Speaker: Rachel Davies www.agilexp.com S
Speaker: Rachel Davieswww.agilexp.com
S
What’s this talk about?
• Understanding industrycontext that’s useful toknow when you areadopting agile.
• What Agile teams aredoing that might be hard towork out from the books.
Why does it matter?
Because books, training and conferences talk aboutagile methods with labels like Scrum, XP, DSDM,etc.
I’ll be talking about the form of Agile which I seeteams actually do.
My experience?
• XP practitioner since 2000.
• Consulting agile coach since 2003. Coachedteams at BBC, CODA, Egg, Lloyds TSB, Nokia,Orange, Roche, Screwfix, and many more.
• Agile community work includes Agile Allianceboard, Experience reports for Agile2007/2006,Agile2008 conference chair, Agile Businessconference, BCS SPA, RetrospectiveFacilitators Gathering, Scrum Gathering openspace facilitator, XPDays, XTC, etc.
Your experience?
Methodologists United!
“I kicked off "The LightweightProcess Summit" with a 10minute plea for a manifesto, andthen watched with awe and gleeas these people, with some deepphilosophical differences, foundthemselves in fundamentalagreement with the notion thatwhat we shared in common wasmore important than ourdifferences.”Bob Martin re: Agile Manifesto
Method Camps remain
Crystal
DSDM
Scrum XP
LEAN
Banging the Drum
Keeping a method simple makesit easy to transmit and easy tounderstand.
Agile methods can help you getstarted but you have to fill inthe gaps.
What am I seeing teams do?
• I work with Scrum teams who use XP practiceslike Velocity, Test-Driven Development andUser Stories describe their Product Backlog.
• I work with XP teams who use Burndowncharts, Retrospectives and Daily Scrum format.
• I work with Lean teams who use a mix of theabove.
• It seems a generic Agile mashups are emerging.
Sorry, No again! Work out new Agile practice gradually through Retrospectives
The 13th Practice?
CorporateCulture
XP SCRUM
Mashup Zone
Teams create their own agile “mashups”
Agile Transition
How XP are you?
Can you claim to be an XP team ..• if you don't use index cards?• if you don't write code test-first?• if you don't program in pairs?• if you don't sit together?• If you don’t have an onsite customer?It seems that some practices are more optional
than others
How Scrum are you?Can you claim to be a Scrum team ..• if you don't have a Sprint Review?• if you don't deliver a Product Increment at the
end of each Sprint?• if you don't have a Sprint Retrospective?• if you don't have a visible Sprint Burndown?• if you don't have a defined Sprint Goal?• if your Product Backlog is not prioritized?Maybe there’s a good reason why you don’t?
Typical Agile Practice List Daily Scrum/Standup Iterations/Sprints User Stories Release Plans Test-Driven Development Velocity Burndown Charts Team boards Retrospectives Continuous Integration
X Pair ProgrammingX Product IncrementX Sit Together
Agile Roles
Between 5 and 10 team members• Cross-functional including at least one tester• Self-organizing
The Team
Split the Customer (ProductOwner) role
The Truth works with support ofcommittees, management,customers, sales people, but is theonly person that makes decisionsabout priorities
With a trusty sidekick …
The Truth
The Voice of the Customer
The Voice of the Customeris typically an analyst whoworks closely with theteam to make sure thatuser stories andacceptance tests areconsistent, valuable anduseful.
Agile Project Managerand Scrum Master
Responsible for:
• Facilitating meetings
• Reporting progress
• Shielding the team
• Working with the team to removeobstacles
• Preparing the road ahead
Whole Team
Current Iteration Future Iterations
Agile Cycle
Start from
Ziffer (Zero Feature Iteration) -- Michael Hill
Projects start with an Iteration Zero
Two Week Cycle
PLAN
DEVELOP
DEVELOP
DEVELOP
DEVELOP
DEVELOP
DEVELOP
DEVELOP
DEVELOP
DEMO
RETRO
Most teams set their iteration/sprint length at 2 weeks
DEV
Start the Day around the Board• Teams start the day with a Daily Standup by their
Project Board using the Scrum question format.• The Project Board shows what the team are working
on today and how much is left.
Release Cycle
Sprints/Iterations
Releases
INTERNAL
ZFR
POLISH
EXTERNAL
EXTERNAL
POLISH
Sprints/Iterations
Conformity?• Scrum says “Inspect & Adapt”• Manifesto says “the team reflects on how to become
more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavioraccordingly.”
• Your team will be different and that’s OK :-)
Agile Books
• Use as source of ideas• Not “religious” texts• Read more than one!
No, I’m not suggesting we need this.Project are too varied so we need loose Agile.The Agile Manifesto already serves the purpose
of a framework.
Unified Agile v2.0?
Any Questions?