1. Agile and Scrum in China:
Can It Work?
Will It Work?
Tom Mellor, Scrum Alliance
2. Speaker Introduction
Chair of the Board of Directors of the Scrum
Alliance
Employer: State Farm Ins Cos. (USA)
Title: Agile Coach and Project Manager
Introduced Scrum and agile development into the
IT Dept (5000+ people) in 2003
Certified Scrum Trainer, Certified Scrum Product
Owner, Certified Scrum Professional, Certified
ScrumMaster
Worked on and coached over 25 Scrum projects
3. Speaker Confessions
30+ years in business with 8+ in IT as a
business analyst and project manager
Wrote code in 1978 (Basic and Fortran);
returned in 2005 to university to learn java
Have been around development long enough to
fundamentally understand its concepts (not true
for me for the Chinese language)
A bit anxious that I might receive many for
my talk since it isn’t technical
That is a risk I am willing to take because I feel
the message I bring is important
4. Some Common Project and
Team Problems (Nontechnical)
Despite adoption of Scrum and/or other agile
processes, the business and team(s) still do not
often communicate well
Organization management does not honor the
difference between knowledge work and
physical labor
Nontechnical people believe all developers
have equal skill level and developers tend to
establish a ―pecking order‖ and are not inclined
to do cooperative work such as pair
programming
5. Some Common Project and
Team Problems (Nontechnical)
People believe we do magic and that we can
predict time and cost up front with precision
even though we deal with a large amount of
uncertainty and ambiguity
Developers know that Test Driven Development
is good, but they resist doing it because they
believe it slows them down too much
The development is done emergency room
style – and developers do not know who to
please
6. The Root of Agile Created in
2001: The Agile Manifesto
www.agilemanifesto.org
The 4 Values
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it
and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
While there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on
the left more.
9. Scrum Defined
A (very) light weight work organization
framework with a minimal set of rules
based in empirical process theory where
product is delivered iteratively and
incrementally in 30 days or less.
It is suitable for technical and
nontechnical product development.
10. The Three Scrum Roles
The Product Owner: the person responsible
for representing the customer and end user
and for prioritizing work
The ScrumMaster: not a traditional project
manager, but rather a servant to the team
whose job is to remove impediments (noise)
and coach the team in the use of Scrum to be
as productive as possible
The Team: cross-functional group of 5 to 12
people
11. The Three Scrum Documents
Product Backlog –prioritized list of features
that the Product Owner desires
Sprint Backlog – list of tasks needed to get
chosen stories completed in an iteration
Simple Progress Charts – called Burn Up or
Burn Down Charts
12. The Four Scrum Ceremonies
Sprint Planning
Daily Scrum
Sprint Review
Sprint Retrospective
13. Why Scrum Works
Demands quality working software be delivered
quickly
Employs queuing theory and other lean principles
(e.g. removal of waste, JIT delivery, etc.)
Leverages the high performance of self-organizing
teams that decide how work should be done
Involves and satisfies the customer by having the
customer prioritize and approve the work in regular
intervals
Seeks to minimize technical risk (and other risks) by
encapsulating development into a time box
14. Why Scrum Works
Employs continuous improvement using periods of
reflection (hansei and kaizen)
Uses the principle of inspect and adapt to evolve
software to a satisfying state
Teams can use the scientific process to explore
solutions
One person (the ScrumMaster) is responsible for
removing noise or seeing that noise is removed and
otherwise serves the team as needed
One person (the Product Owner) prioritizes desired
functionality and represents the customer
16. Some Reasons (But Not All)
Why Scrum Does Not Work
Cultural intolerance and lack of trust
Ineffective (poor??) or absent software
practices and craftsmanship
Poor (or no) communication within the team
and/or between the Product Owner and the
team
People working on too many things
Project managers get in the way
Bad management practices
17. When Scrum Works, But Not
Very Well (Smells)
The Sprint is not honored
Outsiders interfere with the process
Lack of commitment
Team doesn’t seek to improve
ScrumMaster becomes a project manager
and assigns work and expects
The Burn Down Chart becomes a Gantt
Chart
Team members say ―That’s not my job.‖
18. When Scrum Works, But Not
Very Well (Smells)
Done is not defined or misunderstood and
technical debt piles on
Team delivery pace fluctuates widely
No attention to continuous improvement by
the team
Team dwells on problems rather than fixing
them
Rewards focus on individuals, not teams
19. Add text here.
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work in China!”
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With regards to Bas Vodde, CST
20. Lesson 2: Wrap-up
Summarize important points.
Allow time for questions.
“Agile could work in
China because it is
communist country”
21. Is Culture The Biggest Obstacle
to Adoption of Agile (in China)?
Certified Scrum Trainer Bas Vodde from
Singapore presented this in Shanghai at the
recent Scrum Gathering
His caution: generalizations about culture are
typically untrue!!
He developed the Cultural Agility Index based
upon assessing countries based upon survey
feedback using Hoftede’s Power Distance
Index and the Agile Manifesto
22. Is Culture The Biggest Obstacle
to Adoption of Agile (in China)?
The Power Distance Index:
the extent to which less powerful
members of organizations and
institutions (like the family)
tolerate and expect that power is
distributed unequally
(Agile promotes low power distance)
23. Is Culture The Biggest Obstacle
to Adoption of Agile (in China)?
24. Lesson 3: Objectives
List the intended outcomes for this training
session.
Each objective should be concise, should
contain a verb, and should have a
measurable result.
26. Cultural Agility Index
Dimensions
1. Power Index 1. China 56; US 16
2. Individualism 2. China 14; US 68
versus Collectivism 3. China 56; US 50
3. Masculinity versus 4. China 6; US 13
Femininity 5. China 65; US 22
4. Uncertainty
Avoidance
5. Long Term
Orientation
27. Vodde’s Composite Agility
Ranking
List important points from each lesson.
Provide resources for more information on
subject.
List resources on this slide.
Provide handouts with additional resource
material.
28. Bas’s Assessments
Prepare a quiz or challenge to assess how
much information participants learned.
Survey participants to see if they found the
training beneficial.
30. Bas’s Assessments
Prepare a quiz or challenge to assess how
much information participants learned.
Survey participants to see if they found the
training beneficial.
31. Scrum and Agile In China:
Some Conclusions
Can Scrum and agile work in China?
Vodde presents a compelling argument that
―Yes, it can.‖
Will Scrum and agile work in China? Only
time will tell; success will be based upon how
well companies are willing to adapt.
QUESTIONS?
