Agile In Practice

Agile In PracticeBenjamin Booth

Spring 2010

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Programmer/Architect

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Author/Bloggerbenjaminbooth.com

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Prescriptive-style History

•Restrict change to improve predictions

•Drive with the plan•Communicate with documents

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Waterfall Is Expensive!

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Waterfall Not all Bad

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•Space shuttle flight control system•Requirements are well defined•Unlimited resources•Useful for < 5% of all software

projects

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Typical Requirements

•The site shall have a ‘nice looking’ menu page for an existing restaurant’s seven year old website. (Nice looking is defined by the customer.)

•The system shall have the ability to edit the menu online. Current menus are stored in a MS Word document.

•The site shall have a ‘Suggestion’ capability. Users can use a form to submit suggestions which get stored and also emailed to the owner.

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Agile

•People (users) are the focus•Measure success with working software•Expect and embrace change•Use small, skilled, motivated teams

agilemanifesto.org

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Agile - SCRUM Style

•Japanese origin•Whole team•1995 OOPSLA, by Jeff Sutherland and

Ken Schwaber•Skeleton of practices and roles

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SCRUM Workflow

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SCRUM Roles

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•Product Owner: Manages the backlog•Scrum Master: Coach the process•Team Member: Write code

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Practice Tip

•Create User Advocates•Include User Advocates in:•Story creation•Priority setting•Interaction design sessions

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SCRUM Artifacts

•Backlog•Sprint Burn

Down•Sprint Backlog•Past Backlogs

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Practice Tip

•Store Backlogs electronically•Use physical Task Boards

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• Backlog

• Sprint Backlog

• Taskboard

• Sprint Burn Down

Artifacts

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• Backlog

• Sprint Backlog

• Taskboard

• Sprint Burn Down

Artifacts

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Artifacts

• Backlog

• Sprint Backlog

• Taskboard

• Sprint Burn Down

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Artifacts

• Backlog

• Sprint Backlog

• Taskboard

• Sprint Burn Down

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Practice Tip

•Keep old Sprint Backlogs & Burndowns

•Keep old tasks•Use for velocity calculations•Helps identify trends

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• Each developer has a set of cards with estimation values

• A user story is presented

• Each developer picks the card representing the number of story points the user story should take

• Everyone then shows their cards

• Discussion happens until agreement on a number

• Repeat for each user story

• Schedule a sprint with the required number of story points based on your team’s velocity

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Planning Poker

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•easily navigate to the menu from the home page so that I can make a phone order (delivery)

•be able to make suggestions for improvements to my overall dining experience

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As a patron, I want to...

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As the restaurant manager, I want to...

•create, update and delete menu items so that it stays interesting and keeps people coming back

•generate a PDF of the menu so that I can give it to the printer for creating ‘real’ menus

•get customer feedback emailed to me so I can quickly respond to problems and also pass on compliments to the staff

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Agile Challenges

•Access to real customers•Large, distributed teams•Industry misperceptions•Command-and-control culture

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Summary

•Waterfall or nothing still predominant

•Agile is highly adaptive, people centric

•SCRUM is an effective Agile process skeleton

•If your process isn’t working adapt it

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Practice Tip

•Introduce incrementally•Business strategy and architecture a

must•Get everyone speaking the same

language

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Practice Tip

•Allocate QA time explicitly•Keep PM simple but do it•Keep improving your process

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Q&A

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• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development

• http://www.waterfall2006.com/

• http://www.agileManifesto.org/

• http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000588.html

• http://www.drdobbsonline.net/architect/207100381

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28management%29

• http://spectrum.ieee.org/sep05/1685/failt1

References

As a patron, I want to easily navigate to the menu from the home page so that I can make a phone order (delivery)

As a restaurant owner, I want patrons to be able to make suggestions so that I can improve their dining experience.

As the restaurant manager, I want to create, update and delete menu items so that the menu stays interesting.

As the restaurant manager, I want to generate a PDF of the menu so that I can give it to the printer for creating ‘real’ menus.

As the restaurant manager, I want to get customer feedback emailed to me so I can quickly respond to problems and also pass on compliments to the staff.