10 Essential Tips for Conquering Agile Transition

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10 Essential Tips for Conquering Agile Transition

Obaidur (OB) RashidSenior Director, Product DevelopmentOracle Corporation

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Disclaimer # 1

Opinions expressed in this talk are my own and do not reflect the view of my employer

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Context

– Scope and Scale

– Impetus for Change

Highlights of the changes

Results / Outcome

“Tips”

Q&A

Road Ahead

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Context

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Distributed Team

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ReleaseCode Complete Code Freeze

Next Release Development Starts Here

Post Release Support

2 Weeks 1 Week

5 Weeks

2 Weeks

Challenges

1. Multiple focus

2. Every release starts from behind

3. Dev. & QA are not aligned

4. QA is always behind and quality suffers

5. No built in ramp up, ramp down cadence

Pre Release Stabilization

8 - 10 Weeks

... Development …

Original SDLC

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Unhappy Team!

I wish we had more time to test!

No matter how fast we run, we are always behind!

There is got to be a better way!

I do not like switching context all the time!

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Changes

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Week 1 Week 13

13 Week Release Cycle

Building Blocks

PDS – Product Development Sprint

BFS – Bug Fix Sprint (Customer Defects)

PRS – Product Release Sprint

RSS – Release Stabilization Sprint

RSS

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

1 Week

PDS - 1

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

2 Weeks

PDS - 2

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

PDS - 3

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

PDS - 4

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

BFS

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

PRS

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

2 Weeks 2 Weeks 2 Weeks 2 Weeks 2 Weeks

PRS

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

PDS - 1

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Release n+1Release n-1

RSS

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Single Focus SDLC

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Results

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Happiness Restored!

“We have all embraced a process that allows us to

easily adapt to our customers’ evolving needs, yet achieve higher quality

and mitigate risk.”

“Agile at our company has promoted collaboration, accountability and

accurate visibility into our project’s progress.”

“I do not feel like I am running endlessly anymore”

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Tips

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Make a compelling case to business for the change, first time around

Tip # 1

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Business Drivers for Us

Heterogeneous team

Growing product complexity

Lower risk tolerance

Increased sensitivity to quality issues

Team morale

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Invest in formal training for the entire team and insist on doing it together

Tip # 2

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Make Transition Everyone’s Problem

Tip # 3

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Why Form A Transition Team?

More than one brain in action

Avoids the perception of a top-down push

Greater ownership of the new process

An insider can do the selling when resistance arises

Increased appreciation for cross functional considerations

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Use an Agile approach to become an Agile team

Tip # 4

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Follow Scrum for Transition Itself

1. Form the transition team

2. Assign roles and responsibility

3. Create backlog of stories

4. Configure the tools

5. Prepare Agile boards

6. Do Sprint meetings including daily stand-ups

7. Conduct sprint review and retrospect

8. Rinse and repeat (3-7)

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Transition Backlog

Agile team

Accepting Stories

A list of typical tasks

All Meetings

Default task created for story

Documentation Plan

Emergency Patches

Engineering Initiatives

Enhancement Requests

Internal Bugs

Issue Workflows

Planned Vacations & Unplanned Absences

Production Bugs

Scope Change Within Story

Lifecycle

Retrospective

Retrospectives

Shared/External Resources

Dependencies

Specs to User Story

Sprint Descriptions

Sprint Meetings

Sprint review recordings

Sprint Type, Length, Start &

End Days

Team Formation Text Review for Translations

WIP Limit Guideline

Release / Sprint Events

Release Meetings

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Example Transition Story

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Document the rationale behind the decisions/choices made

Tip # 5

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WIKI Space for Transition

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Friday – ThursdaySprint Planning – Friday or Thursday afternoonSprint Review (demo) & Retrospective – Thursday morning

Pros ConsDemo & Release are currently on Thursdays, so no change needed

Sprint Planning is on WFH Friday – requires team to be present

Team can start tasks on Monday – start of the week

Thursday - WednesdaySprint Planning – ThursdaySprint Review (demo) & Retrospective - WednesdayPros ConsMost people will be in office for major meetings

Demo needs to be changed to Wednesday

Release date will not coincide with sprint end

Sprint start is on same day as release

Monday - FridaySprint Planning – MondaySprint Review (demo) & Retrospective - Friday

Tuesday - MondaySprint Planning – TuesdaySprint Review (demo) & Retrospective - MondayPros Cons

Most people will be in office for major meetings

Demo needs to be changed to Monday

Release date will not coincide with sprint end

Weekend break prior to sprint end is not ideal

Pros ConsFollows natural work week

Demo needs to be changed to Friday

Release date will not coincide with sprint end

Sprint Review & Retrospective on WFH Friday

When To Start Sprints?

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Philosophy on Internal Defects

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Plan ahead for distractions, recurring events and special activities

Tip # 6

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Account For …

Emergency patches

Paid time off

Shared / external resources

Engineering initiatives

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Bend The Rule Judiciously, One Size Does Not Fit All

Tip # 7

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Pragmatic Choices

Managers as Scrum Master

1 Shared QA per Sprint

Weekly Demos instead of Sprint demo.

Bug fixes sprinkled in feature sprints

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Stress on team empowerment every step of the way and mean it

Tip # 8

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Relinquish Control to The Team

Make them the stake holders for Transition Team

Give them the freedom to form their own team

Team names themselves

Team decides when they want to meet

Team decides their WIP limit

Team defines the meaning of story points

Team commits to stories

Team is given privacy during the retrospect

Yes, even when it makes everyone else uncomfortable!

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Give Them The Tools of The Trade

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Give Them Autonomy

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Anticipate Staggered / Delayed Resistance

Tip # 9

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Enthusiasm – Fear - Resistance

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Change Curve

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Set expectations carefully and strike a balance between optimism and fear

Tip # 10

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Key Takeaways

- Create a single focus SDLC

- Make transition everyone’s problem

- Take an agile approach to the change

- Empower the team

- Measure progress & resultsfocus SDLC

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Additional Resources

The Agile Architecture Roadmap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF09A-E6K0M

Rolling out Agile in a Large Enterprise

http://evolvebeyond.com/resources/yahoorollout/YahooAgileRollout1.pdf

Agile on InfoQ

http://www.infoq.com/agile/

Succeding with Agile

http://www.amazon.com/Succeeding-Agile-Software-Development-Using/dp/0321579364/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397853335&sr=1-2&keywords=agile

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That’s It!