2. Agenda
False Negative: A
Process Smells ( SCRUM - set of
practices Not Process) result that appears
• Practice Framework – Is it a Necessary Evil? negative but fails
• QA Audits – are they real or delusions
to reveal a
Stories from real world - Lessons to situation
learn
• Starting on a wrong footing....still finding the
elusive sweet spot.
• When improvements start to stagnate?
• When Necessary Evil helps....safeguarding
organization/teams from the trap.
Management Apathy
• It Takes Two to Tango
• Empowerment
• Shooting in the dark…recipe for failure
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
3. http://www.newyorkshitty.com/?p=1346
Process Smells (SCRUM – set of practices Not Process)
•Practice Framework – Is it a Necessary Evil?
•QA Audits – are they real or delusions
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
4. Practice Framework – Is it a
necessary evil?
Agile has gone mainstream.
• Historically agile grew in small
communities and projects.
• Large organizations has started to
adopt agile. FALSE NEGATIVE:
Good intent may not propagate as
desired.
Agile Nirvana…Organizational
Level Focus Groups
• Setup/formalise the agile practices.
http://www.collaborativeuk.com/services/delivering-the-agile-transformation/
Is it a
• Project Assessments
• Facilitate QA Groups
• Metrics definition
• Mentoring , Training & Consulting
• Community of Practice
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
5. QA Audits – are they real
or delusions
•QA Monthly Audits
•Audit Checklist
FALSE NEGATIVE:
•Audit scores – means to an end.
•Agile Compliance Score •Safeguarding individual interests
•Survey/Questionnaire based
audits/assessments may tend to
be misleading and inaccurate.
• Person dependent.
http://rostam.co.il/Quality
• Cannot ignore project context
and complexities.
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
6. Stories from the real world
• Starting on a wrong footing....still finding the elusive sweet spot.
• When improvements start to stagnate?
• When Necessary Evil helps....safeguarding organization/teams from the trap.
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
7. Story 1: Starting on a wrong Access to Client environment from Vendor
footing location does matter.
FALSE NEGATIVE:
Ignoring the teething issues
Quality Deliverables
• Having a Scrum Master onsite with
the team offshore
• Lack of agile and technical skills.
• Traditional planning Get the Business, Architects, QA and Dev
teams aligned and working together
• Frequent status updates and micro
management.
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25920277
http://www1.wnec.edu/business/index.cfm?selection=doc.997
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
8. “I would like to see the team escalating
Story 2: When improvements
any hindrances in their way and doing
start to stagnate so early enough.”
Continuous
improvements – Where
are they?
FALSE NEGATIVE:
SCRUM without Engineering
improvement can’t go a long way.
CSAT Score 6.7/7
“I would like to see the team using the
• Co-relate metrics and inputs...it’s daily SCRUM meetings more
critical. effectively. They need to bring up
essentials to the attention of the
• Pressure mounts …reduction in team.”
Sprint lengths may not yield results.
http://www.flickr.com/
http://www1.wnec.edu/business/index.cfm?selection=doc.997
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
9. Story 3: When necessary evil helps
CSAT Score 6.2/7…pretty
impressive. But…
• Disjoint teams
• Duplication of work (Multiple
Trackers)
FALSE NEGATIVE:
• Requirements in phased manner Customer is happy with releases
• Varying sprint lengths ; no every 6 months and is fronted by the
tracking. IT department
• Estimation by leads and tasks
assigned.
• Lack of req. clarity, overwork and
major reworks .
• No participation from business
http://www.sodahead.com
users. http://www1.wnec.edu/business/index.cfm?selection=doc.997
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
10. http://www.djibnet.com/photo/apathy/apathy-172917236.html
http://www.jentucker.us/2009/03/01/bad-customer-service/
Management Apathy
• It takes two to tango
• Empowerment
• Shooting in the dark…recipe for failure
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
11. It takes two to tango
Vendor
• CxO directive to go agile.
• Customer managers and vendor
managers not aligned. FALSE NEGATIVE:
• Customer QA is not aligned with Multiple contracts within single
business and development teams. engagements creating boundaries in
project execution.
• SLAs and Contracts that inhibit
collaboration and communication
• Multi vendor projects
• Engineering skills are sidelined.
Customer http://www.accountingweb.com/image/separation
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
12. Empowerment
Empowerment
Applies to both Customer &
Vendor teams
• Synergize delivery and focus
groups.
• Agile to be treated on par with
rest of the methodologies in the FALSE NEGATIVE:
Agile drive more based on
central organization.
Opportunity rather than Conviction
• Metrics and data collation is
important.
• Separation of concerns please.
• Engineering metrics along with
project metrics.
http://www.exceleratorcoaching.com/empower.htm
http://www.thegeminigeek.com/what-is-employee-empowerment/
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
13. Shooting in the dark… recipe
for failure
• RFPs and project bids won based
on traditional approaches.
• Hybrid models - waterfall
requirements followed by
development in agile. FALSE NEGATIVE:
Winning deals more than long term
• Traditional contracts. project success.
• Agile as cover-up to avoid
waterfall.
http://pmtips.net/making-bad-situation/
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
14. SCRUM
http://www.motifake.com/tags/mom
FALSE Negatives
Beware of it !!!! can cause the projects and teams dearly.
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
15. Thank You !!!
ravikumar.rk@hcl.com ravikumar.rk@gmail.com
20/11/10 www.agiletour.com
