An Introduction to Scrum Presented wherever you want

An Introduction to Scrum Presented <<wherever you want>> <<Date>> By <<your name>>

Scrum n “The New Product Development Game” in Harvard Business Review, 1986. n “The… ‘relay race’ approach to product development…may conflict with the goals of maximum speed and flexibility. Instead a holistic or ‘rugby’ approach—where a team tries to go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth—may better serve today’s competitive requirements. ” n Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions by De. Grace and Stahl, 1990. n First mention of Scrum in a software context

Scrum origins Scrum n Jeff Sutherland n n n Initial Scrums at Easel Corp in 1993 IDX and nearly 600 people doing Scrum Not just for trivial projects n FDA-approved, life-critical software for x-rays and MRIs n Ken Schwaber ADM n Initial definitions of Scrum at OOPSLA 96 with Sutherland n Mike Beedle n Scrum patterns in PLOPD 4 n

Scrum has been used in… Scrum n Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) n Fortune 100 companies n Small startups n Internal development n Contract development

Scrum has been used for… Scrum n FDA-approved, life-critical software for x-rays and MRIs n Enterprise workflow systems n Financial payment applications n Biotech n Call center systems n Tunable laser subsystems for fiber optic networks n Application development environments n 24 x 7 with 99. 99999% uptime requirements n Multi-terabyte database applications n Media-neutral magazine products n Web news products

Characteristics Scrum n One of the “agile processes” n Self-organizing teams n Product progresses in a series of month-long “sprints” n Requirements are captured as items in a list of “product backlog” n No specific engineering practices prescribed n Uses generative rules to create an agile environment for delivering projects

Far from Agreement Requirements Scrum Project Noise Level Close to Agreement Anarchy Complex C om pl ic at ed Simple Close to Certainty Technology Far from Certainty Source: Strategic Management and Organizational Dynamics by Ralph Stacey in Agile Software Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle.

Scrum Overview

The Scrum Master Scrum n Represents management to the project n Responsible for enacting Scrum values and practices n Main job is to remove impediments

Scrum The Scrum Team n Typically 5 -10 people n Cross-functional n QA, Programmers, UI Designers, etc. n Members should be full-time n May be exceptions (e. g. , System Admin, etc. ) n Teams are self-organizing n What to do if a team self-organizes someone off the team? ? n Ideally, no titles but rarely a possibility n Membership can change only between sprints

Sprints Scrum n Scrum projects make progress in a series of “sprints” n Analogous to XP iterations n Target duration is one month n +/- a week or two n But, a constant duration leads to a better rhythm n Product is designed, coded, and tested during the sprint

Scrum Sequential vs. Overlapping Development Source: “The New Product Development Game”, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, Harvard Business Review, January 1986.

Scrum No changes during the sprint Change Inputs Sprint Tested Code n Plan sprint durations around how long you can commit to keeping change out of the sprint

Scrum Product Backlog n A list of all desired work on the project n Usually a combination of n n story-based work (“let user search and replace”) task-based work (“improve exception handling”) n List is prioritized by the Product Owner n Typically a Product Manager, Marketing, Internal Customer, etc.

Scrum Sample Product Backlog

t en ag an M Cu s to m em er s am Te m ru Sc Pr od uc Scrum t. O wn e r Sprint Planning Meeting Product Backlog Team Capabilities Business Conditions Technology Current Product Sprint Planning Meeting Sprint Goal Sprint Backlog

The Sprint Goal Scrum n A short “theme” for the sprint: Life Sciences “Support features necessary for population genetics studies. ” Database Application “Make the application run on SQL Server in addition to Oracle. ” Financial Services “Support more technical indicators than company ABC with real-time, streaming data. ”

From Sprint Goal to Sprint Backlog Scrum n Scrum team takes the Sprint Goal and decides what tasks are necessary n Team self-organizes around how they’ll meet the Sprint Goal n Manager doesn’t assign tasks to individuals n Managers don’t make decisions for the team n Sprint Backlog is created

Scrum Sample Sprint Backlog

Scrum Sprint Backlog during the Sprint n Changes n Team adds new tasks whenever they need to in order to meet the Sprint Goal n Team can remove unnecessary tasks n But: Sprint Backlog can only be updated by the team n Estimates are updated whenever there’s new information

Scrum Sprint Burndown Chart

Daily Scrum meetings n Parameters Scrum n n n Three questions: 1. 2. 3. n What did you do yesterday What will you do today? What obstacles are in your way? Chickens and pigs are invited n n Daily 15 -minutes Stand-up Not for problem solving Help avoid other unnecessary meetings Only pigs can talk

Scrum Questions about Scrum meetings? n Why daily? n “How does a project get to be a year late? ” n “One day at a time. ” § Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month. n Can Scrum meetings be replaced by emailed status reports? n No n n Entire team sees the whole picture every day Create peer pressure to do what you say you’ll do

Constraints Scrum n A complete list of constraints put on the team during a Sprint: n </end of list>

Sprint Review Meeting Scrum n Team presents what it accomplished during the sprint n Typically takes the form of a demo of new features or underlying architecture n Informal n 2 -hour prep time rule n Participants n Customers n Management n Product Owner n Other engineers

Scrum Release Sprints Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Release Sprint n If necessary, during “regular” sprints target friendly first use Beta customers and similar can use immediately after sprint n During a “release sprint” n Team prepares a product for release n Useful during n n active beta periods when transitioning a team to Scrum if quality isn’t quite where it should be on an initial release n Not a part of standard Scrum, just something I’ve found useful

Scalability of Scrum n Typical Scrum team is 5 -10 people n Sutherland used Scrum in groups of 500+ n I’ve used in groups 100+

Scrum of Scrums / Meta-Scrum

Further Sources Where to go next? n Scrum n www. mountaingoatsoftware. com/scrum n www. controlchaos. com n scrumdevelopment@yahoogroups. com n Agile Software Development with Scrum n n Agile Project Management with Scrum n n Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle General information n www. agilealliance. com

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