This document discusses agile documentation practices based on a survey of 57 Symantec information developers. Some key findings include: - Most information developers have less than one year of agile experience and see benefits of agile like improved schedules and delivering value. - Frequent deployment and reviews have improved documentation quality by focusing on smaller chunks of work. Remote collaboration remains a challenge. - Agile practices like daily stand-ups, estimating tasks, and transparent reporting increase motivation and accountability for documentation work. - Strategies like cross-training, defining "done", tailoring stories to the organization, and using technology help information developers adapt to agile.

1. Today’s agile documentation
oday s ag e docu e tat o
Megan Leney, Senior Information Developer
Symantec Corporation
July 22, 2009

2. About me
•Agile enthusiast, C tifi d S
A il th i t Certified Scrum M tMaster
•Sr. Information Developer, Symantec
Insert Photo •Previously worked for VeriSign and Apple
Here •Lead the integration of VeriSign's
documentation team into the developer-run
agile scrum process
process.
•Presented on agile documentation at 2008
LavaCon Prof. Development Conference
•Member, Sili
M b Silicon V ll STC Ch t
Valley Chapter

3. Agenda
g
1 Overview of current agile and trends
2 The 2009 Symantec Agile Documentation Survey
3 What Symantec information developers are saying
4 What the agile trends mean to writers

4. Overview of agile and
current trends

5. What Agile is not…
g
• A new idea
• A“
“cookie cutter” solution f all problems
ki tt ” l ti for ll bl
• A detailed plan for every contingency
5

6. What Agile is about…
g
• Iterative development
• H d work
Hard k
• Transparency
6

7. Key agile stakeholders
y g
• Product owner
–C b a P d t M
Can be Product Manager or P j t M
Project Manager
– Figures out the WHAT with customers
– Decides what comes off the backlog to get something else
done
• Scrum master
– Often a Dev manager
– Works with the team to figure out HOW things g done
g g get
• Team
– Self-organized
g
– Creates value
7

8. Agile vocabulary
g y
• Scrum. A scrum is a 15-30 minute daily check-in meeting in
which you report p g
y p progress and any blocking issues.
y g
• Sprint (or Iteration). An iterative development cycle. The
length of the cycle is predetermined by the team (usually 2-4
weeks). D i each sprint, th t
k ) During h i t the team produces a
d
demonstrative unit.
• Handoff meeting A meeting at the end of an iteration during
meeting.
which the team demonstrates a unit of work to the product
owner.
• Retrospective. A meeting during which the team reflects on
what went well during the current iteration, and what they can
improve on next iteration. Usually takes place right after the
handoff meeting.
8

9. Agile vocabulary
g y
• User Story. A simple story that reflects a customer
requirement. Stories are p
q placed on the backlog and
g
prioritized during the sprint planning phase.
User story format: As a <role> I want <something> (optional)
so th t <some justification>
that j tifi ti
Some examples include:
– A an IT administrator, I want i
As d i i instructions on upgrading f
i di from version
i
A to version B.
– As a CTO, I want to protect my servers in case of a natural disaster,
such as a flood or earthquake.
9

10. Agile vocabulary
g y
• Task. A unit of work that can be completed in 1-2 days.
• Acceptance criteria. The criteria that determine whether a
criteria
story is complete.
10

13. Agile then and now
g
2001 (the year Agile Manifesto signed)
( y g g ) 2009
Integrating agile team practices Deploying agile to the enterprise
Product owner committed to team/responsible
Product owner not too involved in process
for ROI
Scrum master is in charge of the team Scrum master coaches and facilitates self
(command and control) organization
Teams develop products for customers Teams partner with customers to create value
Individual “superheroes”
I di id l “ h ” Teamwork
T k

14. Recent trends in agile and what they
mean to information developers
p
Agile trend
g Information development challenge
p g
More frequent deployment of increasingly • Managing our workload
complex products • Delivering quality documentation
• Getting the information we need
Increased geographic distribution
• Communicating remotely
Increased accountability and transparency • Exposing issues so they are easier to solve
• Getting what we need from product
Closer relationships with customers management
• Creating a better user experience

15. Big ugly problems
Insert Photo are solved by
Here
peoples’ brains,
not processes. You
Dr. Dan Rawsthorne,
Danube Technologies, Inc. don t
don’t need big
processes.

