scrum: from the classroom to the workplace :: ipleiria 2016

Pedro Gustavo Torres

• Currently: Delivery Area Manager & Agile

Coach @

• Soon to be: Engineering Director @

• Working in Agile echosystems since 2010


https://pt.linkedin.com/in/pedrogustavotorres

https://twitter.com/_pedro_torres

https://pedrogustavotorres.wordpress.com

[email protected]

http://slideshare.net/pedrogustavotorres


2014

2016

2016

Ground rules

• There are no silly questions

• Shoot questions as I go

• We treat among ourselves as you (“tu”)

What is Agile?

Agile Onion

Agile Manifesto

Agile Adoption in 2015

Agile Techniques Employed in 2015

Waterfall

Waterfall’s origin

• Winston W. Royce’s paper from 1970 “Managing the Development of

Large Software Systems”

• “…I believe in this concept, but the implementation described above is

risky and invites failure.”

Winston Royce

Why do IT companies stilluse Waterfall?

Waterfall “sells” promises hard to keep

• Waterfall is based in a precise plan (usually a Gantt chart)

• Fixed Scope with Time and Budget being negotiable variables

(Quality is considered the 4th variable)

• Agile doesn't sell promises or perfection like Waterfall

• In Agile we share the risk... in Waterfall it stands all on the side

of the supplier... so the latter protects himself regarding costs

and time

Let’s face it: Software projects are a challenge

Facts that need to be acknowledge

• Uncertainty exists... so why not deal with it?... instead of ignoring it?

• Risks exists too... so why not share it with all parties involved?

• Software development is not the same thing as putting bricks on a wall (it

is not a repeatable / predictable process)

• onTime, onBudget and onTarget (Waterfall classic project’s success

indicators) are pointless if there is no returned value to the organization /

customers / stakeholders

Agile versus Waterfall

Agile games to prove concepts

• Many games that shows how efficient and effective Agile is

Barriers to Further Agile Adoption in 2015

Sad but true

• The majority of the current workforce was taught to act and think like

Waterfall

• Waterfall is still a dogma in a lot of companies today

Agile versus Agility

• Some companies just want agility and not necessarily Agile

Confusion between Agile and “Javardice”

• Shortcuts

• No documentation

• Poor software quality (lack of testing)

• No planning

• No commitment

• No deadlines

• …

Misconception of what Agile is

Agile as a “buzzword”

• As far as traditional companies go:• Everyone wants to be Agile• Everyone wants to say “Agile”• Very few wants to work in Agile• And even less knows what Agile is

• In companies well established in Agile practices:• There are no areas or teams called “Agile”• You don’t hear the word “Agile” often• People just do their “thing”• It’s in the culture

What is Scrum?

Scrum was “born” more than 20 years a go

Team

• Product Owner

• Scrum Master

• Development Team

Artifacts

• Product Backlog

• Sprint Backlog

• Increment

• Definition of Done(Transparency)

Events

• The Sprint

• Sprint Planning

• Daily Scrum

• Sprint Review

• Sprint Retrospective

Scrum in a (Scrum Guide, July 2016)

Framework / Empirical process (Inspection, Adaption, Transparency)

Values

• Commitment

• Courage

• Focus

• Openness

• Respect

Scrum greatest value: Courage

• To admit that things might change

• That an estimate is not a certainty

• That we can explain / understand requirements wrongly

• That we don't know everything upfront (in spite of being specialists in the

subject matter)

• To deliver bad news

• To be transparent

Scrum in other areas?

• Hardware

• Human Resources (e.g. Recruiting)

• Marketing

• Planning a wedding

• …

State of Scrum in 2015

Companies transition to Agile

Why companies want to be Agile?

• To be competitive

• To be efficient and effective

• To attract talent (you!)

• Because everybody else is doing it

• To be able to say: “We’re Agile!”

“Someone” from the Scrum Alliance in 2016

• Companies around the globe struggle with the implementation of

Agile

• “…It takes at least 2 years to start to get comfortable with the

uncomfortable…”

Learning: People have 3 zones

• Comfort zone

• Learning zone

• Panic zone

Moving from Individuals to Teams

• The change of focus from individuals to teams

• Performance reviews should be team based

• Tips for Agile teams:

• Search for consensus and not unanimity

• We don’t need project managers (to control teams)… we need self-organizing

teams

Flat organizations vs Heavy hierarchies

• Middle managers tend to be a big resistance to change (afraid of losing

power)

• The more middle managers you have the bigger is the distance between

top management and the majority of the employees

• In 2016 excess management is costing the U.S. $3 Trillion Per Year ( )

• 3 Trillion = 3,000,000,000,000

Complicated, bureaucratic and politic

• Big corporates forget to simplify things... And they add extra layers of complexity:• Activity Planning• Capacity Planning• Timesheets• …

• Timesheets:• focus on idle people and not on idle work• why do we need to be 100% busy?• why do we need to report time spent on things?

• Where are the startup and entrepreneurship spirits? Big corporates should act more times like if they were startups

Scientific Management (aka Taylorism)’s origin

• Frederick Winslow Taylor’s paper from 1911 “The Principles of Scientific Management”

• Managers and workers

• Micromanagement

• United States’ Portrait of that time:

• Civil war between 1861 and 1865

• Slavery abolished in 1865

• In 1900, 11 percent of the 14 years old and over was illiterate. *

• Only 50% of 5 to 19 years-olds were attending school in 1900. *

• Women didn’t had the right to vote

*120 years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait

Frederick Taylor

Watch the baton not the runner

• If you are just concerned about the runner running... what happens ifhe runs on the wrong direction?

