tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79436397598874688992024-03-04T21:25:18.607-08:00Agile CandorRahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-86986109109714202282015-11-22T08:20:00.002-08:002015-11-23T01:09:50.994-08:0010 things that agile teams can do in a retrospective<i><b><span class="st">"Today should always be better than yesterday"</span></b><span class="st"> - mother of Gabby Douglas, </span>the first African American to win individual all-around gold and the first American to win gold in both the individual all-around and team competitions in gymnastics.</i><br />
<b><span class="st"><wbr></wbr></span> </b><br />
<b>A retrospective</b> provides the opportunity for teams to get together and tweak "something" that impacts their outcomes so they achieve better results than before. Teams use retrospectives for <a href="http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2012/05/30/goals-of-a-retrospective/" target="_blank">joint learning, making a decision, choosing an action or strengthening a common bond</a>. In Scrum, retrospectives are held at the end of each sprint. Kanban is non-prescriptive about retrospectives, but most kanban teams end up doing retrospectives at a regular interval or an as-needed basis. <br />
<br />
Noted that some teams resist the retrospectives and lose them entirely. Why does that happen and what is the impact? Well that's another article for later.<br />
<br />
Here is we look at the positive side and some of the ways that agile teams use retrospectives to their advantage. This list is but a small subset of many possibilities on what agile teams can do in a retrospective!<br />
<ol>
<li><ol>
</ol>
<b><b>Discover team strengths, weaknesses and opportunities: </b></b>Retrospectives are avenues for team members to discover what the team is doing well and where it can make improvements.</li>
<li><b>Raise the bar on their own performance:</b> Based on the strengths and weakness, Agile teams inspect and adapt, either improving their performance or adjusting to new situations they encounter in order to stay on course. </li>
<li><b>Prioritize problems that the team must address: </b>Teams usually identify multiple problems and areas of attention during the retrospective and then they narrow down what is most important for them to solve.</li>
<li><b>Solve difficult problems: </b>At times, the team identify a particular problem that needs to be solved without even going through the rigor of listing and prioritizing the problems. Teams deploy various problem solving techniques, such as root cause analysis or five whys, or even discussing the results of an A3 process together.</li>
<li><b>Review data, important trends: </b>Scrum Masters and others in the team may collect important data and trends for the team to review during the retrospective. The data can be anything related to the team's functioning, or related to an important issue that the team would like to resolve. Looking at the data together often produces new insights for all team members and helps finding the best way to resolve the problem.</li>
<li><b>Ask for organizational and leadership support:</b> Depending on the organization, some problems may be beyond the team's sphere of influence. By prioritizing and discussing possible solutions, the teams make a case for change that would impact them positively.</li>
<li><b>Cheer, appreciate, express gratitude:</b> Retrospectives can also be one of the forums to celebrate success on completion of a hard initiative, an effort or any activity that the team undertook. Teams utilize the retrospective to bond together and appreciate each others' strengths and contributions and thank each other for critical help in completing or making progress towards a goal. </li>
<li><b>Support each other: </b>A healthy team harnesses and extends ideas from its members. Retrospectives are an opportunity to strengthen some of the beliefs and the ideas that team members want to adopt. In that process the team members support each other and make progress on what they think is important.</li>
<li><b>Challenge each other: </b>Not only are the retrospectives meant for supporting ideas, they are also meant for challenging different ideas. Challenging different ideas helps the team narrow down to the one or few that the team wants to try. </li>
<li><b>Experiment:</b> Teams, Scrum Masters and facilitators to experiment with what they do in their retrospectives so they can amplify the value derived from the retrospectives. They can experiment and vary the format, agenda and results they want from the retrospective, or just use it to have a conversation to make changes that are needed. </li>
</ol>
Lastly, if you are doing Scrum please do not wait for a retrospective till the end of the sprint to have a conversation with your team.<br />
<br />
Related: <br />
<ul>
<li><div class="post-title">
<a href="http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/2012/05/30/goals-of-a-retrospective/">Goals of a Retrospective</a> </div>
</li>
<li><a href="http://retrospectivewiki.org/">Agile Retrospective Resource Wiki</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile/scrum/sprint-retrospective" target="_blank">Sprint retrospectives</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.funretrospectives.com/prime-directive/" target="_blank">Retrospectives: Prime directive </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.agilecandor.com/2015/10/theres-hope-usually.html" target="_blank">There's hope (usually!)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Retrospectives-Making-Teams-Great/dp/0977616649">Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great, by Esther Derby, Diana Larsen</a> </li>
</ul>
<h3 class="r">
</h3>
<ol>
</ol>
Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-56416632443035101292015-11-15T20:35:00.001-08:002015-11-15T20:35:37.157-08:00Rough notes: Misunderstood agile practices<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Let
us assume management and team have some experience with agile but they only
understand parts of it (such as iterative delivery, sprint ceremonies etc.).
Have you faced such situations? Which practice(s) and concept(s) did you strive
to adopt but were challenged? what tools did you use for influencing the
outcomes?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here are some highlights from a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/37631-6068041879511908355#commentID_6071873357291208704" target="_blank">LinkedIn discussion</a> I started about misunderstood agile practices.<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><br />
* In many "traditional" companies agile is seen as a new set of controls to get work done. Old roles are re-labeled.<br />
<br />
* Many companies think that they can purchase agile as product also if
they have few certified SM/PO on pay roll, company is agile.<br />
<br />
* Misconception: Equating testing with quality improvement. Quality needs to be designed in from the get go.<br />
<br />
* Try this: Making metrics visible. Nobody can argue with truths, and
the truth is a strong motivator of change in group dynamics.<br />
<br />
* Conducting honest retrospectives over many sprints is often neglected.<br />
<br />
* The biggest mistake that people make is thinking that Agile is a process, and if you do the process, you'll be successful.<br />
<br />
* Agile practices could be perfectly implemented but with inappropriate
mindset and intention, then practices perfectly implemented in physical
and visible shapes will all always be misunderstood.<br />
<br />
* Misunderstanding Being Agile vs. Doing Agile: Most people don’t
understand the difference between Being and Doing. Agile isn’t something
you do. It’s something you are.<br />
<br />
* Misunderstanding the proper amount of documentation needed. Reading
"Working software over Documentation and Processes" and forgetting the
final line of the manifesto, "Although we value the things on the right,
we value the things on the left more".<br />
<br />
* The problem is with the mindset. A mindset change is more difficult of
a change and involves coaching/training/teaching and importantly
discussions around what Agile is to the team/department/company.<br />
<br />
* Many chickens do not understand the "doing" vs "being" agile.<br />
<br />
* Misunderstanding: Many organizations associate agile with tools...like
"I am using Jira / Rally / TFS /(any other tool you can think of) and
still not able to get the benefits of agile. Looks like agile doesn't
work for us"!!!!<br />
<br />
* Transparency does not mean micromanagement.<br />
<br />
* Misunderstanding: Dysfunctional Waterfall is the same as Successful Waterfall.<br />
<br />
* Misunderstanding: If I cut my big traditional programme of x years
without any reliable progress indicator into small iterations, that I
can reasonable expect precise forecasts / commitments and then still get
all the benefits of agile.<br />
<br />
* Misunderstanding: Agile methodology is not suitable for products which take multiple years to build.<br />
<br />
* Misconception: "Agile is for those who are not disciplined enough for
processes", i.e. "You can improve Agile by introducing more rigid
processes."<br />
<br />
* Try this: Look at your dev / test / staging infrastructure and
automation around that. And your engineering skills and practices.<br />
<br />
* Misunderstanding: Scrum ceremonies often misunderstood and poorly
done, but yes Daily Standup especially. As it returns every day.<br />
<br />
* Misunderstanding: "We create user stories ñ try to complete them in two weeks" so we follow agile ...<br />
<br />
* Misunderstandings: Originally, there are things like "I can't break
down my work that small." Or "our testers are used to being at the end,
we can't include them in our current sprints." And the misconceptions
just move on down the line as you transform the teams.<br />
<br />
* Quote: Wisdom begins when we discover the difference between "That
makes no sense" and "I don't understand". --Mary Doria Russell<br />
<br />
* My favorite takeaway:<b> It is far better to move ahead with a wealth of
misconceptions and the personal and organizational intent to
continuously improve than to try and identify and correct the
misconceptions first.</b>Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-6923412886122682602015-11-08T19:56:00.000-08:002015-11-08T20:06:33.090-08:00Five agile concepts that managers should never ignore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOrYd1bjCuf7Vrj5BaT_vLuhkyjXz6SpFfy6GS_xdkJnR296tdKUZDPtuXx1j1kMt9PRNFpQpqtch5jTCVnfTIkPx-kf56FEREEFZ8GaKaYYqaVBBDBFj_0eC7T3WFMfgDR07ckh5sbb22/s1600/development-office-manager.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOrYd1bjCuf7Vrj5BaT_vLuhkyjXz6SpFfy6GS_xdkJnR296tdKUZDPtuXx1j1kMt9PRNFpQpqtch5jTCVnfTIkPx-kf56FEREEFZ8GaKaYYqaVBBDBFj_0eC7T3WFMfgDR07ckh5sbb22/s640/development-office-manager.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Having practiced agile for some years now, I keep running into situations where managers, with all their good intentions, either misinterpret or fail to understand or do not choose implement certain agile concepts due to various reasons. Although that provides them immediate relief the long term pain only aggravates impacting the outcomes, the team and the managers themselves in different ways that are usually not positive.<br />
<br />
Are you a manager? Below are five key concepts that you will hopefully find useful. <br />
<ol>
<li><b><span style="font-size: large;">Start right</span></b>, because if you don't you will put the entire project or initiative in jeopardy. Going through a short term pain or pressure is sometimes necessary if you wish to avoid long term problems with your project. Managing expectations is the key. If your voice is not being heard by higher ups, get help if you have to. It could be someone with more influence or someone with more experience or may be a mentor or a coach who can help you make a convincing argument and even argue on your behalf. Get your team to appreciate why starting right is important. Ally with them to build a convincing case on what works for you. </li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: large;">Adapt or Die</span></b>. If you don't learn from mistakes you will find it hard to survive. This is applicable for you not just as an individual but also for your team. The teams that do not learn from their mistakes and team members that do not learn from each other often run fire-drills as regular way of working. If they are using Scrum, you will often find symptoms such as planning more than what they can do, or ignoring yesterday's weather, and often pulling in new work when the planned work has not been completed yet. Others may abandon Scrum altogether and start using Kanban without applying WIP limits or even visualizing their workflow. Are you a leader of such a team or teams? Why do you think this is happening?</li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: large;">Be transparent</span></b>. At times there may seem to be a tendency and perhaps even an incentive not to disclose information higher up and letting them know what is really happening in your project. There could be many reasons for this situation, organization-created or self-created or just fabricated. When you look into the reasons, think about what is best for you, best for your team, best for your organization and best for the customer - ideally, all the four should have the same answer. If not, dive deeper and ask why is there a difference? Can you do something to remove the difference? If can't do anything about it, are you and your at the right place doing the right job?</li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Promote collaboration, simplicity and excellence</b></span>. Agile principles talk about collaboration, simplicity and emphasize technical excellence. The reason is that there is usually nothing more powerful than collaborating to deliver successful outcomes along with technical excellence, that motivates a strong development team. As a manager you carry a ton of influence and responsibility to make this happen.</li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: large;">Deliver customer value and team happiness</span></b>. You have demonstrated your success as a manager when your team is delivering functionality that makes customers happy, it is
building in quality into the product, and is proud of its accomplishments. Process may be important but it is not the goal </li>
</ol>
Good luck!Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-33725993308094846062015-10-20T11:58:00.003-07:002015-11-08T19:57:54.656-08:00How to increase team velocity? There is no silver bullet but you can try!<h3>
Ugh... That question again?</h3>
In a discussion forum I came across this comment that "Velocity is an awful term and one that is often weaponized like it has
been in this thread by asking how to get more. It's the wrong question
because the goal is to become predictable much more so than faster."<br />
<br />
I do not agree that velocity is an awful term, but I do agree that it is often misused (and even weaponized). If you intend to use velocity the right way, and are interested in using it as a tool to understand and improve your work outcomes, this post is dedicated to you. <br />
<br />
I would like to note that some of my friends are passionate about #noestimate. Whether you go that route or not, is your choice. The important thing is that is the team performing or worrying about numbers and metrics. If velocity discussions are weighing down the team, that is usually a sign of a different problem. <br />
<br />
As you go through this post, keep in mind that increasing velocity may
not be your real and only problem, and should definitely not be your
main goal.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWMQcGEp8fnw1GbAGPWTaUZCwY1qn9qk-2wrHyXjYSonrllIQ9JCnYxdUOAEynY7hypHn1GZGrP-nouTI4wpAK0Bu9ssdcwGT5PzPIz7mqpHxhh0VZo3CL1DmLKrYmlZLcRoHORf4skIAW/s1600/hammer-895665_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWMQcGEp8fnw1GbAGPWTaUZCwY1qn9qk-2wrHyXjYSonrllIQ9JCnYxdUOAEynY7hypHn1GZGrP-nouTI4wpAK0Bu9ssdcwGT5PzPIz7mqpHxhh0VZo3CL1DmLKrYmlZLcRoHORf4skIAW/s640/hammer-895665_1920.jpg" width="640" /> </a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<h4>
Addressing the "Real Slim Shady"... </h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">If you want to address the issue genuinely please understand there is never really an end. </span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">If the team is rapidly delivering
customer value, communicating well and learning from its experience you
may only have limited leverage on what the team itself can do. The team may need support from its ecosystem to take it to the next level. At the same time there will still certainly be things that can team can do to make improvements. and is improving velocity the end goal? Or is it delivering customer value rapidly?</span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Lets address that.</span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h4>
<h4>
Step 1. Who is asking?</h4>
Before you go any further it is important to understand who wants to increase the velocity. Many a times someone higher up in the food chain may want to know how you will improve the velocity. It may also be a software developer on the team, the whole team, the product owner or the scrum-master (is that you?) who is interested. Or it may be a stakeholder, project sponsor or anyone else as well. Understanding who is concerned about improvement in team's velocity can help you in several ways in the steps that follow.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Step 2. Why are they asking - their motivation?</h4>
Before you jump into a solution, identify why they are asking the team to increase its velocity. What's in it for them (who want the team to improve)? As you dig deep into the reason for asking, you will likely discover the intent (good, bad, helpful, unhelpful) of the person asking the question. You will become sensitive to their needs and discover their situation. Are they interested in improving communications and flow of value or do they have a personal gain in mind by highlighting the problem? Answering why will help not just with framing the response better but also with taking more informed actions. Whatever the reason is, think about how that can help you drive improvements.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Step 3. Draw insights - Where are the problems, what are the solutions?</h4>
Based on your study of your context, would it be fair to say there are potential opportunities for improvement? Where could the team do better?<br />
<br />
Imagine a team delivering really really fast but the customers are not responding favorably. Could it be lack of quality or delivery of functionality that customers do not need? In either case, increasing velocity may not be the best solution. We need to think smarter.<br />
<br />
Try these questions first: <br />
<ol>
