dead zone (v1.1 in english for agileee 2013)

Streamlining requirements flow in distributed projects

Dead Zone

Sergey Prokhorenko

Luxoft

3 October 2013

2 April 11, 2023

Agile at Luxoft

Experience

Since 2005 15+ customers 50+ ongoing projects 700+ Agile practitioners 100+ Certified Scrum Masters 15+ internal Agile Coaches

START NEW AGILE ENGAGEMENTS

TRANSITION EXISTING TO AGILE

PERFORMANCE BOOSTS

Agile Practice

DEDICATED CoE

BOTH LUXOFT AND CLIENT TEAMS

3 April 11, 2023

Agile as a Silver Bullet

Agile provides

Business value driven prioritizatio

n

Pay for DONE

Change without penalty

Client is in full control

of the project

Client problem

Always late with the

things we really need

Paying for the wrong

things

Too expensive to make even

little changes

Difficult to understand where we are right

now

vs

vs

vs

vs

Never45%

Rarely

19%

Some-times16%

Often13% Al-

ways7%

Actual use of requested features

Source: The CHAOS Manifesto, The Standish Group, 2011

4

Simple Rulebook

PO

Product Owner

Product Backlog

(Features)

Sprint Planning

Part 1(What?)

2-4 h

Sprint Planning

Part 2(How?)2-4 h

Sprint Backlog(Tasks)

Team

SM

Daily Scrum 15 min

Product Backlog Refinement

5-10% of Sprint

1 Day

2-4 weeks Sprint

Potentially Shippable Product Increment

Sprint Review2-4 h

Sprint Retrospective

1,5-3 h

Scrum Master

289 pages vs 16 pages

5

Not Every Rule is Easy to Follow

6

PO in a “Land of Milk and Honey” Responsible for maximizing the value

of the product and the work of the Development Team

Sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog

– Power

– Expertise

– Dedication Does Sprint Planning and PBR with

the Development Team Tracks total work remaining at least

every Sprint Review

7

“Wake Up, Neo”

8

ScrumButt

9

Process Becomes Cargo Cult

10

How Did We End Up Like This?

PO

Product Owner

Product Backlog

(Features)

Sprint Planning

Part 1(What?)

2-4 h

Sprint Planning

Part 2(How?)2-4 h

Sprint Backlog(Tasks)

Team

SM

Daily Scrum 15 min

Product Backlog Refinement

5-10% of Sprint

1 Day

2-4 weeks Sprint

Potentially Shippable Product Increment

Sprint Review2-4 h

Sprint Retrospective

1,5-3 h

Scrum Master

PO

Product Owner

Product Backlog

(Features)

Sprint Planning

Part 1(What?)

2-4 h

Sprint Planning

Part 2(How?)2-4 h

Sprint Backlog(Tasks)

Team

SM

Daily Scrum 15 min

Product Backlog Refinement

5-10% of Sprint

1 Day

2-4 weeks Sprint

Potentially Shippable Product Increment

Sprint Review2-4 h

Sprint Retrospective

1,5-3 h

Scrum Master

New stories (no time to

PBR!)

No sprint commitment! L

11

Sprint-Level Visualization

12

13

Developers

Dead Zone

What is the goal of current release?

Are we on track to deliver it on time?

What are other teams doing?

Are there any dependencies on a project level?

Does PO or BA have enough requirements?

Management

Are we on track to deliver release scope on time?

When release epics will be ready and what is the current status?

What are PO (BA, pPO) doing? Do they have any blockers?

How many stories are ready for the next sprint?

Are we ready for the next release planning?

14

Interactions and People

15

Divide and Conquer

If you don’t live in a “Land of Milk and Honey” –

THAT’S OK!

16

Clear Roles and Responsibilities

Prioritization

Communication

Expertise

17

Processes and Tools

18 April 11, 2023

Kanban at Project (Program) Level

19

High-level Flow

Request from

stakeholders

Backlog prioritizatio

n

Backlog refinement

Ready for developme

ntSprint Ready for

release

20

21

Value Stream Mapping

Request from

business sponsors

Program initiation

Project chartering

Epics breakdown

User story drafting

User story grooming

Ready for sprint

In developmen

t

Ready for demo

Ready for UAT In UAT Ready for

release

22 April 11, 2023

DoD Agreements (Analysis Phases)

Program initiation

• PID is shared with BAs

• Project charter is drafted and shared with business sponsors and BAs

Project chartering

• Charter is approved by business sponsors

• Final charter is reviewed with BAs in a meeting

Epics breakdown

• Charter breakdown into epics is approved by PO

• All epics are described in Confluence with:• Business

context• Problem

statement• High-level

acceptance criteria

• All epics are presented to the team(s)

• Epics are included into backlog and prioritized

• Business contacts identified

User story drafting

• User story is well-analyzed by BA and conform to INVEST criteria

• Detailed BDD scenarios are created

• Mockups are created (where applicable)

• Data requirements specified (if any)

• Business logic is specified (if any)

• US reviewed with business SME

• Acceptance criteria are reviewed by business SME

• US is prioritized in backlog and priority approved by PO

User story grooming

• Team reviewed and agreed that US conforms to INVEST criteria

• BDD acceptance scenarios are well understood by team and approved by business

• All research spikes identified and completed

• US breakdown is approved by team (and re-approved by business if any changes)

• Business contacts are shared with the team

• Design is approved

DoD for last analysis phase = DoR for sprint

23

Limit WIP

24 April 11, 2023

Backlog Grooming Ground Rules

• At least once a week, scheduled with PO• Started upfront (at least a week before planning)

Regular

• 15-20 min per story• If timebox isn’t enough – go offline and prepare for the next

session

Timeboxed

• All team members ask questions upfront• Team members (not only PO/pPO) describe story value and

scenarios

Includes whole team

• If artifact doesn’t follow agreed DoD it isn’t moved to the next phase

Strict DoD

25

Effective Collaboration

Feature Team US 1

Feature Team UA 2Feature Team US 2

Feature Team UA 1

Scrum of Scrums Scrum of Scrums

Cross-functional teams

Single backlog with unified estimates

Single Product Owner

Proxy Product Owners for each location

Joint release planning

26

Big Picture

27

Anything Depends on Everything

vs

28

Inspect and Adapt!

29

Suggested Reading

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3 October 2013

Sergey Prokhorenko

Luxoft

sprokhorenko@luxoft.com

ua.linkedin.com/in/sergeyprokhorenko