Cognosco User Guide

COGNOSCO – HELP GUIDE

Cognosco is a cloud hosted, mobile supported Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Tool built on Agile values and

principles. Cognosco supports Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban. It is the most cost effective, user friendly tool on the market.

Pricing is $50 per month per project for up to 20 user accounts.

www.cognosco.us


Contents 1.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5 2.0 Cloud: Home Page ..................................................................................................................... 6 3.0 Cloud: Login .............................................................................................................................. 7 3.1 Cloud: Steps to Login via the Cloud using social media: ................................................................ 7 4.0 Cloud: Registration .................................................................................................................... 8 4.1 Cloud: Steps for Register: ........................................................................................................... 8 4.2 Cloud: Activation Email: ............................................................................................................. 9 5.0 Cloud: Forgot Password ............................................................................................................. 9 6.0 Cloud: Dashboard / My Home .................................................................................................... 9 6.1 Cloud: Menu Bar ..................................................................................................................... 10 6.2 Cloud: Access /Account Settings ............................................................................................... 10 6.3 Cloud: Project Information ....................................................................................................... 10 6.4 Cloud: Update Profile ............................................................................................................... 11 6.5 Cloud: Change Password .......................................................................................................... 12 6.6 Cloud: Change Passcode .......................................................................................................... 12 7.0 Cloud: Metrics ......................................................................................................................... 13 7.1 Cloud: Velocity per Sprint ......................................................................................................... 13 7.2 Cloud: Release Burn Up ............................................................................................................ 13 7.3 Cloud: Sprint Burn Down .......................................................................................................... 13

7.4 Cloud: Cumulative Flow Diagram........................................................................................... 14

7.5 Cloud: Histogram ................................................................................................................... 14

7.6 Cloud: Control Flow Diagram ................................................................................................. 14

8.0 Cloud: Cloud: Project ............................................................................................................... 15 8.1 Cloud: Create project ............................................................................................................... 16 Page 1


8.2 Cloud: Payment through authorize.net ..................................................................................... 17 8.3 Cloud: Payment through Paypal................................................................................................ 17 8.4 Cloud: Cancel Subscription: .......................................................................................................18 8.5 Cloud: Edit Project ....................................................................................................................21 8.6 Cloud: Delete Project ............................................................................................................... 19 9.0 Cloud: Backlog ......................................................................................................................... 19 9.1 Cloud: Create PBL .................................................................................................................... 18 9.2 Cloud: Edit PBL ........................................................................................................................ 21 9.3 Cloud: View PBL....................................................................................................................... 22 9.4 Cloud: Backlog Summary .......................................................................................................... 23 10.0 Cloud: Sprint Planning ............................................................................................................. 24 11.0 Cloud: Board ......................................................................................................................... 25

11.1 Cloud: WIP Limits Setting……………………………………………………………………25 11.2 Cloud: WIP Limits Setting Save ................................................................................................ 26 11.3 Cloud: WIP Limits Exceeds……………………………………………………………………26 12.0 Cloud: Sprint Review ............................................................................................................... 27 12.1 Cloud: Sprint Review Summary ................................................................................................ 27 12.2 Cloud: Edit Sprint Review ........................................................................................................ 28 13.0 Cloud: Retrospective ................................................................................................................29 13.1 Cloud: Retrospective Summary .................................................................................................29 13.2 Cloud: View Retrospective Note .............................................................................................. 31 13.3 Cloud: Add / Edit Retrospective Note ....................................................................................... 31 14.0 Cloud: Reports........................................................................................................................ 32 14.1 Cloud: Backlog Reports ........................................................................................................... 33 Page 2


14.2 Cloud: Sprint Work Item Report............................................................................................... 34 14.3 Cloud: Sprint Summary Report ................................................................................................ 35 14.4 Cloud: Retrospective Report .................................................................................................... 36 14.5 Cloud: Project Charter Report ................................................................................................. 37 15.0 Cloud: Help ............................................................................................................................ 38 15.1 Cloud: Help Expanded ..............................................................................................................39

