StepTalks2011 - Enabling agility with tools: SCRUM @ Sage Portugal

1. www.sage.pt

2. www.strongstep.pt/steptalks2011
www.sage.pt

3. SCRUM @ Sage Portugal
vitor.pinho@sage.com

4. 1. Introduction
to Sage

5. What Sage does
Our vision is to be the
most admired and
respected business
software and services
provider in the world
Sage is a leading supplier of business
management software and services to
over 6 million customers worldwide.
From small start-ups to larger
organisations, we make it easier for
companies to manage their business
processes
4 www.sage.pt

6. Key facts about our organisation
Market Finances Customers
Provide advice to customers
Global company with Revenue of £1,439m
through 1.8 million support
over 13,100 employees for FY2009
contracts
Over 6 million customers Market capitalisation of Manage around 35,000
worldwide approximately £2.8 billion customer calls each day
Made over 40 acquisitions Work with 27,000 reseller
One of the market leaders
since 1991 partners and 40,000
in the UK, US, Europe, South
accountants
Africa and Asia
worldwide
5 www.sage.pt

7. Our global reach
Combined with our developers and business partners Sage has strong global presence
Direct presence Distribution
6 www.sage.pt

8. Sage in Portugal:
150 100.000 800
employees Users (companies) partners
MID XRT
SME MARKET Tresury
managment
ENTRY Small and Medium
Enterprises
Medim and Large solutions
Enterprises
LEVEL
SOHO
www.sage.pt

9. What wePortugal
2. Sage offer
R&D Team

10. Sage Portugal R&D Team
• Headcount: 30
• Small teams 4 to 6 persons divided by product line
• Each team has all necessary competences (Analysis, Development,
Testing)
Line 50 Line Next & Line Gextexper POS Retail & Common
Construction Restaurants Development
9 www.sage.pt

11. Before adopting an Agile methodology
• Different cultures and methodologies between
acquired companies
• The planning was made with rudimentary tools
• Difficulty to get a global picture of project status
• Difficult to manage “client” relationship
(Negotiate commitments)
• Effort not visible outside R&D
… but a lot of agility (natural in Latin cultures)
10 www.sage.pt

12. 3. Organization
Improvement

13. … Then we looked for an external
company to help us on this process!
Why ?
• Very experienced people
• Field experience – not only theories
• Solid background from FEUP
• Relationships with most well known players
on this area
… and they have Professor Pascoal Faria
12 www.sage.pt

14. Strongstep recommended us SCRUM
and MS TFS
• About SCRUM:
– Scrum is an agile process that allows us to focus on
delivering the highest business value in the shortest
time.
– It allows us to rapidly and repeatedly inspect actual
working software (every two weeks to one month).
– The business sets the priorities. Teams self-organize
to determine the best way to deliver the highest
priority features.
– Every two weeks to a month anyone can see real
working software and decide to release it as is or
continue to enhance it for another sprint.
13 www.sage.pt

15. SCRUM characteristics
• Self-organizing teams
• Product progresses in a series of two- to four-
week “sprints”
• Requirements are captured as items in a list of
“product backlog”
• No specific engineering practices prescribed
(Allow freedom to choose the practices more
adequate in each project)
…Fits well in Sage culture and needs
14 www.sage.pt

16. Strongstep intervention
• People / Team work
– Initial diagnostic based on team interviews
– Identification of the most critical aspects of our particular environment
– Training focused on Processes and best practices to collect and
document requirements
– Follow up of pilot implementation of SCRUM and TFS
• Implemented Tools
– Microsoft Team Foundation Server
– SCRUM Process template for TFS with some customization
– Integration between Sage SalesLogix CRM and TFS
– XLS templates for release and sprint planning
• Documentation
– Complete documentation about SCRUM processes
– Documentation about Sage specific process flow
15 www.sage.pt

17. … After Strongstep intervention
• Visible improvements on:
– Organization of requirements and priorities
– Project forecast (Burndown chart is really an excellent tool)
– Effort and cost estimates (Team velocity)
– Source control and traceability (Work item IDs in every check-
in)
– Centralized planning with Defects and new functionalities as
work items
– Less interference from outside
16 www.sage.pt

18. Thanks!

19. www.sage.pt

20. STRONGSTEP - INNOVATION IN SOFTWARE QUALITY
Email: geral@strongstep.pt
Web: www.strongstep.pt
Telefone: +351 22 030 15 85
Rua Actor Ferreira da Silva, UPTEC
4200-298 Porto
Portugal
www.sage.pt