Italian Agile Day 2010 Scrumbuts (DemotiScrum)

1. ScrumBut: Scrum e la resa condizionata?ScrumBut: Scrum e la resa condizionata?
- DemotiScrum -- DemotiScrum -

2. Talking of Scrum in your company...

3. It's not another toy to break off...

4. Edoardo Schepis
Scrum Master in Funambol
Certified Scrum Master and Scrum Professional
schepis@funambol.com
twitter: edschepis
http://www.edschepis.net

5. Agenda
● Do we really know Scrum?
● A selection of ScrumButs
● Surrenders?

7. Scrum
Do we really know Scrum?
Scrum is NOT...
● just a matter of meetings
● just a matter of roles
● just a matter of artifacts

8. Scrum
Scrum is not just this...
or...

11. SCRUM is...
The Scrum Pillars
● Lean Thinking
– Respect People
– Continuous Improvement
– “Anything that does not create value for a customer is
waste”
● Agile Manifesto
Scrum as a MIRROR

12. Scrum is like your mother in law

15. ScrumButs are...
● ScrumButs are reasons why you can’t take full advantage of
Scrum to solve the problems and realise the benefits.
● Format: (ScrumBut) (Reason) (Workaround)
● Example:
“We use Scrum, but Daily Scrum meetings are too much overhead
so we only have them once a week.”
Agile development is like teenage sex. Everyone says they’re doing it, but
only 10% are. And those who are — ARE DOING IT WRONG.

16. Goalless/Soulless Scrum
“We use Scrum but... only because...”
● Scrum just for Scrum
● Scrum because the boss wants it
● Nobody knows why

17. Goalless/Soulless Scrum – Try to...
● Use Scrum to govern the Scrum adoption
● Regularly share and challenge
Agile/Lean/Scrum/YOUR values and principles
● Perform retrospectives on how you're applying
Scrum

18. Makes our life difficult
“We use Scrum but... we don’t like it because it
makes life more difficult.”
● It's a Mirror
● It won't be better with age...

19. Makes our life difficult – Try to...
● Look into the mirror
● Inspect and adapt
● Encourage people
● Coaching vs. Training

20. Planning Paralysis
“We use Scrum but… we're still not confident
about our plan after two days of Sprint
planning!”
● Try to...
● Keep the focus on the Sprint
● Find and adapt your velocity
● Use a checklist for a good Sprint planning meeting

21. http://www.sprint-it.de/scrum-checklists

22. Command and Control
“We use Scrum but... a manager keeps telling the
team which tasks to do”
● It's all about self-organized teams. It doesn't mean:
● No managers at all
● No help
● Try to...
● define boundaries... like railroads for trains
● self-organized teams need you!

23. Rewards
“We use Scrum but... we track individual
performances with rewards”
● Is the emphasis really on the team?
● Try to...
● Review and assess the goals (Individuals vs. Team)
● Do not attack the organization mindset

24. It's done... almost done
“We use Scrum but... at the end of the Sprint
we need additional time to get things done”
● Take time to understand and share the issue
● Try to...
● Write/Review a Definition of Done
● Improve your integration systems (continuous
build/integration/testing)
● Sprint Review with live demo

25. Risk Management
“We use Scrum but... we need a formal Risk
Management process”
● Do we really know Scrum?
● Try to:
● Review and map risks with scrum principles and practices
● Time-boxing
● Prioritization and estimation must consider risks
● Spikes
● Last responsible moment
– A military officer: "The most important thing I did in my career was to teach young leaders
that whenever they saw a threat, their first job was to determine the timebox for their
response. Their second job was to hold off making a decision until the end of the
timebox, so that they could make it based on the best possible data."

26. Risk
Management
Chart

27. Risk Management mapping

28. Status Quo
“We use Scrum but... we have so much work to
do (bug fixing, new features, documentation,
testing, reporting, managing) that we don't have
time to do anything more”
● Try to...
● Inspect: work on failures immediately (pain-driven)
● Ask the 5 Whys
● Eat the dogfood

29. Time-boxing what?
“We use Scrum but... if needed we extend Sprint lenght”
● The illusion of... “just few more hours and it's done”
● Try to...
● Overcommitment and/or bad estimates?
● Track velocity as average from some past sprints
● Retrospective: missing (lack of) a commitment is an opportunity
to inspect and adapt
● Work with managers to reduce pressure

30. Component Teams
“We use Scrum but... we cannot have feature teams”
● Communication between teams is easier with feature teams
● Try to...
● Define “feature”
● Keep focus also at feature level (maybe more Sprints)
● Minimize FIP (features in progress)
● Empower the team
● Move from dev. to user point of view

31. Functional Teams
“We use Scrum but... we cannot afford cross-
functional teams”
● Sometimes it's not a management decision
● Try to...
● Define primary and seconday skills
● Reduce WIP
● Shorten the Sprint

32. Stabilization
“We use Scrum but... we still need a
Testing/Integration/QA/Release team to validate/finish
the work”
● DONEish
● Try to...
● Work on DONE
● Improve integration and testing systems
● Setup automated testing with mocks to avoid dependency

33. The Scrum Monster
“We use Scrum but... the Scrum Master is a
Manager”
(the SM with two heads)
● Command and Control
● Trust?
● Try to... (if you can't avoid it)
● Give parts of the role to other members
● Avoid personal rewards
● Be a good manager ;-)

34. ScrumButs
● Goalless
● Makes our life difficult
● Planning Paralysis
● Command and Control
● Rewards
● It's almost done
● Risk Management
● Status Quo
● Time-Boxing what?
● Component Teams
● Functional Teams
● Stabilization
● Scrum Monster
● ...

35. But Scrum...
“When a person/team/organization flips off their
'thinking bit' and just burps up whatever Scrum
tells them to do”
● But Scrum says all my stories must follow a
template: “As a ___ I can ___ so that____”
● But Scrum says our teams should be 7, +- 2
● But Scrum says we need self-organizing teams
● But Scrum says we estimate
http://blog.versionone.com/blog/productive-agility/0/0/but-scrum
Joel Tosi

36. Surrending to the Status Quo?
La resa incondizionata
trattato secondo cui una parte accetta di arrendersi al
nemico senza avanzare alcun tipo di pretesa (la forma di
sconfitta più totale e umiliante per la parte che si arrende)
L’onore delle armi
particolare tipo di riconoscimento, un onore
cavalleresco che si conferisce in ambito militare per
rendere ossequio al valore dell'avversario sconfitto

43. we all grow up...we all grow up...

45. Edoardo Schepis
Scrum Master in Funambol
Certified Scrum Master and Scrum Professional
schepis@funambol.com
twitter: edschepis
http://www.edschepis.net
Questions?