scrum for video game development

Clinton Keith

Presented by

Scrum for Video Game Development

© 2008–2014 Clinton Keith

Clinton Keith

Veteran Video Game Developer with

over 20 years of professional g

ame

development experience

Introduced the Video Game

Industry to Agile, Scrum and Lean

Trained and coached at over 80

studios since 2008

Author of “Agile Game Development

with Scrum


What is agile?• It’s a method for developing products using short

iterations

• Each iteration is like a short project in itself

• Uses “inspect and adapt” practices to adjust the project plan

• It focuses on adding features in a value prioritized way, rather than a resource prioritized way

• It’s a mindset for how to address uncertainty and change and how to respond to how fun your features are (or not)


Why Apply Agile

to Video Game

Development?


WaterfallAtari/Nintendo

Design

E3 Demo

PreproductionProduction

Alpha/Beta

Find the Fun First• The video game industry has a long history of

iterating to find the fun• As costs and team sizes grew, we focused more on

ship dates and budgets• As a result, quality is compromised and risks aren’t

explored

% of fun found in in development

Individuals and interactions Process and Tools

Working game

Publisher/Stakeholder collaboration

Responding to change

Design documentation

Fixed scope, schedule and budgets

Following a plan

over

over

over

over

The Agile Manifesto (for game development)We are uncovering better ways of developing games by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.


ScrumOverview


What is Scrum?• A framework to enable rapid and iterative

development

• A focus on not only improving our games, but the methods we use to make them and the environment we make them in

• Produces a demonstrable working & improved game every one to three weeks

• Team commitment and result oriented

• Not a silver bullet

• Has a long history of success on a wide variety of projects, including video game development


Scrum for Video Games

Chris UlmChief DesignerHigh Moon Studios

“Scrum facilitates feature iteration, allowing teams to deliver polished, tuned and integrated features which can be used to test the creative quality of the game throughout its development, allowing the team to incorporate audience feedback as early as possible in the development process.”

© 2009-2014 Clinton Keith

Product backlog

Scrum Daily Scrum

Sprint planning Sprint

review

Sprint backlog

Improved Game

Sprint goal

SwimFly

Crouch

Jump

Sprint 1-‐3 week Time-‐box

Sprint Retrospective


The Scrum Team

ProductOwner

ScrumMaster

Developers


Product Owner Duties

•Maintains the product backlog•Continuous prioritization and refinement

•Conveys a shared vision•Represents the customers and shareholders

•Participates in all Scrum meetings•Accepts or rejects sprint results


The ScrumMaster Duties

•Remove impediments•Protects the team•Ensures all Scrum artifacts exist•Facilitates Scrum meetings•Support and guide the PO role•Coaches & guides the team on agile/Scrum principles


The Team Duties

•Organized around release goals•Plans the sprint backlog•Commits to sprint goal with Product Owner•Does everything necessary to achieve sprint goal•Removes most impediments•Manages the sprint backlog•Attends all sprint meetings


Why do this?• Fun (quality) can’t be fully planned & scheduled

• We have to “find it”

• Creative knowledge workers do best when:

• They have some ownership of the work

• They are learning & growing as crafts-people

• Not assembly-line workers

• They are part of a team with good chemistry

• They are not overwhelmed to the point of compromising quality


Apprentice• 3-12 months• Daily Scrums• Iterations• Roles

Journeyman• 12-24 months• Faster integrations• Better testing• Release planning

Master• Never ends• Self organization• 100% customization

The Adoption Roadmap

Continu

ous im

provem

ent

Definitionof

Done

Trust &Ownership


The Product Backlog


Product backlog

• The requirements

• A list of all desired work on the project

• Ideally expressed such that each item has value to the users or customers of the product

• Prioritized by the product owner

• Reprioritized at the start of each sprintThis is the

product backlog


SprintMilestone

Priority

High

Low

Future Releases

Value

Cost

Risk

Knowledge

The Product Backlog Iceberg

Product Owner


“As a <user role>,I want <goal>so that <reason>.”

Use this template

User Stories

One or more sentences in the everyday language of the end user that captures

what the user wants


Some sample user storiesAs a player I want punches, reactions and blocks synchronized, so that fighting looks natural and realistic

As a player I want to know which of my friends are playing this game

As a content creator, I want the asset validation process to recompile scripts so that I know if some of them reference deleted assets.


