SCRUM
a low tech way to manage any kind of project
gerard.hartnett@coclarity.com
CreativeCamp, Kilkenny, Ireland.
8-Mar-08
1

Overview
You can manage any kind of project with
SCRUM
I’ve used on tiny and large projects
Not rocket science or expensive
It works & viral
Name picked by an American
coclarity.com
2

“Opportunities”
All projects have chickens and pigs
With SCRUM pigs are happier
No big status reports or boring weekly
meetings
With SCRUM chickens are happier
You know what’s happening without
getting in the way
coclarity.com
3

The Theory
Software engineering is complex adaptive
system
Traditional planning - illusion of control
Empirical process not a “defined process”
Complexity theory - better to do frequent
samples and small adjustments
Adaptability is better than predicability
coclarity.com
4

The Team
Should be small (6 max) - if bigger, split
Ideally co-located (can work distributed)
coclarity.com
5

Diagram by Lakeworks http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Scrum_process.svg
The Project
Broken down into “sprints” (milestones)
No longer than one month in duration
List of work items called “backlog”
Start of sprint - pick items from backlog
Punctuated Equilibrium - balance team focus,
management visibility, and adaptability
coclarity.com
6

The Sprint
Easier for team to focus on something a
month away
Daily short meetings
At the end - write-up or demo
coclarity.com
7

The Daily Meeting
KISS - 15 minutes max, same time & place
3 questions
what did you do? (binary - all or nothing)
what roadblocks?
what will you do by tomorrow?
Everyone responsible for their own tasks
coclarity.com
8

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Consequence of “Loads
of post-its”
Low effort - visualisation of progress
Preparation is fast - post-its on monitors
Occasional trips to the “big sheet”
Not great for distributed teams
3M make loads of money
coclarity.com
10

Planning
More KISS
No complex Gannt chart
Plan is a series of sprints
Dependencies only at a sprint level
Can use sophisticated estimation techniques
Shorter sprints at the start and end
coclarity.com
11

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coclarity.com
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Planning - Sprint
At the start check project plan & look at
new backlog items
Allocate to individuals - could use simple
spreadsheet
Efforts based on “ideal days”
Inside/Outside end-date
At the end: write-up, demo, release
coclarity.com
13

The Big Chickens
Start to trust it - less reporting needed
Can show up at daily meetings - must
remember they are chickens
Can add new items to backlog
Other possibilities - earned value, wide-
band-delphi, comparison to estimates
coclarity.com
14

Conclusion
Simple, low-overhead, adaptable any kind/
size project
Everyone gets involved in planning and
tracking, team “gells”
The chickens can actually contribute without
getting in the way
Learn more at Wikipedia or paper I co-wrote
with Brian Fitzgerald of UL
coclarity.com
15

Thank You
Happy to talk about
SCRUM PaddysValley
GTD coclarity
OO Design Web-collaboration
Entrepreneurship Ruby on Rails
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