Getting Started for Digital.ai Agility Administrators

Overview

To get your out-of-the-box instance up-and-going fast, only a few things are needed to start planning and tracking your agile project. This guide gives you the essentials.

It's generally a good idea to focus on minimalism first to help teams get up and going on what's most important. At first, consider disabling features and limiting the number of fields being used. As the teams mature and discover they need more, you can add in more features and/or complexity as the needs arise.

Step 1. Create a Project in the Project Tree

In Digital.ai Agility, the terms "Project" and "Release" are used interchangeably.

The first thing you need to do, is create a new project in the Project Tree. A project is an asset that allows you to capture a backlog of stories, defects, and other workitems and can represent a product or release.

This feature is available in Catalyst, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.

To create a project, your project role must be set to Project Administrator or higher.

In Digital.ai Agility, the terms "Project", "Planning Level", and "Release" are used interchangeably.

Steps

Click the Admin icon , scroll down to the Projects section, and click Projects.
Expand the System (All Projects) project. The "System (All Projects)" project sits at the top level of the project tree and was automatically created when Digital.ai Agility was set up. We recommend that you create all of your projects/child projects underneath it to retain the flexibility to scale the project tree in the future. To learn more, see Understanding System (All Projects).
Click on the Add Child Project button next to the parent project under which you want to create the new project.
Enter the project details as appropriate. Refer to the Project Fields table for descriptions.

The Title and Begin Date fields are the only required fields.

Project Fields

Field	Action	Description
Title	Type the name of the project.	The name of the project/release as it displays in the Project Tree.
Parent Project	This field is pre-populated with the name of the parent project. Click on the name to view additional details.	The the name of the project that is one level higher in the Project Tree hierarchy.
Iteration Schedule	Click on the magnifying glass to assign an Iteration Schedule to the project.	The Iteration Schedule assigned to the project. See Iteration Scheduling.
Planning Level	Select one of the following: Enterprise Portfolio Value Stream Release Train Program Increment Product Release	Indicates how the specific node is being used in the Project Hierarchy. The values for the drop-down are specified in the Administration section on the Global tab under List Types. When this attribute is set on a Project, any new child project will automatically be assigned the next value from the list. This behavior is identical to how Portfolio Item types are assigned. Additionally, the label on the Add button in Release Planning is automatically set to show the next value in the list; so instead of always seeing "Add Project", you may see something like "Add Release", or "Add Program Increment". The Planning Level attribute is visible on Project hovers and is available on Project Grids as a column or a filter. The Project Timeline can be filtered on this attribute as well.
Description	Type a narrative description of the project.	This is a free-form WYSIWYG field that allows you to add expanded details about the project.
Budget	Type in the budget amount.	The allocated budget amount for the project/release.
Begin Date	The date the project begins.	The date the project begins. This field is required.
End Date	The date the project ends.	The date the project ends. This field is optional (see note below).
Status	Select the status of the project.	Indicates the status of the project. See List values for information on how to define status levels.
Owner	Type the first three characters of the project owner's name.	The person to contact if you have questions.
Target Swag	Type in the Swag amount.	The amount of Swag you expect to be delivered in the project. Useful when planning (see note below).
Target Estimate Points	Type in the Target Estimate amount.	The amount of Estimate you expect to be delivered in the Project. Useful when planning (see note below).
Test Suite	Select a TestSuite from the drop-down list.	The TestSuite assigned to the project.
Pipelines	Select a Pipeline from the drop-down list.	Pipelines assigned to the project.
Reference	Type any additional project information.	Free form short text field for information about the project. Sometimes this is used to capture an external reference number for the project.

If using Release Capacity Planning, enter values in the Target Swag, Target Estimate values and/or End Date fields.

Step 2. Create and Assign a Sprint/Iteration Schedule

Next, you need to create and assign a Sprint/Iteration Schedule to the project. A Sprint Schedule is basically a sprint calendar that aligns a collection of sprints/iterations following the same duration (e.g., two weeks).

Step 3. Add a Team Member to the Project

Now, you can begin adding members to the project. This grants them access to the project and its backlog.

See Member Administration to learn more about managing member accounts.

Step 4. Assign a Project Role to the Member

Step 5. Create or Import Stories for the Project (Optional)

There are several ways to add workitems (stories, defects, etc.) to your project backlog. The most common ways are listed below. For additional options, see Building the Backlog.

Import from an Excel Spreadsheet
If you are managing your workitems in an Excel spreadsheet or have exported them from another system, you can quickly import them into Digital.ai Agility in bulk using the Import Template. We recommend downloading and using this template because it guidance on how to properly format the data to reduce import errors. See Importing Data from Excel.
Create Stories on the Backlog Page
You can also add new stories to the project backlog on the project backlog page. See to Stories/Backlog Items for instructions.

Step 6. Create a Sprint/Iteration (Optional)

Step 7. Assign Stories to the Sprint (Optional)

With the Project Backlog selected, drag-and-drop Stories from the Backlog into desired Sprint.
Stories can be broken down into Tasks and Tests and estimated in desired unit of detail estimation – e.g., Hours; this Detail Estimate provides a To Do value to each Task/Test; reducing the To Do value by a Team Member during the Sprint drives the Sprint Burndown chart to show progress being made against the Sprint Backlog.

Step 8. Track Work and Progress During the Sprint (Optional)

There are several ways to track work in progress:

Using Storyboards, Taskboards, or Testboards:
They are particularly valuable if used in the manner of a physical whiteboard – project onto a wall or display in a large monitor for the Team to use. See Using Storyboards, Viewing Tasks on the Taskboard, or Using the Testboard to Track and Manage Tests for more details.
In a TeamRoom:
Drag-and-drop stories, tasks and tests to a status column to show progress; reduce number of To Do values to show progress. See TeamRooms for details.
From the My Home menu:
Alternatively, use the My Home > My Work view independently to manage the work to you. See Using the My Work Page for more information.