<li>Is the team delivering new features and improvements frequently? </li>
<li>How are customers reacting to the product deliveries and latest features? </li>
<li>Is the team generally enjoying their work and having fun?</li>
</ol>
<br />
If you spot problems while answering these questions, search deeper. Here are just a few examples of what you could explore.<br />
<br />
<h4>
People: </h4>
<ul>
<li>Do measures such as velocity drive positive behaviors in your organization? If not what can be done to fix that situation?</li>
<li>Are the roles well defined? Is there sufficient empowerment? Are the roles of PO, SM and Development team clearly understood?</li>
<li>How is communication between the team members? </li>
<li>How strong is the leadership for your team, project and the organization?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<h4>
Process questions: </h4>
<ul>
<li>How do you assess progress towards an important goal? Do you have an objective method?</li>
<li>Are team members working on multiple diverging goals and functionalities and have high work in progress?</li>
<li>How are releases managed and rolled out - small chunks or big rocks?</li>
<li>What is the team doing to continuously learn from its journey?</li>
<li>How are (Scrum) meetings running?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<h4>
Technology questions:</h4>
<ul>
<li>How is the team doing on the account of technical debt?</li>
<li>Is there sufficient test automation and continuous integration?</li>
<li>How is your quality? Do you have a huge bug backlog?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
Draw insights together with the entire team to
understand all perspectives and see what can be done. Dig into the backlog, measurements that the team thinks are relevant, such as velocity, cycle time, defect trends, automation, build failure rate etc. Looking for problems, and asking why over and over again, should give
you new insights on what can be done.<br />
<br />
Shortlist a few experiments to try out.<br />
<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Step 4. Sell, Try, Feedback, Repeat (Go to step 1)! </h4>
As you go through this exercise, you may come up with a range of solution(s). Some solutions may require senior management intervention, others may need more involvement from the team.<br />
Now it is time to channel the conversations around the solutions, convince the stakeholders to try them out. Clarify how you will be reviewing the outcome - set a time-frame for that. Try the solution and get more feedback! You may have to repeat this several times, to continually get the results you are hoping for (including but not limited to an improved velocity, as that may not be the real goal you are after).<br />
<br />
<br />
Good luck!Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-6791185560449493672015-10-14T22:14:00.000-07:002015-10-14T23:36:30.574-07:00There's hope (usually!)...Imagine things are going completely out of control; ownership and accountability are minimal; there is little willingness to collaborate and not enough leadership to make it happen. You are down with dismay and disbelief at how things are going... feeling blue and nothing seems to move despite your best effort? Imagine yourself stuck in the moment unable to get out! <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj099CPvqwGuJlpAtmFY91_SthyphenhyphenCzXIym5EkrKvMtWG3gmEUZOXC-7VwcHpJHRy8N1-JLk-wiZiEDk_R-rQ-bzdEnOfc9DIUVuitZRTAm7BHGLZ2lw-aUMTcEo5IYNmOVAd2M8Dj0lSrPRm/s1600/sadness-513527_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj099CPvqwGuJlpAtmFY91_SthyphenhyphenCzXIym5EkrKvMtWG3gmEUZOXC-7VwcHpJHRy8N1-JLk-wiZiEDk_R-rQ-bzdEnOfc9DIUVuitZRTAm7BHGLZ2lw-aUMTcEo5IYNmOVAd2M8Dj0lSrPRm/s640/sadness-513527_1920.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Damn.. we wish never to be confronted with a situation like that. Nevertheless stuff happens, at times all we can do is think, and think hard what we should do but answers don't come easy or fast. How can we help change the situation for the better? That is the agile mindset isn't it - inspect and adapt until we find an answer?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiDnBQaLdwdHiYqsnjinBj0ukmPc4haJwaWYDVGnTkYQ_hoo56UmKvhR5Et-uQkFiLUBiIc05A1oH5uS87p0H_ccFACm-FOEchShZ90S4LL8o0Vs1Ra7gZIVqhlfJFUKOzKJgu0af-EOwd/s1600/directory-466935_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiDnBQaLdwdHiYqsnjinBj0ukmPc4haJwaWYDVGnTkYQ_hoo56UmKvhR5Et-uQkFiLUBiIc05A1oH5uS87p0H_ccFACm-FOEchShZ90S4LL8o0Vs1Ra7gZIVqhlfJFUKOzKJgu0af-EOwd/s640/directory-466935_1280.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3>
What to do?</h3>
<h3>
Should you stay hopeful or quit in despair!? </h3>
I hate to say it, quitting could be an option if you are desperate. It could work in the short term and give you relief, but what would you achieve, what would you solve by quitting? Why not let someone else deal with the mess? Quitting is usually the easy way out, though not always the best.<br />
<br />
Why should you care? Before you decide whether to quit or to persevere, try answering these questions:<br />
<ul>
<li>Would you learn something new that would prepare you for even greater challenges if you continued to persist instead of quitting?</li>
<li>Would you get a similar opportunity again... an opportunity to be a part of the solution to a very big or complex problem? </li>
<li>Could this be an avenue for you develop and practicing your skills in a particular area that you really want to learn?</li>
<li>How will the decision impact the organization that you work for, and your colleagues? </li>
<li>What will make you happy? What about your family and your friends? </li>
</ul>
I think: <br />
<ul>
<li>If you are a kind of person who gets a kick out of bringing positive changes, you will likely enjoy persisting. Things usually change, and although they sometimes change for the worse, but they usually (eventually) change for the better. </li>
<li>If you enjoy learning, you will likely want to try and persist longer. You will also try to experiment with options you have not tried before and there is god chance you will succeed when others see value.. and they eventually will.</li>
<li>If you are very competitive (and perhaps driven by how fast you rise in your career charts!), you will likely calculate the risk/reward possibility around your situation and decide accordingly.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
In short...</h3>
Whatever you do depends a lot on your situation, and the kind of challenges you are built for as a person - your strengths, weaknesses, values and motivations. Give it a thought, introspect a little and make your choice. Good luck!Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-48832127520738020822015-05-30T12:24:00.003-07:002015-05-31T01:23:24.833-07:00So, why plan? A note to self..<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/53266423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/53266423.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Would life be easier if we did not have to think about planning? Let's face it, whether it is about running our day to day routine or even something as simple as paying a visit to the neighborhood grocery store there is planning involved. Imagine taking a vacation without planning where you will go, what you will do while you are there, how long will stay and what you need to bring with you. Or imagine not thinking about how much you need to earn, to save and to invest to meet your worldly needs.. Well lets just keep those worries aside for a few minutes shall we and think about how planning can actually help! Yes that's right, no matter how much burdensome it might sound, <i>planning can help</i>.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>What is planning?</b></h3>
The simplest definition of planning that I have come across is "decide on and arrange in advance". I like this because this definition is light, it does not say how much detail we need to plan in, but an important thing that it does say is that planning happens in advance.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>Why plan? </b></h3>
There are many reasons why we plan. Our limited information about the future and vision of what we want to do with that information in order to achieve a specific objective gives us an opportunity to play with creative alternatives and paths to get there. Applying constraints helps us narrow down our search of solutions, breaking them down into chunks or steps that are (hopefully) easy to understand and sequence as necessary. When steps and solutions are not known we put on our experimentation hats and navigate our way to discovering the possibilities. <br />
<br />
<h3>
Use the plan as a defense strategy</h3>
So what should I tell my teams when they get planning? What are the things I need to keep in mind but don't come easy, specially with Scrum? In my note to self, I include the following.<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Plan just in time, and just enough.. </h4>
Plan early but not too early. Have a high level roadmap that (can change and) tells the team the path we will take if things went all-right. Planning too much too soon could mean a lot of wasted effort and repetition. Planning too little could mean little predictability in outcomes for initiatives that span multiple sprints. So lets groom our backlog stories and have them ready for a few (may be two to four) sprints to come. Lets find that right balance for our team where Sprint planning sessions do not become painful and burdensome.<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Plan based on data.. </h4>
More often than note, teams are asked to meet an "aggressive targets". In other words, there is a huge tendency to ask for deliveries tied to dates without understanding scope and effort involved. These dates are usually based on business constraints and are tight (more often than not). So, organizations and teams find themselves in situations where teams are unable to deliver as some say - "on time" and "within budget". Lets avoid that for our team through scientific and consistent use of measures such as velocity and cycle time. Lets make forecasts based on data so that business understands our non-trivial effort and can make realistic, prudent decisions on scope and priority.<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Maintain discipline, Estimate or #NoEstimate..</h4>
There is much debate on whether to do estimates or not. What seems more important to me than that debate is to agree on an approach that works for our team and for your organization and follow it with discipline. When we estimate, lets spend little time estimating, after all estimates do not produce value for customer, working software hopefully does. Estimates are just that - "estimates", they are "not actuals".<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
High priority, High risk first..</h4>
What should the team work on first and what should it work on later? There are multiple factors that decide this, chief among them are dependencies, customer feedback and risk. The product owner plays an important role balancing all aspects while deciding the order so that team delivers value while making continuous progress. So lets keep in mind the problem we are trying to solve, and order our backlog on the basis of that. Lets identify those things that are not clear and run spikes. Lets reduce the risk early as early as we can, so that we do not embarrass ourselves in front of our stakeholders and customers when the time comes.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Minimize hand-offs, eliminate technical debt..</h4>
Lots of times, teams work with other teams to deliver an experience or functionality. Many times this needs dependency management, and back and forth discussions. This can lead to side effects such as reduced velocity, need for additional testing to retain quality, development of interfaces and/or APIs etc. When we get into such situations, lets find out if we can minimize dependencies through techniques like creating mockups, and integrate early and often. Let us ferociously automate testing and deployment (at all levels) so that we can identify and resolve issues quickly.<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Plan often and monitor, welcome change..</h4>
Lastly, should planning be <i>one time</i>? Absolutely not! The team should be ready to embrace change as they get better insights into customer needs and potential solutions. Lets dispassionately accept new stories, reject old ones that are no longer useful and update ones that need to be updated. Once again, an active Product owner and Team partnership can make a big difference. It is not as important to stick to the initial plan as it is to fulfill needs of the customers.<br />
<br />Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-52557766459527386832015-02-27T23:11:00.001-08:002015-05-31T01:24:47.951-07:00Want to be a Scrum Master - What is your motivation?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cdn.meme.am/instances/41348574.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.meme.am/instances/41348574.jpg" height="234" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Thinking </b>about being a Scrum Master? Have you thought about:<br />
1. What is your motivation and do you think you are the right fit?<br />
2. Would you like it to be a career choice?<br />
3. What is in it for you? Is this role really attractive for you? What kind of growth are you looking for?<br />
4. What does this role mean to your organization?<br />
<br />
If you have thought about any of these questions and chose to be a scrum master, you are among the few scrum masters I have come across, who had the chance to do so.
<br />
<br />
In many cases I have come across, being a scrum master has been a matter of chance, many times imposed, rather than a matter of choice. To me that is an indication of how much (lack of) thought we devote into our role in a team setting as we probably should. As a result, we have multiple cases of job done badly, the role being viewed as "just" an administrative role, or something so easy that "anyone" can do, etc.<br />
<br />
Here I list a few things to think about when you are contemplating this role for yourself.<br />
<br />
1. <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Start </b></span>with motivation. Ask yourself why you want to be the scrum master, and what do you think you will achieve through that role. If you are a good scrum master, your services will be rewarded through your team's successes (or fast-fails, which should also be considered as successes). Highly successful teams will shine and through them, you will shine. Be aware that scrum master is only as strong as the team, so the primary job of the scrum master is to build a strong, learning team and actively sense and remove impediments that come its way.<br />
<br />
2. <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Proud and Happy </b></span>Teams - Do you love that? Will you make it your mission to make your teams proud of the work they do and how they do it, so they can predictably meet their commitments to business, deliver quality output keeping technical debt under check? If you answered these questions as yes, you get full marks!<br />
<br />
3. Are you looking for <span style="font-size: large;"><b>glory </b></span>for yourself or for the team(s) that you will serve? Can you be self-less in victory of your team's success, will you let them take the credit and can you teach them to learn from failures? Will your organization reward you if you served selflessly? Will your manager understand? If your answer to these questions is yes, you have hope.<br />
<br />
4. Do you <span style="font-size: large;"><b>understand </b></span>Agile manifesto, Agile principles and do you subscribe to XP values of simplicity, communication, feedback, respect and Courage? If you answered yes, think again. If you answered yes again (and again), think about situations that could get you in trouble with stakeholders, management, and even the team that you might be serving. Would you be able to manage expectations and still help the teams succeed? Yes means you are in business!<br />
<br />
5. Are you ready to <span style="font-size: large;"><b>learn, unlearn and learn again</b></span>? Different situations require different responses and solutions. Are you willing to experiment with different approaches, solutions and options with different team members, different teams, different projects, and different managers? Are you willing to engage with your audience and fail-fast, take responsibility for your team's decisions, actions and results (god or bad, specially bad ones)? Are you willing to be open, positively debate with your team, take responsibility of (poor) team decisions even if you disagreed with the team before the decision was made? Yes indicates you have it in you to be a great scrum master.<br />
<br />
6. How does your <span style="font-size: large;"><b>organization</b> </span>view the role of a scrum master? Does it recognize this function as requiring special skills, training and coaching or is there a tendency that Scrum Master is a side-job that anyone with little time can do? If your organization recognizes the importance of this job, you are in luck and the probability of your success will increase dramatically! If it does not recognize it this way, your hard work, diligence and success will surely influence the organization, do not lose hope.<br />
<br />
Bottom line, if you want to be a good Scrum Master, wear your servant-leader hat, be well grounded and open to learn, and experiment your way to success.Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-47422719597746567392013-07-22T15:38:00.000-07:002013-07-30T21:32:46.809-07:00Can Agile Principles Help Run Successful Programs?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
article was first <a href="http://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2013/july/can-agile-principles-help-run-successful-programs.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">published by Scrum Alliance</span></a> on July 22,
2013.</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
During the last few years, my view of how programs work has evolved. It has
moved from viewing program management as traditional "old-school"
handling of multiple projects and product portfolios (dry and boring) to seeing
program management as a key to ensuring organization success that aligns the
organization with its vision, strategy, and innovation. I think of program
management as a crucial tool that makes an organization successful by pointing
its entire energy and focus toward its most important initiatives and
fulfilling its promise to customers, shareholders, and employees.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why
do organizations need programs?</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Programs
are a group of projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and
control not available from managing them individually," according to PMI.
