Presentation I gave at Agile Bazaar in August 2009

1. The Voyage Toward Agility: an Experience Report Dan LeFebvre Agile/Scrum Coach, CSP © DCL Agility, 2009 9/17/2009 1 Agile Bazaar

2. Dan LeFebvreFounder & Agile Coach,DCL Agility, LLC Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP) Extensive experience in software product development as a developer, manager, director, and coach Last 6 years using agile practices Last 3 years implementing Scrum in a 700 person engineering organization as an Agile Coach Sites in MA, OR, TX, GA, IL Also in Canada – BC, Que Also in Belgium and Noida, India 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 2

3. Intent of this Session To take you through the journey of that 700 person engineering organization toward agility through Scrum. 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 3

4. Something is not right 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 4

5. 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 5 The Situation

8. Results Delivered 7-5 Improved Quality More automated tests Feeling that “Agile in the culture” 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 8

9. First Waypoint:Entropy “Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 9

10. Next Release All part-time coaches back to their day jobs Committed to 3 suite-wide projects (each considered all or nothing) Results Projects fell behind 2 projects stopped doing retrospectives All UI-based automation broke Team morale suffered No or meaningless burnchartsso no transparency 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 10

11. The Agile Coach Observe and help teams that are struggling Teach agile to new employees Roll out agile to newly acquired companies Become the agile conscience ofthe organization 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 11

12. Results Teams got help New teams started getting results sooner Organization had a catalyst for change 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 12

13. Second Waypoint:Culture “The sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another.” The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 13

14. “Command and Control” Very hierarchical People treated as “resources” Management makes most decisions “Blame” is typical reaction Little management agile training 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 14

15. Organization Divided 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 15 ManagerCommunity Customer Community Developer Community

16. Collaboration Explained 90 people trained in collaboration skills by Jean Tabaka and Ronica Roth from Rally Organizing tools Facilitation techniques Lots of hands-on exercises 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 16

17. Agile Management Framework Scrum is a management framework Training focused on the managers and product managers Create true cross-functional teams Managers became ScrumMastersProduct Managers are now the Product Owners 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 17

18. Results Meetings ran better Better agendas and capturing of group learning Better retrospectives Better team collaboration Managers knew their jobs Much better transparency Single voice for the teams 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 18

19. Third Waypoint:Size “The physical dimensions, proportions, magnitude, or extent of an object.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 19

20. Large Interdependent Suite 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 20

21. Parallel Project Organization Suite Management Team (SMT) Suite Integration Team (SIT) Suite Release Team (SRT) 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 21

22. How do they synchronize and review the suite? 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 22

23. Heartbeats 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 23 Team 3 heartbeat Team 2 heartbeat Team 1 heartbeat Suite heartbeat

24. Results Better communication between teams More suite-wide transparency More focused suite-wide decisions Better team collaboration 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 24

25. Fourth Waypoint:Impediments “Something that impedes; a hindrance or obstruction.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition “Anything that prevents a team member from performing work as efficiently as possible is an impediment.” ScrumAlliance.org 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 25

26. Suboptimization Each team is run fairly independently Each identify and resolve impediments 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 26

27. First Attempt – Etc. Senior Execs doing the work of prioritizing and resolving organizational impediments Issues Execs had no time for this work Reluctant to assign people to impediment removal teams 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 27

28. Second Attempt – Scrum Implementation Team Small group of 8 people from across the organization Issues Focused more on process definition instead of impediment removal Not all the skills represented Limited time to work on this, still had day jobs 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 28

29. Third Attempt – ScrumMaster Meeting Hold a regular meeting of ScrumMasters to identify, prioritize, and volunteer to resolve impediments This group got some traction Issues Many impediments around Product Ownership Also many architectural impediments 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 29

30. Final Attempt – Agile Leaders Meeting ScrumMasters, Product Owners, and Architects Facilitated by Agile Coach A brief coaching session on an agile Organizational Impediment Handling 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 30

31. Results Resolved over 50 impediments in 1 year Increased sense of ownership Better communication between teams Improved automation Increased productivity 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 31

32. Fifth Waypoint:Commitment “An agreement or promise to do something in the future.” Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law “The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 32

33. Suite planning still phase-gated Need still exists to commit to an annual plan Company expects large features to justify the 700 person engineering staff Outside engineering still driven by “waterfall” model Cannot or will not take advantage of iterative delivery 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 33

34. Created a Multi-tiered Content Strategy Commit at the high level Establish budgets at the mid-level Stay flexible at the details 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 34

35. Requirements hierarchy Initiatives – Broad areas of focus tied to corporate strategy Headlines – Major Feature Sets/Capabilities within an Initiative Shippable Units – The smallest feature that is worth shipping Stories – User stories as we all know and love 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 35

36. Planning Onion 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 36

37. Product Plan Portfolio Plan RC 1 RC 2 RC 3 RC 4 Rel 6.2 SU SU SU SU SU SU SU SU SU SU SU SU Headline Headline SU SU SU SU Headline SU Headline SU SU Headline Headline SU Headline Headline Release Plan Rel 6.1.1 Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Headline Headline Headline As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf As a User, I can jfh hf jahdsdf Headline Rel 6.1.2 Headline Headline Headline Planning and Outputs SprintPlan Started Done Task Task Task Task Task Task 9/17/2009 37 Agile Bazaar

38. Results 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 38

39. Increased Automation 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 39

40. What happened to quality 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 40 OpenDefects Pre-Scrum Scrum

41. Where are they? Scrum is implemented throughout Mechanism for organizational impediments in place Transparency is improving Engineering practices are getting better Quality is improving Planning is becoming more flexible 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 41

42. Questions? Dan LeFebvre Scrum/Agile Coach DCL Agility, LLC Dan@DCLAgility.com http://www.DCLAgility.com 9/17/2009 Agile Bazaar 42