An Unexpected Journey: Improving a Scrum Implementation With Kanban

Craeg Strong CTO, Ariel Partners

July 8, 2015 New York, NY

An Unexpected Journey: Improving A Scrum

Implementa9on With Kanban

© Copyright Ariel Partners 2015 *[email protected] ((646) 467-‐7394 1

Software Development since 1988

Large Commercial & Government Projects

Agile Coach / Kanban Trainer

Performance & Scalability Architect

Apache Ant Open-Source Contributor

New York & Washington DC Area

CTO, Ariel Partners AKT, CSM, CSP, CSD, CSPO, PSM,

PMI-‐ACP, PMP, SAFe Agilist

www.arielpartners.com [email protected]

@ckstrong1

Craeg Strong

© Copyright Ariel Partners 2015 *[email protected] ((646) 467-‐7394

Criminal JusPce Project


“Permission Giving” Events

Why Agile/Scrum?

BASE YEAR 8/29/2012 – 8/28/2013

2013 2014 2015 2012 OPTION YEAR 1

8/29/2013 – 8/28/2014 . . .

Recent Successes

Federal AcquisiPon RegulaPons

Contract Type Firm Fixed Price

High Risk

Process Flexibility

Change Control Board MeePng

From TradiPonal Waterfall… M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11 M12

Year One M1 M2 M3 M4

Year Two M1 M2 M3 M4

Require-‐ ments

Design

Code And Unit Test (CUT)

System Test

GAT

UAT

PRR

PDR

CDR TRR

TRR

OAR

To…… Scrum! Release

Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 1

Sprint 1

Product Backlog

Sprint Backlog

Release Backlog

Sprint 2 Sprint 3

Sprint 4 Sprint 5

Sprint 6 Sprint Backlog Sprint

Backlog Sprint Backlog Sprint

Backlog Sprint Backlog

Sprint Planning System TesPng Government Acceptance TesPng

Release Planning

RetrospecPve CCB

Change Control Board MeePng

Capturing The Work User S

torie

s Change Requests Better Usability, Improved DNA Matching Algorthms

Problem Reports Defects We Inherited, Latent Defects

Infrastructure Test Automation Frameworks, Custom Scrum Templates, Test Data Generation

Documentation Design Documents, On-Line Help, CBT

Over

head Bugs New feature fails a test

Administrative Tasks Onboard new staff member, Re-cable blade server, reconfigure SharePoint

Our Initial Set Of Work Item Types

First Step: Per-‐Person Task Boards

Problem: Too Much MulPtasking


Problem: DocumentaPon Delivered Late

141 49%

76 26%

23 8%

11 4% 37

13%

Delivered On Time

Delivered < 10 Days Late

Delivered 10-‐20 Days Late

Delivered 21-‐29 Days Late

Delivered ≥ 30 Days Late 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Jan Feb Mar Apr

3 or more 2nd Rework Rework Accepted


Problem: Not Finishing User Stories

0

5

10

15

20

25

Sprint 5: User Story Comple9on Curve

Testers WaiPng For

Code

Limited Time For TesPng

Step Two: Scrum By User Story

Better coordination, fewer unfinished User Stories But, in the end, all the same problems…. ….plus another problem

Results?

Really. Long. Scrums.

New Items Added During Sprint Release

Month 2 Month 1

Sprint 1

Product Backlog

Sprint Backlog

Release Backlog

Sprint 2

Sprint Backlog

Change Control Board MeePng Influx of

Expedited Items

Expectation

q  Too Many Work Items q  Recurring Need For Estimates q  Constant Interruptions

Reality

Bursty DocumentaPon Requirements

Sprint TesPng

DocumentaPon End-‐User

Procurement Guidance

Release

Design & Technical DocumentaPon

Sprint Sprint Sprint Sprint Sprint

TesPng DocumentaPon

TesPng DocumentaPon

TesPng DocumentaPon

TesPng DocumentaPon



Training DocumentaPon












? (Dark Matter)

Why Were We Always So Busy?

