How to Define Features in Agile Methodology?

Agile projects are known for their simple, iterative approach to cutting through the complexity. Even the most ambitious of Agile projects is taken one step at a time and break down complex work packages and tasks into low-level subtasks. Features and capabilities that are needed in the finished product are listed out and then broken down into manageable chunks, which are taken up and completed, one at a time.

In this article, we will talk about Features in an Agile methodology, what are the characteristics of features and how they are applied. The best Agile certifications will help you get experiential learning.

What is a Feature in Agile Methodology?

A feature is a service or function of the product that delivers business value and fulfils the customer’s need. Each feature is broken down into several user stories, as it is usually too big to be worked on directly. 

A user story is an informal, short description of a part of a software feature that is written from the user’s perspective and talks about how this particular bit of the feature will offer something of value.

Example

In project management software, "Task Prioritization" is a feature that has helped our team to assign task priority levels. Earlier, our team was working together on multiple features altogether. But with agile features, we were able to develop and deliver features independently to our users without waiting for the entire project management system to be completed. Agile methodology features enable teams to respond to changing requirements and provide value regularly.

What are Features Called in Different Agile Methodologies? 

In various Agile methodologies, the term "features" may be referred to by different names, but the essence remains consistent.

• In Scrum, features are often articulated as "Product Backlog Items" or simply "Backlog Items." These represent the functional components, or user stories prioritized for development.  
• In Kanban, similar work units might be termed "Tasks" or "Cards," emphasizing the visual representation on Kanban boards. 
• In Extreme Programming (XP), features are known as "User Stories," encapsulating specific end-user functionalities.
• Furthermore, some methodologies adopt broader terms, such as "Requirements," to encompass features and other project needs. 

The variation in nomenclature reflects the flexibility and adaptability of Agile methodologies to diverse project environments. Despite the terminology nuances, the underlying principle in all Agile frameworks is to deliver incremental value to end-users through iterative development cycles, and the entities representing these increments are fundamental to the Agile process, regardless of the specific terminology used.

What are the Characteristics of Features in Agile Methodology?

To be effective, a feature should always

• User-Centric Focus - Features in Agile are typically defined from the user's perspective, ensuring that the development team prioritizes functionalities that provide direct value to end-users.
• Backlog Management - Features are often represented in a product backlog, a prioritized list of functionalities that guides the development team's work. Prioritization is based on business value and user needs.
• Incremental Delivery - Features are delivered incrementally in small, manageable iterations. This allows for faster releases, continuous feedback, and the ability to adapt to changing requirements.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration - Developing features often involves collaboration among cross-functional teams, where individuals with various skills work together to deliver complete and valuable functionalities.
• User Stories - Features are broken down into user stories, which are small, specific units of work. User stories articulate the functionality from the end-user's perspective and serve as the building blocks for development.
• Acceptance Criteria - Each feature or user story is accompanied by acceptance criteria, which define the conditions that must be met for the feature to be considered complete and ready for release.
• Continuous Refinement - Features are subject to continuous refinement based on feedback from stakeholders, users, and team retrospectives. This iterative process ensures that the product evolves to meet changing needs.
• Adaptability to Change - Agile features are developed with the understanding that requirements may change. The Agile approach encourages embracing changes, even late in the development process, to enhance the product's value.
• Minimal Viable Product (MVP) - Agile often focuses on delivering a Minimal Viable Product, which includes the essential features needed for the product to be functional and valuable. Additional features are then added in subsequent iterations.
• Regular Demonstrations - Completed features are regularly demonstrated to stakeholders and users, fostering transparency and collaboration. This ensures that the delivered functionality aligns with expectations.
• Inspection and Adaptation - Agile features undergo continuous inspection and adaptation. This involves reviewing progress, obtaining feedback, and adapting plans and features accordingly to enhance the overall product.
• Test-Driven Development (TDD) - In Agile, features are often developed using Test-Driven Development, where tests are created before the code. This ensures that the features meet specified requirements and are free of defects.
• Offer measurable business value,  
• Contain enough information to allow for estimation of the work involved,
• Be small enough to be completed within a program increment or maximum of three months,  
• Be testable by the scrum team and the product management team.