16. The 2009 Symantec
Agile Documentation
Survey

17. Global survey: 57 Symantec info dev
p
professionals

18. Agile experience
g p
Years of experience
18% more
than 3 years
52% less than
one year
30%
1-3 years

19. (Non-agile writers) How would
switching to agile impact you?
g g p y

20. Percentage of non-agile writers who think
agile would help in the following areas:
g p g

21. Percentage of non-agile writers who think
these agile practices would help
g p p

22. To transition to agile, information
developers need to understand…
p
Agile/scrum benefits
• S t i bl schedule
Sustainable h d l
• Delivering documentation value
Agile/scrum practices
• I
Importance of daily scrum meetings
t f d il ti
• Continuous improvement (retrospectives)
• Handoff demos each iteration
22

23. How helpful do agile writers find
agile?
g

24. How helpful do agile writers ?
p g

25. How helpful do agile writers find
agile/scrum?
g

26. How helpful do agile writers find
agile/scrum?
g

27. How helpful do agile writers find
agile?
g

28. How else does agile help information
developers?
p
• Strong support for the documentation process
• A better sense of your due dates
• Focus on a few features and cover them more in depth
• F l lik you’re part of th team, more in th l
Feel like ’ t f the t i the loop
• Higher visibility
• E i t set expectations
Easier to t t ti
28

29. How helpful do agile writers find
these agile practices?
g p

30. How helpful do agile writers find
these agile practices?
g p

31. How helpful do agile writers find
these agile practices?
g p

32. How helpful do agile writers find
these agile practices?
g p

33. How helpful do agile writers find
these agile practices?
g p

34. What other agile/scrum practices
help Information Developers?
p p
• Detailed scheduling ensures developers don’t take on too
much
• Using the same tools as developers to track progress
• Estimating documentation tasks
34

35. What Symantec
information
developers are saying
d l i

36. Undergo agile training; talk to
other information developers who
work in an agile environment;
understand what agile can and
cannot do for information
developers.
Anonymous survey response
36

37. Make an effort to integrate with
the Dev and QA processes,
instead of embedding yourself in
a defined ‘InfoDev’ process flow.
Be flexible and adaptable.
Anonymous survey response
37

38. Information developers must
educate the engineering
team about how the Tech
Pubs team will work with
them in the agile method.
method
Anonymous survey response
38

39. What the agile trends mean to writers
g
1 Agile and frequent deployment
2 Increased geographic distribution
3 Accountability and transparency
4 Leveraging customer relationships

40. Agile and frequent
deployment

41. What is more frequent deployment?
q p y
• Time boxing (small increments of work in a short time)
• D il meetings where you agree on t d ’ reality
Daily ti h today’s lit
• Iterations create demonstrative units
–N l
No longer “ t ti ll ship-able”
“potentially hi bl ”
– Demonstrative does not mean “sell-able”
– You need at least one additional iteration to ship the p
p product
41

42. How has more frequent deployment
affected documentation quality?
q y

43. Agile documentation reviews
g
• Iterative reviews are very informal
– Perform daily reviews, or as often as needed
reviews
– Target one SME to review the text
– Send as little as one paragraph
p g p
– Expect immediate turnaround - one day max!
• Formal reviews
– Hold at least one end-to-end review
– Create a documentation review story
• Add t k f developers and QA t review th d
tasks for d l d to i the documentation
t ti
• Add tasks for incorporating comments
43

