Come and hear about the cultural constraints, the facts to be aware of and the stories & lessons of Scrum adoption from deserts of Arabia. There are many similarities in experience of Scrum adoption presented in this session and the environment of lot of new and emerging markets in Asia. Having turned an organization 180 degrees in less than two years, these lessons and failures are valuable to people who are thinking of adopting, or have recently adopted Scrum. The particular commentary on team formation, improvement in running Scrum ceremonies, narratives and pain points will make an engaging talk for Foundation level audience.

2. Mohammad Nafees Butt
Lessons Learned from
Scrum Adoption in Saudi Arabia

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4. Speaker Bio
Mohammad Nafees Sharif Butt
•http://au.linkedin.com/in/mnsbutt
•https://twitter.com/mnsbutt
Experience
•~5 years as Agile Coach / ScrumMaster (10 years in SDLC)
•Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)
•PMI-ACP, Certified LeSS Practitioner
•PMP, CSSLP, TOGAF 9, ITIL v3 Foundation
Assignments
•ScrumMaster (Viator – TripAdvisor), Director IT Services (Waseel ASP Ltd.)
•Founder & Organizer - Riyadh Agile & Scrum User Group
•Presented at: Agile ME Summit 2015, Agile Australia, LAST Conf 2015 (planned)

6. Agenda
• Context
• Leap of Faith
• Start of Journey – 1st team
• Milestones – 2nd/3rd/… team
• In Retrospect
• Questions & Answers

7. Context
• Promising Demographics
• Underdeveloped Software Industry
• Limited Resource Pool
• Slow Technology Outlook

8. Context (cont’d)
• Waseel
• Driving Factors
• Integration Duration
• Opaque Development
• Rigid Methodology
• Upfront Design
• Other Attempts

9. Leap of Faith
• “The Conversation”
• Team Input & Management Approval
• Internal Training
• Small & Interactive
• Mixed Group
• Learn & Teach
• Managers & Peers

10. Start of Journey – 1st
Team
• Team Formation
• Dev Team - who, why
• Product Owner - who, why
• ScrumMaster - me, why

11. Start of Journey – 1st
Team (cont’d)
• Before Sprint 1
• SRS to User Story Backlog
• Minimal Release Planning
• First Month
• Formal Definition of Done

12. Start of Journey – 1st
Team (cont’d)
• Ceremonies
• Sprint Planning
• Daily Scrum
• Product Backlog Grooming
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospective

13. Start of Journey – 1st
Team (cont’d)
• Lessons
• How Much Design
• Risky Stories – Now/Later?
• Team Balance
• Colocation, but…

14. Start of Journey – 1st
Team (cont’d)
• Lessons (cont’d)
• Craftsmanship
• Testing Conundrum
• Testing Conundrum II
• DevOps?
• Capturing Sales Leads
• Kano Model

15. Start of Journey – 1st
Team (cont’d)
• Mistakes
• Middle Management
• Team Overshadowed
• Formal Training
• Product Owner & Sales and Marketing
• Sprint Demo vs Sprint Review

16. Milestones – 2nd
/3rd
/… team
• Team 2 – wark
• Growth Model
• Stakeholder Sessions
• Product Roadmap & Release planning
• User Story Writing Workshops
• Story Estimation Workshops

17. Milestones – 2nd
/3rd
/… team (cont’d)
• Team 3 – switch
• First Brownfield project
• Multiple Product Management
• Increase in workload
• On Production Support
• External Dependencies
• Account Managers

18. Milestones – 2nd
/3rd
/… team (cont’d)
• Team 3 – switch (cont’d)
• Sprint Cancellation
• Deadline from CEO
• User Manual
• Integration Guides
• Release Notes
• Cross Cutting Concerns

19. Milestones – 2nd
/3rd
/… team (cont’d)
• Team 3 – switch (cont’d)
• Exploratory Testing
• Performance Testing
• Test Doubles
• Definition of Done

20. In Retrospect
• Middle Management Involvement
• Formal Training of Team on technical skills
• Small Team Size
• Better Usage of Test Pyramid
• External Scrum Coach!?
• Different Product Owner!?

21. Questions & Answers

22. Mohammad Nafees Butt
Lessons Learned from
Scrum Adoption in Saudi Arabia
@mnsbutt
…/mnsbutt