What do organizations have to gain by investing in coordinating and controlling
multiple projects as a program? This is similar to asking what value program
management brings to an organization.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
quick search on Google reveals various links on the topic. An </span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-program-management-4817.html"><span style="color: #ff6319; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">article</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> at chron.com lists the
following: comprehensive view, work toward strategic goals, consistency, cost
savings. An </span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.ehow.com/list_6561766_benefits-program-management_.html"><span style="color: #ff6319; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">article</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> at eHow.com lists
supervision, organization, budgeting, funding, accountability, and delegation.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Program
managers shepherd different teams and projects in the organization toward a
common objective. These teams sometimes have different internal
priorities, which can impact when and how they deliver their part of the
program. Program managers help surface these issues and facilitate much-needed
conversation around issues, risks, and mitigation to achieve a higher-level
organizational goal (or a set of goals).</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style=" background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Streamlining
various lines of work within the organization can translate into several
financial and nonfinancial benefits, such as revenue generation through on-time
market launches, avoided or reduced opportunity costs, reduced operational
costs, higher customer goodwill and revenue retention, transparency, and even
better employee engagement.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Simple
or complex?</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
are many factors that make programs simple or complex to execute, such as:</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Number of projects</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dependencies</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Size of project teams</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Resource
availability/capacity</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Prioritization
of the initiative</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Degree
to which roles and responsibilities of project teams are well defined</span><span style=" font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=" font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Communication
flows between project teams that require less coordination</span><span style=" font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=" font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Processes
followed by project teams</span><span style=" font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=" font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Degree
of transparency between the teams</span><span style=" font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=" font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Silos
within the organization</span><span style=" font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
world of strategic program management is usually complex. Simple programs are
hard to find, unless you are a small organization with a tightly knit set of
teams and only one or two objectives to work on. The reality is that things
start becoming complex even in small or midsized organizations when there are
multiple issues at play.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How
does complexity impact programs?</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As
organizations grow in size, they usually spread their operations, increase the
number of their product offerings, try to become more cost efficient, and
create specialized units for different functional areas (marketing, finance,
sales, legal, engineering, technical operations, customer support and service,
business intelligence, etc.). This suggests that organizations should pay attention
to their most important goals while structuring their programs. That can be
difficult, as different functional groups of the organization may be working on
multiple priorities that might be competing with each other.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style=" background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How
do Agile principles help in dealing with complexity?</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<a href="http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html"><span style="color: #ff6319; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Principles</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> laid down along with the Agile Manifesto
can be useful in addressing issues related to complexity of programs. Even
though these principles are heavily colored with nuances of software
development, they can be applied in addressing issues related to complex
program management:</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early
and continuous delivery of valuable software.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Organizations usually have a strategy that is
supposed to convey to its employees what is most important for its success in
the coming period. This strategy usually includes what the leadership sees as
most valuable to its customers. Organizations that manage successful programs
are able to prioritize those programs as per their strategy and focus their
energy into those initiatives that are most important to their customers.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We welcome changing requirements, even late in development.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Agile processes harness
change for the customer's competitive advantage: Just as with software
development teams using the Agile process, it is desirable that the rest of the
teams are attuned to changing market conditions or new insights (whether external
or internal to the organization) that might require the product or a service to
take a different direction than initially conceived. If all teams are receptive
to change, there is a greater chance that the needs of customers will remain
the central focus.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We deliver working software frequently, from every couple of
weeks to every couple of months, with a preference for the shorter timescale.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Just as Agile software
development teams manage their work, such as working on small chunks, it makes
sense for program teams to show off their work in short cycles so that the rest
of the organization knows how the entire effort is progressing. Examples
include iterations on sales and marketing strategy by the sales and marketing
teams, iterations on customer communication/rollout planning by relevant teams,
iterations on a new product or major functionality by the development teams.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Businesspeople and developers must work together daily
throughout the project.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> There is great value in understanding the business
perspective while building software. The same is true for other functional
groups within the organization, who may not be as involved in building the
software as they are in maintaining it. If the development itself is
complicated and there are multiple development teams involved, it becomes even
more important to keep everyone aligned with business expectations so that the
program progresses in the right direction.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">5.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We build projects around motivated individuals.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Give them the
environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done: All
teams involved in a strategic initiative need to be motivated to deliver as per
customer needs. If the environment encourages favoritism instead of making decisions
based on merit, there are chances that everyone will not give their best to
fulfill the goal of the program, likely impacting it adversely.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">6.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The most efficient and effective method of conveying
information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Face-to-face
communication impacts teams' effectiveness by helping them build rapport and
find solutions to bottlenecks and problems quickly. This is true for programs,
even though it is much simpler to institutionalize daily face-to-face
communication for a co-located team of five to seven people who are
working on a single objective. While this is true, program teams should
synchronize as often as they can and use technology to fill the gaps if they
are not co-located.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">7.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Working software is the primary measure of progress.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> This principle is most
useful in complicated projects involving multiple software development teams.
Even when other nondevelopment teams are involved in a program, software
development is often on the critical path, and that is often where most of the
costs are incurred. So it makes sense to measure and track the progress made on
working software. Likewise, program teams should measure and track progress of
other non-software development deliverables that are required for readiness to
deliver the product or service to the end users (launch readiness).</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">8.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Agile processes promote sustainable development.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The sponsors,
developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
From the program management perspective, all teams should maintain and deliver
at a pace based on the work needed to satisfy the program objective. In many
situations, one team might start its work after another team has delivered. For
example, the team in charge of invoicing may only be able to update the
boilerplate of a product after that product is ready and the legal team has
delivered the boilerplate to them. Dependencies such as this need to be tackled
by program managers, along with the teams, when planning cross-team programs. When
program management is sustainable, dependencies surface regularly and are
addressed routinely -- kind of like the way it works within a small Scrum
team, where those dependencies surface and are resolved on a daily
basis.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">9.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
enhances agility.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> There
is a balance between doing the right things and doing things right. When in a
rush, teams may be tempted to cut corners in order to deliver on time.
Sometimes this tendency might be driven by a business need that cannot be
overruled, and teams are forced to take shortcuts. When this happens, teams
must identify and track this as debt that they need to repay at a later stage
(sooner is better, as with any debt that incurs an interest cost). Repaying debt
regularly and doing things right ensures that the team does not slow down (or
become bankrupt!).</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">10.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Simplicity -- the art of maximizing the amount of work not
done -- is essential.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Even
in case of complex programs, organizations should strive for simplicity. Transparency
and visibility are needed in order to create simplicity and maintain the flow
of work between teams.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">11.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from
self-organizing teams.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Agile encourages self-organization, which can be useful
when managing programs. For multiple teams, this starts to happen when the
each team is considered a unit and the overarching program team is considered
the team that needs to reorganize. This is a question of mind-set and is in
some ways easier to understand in case of small teams. When multiple teams are
involved and each of them has slightly different (at times divergent) goals,
self-organization can be difficult to achieve. That is where transparency,
prioritization, and visibility of organizational objectives to all teams are
useful.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">12.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more
effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Inspecting and adapting
at regular intervals is necessary to re-enforce good practices and make improvements.
Agile encourages teams to practice self-sustained introspection and
retrospectives. This is an important tool for program teams to review and use
to fine-tune their practices for long-term success.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<b>Summary</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style=" background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Agile </span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html"><span style="color: #ff6319; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">principles</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, though exhibiting an overlay of software
development influences, can be valuable for managing programs involving
multiple teams from diverse functional groups.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
</h2>
</div>
Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0Santa Barbara, CA, USA34.4208305 -119.6981901000000334.211274 -120.02091360000003 34.630387 -119.37546660000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-54739879889789704292012-02-19T21:10:00.001-08:002013-06-02T18:20:24.695-07:00Goldtaking Notes - Sustainable Pace, Agile India 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here are the audience notes from the GoldTaking Exercise done at Agile India 2012 during the session on "<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60636068/AgileIndia2012Presentation.pdf" target="_blank">Slowing down to speed up: Encouraging sustainable pace in teams</a>" on 19-Feb-2012.<br />
<br />
Final slides are <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60636068/AgileIndia2012Presentation.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
Video from the session:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/LgvnhuyCYuc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<u><b>Group 1: How to motivate team to deliver at sustainable pace</b></u><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Acknowledge the achievements</li>
<li>Environment, open culture, celebrate success</li>
<li>When things go wrong, personal attacks should be avoided. Learn to internalize and change</li>
<li>Celebrate with connection to purpose of work</li>
<li>Try adn figure out why team is demoralized and plug the issues</li>
<li>Understand the mindset of individuals to understand their de-motivators or motivators. It is possible that coaching will vary from person to person</li>
<li>Make team members feel safe and secure to out of demotivation</li>
<li>It is good to make mistakes but learn from them. Difference between personal and professional.</li>
<li>Over-pampering should be avoided. Put up facts, and be straight-forward</li>
<li>Like volleyball, coach should ask for timeouts if required</li>
<li> Practice and preach respect between team members, gain trust</li>
<li>Challenge team on collective ownership</li>
<li>Team building</li>
</ol>
<u><b>Group 2: Tackling Management Interference at Sprint Planning</b></u><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Do not over-commit</li>
<li>Rely on velocity and capacity for committing work</li>
<li>Scrum Master should facilitate planning and protect team</li>
<li>There can be client interference causing pressure on management</li>
<li>There is need to adopt new work culture of Agile</li>
<li>Lack of clear acceptance criteria upfront during planning</li>
<li>Make sure all the stakeholders attend the sprint planning meeting</li>
<li>Re-prioritizing of Product backlog by PMs causes disruptions</li>
<li>Lack of trust: PM should not commit on behalf of the team at/outside Sprint Planning</li>
<li>Development overflows beyond one sprint</li>
<ol>
<li>Plan in a way that this does not happen</li>
<li>Estimate for less, specially when team members are shared</li>
</ol>
<li>(Only as much as possible) Accurately estimate/predict the team velocity to know the number of points to take this current sprint</li>
<li>Under-commit but over-achieve</li>
<li>What should happen if more points need to be delivered to client than what the team can deliver?</li>
<ol>
<li>If the team cannot deliver the points, then team should say "no"</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<u><b>Group 3: Motivation</b></u><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Leaders have to trust. Sustainable pace is a good way of building trust</li>
<li>Dan Pink -> Motivation</li>
<li>Do you buy into the company objective -> Helps motivate people</li>
<li>Behavior that is appreciated, gets respected</li>
<li>Stretch goals can help people grow fast</li>
<li>Individuals knowing how they are contributing to the bigger picture</li>
<li>Exposure to customers: Know about Customer's needs and vision</li>
<li>If team values opinion you feel you matter, need to be noticed</li>
<li>Appreciation of individuals from external sources over appreciation of teams may demotivate others on the team</li>
<ol>
<li>If the recipient appreciates the team that may help</li>
</ol>
<li>Team finds ways to appreciate/motivate high performers so perhaps no external appreciations needed!?</li>
<li>Transparency at all levels is a pre-requisite for motivation</li>
<li>Recognize team contribution</li>
</ol>
<u><b>Group 4: Ad-Hoc to sustainable pace </b></u><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Experience: Last minute checkins, Slack and work inflow reduction after release</li>
<li><b>Burned down before release, then next sprint gets off to slow-start</b></li>
<li>Why this big-effort before the release? May be things were not really done!</li>
<li>Expectations to go faster than you really can go, causes the problem</li>
<li><b>Management push</b></li>
<ol>
<li>Educate Manager? No, that addresses just one problem</li>
<li>You are actually not done if that happens</li>
<li>Provide dates to managers that shows the real pace and use that as a basis for planning </li>
</ol>
<li><b>Improve effectiveness</b></li>
<ol>
<li>Non-value added requirements, for example paperwork. Have someone else do it - hire a clerk!</li>
<li>Identify activities that are taking time and see if they can be reduced to save time</li>
<li>Use CI and increased automation to release more often</li>
</ol>
<li>Use scrum prioritization to make hard and real prioritization</li>
<li>Avoid "Goldplating" - over-engineering</li>
<li>Zero defects to make sure it is really done</li>
<li>Piling up work to test at the end of sprint is risky</li>
<li><b>Argument about ability to swarm around stories. Some have seen it happen, some have not</b><b> </b></li>
<li><b>Positive experience with testers collaborating with developers (pair) from start. Done=> All test cases targeted => Done</b></li>
<li>How much time to finish a story?<b> </b>3 days on average, some have minimum 3 days of dev. effort.</li>
<li><b>Tester writes test cases. Developers start developing at the same time they get the test cases</b></li>
</ol>
</div>Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-86045926195532149672011-12-16T22:18:00.000-08:002015-02-28T01:51:30.291-08:00Agile India 2012: Slowing down to Speed up: Encouraging sustainable pace in teams<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Agile India 2012: <a href="http://submit2012india.agilealliance.org/node/8962" target="_blank">Slowing down to Speed up: Encouraging sustainable pace in teams</a><br />
<br />
Find the final presentation <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60636068/AgileIndia2012Presentation.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Here is the description:</b><br />
<br />
We would like solutions delivered fast without compromising quality,
user experience, implicit requirements and non-functional aspects such
as scalability and performance. This would have been easier, if we had
all the time in the universe. Doing this in a sustainable manner becomes
a huge challenge for teams as there are multiple competing forces at
play and because software development is very complex.<br />
Coaches & Practitioners, participate in this workshop and leave
with thoughts that will help your teams adopt and practice sustainable
pace, and delight your customers over and over again.<br />
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-processmechanics">
<div class="field-label">
</div>
<div class="field-label">
<b>Process/Mechanics</b></div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item">
Introduction to the topic, understanding participant expectations - 10 minutes<br />
Achieving sustainable pace - 20 minutes<br />
Workshop briefing and topic selection - 10 minutes : Participants will propose and select topics for deeper discussions
Workshop - 30 minutes : <i>Goldtaking (The “Goldtaking” format was
introduced by Jan-Erik Sandberg and Lars Skaar at Agile2008 and is a
variation of the open space format)</i><br />
Workshop debrief and discussion - 20 minutes </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-learning-outcomes">
<div class="field-label">
</div>
<div class="field-label">
<b>Learning outcomes</b></div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item">
</div>
<div class="field-item" style="text-align: left;">
In a highly competitive world, delighting customers is no
longer optional. Steve Denning, in his book “The Leader’s Guide to
Radical Management”), mentions that the goal of an organization is <b>“Customer Delight”</b>,
as opposed to making money for its shareholders. Going by this goal in
mind, we will examine how we can use Agile as a means to make our teams
and organizations successful.</div>
<div class="field-item">
</div>
<div class="field-item">
During this workshop, we will explore:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Sustainable pace - Importance and challenges:</b> </li>
<li><i>How does it result in customer delight?</i></li>
<li><i>How agile values are challenged without sustainable pace?</i></li>
<li><i>What
prevents us in delivering at a sustainable pace? (such as competitive
surroundings, culture, organization structure, conflicting priorities,
old habits, antiquated tools, technical debt)</i></li>
<li><b>How can we coach teams towards sustainable pace?:</b></li>
<li><i>Self realization</i></li>
<li><i>Importance of contextual information</i></li>
<li><i>Understanding and responding to Force fields</i></li>
<li><i>Challenging status quo: Stakeholder alignment and participation</i></li>
<li><i>Building your team into Agile craftsmen, and not Agile mechanics</i></li>
<li><i>Using Data as a vehicle for change</i></li>
<li><i>Inspecting and adapting</i></li>
<li><i>Continued engagement</i></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0Bengaluru, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.594562712.724026199999999 77.2787057 13.2191712 77.910419699999991tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-52557712611083206482011-09-02T22:39:00.000-07:002015-02-28T01:52:05.212-08:00Agile Coaching and Mentoring: Agile India 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Submissions to the stage can be made by creating an account at:
<br />
http://submit2012india.agilealliance.org/
<br />
<br />
“As Agile becomes main-stream, the values laid down by the Agile Manifesto are continuously challenged in different ways during its adoption in different situations. Great coaches help teams and organizations in facing and overcoming these challenges through various learning techniques, so that the issues can be handled effectively. Coaches help teams and organizations embrace agile in its true spirit in order to maximize value that is delivered to the customer.