44. One risk of agile is that focus
is shifted from ‘the forest’ to
‘the trees.’
Anonymous survey response
44

45. How have more frequent reviews
impacted documentation quality?
p q y

46. How have more frequent reviews
impacted documentation quality?
p q y

47. How have more frequent reviews
impacted documentation quality?
p q y

48. How does more frequent deployment
affect ability to manage workload?
y g

49. Strategy #1 Know that the whole team
is responsible for the backlog
p g
Cross-training helps team members be more efficient
For example, train your developers in writing error
messages
They make a first pass, reduce the time it takes you
to write from scratch
49

50. Strategy #2 Put everything you do on
the backlog
g
Reasons to put everything on the backlog
• Y get credit f everything you d
You t dit for thi do
• The team sees what is left out of the build
• It’ easier t plan th next ti
It’s i to l the t time around
d
50

51. Strategy #3 Spend story points wisely
and communicate availability
y
• Think about how you want to spend your story points
– Spend 1/3 of your points on documentation only stories
documentation-only
– Spend 2/3 on features
• Estimate how long you spend in team meetings and training
activities
– These are important activities that make you more efficient
– Deduct meeting and training time from resource availability
51

52. Strategy #4 Create a definition of
“done” that works for you
y
• Think about how you want to work
– Complete feature docs in the same iteration?
– Complete rough drafts in the same iteration?
– Deliver draft documentation in an iteration + 1 schedule?
– Deliver polished chapters in an iteration +2 schedule?
• Communicate what you need to accomplish the acceptance
criteria
– Instant reviews
– Features complete the first week of iteration
• Set expectations on exactly what you can deliver
• No scope creep: once you’ve defined “done ” stick with it!
you ve done,
52

53. Increased geographic
distribution

54. What kind of team(s) do you work
with?

55. How much do you gain agile benefits
working with remote teams?
g

56. How much do you gain agile benefits
working with remote teams?
g

57. How much do you gain agile benefits
working with remote teams?
g

58. How much do you gain agile benefits
working with remote teams?
g

59. How much do you gain agile benefits
working with remote teams?
g

60. How often do remote SMEs communicate
about incidents, issues, and features?
, ,

61. Strategy #1 Get to know your
distributed teammates
• Team members are not roles, they are people
• R
Respect their ti
t th i time, b t ask th
but k them questions about th
ti b t themselves
l
– Get on calls early and talk while waiting for people to join
– Start off talking about their career and the company
61

62. Strategy #1 Get to know your
distributed teammates
Ask if they’d be willing to share photographs
China development team Mountain View Installer doc team
Andy Wang; Fred Wen; Megan Leney and Elizabeth Carlassare
Sophie Yin and William Li
62

63. Strategy #1 Get to know your
distributed teammates
Responses from teammates about exchanging photographs:
Hey Willi
H William,
This is awesome! It’s always good to know
your fellow members by face especially when
we are working in scrum :)
Hi Elizabeth/Megan,
Pretty cool! Thanks for sharing this picture
to us. It is very nice to see you, so vivid!
And I am sure we can think of you clearer
during the next conf call.
g
63

64. Form a good working relationship,
and maintain it by being
accessible and responsive.
Anonymous survey response
64

65. Do your homework and target
…questions and requests…to the
most appropriate person - respect
their time.
Anonymous survey response
65

66. My t
M team mates are not as
t t
young today as when we
started working together so
t t d ki t th
calls at 3 AM are no longer
appreciated.
i t d
Anonymous survey response
66

67. Strategy #2 Tailor stories to the way
y
your organization works
g
Two schools of thought:
1.Make the t i
1 M k th stories self-contained so th t teams can
lf t i d that t
accomplish the story tasks independently of each other.
2.Force
2 Force the story to go across teams so that they have to talk
to each other
67

68. Strategy #3 Use technology
gy gy
• Share your desktop using Live Meeting and co-develop
content with a remote SME
• Be sure the same servers and systems are available to all
team members
• Use Instant messenger
• Some teams have the luxury of web cams, Halo conference
rooms
68

