Living in a world of amazing competitiveness and constant change, the E-commerce industry is every day challenged to improve the time to market in order to react to customers’ needs and competitor behaviour. We will talk about at what extent the sprint length impacts time to market.

1. Alberto, Bruno and Miguel
Agile.PT 2014
Sprint Length: How to be
quicker to market

2. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Who we are…
Alberto Miguel Bruno
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4. FAR F E T C H & AG I L E – A D E V E L O P I N G R E L AT I O N S H I P
Why are we @Agile.PT?
We are going to tell you our story:
Share our challenges
Share our journey
Share our outcomes
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5. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Why Scrum?
Deliver, deliver, deliver…
No process != Light-weight process
Scrum to stop startup madness
But…
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6. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
There’s a problem…
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3
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7. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
There’s a problem…
Sprint
Plan
Development
Test
Release
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8. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Mini waterfall issues:
Complex planning
QA only at the end
Release attached to end of sprint
In summary, it increased our time
to market
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9. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
The problem:
Voice of the experts:
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10. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
The Business Challenge:
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11. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
The Business Challenge:
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12. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
How we did it:
“We need to do something!”
People over Process
Agile Coach Level
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13. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
How we did it:
Agile Coach Level
“We need to do something!”
People over Process
“We need a case study!”
Select a team
Engage team on issues analysis
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14. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Team aligned goals:
Reduce waste time
Foster collaboration and commitment
Improved Change Management
Better Planning
Scrum Team Level
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15. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Primary Action:
“Let’s decrease Sprint Length?”
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16. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Why it worked: Waste Time Reduced!
Meetings more efficient
Planning meeting duration improved from 2 hours
to less than 30 minutes; 70% reduction in hours
spent planning
Non Scrum meetings and activities cut by 80%
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Achieved!
Team only uses documentation to better
communicate solutions
Documentation creation effort cut by 80%
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17. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Why it worked: Collaboration and Commitment
Dev Team, PO and Stakeholders are closer
More effective Communication
More confidence on deliveries
Everybody on same pace
‘No surprises’ attitude
Perceived value is High
More realistic commitments
Delta, between committed and delivered, cut by 30%
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18. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Why it worked: Improved Change Management
Better Story writing
Smaller stories
Stories with more added value
Story splitting is (almost) imperative
INVEST stories amount increased by 60%
Easier to deal with last minute requests
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19. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Why it worked: Better Planning
Prioritization
More effective
ROI for LIVE features increased by 20%
Quality
QA tests on smaller deliveries more effective
Total bugs cut by 35%
Criticality of bugs cut by 60%
Bugs identified in LIVE cut by 75%
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20. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T
Why it worked: Agile Best Practices
Improve and implement other Agile Best Practices
Vertical slicing
Automated testing
Continuous integration
Continuous delivery
Delivery Mindset
Easier to prioritize needs and define roadmap
Easier feedback process
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21. FAR F E T C H & AG I L E – A D E V E L O P I N G R E L AT I O N S H I P
Summary
Business pressure never lets up…
Engineering team needs to
continuously improve and iterate
Small changes can make big
differences, if you:
Address Change Management
Collaborate
Promote ‘doing’ over ‘talking’
Put people first
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22. FAR F E T C H & AG I L E – A D E V E L O P I N G R E L AT I O N S H I P
Summary
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23. S P R I N T L E N G T H : H O W TO B E Q U I C K E R TO M AR K E T