<br />
<br />
The Coaching stage presents sessions for people who want to help teams become better at agile software development. We are seeking interactive sessions that explore practical techniques a coach can use with teams. We also want to hear stories from experienced coaches that sharing insights into what works and what to avoid.
<br />
<br />
As an agile coach and mentor, you will learn about skills and techniques needed to improve team effectiveness so that you can guide your teams towards unleashing their true potential. As an agile team member, you will get a better understanding of different perspectives and techniques for improving team dynamics and create a better work environment. This stage will have multiple sessions, potentially including experience reports, tutorials, talks, workshops and research papers. Through these sessions Coaches, Mentors, Leaders and Team members will enhance their existing toolset and return with real life examples and thought leadership in this area. With these insights, they will be in a better position to apply this knowledge and get great results for their situation.
<br />
<br />
This stage will cover the following:
<br />
• Coaching and Mentoring skills and techniques
<br />
• Coaching challenges with people and technology
<br />
• Helping teams discover and deal with team dysfunctions
<br />
• Coaching in different situations (product development, IT services, consulting, distributed teams, new and mature teams, large and small teams etc.)
<br />
• Coaching for the enterprise
<br />
<br />
Come and learn techniques, listen to the experience of other coaches, and see how you can better support teams in their Agile journey.”
<br />
================================
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Coaches Corner</span>
<br />
A space for conference participants to freely interact and mingle with Coaches. We will invite Coaches to sign up for this before and at the conference and coordinate with the Open Jam stage.
<br />
================================
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Opportunities to contribute:</span>
<br />
- Contributing to Coaches Corner (sign up to be a coach on call or when convenient during the event)
<br />
- Help the stage evolve (by signing up to update your ideas on the Titan Pad created for the stage: http://agile2012india.titanpad.com/2 )
<br />
- <a href="http://submit2012india.agilealliance.org/">Submitting for the stage</a> (http://submit2012india.agilealliance.org/)
<br />
- If you would like to be a reviewer, let me know</div>
Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-44929258097361253282010-11-30T08:46:00.000-08:002014-11-09T07:35:56.375-08:00Agile or Waterfall? That is the question<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKHnrf90sEQ7MEwBOqAbxkLhWJzI-Zu-x1k_nehqPJj66CTCpIi2d6LP6dVcrLkBaiuGZ-77ldgQdoRjwTcbulp7r8aQ0QAqvRpJG2VrUYGgdbc6KX7tWGh4S9kKeoltZr8J8OUjV-Y5K/s1600/DSCN0790.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545417007114046370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKHnrf90sEQ7MEwBOqAbxkLhWJzI-Zu-x1k_nehqPJj66CTCpIi2d6LP6dVcrLkBaiuGZ-77ldgQdoRjwTcbulp7r8aQ0QAqvRpJG2VrUYGgdbc6KX7tWGh4S9kKeoltZr8J8OUjV-Y5K/s200/DSCN0790.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 100px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii8P03HOCEGezM9DySXKlzPJ835_fPvBKsnj3NZUpTU1zkfGunSt363RZVvNTCi4QgZGVGWOGWlrsvs6gvgI9MKYxIJyJUt0FBYA1Wk2q0g_obV7NquEPK-uyBBGtO02q3Eii53N6X243F/s1600/DSCN0777.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545417002607349938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii8P03HOCEGezM9DySXKlzPJ835_fPvBKsnj3NZUpTU1zkfGunSt363RZVvNTCi4QgZGVGWOGWlrsvs6gvgI9MKYxIJyJUt0FBYA1Wk2q0g_obV7NquEPK-uyBBGtO02q3Eii53N6X243F/s200/DSCN0777.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 112px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSQ7tAk8j-MBpsz4a8M6u0PPhMVQwK0Ah3zRD7buVpE8x9JEtogUWt1xYa7SzwiMmHgiPfJcK20rBve5P8UuhDr9yJmlgr82x_mIRPyjkRqNMf-MQhq1edeRKpfIN5Emjas-4epTCbhl3m/s1600/DSCN0766.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545416994305792098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSQ7tAk8j-MBpsz4a8M6u0PPhMVQwK0Ah3zRD7buVpE8x9JEtogUWt1xYa7SzwiMmHgiPfJcK20rBve5P8UuhDr9yJmlgr82x_mIRPyjkRqNMf-MQhq1edeRKpfIN5Emjas-4epTCbhl3m/s200/DSCN0766.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 192px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHb6_2EBJKBWNh-kdLMsSq9IljPI8UEPKbSaUXtY_ouUEjJDIf_5jji3gqeMs7hf5NaTz3utlq0SlegjQR2ZkSReW9Q2XLGvTaLJQGxrl0gMMXsIv_3-9x0m-OnO26KMEAlv4K30mUDjvd/s1600/DSCN0763.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545416992229822754" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHb6_2EBJKBWNh-kdLMsSq9IljPI8UEPKbSaUXtY_ouUEjJDIf_5jji3gqeMs7hf5NaTz3utlq0SlegjQR2ZkSReW9Q2XLGvTaLJQGxrl0gMMXsIv_3-9x0m-OnO26KMEAlv4K30mUDjvd/s200/DSCN0763.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 100px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfywhSICTEaOqnhATLEOkUBjrfl88o3_-DiiJRDhyphenhyphenNTfrCEQbpaR_Vz69AYrUh-eFW2SKzhcxFe7EAecaLBYq1-x_A6_PORq2TcJOjmmPcBVdbFMdEn6AfmEC68Aonqpr4CP5D1Fh84H2W/s1600/DSCN0732.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545416989160473186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfywhSICTEaOqnhATLEOkUBjrfl88o3_-DiiJRDhyphenhyphenNTfrCEQbpaR_Vz69AYrUh-eFW2SKzhcxFe7EAecaLBYq1-x_A6_PORq2TcJOjmmPcBVdbFMdEn6AfmEC68Aonqpr4CP5D1Fh84H2W/s200/DSCN0732.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 100px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
Are you and your team ready for the changes that agile brings?<br />
<br />
Visit the <a href="http://www.aplnhouston.org/index.php/chapter-meetings/past-meetings/176-apln-houston-chapter-meeting-nov-18-2010-600-pm">APLN Houston Website</a> for the presentation and a "sample Agile Decision matrix" on this topic. Teams new to Agile and Scrum might find this useful. Note that this is just a starting point - it is beneficial to customize the matrix.<br />
<br />
Gave this presentation with Prashant Patel on Nov 18th, 2010.<br />
Thanks to the APLN Houston leadership for organizing the event.</div>Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-41522604906358269102010-10-19T08:21:00.001-07:002015-05-31T01:25:27.641-07:00Breaking Scrum: Scope changes within the sprint...A discussion I started on Linked:<br />
<br />
<b>Breaking Scrum: Scope changes within the sprint...</b><br />
Hi, <br />
Looking a "list of reasons" on why product-owner-pushed scope change during the sprint breaks scrum... <br />
<br />
Few I can think of (please add): <br />
- Takes away the focus from the current functionality <br />
- Reduces team ownership <br />
- Impacts Quality <br />
- Impacts Velocity <br />
- Impacts sustenance of Scrum <br />
- ....... <br />
<br />
Thanks! <br />
Rahul<br />
<br />
3 months ago <br />
<br />
<b>Prasanna Raghavendra </b>• The basic essense of agile to me is getting joy in the journey (see here: http://2srp.blogspot.com/2010/06/joy-of-journey.html). One should be successful in the small steps to make sure there is continuous passion and teaming, If this fails, everything breaks! <br />
<br />
<b>Mike Caddell </b>• A scope change during a sprint - which is a contradiction in terms - invalidates the fundamental agreement and commitment that bounds a Scrum iteration. The team commits to complete a set of functionality as prioritized by the Product Owner and agreed to by the team. The Product Owner in turn commits to helping define and elaborate the agreed on scope in a timely manner to enable the team to do it's work; and only the agreed on scope, nothing else unless the team finishes early and then picks the next highest priority Release Backlog item. <br />
<br />
If the team is asked/required to accomplish a different scope of work during the sprint, the mutual commitment to the previously agreed to scope is thus invalidated. At this point, the sprint should be terminated and a new sprint with the new scope begun - starting with Backlog Grooming and Sprint Planning. <br />
<br />
<b>Julie Hendry </b>• I agree Mike, although it often depends on what is meant by 'scope change' - is is the overall deliverable or is it simply that we discover more detail? <br />
<br />
I've seen successful teams accept some changes within scrum as long as the changes are agree and communicated, and do not change the underlying goal of that sprint. <br />
<br />
<b>Rahul Sawhney </b>• Thanks all for comments. <br />
@Julie, To clarify I mean "goal changing" and "deliverable changing" sort of changes. I do not mean discovery of some more details. <br />
<br />
<b>Mike Caddell </b>• @Julie - a great clarification! <br />
<br />
I meant as Rahul indicates, a change in the objective or the actual content. <br />
<br />
As this discussion clearly illustrates conversation almost always illuminates more detail - which is why we value Individuals and Interactions more than Process and Tools! <br />
<br />
<b>Derek Neighbors </b>• Is the reason why they do? or the reason why they shouldn't be allowed to? <br />
<br />
The reason they do... the team allows them. The don't enforce some penalty in breaking the contract. <br />
<br />
The reason they shouldn't be allowed to. A key premise of agile resolves around trust. Changing course mid sprint breaks trust and deteriorates the relationship. <br />
<br />
<b>Prasanna Raghavendra </b>• I am seeing this discussion going similar to building a stringent chinese wall between the product owners and the team and closing doors on genuine yet possible changes within iterations. Like I mentioned earlier (brewity killed clarity in my earlier note, I guess!), the focus should be on small but quick win at the end every iteration for the entire team (including product owners). That would mean there should be constant communication and acceptability of what can be done for the changes coming-in while appreciating concerns from both end. A "genuine" change coming in within an iteration should be discussed and accepted when possible while showcasing what it means for the dev teams to pick it up. This is when teaming and binding becomes stronger. Product owners should also have strong reasons why the change envisaged cannot wait until the next iteration. <br />
<br />
I would discourage a generic and rigid process coming in the way of teaming. Agile is not a process but it is a set of natural tendancies teams follow to bond, and that should take precendence. it is interesting to note that we are losing our this natural behaviour and find it hard to let those take precendence. <br />
<br />
<b>Rahul Sawhney </b>• @Prassana - I agree with you completely. <br />
<br />
Just to bring the discussion back towards my question, refining it a bit.... <br />
What are the after-effects (short term and long term) of having the "sprint-goal changing" scope changes, which would take the focus away from the team to deliver what they committed? <br />
<br />
So far, we have seen some points indicated above, would like to learn more perspectives, experiences when this happened etc.. <br />
<br />
<b>Jeff Smathers, CSM </b>• Rahul, If I understand your question, I think that Derek and Mike have great answers. I will try to summarize for my own benefit. If the scope change is so large it changes the sprint goal then the team cannot meet its commitments and the sprint is no longer valid and should be ended. A new sprint needs to be planned and started to address the changes. Depending on the maturity of the team, the trust between members and the quality of their relationships could suffer. Keeping to the commitments defined by the sprint goal is very important. <br />
<br />
<b>Jason Little </b>• I wouldn't worry so much about the after-effects as I would in trying to figure out why the scope keeps changing every sprint. <br />
<br />
Some context would be helpful. Is this team supporting an existing product? Are the interruptions due to customer complaints or support issues? If so, Scrum doesn't work well in that situation. <br />
<br />
Is the PO having problems grooming the backlog to get stuff ready for the sprint? Is there a lack of overall product direction? Are different stakeholders pushing conflicting priorities? <br />
<br />
A sprint being constantly interrupted is often the symptom of a deeper problem. Focusing on Scrum as dogma isn't going to solve the problem and you'll end up creating more dysfunction and trust issues between the team and the PO. <br />
<br />
<b>John Clifford </b>• In Scrum, the team's commitment to accomplish the items on the sprint backlog that starts the sprint is matched by the Product Owner's commitment to observe and respect that commitment by not trying to change the agreed-upon scope for the duration of the sprint. One can't work without the other. I would argue that a Product Owner who continually wants to change scope during the sprint isn't following the Scrum process and doesn't respect the team or their commitment. In my experience, this happens because the Product Owner fails to take ownership of the product backlog; either he procrastinates on prioritization until the last moment and then overlooks stakeholder commitments that drive prioritization needs, and/or fails to take responsibility for ensuring backlog items are groomed and prepared prior to sprint planning. <br />
<br />
Not having objective, quantitative, and binary acceptance criteria for sprint backlog items is one of the problems leading to scope change; if the team has no defined criteria for the complete story then what is to stop the Product Owner from whipsawing them around? Therefore, the Product Owner should ensure that sufficiently-defined acceptance criteria exists for all stories that she will bring to the sprint planning meeting... and the team should refuse to consider any item lacking this. This isn't to say that the team and the Product Owner should be at each others' throats, but instead to say the team may need to spend some time during the sprint planning meeting working with the Product Owner to create sufficiently-defined acceptance criteria. <br />
<br />
(Product backlog items with valid acceptance criteria and that have been estimated are often referred to as 'Ready-Ready', in the way that sprint backlog items that are completed according to the Definition of Done and all acceptance criteria are referred to as 'Done-Done-Done-Done.' Effective Product Owners always have at least one sprint's worth of backlog items in a 'Ready-Ready' state before the start of a sprint planning meeting.) <br />
<br />
I'm a huge believer in not hiding dysfunction, because you can't fix it if you refuse to see it. In the above situation, the sprint planning meeting timebox will most likely end with only one or two items that have valid acceptance criteria; so be it. The Product Owner will need to accept that bandwidth may need to be reserved during the sprint to work on additional items' acceptance criteria in order to be ready for the next sprint; if the team finishes with the committed items early, they can either drag additional items into the sprint or end the sprint early and re-plan/re-launch. At any rate, this should be discussed at the sprint retrospective and a solution devised that will prevent this from happening again should be implemented. <br />
<br />
As others have mentioned, if the team believes that an item's scope has changed to the extent that the original commitment is invalidated, then they have the authority to reject the changes and not complete the item... and this should be discussed at the retrospective. Or, if the Product Owner really wants to change scope, e.g., substitute a new sprint backlog item for an existing one, even if the item estimates are identical, then the team has the authority to accept or reject the change, to the extent of cancelling the sprint and re-planning. Again, to expose dysfunction, I counsel against accepting ANY sprint backlog changes, not to be a jerk or uncooperative, but in order to force the issue to the surface... Product Owners who continually fail to prioritize and want another bite at the apple, for whatever reason, are a common issue. <br />
<br />
<b>Andy Dent </b>• A few thoughts on this, against a background of multiple scrum teams collaborating internationally, spanning 24 hour time differences. We have architectural separation of much of the work but that translates into one team having the other two as customers. <br />
<br />
We could take the bloody-minded approach of just saying "no" but that risks some bugs being blockers to another team for an entire sprint. <br />
<br />
An alternative is for the team to identify one or two people as responders to handle urgent cross-team requests. They can have a task allocated in the sprint which is basically a budget of their time, to be whittled down over the course of the sprint and leaving them free to do other tasks of moderate size. <br />
<br />
When it comes to tasks being inserted into the sprint, another pet idea of mine is to mandate that tasks with twice the number of story points have to be removed. <br />
<br />
This reflects the loss of velocity from something unplanned being included and emphasises the seriousness of the interruption to the product owner. I'd love to know if anyone applies this, how they get on! <br />
<br />