69. Strategy #4 Be p
gy persistent
• Find out who you need to talk to
• C ll and i t t message often
Call d instant ft
• Ask a lot of questions
69

70. How effectively do remote SMEs
communicate important information?
p

71. Communicate as often as
p
possible.
Anonymous survey response
71

72. Accountability and
transparency

73. Information Developers
…(need) to estimate…to the
( )
feature level -- and when
working on multiple features,
g p ,
things can get ‘off schedule’
very q
y quickly.
y
Anonymous survey response
73

74. The (scrum) process it lf
Th ( ) itself
provides all of the accountability
and transparency anyone could
dt ld
possibly want.
Anonymous survey response
y y p
74

75. Advantages of accountability and
transparency
p y
• Understanding documentation tasks
• S l i i
Solving issues b f
before th get out of hand
they t t f h d
• The whole team is responsible for user stories
• I
Increased motivation to complete stories
d ti ti t l t t i
– For developers—they’re forced to complete reviews on time
– For writers—keeps us on track easier to meet deadlines
writers keeps track,
75

76. Agile…makes it easier to
A il k i t
understand when schedules
might be at risk.
i ht b t i k
Anonymous survey response
76

77. How well do you understand your
documentation tasks?

78. How much motivation does the daily
reporting of status give you to complete
stories?

79. How often do you experience team
swarm?
Team “swarm”
is energetically
working with
scrum
teammates to
complete
stories
Bee images from: Winterville Elementary School Media Center http://wintervillemc.googlepages.com/home

80. (
(What) seems to enhance
)
"accountability & transparency"
is when I complete a more
p
challenging piece, I PDF it and
send it to concerned parties to
p
see if … (it’s) in the ballpark with
p
their expectations.
Anonymous survey response
80

81. Communicate expectations.
C i i
…Don't agree to something
before you investigate, that
b f i ti t th t
way you can always complete
things you commit to do.
thi it t d
Anonymous survey response
81

82. Leveraging customer
relationships

83. Why work closely with product
management?
g
• Product managers are the voice of the customer
• P d t managers are good at b ildi customer
Product d t building t
relationships
• Customers deserve to know what you are doing; they are
paying for it
83

84. How easy is it to create documentation that
meets customers’ needs?

85. How easy is it to adapt to customers’
changing requirements?
g g q

86. How well does your product owner convey
changes in customer requirements?
g q

87. The agile model comes with
built-in flexibility...If a feature
y
is urgently required by a
customer…(you) factor it
(y )
into the (iteration) planning.
Anonymous survey response
87

88. The more contact with field
personnel who directly deal
with customers and with
customers,
customers themselves, the
better.
better You need to
understand your audience.
Anonymous survey response
88

89. Add value to not just the
documentation but the
product as a whole.
Anonymous survey response
89

90. Q&A

91. Summary and
S d
Conclusions

92. Delivering quality with more frequent
deployment
p y
• Work closely with the team to get information
• H ld reviews often; send d
Hold i ft d documentation t j t a f
t ti to just few t
team
members
• Put all tasks for formal reviews on the backlog
92

93. Communicating with remote team
members
• Get to know your teammates
• A k questions, rather th expecting them t communicate
Ask ti th than ti th to i t
information
• Use technology to facilitate meetings and the exchange of
information
93

94. Using accountability and
transparency to your advantage
p y y g
• Make it a priority to attend all scrum meetings
• W k energetically (“
Work ti ll (“swarm”) with t
”) ith teammates to complete
t t l t
stories
• Set expectations so the team knows what you can commit to
expectations,
94

95. Leveraging close relationships with
customers
• Work closely with the product owner to understand customer
needs
• Let the product owner know what you need from them to
deliver value
95

96. Thank Y !
Th k You!
Megan Leney
g _ y@ y
megan_leney@symantec.com
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