This presentation focuses on an exercise the helps us understand emergent design, iterations (if you only touch it once, you are not iterating), teamwork and operating from high-level requirements. This is based on cross-functional, self-organizing teams and overlapping development phases that are the roots of Scrum

1. Movements of a Hypnotic Nature
Scrum: It Depends on Common Sense
1

2. Brent Barton - Sterling Barton, LLC
Partner, Sterling Barton, LLC
Former CTO. Active Agile Coach, Mentor, Certified Scrum
Trainer
More than 15 years software development in many roles as
both employee and consultant for organizations from small
start ups to multinational corporations
Actively involved in Agile Rollouts from small Product
companies to very large IT organizations
Scrum Articles
Email: brent@sterlingbarton.com
“AgileEVM – Earned Value Management Web: www.sterlingbarton.com
in Scrum Projects”, IEEE Blog: gettingagile.com
Follow me on Twitter: brentbarton
“Implementing a Professional Services
Organization Using Type C Scrum”, IEEE
“Establishing and Maintaining Top to
Bottom Transparency Using
the Meta-Scrum”, AgileJournal
“All-Out Organizational Scrum as an
Innovation Value Chain”, IEEE
© 2009-2010, 2

3. Roots of Scrum
A rugby union scrum between the British and Irish Lions and the All Blacks
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_and_Irish_Lions_scrum.jpg
© 2009-2010, 3

4. Roots of Scrum:
The New New Product Development Game
Characteristics of Hi-Performing Companies
Built-in Instability
Self-Organizing Project Teams
Overlapping Development Phases
Multi-Learning
Subtle Control
Organizational Transfer of Learning
Takeuchi, Nonaka, “The New New Product Development Game”, HBR, Jan-Feb
1986
© 2009-2010, 4

5. Characteristics of Hi-Performing Companies
Built-in Instability
Top management establishes extremely challenging goals and offers
teams a wide measure of freedom
Self-Organizing Project Teams
A group possesses this capability when it exhibits autonomy, self-
transcendence, and cross-fertilization
Takeuchi, Nonaka, “The New New Product Development Game”, HBR, Jan-Feb
1986
© 2009-2010, 5

6. Characteristics of Hi-Performing Companies
Overlapping Development Phases
Greater speed and flexibility
Enhances shared responsibility and cooperation
Stimulates involvement and commitment
Sharpens a problem-solving focus
Encourages initiative taking
Develops diversified skills
Heightens sensitivity toward market conditions
Takeuchi, Nonaka, “The New New Product Development Game”, HBR, Jan-Feb
1986
© 2009-2010, 6

7. Characteristics of Hi-Performing Companies
Multi-Learning: Team members acquire broad
knowledge and diverse skills, which helps create a
versatile team capable of solving a wide array of
problems
Multi-level learning: Encouraging individual,
group, and corporate level learning
Multi-functional learning: Experts are
encouraged to accumulate experience in areas
other than their own
Takeuchi, Nonaka, “The New New Product Development Game”, HBR, Jan-Feb
1986
© 2009-2010, 7

8. Characteristics of Hi-Performing Companies
Subtle Control
Management establishes enough checkpoints to prevent instability,
ambiguity, and tension from turning into chaos
At the same time, management avoids the kind of rigid control that
impairs creativity and spontaneity
Takeuchi, Nonaka, “The New New Product Development Game”, HBR, Jan-Feb
1986
© 2009-2010, 8

9. Characteristics of Hi-Performing Companies
Organizational Transfer of Learning
Team members have strong drive to transfer their learning to others
outside the group
Companies try to institutionalize the lessons derived from their successes
Companies also try to unlearn old lessons
Unlearning helps keep the development team in tune with the realities
of the outside environment
It also acts as a springboard for making more incremental
improvements
Takeuchi, Nonaka, “The New New Product Development Game”, HBR, Jan-Feb
1986
© 2009-2010, 9

