Something called agile 1 Before we start Paavo

“Something called agile” 1

Before we start… • Paavo Pekkanen • Graduated from EVTEK 2006 • Nokia • Scrum master • Today’s topics: • Software development processes in general • Scrum software development • Roles • Practices • Artifacts • Tools • Values 2

Waterfall process What’s wrong with waterfall? Why can’t we use it? If it’s not broken, don’t fix it! But… Have you ever had any of these problems? - Things didn’t go exactly as planned? - Delivered software wasn’t exactly what the customer needed - Delivering new features to your software takes too much time Well… Of course… But you can’t avoid these problems, can you? You can, if you have the right tool for the right purpose. Maybe you should try Scrum or some other agile method? 3

Lean, Agile, Scrum – what’s difference? Lean – a “philosophy” to optimize everything Agile – a project management methodology 4 Scrum, Kanban & XP – agile process tools with lean characteristics

“Scrum is not a silver bullet!” 5

Scrum in a nutshell • Scrum defines: • Set of practices • Roles • Split the work into short iterative cycles - “sprints” • Typical sprint length is 1 -4 weeks • Every sprint produces potentially shippable product increment • New releases are shipped frequently, but with “small steps” • Scrum doesn’t have to be about software development 6

Project triangle – waterfall Requirements FIXED Optimal project Resources, people 7 Time, schedules

Project triangle – waterfall fail mode 1 Requirements Consequence Not enough people! Optimal project Resources, people 8 Time, schedules

Project triangle – waterfall fail mode 2 Too much stuff to do! Requirements Consequence Optimal project Resources, people 9 Time, schedules

Project triangle – scrum Requirements Optimal project Resources, people Time, schedules FIXED 10

Project triangle – scrum fail mode Requirements Consequence Not enough people Optimal project Resources, people 11 Time, schedules

“You can only pick two!” Good Cheap 12 Fast

Scrum roles • Scrum defines four roles: • Business owner • Product owner • Scrum master • Team member • NO project manager! 13

Scrum Roles • Business owner • “The boss” • Supplies resources to the team • Sets the direction of the business 14

Scrum Roles • Product owner • Sets the direction of the product • Collects the new requirements from all of the stakeholders • Prioritizes the requirements • “The voice of the customer” for the development team • Doesn’t have a permission to interfere the daily development work • Is NOT a manager of the team 15

Scrum Roles • Scrum master • Responsible for the scrum process • Makes sure the Scrum principals are obeyed • Facilitates • Takes care of the practical things • “Servant leader“ • Removes impediments • Anything which prevents or slows down the working of the development team • “A team’s bulldozer” • Acts as a buffer between the development team and the rest of the world • Shields the team against any external interference • Keeps everything visible! • Is NOT a manager of the team 16

Scrum Roles • Development team (scrum team) • Typical size: 5– 9 people • Responsible to deliver the product increment • Commits to the sprint goals agreed with the product owner • Self-organizing • Cross-functional • Protected against any external interference Allowed to be concentrated to work only on things it does the best – delivering the product increment of the current sprint 17

Question Can one person have more than just one role? 18

Scrum Roles • Avoid situation where one person has more than one role • Sometimes it’s not possible • Scrum master + product owner = conflicts of interest • Scrum master + team member = no real scrum master • Make sure everyone understands the roles • Which responsibilities belong to each role • Common mistakes which ARE NOT TRUE: • Scrum master is the “Project manager” • Product owner is responsible for the business • Scrum master controls the requirements (user stories) • Team members report to scrum master in daily meetings 19

Recap – any questions? • Business owner • “The boss” • Product owner • Manages the requirements • Knows what the customer wants • Scrum master • Ensures the scrum principles are followed • Ensures the development team is fully functional and productive • Scrum team / Development team • Organizes itself and its work 20

Scrum Practices – Sprint planning • Product backlog • Collection of “stuff” to be done “someday” • Typically a list of requirement specifications for new features • Could include also “studies”, “issues”, “bugs” or any work which takes the development team’s time • Single requirement is called PBI, Product Backlog Item • Anyone can add new items into the product backlog • Items must be prioritized • “Features A, D and G are the most important!” • Product owner is responsible for the priority order • Requires close collaboration with all of the stakeholders • Priority must be updated frequently! 21

Scrum Practices – Sprint planning • Sprint backlog • A subset of the Product backlog • List of the requirements for the current sprint • “These are the most important requirements - today!” • Content agreed together with the product owner and the scrum team • PO doesn’t have the power to decide the content alone • Scrum team has the power to “no, that’s impossible” • “What’s not in the backlog, doesn’t exist” • No one can ask the scrum team to do anything outside the sprint content 22

Question A big boss enters the development team’s room saying: “I have a very important demo with a customer next week. I need you to implement this sales statistics feature asap!” What happens? 23

Scrum Practices – Sprint planning • Product Backlog Item (PBI) • Typically a requirement for a new feature • PBI must have • A user story, which describes the item • An acceptance criteria, which defines the Definition of Done (Do. D) • Additionally PBI can have • Size estimation • Story points • Team votes the size • Accuracy improves slowly • Business value estimation • “How much we want it? ” • “How much it hurts us to not to have it” 24 My. SQl daily backup and restoration mechanism As a customer, I don’t want to lose my data if the My. SQL server crashes. Acceptance criteria: • There automatic daily backups done for all the data in database • Restoration scripts are manual • After incident occurred, solved and servers running, data restoration should be possible to do in 1 hour • These new features are documented internally • All these features have been tested and no open bugs remain • Other parts of the system has not been broken by these modifications

Recap – any questions? • Product backlog • Collection of work to do • Sprint backlog • A subset of Product backlog • Defines the goals for the current sprint • Product Backlog Item (PBI) • A feature requirement or any other work which takes time 25