<b>Raul Xavier Neto </b>• I´ve got a little intrigued with that many arguments being so dogmatic about scrum. I think that one of the best points of agile (in this case, scrum) is to help teams cope with change. Change that is a big reality on every software project. <br />
<br />
I´ll go with Jason and Prasanna telling you that the best thing for your team is to find out why the owner is changing that much and try to bring him to the team, where those changes should be agreed by the team with good discussion. <br />
<br />
Speaking of dogmas, maybe the initial phase is too dark in the owner´s head, maybe the team is not sure about the concept or something else. To ease that kind of thing, that usually comes in the beginning of the project, you can try to reduce the sprint duration, bring the owner closer to the team, try different approaches to put the team as one peace. Scrum is not a Religion, it only guides teams to achieve good results, but the principles are the important thing, not the "rules". If you have to, adjust the "rules" to your needs. <br />
<br />
<b>Prasanna Raghavendra </b>• @ Raul, @Jason: Bingo! <br />
<br />
@Rahul: It is less about worrying about after effects than accepting it as another pragmatic anamoly and see why it occurs and how it can be fixed. <br />
<br />
<b>Rahul Sawhney </b>• Thanks John - I enjoyed reading what you have written here. <br />
Thanks to everyone else too - great insight! <br />
<br />
<b>Cuan Mulligan </b>• @Rahul, the impact for me is one of cost. <br />
<br />
for example, lets say the PO has aprpoval to spend $x on the delivery of a project. It is the role of the PO to ensure the best spend of the companies money. <br />
<br />
If the PO keeps changing their mind, this will consume time (cost) and reduce the teams ability to deliver the project benifit for the agreed amount of money. <br />
<br />
If the changes are small , ie refeinments, then this should not be an issue. However I have worked with PO, who make quite dramatic changes during a sprint, and then wonder why the project did not deliver. The upside was that they learnt a valuable lesson, and stopped this behaviour. <br />
<br />
<b>Gail E. Harris </b>• The fundamental question in this discussion thread is about product-owner driven scope changes during a sprint breaking Scrum. Well, as someone else wrote, Agile approaches like Scrum are all about being agile, and, as it turns out, changing the scope during the sprint doesn't break Scrum at all.<br />
<br />
In Ken Schwaber's book "Agile Project Management with Scrum" he describes exactly how to handle this. He says that "management could abnormally terminate the Sprint" at which point there would be a new Sprint planning meeting. Ken further notes that this new planning meeting would make the action highly visible and thus hopefully product owners would not make a habit of it.<br />
<br />
It's also worthwhile to note that a new opportunity to change the scope is never more than four weeks away. Once they realize this many product owner's find that four weeks from now is more than soon enough. <br />
<br />
<b>Griffin Jones </b>• We have a very small team, working in a start-up.<br />
Priorities change.<br />
<br />
When targets-of-opportunity appear, ownership will pause the sprint as we deal with the new higher priority. The owner makes the informed choice.<br />
<br />
Long pauses force a clean re-plan of the sprint. Too much switching reduces velocity. But the owner values responsiveness from development, and is willing to accept reduced velocity in exchange. <br />
<br />
<b>Rahul Sawhney </b>• @Cuan,Gail and Griffin, Thanks I was looking for exactly these inputs! <br />
<br />
I do believe that this does not break Scrum as a framework. When Scrum is done incorrectly, (i.e. when PO makes significant changes without agreeing with the team and does not allow terminating or pausing the sprint, and does so regularly), the team gets demotivated and starts falling apart. And as Cuan mentioned, not learning from experience escalates costs and reduces team's ability to deliver and impacts collaboration.Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-86524421437759383992010-10-04T09:18:00.000-07:002013-06-02T19:22:20.534-07:00Have an Initial Conversation to Start an Agile Project<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This article was published on <a href="http://scrumalliance.org/articles/188-have-an-initial-conversation-to-start-an-agile-project">Scrum Alliance</a> in Oct 2010<br />
<br />
In this article, Prashant Patel and I present:<br />
• The different aspects of this conversation - the parameters that we consider.<br />
• Why these parameters are relevant in the context of Baker Hughes Inc.<br />
• The impact of these parameters on solution delivery<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Have an Initial Conversation to Start an Agile Project</h3>
The Baker Hughes Product Development Lifecycle starts with discovery and inception phases. The delivery teams start engaging with the customers during the inception stage. By the end of inception, business requirements are understood at a high level and stakeholders from different teams who will be involved in the project are identified. This is when discussions are held for selecting the appropriate solution delivery methodology.<br />
<br />
The choice of methodology impacts how the different stakeholders engage with the project. We have seen that in order to improve the chances of success for any project, the solution delivery methodology and the level of commitment needed should be understood upfront by all stakeholders. To that end, it is important that there is representation from multiple stakeholders, including but not limited to business, development, testing, agile coach, project management and resource management.<br />
<br />
The stakeholders should be aware of the agile methodology and scrum framework for having this conversation. It is beneficial if they understand the rigor agile brings with respect to solution delivery and how it is different from waterfall.</div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Parameters</h4>
As part of our methodology selection criteria, the team examines the following basic parameters. During this conversation, the parameters and their implications are discussed in detail and a rating is given to each sub-parameter. All parameters need to be rated to consolidate the results, but it is not necessary that all parameters need to be rated favorably as a criteria for going agile; however, parameters with lower scores are considered risks associated with project execution. It is more important for stakeholders to have the conversation, understand their constraints and make a conscious selection of the solution delivery methodology, than the actual number results from this assessment. At the end of inception, the team needs to agree on the solution methodology based on its own judgment.<br />
<br />
These parameters are customized to work in our environment and can be discussed in any order of preference. Organizations are encouraged to devise their own criteria based on the guiding principles of agile and assign their own weights to individual parameters.<br />
<h4 style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 1px; margin: 1.25em 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Collaboration with Business</h4>
Collaboration with customers is critical to successfully execute an agile project. That is why it has been explicitly called out in the Agile Manifesto (www.agile manifesto.org) – “Customer collaboration over contract negotiation”. As part of collaboration with business we examine the following:
<br />
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>Availability of Business/Customer for clarifications</strong><br />Some customers prefer to go away after the initial discussions on project scope and requirements and be available only when the complete scope has been developed to check and provide feedback. This approach does not work very well with agile and Scrum teams. Short feedback cycles of two to four weeks require that customers are engaged throughout the project lifecycle and are available to provide feedback at the end of each sprint. During the sprint planning, teams may identify certain open points, questions and reminders for discussion during the sprint execution. These may also need clarifications from the customer even while the sprint is in progress. In order to meet the sprint commitment, the stakeholders need to ensure that passing on these clarifications to the team does not require too much time.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>Flexibility towards scope reprioritization </strong><br />Agile teams thrive when they can deliver what the customer needs. Their focus is to continue to deliver maximum business value in shortest possible time. This is only possible if the scope is revisited frequently and not cast in stone at the beginning of the project. As part of revisiting the scope, it is essential that the priorities for the remaining work are revisited as well.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>Identification of acceptance criteria</strong><br />The stakeholders discuss and agree that the team needs to be given fair visibility and understanding of the scope items at the beginning of every sprint so that they can make reasonable commitments on what can be delivered. For this reason, we encourage the stakeholders to identify the acceptance criteria for each scope item at the time of sprint planning.</li>
</ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Project Constraints</h4>
Projects may have multiple constraints that may need to be satisfied. Each organization, group or team may have their own set of constraints that may be evaluated during the conversation – These should be heavily customized depending on the project situation. Below are the criteria that we use at Baker Hughes:<br />
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Outgoing and incoming dependencies</b><br />Dependencies with external teams add to system complexity. Ensuring that the project progresses as required, requires coordinating multiple dependencies. At times, dependencies may impose constraints such as: force special schedule requirements for certain scope items, make a part of scope definition more rigid, and make certain resources available to the team only in a particular time window. A large number of dependencies require allocating a significant amount of effort towards synchronizing the work of different teams. In that case, stakeholders need to discuss how these dependencies would be managed in the context of agile.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Documentation needs</b>The agile manifesto calls for “Working software over comprehensive documentation”. Stakeholders need to discuss and agree about the level of documentation that will be created. For agile projects, stakeholders should agree to create only that documentation which will have value and will be easily maintained. Regulatory aspects, which may be relevant to some projects, should be considered too.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Resource allocation and availability</b>For agile projects, we encourage the team members to be allocated 100% to the project instead of allocating percentages. We also encourage them to retain resources for multiple versions of the product and we discourage teams from changing resources while a sprint is in progress. This helps sustain delivering to sprint level commitments and makes resources own the sprint results and a predictable team velocity.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Collocation</b>Collocation of team members improves intra-team communication and improves velocity. Multi-located teams can do agile with the aid of communication and collaboration tools.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Build automation</b>Teams are encouraged to put build automation in place as early as possible during development sprints. If teams do not automate their builds, a lot of time is spent in manual builds and continuous integration cannot be accomplished.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Unit and System Test automation</b>Developing in short cycles and sustaining good quality and high velocity requires that team should be able to test what it develops quickly and effectively. This becomes difficult with manual tests as system becomes more and more complex with each passing sprint and regular addition of new functionality. Creating a good set of automated tests helps in ensuring that system health is maintained even after multiple sprints without sacrificing speed of delivery.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Empowerment</b>An empowered team performs faster and better, and is more accountable for its results as compared to teams that have not been empowered to make certain decisions regarding their work.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Product Owner empowerment</b>During the conversation, a product owner is clearly identified and expectations from the role are discussed. For agile projects, it is important that the stakeholders empower the product owner to make quick decisions on the project scope and provide direction to the team about what needs to be done in the project. The product owner is also empowered to decide on the priorities of the items in the product backlog.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Scrum Master empowerment</b>A Scrum Master is also identified clearly to help the team in removing impediments. The stakeholders and the product owner should empower the Scrum Master to act in the interest of the team, represent the team and say “No” to disturbances.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Team empowerment</b>The stakeholders empower the team to go into agile and Scrum with an understanding that they are empowered to provide fresh commitment at the beginning of each sprint. Since the details for many items in the scope may be discovered while the project is in project, initial estimates of the team are only based on the visibility of the team into the requirements at the beginning of the project. Stakeholders discuss and agree that these estimates may be revised later on in the project as the team gains more visibility on what needs to be done.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
More of the same</h3>
To be able to deliver new functionality in short cycles, it helps if the team members are well aware of the business domain and technology.
<br />
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Team’s acquaintance with business domain</b>The stakeholders discuss about the team’s awareness of the business domain and if it has executed similar projects in the past. If business domain is not well understood by the team, the gaps are identified and team is coached during the project.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Team acquaintance with Technology</b>The stakeholders also discuss the need for the team members’ acquaintance with the technology. At times the technology itself may be new or the team members may not be acquainted with advanced concepts that might be used in the project. In such cases, or where there are gaps, the team should be coached. This might involve planning for additional technical trainings for the team and/or on the job coaching by experienced technical staff.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Team characteristics</h3>
Fast- paced agile development requires giving importance to “Individual and Interactions over processes and tools“. It becomes crucial to assess if the team is well suited to perform in an agile setting.
<br />
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Team size</b>The stakeholders discuss about number of developers and testers that will be on the team. If there are too many people in the team, it impacts the team’s focus and activities (such as daily scrum meeting, making a sprint goal commitment) start taking longer time. This is attributed to the number of possible communication channels within the team, which increases substantially with team size. Based on our projects at Baker Hughes Inc., we have laid down the appropriate range from five to ten, with five to seven being the ideal range.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Agile coaching and awareness</b>Since the organization is new to agile, it is recommended to have an agile coach associated with the team to guide the team members with agile and Scrum. In the context of Baker Hughes Inc., the delivery organization’s Program Management Office helps the teams with agile coaching.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Number of sub-teams</b>The stakeholders discuss the internal structure of the team. If the project is too big, sub-teams may be created to keep the size of each team below ten. As of now, none of the agile projects have had to have multiple sub-teams.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Project type and execution</h3>
These parameters, in addition to the ones specified earlier, help apply agile to situations where it will yield advantageous results for the organization compared to other methodologies. During the conversation stakeholders assess the project type and try to identify the benefits expected by using Scrum and agile in the project.