Sprints


Sprints• Scrum projects make progress

in a series of sprints

• During the sprint, the team does

• Animation

• Coding

• Testing

• Level design

• and so on

• After each sprint, game can be played / demoed

This is the sprint


Always deliver

• You must have a potentially demoable / playable game at the end of each sprint

• Do not miss the end of the sprint

• The deadline is sacred

• Functionality may vary


Team commitment• The team picks the work they’ll do in a sprint

• Which items

• How many

• The team commits to the product owner to complete what they select

• It’s a team commitment, not a set of individual commitments

• Has authority to do whatever is needed to meet this commitment

• Demonstrates to the product owner the completed work at the sprint review


Scrum meetings

Spri

nt R

etro

spec

tive

Daily Scrums Spri

nt R

evie

w M

eetin

g

Spri

nt P

lann

ing

Mee

ting

Spri

nt P

lann

ing

Mee

ting

• Body Text with a bullet and


1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

+1

Sprint planning

Sprint review and

retrospectiveSprint

planning

A Typical 2- Week Sprint Calendar/Cadence

M T W T F


Sprint Planning Meeting• Team selects items from the product backlog they can

commit to completing

• Sprint backlog is created• Tasks are identified and each is estimated (1-16 hours)

• Collaboratively, not done alone by the ScrumMaster

• Very high-level design is considered

As a player I want punches, reactions and blocks synchronized, so that fighting looks natural and realistic

Create close punch animations (12 hours)Tune attack percentage in AI (4)Remap controls so attacks are on free buttons (4)Tune block and reaction animations to be same length (2)


Managing the sprint backlog• Individuals sign up for work of their own choosing

• Work is never assigned

• Estimated work remaining is updated daily

• Any team member can add, delete or change the sprint backlog

• Work for the sprint emerges

• If work is unclear, define a sprint backlog item with a larger amount of time• Break it down later

• Update work remaining as either• More is known

• Items are worked on


A sprint backlogTasks

Create close punch animations for attackers

Create close punch animations for responders

Adjust fight navigation

Fix camera bouncing off walls

Polish audio

Mon

8

16

8

12

8

Tues

4

12

16

0

8

Wed Thur

8

4

0

0

8

4

Fri

0

0

0

0

8

0Tune attack percentage in AI 8 8

4

10

16

0

8

8

New task!

More time?!

Crunch?


Task Boards Contain the Sprint Backlog

As a user, I... 8 points

Story To DoIn

ProcessTo

Verify DoneCode the... 9

Code the... 2

Test the... 8

As a user, I... 5 points

Code the... 8

Code the... 4 Code the...

6

Code the... 4

Test the... 8

Code the... 8

Code the... MC 4

Test the... SC 8

Code the... DC 8

Test the... SC 8

Test the... MC 8

Code the... LC 8

Test the... SC 4

Test the... 8

Code the... 8

Test the... 4

Test the... 8

© 2008–2014 Clinton KeithBurndown Chart

Example Task Board


Burndown charts• A common method of tracking progress

• A burndown chart shows how much work is left as of various dates

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

4/29

/02

5/6/

02

5/13

/02

5/20

/02

5/24

/02

Everyone answers 3 questions

What did you do yesterday?1

What will you do today?2

Is anything in your way?3

• These are not status for the ScrumMaster• They are commitments in front of peers


The Sprint Review

• Team presents what it accomplished during the sprint

• Typically takes the form of a demo of new features or underlying architecture

• Informal• 2-hour prep time rule

• No slides

• Whole team participates

• Invite the world


Sprint Retrospective

• Periodically take a look at what is and is not working

• Typically 15–30 minutes

• Done after every sprint

• Whole team participates

• ScrumMaster

• Product owner

• Team

• Possibly customers and others


Start / Stop / Continue

• Whole team gathers and discusses what they’d like to:

Start doing

Stop doing

Continue doing


Releases - DefinitionSp

rint

1

Spri

nt 2

Spri

nt 3

Spri

nt 4

Spri

nt 5

Spri

nt 6

Release

Spri

nt 7

Spri

nt 8

Spri

nt 9

Spri

nt 1

0

Spri

nt 1

1

Spri

nt 1

2

Release


Long-Term Planning


Release planning on long projects

• On a multi-year game, break the total project into a series of shorter interim internal “releases”

• Three months is a good horizon

• For each release, establish one or a few BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)

• “Epic” user stories work well for this, such as:

• As a player I want online multiplayer so I can connect to the internet and play against other players online.