Scrum Practices – Sprint planning • Task list • TODO list of everything one must do during the sprint • Tasks are created from the content of the sprint backlog items • Shows the status of the sprint progress • Keeps track of the daily development work 26

Task list example – Beginning of the sprint User story As an end user, I want to… blaa… so that I can… Not started Implement the UI Write the test cases blaa Run the test cases Task A As an administrator, I want to…. Task B Task C Task D 27 In progress Done

Task list example – In the middle of the sprint User story Not started In progress Write the test cases As an end user, I want to… blaa… so that I can… Implement the UI blaa Run the test cases Task A As an administrator, I want to…. Task B Task C Task D 28 Done

Task list example – In the middle of the sprint User story As an end user, I want to… blaa… so that I can… Not started In progress Run the test cases Done Write the test cases Implement the UI blaa Task A As an administrator, I want to…. Task B Task C Task D 29

Task list example – At the end of the sprint User story As an end user, I want to… blaa… so that I can… Not started In progress Done Write the test cases Implement the UI blaa Run the test cases Task A As an administrator, I want to…. Task B Task C Task D 30

Task list example 31

Task list example 32

Task list example 33

Question Who assigns the tasks for individual team members? 34

Scrum Practices – Sprint in action • Daily Scrum • Daily stand-up meeting for the team to share information • The meeting must be so short and efficient that people don’t have to sit, 5 to 10 min • Every team member is asked: • What did you do yesterday? • What will you do today? • Do you have any impediments with your work? • When it’s not your turn to speak, SHUT UP and listen! • Scrum master makes sure the discussion keeps on track 35

Question A team starts to use the daily scrum practice, what will change? 36

Scrum Practices • Sprint review meeting • All the stakeholders are invited • The scrum team demonstrates what was built during the sprint • Product owner declares whether the acceptance criteria was met for each item, or not • Accepted items have permission to be released 37

Question What happens, if an item doesn’t meet the acceptance criteria? 38

Scrum Practices • Retrospective meeting • Feedback meeting after every sprint • Facilitated by the scrum master • The team considers • “What did we do well” • “What can we do better? ” • Translate to actions • “Inspect and adapt” 39

Recap – any questions? • Task list • TODO list for the sprint • Team members pick tasks for themselves • Daily scrum • Daily stand-up meeting to share information • Kept short and efficient • Sprint review • Team demonstrates the outcome of the sprint to Product owner • Retrospective meeting • The scrum team analyzes their own process 40

How to write a user story • Template: As a <some role>, I want <something>, so that <some value> • Describes who wants, what wants and what for in one sentence • Examples: • “As an end user I want to be able to upload my picture to my profile page, so that my profile page looks cool” • “As a sales person, I want to see statistics of my performance in graphical charts, so that I monitor my performance” • “As an administrator, I want to have database backups, so that I won’t be in big trouble if something unexpected happens” • User story does not define any details of the implementation! • Every user story needs a Definition of Done (acceptance criteria) 41

Definition of Done • Definition of Done must describe exactly what “done” means • • Product Owner must pay careful attention when defining the Do. D The scrum team must challenge the Do. D, if necessary “What’s not in Do. D, is not needed” Item is either “done” or “not done” • Example: • Story: Picture upload • • end user can upload his/her picture from profile settings page picture is shown on the left upper corner of the profile page picture is scaled to fit the profile picture box on the profile page functional tests are passed regression tests are passed design documents are updated user's guide is updated • Does not define any details of the implementation! 42

How to define tasks • What’s a good size for a task? • You don’t know before you try • Some tips and hints: • If completing the task takes more than you can do in one day, ask yourself: “Can I split this in two? ” • If it takes more time to write the tasks than doing the tasks, ask yourself: “Am I writing too small tasks? ” • BUT… If a very small task is critical and easy to forget, maybe it’s a good idea to put it on the task board • Be clear on writing the task • Any team member must understand what the task is about • New tasks occur in every project • Any team member can write new tasks when needed • Leave some room for surprises • Remember the team is self-organized, DON’T assign tasks to people • If you pick a task, the rest of the team trust you really do that task • You should finish the task before picking the next one 43

Task examples • Story: • Tasks: • “As an end user I want to be able to upload my picture to my profile page, so that my profile page looks cool” • Acceptance criteria (Do. D): • end user can upload his/her picture from profile settings page • picture is shown on the left upper corner of the profile page • picture is scaled to fit the profile picture box on the profile page • functional tests are passed • regression tests are passed • design documents are updated • user's guide is updated • Update DB structure (1 h) • Implement changes to “Profile settings” page (3 h) • NOTE: Ask the product owner for picture size limitations • Implement changes to “Profile” page (3 h) • NOTE: picture goes to left upper corner • NOTE: picture must be scaled to fit the picture box • Code review (4 h) • Update design documents (1 h) • Update user’s guide (1 h) • Write test cases (5 h) • Test case review (15 h) • Run functional test cases (4 h) • Run regression test cases (4 h) • TOTAL HOURS: 39 44

Question What are your organization’s values? 45

Scrum Values • Scrum has five values • Commitment Focus Be willing to commit to a goal. Scrum provides the tools for it. Do your job. Focus all your efforts and skills on doing the work that you’ve committed to doing. Don’t worry about anything else. • Focus • Openness • Respect Openness • Courage Scrum keeps everything about a project visible to everyone. • WARNING: If your team lacks these values, you will most probably fail in scrum implementation Courage Have the courage to commit, to act, to be open and to expect respect. 46 Respect Individuals are shaped by their background and their experiences. It is important to respect the different people who comprise a team.

The end Thank you! 47