16.0 Mobile & Tablet: Home screen .................................................................................................40 17.0 Mobile & Tablet: Projects ........................................................................................................ 41 17.1 Mobile & Tablet: Create Project .............................................................................................. 41 17.2 Mobile & Tablet: Edit Project................................................................................................... 43 17.3 Mobile & Tablet: Delete Project .............................................................................................. 45 18.0 Mobile & Tablet: Backlogs ....................................................................................................... 46 18.1 Mobile & Tablet: Create PBL .................................................................................................... 46 18.2 Mobile & Tablet: View PBL ...................................................................................................... 47 18.3 Mobile & Tablet: Edit PBL ........................................................................................................ 48 18.4 Mobile & Tablet: Delete PBL .................................................................................................... 49 18.5 Mobile & Tablet: Export PBL .................................................................................................... 49 19.0 Mobile & Tablet: About Us .......................................................................................................50 20.0 Mobile & Tablet: Retrospectives .............................................................................................. 51 20.1 Mobile & Tablet: New Note ..................................................................................................... 52 20.2 Mobile & Tablet: View Note .................................................................................................... 53 20.3 Mobile & Tablet: Edit Note .......................................................................................................54 21 Mobile & Tablet: Planning Poker ...............................................................................................55 21.1 Mobile & Tablet: Planning Poker – Settings ...............................................................................56 Page 3


21.2 Mobile & Tablet: Planning Poker – Sequence ........................................................................... 57 21.3 Mobile & Tablet: Planning Poker – Color .................................................................................. 58 21.4 Mobile & Tablet: Planning Poker – Largest Card ....................................................................... 59 21.5 Mobile & Tablet: View Card ......................................................................................................60 22 Mobile & Tablet: Help ............................................................................................................. 61 22.1 Mobile & Tablet: Help Expanded ............................................................................................. 62

23 Mobile & Tablet: Sync ............................................................................................................. 63 23 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 64 Page 4


1.0 Introduction At Raman Technologies Labs, we are developing a cloud-based, agile project management tool,

called Cognosco. Dr. Sanjeev Raman is leading this effort based on his industry experience in

Silicon Valley and the world. This tool is truly collaborative and fun with no hassles. Log in using

your social log-in credentials or create an account to initiate or join a project. You can manage

any type of project with our tool - not just software projects. It is intuitive, interactive, offline

capable, and easy to use. Your project dashboard will display agile metrics to help monitor the

progress, milestones, and interact with other team members that are online, etc. Cognosco will

help you facilitate and record your notes from sprint reviews to retrospectives, and provide a

repository of real time agile information to make your project a success. You can also work in

different Agile modes like Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban. Look for more updates via Social Media in

the coming months!

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2.0 Home Page Below screenshot is the Landing Page for the Agile Cognosco cloud platform. From this page,

the user can login with social credentials or create a new account. The user can also scan the

bar code at the bottom of the screen to download the mobile/tablet app for their iPhone or

Android phone.

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3.0 Login Agile Cognosco supports the top 5 social logins: Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn. In addition, mobile apps can be downloaded using the QR code provided as shown below.

3.1 Steps to Login via the Cloud using social media: Read and accept the terms and conditions. Select the desired social media login. Enter the social media credentials. You are ready to enter the Agile world.

An email with activation link will be sent to the email address associated with

your social media login for activation.

Click on the link to activate your account, and now you will also be able to

enter with social media credentials using the login section from the home

screen.

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4.0 Registration

4.1 Steps for Register: If you would like to register with Cognosco:

Click the Join Us button on the home page. Complete the registration form and click on submit. An email with an activation link will be sent to your e-mail.

Click on the link to activate the account and then sign in from the home

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4.2 Activation Email:

5.0 Forgot Password If user forgot the password,

Click forgot password link from the Landing page. Enter the email address and click send.

