scrum in practice

Objectives

Selection of scrum for agile development

Adoption of scrum

Assessment of scrum implementation

Experience report

Results from adopting scrum

Short Question-Answer session

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Selection: Scrum and Agile Manifesto

Agile Manifesto created in Feb 2001

17 signatories - Ken S. and Mike B.

Search for common ground on the iterative and evolutionary software development methodologies prevalent

Explore, do and help others at better ways of developing software

Around 2,900 signatories till date

First book on Scrum out in October, 2001



1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Scrum is not prescriptive

Scrum in not tool centric

Collaboration is a must



2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

PB is product centric

A potentially shippable product at sprint end

PO feedback available through out



3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

PO role, one of the pillars of Scrum

PB list reflects the vision and priorities of PO

PO is involved with development



4. Responding to change over following a plan

PO can edit and reprioritize PB items at anytime

Sprint can be terminated midway

System tweaks possible during sprint


Selection: Determining if Agile is Right for me

DSDM’s project suitability filter for Scrum?Does the sponsor/senior management understand and accept the iterative philosophy?

Will the developers have access to users (user representatives) throughout the development process?

Is there a highly demonstrable user interface?

Is there clear ownership?

Can the solution be delivered in small increments?

Can requirements be prioritized?

Will users be able to define requirements interactively?


Selection: Scrum and Other Agile Methodologies, CMMI, RUP

Adaptive Software Development (ASG, Highsmith, 1999)

Crystal (Cockburn, 2001)

Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM, Stapleton, 2003)

Extreme Programming (XP, Beck, 2000)



Feature Driven Development (FDD, Coad, LeFebvre et al; Palmer & Felsing, 2002)

CMMI

RUP



Comparison based on

Planning

Roles and responsibilities

Artifacts

Control mechanisms

Change management

Quality management

Risk management

Project review




Less formal

More formal

Selection: Maturity of Scrum

Six years since first book on Scrum published

Adoption of scrum

Large companies

Small companies

Some companies

Infosys, Wipro, Mindtree, Satyam, Patni

Mastek, Tech Mahindra, Xebia, Ness

Microsoft, Virtusa, IBM, Philips


Selection: Maturity of Scrum

Scrum adoption survey results

Conducted by Scrum Alliance in July 2007

Just over 1000 CSMs took the survey

83 % of respondents report scrum implementation in their organization in last two years

14,500 CSMS since 2003

90 % respondents report scrum contributed to project success

80 % of CSMs had more the 7 years development experience prior to Scrum Master certification


Adoption: Adopting Scrum

Scrum is used for agile project managementIndependent of developer practicesCan be coupled with developer practices from other agile methodologies like extreme programming, pragmatic programmingPrincipled on

iterative development and team empowerment

Scrum can be applied to any project, include non-IT projects


Adoption: Some Frequently Asked Questions

Stand up meetings

How to handle a team member not seeing value of daily scrum?

How to correct late comers?

Product Owner Role

What if the PO is not active or available?

Scrum Master Role

Is the Scrum Master part of the team?



Sprint tasks

What to do with unfinished tasks at sprint end?

What to do with bugs from previous sprint?

How granular should a sprint task be?

Role of testers and QA personnel

What is the role of testers in scrum?

What is the role of QA personnel in scrum?



Product backlog

When do we do infrastructure work and non-functional stories?

Team self organization

How can a team self organize? What are the constraints?

Metrics and team performance

What metrics are available for team performance measurement?


Adoption: Practical Implementation Challenges

Organizational change

Recasting of existing roles

Disregard of scrum by executives

Product owner unavailable

Non-focusing team member

Who has the last say?

Traceability when something goes wrong


Adoption: Scrum Pains

Scrum tedium

Breaking contentment

Scrum as a pressure tool

Re-constituting team if required

Difficult decisions need to be taken


Adoption: Scrum Tools Available

Scrum Excel add-in (google it)

Scrum Works (www.danube.com/scrumworks/basic)

Scrum Visual Studio Team System (www.scrumforteamsystem.com)

VersionOne (www.versionone.com/communityedition.asp)

TargetProcess (www.targetprocess.com/scrum.asp)

IceScrum (www.icescrum.org/wiki/eng/doku.php)


