Created & presented by Mohammad Faiz & Daniel Monahan.
Objectives:
Understand the background and definition of Scrum
Understand how to better manage offshore projects with Scrum
Understand some of the pitfalls of Scrum and how to avoid them
Share best practices and experiences
1. Agile Scrum and Pitfalls
Dan Monahan and Mohammad Faiz
September 12th, 2013
2. Scrum and Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Intro to Agile Scrum in Under 10 Minutes
A crash course in Agile Scrum projects, just in case you’re new to it.
Why Scrum?
Key benefits and why we would want to consider it.
Q&A
Intro
Scrum Pitfalls
Scrum Masters are supposed to be masters of Scrum, right?
Benefits
Pitfalls
Offshoring
Q&A
Offshoring Scrum
Managing cross-border projects is always tricky.
2
3. Origins of Scrum
• Lean Management and The Toyota Way
• Muri, muda, and mura
• XP (Extreme Programming)
• Scrum was first defined as "a flexible, holistic product
development strategy in 1986 by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro
Nonaka in the "New New Product Development Game”.
3
5. Benefits of Scrum
• High visibility of progress
• Consistent feedback from customer
• Inspect & adapt
• Predictably rhythm
• Measurable & demonstrate productivity (via burndown, velocity charts,
etc.)
• Cross-functional, self-organizing teams
• Low bureaucratic overhead (Discussions, documentation, etc.)
• Emphasis on face-to-face communication
• No Scrum 2.0
For more details, read “The Agile Samurai” by
Jonathan Rasmusson.
5
6. Scrum And You: Lets Start Discussing
• Use Post-It notes and pencils. Start writing & posting on the
wall or whiteboard.
• What went well in your recent project?
• What could have been done better in your recent project?
• A problem or questions that you may have?
5 Minute Activity
6
8. Scrum and Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Intro to Agile Scrum in Under 10 Minutes
A crash course in Agile Scrum projects, just in case you’re new to it.
Why Scrum?
Key benefits and why we would want to consider it.
Q&A
Intro
Scrum Pitfalls
Scrum Masters are supposed to be masters of Scrum, right?
Benefits
Pitfalls
Offshoring
Q&A
Offshoring Scrum
Managing cross-border projects is always tricky.
8
10. • Predicting the Product, Budget, and Technology
• What will be created in the end?
• Requirements are always changing
• Lack of prioritization
• How many online PM tools do we need?
10
11. • Lack of Training and Knowledge
• 2-3 days training, no practical experience
• Scrum rites not followed
• Burndown charts not maintained, velocity not tracked.
• Doing waterfall phases across various sprints.
• IT department gets training, but what about the
business and users?
11
12. • Organizational Model
• Culture is deeply rooted in traditional & set waterfall model
• Not focused on delivering value
• Lack of prioritization at the portfolio level
• Availability of personal with right skill
• General resistance to change
• Management vision & support
• Developers do QA? Huh?!
• No PMs?!
12
13. • Communication and Collaboration
• Availability, involvement and responsiveness of
product owner.
• No constructive criticism; no transparency in issues.
• Scrum master’s difficulty to facilitate.
• Conflict resolution techniques missing.
13
14. • False Assumptions
• Scope used to be fixed up front, but now its always changing.
• Too many developers working on too many things.
• Estimates are way off every sprint. Why?
14
16. Suggested Solutions
Pitfall Suggested Solutions
Predicting the Product, Budget, and
Technology
- What will be created in the end?
- Requirements are always changing
- Lack of prioritization
- How many online PM tools do we
need?
- Emphasize that no business can predict
what they want in six months time;
business is dynamic. (Ex: Mobile phones
are replacing watches after destroying
portable music devices & cameras)
- Track and demonstrate value, compare
value with scope (Apply 80-20 concept)
- Track velocity, target XX size in XX
months, demonstrate XX size as XX value
to business.
- Provide iterative releases, reduce time
to launch and encourage feedback.
- Tie your budget with your project
schedule.
- Less online tools, more whiteboard and
paper = greater transparency.
16
17. Suggested Solutions
Pitfall Suggested Solutions
Lack of Training and Knowledge
- 2-3 days training, no practical
experience
- Scrum rites not followed
- Burndown charts not maintained,
velocity not tracked.
