The document discusses nearshore distributed agile teams provided by Velocity Partners. It outlines an agenda to discuss customer needs, Velocity's nearshore solution, and next steps. Key points include that Velocity has development centers in South America, offers superior agile processes and quality management, and can help teams with low risk startups through initial team configurations and sprint zero planning. The document promotes the benefits of Velocity's nearshore model for improved collaboration, productivity and cost savings over traditional offshore models.

2. Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

3. Agenda
o Brief intros / re-introductions (5 min)
o Customer Needs (20 min)
• Describe org, team size(s), tools & methodology
• Current barriers for delivering quality software?
• Desired outcomes from an engagement with Velocity Partners
(capacity, quality of software delivered, better processes)?
• Options you’ve tried or evaluated to resolve current barriers?
• Project backlog sample?
o The Velocity Nearshore Solution (15 min)
o Q&A / Applicability Discussion (10 min)
o Next Steps as appropriate (5 min)
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

4. The Velocity Solution
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

5. Velocity Partners
o Established in 2004 as part of an Agile training company
o Spun out in 2007 as a stand-alone company
o Early adopter/innovator in Distributed Agile
o HQ in Bellevue, WA
o 400 employees
o Development Centers:
• Rosario, Argentina
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Paraná, Argentina
• Montevideo, Uruguay
• Medellin, Columbia
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

6. Is Your Team in the Dark?
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

7. Why South America?
o Time zone
o Demographics
• 100M people
• Technical passion
• Academic excellence
• Travel friendly
o Excellent English
• Both verbal and written
o Cultural similarity
• “Western” business
style and etiquette
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

8. Why Velocity in South America?
o Pioneers in Distributed-
Agile, with proven and
referenceable track
record
o Very low attrition from
strong corporate culture
o Dedicated to ongoing
training and career
advancement
o U.S. managed with
outstanding customer
service
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

9. Superior Agile Development Processes
• Eliminate waste • Embrace change • Design Patterns
• Focus on • Daily standups • Test Driven
business value Development
• Commitment
• Focus on the • Continuous
customer • Release and Integration
Iteration
Planning
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

10. Quality Management at Velocity
o Culture of Quality
• Quality courses required of all personnel
• Quality integrated with Scrum processes
• QA Manager supports and leads all quality engineers
• Metrics reported to all clients
o Focus on Test Automation
• Architecture and Plan: two-week quick start
• What to automate and what not to automate
• Variety of approaches considered: from off-the-shelf to
completely custom, from functional to BDD, etc.
• Leverage popular frameworks: Selenium, Watir, QT Pro
• Build for maintainability (can be handed to the client) and for
extensibility (supports both manual and automated QA staff)
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

11. Collaborative Sprint Planning
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

12. Cohesive Communication
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

13. Seamless Standups
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

14. Project Dashboard
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

15. Office Configuration
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

16. Course Intended Goals Required For
Audience
Lean-Agile New hires High-level introduction to Lean and All employees unable to complete Lean-
Quick Start Agile concepts, focusing on why we use Agile I before working on first
Lean-Agile development sprint
Lean-Agile I: Overview New hires Understand Lean & Agile concepts and All employees working on a development
principles enough to begin working sprint
effectively on an Agile team
Lean-Agile II: Scrum All employees Understand estimation, sprint planning, All employees working on a development
Processes story elucidation, and WIP sprint
Lean-Agile III: Lean All employees Learn how Lean adds to Agile practices All employees working on a development
Processes and use of specific Lean processes and project utilizing Lean practices and tools
tools (Kanban, Scrumban …)
Lean-Agile Seminar All employees Question & Answer session on Lean All employees who have participated in at
and Agile practices least two development sprints
Software Quality All employees Understand the principles and practices All employees within 3 months of hire
Assurance of SQA, including unit tests, coverage,
TDD, functional testing tools, etc.
Design Quality All employees Understand how the use of design All employees within 6 months of hire
patterns and refactoring improves
flexibility and maintainability
ScrumMaster Team Leads / Deep understanding of Lean & Agile Team Leads / Solutions Managers before
Solutions and ability to effectively plan, facilitate, assuming lead role
Managers and execute sprints
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

17. Low Risk Startup
Team Best Practices
Sprint Zero
Configuration Workshop
Successful distributed
Team size Communicate goals
meetings
Mix of client staff, Velocity
Identify leadership, roles Agile process in-depth
staff
Discuss the nature of the Setup
Tracking progress
work infrastructure/environment
Vital technical skills Tool selection, licenses Software quality practices
Desirable technical skills Share code samples Expected velocity
English expectations Schedule travel Definitions of Done
Ideal ramp up timeline Establish Product Backlog Role definition
Longer term team scale Standard Velocity Equipment Governance
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

18. Team Configurations
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

19. Client Successes
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

20. Focus on Performance
Farshore Models Velocity Nearshore
Process Overhead/Waterfall Agility
Handoffs Real time collaboration
Email threads Instant Messaging
Onsite PM costs & expenses Self organizing teams
Fractured communication Superior English
Attrition costs Continuity of resource
Early morning/nighttime meetings Voice/video Daily stand-ups during
regular working hours
Effective productivity ~~ 40% Effective productivity ~~ 85%
Velocity Partners delivers value not just cost savings
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams

21. Next Steps
o Q&A / Applicability Discussion
o Next Steps as appropriate
- NDA
- Copy of presentation
- 2013 rate sheet
- Technical roundtable
- References
- Team config/Sprint 0
- Proposal
Nearshore Distributed Agile Teams