How to Write Features in Agile Methodology? [Step-by-Step]

Writing Agile features requires a user-focused, iterative approach. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to write Agile features:

Step 1: Formulate Benefit Hypothesis

Specify how the functionality will provide advantages to users.

For example - As a Product Manager, I noticed a problem: many customers prefer calling to rent a service instead of using our website. They do this because they want someone to help them choose the right service. This is causing issues for our team and limiting the number of customers we can reach. That's why I want our system to be able to recommend the best service for customers based on their needs.

This change will make things easier for customers and our team. It's like having a helpful guide built into our system. This information is crucial for the team to understand why we're making this feature and how it will improve things for everyone.

Step 2: Evaluate Business Value

Determine the business value through various methods, considering user volume, feature usage frequency, release timing, and development effort.

I did a quick study to see how helpful it could be. For a week, we asked people who booked a service over the phone if they'd rather do it on the website with personalized advice on services. Surprisingly, 68% said yes because it saves time, and 32% feel better talking to someone to learn about services. I also checked with the marketing team to see how long people spend reading about services and if they book afterward. Turns out, if we add this new feature, we could sell 25% more of the basic services online in a month. It would also save 10% of the support team's time, giving them room for other important tasks. I shared all this info in the feature report because it's vital to decide which features to work on first—those that give us the most benefits without too much effort.

Step 3: Description

Articulate the feature's context and user interactions, emphasizing the necessity rather than the technical implementation.

To describe new feature, I've listed the questions that people often ask our Support team when they book a basic service. These are things they should be able to find on our website. I've also suggested a plan for how users will move through the feature, but we'll talk more about it with the team. The description has important stuff from my view as the Product Manager and techie details that the team, especially the scrum team, will figure out to make the feature work smoothly.

4. Establish Acceptance Criteria/DoD 

Clearly define the conditions that signify the completion of a feature. Similar to acceptance criteria for user stories, features serve definition of done as key criteria and checkpoints for gauging progress in product development.

In my case, I checked if a user submitting for a specific service on the website can retrieve the correct results, ensuring personalization they are looking for. Here, the acceptance criteria do not relate to how features are being implemented but depends on functionality.

Best Practices for Defining Agile Features

According to me, following best practices will leave less room for mistakes. Taking care of the following best practices while using features, will bring more fruitful results.

• Prioritize a user-cantered approach by focusing on the needs, preferences, and challenges of end-users.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to prioritize features based on their value to users and overall business goals.
• Embrace the iterative nature of Agile development, regularly reviewing and adapting features based on feedback, changing market conditions, and evolving project requirements for continuous improvement.
• Foster collaboration among cross-functional teams, including developers, testers, and product owners, to ensure a shared understanding of features for smoother implementation and reduced miscommunication.
• Clearly define acceptance criteria for each feature to establish measurable benchmarks for completion, enhancing transparency and reducing ambiguity.
• Utilize prototyping and mock-ups to visualize feature implementations, clarify requirements, validate design decisions, and ensure a common understanding among team members and stakeholders.

Who Writes Features in Agile Scrum?

The Scrum Guide, considered to be the Bible for all things Scrum, does not lay out any guidelines for the use of features.

However, Scaled Agile, Inc. indicates that the Product Manager is the owner of the Features, which is to say, he or she finally decides what goes into the feature and what is its priority on the Backlog. The features are not necessarily written by the Product Manager, however, and this could be done by others on the team. Going for the professional Scrum Master certification training will help you crack PSM exam on the first go. 

There are several steps in the definition and writing of features. 