6.0 Dashboard / My Home

The Dashboard page will give an agile summary & metrics for the selected project.

Access to Edit / Delete any project owned by the user Menu Bar for the different ceremonies of agile.

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6.1 Menu Bar Below are the menus for the Agile world.

6.2 Access /Account Settings Upgrade account options. Logout – End session.

6.3 Project Information For the selected project, the Dashboard will display the following summary details:

Project Start Date. Total number of work items in the Backlog for the project. Total number of sprints allocated. Sprint duration / length. Number of users on the Team. Current Sprint.

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6.4 Update Profile

The user can change the profile picture, password, passcode, and cancel subscription for their projects (assuming they are the owner).

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6.5 Change Password The user can change the password for the Cognosco account.

6.6 Change Passcode The user can change the passcode which will be the key for syncing data from the mobile to the cloud.

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7.0 Metrics

Cognosco provides Agile metrics to help track your project’s health and progress.

7.1 Velocity per Sprint Velocity is determined by the number of user story points the Dev Team completes in each

sprint/iteration. At the end of each sprint, the stories completed and accepted by the Product

Owner are added up to calculate the Dev Team’s velocity for that Sprint. Over time, the

average velocity is calculated from adding up all the velocities and dividing by the number

of Sprints completed. The x-axis of the velocity per sprint chart shows the number of

sprints and the y-axis shows the story points for the accepted stories in a given sprint.

7.2 Release Burn Up On an Agile project, the team tracks its progress against a release plan on a Release Burn Up

chart. The release Burn Up chart is updated at the end of each sprint automatically by

Cognosco. For the Release Burnup chart, the x-axis shows the number of sprints allocated

and the number of points accepted for each completed Sprint (green bars are used to

illustrate this for each Sprint). The x-axis also shows the current total number of estimated

points (Scope) for the release based on all the points for all the stories in the backlog and

Sprints (a black connected dotted line across the chart is used to illustrate this). As you can

tell in the example below, as stories are added, re-estimated, deleted from the backlog, the

total number of points for the Release can go up or down in real time. Cognosco will

atomically calculate this as well. The y-axis represents story points.

7.3 Sprint Burn Down The Sprint Burn down chart helps to track the Dev Team’s progress in the Sprint. As the team

updates their Story Points for their tasks, the Burn down chart updates atomically in Real

Time. The x-axis displays the Days in the Sprint (i.e. 10 days) and the y-axis displays the

remaining Story Points for the Dev team. The Black like represents the ideal line. In other

words, if Shows Story Points is below the ideal line for that day, then your team is on track to

complete the Sprint. Page 13

7.4 Cumulative Flow Diagram

A Cumulative Flow Diagram is a tool used in queuing theory. It is an area graph that depicts the quantity of work in a given state, showing arrivals, time in queue, quantity in queue, and departure. 7.5 Histogram

The Histogram help to find how many percentages of work completed. The x-axis displays the

Days in the Sprint (i.e. 10 days). And y-axis shows how many items are done. It also marks

when (e.g.) 75% of work items were completed by, and similar milestones. We can use this as a

guide to predict when a new work items of similar scale may be completed.

7.6 Control Charts

A Control Chart can show the cycle time or lead time for your product, version or sprint. The horizontal x-axis in a Control Chart indicates time, and the vertical y-axis indicates the number of days issues have spent in those statuses. A Control Chart helps you identify whether data from the current sprint can be used to determine future performance. The less variance in the cycle time of an issue, the higher the confidence in using the mean (or median) as an indication of future performance.

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8.0 Project

8.1 Create project Before you can go Agile with your team, you will need to create a Project in the

Cognosco System. Below are the fields you will have to fill out. Add Teams member to the project.

Choose Total number of iterations.

Specify the sprint duration / length.

Choose the scale / velocity for the team. 1-10 or Fibonacci.

End Date is calculated based on the number of iterations,

iteration duration, and the start date.

Add project milestones if applicable.

