Short introduction to Project Management and Scrum. Meetup SET Software Engineering Thailand: http://www.meetup.com/Software-Engineering-Thailand/events/223939279/

1. Scrum as an Agile Project & Requirements
Management Framework
July 22, 2015
Roland Petrasch

2. Scrum as an Agile Project & Requirements
Management Framework
● Agenda
● Project Management
● Classical Project Management and Scrum
● Project Management: Power Structure
● Scrum: To do, or not to do ...
● Scrum Process: How it begins
Karl talks about „Scrum and BPM“
}20 min.
Goals:
Shake you up with nice colors,
initiate the Scrum discussion,
prepare for Karl's talk

3. Project Management
● Project (Management): It's (not only) about time ...
... but too late still means: you failed

4. Project Management
● Project management (even with Scrum)
● Is a task that lasts from set-up until finishing
● Consists of
– Planing (planned tasks, resources, cost))
– Monitoring (comparison: planned / actual values)
– Control (measures to stay on track)
● Aspects: accounting, leadership, collaboration,
knowledge, structuring, socializing ...
I've read the textbook
Questions: „When did our project started
and when will it end? What are the goals?
Where are the requirements?“
No start, no end, no goals?
No project!

5. Classical Project Management and Scrum
● Classic Project Management and Scrum:
Same same or different? Or: Same same, but different ...
Development
Team
Team
Project
Manager
Scrum
Master
Requirements
Engineer
Product
Owner
SRS
Product
Backlog
Project
Plan
Burndown
Chart
Sure, it's about Project Management
But: VERY BIG differences

6. Classical Project Management and Scrum
● So what are the main differences?
● Scrum means a different power structure (not top-down)
● Team is a (relatively) autonomous entity (resource planning)
● Responsibility is shared (Product Owner, Team, Scrum Master)
● Strong “connection” to software product (deliverables) →
Integrated requirements management
● Agile Manifesto (agilemanifesto.org), e.g.
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Scrum (→ abr. of scrummage)
used in Rugby;
meaning: disorderly struggle
Anyone who has never made a
mistake has never tried anything new.
Albert Einstein

7. Classical Project Management and Scrum
● Sport, e.g. soccer
● Team (not the coach) plays
90 min. (autonomy)
● Single player has
responsibility, but team wins
or loses
● Coach gives orders ...
but not every single minute
● Strategy / tactics clear
before (!) the game starts,
but can change on-demand
and spontaneously
Player 18:
step aside!
Player 19:
kick now!
Player 17:
jump to the left!

8. Classical Project Management and Scrum
● Classical Project Management
● Project Manager:
– authority to give directives
– responsible for the team
– plan, monitor, control
● Team member
– responsible for own work
– follow the plan
– execute directives

9. Project Management: Power Structure
● Classical organizational structure
● Pyramids or hierarchies
(with a leader / manager and
people who support him/her and obey)
● Leadership →
the right to command and enforce,
administration of resources (responsibility):
plan, monitor, control
● Team member → only responsible
for own work, a resource with assigned
tasks and a workload (PM view)
PM
Team members

10. Project Management: Power Structure
● Agile means different power structure(s)
● Team is (more) autonomous (→ committee)
● Self-managing / -organizing (Scrum Master is responsible for
process) → Lean management
● Team member: responsible for work of all team members
● Product Owner has to negotiate with the team, can't give
orders
Team
Product Owner

11. Project Management: Power Structure
● Consequences for middle and upper management
● Lack of project manager = less control over single team
member (“Who is doing what, where and when?”)
● Planning is not “top-down” → negotiation with team
● Team is “creating” its own development process
● Management loses power
● Question:
– Really no need for leader / manager for team?
– Does it work under all conditions?

12. Scrum: To do, or not to do ...
● Really no need for leader / manager for team?
● Wrong question
● One word to leadership and management
● Leadership: "ability to create a solid vision of a better future
for those people he/she is leading" [Buckingham, 2005]
● Management: "ability to match people’s tasks with their
skills" [Buckingham, 2005]
● Scrum projects need leadership
... not (many) managers

13. Scrum: To do, or not to do ...
● Does it work under all conditions?
● No.
● Some aspects
– Mixture between experienced and young professionals
– Awareness of team responsibility,
no obedient little workers or hackers
– Ability to communicate often, openly and constructively
– Willingness to improve (own) behavior and processes
– Need for proper requirements understood
– Start with a real project: real start, real end, real users,
real goals, real requirements

14. Scrum: To do, or not to do ...
● Scrum is a framework: modifications, extensions,
combintations ... are welcome
● Scrum has many colors – go and find your color combination

15. Scrum Project: How it begins
● Where to start?
● Product Backlog Items are requirements,
but where do they come from? Product Owner knows it ...
Product
Backlog
Sprint
Backlog
Sprint
(Iteration)
Product
Requirements
Output
Intput
?
Requirements are specified during the project, but ...

16. Scrum Process: How it begins
● BPM and Software Development
● Sometimes it's a good idea
– to analyze or optimize processes first and (maybe)
– then develop or introduce software (if necessary)
Product
Backlog
Business Process (Re-)Engineering
Project
Product
Business
Needs or
Process
Backlog
Business
Processes,
Data Model
Software Engineering / Development
Project

17. On the right path
To be continued:
Karl Schindler talks about „Scrum for Business
Process Reengineering Projects“