlog Management must be activated.

Features are tangible products, solution functionalities, or improvements that provide business value. Features contribute to the realization of an epic. A feature may be of the type User Feature, which provides value to the end user, and Enabler Feature, which describes the necessary work to fulfill technical, architectural, infrastructure, or compliance needs.

Features can be further broken down into stories which are implemented, tested, and released incrementally. Features are reviewed and ranked using the Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) to maximize delivery value. Features are structured to be delivered in a program increment (PI) by an agile release train (ART) and typically tracked in a Kanban board to ensure a smooth flow from analysis to deployment.

In the navigation panel, click Agile Architecture > Features.​ Per default, the data workbench displays only a set of basic attributes. You can add more columns to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench or you can navigate to a feature's content area and define it in more detail there. Click to learn about how to use data workbenches.

Create a new feature from scratch. Go to Agile Architecture > Features and click New > Feature. Specify the feature's attributes as well as the relationships that the feature has to other assets in the repository. All mandatory fields must be defined to create the feature and save it.

Edit the attributes and relationships for a feature. Click the Navigate  Navigate button next to a feature to open its content area. Specify the feature's attributes as well as the relationships that the feature has to other assets in the repository.

Try to capture as much information as possible about the feature because complete data considerably improves the results of business questions and other analytics.

Once a feature is in the repository, you can define more details about it in the Features data workbench.

Per default, the data workbench displays a limited set of basic attributes. You can add more columns via the Structure column to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench.

Or specify and analyze the feature in detail in its content area . In the data workbench, click the Navigate button for a feature to open its content area > Overview page.

Define the feature's basic data.

A role represents a functional responsibility that a user or organization has for the feature. Assigning users and organizations to roles is critical to understanding responsibility for assets in the IT and is required to answer the business question Who is responsible for our assets?.

Responsibilities are based on preconfigured role types. Your company may also configure custom role types via the Portfolio Admin user profile. Depending on the role type, a specified user and/or a specified organization may fulfill the responsibility for the feature. A user assigned responsibility via a role has read-only permissions to the features. To change data about the feature, they must also be specified as an authorized user or member of an authorized user group.

Roles can be assigned to an epic in the Features data workbench or the feature content area via Overview > Responsibilities. The following roles as well as custom roles added by your company can be defined for a feature:

To specify responsibilities for the feature:

  1. Click in the relevant role field to open the selector.
  2. Expand the ORGANIZATION or USER sections in the selector and select the person or organization fulfilling the role.
  3. Click OK to save the role definition and close the selector.

An evaluation is a measurement of the performance of a feature. Preconfigured indicator types and possibly custom indicator types added by your company are available to evaluate and are used in various analyses in Alfabet. Some indicator types are automatically computed by the system and others must be manually defined.

Define the feature's indicators. Click the navigate  Navigate button of the feature to open the content area. Go to the Overview page and scroll to the Evaluations view and open it. The evaluations Cost of Delay and Feature Cost Estimation each have several indicators that should be defined. Point to the tooltip symbol  TooltipButton for each indicator to learn more about it.

Select an indicator type and click Edit Indicator or click Group Edit to open a dialog where all indicator types can be edited that are not automatically computed by the system.

Update computed indicators. Click the Calculate button to update computed indicators via the Calculate button. The indicators will be recalculated based on the current data.

A story is a small, actionable requirement specified to realize a feature. Stories are implemented, tested, and released incrementally. Stories are structured to be delivered in an iteration as part of an agile release train (ART) and are small enough to complete in a single sprint. A story may be of the type User Story, which provides value to the end user, and Enabler Story, which describes the necessary work work to fulfill technical, architectural, infrastructure, or compliance needs.

A story can only be assigned to one feature. A feature can have multiple stories assigned to it.

Create a new user story from scratch. Go to the feature content area via Overview > Stories and click  New plus sign button > Create Story. Specify the story's basic attributes. All mandatory fields must be defined to create the story and save it. In the Stories view, click the Navigate  Navigate button next to the story to open its content area and specify all relevant attributes:

  • Name: (Mandatory) Enter a unique name for the story. The name should help others easily understand the purpose of the story.
  • Story Type: A story may be of the type User Story, which provides value to the end user, and Enabler Story, which describes the necessary work to fulfill technical, architectural, infrastructure, or compliance needs. If Enabler Story is specified, you will see the Enabler Category field where you can specify. Select the following to describe the enabler story:
    • Exploration: Enabler story facilitates research, prototyping, and various efforts to comprehend customer requirements such as investigating potential solutions and assessing alternatives.
    • Architectural: Enabler story establishes the architectural runway, facilitating more efficient and streamlined progress within the Continuous Delivery Pipeline (CDP).
    • Infrastructure: Enabler story assists in designing and enhancing development and runtime environments that support the systems responsible for building, testing, deploying, and managing solutions.
    • Compliance: Enabler story enables oversight of targeted compliance tasks such as verification and validation, audits, approvals, and automation of policies.
  • Status: This indicates the current status of the story from initiation to execution.
    • To-do: The story has not yet been worked on.
    • In progress: Work has started on the story.
    • Done: Story is complete.
  • Parent Feature: Specify the feature that the story is assigned to.
  • Description: Enter a meaningful description that will clarify the purpose of the story.
  • Iteration: The iteration specified in the context of an agile release train (ART) that will deliver the user story.

Move an existing story to this feature. Click the  New plus sign button > Move Existing Story Here. Select the story that you want to assign to this feature. If the story was assigned to another feature, it will be moved to his feature.

The following business questions rely on feature data: