Running a project to build a website in a corporate environment is always a challenge. In the corporation that spans across the world, operates in more than 100 countries, has about 150 000 employees and 1500 web content creators, it is even a bigger challenge.
Niklas and Kacper will run you through the great journey the OneABB Team started half a year ago. In the middle of 2012 we realised that the methodology we were running our project had left some space where the tensions had arisen. Web environment is one of the fastest growing and changing one in the IT world. So does the client requirements and expectations. Having a great, skilled team, working in a friendly and honest atmosphere we were able to optimize our process, improve the communication and transparency, increase the performance and boost productivity. All of this thanks to introducing Agile methodology called SCRUM.
In the presentations you will learn about some of the problems that the big, international, distributed team can run into while working on a enterprise class project. We will share our ways to identify those problems and to get them solved with you. You will acquire a basic knowledge of main SCRUM principles and ceremonies. We will show you some very helpful tools too.
16. Competencies required
10/27/2013
17
Testing and quality
assurance
Front end
coding
Infrastructure
& deployment
Backend development &
integration
User
experience
Team lead &
scrum
management
Architecture
Support
Anybody heard of ABB? What does the acronymABB stand for? American Body Builders, Australian Barley Board, Acronyms Beyond BeliefMay have seen logo on Starowislna
Power: Getting power from where it is generated to where it is used (behind the plug). Power T&D, transformers, switchgearAutomation: Using the delivered power (in front of the plug). Manufacturing, industrial processes, robots, motors
Office on StarowislnaLocal office in Krakow -> connections and collaboration with business units in countries all over the world
25% not bad number for an IS company
50+ projects / software systems developed, maintained or supported(Kacper?)Go across all areas: Some related to SW used in ABB products, some internal systems
The main application we work on in the OneABB on the Web project is corporate website.You can reach it via www.abb.com.It’s important that you understand the scope of this project, otherwise the remaining part of our presentation might seem weird.So, there are 2000 content editors, they are spread around the globe, creating and updating the content they’re responsible for. The site is not only available as a global one, but we have around 80 country sites, like www.abb.pl or www.abb.ch for Switzerland. Some of them are in more than one language, which means we need to translate all the content.The 2000 editors work hard to create content every day, as a result we have more than 1 milion of unique pages. This is huge number, even considering the main part of our website is the complete products catalogue for ABB.You might ask – what’s the big deal, it’s the number of page views that counts, not the number of unique urls, isn’t it? Well, our webiste is not bad in this statistics as well. Every month we have more than a 10 milion page views. And it’s rising.
The main application we work on in the OneABB on the Web project is corporate website.You can reach it via www.abb.com.It’s important that you understand the scope of this project, otherwise the remaining part of our presentation might seem weird.So, there are 2000 content editors, they are spread around the globe, creating and updating the content they’re responsible for. The site is not only available as a global one, but we have around 80 country sites, like www.abb.pl or www.abb.ch for Switzerland. Some of them are in more than one language, which means we need to translate all the content.The 2000 editors work hard to create content every day, as a result we have more than 1 milion of unique pages. This is huge number, even considering the main part of our website is the complete products catalogue for ABB.You might ask – what’s the big deal, it’s the number of page views that counts, not the number of unique urls, isn’t it? Well, our webiste is not bad in this statistics as well. Every month we have more than a 10 milion page views. And it’s rising.
We know the numbers regarding the website, now let’s see who’s behind it. It’s „only” about 50 people. We are located in four countries, Switzerland, Poland, Norway and India.The team in Switzerland works in headquaters, together with teams responsible for communication in the whole ABB. So they got most immediate feedback and requirements possible.Currently we’re busy having more than 20 projects in our backlog. This means we really need to be effective. Having the possiblity to get fast feedback on what we’re working on. Being able to evalueate if it works, if it makes sense in terms of solving business needs it was supposed to solve is a key.On the other hand, we need to have time to do the work. Recent research shows that context switing is a real productivity killer.Having 50 people involved in 20 project might mean really a lot of context switching if the project are managed in not an optimal way.Web is changing, it’s changing really fast. We need to react to it.In the next couple of minutes, youll hear from Niklas, how we manage to achive something, that most of us found impossible. We managed to implement the brand new website, based on new platform in just one month.
Legacy CMS CAWP – almost as old as the web itself, running project to find a new CMSConservative look and feelAimed at the typical corporate user running a Windows PC and IE 6Last year project tofind new CMSSpent time evaluating and doing PoCs until found one we were happy withAfter evaluation it was our task to put the new CMS into good useAcquired new content management system (CMS) – Seplast year
Implement a pilot of 30 pages in the new CMSNew branding and graphical designResponsive and fluid designMulti-device and cross-browser supportNew infrastructure (servers)Across devicesResponsive design, adapt to different screen sizes<Start animation> Given one month to complete the implementation
Not that many people per competencyabb.com is just one project out of 10 other ongoing ones
Intense period of workNiklas in Krakow for 2 weeksGiven intense deadline, people were working together towards a common goal
Building a brand new website in just a month won’t be possible without some serious rearrangments in the way we work.Even though Agile becomes more and more popular, there are still projects run based on Waterfall approach.The very basic difference is: in waterfall you don’t start another step before you’re completely done with the previous one. Means you won’t start implementation until you’re happy with collecting all the requirements.Then, you don’t start testing until you have all tiny bits implemented to the very end. Sounds like a great recipe to a failure, doesn’t it? What if after succesfully completing all the steps, delivering a full blown solution to the market, you realize it doesn’t solve the business need it was supposed to address? You made a huge investment, and failed.Agile is all about getting feedback fast, shortening the cycle. You implement the minimum valueable product, ship it to the market and immediately verify if it works. Then you adjust your plans, requirements and you iterate this process.Sometimes it’s hard, especially in corporate environment if there are people afraid to admit they were wrong, because being Agile also means you need to agree you failed. You didn’t understand market’s needs, solved the wrong problem, etc.It does happen. Point is, to be able to realize it without spending a year of investment and being able to change your focus, to pivot.Is Agile the silver bullet to solve all problems of failing projects? No, it’s not. You’d better not start experimenting when doing nuclear plant control pannel.In the remaining part we’ll go through the most relevant ceremeonies of a singe Scrum iteration (a timeframe where you work on a well defined part of the product, delivering some value providing features)
First you need to make sure whole team does understand the goal.That all know what they need to work on and what’s the expected result.There’s a really nice technique to do this, called Planning Poker.You run a meeting, invite everyone from the team. It can take much time as you need to run it properly. It can be a few hours, can be a few days as well if needed.During planning poker you not only discuss the objectives, but you also estimate how long will it take until you’re done with them.There are few simple steps you need to follow to make sure the planning meeting is effective and provides value to the team.
After the planning meeting you start the implementation phase. This is the longest phase in Scrum iteration.
After the planning meeting you start the implementation phase. This is the longest phase in Scrum iteration.