Work Item Type Class Of Service Business User Story Standard

Infrastructure User Story Standard Tier III EscalaPon Expedited ProducPon Script Fixed Date Hot Fix Expedited Escaped Defect Expedited DocumentaPon Deliverable Fixed Date DocumentaPon Rework Expedited Technical Chore Intangible

Kanban gives us the analytical tools to understand these work items better and to see why they have been

disrupting the smooth delivery of value © Copyright Ariel Partners 2015 *[email protected] ((646) 467-‐7394

Our First Physical Board

Proto-‐Kanban Board

18

Business

Infrastructure

Next Step: Work Item Types, Progress Bar

Business

Infrastructure

DocumentaPon

Escaped Defect

Hot Fix

EsPmate

Blocked

Second Step: Modeling The Workflow

Recapping Our Journey


q Started With Scrum q Ran Into Challenges q Gradually Adopting Kanban Ideas q Utilizing STATIK q Not Using the “K” Word q Process Will Continue To Evolve

Choosing A Methodology


0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

*According to VersionOne

When Not To Use Scrum


Scrum Kanban Awareness & Precedent

Awareness, Acceptance, or OrganizaPonal Precedent

No Experience With Agile, or Previous NegaPve Experience

Nature of the Work Best for Development or “Disciplined O&M”

O&M or Development plus O&M

Stakeholder Availability

Time-‐Boxed IteraPons provide Convenient Planning Horizon for Stakeholders

Stakeholders cannot commit to fixed Pme-‐frames, or can engage more frequently

External Dependencies Effort fairly self-‐contained, Cross-‐FuncPonal team

Lots of dependencies on external teams

Openness to Change Need or Want Clean Break from past: RevoluPon

EvoluPonary approach is necessary

Team Preferences & Maturity

Ceremonies, Time-‐Box Desirable

Escape “Tyranny of the Time-‐Box,” Lengthy Planning MeePngs

What If You Are Kind Of In The Middle?


Scrum Kanban Awareness & Precedent

Awareness, Acceptance, or OrganizaPonal Precedent

No Experience With Agile, or Previous NegaPve Experience

Nature of the Work Best for Development or “Disciplined O&M”

O&M or Development plus O&M

Stakeholder Availability

Time-‐Boxed IteraPons provide Convenient Planning Horizon for Stakeholders

Stakeholders cannot commit to fixed Pme-‐frames, or can engage more frequently

External Dependencies Effort fairly self-‐contained, Cross-‐FuncPonal team

Lots of dependencies on external teams

Openness to Change Need or Want Clean Break from past: RevoluPon

EvoluPonary approach is necessary

Team Preferences & Maturity

Ceremonies, Time-‐Box Desirable

Escape “Tyranny of the Time-‐Box,” Lengthy Planning MeePngs

Consider Scrumban


Adopting Scrum

To facilitate adopPon of Scrum, starPng from wherever you are right now Demand Analysis, Workflow Analysis

Amplifying Scrum

Help idenPfy, implement, and measure improvements for an exisPng Scrum team WIP limits, Lead Time Metrics

Scaling Scrum

To facilitate inter-‐team planning and communicaPon Visualize and manage dependencies via Kanban boards, PorColio Kanban

Using the Kanban Method for…

Summary: Choosing A Methodology


Pick Best-Fit For Situation q Learn Both Kanban and Scrum q Full-Time Coach q Up-Front Training “Agile Bootcamp” q Learning Kanban Makes You Better At Scrum

QuesPons?


We are available for consulPng or Agile coaching We love to compare notes and talk shop!

Ariel Partners (646) 467-‐7394 [email protected] www.arielpartners.com @arielpartners

Thank You!

An Unexpected Journey: Improving a Scrum Implementation With Kanban

Software

release month

m1 m2 m3 m4 year

test administrative

new staff member

head bugs new feature

craeg strong cto

custom scrum templates

online help