Create Personas to describe the end- users of the product/application you are building.

Definition of Done for the Agile Team to Follow.

Add Key Stake holders to keep them informed about the progress.

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* You can add Multiple Milestones, Personas, and Key Stakeholders by clicking the “+” sign. Page 16


8.2 Payment through authorize.net Provide the credit card details as shown below.

The payment will be processed through Authorize.net.

8.2 Payment through Paypal Click on the Subscribe button.

The user will be redirected to the Paypal system and the payment will be

processed through Paypal.

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8.4 Cancel Subscription: The user can cancel the subscription from the update profile page. The project will be

unsubscribed and the recurring payment stop. Your credit card will also be refunded the

prorated difference for that month. 8.5 Edit Project

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8.6 Delete Project

The project owner can delete the project by clicking the delete button on the dashboard page.

The delete button will be available only for the project owner.

9.0 Backlog

9.1 Create PBL Before you can plan your sprints, you will need to create an initial backlog. The backlog contains

work items such as Business and Technical Stories, Epics, and Defects. The backlog can be updated in

real time and should be done so by the Product Owner and/or Team.

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Work Item Acceptance Criteria You can add multiple Acceptance Criteria by clicking on the “+” sign.

Parent Work Item Stories can be linked to Epics (Parent/Child relationship).

Tasks You can add multiple Tasks for a Work Item.

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9.2 Edit PBL Any team member can edit and update a Work Item in the backlog. However, who updates the Work Items in the backlog should be driven by your team agreement.

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9.3 View PBL Attachments listed for the work item.

Attachments are downloadable.

Click edit to modify the PBL item.

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9.4 Backlog The page displays all the Backlog Work Items for the project.

Add New – Add new work item to the PBL.

Delete – Select work items to delete.

Filter by – Filter the list of Work Items based on the Type of Work Item (i.e. Business, Technical, Epic, and Defect).

View – View details for a particular work item.

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10.0 Sprint Planning The Team can plan their Iteration by pulling the Work Items into the Iteration and confirming the commitment with the Product Owner.

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11.0 Board The Board provides a visual of where your work items are in the value stream.

11.1 WIP Limits Setting When User Select Particular Sprint it will show that sprint based work items. You can enable

Work In Process (WIP) Limits to the top of the In Progress and QA/Review columns. WIP limits

will have a drop down of [1-20, and infinite]. By enabling WIP Limits, you manage the flow of

work items to that columns of the Value Stream. This will help to improve flow efficiency with

the Team.

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11.2 WIP Limits Setting and Save Select a numeric value from the drop-down list (In-Progress or QA/Review) and click

save. It will save Your WIP limits.

11.3 WIP Limits Exceeds The WIP limits will always be monitored by the system. (i.e. WIP limit has been set to 4 for the In-Progress column. The user will continue to change the status for Work Items for In-Progress to QA/Review. When the In-Progress Work Items surpasses the WIP limit set in the In-Progress dropdown column, the In-Progress column turns to Red.

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12.0 Sprint Review 12.1 Sprint Review Summary

The Sprint Review summarizes all the information for a completed sprint. The information provided in the Sprint Review are:

Stories Completed - Total count of stories completed in the sprint iteration.

Stories Not Completed - Total count of stories not completed during the sprint.

Sprint Velocity –Current Sprint Velocity.

Average Velocity –Total Velocity divided by the number of completed Sprints

Major Milestones accomplished –List of all milestones accomplished during the sprint.

Reasons for Not Completing the Sprint – Why the team was not able to finish all the Stories or get all the Stories Accepted by the Product Owner.

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12.2 Edit Sprint Review You can edit the Sprint Review Summary to update the Major milestones accomplished and reasons for not completing the Sprint.

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13.0 Retrospective

13.1 Retrospective Summary The Retrospective will help the Team record what worked well, what didn’t work well, and what can be improved.

User can filter retrospective notes based on What worked Well, What Didn’t work, and what can be improved.