• Define the WHY, or the benefit hypothesis - What is the functionality that the users gain from the feature? What are the benefits to be gained from implementing this feature? 
• Calculate the business value - Keep in mind the number of users, how often each of them uses the feature, what is the timeframe within which the feature must be released for it to be useful, and how much effort goes into developing this feature. All these together will help to determine the ROI of the feature and ultimately whether it is worth the effort and cost. Features that bring in the most benefit at least cost will be prioritized. 
• Describe the feature - What is the context and how will it be used? What is the need for the feature? Try to include technical details and any information that is important from the Product Manager’s point of view. 
• Write down the acceptance criteria - What are the conditions under which the feature can be deemed to be done? This will help to reduce any ambiguity and mark work progress.

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How Big Should the Product Features be?

While there is no hard and fast rule on this, and it is left largely to the convenience of project teams, it is generally agreed that it should be possible to complete a feature within a maximum of three months. 

When using SAFe, a feature is released in one single program increment. 

Teams that are working with investor funding and are getting the funds at regular cycles should be able to showcase a completed feature during each investment cycle, in order to demonstrate that they are progressing on track. 

What are Feature Points?

Feature points represent the amount of work complexity, effort taken, and knowledge required to complete one feature. They are the same as story points, but in the context of a feature rather than a user story.

1. Task Complexity Gauge - Feature points help teams gauge how complex a task is, doing planning and managing their work easier.
2. Comparing Task Sizes - They work by comparing the size of one task to another, allowing teams to prioritize and allocate resources based on the perceived complexity.
3. Essential for Planning - Feature points are crucial for planning in Agile, helping teams decide which tasks to tackle first and ensuring efficient use of time and effort.
4. Tracking Work Speed - They contribute to measuring a team's speed in completing tasks (velocity) and predicting how much work can be done in future sprints.
5. Learning and Improving - Feature points support a continuous learning process, allowing teams to adapt and improve their estimation accuracy over time as they gain more insights into the project's intricacies.

Features vs. Epics in Agile

In Agile development, features and epics are terms used to describe work units, but they differ in scope and complexity. Here's a breakdown of the distinctions between features and epics.

Aspect	Features	Epics
Scope	Smaller, focused on a group of user stories	Larger, encompassing multiple features
Size	Relatively small and granular	Larger and more complex
Timeline	Developed within a short timeframe	May span multiple sprints or releases
User Stories	Composed of one or more user stories	Consisting of multiple features and stories
Planning	Short-term goals, prioritized for immediate value to users	Long-term strategic planning, prioritized based on broader business objectives
Example	Task Prioritization feature in a project management tool	Enhance Task Management epic in the same project management tool, encompassing features like task prioritization, categorization, and dependencies

Feature Breakdown Structure (FBS)

The Feature Breakdown Structure (FBS) is a project management tool used to decompose and organize features into user stories within a product or project. Like a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), which breaks down project tasks, the FBS focuses specifically on features. It provides a hierarchical representation of features, breaking them into smaller, more manageable components.

At the top level, the FBS outlines the significant features essential for the project's success. Each feature is further detailed as you descend through the hierarchy, often into sub-features or user stories. This breakdown aids in a more comprehensive understanding of the project scope, allowing for effective planning, prioritization, and resource allocation.

The FBS is a visual and organizational tool fostering clear communication among team members, stakeholders, and product owners. It helps identify dependencies, estimate efforts, and ensure that the project team aligns with the project objectives. The FBS is particularly valuable in Agile environments, facilitating iterative development and adaptability as the project progresses, ensuring that the delivered features meet user needs and align with project goals.

Why Use Features in Agile Scrum and Not Only User Stories?

A feature is something that is sizeable enough to deliver measurable value to customers and creates a large chunk of functionality. Features are used to describe the functionality at a macro level, and they are required to create schedules and plan the high-level release of the product.

Scrum works on the premise of short development cycles called Sprints, which usually last between 2 weeks and a month but not longer. One feature is typically completed over several sprints. In one sprint, only several user stories can be completed and not, perhaps, an entire feature.

