A couple years ago, a company I was working with, asked me to share with them the use cases and benefits of Scrum. It must have really sparked the management’s interest as they asked me to come up with an Agile implementation strategy for the company. This is the presentation I would like to share with you as I believe many curious, mid size, web development shops out there might be seriously thinking about adopting Agile or some hybrid form to supplement their Waterfall process.

1. So you are thinking of
going Agile...

2. Some of the reasons could
be but are not limited to:
• Profitability
• Missed deadlines
• Nature and frequency of communication
• Quality Assurance
• Lack of clear understanding of scope
• Appropriate response to change
• Ownership

3. Does this sound
familiar?
• Client is never satisfied, always requesting changes
• Client resists giving approvals
• Timelines fall off schedule
• Releases take too long
• Quality is affected
• Changes are too costly and difficult to execute
• Products aren’t ever considered “done” or error
free

4. What is Agile?
• Agile is an iterative software development
methodology that promotes open
collaboration and process adaptability
through the life-cycle of the project
• Is beneficial on projects with many
unknowns
• Scrum is a framework within Agile
methodology

5. What characterizes the
Agile process?
• Collaboration and communication
• High level of participation and transparency with the client
• Dedicated, cross-functional teams of 7 +/-2 members
• Team is self-organized, where everyone participates in
decision making
• Development is planned in stages by team members
• Testing and documentation are done as you go
• Client sees working product sooner

6. Waterfall and Agile

7. An example of Agile and
how it works

8. What will be done
differently?
• Prioritize projects by business value
• Identify projects suitable for Agile process
• Split longer projects into shorter sprints
• Change requests will be added to the Product
Backlog, prioritized and estimated
• Billing is done as the builds are released, realizing
profit all the way along rather than at the end of
the project

9. Why Do It?
• Increased cash-flow
• Risk control
• Increased productivity
• Higher degree of customer satisfaction
• Decreased time to market
• Enhanced accountability
• Gives the team time to understand what the customer
“really” wants by confirming the functionality in phases

10. What are the early
process improvements?
• Planning is clear to everyone
• Improved communication
• Development is done in stages
• Better working atmosphere
• Less mistakes and concise documentation
• Knowledge sharing

11. Gradual Adaptation of Agile
Methodology
• Get Clients’ buy-in
• Create dedicated teams
• Estimate projects based on Release Plan
• Educate the team on the process and create a Working Agreement
• Hold daily Scrum
• Create Functional Requirements in a form of a Product Backlog
• Define “DONE” and Completion Criteria upfront
• Prioritize Product Backlog into a Sprint Backlog
• Make use of Burndown schedule
• Hold Retrospectives
• Incorporate the Design phase into sprints together with Architecture and Development
• Improve and incorporate QA Process

12. Change Management
• Post your questions/suggestions/concerns for the
next 24 hours in the wiki
• Meetings to take place with all the teams to
remove concerns and misunderstandings
• CEO to work with Resource managers to assess
current projects
• Engagement team to meet regarding Release Based
pricing