User can view retrospective note details. Page 29


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13.2 View Retrospective Note

Click edit to update the note.

13.3 Add / Edit Retrospective Note

Select a sprint from the list.

Click New Note button

Select the type (Choose Status) and enter the notes.

Click save.

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14.0 Reports Backlog Work Items. Sprint Work Items. Sprint Summary. Retrospective Notes. Project Charter.

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14.1 Backlog Report The report will display all the work items in the project. The user will have the Option to select the columns for the data they want and export to excel using the

“Export grid to excel” button. The report will be downloaded in excel with all the

work items related to the project based on the columns selected.

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14.2 Sprint Work Item Report

The user can select the sprints for the project and the columns to display. The report

can be exported to excel using the button “Export grid to excel” button. The report

will be downloaded in excel with all the work items related to the selected sprint and

columns for the project.

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14.3 Sprint Summary Report The user can select the sprints for the project and the columns to display. The report can be

exported to excel using the button “Export grid to excel” button. The report will be

downloaded in excel with all the details related to the selected sprint and columns for the

project. .

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14.4 Retrospective Report The user can select the sprints for the project and the columns to display. The report

can be exported to excel using the button “Export grid to excel” button. The report will

be downloaded in excel with all the retrospective details related to the selected sprint

and columns for the project.

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14.5 Project Charter Report The user will have the option to select the columns for the data they want and export

to excel using the “Export grid to excel” button. The report will be downloaded in excel

with all the work items related to the project based on the columns selected. The

report will be downloaded in excel with all the work items related to the project based

on the columns selected.

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15.0 Help The Help provides an overview of Agile and how to use Cognosco.

15.1 Help Expanded

Information is grouped in categorical questions and is provided when the user clicks on the question.

In most case, when the user clicks on the links, it will take them to an online website.

Search functionality is provided to find information at ease. Page 38


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All Screenshot shown from this point forward will display Android/iPhone screens on the left and Android Tablet/iPad on the right.

16.0 Mobile/Tablet app – Home screen

The home screen displays all the functions you need to execute a Sprint plus functionality to work offline and get help.

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17.0 Projects

17.1 Create Project Before you can go Agile with your team, you will need to create project in the Cognosco System. Below the field you will have to fill out.

Add Teams member to the project.

Choose Total number of iterations.

Specify the sprint duration / length.

Choose the scale / velocity for the team. 1-10 or Fibonacci.

End Date is calculated based on the number of iterations, iteration duration, and the start date.

Add project milestones if applicable.

Create Personas to describe the end- users of the product/application

you are building.

Definition of Done for the Agile Team to Follow.

Add Key Stake holders to keep them informed about the progress.

You can add Multiple Milestones, Personas, and Key Stakeholders by clicking the “+” sign.

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17.2 Edit Project

The user will be able to edit the project by clicking on the pencil icon.

The user will be in edit mode with the prefilled data from the create project section.

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COGNOSCO – HELP GUID

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17.3 Delete Project The user will be able to delete the project from their hand held device by clicking on the delete

icon. The user will be prompted for a confirmation before deleting the project from their

mobile. The deleted projected will be deleted only from the mobile but not from the cloud

application even after syncing.

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18.0 Backlogs

18.1 Create PBL

The user will be able to create ‘ N’ number of work items using the create PBL menu.

You can add multiple Acceptance Criteria by clicking on the “+” sign. Stories can be linked to Epics (Parent/Child relationship) You can add multiple tasks for a work item.

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18.2 View PBL

The list of all PBL will be displayed in the view PBL.

The user will be able to edit the PBL by clicking on the pencil icon.

The user will be able to delete the PBL by clicking on the delete icon.

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18.3. Edit PBL The user will be able edit and save the changes for the chosen work item.

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18.4 .Delete PBL The user will be able to delete the work item upon confirmation.

18.5. Export PBL The user will be able to export the selected work item to email or a file. Please note: This functionality of available for iPhone or iPad.

