Scrumbuts - Italian Agile Day 2010

ScrumBut: Scrum e la resa condizionata? - DemotiScrum -

Talking of Scrum in your company...

It's not another toy to break off...

Edoardo Schepis Scrum Master in Funambol Certified Scrum Master and Scrum Professional [email_address] twitter: edschepis http://www.edschepis.net

Agenda
Do we really know Scrum?
A selection of ScrumButs
Surrenders?

Scrum
Do we really know Scrum? Scrum is NOT...
just a matter of meetings
just a matter of roles
just a matter of artifacts

Scrum
Scrum is not just this...
or...

SCRUM is...
The Scrum Pillars
Lean Thinking
Respect People
Continuous Improvement
“ Anything that does not create value for a customer is waste ”
Agile Manifesto
Scrum as a MIRROR

Scrum is like your mother in law

ScrumButs are...
ScrumButs are reasons why you can’t take full advantage of Scrum to solve the problems and realise the benefits.
Format: (ScrumBut) (Reason) (Workaround)
Example:
“We use Scrum, but Daily Scrum meetings are too much overhead so we only have them once a week.”
Agile development is like teenage sex. Everyone says they’re doing it, but only 10% are. And those who are — ARE DOING IT WRONG.

Goalless/Soulless Scrum
“ We use Scrum but... only because... ”
Scrum just for Scrum
Scrum because the boss wants it
Nobody knows why

Goalless/Soulless Scrum – Try to...
Use Scrum to govern the Scrum adoption
Regularly share and challenge Agile/Lean/Scrum/YOUR values and principles
Perform retrospectives on how you're applying Scrum

Makes our life difficult
“ We use Scrum but... we don’t like it because it makes life more difficult. ”
It's a Mirror
It won't be better with age...

Makes our life difficult – Try to...
Look into the mirror
Inspect and adapt
Encourage people
Coaching vs. Training

Planning Paralysis
“ We use Scrum but… we're still not confident about our plan after two days of Sprint planning! ”
Try to...
Keep the focus on the Sprint
Find and adapt your velocity
Use a checklist for a good Sprint planning meeting

http://www.sprint-it.de/scrum-checklists

Command and Control
“ We use Scrum but... a manager keeps telling the team which tasks to do ”
It's all about self-organized teams. It doesn't mean:
No managers at all
No help
Try to...
define boundaries... like railroads for trains
self-organized teams need you!

Rewards
“ We use Scrum but... we track individual performances with rewards ”
Is the emphasis really on the team?
Try to...
Review and assess the goals (Individuals vs. Team)
Do not attack the organization mindset

It's done... almost done
“ We use Scrum but... at the end of the Sprint we need additional time to get things done ”
Take time to understand and share the issue
Try to...
Write/Review a Definition of Done
Improve your integration systems (continuous build/integration/testing)
Sprint Review with live demo

Risk Management
“ We use Scrum but... we need a formal Risk Management process ”
Do we really know Scrum?
Try to:
Review and map risks with scrum principles and practices
Time-boxing
Prioritization and estimation must consider risks
Spikes
Last responsible moment
A military officer: "The most important thing I did in my career was to teach young leaders that whenever they saw a threat, their first job was to determine the timebox for their response. Their second job was to hold off making a decision until the end of the timebox, so that they could make it based on the best possible data."

Risk Management Chart

Risk Management mapping

Status Quo
“ We use Scrum but... we have so much work to do (bug fixing, new features, documentation, testing, reporting, managing) that we don't have time to do anything more ”
Try to...
Inspect: work on failures immediately (pain-driven)
Ask the 5 Whys
Eat the dogfood

Time-boxing what?
“ We use Scrum but... if needed we extend Sprint lenght ”
The illusion of... “just few more hours and it's done”
Try to...
Overcommitment and/or bad estimates?
Track velocity as average from some past sprints
Retrospective: missing (lack of) a commitment is an opportunity to inspect and adapt
Work with managers to reduce pressure

Component Teams
“ We use Scrum but... we cannot have feature teams ”
Communication between teams is easier with feature teams
Try to...
Define “feature”
Keep focus also at feature level (maybe more Sprints)
Minimize FIP (features in progress)
Empower the team
Move from dev. to user point of view

Functional Teams
“ We use Scrum but... we cannot afford cross-functional teams ”
Sometimes it's not a management decision
Try to...
Define primary and seconday skills
Reduce WIP
Shorten the Sprint

Stabilization
“ We use Scrum but... we still need a Testing/Integration/QA/Release team to validate/finish the work ”
DONEish
Try to...
Work on DONE
Improve integration and testing systems
Setup automated testing with mocks to avoid dependency

The Scrum Monster
“ We use Scrum but... the Scrum Master is a Manager ” (the SM with two heads)
Command and Control
Trust?
Try to... (if you can't avoid it)
Give parts of the role to other members
Avoid personal rewards
Be a good manager ;-)

ScrumButs
Goalless
Makes our life difficult
Planning Paralysis
Command and Control
Rewards
It's almost done
Risk Management
Status Quo
Time-Boxing what?
Component Teams
Functional Teams
Stabilization
Scrum Monster
...

But Scrum...
“ When a person/team/organization flips off their 'thinking bit' and just burps up whatever Scrum tells them to do ”
But Scrum says all my stories must follow a template: “As a ___ I can ___ so that____”
But Scrum says our teams should be 7, +- 2
But Scrum says we need self-organizing teams
But Scrum says we estimate
http://blog.versionone.com/blog/productive-agility/0/0/but-scrum Joel Tosi

Surrending to the Status Quo?
La resa incondizionata
trattato secondo cui una parte accetta di arrendersi al nemico senza avanzare alcun tipo di pretesa (la forma di sconfitta più totale e umiliante per la parte che si arrende)
L’onore delle armi
particolare tipo di riconoscimento, un onore cavalleresco che si conferisce in ambito militare per rendere ossequio al valore dell'avversario sconfitto

we all grow up...

Edoardo Schepis Scrum Master in Funambol Certified Scrum Master and Scrum Professional [email_address] twitter: edschepis http://www.edschepis.net Questions?

Scrumbuts - Italian Agile Day 2010

by Edoardo Schepis on Nov 23, 2010

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Scrumbuts - Italian Agile Day 2010 — Presentation Transcript