Agile scales, waterfall doesn't - Scrum Gathering Lisbon

Vasco Duarte, Scrum Gathering Lisbon 2011
Agile scales, Waterfall doesn’t

Vasco Duarte
@duarte_vasco
http://bit.ly/sglx11_blog
http://bit.ly/vasco_slideshare

Disclaimer
I’m experienced, but that means:
I understand your questions
Not:
I know all the answers!

This is where the talk starts…(wake up… please…)

Ready? Here we go…

System.out.println( “Hello world” );

What does “scaling” mean?

“Large Scale Scrum”?
Craig Larman, Bas Vodde 2009

“Scale Scrum”?
Schwaber, 2004

“Multi-teams project”?
Cohn, 2006

“Distributed”?
Sandra Durasiewicz, 2008

A definition for “scaling”
Yours truly, now

Scaling = Process Property

A Software Development Processs scales if (and only if) the effort it takes to manage a project increases at a slower pace than the amount of work being managed!

Relative Effort needed to manage a project when the project size increases
Effort to Manage
Does not Scale
Neutral
Scales
Work being managed

Proposition 1:Scaling Property needs to apply to all “things” we manage in a project

Experiment
Count “things” to manage
Assess effort needed to manage those “things”
If work to manage them increases faster than the number of things => process does not exhibit the property of Scalability

Growth in effort to manage those “things”
Growth in number of “things”
>

x = effort to manage 1 requirement

Nx = effort to manage N requirements

Nx = effort to manage N requirements without dependencies

When was the last time you saw a simple list of requirements without dependencies?

Effort to manage N requirements with pair-dependencies

Relative effort to manage a flat list of N requirements
Effort to Manage
Work being managed

In Plain English: Waterfall Requirements Management does not scale!

This is the cost of a non-scalable Requirements Management Process

Question 2: Does Agile Requirements management scale?

N Requirements organization in Agile
User Stories
100

10
Features
User Stories
100

1
Epics
10
Features
User Stories
100

1
Portfolio Items – Customer marketable
Epics
Longer term planning (more than 1 iteration)
10
Features
Where the rubber meets the road – what we do in one iteration
User Stories
100

Different content abstractions for different stakeholders
Product Marketing and Portfolio
Portfolio Items – Customer marketable
Epics
Longer term planning (more than 1 iteration)
Product Owner + Architect + UX
Features
Where the rubber meets the road – what we do in one iteration
User Stories
Team +
Product
Owner

As a Project Manager I want …
1
Epics
10
Features
User Stories
100

As a Project Manager I want …
1
Epics
10
Features
Less stuff to manage, so that I can keep my sanity!

Effort to manage N requirements with an Agile Requirements model
Nx/102
Where N = number of requirements/user stories

The mental sanity graph…(BTW: lower = better)
Waterfall
Effort to Manage
This is the difference between Agile and Waterfall
The bigger the project gets…
Where you want to be:
Work being managed

Epics
Features
User Stories

Venues
Transportation
Accomodation
Marketing

Different size = Different solutions
Size does matter! Don’t solve problems you don’t have!

Blue Team
Red Team
(good guys)
(bad guys)

“The first thing I told my staff is that we would be in command and out of control.”(US General Paul Van Riper, from Blink by Malcolm Gladwell)

Recap:Agile Scales, Waterfall doesn’t
And hopefully you understand why now :)

Currently an Agile Project Coach in Nokia, Vasco Duarte is an experienced product and project manager, having worked in the software industry since 1997. Vasco has also been an Agile practitioner since 2004, he is one of the leaders and a catalyst in the adoption of Agile methods and an Agile culture at Nokia and previously at F-Secure.
Vasco's contributions to the improvement of the software development profession can be read in his blog: http://softwaredevelopmenttoday.blogspot.com.
You can follow Vasco on twitter: @duarte_vasco
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Agile scales, waterfall doesn't - Scrum Gathering Lisbon

by Vasco Duarte on Feb 17, 2011

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