Distributed vs Collocated Scrum

Why and how you might want to move from collocation to a dispersed development model

Isak Styf, Scrum MasterNew Product Platform Development Group

Agenda

Collocation IS better ……except when it isn’tWhat can go wrong?There can be distinct advantages to distribution or dispersion!Invest in this if you are going to do it– A trusting and committed team without fear of conflict– Technical Infrastructure– Keeping communication flowing– Continuous improvement

Reading MaterialSummary

Collocation IS better…

In “the agile sweet spot”– Small team within eye sight of each other– Minimal dependency on external hard-to-get-hold-of

expertise or domain knowledge– A single customer within reach– A product that is serving a single homogenous target

market– Short project cycle

This is Agile 101 and therefore the first thing we learn about how to do Scrum “right”But honestly, is your project in this spot?Do not force fit this model!

...except when it isn’t

”In an organization designed to serve several distinct markets, it is important to reflect the market structure in the development organization. One frequently overlooked opportunity for a powerful pattern is the conscious design of a "core" organization (framework team), that supports only what is common across all market segments.”

Organization Follows Market – Jim Coplien

That’s Us!

What can go wrong?

Lack of trust and buy-in from internal customers– ”Our needs have not been heard”– ”They do not understand our market”– ”We do not get to participate”– ”This is not how we would have done it”– ”Who did this to me!? We would be better off doing it

ourselves!”

Feedback flow is impeeded because there is no natural communication channelWe end up going really really fast, blindfolded, in the wrong direction!

Distributed advantages

Customers can have face time with our developers to resolve issues in their own lingoOur feedback response time is minimizedOur market specific open issues can be resolved quicker because we have people on siteIncreased trust and shorter turnaround time reduces the need for traceability, accountability and up front design reviews

Not being collocated requires our teams to communicate more and not rely as much on tribal knowledge. This is an advantage!

Invest in this

Building a trusting and committed team without fear of conflict

Technical Infrastructure

Keeping communication flowing

Continuous improvement of the development process

Building a distributed team

The first three of the five dysfunctions are extra important in a distributed setting– Trust

• Needs touch! ”You will pay the cost of a face-to-face meeting regardless of whether you have one or not. Not having it may cost more.” - Pugh

– Fear of conflict• Distance breeds misunderstandings. If your team is afraid of

creating a conflict you will not get the value you want out of it!• Educate the team on cultural differences.• The Scrum Master must be proactive to seek out potential sources

of conflict and deal with the situation before it escalates.

– Lack of commitment• Does everyone know the vision and goal? Is everyone heading in

the same direction?

Technical infrastructure

Save your money somewhere else. Not on the technical infrastructure that the success of your distributed team is depending on!Continuous integration build servers with build information radiators is an investment that you want to make as early as possible.Make sure that the network bandwith is enough to handle video conferencingHigh quality conference phone and headsets for peer to peer calls

Keep communication flowing

Visual CI build boards in all team spacesGroup chat or instant messaging for quick status updates. ”I just broke the build. We should be back to green in 5 mins.”Distribution is not an excuse for swim-laning!– Consider WIP limits if this is a problem for you

Pair ProgrammingDaily standups and cross team SoS via videoExpatriates regularly travel between sites– Only traveling at project start is not enough!

Continuous improvement

”Success depends upon colleagues addressing communication constraints and barriers in a distributed setting.” – Jutta Eckstein

Use the retrospective to find ways to improve your communication.List your (non human) impediments publicallyReport on the impact from insufficient infrastructureUse your metrics to visualize improvements

Reading Material

The 5 dysfunctions of a team, Patrick Lencioni

Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams, Jutta Eckstein

Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development, Craig Larman & Bas Vodde

Distributed Scrum Primer, Pete Deemer

Summary

Collocation is not always the most efficient way of working when you factor in customer satisfaction.If you are targeting diverse markets or internal customers you might have quite a lot to gain by distributing your team.A very high coordination effort is required so make sure that your technical infrastructure and communication channels can support your teams.Always inspect and adapt your process to make sure that it is improving. Focus especially on communication constraints.

If we can do it. So can you!

www.markem-imaje.com

Thank you for your attention.