• As a player I want to engage enemies in hand-to-hand combat.

• As a player I want to drive a car around the city.


A likely sequenceSp

rint

1

Spri

nt 2

Spri

nt 3

Spri

nt 4

Spri

nt 5

Spri

nt 6

Har

deni

ng S

prin

t

Release 1

Spri

nt 7

Spri

nt 8

Spri

nt 9

Spri

nt 1

0

Spri

nt 1

1

Har

deni

ng S

prin

t

Release 2


Managing Releases• Scope, schedule and cost

are managed by frequently measuring true progress against the plan.

• True progress is based on scope delivered with quality

• The plan has to reconciled with the emergence of what we learn is making the game great.


Agile is Better at Hitting Fixed Dates

"Implementation of a true Agile Scrum has greatly transformed the teams to become much more predictable than we ever had been prior. With our fixed dates, this predictability has been invaluable as it has greatly helped with proper scoping and priority"

- Brian Graham, Director of Product Development, EA, Madden NFL 2006 - 2009

• Agile addresses value, cost, risk and quality up front

• As opposed to addressing those aspects at the end of a project and having the answers delay or compromise the game.

• Agile embraces empirical process control

• Frequent metrics inform stakeholders early on cost, schedule and scope progress against targets, which help them make timely decisions.


Scaling Scrum


Scalability• Most games require more than one Scrum team to build.

• Scrum is designed to be scaled

• Scalability comes from teams of teams

• Factors in scaling

• Logical division of work

• Team size

• Team dispersion


Practices for Scaling• Scrum-of-Scrum Meeting

• Representatives from each team meet on a regular basis to address dependencies and inter-team issues.

• Aligning Sprint dates

• Sharing a common backlog

• Using a hierarchy of Product Owners


Scrum of scrums


Running the scrum of scrumsAttendees

• Each team sends an individual contributor• If four or fewer teams, it’s OK to send a

ScrumMaster also• Rotate based on whose skills are needed most

Agenda• Everyone answers four questions• Attendees discuss the product backlog

for the scrum of scrums

Frequency• Some say daily• I usually do these MWF or TuTh• These are problem-solving meetings• Not time-boxed to 15 minutes


Share start and end dates

Team 1 Team 1

Team 2Team 2

Team 3 Team 3FinishFinish StartStart

Team 1 Team 1

Team 2Team 2

Team 3 Team 3

• Don’t stagger sprints like this:

• Synchronize sprint starts instead


Use a Shared Product Backlog

View

Online

View

Single player

A hierarchy of product owners

Visionaries for global/local products

All members of their teams

Game PO works with feature/functional

product owners to establish vision and priorities for their

teams


Augment with Community of Practice Teams

• Beyond a certain team size, augment the team structure with virtual teams

• Programming team

• Audio team

• AI team

• Informal or semi-formal at best

• Meet periodically

• Discuss and resolve issues related to their specialty

• e.g how to solve common AI problems


Programmers

Animators

Testers

ScrumMasters

Audio engineers


Reference MaterialEssential books for agile practitioners:

Agile Game Development with Scrum, Clinton KeithAgile Estimating and Planning, Mike CohnUser Stories Applied, Mike CohnSucceeding with Agile, Mike CohnLean from the Trenches, Henrick KnibergAgile Project Management with Scrum, Ken SchwaberAgile Retrospectives, Ester Derby & Diana Larsen Innovation Games, Luke Hohmann

Websites:

www.clintonkeith.com - My website, which contains numerous resources for applying Scrum and agile to video game development.

agileatlas.org - The Agile Atlas - This website, supported by the Scrum Alliance, contains the definition of Scrum taught by SA trainers and is the basis for the CSM exam.

www.scrumalliance.org - The Scrum Alliance - The non-profit organization that owns the Scrum certifications.

www.mountaingoatsoftware.com - Mike Cohn’s website, which contains numerous resources for applying Scrum and agile practices.

http://www.clintonkeith.com

http://agileatlas.org

http://www.scrumalliance.org

http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com


My contact info

Clinton Keith [email protected]

www.ClintonKeith.com

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