An executive presentation of agile development, Scrum mechanics, myths, and practices tips. Was presented for several years to George Mason University\'s CS421 Software Engineering students.

1. Agile In Practice
Benjamin Booth
Spring 2010

2. 2ProprietaryProprietary 25
Programmer/Architect

3. 3ProprietaryProprietary 3
Author/Blogger
benjaminbooth.com

4. 4
Prescriptive-style History
• Restrict change to improve predictions
• Drive with the plan
• Communicate with documents
4

5. Waterfall Is Expensive!

6. 6
Waterfall Not all Bad
6
• Space shuttle flight control system
• Requirements are well defined
• Unlimited resources
• Useful for < 5% of all software projects

7. 7
Typical Requirements
• The site shall have a ‘nice looking’ menu page for an
existing restaurant’s seven year old website. (Nice
looking is defined by the customer.)
• The system shall have the ability to edit the menu
online. Current menus are stored in a MS Word
document.
• The site shall have a ‘Suggestion’ capability. Users
can use a form to submit suggestions which get
stored and also emailed to the owner.
7

8. 8
Agile
• People (users) are the focus
• Measure success with working software
• Expect and embrace change
• Use small, skilled, motivated teams
agilemanifesto.org
8

9. 9
Agile - SCRUM Style
• Japanese origin
• Whole team
• 1995 OOPSLA, by Jeff Sutherland and Ken
Schwaber
• Skeleton of practices and roles
9

10. 10ProprietaryProprietary 10
SCRUM Workflow

11. 11
SCRUM Roles
11
• Product Owner: Manages the backlog
• Scrum Master: Coach the process
• Team Member:Write code

12. 12
Practice Tip
• Create User Advocates
• Include User Advocates in:
• Story creation
• Priority setting
• Interaction design sessions

13. 13
SCRUM Artifacts
• Backlog
• Sprint Burn Down
• Sprint Backlog
• Past Backlogs
13

14. 14
Practice Tip
• Store Backlogs electronically
• Use physical Task Boards

15. 15ProprietaryProprietary 15
• Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Taskboard
• Sprint Burn Down
Artifacts

16. 16ProprietaryProprietary 16
• Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Taskboard
• Sprint Burn Down
Artifacts

17. 17ProprietaryProprietary 17
Artifacts
• Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Taskboard
• Sprint Burn Down

18. 18ProprietaryProprietary 18
Artifacts
• Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Taskboard
• Sprint Burn Down

19. 20
Practice Tip
• Keep old Sprint Backlogs & Burndowns
• Keep old tasks
• Use for velocity calculations
• Helps identify trends
20

20. • Each developer has a set of cards with estimation values
• A user story is presented
• Each developer picks the card representing the number of story points
the user story should take
• Everyone then shows their cards
• Discussion happens until agreement on a number
• Repeat for each user story
• Schedule a sprint with the required number of story points based on
your team’s velocity
21
Planning Poker

21. 22
• easily navigate to the menu from the home
page so that I can make a phone order
(delivery)
• be able to make suggestions for improvements
to my overall dining experience
22
As a patron, I want to...

22. 23
As the restaurant manager, I
want to...
• create, update and delete menu items so that it
stays interesting and keeps people coming back
• generate a PDF of the menu so that I can give
it to the printer for creating ‘real’ menus
• get customer feedback emailed to me so I can
quickly respond to problems and also pass on
compliments to the staff
23

23. 24
Agile Challenges
• Access to real customers
• Large, distributed teams
• Industry misperceptions
• Command-and-control culture
24

24. 25
Summary
• Waterfall or nothing still predominant
• Agile is highly adaptive, people centric
• SCRUM is an effective Agile process skeleton
• If your process isn’t working adapt it
25

25. 26
Practice Tip
• Introduce incrementally
• Business strategy and architecture a must
• Get everyone speaking the same language
26

26. 27
Practice Tip
• Allocate QA time explicitly
• Keep PM simple but do it
• Keep improving your process
27

27. Q&A

28. 2929
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
• http://www.waterfall2006.com/
• http://www.agileManifesto.org/
• http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000588.html
• http://www.drdobbsonline.net/architect/207100381
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28management%29
• http://spectrum.ieee.org/sep05/1685/failt1
References

29. As a patron, I want to easily navigate to the menu from the home page so that I can
make a phone order (delivery)
As a restaurant owner, I want patrons to be able to make suggestions so that I can
improve their dining experience.
As the restaurant manager, I want to create, update and delete menu items so that the
menu stays interesting.
As the restaurant manager, I want to generate a PDF of the menu so that I can give it
to the printer for creating ‘real’ menus.
As the restaurant manager, I want to get customer feedback emailed to me so I can
quickly respond to problems and also pass on compliments to the staff.