From Anarchy to Sustainable Development an Experience report

From Anarchy to Sustainable Development an Experience report Scrum in Less Than Ideal Conditions by erik lebel and isabelle therrien 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Introduction • Who we are : Isabelle & Erik • Pyxis • The client • Past collaborations with the client • The project – TV of tomorrow: Create your personal channel, program its content and share it 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Sprint Zero 2 weeks in March 2008 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Launching a project Sprinting Reduced the scope of over 200 epics and user stories Unknown technologies + vague requirements = High risk (Anarchy) 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

The first three sprints trial release 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Team distribution 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Challenges Communication Technological choices Getting the green light to continue 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Communication tools Communication is the basis of collaboration The important thing to remember is that you need permanent places or tools so that the team spends its valuable time on valuable activities Computer always on in meeting room Telephone bridge always available Permanent account for all tools Bookmark web addresses providing tools 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Different tools for different purposes Purpose Needs Tool Permanent information sources Information sharing •GreenHopper / Jira •Confluence •Google Calendar Meetings Groups, isolation, allowing •Telephone bridges everyone to talk, video, some •Skype video shared computers, permanent •GreenHopper/Jira availability •Google Spreadsheet •Cardmeeting.com Peer to peer conversations Impromptu, possible directly •Skype chat+voice+video from their workspace, allow for •IRC voice, video and possible file •Phone communication 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

The first milestone Delivered 63 of the targeted 72 points Demo on a temporary monoserver Some technical debt GO! 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Scaling up June – September 2008 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Early signs of trouble Planning meetings, daily scrums and sprint reviews are becoming interminable Members are not committed, responsibility and ownership is diluted Team is fragmenting 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Scrum of Scrum Feature Feature Team Team 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Team distribution 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

The project changes... Reworking the design – Design team behind on requirements – Remote training: tests, technologies 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Les Semaines Bordelaises : meeting face to face… 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

A new beginning... • Increased motivation • Trust • Flexible teams • Developers involved earlier in the design process • POs traveling to Bordeaux for sprint reviews and plannings 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Flexible teams 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Cruising speed, sort of October – December 2008 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

We are still having problems Velocity is not increasing Unable to deploy the application Scrum of Scrum is becoming a reporting activity Still difficult to get a well focused commitment Poor visibility … and in spite of our awareness of these problems we are not able to fix them. 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

And on the bright side • Developers are participating in the scrum of scrum – Scrums are regaining their comunication purpose – Improving team commitment 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Some hard truths January – march 2009 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

The lost “done” Our DONE: tests, code reviews, NOT deployment  This meant many bugs and application adjustments were discovered during testing  NOT visible in our backlog  NOT accounted for in our release plans 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

How did we make incomplete work visible? Unit tests Committed code done Code reviews Documentation Functional tests Test deployment 33% Production deployment 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

How did we make it visible? uncompleted effort x story points done = story points to be done Add that work to the backlog In our cases the uncompleted effort was estimated at 33% Consider making “done” blockers a pre-requisite for starting a sprint (or even the project) Consider measuring VALUE instead of VELOCITY 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Why can't we go any faster? The product owner is becoming a bottleneck for the team The team is compensating by prioritizing and redefining the stories Lack of functionality ownership is causing work to slip between the cracks Software debt Ambiguous responsibilities 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Integration Scrum •Product backlog •Architecture cohesion •Build dev tools •Fix production bugs •Infrastructure and production Feature Feature Team Team 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

A different kind of daily Scrum of Scrum kept for coordinating No longer about progress reporting • Now team product owners are responsible for this 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

M.C.Q. Do you have any Messages for the other teams? Are you respecting your Commitment? Do you have any Questions for the other teams? 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

What should you take away from this? Advantages and lessons learned 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

The advantages of distributed teams Recruiting from different talent pools Time differences make for longer days with quiet periods 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Lessons learned on team size and distribution Organize face-to-face meetings quarterly Break larger teams into smaller ones 4 to 6 Favor direct human communication over written Temper expectation when integrating new members 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Lessons learned on maintaining a single, large code base Develop and maintain an common architectural vision Ensure teams are multidisciplinary: separate teams along vertical slices, not layers Ensure teams are isolated with regards to architecture (loose coupling) Much communication will be done directly through the code, invest in it Strive to maintain a useful test base 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Conclusions There are no “silver bullet” solution, look for inspiration, not solutions Be prepared to make mistakes, and come back on discussions taken Be attentive to how things are going and be creative in looking for solutions 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

Contact us! isabelle : itherrien@pyxis-tech.com erik : elebel@pyxis-tech.com We blog occasionally : http://pyxis-tech.com/blog PLEASE fill the comments card. Thank you! 03/08 06/08 09/08 12/08 03/09 NOW © Copyright Pyxis Technologies

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From Anarchy to Sustainable Development an Experience report

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