Presentation given at Agiles2009, Florianopolis by Emilio Gutter and Alejandra Alfonso

1. Multi-site, multi-cultural agile development
Our experience; challenges and solutions applied
Ágiles 2009 – Florianópolis, Brazil

2. About us
Emilio Gutter Alejandra Alfonso
 Co-Founder at 10Pines  Agile Practice Lead at Baufest
 Agile coach and CSP  Agile coach and CSM

3. Agenda
 Why bother with distributed agile?
 Case study: multi-site agile transformation
 Cultural aspects of an agile transformation

5. The melting ice
“[…] we have to step outside of the narrow
boundaries of "classically" defined Agile. In a
certain sense it is sort of we drop an iceberg
in an ocean and […] that iceberg has melted
and become part of the ordinary ocean.”
A.Cockburn – Agile 2009 – Chicago, US
“If the intent of the Agile Manifesto is
to guide teams to maximize the value
they can produce for the Business,
then they must take into consideration
the Business’ operating model.”
M.Gelbwaks – Ágiles 2008 – Bs. As., Argentina

6. Case study: multi-site agile
transformation
Product QA Scrum Developers
Owners leaders Masters
Req.
Architects UX
Analysts
specialists
3 pilot projects spanning 3 countries and 4 cities
Over 40 people involved
Only the first step in a big scale agile transformation

7. Core practices
U
 ser stories
 hort, time-boxed
S
iterations A
 cceptance cr
iteria
 lanning game
P D
 efinition of D
one
 aily standup
D U
 nit and Acce
ptance Tests
automation
 eview session
R
ting C
 ontinuous in
 etrospective mee
R tegration

9. Team structure
Didn’t work
GIVEN: F
 ixed & collocate
d
key roles are unev sub-teams, isolated
enly
distributed in all
sites from key roles
AND
there is technical
specialization on
AND
each site What Worked
ite
the workload for
each  rganic , cross-s
O
specialty is uneven
virtual sub-teams
ty)
WHEN: (with shared Veloci
the Team grows w
ith new  ush to broaden
P
team members
ls
team members skil
THEN:
Challenges
find an effective w
ay to split
it into sub-teams T
 eam activitie
s
involving 2 or m
ore
Advanced topic: sites
 eature vs Component teams
F

10. Collaboration
What Worked
GIVEN:
key people is remo O
 n-site charte
te ring
AND
V
 isual and ele
ctronic
English is nobody’
s native
language tools combined
WHEN: F
 requent trips;
team
you should build bonding activit
a new ies
revolutionary pro
duct with R
 eview “storie
a complex techno s’
logy
readiness”
THEN:
find an effective w
ay to
communicate an
d
collaborate while
keeping
the process lightw
eight
Advanced topics:
 sability design and incremental development
U
 lanning horizons; just-in-time vs look-ahead
P

13. Cultural aspects - Discussion
Does “center vs
periphery” mindset
affect building a
“whole team”?
Where does
“motivation” come
from?

14. Merci beaucoup!