- Doing waterfall phases across
various sprints.
- IT department gets training, but
what about the business and users?
- Understand that Scrum is like chess: You
can learn in one day but it takes years to
master.
- Encourage group discussions, blogs,
knowledge sharing.
- Have Agile sessions that involve the
entire team (including PO) specially at
the beginning and continue throughout
the project.
- Educate value of Scrum rites, follow
religiously.
17
18. Suggested Solutions
Pitfall Suggested Solutions
Organizational Model
- Culture is deeply rooted in
traditional & set waterfall model
- Not focused on delivering value
- Lack of prioritization at the
portfolio level
- Availability of personal with right
skill
- General resistance to change
- Management vision & support
- Developers do QA? Huh?!
- No PMs?!
- Train BOTH business users and IT on
Agile Scrum.
- Emphasize on reduced time to market
- Short, iterative releases give business
users something to play with.
- Users often don’t know what they really
want until they see it.
- Give people time to consider Agile.
- Screen potential team members for the
right skillset and background.
- Demonstrate the value of developers
assisting with QA.
- PMs can be part of the new organization
by bringing valuable experience to the
team.
18
19. Suggested Solutions
Pitfall Suggested Solutions
Communication and Collaboration
- Availability, involvement and
responsiveness of product owner
- No constructive criticism; no
transparency in issues.
- Scrum master ability to facilitate
- Conflict resolution techniques
missing
- Organize site visits, face to face
interactions to improve trust and
comfort level
- Create and implement communication
matrix at the beginning
- Use smart presence (PO & Team logged
on to video cam through out the day)
- Use situation walls
- Encourage business canvas, Product
canvas approach
19
20. Suggested Solutions
Pitfall Suggested Solutions
False Assumptions
- Scope used to be fixed up front, but
now its always changing.
- Too many developers working on
too many things.
- Estimates are way off every sprint.
Why?
- Knowledge is power, use numbers to
justify
- Use metrics extensively to bring clear
and objective thinking
- Productivity
- Predictability
- Quality
- Business value vs. cost
- Risk register, wake up frequently…
- Publish burndown charts to product
owner – daily!
- Publish task management tool to
product owner – daily!
20
22. Scrum and Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Intro to Agile Scrum in Under 10 Minutes
A crash course in Agile Scrum projects, just in case you’re new to it.
Why Scrum?
Key benefits and why we would want to consider it.
Q&A
Intro
Scrum Pitfalls
Scrum Masters are supposed to be masters of Scrum, right?
Benefits
Pitfalls
Offshoring
Q&A
Offshoring Scrum
Managing cross-border projects is always tricky.
22
23. Common Issues With Offshoring Scrum
• Requirements understanding
• Quality assurance
• Intellectual property protection
• Differing processes, lack of alignment
• Communication, Scrum rites
• Roles and responsibilities in a Scrum environment vs. a
traditional project team structure
• Lack of understanding of Scrum
• No control over who is assigned to your team.
Its not just an extension of your own company.
23
24. • Continuous integration to avoid
integration headaches
• Contact visits to build trust
• Implement & educate security and
compliance
• Don't underestimate the culture
change – Start sharing cultural &
mind set thoughts
• Use wikis/sites to contain common
information
• Clear roles & responsibility and
communication matrix
• Use regular, short status meetings
• Use short iterations to get regular
feedback
• Separate teams by functionality not
activity
• Get multiple communication
modes working early
Avoiding Issues In Offshoring Scrum
For more details, read “Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile
Development” by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde.
