I Run Out Of Silver Bullets, Now What?

Special thanks to Paul Nagy @NSN!

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*Scrum / Agile

*Large Scale Transformation

*Team

*Management / Leadership

*Agile Testing / Test Automation

*…

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Product Owner ask the Team :

Can you commit?

Nobody Answers.

Scrum Master looks around, turn

back to the Product Owner

Yes, we can!

*Scrum Master is NOT the manager of

the team.

Team make commitment to the Product

Owner, not the Scrum Master.

Product Owner ask the Team :

Can you commit those?

Team :

No, we can not finish

all those, but we can

take it, and put to

“uncommitted”.

*

Product Owner decides what to do in the

sprint, Team confirms whether they can

finish it or not.

If there’s a little bit capacity left still, just

leave it, since during the Sprint, if Team

- finished all committed features

- Still have certain amount of time

They can call the Product Owner, and select

a couple more features to do in the rest

of the Sprint.

User Story :

“As a Product Owner, I really

want the team to finish on

time.”

Or

“As a Release Manager, I want

the team to do integration

testing for feature x and y.”

Etc.

*INVEST User

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimable

Small

Testable

As a

<type of user>

I want

<some goal>

so that

<some reason>

User Story :

“Put security path on

product version 2.0”

Q : what are those patches?

A : Team decide.

*

Ensure your Product Owner join the Sprint

Planning with Product Backlog in a good

shape, which has :

Fine-grained, detailed requirements

ready for consumption in the next

sprint, e.g. small user stories

Backlog Grooming Session

Hold it near the ¾ of your sprint.

All team members and PO join.

While the team is splitting features

into tasks, they have routines :

• Design

• Coding (including Unit Test)

• Testing

• Test automation

• Communication with team A

*

All the team members together try to

understand the selected features by sketch

out its design collaboratively, involving both

the developing point of view and also testing

perspectives.

Task Splitting

It’s so hard to estimate the

Test Automation task. But

coach said having tasks

bigger than 16 hours is not

good, so we have to split.

*

What are those Acceptance Tests?

Is testing environment hard to configure?

Any external testing equipment needed?

Any testability support needed? Do we have those?

Any keywords might be needed? Do we have them?

Etc.

*

Scrum Master

(Look around) Let’s start from

you, Zhang San, you can start.

……

(Look at Wang Er) I think you

can keep working on this task,

and contact Zhou Si for lab

issues.

……

Scrum Master

*

TEAM

Progress Monitoring

Task Assignment

Risk Management

Scrum Master @Daily Scrum

Keep an eye on the amount

of ongoing tasks

Surface blocks and

impediments team can’t

solve Notice personal

problems or conflicts and resolve them

Team Member :

I fixed one bug yesterday.

I’ll fix another bug today.

Or :

In the morning, I started

testing, but the SUT is not

able to be connected, after

called Lab engineer for help,

In the afternoon I finally

started to do real testing,

not finished yet.

I’ll continue tomorrow.

*

Focus on team progress

• How long it’ll take still

• Any surprise met

• Any new understandings of the domain or software system to share

• Any problems others should know

• Any help needed

Update status based on task

Team Member

(task x : 8 hours)

Day 1 : No impediments, I’m

working on that. I think 2

hours still left.

Day 2 : It’s hard to debug, but

I’m working on that. It’s fine,

let’s keep 2 hours for it.

Day 3 : ……

*

Use Burndown Chart

React when progress deviates

Clarify

•What happened

•What is the impact

•Are we still on track

•What should we do

Team Member asks can they switch

the Daily Scrum to be twice a week

They thought

• Nobody cares my status

• Nor I care others, since I can

not understand theirs…

*

Managing TASK than people

Line Manager (recently nominated)

“One team member was stuck

on task x (6 hours), still

unfinished after 3 days. Others

were busy with bug fixing. Task

y depended on task x.”

“I think Maybe we need a Gantt

Chart., to control the task

dependency.”

Q : Where’s burndown chart?

A : We don’t use that.

*

• Visual Management

• Visible / handy / accessible

information around team

• Escalate impediments to the team

and searching for help as soon as

possible

• Reveal progress violation via

burndown chart

*

DONE

Q : So, this feature is DONE? How about the Condition of Satisfaction?

A : It’s on the Product Backlog management tool.

(browsing…)

Q : This is your Condition of Satisfaction?!!

A : Yes… As written there :SCV testing done, QC updated, Unit testing

coverage above 90%

Condition of Satisfaction

Definition of Done

*Condition of Satisfaction

• = Confirmation (User Story’s 3C)

• ≈Acceptance Test

It is

• Feature’s behavior details

• User’s expected results in

certain scenarios

DONE & Demo

Q : How many items done?

A : Eh, none of them.

Q : So there is no demo.

A : But they are almost done…

*

A feature is DONE or not, based on the

Definition of Done.

If it’s not DONE, then there is no demo

for that, and they didn’t gain the size

(most probably you use story point).

*

Team

“we have an estimation

problem! We always under-

estimate.”

*

Competence & Low Experience

• Pair with skilled workmates

• Backlog Grooming helps

Risk not Acknowledged

• Uncover risks in Daily Scrum

Task Allocation

• Rough design in Sprint Planning

New Team Members

• Pair with skilled members

*

Laptop Meetings

• People working on their laptops

most of the time

• Don’t listen to others

• Not all members understand the

final decisions

• You have to check with them

one by one

• Explicitly ask the person when

you need their comment

*

• Everybody expresses their opinion

• Focus on the purpose of meeting

• Promote open communication

• Encourage healthy conflicts

*

*Thanks!

Xu Yi

Twitter : kaverjody mailto:YI.XU@HP.COM

mailto:kaverjody@gmail.com http://damianji.spaces.live.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/kaveri

“Senior Agile Consultant” @ HP Enterprise Services Scrum / Agile Coaching, Agile Testing & Test Automation HP敏捷开发服务 新浪微群：http://q.weibo.com/820095