<br />
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Type of project and Need for change</b>In our organization, we encourage use of agile for projects for significant enhancements, entirely new development and initial prototyping of a new concept. These projects are considered more suitable as they typically have an initial scope to start with, which can be refined over a period of time. Projects that are of production support (continuously changing scope – that cannot be controlled) and minor enhancements (having very low effort estimate) are not encouraged.<br /><br />The stakeholders also discuss the need for scope change in the projects and how agile will benefit the customer in such a situation. In cases where the scope is more or less understood and not much change is expected, the project could be executed in iterations. And in other situations, the scope can evolve as the project progresses making agile more suitable for the project.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Project duration</b>Contrary to the perception of many people, agile works best when the duration of the project spans multiple months. Such duration provides the team an opportunity to inspect and adapt their ways of working. It also provides the customer an opportunity to get the most value through regular reviews of the functionality delivered.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Mission criticality</b>The stakeholders deliberate whether or not the requirements of the project have any tolerance for defects. In the ideal world, the team should deliver defect-free product at the end of each sprint. However, in the practical world of agile, the product evolves over time and there is always scope for perfecting the product over time. There are some exceptions though where there is no room for errors, in the delivered product – examples include life-critical healthcare applications, really expensive applications (like ones used in space programs) and so on. Having executed agile projects in such situations ourselves, we do not say that agile cannot or should not be applied in such situations. We say that in such situations, it is important to realize that quality needs to be given a prime importance and extra measures need to be put in place to validate the product before its Deployment.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Resource availability for Sprint zero</b>In our organization, we execute a sprint zero (we call it the formation sprint) for each agile project to build an initial product backlog and do the groundwork for executing the project such as plan number of iterations, set up the initial infrastructure and prepare a statement of work. To execute the sprint zero properly, it is necessary that the resources needed are made available. This means allocating key team members to the project and making the necessary hardware, software and tools available to them.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Conclusion</h3>
Agile and Scrum can be applied to vast variety of projects and situations. To execute projects well using agile, the need for collaboration and understanding between the customer/business and the delivery organization cannot be underscored. Basic preparations are needed in this regard and this conversation goes a long way in ensuring that happens.
</div>
Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-35448965684324167452010-06-29T08:14:00.000-07:002015-05-31T01:25:52.350-07:00Mixing Product Owner and Scrum Master rolesThe Scrum Guide says that the Product Owner and Scrum Master roles should not be played by the same person. Given below are some reasons why this is not recommended in Scrum and the possible consequences of not following this recommendation.<br />
<br />
- Conflict of interest - The two roles may have conflict of interest in certain situations. Product Owner is concerned about maximizing the RoI and Scrum Master protects the team from external distractions and helps remove impediments. Scrum Master works closely with the team in doing this, and the product owner provides the customer perspective to the team.<br />
<br />
- Bad mix - If the same person plays both the roles, the scrum master role can take a back seat. The person playing both the roles may find it very difficult to balance the needs of the customer and the commitment that the team can make. It is highly probable that s/he may burden the team with ever-so-frequent over-commitment of results and intra-sprint scope changes. This in turn can impact the team results and morale.<br />
<br />
- Bandwidth constraints - It may not be possible for one person to play both the roles due to lack of time. Product Owner role requires understanding the needs of the business. Depending on the project landscape this can become a very time consuming activity leaving little or now time with the person to help resolve team impediments.<br />
<br />
<br />
Issues:<br />
- What if team size is small: For Scrum the ideal team size in 5 to 9. But for any reason, even if the team is smaller than 5, it would still be better to have different people playing the two roles than letting one person play both the roles. In this situation, the role conflict becomes even more apparent.<br />
<br />
- What if organizational structure does not provision for a Product Owner role: Different situations warrant different solutions. For example, the Product owner could come from IT or Business. There could be a proxy Product Owner within the team who interacts closely with the Business or Customer. Since the Product owner takes the ownershiop of the priorities (and thereby the project direction), it is important that s/he has the ability and the authority to say "No" when required.Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-90728456361633004412010-02-20T08:05:00.000-08:002015-05-31T01:26:50.127-07:00How to sustain Adaptive planning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This article was published on <a href="http://www.scrumalliance.org/articles/162-how-to-sustain-adaptive-planning">Scrum Alliance</a> in Feb 2010.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
How to Sustain Adaptive Planning</h3>
Scrum and other agile methods recognize that responsiveness to change is an important aspect of delivering projects. They also recognize that software development is evolutionary and creative. By managing changes through Adaptive planning, Scrum provides a simple yet effective method of planning and tracking project progress. In this article, we will examine what is needed to sustain Adaptive planning and improve Team's responsiveness towards customer needs.
We will examine the following factors:
<br />
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Just-enough planning</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Evolving plan, scope driven by budget and/or time</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Grooming the scope</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trust, involvement and collaboration</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Management support</li>
</ul>
Consider a scenario where the project is progressing as per plan, and in the middle of the project the customer approaches project manager with a request:<br />
<br />
<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Customer: "I really need this functionality delivered in the project. But it is not part of the current scope. Can we make it happen as part of this project?"</i><br />
<b>Possible response #1:</b>
<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Project Manager: "Unless you are okay with budget overflow and/or schedule delay. Alternatively, we can revisit the project scope but it will require us to drop certain other functionality from the scope of this project. As the effort already spent on estimation and analysis of that functionality will be wasted, please be aware that it will impact productivity."</i><br />
<b>Possible response #2:</b>
<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Project Manager: "Well, I am afraid the change control board (CCB) needs to decide this. The CCB meets in two weeks and once they approve that an investigation is needed, we can investigate and inform them about the impact on our plan. The CCB can then decide whether or not this functionality can be implemented."</i><br />
<b>Possible response #3:</b>
<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Project Manager/Product Owner: "I do not see a problem as long as you are okay with dropping certain low priority items from current scope of the project and getting this functionality at the end of next Sprint, assuming it fits. Let's get together and discuss."</i><br />
<br />
Although many responses are possible depending on the context, if the project is using Adaptive planning then a response similar to response #3 is more likely. Such a response demonstrates that the Team is well prepared to respond to change.
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Making Adaptive planning work</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
- Just-enough planning</h4>
<img alt="" src="http://scrumalliance.org/system/resource_files/0000/1990/img01.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="670" />
To begin with, requirements are understood at a very high level and thereafter, the rest of the planning is driven by priority. As a rule, <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lesser time is spent on figuring out the details of those requirements that do not have a very high priority</i>. High priority bigger requirements are split into smaller ones so that details can be explored. Only relative size estimates (at a high level) are done at this point to get an idea of how "big" the work is. Once the work is quantified, tasks and effort are estimated for the highest priority requirements. That gives an idea of how much the Team can deliver in a Sprint. This idea is tested in the first Sprint and gives the Team a better understanding of its Velocity (or the size it can deliver in one Sprint). Using the Velocity, the Team is now in a better position to give commitments for later sprints.
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
- Evolving plan, scope driven by budget and/or time</h4>
<img alt="" src="http://scrumalliance.org/system/resource_files/0000/1992/img02.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="670" />
As the project gets underway and the Team executes multiple sprints, the Team has better visibility on the customer needs. Likewise, the customer also understands the requirements better. <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This understanding results in evolution of the Product Backlog</i> (e.g. changes in functionality and scope, priority).
As the Product Backlog evolves, the size estimates are done for newly added requirements. The Product burndown chart shows how much work is remaining based on the revised scope in the Product Backlog. The work remaining is controlled usually by removing some low priority requirements (of size equal to the added requirements) from the scope. This ensures that scope is managed continuously based on highest priority requirements.
Adapting the plan in this manner helps in providing better visibility to all stakeholders by tackling many important issues, such as:
<br />
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How do we deliver what is most important for the customers?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How do we address customer feedback on what has been already delivered?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What are the key changes that we need to make?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Have we addressed all the key risks for the project?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How much work is remaining for the project? Do we need to adjust the project scope?</li>
</ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
- Grooming the scope</h4>
At the beginning of each Sprint, the Team makes a commitment on the functionality it can deliver. In order to make a commitment, the Team may need some time to <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">investigate certain aspects and risks in the preceding Sprint itself</i>. In other words, sometimes it makes sense to look-ahead and reserve some time for investigation on risky items in the backlog that may be part of the next Sprint. Better insight into risky items in the Product Backlog helps the Product Owner make conscious decision on the item's priority, makes the Sprint planning exercise easier and the Team more confident.
Additionally, new functionality requests by Customers can be expected at any point during the project. Sometimes, especially when the functionality is complex or due to other reasons, identifying enough details for quickly giving commitments on these new items at the beginning of the Sprint can be difficult. Grooming the scope during a previous Sprint makes sense.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
- Trust, involvement and collaboration</h4>
Working with an adaptive plan requires a lot of trust, involvement and collaboration between the Team, the Product Owner and other key stakeholders of the project. Unfortunately this is much easier said than done. Individual stakeholders have different motivating factors and it requires time to build the trust.
Things may become extremely difficult and unsustainable if the trust is lost. The effect of losing trust could result in failures such as poor quality, dramatically reduced velocity, inability to meet commitments for multiple Sprints, arguments over small stuff, high team attrition and loss of face in front of the customers.
Building trust requires a lot of commitment and collaboration. The Product Owner and management should give the Team freedom to decide how much it can deliver in a Sprint. The Product Owner needs to set the right expectations between the customers and the Team. Setting unreasonable expectations can misfire in the long term. The Team may succumb to pressure of delivering more functionality and may succeed in doing so by cutting quality, or by introducing too much technical debt that becomes difficult to handle later. The ScrumMaster needs to support the Team by guarding the scope and the practices of Scrum. The Team needs to understand the needsof the Product Owner and help in achieving that goal. The Team can help in several ways, such as improving its engineering practices, making the most out of feedback, ensuring that it acts on its retrospective actions and highlights issues that are beyond control.
The mechanism of "inspect and adapt" should not be interpreted as a "self-repairing system." The system will not fix the problems unless everyone involved in the process devotes the time needed and is committed to the process. The Team members (ScrumMaster, developers, testers etc.) need to work with each other to achieve the Team's sprint goal and continuously improve their ways of working. They need to work with the Product Owner to groom the scope and understand what is needed.
Likewise, the Product Owner needs to collaborate with the Team throughout. If the Product Owner becomes complacent in engaging with the Team after a few Sprints then the visibility of the Team can reduce drastically, benefits achieved can be quickly erased and situation can deteriorate. The Product Owner needs to ensure that the business users and customers are appropriately engaged in the process. Without an appropriate level of engagement, there is a risk of misunderstanding the business and customer needs.
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
- Management support</h4>
In order to sustain Adaptive planning with Scrum, it becomes important that the culture of the organization understands and respects change. Organizations, where teams go agile but the management thinking does not, run a risk of quickly losing all the benefits from Agile and becoming worse than they were before. Some of the things that managements need to do include
<br />
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Provide long term vision, direction and priorities</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trust and motivate their Teams</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Focus on addition of business value</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Encourage Teams to deliver quality, act on technical debt, enhance engineering practices</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ensure continuous flow of work</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Minimize non-work related disruptions</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Facilitate removal of impediments outside the control of Teams</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Support the process of learning, inspecting and adapting</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Communicate</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Conclusion</h3>
Adaptive planning helps Teams handle changes to scope in a continuous manner but may become unsustainable when practiced in isolation. Other practices of Scrum, along with critical management support and understanding are critical for sustain Scrum in an organization.
</div>
Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-70636690900043457682009-11-09T11:01:00.000-08:002015-11-18T22:45:53.364-08:00What can leaders do to enable Agile teams?Top of the mind thoughts:<br />
1. Provide long term vision on where the IT department will fit in the overall value chain of the organization and how agility can help it in achieving that goal <br />
2. If the long term intent is to go agile for majority of projects, create a transition backlog <br />
3. Prioritize and reprioritize often <br />
4. Inspect & adapt as you go along the journey <br />
5. Lead by example, follow agile principles <br />
6. Encourage & reward successes and support learning from failuresRahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-87739112696471665972009-11-02T11:35:00.001-08:002009-11-04T12:08:42.230-08:00Half-hearted agileThought of penning down some of the issues I see with the projects where agile is tried via feeble mandate (lets just try it - top-down) rather than as a joint initiative between management and teams. The list will grow over time:<br /><br /># communication<br />-->> Email being the preferred mode of communication rather than face to face communication<br />-->> Unwillingness to see the bigger picture by staying within the zone of "defined" responsibility<br />-->> Lack of communication on why we're doing it and how we want to do it<br />-->> Lack of training & coaching<br /><br /># initiative<br />-->> Unwillingness to try something different <br />-->> Unwillingness to understand new ways of working<br />-->> This is how we work, this is common sense, this is the only way it is practical!<br />-->> We will not touch the Engineering practices<br /><br /># openness<br />-->> Unwillingness to share progress, impediments<br />-->> View that Agile is just an "iterative" waterfall<br />-->> Buffer resources for some reason, not made visible to customer<br /><br /># collaboration<br />-->> Handling the fixed price contracts with variable scope is difficult<br />-->> Will not start the work till the SOW is signed/cost & scope are cast in stone<br />-->> Someone needs to prove that Agile will not cost more than what we are used toRahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-59221032279830374672009-10-12T15:45:00.000-07:002013-06-02T19:22:52.037-07:00Challenging inertia through Scrum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This article was published on <a href="http://scrumalliance.org/articles/133-challenging-inertia-through-scrum" target="_blank">Scrum Alliance</a> in Oct 2009.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Challenging inertia through Scrum</h3>
Inertia is defined as a state of being lazy, sluggish or indifferent. Challenging inertia is about challenging status quo in an organization. It is about how things should be done differently compared to how they are done now. Organizations sometimes become susceptible to failure as they are unable to challenge the status quo due to various reasons.
This is as relevant to software development as it is to any other aspect of an organization’s functioning. In this article, we will examine the following reasons for organization inertia, the consequences for software development, and see how Scrum can help with the following:</div>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Size of the organization</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Inefficient structure</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Too much or too little process</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Poor performance management</li>
</ul>
<br />
<img alt="" src="http://scrumalliance.org/system/resource_files/0000/1546/steady_state.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Size of the organization</h3>
<h4>
<u>How does it cause inertia</u></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Slow decision making</h4>
As organizations grow in size, managing scale becomes an issue. Bigger organization means management decisions have a bigger impact. Wrong decisions can put the organizations at risk and therefore it becomes necessary to consult a variety of stakeholders within and outside the organization. This implies that the time taken for arriving at key decisions becomes longer.
The increased timeframe for making decisions is understandable for issues that impact core functioning of the organization. However, it is definitely not suitable when the organization needs to adapt its products in a dynamic and tough market.
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<u>
Consequence</u></h4>
Many organizations do not understand this problem and fall into the trap of slow decision making, even for product development. When innovative ideas fail to reach the customers on time, competition gets an undue advantage. Slow pace of decision making can result in missed opportunities, lost revenue and increased customer attrition. Thus, regardless of their size, organizations need to deliver the right functionality at the right time to their customers.
<br />
<h4>
<u>How Scrum helps</u></h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ownership of the product backlog and prioritization encourages faster decision making and responsiveness to customer needs even in large organizations. Controlled, yet responsive management of changing requirements helps managing scope with improved turnaround time. The product owner makes sure that the team does not lose sight of what is most important for the customer.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reviews and product demos at the end of each sprint gives the customer representative more clarity on how the end product should work and look. This helps in reducing wastage of effort and money into development of low priority features, when high priority features need more functionality that has yet to be developed.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Early feedback from these demos ensures the team makes necessary changes related to the most important functionality of the product in the early stages instead of struggling with issues later when it is too late.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For large organizations the cumulative impact of late identification of issues can be very costly and difficult to ascertain. However, as multiple units within the organization implement Scrum, the positive effect is amplified and inertia is reduced immensely.</li>
</ul>
<img alt="" src="http://scrumalliance.org/system/resource_files/0000/1548/waterfall_scrum.png" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="692" />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Inefficient structure</h3>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">
<u>How does it cause inertia</u></h4>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">
Communication</h4>
Inefficient organizational structures lead to wasted time, effort and money. The wastage mostly results from poor communication channels between people regardless of their team, unit or department. They are also a reflection of an organization’s lack of sensitivity towards customer needs. Traditionally, team members are forced to work as analysts, designers, user interface developers, middle tier developers, database developers, and testers. Work is divided depending on specialization, and it moves from one person to the other in a sequential manner. Such structures create artificial boundaries between people that are difficult to cross. They create a decision vacuum, wherein the buck passes from one person to the other forever, and the issues are resolved at such a slow pace that they would lose their relevance by then.
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Power Politics</h4>
Inefficient structures promote power politics. They create an environment where people are made to compete with each other endlessly. This often results in situations where they cross each other and spoil relationships in order to get ahead of each other. In such situations, collective ownership is not given its due importance. Often work assignments are driven by authority and processes rather than teamwork and collaboration.
Reduced innovation
<br />
Inefficient structures make innovation difficult. Since everyone is focused on their own activities rather than delivering complete functionality, few in the team can see the bigger picture of how what they are doing impacts the end-user. Therefore, sources of new ideas to create innovative products are few.
<strong>Lack of collective ownership</strong>
We have seen this with step-wise approaches to software development. Business analysts and business owners are responsible for requirements, Architects are responsible for high level design, Designers are responsible for low level design, Developers for coding, Testers for testing, Integrators for integration, and Project Managers for planning, tracking and coordinating their activities. In such a situation, it is the project manager who is blamed, not the team, when a project is delayed. Usually, one way or the other, team members can easily find excuses for not delivering on time by pointing in another direction. Although this works well for everyone other than the project manager, it is the customer who ends up paying for all the inefficiencies. And no one likes paying more than the real value of the product.
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<u>
Consequence</u></h4>
<div>
The problems with inefficient structure are too many and too difficult to resolve. Due to inefficient structure, customer interests take a back seat as everyone involved views his/her interests as top priority. There is often mistrust of the “other” groups and team members as the blame game can start anytime if anything goes wrong. Due to this people play safe. They only do what they are "supposed" to do, or as per the “defined” compartment to which they belong.
The dysfunction is easier to observe at the team level. Some examples are: “Coding can only start when the design is over,” “No changes can be entertained in the requirements since design is already over.” However, the issue extends beyond the team level. When the team size is large or when multiple teams, units, departments and organizations are involved in creating a product, it becomes even more difficult to acknowledge and resolve. It is also possible that there are vested interests in ensuring that the conflicts remain and politics and emotions prevail over common sense. Ultimately, if these issues are not addressed, the customer pays an extra price or gets a delayed product.
</div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<u>
How Scrum helps</u></h4>
<div>
While there is no easy answer to solving these structural issues, an advantage of Scrum is that it helps in making the dysfunction visible and allows the organizations to take corrective actions. Other than that the following points are worth mentioning.
Keeping the team cross functional
</div>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This reduces bureaucracy and time lag from making decisions at the team level. A cross functional team does not have artificial walls and naturally communicates better internally and with external stakeholders. Teams change focus towards delivering the functionality as a whole instead of delivering one part of the work (e.g. Design, User Interface, Middle Tier, Test etc.). This not only helps team members learn multiple skills, but also aids in immensely de-risking the projects through collective ownership.</li>
</ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Daily Scrums and Scrum of Scrums
</h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Focus on resolving impediments quickly improves collaboration and avoids getting into blame games. Scrum meetings keep the entire team engaged in the discussions and provide a clear list of impediments towards progress. These meetings also help team members in supporting each other to meet their joint commitment to the product owner. They enhance teamwork and collective ownership, thereby improving communication. When Scrum meetings are conducted well, structural separations between the team members, which slow down the process, tend to fade away.</li>
</ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Sprint planning workshops
</h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Prioritization of requirements in the product backlog provides better visibility to the team about what needs to be developed and improves transparency in decision making.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Since the overall scope can be changed at the beginning of every Sprint, business concerns for new requirements are met. Likewise, the IT team's concern about giving upfront commitment on a plan is also addressed, since with Scrum, it is understood that plan needs to be revisited in every Sprint.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sprint planning workshops improve collaboration between the business, development, testing, user experience and other groups. These workshops align the entire team towards customer needs and make them give a joint commitment to plan.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Since all concerned stakeholders are involved in the exercise of scoping and planning, there is a substantial reduction in power politics and improvement in communication, collective ownership and innovation. This eventually benefits the end customers and the organization.</li>
</ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
The role of ScrumMaster
</h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ScrumMaster plays an important role by serving the team and protecting it from outside interference. By helping the team in following Scrum practices, the ScrumMaster ensures that issues are resolved as fast as possible. The role of ScrumMaster helps in improving communication and collective ownership of the team.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Too much or too little process</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<u>
How does it cause inertia</u></h4>
<div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Artificial Lags</strong></h4>
Lack of appropriate levels of process introduces lags that have an undesirable impact on team performance. For example, too much or heavy process leads to an excessive waiting period due to unnecessary checks at every step in delivering the system.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Chaos</strong></h4>
While lag is introduced by heavy processes, chaos is introduced by too little process. When there is chaos, team members do not know where to go and whom to communicate about what. Without processes, it becomes a free for all. It is easy to understand why typical software projects need a process wherein communication is well managed and roles are well defined.
</div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<u>
Consequence</u></h4>
<div>
Heavy processes promote bureaucracy and reduce productivity because, due to the lags they add, things move slowly. As a result, the team is unable to deliver results with low turnaround time and eventually it results in customer dissatisfaction.
</div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<u>
How Scrum helps</u></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Just enough documentation and continuous collaboration
</h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Documenting the needs of users in a concise, yet informative manner and supplementing it with planning workshops, gives the development team a good perspective on end user needs. This eliminates the need for documents to float around within the team for multiple review/rework cycles and reduces a lot of waste.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Collaboration during planning workshops ensures that all stakeholders have a better understanding of the requirements. This helps in designing better test cases and better code. Eventually it reduces the amount of rework required during later stages due to poorly understood requirements.</li>
</ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Short feedback cycles
</h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We may encounter several situations where the functionality developed in a Sprint needs to be revisited. For example, we may find that user needs have not been implemented to satisfy the business goals due to bad design/coding, or the requirement was poorly communicated to the team. We may also find that the customer representative changes his view on how the requirement should "actually" be delivered by the time Sprint ends.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Scrum makes dysfunction visible and encourages bottom-up feedback. Short feedback cycles of Scrum allow corrective action to be taken almost immediately and satisfy the needs of higher priority functionality in the product backlog.</li>
</ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Team Retrospectives
</h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Just as short feedback cycles help us in revisiting the contents of product backlog regularly, retrospectives allow team members to periodically inspect their ways of working and adapt their processes locally.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Poor performance management</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<u>
How does it cause inertia</u></h4>
<div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Ineffective goal setting</strong> </h4>
Sometimes individual goals are set with a view to encourage competition within the team. In software development, this could be counter productive if the parameters selected do not encourage team work and team performance.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Improper status tracking</strong><br />
Monitoring status is an important activity from the perspective of team performance. If the team does not track progress or only tracks activities that have been completed, it could be in for a surprise when the project nears completion. Moreover, if tracking progress is more of a centralized activity instead of team activity, there is a high likelihood of status not being reported regularly or correctly as team members may stop seeing the true value derived from status tracking.<br />
<br />
<strong>Infrequent reviews</strong><br />
Tracking performance after large intervals makes it difficult to assess performance accurately. Due to this the feedback can be incorrect and/or ill-received.
</div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<u>
Consequence</u></h4>
<div>
Ineffective goal setting could lead to unnecessary conflicts in the team. It might not perform to its fullest capability in normal situations and could even fall apart in critical situations.
Late surprises due to improper and infrequent status and performance tracking could cause the team and its members to slip from their goals. They might deliver later than committed, deliver with lesser scope or deliver by cutting quality.
</div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<u>
How Scrum helps</u></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Metrics focused on team needs
</h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Working software is the true measure of progress for an agile team. Measuring and setting goals against working software provides the largest benefit. In addition, metrics that focus on day to day activities help the team in assessing its performance against its way of working. For example, the team could track number of build failures and number of acceptance test failures in the integration environment. It could also track how well it follows Scrum and other agile practices it might be using.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By measuring metrics that are related to team performance and setting goals with respect to those metrics, the team can continuously improve its way of working and give better output.</li>
</ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Burndown charts
</h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Burndown charts provide visual progress of team’s activities and make status tracking a de-centralized and fun activity. They not only track what is completed, but they also track what is pending on a daily basis. This improves the team’s chances to deliver on time, thereby enabling them to fulfill customer needs on time.</li>
</ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Frequent reviews
</h4>
<ul style="border: 0px; color: #636466; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Frequent delivery of working software with Scrum allows the team to review its performance frequently and make course corrections as needed. Frequent reviews of the team’s performance reduce the room for lethargy and provide an incentive to deliver better regularly.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Conclusion</h3>
<div>
Scrum focuses on results, quick turn around time, short feedback cycles, and collaboration and relevant metrics. This helps an agile team in influencing issues related to size and structure of the organization, software delivery process and performance management. When the use of Scrum spreads at the organizational level, it helps in challenging organizational inertia and making the organization more agile.</div>
</div>
Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-50228823136792220302008-12-11T10:56:00.000-08:002008-12-11T11:26:03.781-08:00The Secret by Rhonda Byrne<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAegFnqDi51fDEzR9jBRRADa6SQw2QBB4azmWvWZIv4_b9CkgRTmaWsIzWkSKqpIgRMxiG5jIJpluj5fW13UZuCAaRJ1-LSusw3kfkYow3cBAug6npSDXMru7FRukf5AwBjGkXYl9q3kCQ/s1600-h/Secret.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278615381993102370" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 167px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 167px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAegFnqDi51fDEzR9jBRRADa6SQw2QBB4azmWvWZIv4_b9CkgRTmaWsIzWkSKqpIgRMxiG5jIJpluj5fW13UZuCAaRJ1-LSusw3kfkYow3cBAug6npSDXMru7FRukf5AwBjGkXYl9q3kCQ/s320/Secret.jpg" border="0" /></a> "A book for everyone" is how I would describe this short, easy to understand and very interesting piece of work. The secret is about the "Law of Attraction". This law states our thoughts attract everything that happens to us. The book claims that if we think positively about something with conviction and belief, that will surely happen. The universe tells us "Your wish is my command" and goes all the way to make sure we get what we think about. However, it is not so simple. The law does not understand words like "no, not" etc. and simply ignores them. For example, if we think that "I should not be late for work", the universe understands it as "I should be late for work" and makes that happen. So if we are afraid of something that is also very likely to happen. According to the book, this is true for relationships, health and all other aspects too. For example, if we think that our relationship with someone is bad, it is very likely that it will not improve.<br /><div>The book has many interesting contributions from many thinkers and highly successful people in the world. Even if one does not completely agree with the book, it is worth reading, absorbing and putting into practice as much as possible.</div>Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-88763721435106917622008-11-25T11:53:00.000-08:002013-06-02T17:28:28.105-07:00Seamless Integration of Web Services (old article)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>While simply browsing I came across this article on the net, which was written jointly by George Chiramattel, Brijesh Chenan and me, many years ago (in 2002 or 2003). It won us the Microsoft India Road Ahead Contest. I am very happy to find it again and put it back. It is good to see that a lot of what we said in this article has actually happened after we wrote this...</i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Introduction</strong></div>
Today we are witnessing another era of explosive growth on the web. The
web has come a long way, from static content to dynamic content and now
to programmable web services. The Internet has metamorphosed into a
pervasive computing domain, providing value-added services. This means
that the web is now available in ways never imagined in the past.<br />
While embarking on a web services approach, several important questions come to mind. <br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>How can we make it easier for our customers to use our web services?</li>
<li>How can we increase our client base?</li>
<li>How can we ensure a viable business model around our web services?</li>
<li>How can we make our applications more powerful by harnessing the power of web services?</li>
<li>How can we provide our customers access to web services that are “yet to be developed”?</li>
<li>How can we ensure that our applications are state of the art and
provide the latest features without massive development costs?</li>
</ul>
These applications will be able to utilize the zillions of services out
there and the ones that are yet to come. Armed with the knowledge of web
services, they will be able to proactively help users in getting their
work done. As developers we should focus not only on exposing services
but also be capable of locating and binding to existing and future
services on the net.<br /><ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Mapping between data and web methods</li>
<li>Mapping between common action and web service methods</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
The web is now mature enough in terms of availability of services.