1. Holistic Functionality View - Features encapsulate a broader set of functionalities, providing a holistic perspective. This helps teams understand how user stories contribute to overall product goals.
2. Improved Planning and Prioritization - Features assist in high-level planning by grouping related user stories. This enables effective release prioritization, aligning with the product roadmap and aiding strategic decision-making.
3. Enhanced Communication and Collaboration - Features are a communication tool, bridging gaps between technical and non-technical stakeholders. They establish a common language for discussions, fostering better collaboration and understanding among team members and stakeholders.
4. Flexibility in Development - Features offer flexibility for adapting to changing requirements. Teams can adjust focus within a feature without disrupting the project's overall structure.
5. Easier Tracking and Reporting - Features simplify progress tracking and reporting. Project managers and stakeholders can monitor feature status for a higher-level project overview, facilitating communication with those not involved in day-to-day development.
6. Facilitation of Release Planning - Features are crucial in release planning, enabling teams to structure releases based on completed functionalities. This ensures a smoother release process and effective management of stakeholder expectations.

Building an Initial Feature List

At the very start, before the release planning and iteration planning can happen, the team must sit together and list out as many potential features for the system as possible at this stage. Feature requests can come from many sources, and one person should be allocated to collate all these requests. While this could be the product manager, it could also be a customer proxy, a business analyst or someone who is responsible and accountable to the team. 

The team should refine these requirements, weeding out duplicate items, features that are not possible to implement, and requests that are very vague. As the features are identified, they are added to the list so that they can become a part of the planning processes. 

This initial feature list can be considered to be a preliminary outline that can be used as input to chart out the release and first iteration. It is not required to wait until all features are defined before getting started on the actual work, and it is also understood that the original list, descriptions, and priorities will evolve over time. 

Instead of waiting for everything to get detailed out at the outset, the team can get to work with the initial list without wasting any valuable time. As new features which could be critical get identified, they are simply added into the evolving release plan and will get delivered during a subsequent iteration. As the project progresses, the work adapts itself to accommodate new priorities, additional information from stakeholders, and the changing industry dynamics.

Advantages of Breaking Down Features into Smaller User Stories

User stories, as we have learned, represent smaller chunks of work while features represent fully formed functionalities of the product. There are many advantages to breaking down the features into functionalities, and the main ones are these:

• Stories narrow down the focus: Stories are small, doable portions of the work that do not overwhelm the developer. They represent an entire piece of functionality, however small it is, and so can measure incremental progress.
• Stories fit into a sprint: Features are too large to be completed within a sprint, but stories can be finished within this duration. This allows more efficient scheduling and planning of sprint tasks.
• Stories capture both intent and outcome: A product manager (who is not required to be technically fluent) can easily describe the outcome of a story to the developer, so that he or she can understand the intent.
• Stories mitigate the risk: As big stories come with a lot more complexity, they also involve more risk. When features are broken down into smaller stories, this risk is mitigated. Anny erroneous assumptions can be curtailed within a few days rather than several weeks into development. 

Feature vs Task Planning

Features come into play at a macro level of planning, and it is essential that at a later point they will need to be broken down into tasks and estimated. This is done during sprint planning and release planning.

Feature planning and estimates help to schedule releases and iterations. Task planning and estimates help to allocate resources and plan the tasks within an iteration.

Since the nature of agile project plans is always fluid and not very precise, feature estimates need not exactly map to a number of task estimates, but there should be a rough approximation between the two.

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Conclusion

In summary, features in agile methodology represents specific user functionalities, contributing to incremental development. They are more granular than epics, addressing immediate user needs. 

On the other hand, epics are larger entities aligning with broader business goals. Recognizing the difference is crucial for effective planning. Features enable detailed, user-focused development, ensuring responsiveness to evolving user requirements within the Agile framework.