10. Scrum is a
Framework
Extremely Simple (but very hard)
Based on Self-Organizing,
Cross-Functional Teams
Iterative & Incremental Delivery
Part of the “Agile Umbrella*”
Assumes there is no universal
“best practice” that solves
complex environments like
software development
With trust, Scrum provides the
transparency and information to
improve and achieve a much
more productive state
© 2009-2010, * See Agile Manifesto in Reference section 10

11. Scrum is an Empirical
Process Mechanism
Audacious Goals provide Vision
Scrum promotes Transparency
3 Formal Inspection Points
Scrum expects Adaptation based
on current information
Value is generated incrementally
using fixed-length timeboxes
Value measured must include
acceptable quality
When enough value has been
achieved to satisfy the Vision,
stop, even if early
© 2009-2010, 11

12. Scrum Values
Scrum asks you to commit to a goal
and then provides you with the authority
to meet those commitments. Scrum
insists that you focus all your efforts
on the work you're committed to and
ignore anything else. Openness is
promoted by the fact that everything
about a Scrum project is visible to
everyone. Scrum asks for respect
within the team and for the team.
Scrum acknowledges that the diversity
of cross-functional team member’s
backgrounds and experiences add
value to your project. Finally, Scrum
asks you to have the courage to
commit, to act, and to be open.
© 2009-2010, Adapted from http://www.ddj.com/dept/architect/184414912?cid=Ambysoft 12

13. Exercise: Movements of a Hypnotic Nature
© 2009-2010, 13

14. Movements of a Hypnotic Nature
I need a new product for my unique company, “Movements of a Hypnotic Nature.”
You have been selected as participants because of your skill and past
performance. I want each team to submit a design solution using the following
information:
The design should be pleasing to the eye
The design must have some or all parts of it that move
The design’s movement should be able to be started intuitively
The design’s movement should stop gracefully on its own
The movement’s total travel should measure a minimum of 5 inches
The design must use the existing materials in other product lines to contain
costs
Existing materials: Play-doh, rubber bands, golf balls, golf tees and rulers.
© 2009-2010, 14

15. Movements of a Hypnotic Nature
Sprint 1
Planning 1 - 5 minutes
Iteration 1 - 8 minutes
Review 1 - 8 minutes
Sprint 2
Planning 2 - 5 minutes
Iteration 2 - 8 minutes
Review 2 - 8 minutes
© 2009-2010, 15

16. The Agile Manifesto*
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
That is, while there is value in the items on the right,
we value the items on the left more.”
Kent Beck James Grenning Robert C. Martin
Mike Beedle Jim Highsmith Steve Mellor
Arie van Bennekum Andrew Hunt Ken Schwaber
Alistair Cockburn Ron Jeffries Jeff Sutherland
Ward Cunningham Jon Kern Dave Thomas
Martin Fowler Brian Marick
© 2009-2010, * www.agilemanifesto.org 16

17. Principles behind the Agile Manifesto*
1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the 7. Working software is the primary
customer through early and measure of progress.
continuous delivery of valuable 8. Agile processes promote
software. sustainable development. The
2. Welcome changing requirements, sponsors, developers, and users
even late in development. Agile should be able to maintain a
processes harness change for constant pace indefinitely.
the customer's competitive 9. Continuous attention to technical
advantage. excellence and good design
3. Deliver working software frequently, enhances agility.
from a couple of weeks to a couple 10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing
of months, with a preference to the the amount of work not done--is
shorter timescale. essential.
4. Business people and developers 11. The best architectures,
must work together daily requirements, and designs emerge
throughout the project. from self-organizing teams.
5. Build projects around motivated 12. At regular intervals, the team
individuals. Give them the reflects on how to become more
environment and support they effective, then tunes and adjusts its
need, and trust them to get the job behavior accordingly.
done.
6. The most efficient and effective
method of conveying information to
and within a development team is
* www.agilemanifesto.org/principles
face-to-face conversation.
© 2009-2010, 17