24
26. Second Activity:
• Activity will have two sessions (We can do more if we have
time)
• Use the logistics available on the desk at left side of the screen
• Listen & read the instructions carefully
• Respect time
• Give space for everyone to move around freely
15 minutes activity
26
27. Do you all remember this from your childhood?
27
28. Session 1
• Create paper aircrafts
• Fly paper aircrafts from Line 1
• To be successful, your aircraft must cross Line 2
• Once crossed, the aircraft is a done product, cannot be re-used
• Count number of aircrafts your team could fly beyond Line 2
• You have 2 minutes
28
30. Session 2
• Ask team to select a scrum master
• Plan your activities & roles before you start, break down tasks
• Create paper aircrafts with following specifications
• Each aircraft should have Star mark on right wing
• Each aircraft should have should have team name on left wing
• Each aircraft nose needs to be flattened
• Fly paper aircrafts from Line 1
• To be successful, your aircraft must cross Line 2
• Count number of aircrafts your team could fly
beyond Line 2
• You have 2 minutes
30
32. What did we learn?
• Business requirements change, changes are inevitable
• Each aircraft should have Star mark on right wing
• Each aircraft should have should have team name on left wing
• Each aircraft nose needs to be flattened
• Productivity needs to be tracked; productivity increases as team
becomes experienced on scrum and start using planning and
task management techniques
• Definition of done is important
• A workable product is created after every sprint
Try this game with your team at your office,
add steps like demo, retrospective, spec changes
in each session and start analyzing productivity
32
33. Scrum and Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Intro to Agile Scrum in Under 10 Minutes
A crash course in Agile Scrum projects, just in case you’re new to it.
Why Scrum?
Key benefits and why we would want to consider it.
Q&A
Intro
Scrum Pitfalls
Scrum Masters are supposed to be masters of Scrum, right?
Benefits
Pitfalls
Offshoring
Q&A
Offshoring Scrum
Managing cross-border projects is always tricky.
33
36. Case Study #1
A team has been working for a 2 months on a 3 month project; 1
month of development is left. There is a consumer expo that if
the company attended, could demo their product. So the team
adds stories to the backlog to brush up the UI and make it more
presentable. To meet the schedule, the team adds extra
resources to handle this extra workload; the team of 5
developers is doubled to 10, and a new PO is added.
Issues:
• Some of the original stories are not being completed.
• The new team members’ estimates are completely off.
• UI originally developed needs to be scrapped for new UI.
• Stakeholders think project is disorganized.
• Two PO’s have conflicting priorities.
Consumer Expo
36
37. Case Study #2
A new team is formed to release a new widget: a BA as a PO,
three developers, a PM as a SM, and two QA engineers. The SM
is creating a project plan – the first Sprint produces the scope of
the project, the second the requirements, the next 5 Sprints for
development, and the final two sprint for testing. The SM also
created work estimates for the team, the BA submits a list of
requirements to the developers to estimate, and the QA
engineers are writing test cases.
What’s wrong with this picture?
A New Project Team
37
38. Case Study #3
The PO and SM for a new team are in Japan. The developers sit
in China. Daily meetings are held over video conferencing, but
the network connection is slow so communication is tough. The
project is on track, but its not delivering the results expected by
the PO – stories are mostly done, but not complete. Quality
suffers because of disagreements by the developers on how to
proceed. And when the direction is clear, a lot of technical
support is needed as the developers are new to the cloud
computing technology used as part of the project. Senior
management in Japan is not happy with the progress of the
project. How can this project be rescued?
Distributed Teams
38
39. Case Study #4
One team works on software development, another team
handles infrastructure requirements, another team provides
production support and another team is a pool of POs. With so
many cross-functional teams, the team is getting bogged down
with meetings, emails, status updates, different TLAs, and even
though they are all co-located, increase communication seems
like increased inefficiency. How can these teams be better
organized and breakdown a large set of requirements and work
more efficiently?
Cross-Organizational Project
39
40. Case Study #5
A Scrum team is divided into having a PO in the local office with
the SM and development team offshore. Maintaining the
backlog and status is tough across borders, so the team uses an
online tool (Rally/JIRA/Redmine)for their stories. Even though
stories are broken down, the PO feels as if progress isn’t living up
to expectations and can’t get a good picture of the progress, and
feels that the team is having challenges collaborating with other
teams (sharing code, managing dependencies). What are some
ways the team can move away from online tools to improve
efficiency?
Another Offshore Team
40
Hinweis der Redaktion
Tales From The Front LinesReal world case studies with best practices and experiences.
Tales From The Front LinesReal world case studies with best practices and experiences.
Tales From The Front LinesReal world case studies with best practices and experiences.
Tales From The Front LinesReal world case studies with best practices and experiences.