Adoption: Support

Active Community

Web based resources

Books

Training


Assessment: Scrum Smells

Loss of rhythm

Talking chickens

Missing pigs

Persistent signatures

Scrum master assigns work

Daily scrum is for the scrum master

Specialized job roles


Assessment: Validation

Scrum Master’s role is assessed than organization wide assessment

Submission of filled CSP application

The information provided is uploaded

Scrum Alliance committee assesses

If approved and after payment, CSP awarded, application posted online, accessible to other CSMs


Experience Report

Adopted Scrum in full for one project

Web based learning tool

Final form of product not known

Intellectually intensive

Releases form the basis of major feedback

Several sprints done leading to release

We started with 2 week sprints


Experience Report

Identification of Scrum roles

Scrum Master

Existing team leader

Underwent CSM training

Product Owner

Existing business analyst

Identified as maintainer of PB

Coordinator between dev team and customer


Experience Report

Cross functional team

2 java programmers

2 testers

1 database administrator

1 system administrator

Scrum was taught during the sprints by Scrum Master

Scrum resources made available on intranet


Experience Report

SP meeting convened by Scrum Master

PB setup in Scrum Works Basic from Danube

Intro on priorities and features by PO

Projector used during meeting

SB and task breakdowns entered online

Estimates entered online

Story point converter

Task estimates in units of 2 hours

Sprint tasks sign up and commitment encouraged


Experience Report: Story Point Converter for PBI Estimates


Experience Report

Templates used at sprint planning

Calendar

Hours available

Issue tracking system accessed for SB inputs

Previous sprint closure determination


Experience Report: Calendar Template


Experience Report: Hours Available Template


Experience Report

Daily tracking

Daily stand up meetings at 9:00 AM

Time remaining updates in Scrum Works Basic

Task board

Impediments reporting and resolution


Experience Report: Task Board


Experience Report

Scrum Artifacts

Centralized in Scrum Works software

Accessible remotely by management via VPN


Experience Report: PB and SB in Scrum Works Basic


Experience Report: Burndown


Experience Report: Finger Chart


Experience Report

Sprint review

Latest build of product is show cased

Questions and suggestions spontaneously

Problems faced during implementation shared

Assessment for “doneness” made

Followed by sprint retrospective

Each team member speaks

Identify on good practice we can use for next sprint


Experience Report

Our current definition of done

Latest GUI features are covered by automated GUI tests

Code is committed

All automated tests – JUnit, Cactus/DBUnit, FIT pass in Continuous Integration system

All issues planned for fixing are verified as fixed

UAT confirms feature is implemented


Experience Report

Our extended definition of done

Checklist based audits

Check essential documentation created

Code review process followed and followed up

Work done efficiently

Inspection of software architecture and low level design

Proper usage of API


Experience Report

Some important net improvements

A simple process (Scrum) put in place that everyone understands

Team is learning to become self organized from being micro-managed

Better estimations of feature delivery

Increased transparency

Team effectiveness greatly improved

Customer perceives the team as being agile


Results: Practical Benefits in General

Team collaboration and commitment

Transparency

Keeping everyone in sync

Information sharing

Continuous Improvement

Increased effectiveness of team

Impediments reporting at Daily scrums

Helps make problems visible earlier


Results: Scrum and Quality

Rigorous definition of done ensures quality

QA/Testers are involved during development

Feedback loop is tightened

Issues fixed proactively, than entered in issue tracking


Summary

Agile manifesto and scrum

Selection of scrum among agile methodologies

Adoption of scrum - FAQS, challenges, pitfalls, support

Implementation assessment

Results, impact on quality

Experience report


Resources

Books


Resources

Mailing list

Scrum Development Yahoo Groups (over 4,500 members)([email protected])

Websites

www.scrumalliance.org

www.controlchaos.com

www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/scrum

www.implementingscrum.com

www.scrumprimer.com


Questions ?

Start Scrum by the book

Tailor as required

Follow inspect and adapt paradigm

Email me at:[email protected]


References

A survey of Agile Development Methodologies (agile.csc.ncsu.edu/SEMaterials/AgileMethods.pdf)

Agile Manifesto (www.agilemanifesto.org)

An Agile comparison (www.balagan.org.uk/work/agile_comparison.htm)

Article on stand up meetings(www.martinfowler.com/articles/itsNotJustStandUp.html)


Acronymns

PO: Product Owner

SP: Sprint Planning

SB: Sprint Backlog

TDD: Test Driven Development


End of Presentation !


scrum in practice

Technology

dsouza clifford

agile methodologies

2007 experience

qa personnel

developer

indoswiss

product

agile