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19.0 About Us The about provides details about Raman Technologies, Inc – the creator of Cognosco.

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20.0 Retrospectives The Retrospective will help the Team record what worked well, what didn’t work well, and what can be improved.

Filter Retrospective notes based on What Worked Well, What Didn’t work, and what can be improved.

View Retrospective Note details.

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20.1 New Note

Select a project and sprint from the dropdown.

Click the New Note button.

Select the Type and enter notes. Click save.

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20.2 View Note

The user can expand and view on the notes created.

The user can edit notes by tapping on the edit button.

The user can delete notes by tapping the delete icon.

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20.3 Edit Note

The user can edit notes and save changes.

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21 Planning Poker Planning poker is a Delphi technique for estimating, mostly used to estimate effort or

relative size of development goals in software development. In planning poker, members of

the group make estimates by playing selecting a card on their phone and keeping the screen

facing them. By hiding the selected card in this way, the group can avoid the cognitive bias of

influencing, where the first number shown sets a precedent for subsequent estimates.

Instead, the Scrum Master will count to three and then everyone shows their card at the

same time.

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21.1 Planning Poker – Settings The user have three settings for the cards: sequence, color, and largest card. To get to the settings, the user touches the 3 card icon next to the “Planning Poker” text.

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21.2 Planning Poker – Sequence The card sequence options are planning poker (modified Fibonacci), Fibonacci, Natural and T-shirt. The

user can select any one based on their project preference and change it again as necessary.

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21.3 Planning Poker – Color The user can select the color for the deck of cards: Blue, Pink, Grey, Green and Orange.

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21.4 Planning Poker – Largest Card Based on the sequence selected, the user can chose the largest number to be displayed in the deck.

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21.5 View Card Below is the largest view of the single card.

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22. Help The Help provides an overview of Agile and few useful links.

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22.1 Help Expanded Information is grouped in categorical questions and answers are provided when

the user clicks on the question. In most cases, the links takes the user to a website.

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23. Sync The sync allows users to synchronize their project data from mobile to cloud and vice versa. Steps to Sync:

1. Click on Sync on the mobile home screen.

2. Enter the email and passcode for your cloud account and click Login.

3. You will get a message that indicates the synchronization was successful.

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24. Conclusion Dr. Sanjeev Raman is an agile coach and trainer, and creator of Cognosco. He started Raman

Technologies, Inc. to help organizations transform their workplace to be more collaborative,

innovative, successful, and ultimately fun. Sanjeev has over 15 years in the high tech space, ranging

from technical product development to program and executive management, and now agile coaching

and training. Through his coaching and training engagements, Dr. Raman has built a niche for agile

transformations in the embedded and firmware product development space. Some of his clients have

included Intel, Cisco, Juniper, Calix, SK Hynix, PayPal, JP Morgan Chase, AOL, Bristol Myers Squibb,

Biogen Idec, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Hewlett Packard, just to name a few.

Dr. Raman has four academic degrees, two undergraduate degrees in Biomedical Science Research and

Laboratory Science and two graduate degrees in Information Technology from University of Maryland,

Towson University, and George Mason University respectively. He holds several certifications from

Scrum Alliance, Project Management Institute, Scaled Agile, Lean Kanban University, and others in the

agile and project management space. He has been on review committees for industry conferences such

as Scrum Alliance and Agile Alliance. Dr. Raman has published articles with the Scrum Alliance, Agile

Atlas, and Info Q. He has also translated the Agile Manifesto to Sanskrit for the Agile Alliance, and

published two books: one on Scrum fundamentals, and another on embedded and firmware agile

product development.

Dr. Raman also runs two conference series: Lean Kanban Asia Pacific and Agile Asia. Apart from these conferences, he also runs two agile meetup groups: Portland, Oregon and Silicon Valley.

Sanjeev mainly splits his time currently between Silicon Valley, Portland, and Washington DC when in the Unites Stated, and all over Asia.

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