All the functionality that you would want is probably already there on
the web. But the truth is that only a knowledge worker can harness the
full power of the programmable web. Further there is no integration of
web services into applications that people use daily. It is time to
start thinking about bringing this power to the common man.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This paper proposes some enhancements to the existing web services
framework for better integration between web services and applications
accessing them.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Need for Seamless Integration</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
As web service providers,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
As application developers,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The answers to these questions lead us to the next generation of killer applications.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
To illustrate, let’s look at the following scenario.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Scenario</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Suppose you are interested in online trading and would like to check
out the top-ten movers. Further, you might also want to transact on
them. In today’s world, typically you would use your browser to search
the web for online stock trading services. You would then choose one of
these services and then navigate to its site. Here, you would click the
link for the top-ten movers. In the list returned, you find MSFT [Symbol
for Microsoft Corporation stock at NASDAQ] interesting and want to buy
100 shares. To do this, you would click the corresponding link on the
site and make the transaction. Now, suppose you want more information
about MSFT from some other service, or make the trade elsewhere, you
would have to perform the same operations all over again at the second
site. You obviously cannot use the data you obtained from the first site
to invoke services at the second site.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Let us see how the killer applications of tomorrow alter this
scenario. You fire up the next generation Excel and run a web query on
the top-ten movers. The web query returns the results from the web
service and formats it on screen. You find MSFT interesting, so you
right click on the symbol ‘MSFT’. The context menu shows you the option
“Web Actions -> Get Detailed Stock Quote…”. When you click this
option, it returns the latest stock quote update on MSFT. You then
decide to buy 100 shares, so you right click and select “Web Actions à
Buy this stock…” on the context menu and go on to complete the
transaction (See figure below). </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Using Excel, you query your portfolio (probably from another web
service) and see your open positions. You see that you are long on
‘MSFT’ and decide to sell 50. You go to the corresponding field and edit
it to 50. Excel automatically prompts you “Do you want to sell?” You
press “Yes” to complete the transaction.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<img alt="Excel" height="387" src="http://web.archive.org/web/20070405025040im_/http://www.chiramattel.com/george/blog/images/Excel.jpg" width="519" /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>How to realize this</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This can be achieved through a combination of two enhancements to current web services framework. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Mapping between data and web methods</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The WSDL [Web Service Description Language] file provides the
application with an interface description of that web service. Each of
these web methods returns XML data. With the current standards, it is
not possible for the application to figure out what further can be done
on these data. The application will have to rely on custom hard-coded
logic to invoke further actions on the data. If we have another XML file
that will contain the mapping between the data elements and what
actions can be invoked on them, the application can be much more
proactive in helping the user get the work done. These actions relate to
other web-service methods, which could be provided by either the same
or some other web-service provider.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
In short we propose to provide a link to an XML file within the WSDL
file for a web-service. Bodies such as W3C [World Wide Web Consortium]
can standardize the schema for this XML file.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<img alt="Mapping between data and web methods" height="526" src="http://web.archive.org/web/20070405025040im_/http://www.chiramattel.com/george/blog/images/MappingData.png" width="630" /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
With this in place, the application in the illustrated Scenario will
be able to provide context actions like “Get Latest Stock Quote” and
“Buy this stock” because <u>it automatically knows what can be done with the data</u>. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
We feel that the concept of associating web services and data is very
powerful. It opens up new avenues for applications to interact with
multiple web services on behalf of the user without him having to write
any programming logic.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Mapping between common actions and web service methods</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
We have seen how the mapping between data and actions will enable the
user to invoke services for that data. But the user has to initiate
this action, probably through a context menu. We can take this to the
next level by making our applications intelligent so as to invoke
corresponding services automatically. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
In the above Scenario, when the user modified the field containing
the number of stocks in his portfolio, Excel understood that the user is
doing an ‘Edit’ action on that data item (which was returned by a web
service). It is now up to Excel to find out which method corresponds to
the ‘Edit’ action for the data item being edited. Once this method is
identified, consent from the user is obtained to invoke it on the server
to make the transaction.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<img alt="Mapping between common actions and web service methods" height="446" src="http://web.archive.org/web/20070405025040im_/http://www.chiramattel.com/george/blog/images/MappingActions.png" width="585" /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
A standardizing body can define an XML file that lists certain
commonly performed actions (e.g. verbs like edit and delete). Next
generation applications should be aware of these verbs defined in this
XML file and be able to translate user-actions to them. A service
provider while publishing the service can also provide a mapping XML
file. This file specifies the verbs associated with data that is
returned from each web method. In turn, each verb is mapped to a web
method that is invoked when the user performs the corresponding action
at the application side. The schema for this file should also be
standardized.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Conclusion</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The Internet will continue to evolve as a source of computational
services rather than a repository of content. The web will gradually
move towards a state where more and more value-added services will be
presented as web services. The killer applications of tomorrow will be
the ones that can seamlessly integrate these web services. These
applications will replace the browser as the main interaction point to
the web and blur the boundary between the local and the remote.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The standards of today focus more on how to locate, identify and bind
to services. We should also focus on standards that define consumption
of these services. This will allow applications to behave intelligently
to identify and invoke services from disparate sources, transparent to
the user.</div>
</div>
Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-6564532646830408272008-10-13T23:00:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:38:49.079-08:00Agile Estimating and Planning - Mike Cohn<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSOh6cIxBjIFas4-g8ovnCpkYR9cm0BO8uzLyDLVbPWvlEmXxhGHhwrC90FWFRRErN6vLm3AO-jltwy8AStR-jXck2e37CSY-3V97j8sPqrOTdiZPbqOkbN_94cUNdydYymH_7OcOLYyS/s1600-h/images.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256898111798908562" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSOh6cIxBjIFas4-g8ovnCpkYR9cm0BO8uzLyDLVbPWvlEmXxhGHhwrC90FWFRRErN6vLm3AO-jltwy8AStR-jXck2e37CSY-3V97j8sPqrOTdiZPbqOkbN_94cUNdydYymH_7OcOLYyS/s320/images.jpg" border="0" /></a> "Agile Estimating and Planning" is a Must-Have-Read for those interested in learning a down to earth, practical approach towards Software Estimation and Planning that actually works! The advice is meant for teams that use Agile methods such as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">XP</span> and Scrum. And the bonus is that this book is really very easy to read since the flow is written in such a simple and logical manner. <div><div><br />The book starts from the basics, covering basic concepts such as why estimation and planning is needed, and why should we do size estimation before estimating the effort and duration for any project. It links these basic concepts to the agile approach of: Working as one team, in short iterations, delivery in each iteration, focus on <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">business</span> priorities, inspection & adaptation.<br /><br />After <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">covering</span> these basics, the book goes into the details of Story Points, Ideal days, Velocity and Planning Poker estimation method. Mike <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Cohn</span> also explains why estimating and tracking Story Points is better than Ideal days.<br /><br />The other interesting topics of this book include Prioritisation, Release Planning Essentials, Buffering (concepts seem to be derived from Theory of Constraints), and Tracking Velocity.<br /><br />The book ends with a case study on "Bomb Shelter Studios" case study, which illustrates the concepts in practice, without getting into too many details.</div></div>Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-37419694717086785032008-08-27T10:07:00.000-07:002013-06-02T18:32:52.776-07:00The Impact of Scrum Mechanisms on People and Task Orientation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This article was published on the <a href="http://www.scrumalliance.org/articles/104-the-impact-of-scrum-mechanisms-on-people-and-task-orientation" target="_blank">Scrum Alliance</a> in Aug 2008.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The Impact of Scrum Mechanisms on People and Task Orientation</h3>
Motivated teams develop a reputation of achieving goals and surpassing customer expectations. Sustaining this level of teamwork requires a fine balance between people orientation and task orientation. Scrum is a great way to achieve that balance. Let us see how.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Two sides, One Objective</h3>
In team situations, there is often a conflict between people orientation and task orientation. If too much attention is given to either aspect, the other could be neglected, impacting the team objective. Scrum mechanisms can help resolve this conflict when implemented in the right spirit and with correct understanding; however, if they are implemented with incorrect or incomplete understanding, they can be counter-productive.
<img alt="" height="231" src="http://scrumalliance.org/system/resource_files/0000/0441/Sawhney_Figure.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="611" />
In the following sections, we will discuss several scrum mechanisms as well as the implications for correct and incorrect implementation.
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Implementing Scrum Mechanisms</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Product backlog prioritization</h4>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If implemented correctly:</em> Product backlog prioritization gives the business the chance to specify how the team can deliver value to the customer. The team concentrates on the most important activities, as defined by the business, and comes out of the planning session with the best possible scope that it can fit into the iteration. If product backlog planning is implemented correctly, team members know that the work they are doing is important to customers and therefore crucial for the business. This motivates them to deliver faster and with better quality.<br />
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If not implemented correctly:</em> A clear distinction is necessary between stories that the team needs to deliver immediately and stories that can follow later. If the product owner marks everything in the backlog as high priority (perhaps as motivation to encourage teams to fit more work into the sprints), the teams may come out of the planning meeting with the wrong features in their iteration. Misallocated stories results in a product with features not immediately needed by the end user, which only hurts the business.
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Sprint Planning Meeting</h4>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If implemented correctly:</em> Sprint Planning meetings give the team an opportunity to display commitment and risk-taking capability. A team whose members jointly give the estimates and agree on them, is more likely to achieve the goal than a team whose members work on the basis of estimations done by someone else. With Scrum, it is the combined responsibility of all team members to meet the commitment. Combined responsibility translates to team members working together during the sprint and supporting each other to meet the sprint goal set at the beginning of the sprint. It is up to the team members, the ScrumMaster and the Product Owner to ensure that the team takes up a challenging goal in the sprint planning meeting. It is important that all team members participate during the sprint planning meeting so that everyone agrees that achieving the goal together is possible. When the team achieves a challenging goal, not only is the task orientation aspect of the project satisfied, but team members get a great sense of accomplishment as well.<br />
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If not implemented correctly:</em> If a team sets itself non-challenging goals in the sprint planning meeting (translating into less task orientation), it may feel good in the initial sprints when the sprint goals are met but soon will get bored, as there is no thrill in achieving their goals. Eventually, management or the business will take note of the team’s under achievements, resulting in a bad situation. On the other hand, if excessively difficult goals are habitually pushed down the throat of teams in every sprint, there also will be negative effects on the team, leading to situations like burn-out, non-accomplishment of iteration goals, demoralization, key people leaving the team, and so on. Incorrectly deploying this practice can be a team’s downfall. Teams need to realize this and work towards finding the right balance in subsequent sprints even if they started on the wrong foot.
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Daily Scrum Meeting</h4>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If implemented correctly:</em> Daily Scrum meetings make visible to the entire team those issues which, without daily scrums, would be partly or totally invisible. Not only do daily scrums help uncover dependencies, impediments, and the real-time status of tasks, they also indirectly show patterns that can help team members realize how they are performing as a group. Individual traits such as performance (good or bad), need for training, ramp-up, and helpfulness are showcased during these daily Scrum meetings. This often creates peer pressure in lagging team members, making them perform better than before, and leads to better team performance from a task-orientation perspective.
From a people-orientation perspective, daily Scrums are a time to address the genuine needs and constraints of team members and for team members to support each other in times of need. Regular contact also brings positive feedback, such as appreciation for things one team member did to support another that might otherwise go unnoticed. This makes even small contributions to the project visible to everyone. As a result, people feel cared for, which helps create an environment that motivates them. Many small contributions add up to a big positive impact on the project.<br />
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If not implemented correctly:</em> Task-oriented managers may consider the daily scrum meeting to be a boon. The daily scrum gives these managers real-time information about how team members (read individuals on their team) are performing; it could also give them an opportunity to force their viewpoints upon team members. If the task-oriented manager continues to use the daily scrum as a platform for gathering progress and pushing his viewpoints, the team will be demoralized. Team members may eventually stop attending daily scrums or begin withholding information, either of which would be extremely harmful to team performance.
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Retrospective Meeting</h4>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If implemented correctly:</em> Scrum teams use the sprint retrospective meetings as an opportunity to fine-tune and make changes to their performance based on experience gained from each sprint. This meeting ensures that team sustains continuous improvements and gives team members a forum to share concerns. It is important that the meeting be moderated well so that the viewpoints of all team members are brought to the table and discussed. From a task-orientation perspective, by looking at both the strengths and weaknesses of the processes that the team followed, this meeting challenges the team to perform at a higher level and achieve better results in each new sprint. From a people-orientation perspective, this meeting boosts team confidence and participation. This happens through sharing and expressing appreciation for the good incidents and help offered / received during the previous sprint. If this meeting is done well, the team takes ownership of action items and implements them in subsequent sprints. The result is an engaged team, in which continuous improvements are sustained.<br />
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If not implemented correctly:</em> If the concept of inspection and adaptation is not well understood by the team, retrospective meetings could turn into a finger-pointing, blame-game session. If discussions in retrospective meetings are used for political gains by some team members, open participation could be hampered and decisions taken in the meeting could be reluctantly accepted. Excessive focus on improvements or on strengths is harmful. While the first could lead to decreased team confidence, the latter could lead to an unnatural stiffness and acceptance of way of working, thereby indirectly discouraging the team from looking at new/better ways of doing things. If retrospective meetings do not have a problem solving focus, they will be perceived as a waste of time, and teams will quickly become disillusioned with the process. That would be unfortunate.
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Sprint Review Meeting</h4>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If implemented correctly:</em> Sprint reviews give the team an outlet for demonstrating the valuable additions they have made to business owners and other stakeholders. Sprint reviews also provide the team with valuable feedback about the functionality they have delivered. It is important that the feedback be given and taken in the context of functionalities delivered in the current sprint. Positive feedback keeps teams motivated while constructive criticism helps team create better output in subsequent sprints.<br />
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em>
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If not implemented correctly:</em> As with any feedback, giving feedback out-of-context can be very unhelpful in team situations. For instance, if feedback is generalized, it could either create an impression of excessive under-achievement or unreal over-achievement by the team, which would lead to the degradation of team performance in subsequent sprints. Highly task-oriented customers and management can sometimes be too critical of the team’s achievements. That can be disastrous.
<br />
<h4 style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 1px; margin: 1.25em 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
Conclusion</h4>
Scrum emphasizes delivering value early and continuously so that customers get the highest return on their investment. Correctly implemented, Scrum mechanisms enhance and sustain team spirit. To derive the most benefit out of these mechanisms, managers, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and teams need to understand the intent of and need for these mechanisms very clearly so that they can implement them correctly.</div>
Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7943639759887468899.post-83574492651224858302008-04-12T04:48:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:37:11.876-08:00The Goal and It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9spIFPDQpeEKLMGOzaWzzIFmI-bOikYg6mE0Bez-eYEJEzFJq-e6J5icKMQwL4cVIfiIWH3OA0bWnOxsE3HJ-eG6vcdGUxUSN0sBW41EKGtPUc9ViteO4QCtr8R7zrXPL4oUwoUR2LDQ/s1600-h/t_16186.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188329855359319154" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9spIFPDQpeEKLMGOzaWzzIFmI-bOikYg6mE0Bez-eYEJEzFJq-e6J5icKMQwL4cVIfiIWH3OA0bWnOxsE3HJ-eG6vcdGUxUSN0sBW41EKGtPUc9ViteO4QCtr8R7zrXPL4oUwoUR2LDQ/s320/t_16186.gif" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzjD-n7vtYs1pilrLmfG-XJo2VgYj1XbXRydeNrHx6Q0P3YnfvUZN7x2xe1BAU1LJve_2x13DLjgreaizZGEEdu_CKxYb8vK9WjTtEdS8MFd2SukDtLlQS_GevcgNdb4cbNzOJ3Jll5Ik/s1600-h/t_16159.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188329859654286466" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzjD-n7vtYs1pilrLmfG-XJo2VgYj1XbXRydeNrHx6Q0P3YnfvUZN7x2xe1BAU1LJve_2x13DLjgreaizZGEEdu_CKxYb8vK9WjTtEdS8MFd2SukDtLlQS_GevcgNdb4cbNzOJ3Jll5Ik/s320/t_16159.gif" border="0" /></a> These are two phenomenal books by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, who is a thinker, educator, author, scientist, philosopher and business leader. Both books are in the form of business novels and lead us into a very unique <strong>Thinking process </strong>and <strong>Theory of Constraints</strong>. Goldratt keeps readers interested till the very end in both these books, by putting the lead character Alex Rogo many challenging situations. Alex Rogo uses the Thinking process and the Theory of Constraints as generic methods to solve wide range of his problems. The tools provided in these books are practical and make lot of sense. If you have not read these books yet, you are most likely missing something!Rahul Sawhneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04559182033362886294noreply@blogger.com0