Regarding change how effectivedo you believe evangelization

is?

Changing people

• Evangelization isn’t that effective

• You need empowerment to “promote” change

• Everybody wants to change… but nobody wants to be changed

• People will always resist to change: Fear of losing their job, of not being good in the new way of

working, losing power… “the unknown is always worst than the known”

• Comfort zone is change’s worst enemy

• People also need time to change… if they are too busy… overloaded with work… how can they

change? Even worst…how can they innovate?

• Planning at 100% capacity kills your chance to continuously improve

Millennials (You!) will make everything easier

• You (the classroom) are the hope for software development and the Agile mindset

• eduScrum

• Scrum classes

• Scrum popularity

• Communities of Practice

• Events, Meetups, etc.

• ...

• Other generations don't like to change.. they are comfortable in their zone... so why change?

• Only if they are in a very painful situation... and still... sometimes it is not enough to change

But all this is about transitions to Agile

• What about companies that were born agile?

A couple of Companies in Portugal “born” Agile

Common characteristics of “born” Agile companies

• Great Culture

• Informality

• One or two weeks sprints

• Continuous Integration

• Continuous Delivery pipelines

• Unit & Integration (automated) Testing

• Frequent releases

• Bleeding edge technologies

• Multiple scrum teams

• Fun environment

• …

Scrum greatest virtues: IKEA Effect

• Build the product with your customers

Scrum greatest virtues: Sustainable pace

• Software development is a marathon not a 100 metres race

Scrum: How to start?

• 7 easy steps:0 - put everyone on board (communicate to all stakeholders)

1 - create backlogs

2 - create teams (POs, SMs, Devs, QAs, etc.)

3 - decide sprint length

4 - have a sprint zero / grooming / planning

5 - start sprinting

6 - have a new sprint while there is still work to be done

Scrum not enough? Story Points

• Estimations: Collective (Scrum) vs Single head (Waterfall)

• Story Points versus Time

• Accuracy (uncertainty) vs Precision (silver bullets)... people being

fooled by themselves

Scrum not enough? Vertical teams

• Should you organize your teams around the

layers of your architecture?

• Should you create feature (vertical) teams?

• Maybe a mix of both?

1999 UEFA Champions League FinalManchester United vs Bayern Munich

Scrum not enough? Vertical slices

• People love horizontal work instead of vertical work (it’s easier)... and

then things go wrong... because Scrum isn’t just about working in

iterations!

• You need to deliver completed work

• Analyze

• Develop

• Test

Scrum not enough? Extreme Programming (XP)

Scrum not enough? Kanban

Scrum not enough? Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose

• “The surprising truth about what motivates us” by Dan Pink

• Delegate and let decisions be made closer to where the work is

• To delegate you need to trust them

• When you trust you need to be prepared to be screwed (just like in a

marriage)

• Self-organization, empowerment, accountability, delegation, etc.

Scrum not enough? Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose

• Self-organization works for nature… so why not for teams?

Scrum not enough? No managers

Scrum not enough?: #NoEstimates

• Do we really need estimates?

Scrum not enough?: DevOps Culture

Dilemma: Scrum Master vs Agile Coach

Dilemma: Is the Scrum Master a full time role?

• It really depends on the echosystem

Dilemma: Agile Competence Center vs Community

• Center of competence / excellence • Autonomous Units with a Community

Dilemma: Agile KPIs

• Why do we need to measure?

• What should you measure?

• There is a general “obsession” with measurements

• KPIs side effects: You get what you measure…

Dilemma: Agile and Consultancy?

• The rent-a-team model works very well (works similar to time andmaterials)

Dilemma: Agile and Legacy?

• It’s a challenge… maybe you should invest your time and energy in something different!

Copying practices (e.g. model) aka the Cargo Cult

• Not a good idea at all…

Agile Anti-Patterns

• ScrumBut (exists a lot more than you can imagine!)

• Time “pretending” to be Story Points

• Scrum Master assigning work to the team

• Ceremonies being skipped

• Meetings aren’t time-boxed

• The ScrumMaster is a bottleneck between Product Owner and Development team

• No action points taken on Retrospectives

• No Definition of Done (DoD) or Definition of Ready (DoR)

• No communication between team members

• …

What I dislike in (some) Scrum implementations

• Time on User Stories

• Tasks

• Time on Tasks

• Powerless Scrum Masters

• “Not my job” Scrum Masters

• Powerless Product Owners

• Uncommitted Product Owners (they don’t have time for the team)

• Micro managed teams

• Ceremonies that take "forever" (no time boxes)

Advices

• What I would like to hear if I was you…

Advice

• Work towards becoming full stack (T-shaped skills)

• Jack of all trades master of none some

Advice

• Challenge the status quo

• Always ask “Why?”

Advice

• Don’t be fooled by the false sense of security

Advice

• Don't stay “forever” in a company (the neighbor's chicken is always

better than mine phenomena)

• Don't allow your emotional salary to be superior to your financial

salary (€€€€)

Advice

• You will always need luck to succeed

• Luck = Competence + Opportunity

Advice

• Choose carefully the company you will work for… you should search for companies that work with Agile practices

Advice

• Be careful with the Bimodal IT trend

Advice

• Watch out for propaganda

scrum: from the classroom to the workplace :: ipleiria 2016

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