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Criterion
Four paper stations connect system purpose, quality goals, risk cards and focused investigation with a target and gap profile.
Architecture
LASR (Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews)
Paper illustration for Dot Estimation.
Facilitation
Dot Estimation
Paper illustration for Affinity Estimation.
Agile
Affinity Estimation
Paper illustration for Ideal Days.
Agile
Ideal Days
Purposedifferent
LASR helps development teams identify where their software falls short of important quality goals and which improvements to consider. A small group with existing system knowledge can make an initial assessment and investigate open questions in more detail.When size or effort can only be estimated roughly, Dot Estimation condenses the group's experience into a quick range. It turns individual contributions into a visible selection. The result is captured as an Effort Heatmap, Risk Signals, and Discussion Targets.When many tasks need to be classified quickly, it sorts them by perceived effort and similarity. It reduces the effort of fine-grained estimation for large volumes.When effort needs to be thought of as real working time, it offers a simple common denominator for comparison. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as Ideal Day Estimates, Assumption Notes, and Capacity Caveats.
Complexitydifferent
MediumLowMediumLow
Timedifferent
3–4 h for initial assessment; preparation and deeper analysis additional5-20 min30-90 min15-60 min
Participantsdifferent
1 or a small team; particularly suitable for 3–4 people3-203-122-9
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Lean Mission Statement describing the software’s purpose, Prioritized quality goals and evaluation criteria, Risks and estimated gaps against quality goals, More closely examined findings and open checksEffort Heatmap, Risk Signals, Discussion TargetsAffinity Size Map, Grouped Estimates, Unclear ItemsIdeal Day Estimates, Assumption Notes, Capacity Caveats
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureQualityRiskAssessmentLean
EstimationEffortRisk
EstimationBacklogRelative sizing
EstimationEffortAgile
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