Introduction to Agile & Scrum

Introduction to Agile & Scrum Workshop

Introduction

• Course Overview• Content• Learning Outcomes

Who is here today?• Name

• Current role

• Who is your favourite artist of all time?

• Expectations from this workshop

Today…• Learn about Agile & Scrum

• Lots of group exercises

• Please ask questions

• Have fun!

What we will cover

• Agile

• Scrum

• User Stories

• Agile Estimation

• Backlog Management

• Continuous Development

Learning OutcomesAt the end of today you will be able to:

• Describe agile, and how it differs from Scrum.

• Describe the basic rules of Scrum.

• Write and Evaluate User Stories.

• Describe Relative and Absolute Estimation

• Describe Story Points

• Play Planning Poker

• Play Fast Estimation

• Prioritise a Backlog, while considering Value and Risk.

• ...

Learning Outcomes (cont’d)At the end of today you will also be able to:

• Describe how Sequential and Continuous Development differ.

• List some of the practices that are used in Continuous

Development.

• Describe Technical Debt and list some elements of managing

debt.

Agile

Introduction to Agile

• Why Agile?

• Agile Manifesto

• Domination of Scrum

Would you trust this man?

You Should!

• In the early 90’s• Most software projects were failing• But they were all succeeding• What was different?• ‘agile’

Very brief history of agile & Scrum

70 ‘s

Waterfallcreated

ScrumcreatedRate of Business Change

Accelerates

2013199390’s

ScrumDominate

Light weight Methodologies

arise

2001

agileManifesto

created

The New New Product

Development Game

1986

Source: http://www.versionone.com/Agile101/Agile-Software-Development-Benefits/

How to Sell Agile to your Boss?

Exercise - Presto Manifesto

1. Define a successful project?

2. Form teams.

3. List of ‘critical elements of successful projects’.

4. Reach team consensus & signs those that they agree with.

5. Review similarities between teams.

6. Review similarities to the agile manifesto.

Agile manifesto (just value statement)

Process and toolsIndividuals and interactions

over

Following a planResponding to change over

Comprehensive documentationWorking software over

Contract negotiationCustomer collaboration over

Full Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/

Why is Agile Hard?

• Values & Principles

• New practices

• Best learnt by doing

• Requires time to master

Domination of Scrum

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60% DSDM

Agile Modeling

Agile Unified Process

Other

Lean

FDD

XP

Don't Know

Kanban

Scrumban

Custom Hybrid

Scrum / XP Hybrid

Scrum

Source: Version One – 7th Annual State of Agile Survey

Domination of Scrum

Scrum variantsOther

Source: Version One – 7th Annual State of Agile Survey

Scrum

Introduction to Scrum

• Why use Scrum?

• Scrum Frameworks

• Variations

• Success

Why use Scrum?

• Adheres to agile manifesto

• Find the fun earlier

• Faster feedback

• Reduce crunch periods

Scrum Roles

Person Scrum Master Product Owner Team Member

A Yes No Yes

B No Yes No

Personby

Responsibilities in Scrum

Scrum Master Product Owner Team Member

Adherence to rules Return on Investment Deliver

Whole team effectiveness What, Why How

Roleby

Scrum Artefacts

• Product Backlog

• Sprint Backlog

• Shippable Software Increment

Scrum Ceremonies• Backlog Refinement/Grooming

• Sprint Planning

• Daily Standup

• Sprint Review

• Spring Retrospective

Values: Focus, Courage, Openness, Commitment, Respect

Definition of Done• Defines what gets to ‘Done’

• Used to ensure Quality

• Used to reduce debt

• Created by whole team

• Can be updated

• Automated Tests passing• Code Reviewed

• Product Owner accepted• Checked into mainline• Tracking tool updated• Deployed to Intg. Env.

e.g.

Sprint Commitments• Product Owner: Won’t change the Sprint Backlog.

• Team: Deliver the Sprint Backlog.

• Scrum Master: Protect the team from outside influences.

Keep in mind we will learn through the sprint, and we should deliver the most value that we can.

Exercise – match activities by role• Divide the large paper into three equal sections: Team, SM, PO.

• Match up the activity cards to the section.

• NOTE: Some cards are duplicated.

• NOTE: Blue cards are for the Primary role, Pink for the Secondary

role. E.g. ‘Create Product Backlog Items’ – Blue (Primary) for PO,

Pink (Secondary) for Team.

“Scrum is free and offered in this guide, Scrum’s roles, artifacts, events, and rules

are immutable and although implementing only parts of Scrum is possible, the result is not Scrum.”

Scrum Guide Oct 2011http://www.scrum.org/Scrum-Guides

Immutable (Cannot change)Roles Ceremonies Artifacts Rules

1 x Scrum Master Sprint Planning Product Backlog Cross Functional

1 x Product Owner Daily Standup Sprint Backlog Self Organising

Developers Sprint ReviewPotentially Shippable Increment

Max Sprint length <= 1 month

Sprint Retrospective

Mutable – some examplesRoles Ceremonies Artifacts Rules

Scrum Master also contributes to

team

Planning involves experts from other

teamsNot using User

StoriesT.D.D. mandated

for backend code.

Product Owner across 2 teams

Standup uses speaking token

Use a burn up chart

Some team capacity put aside

for defectsDemo done by diff.

team member each week

No task board Co-location

Hold Retro in café. Using Use Cases

Co-location• Not mandated in Scrum, however;

• Agile manifesto: 2 of 4 Values Statements and 1 Principle

relate to it.

• Generally accepted that it is a crucial success factor.

Co-locationCo-location results in:

• Significantly increased collaboration.

• Enhanced feeling of being in a team.

• Impediments being resolved faster.

• Reduces delays with the team.

• Overall Success!

ScrumbutWe do Scrum but ....

• We have two PO’s for our team.

• We need team X to finish each User Story.

• Retrospectives are a waste, so we don’t do them.

• Management keeps changing the Sprint Goals.

SuccessWhat does a successful Scrum team look like?

• Delivering consistently.

• Regularly finishing their top priority stories first.

• Team actively managing Technical Debt.

• Collaborating extensively with PO.

• Try’s from Retrospectives result in change.

• Team rarely works overtime.

Scrum takeawaysWhy: Faster Feedback, Find the Fun earlier, Reduce Crunch.

Roles: Scrum Master, Product Owner, Team Member.

Ceremonies: Planning, Backlog Refinement, Stand up, Review,

Retrospective.

Artefacts: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Burn-down, Product

Increment.

Values: Focus, Courage, Commitment, Openness, Respect.

Other: Immutable rules, Co-location recommended

Questions?

User Stories

User Stories

• Why User Stories?

• Different Formats

• INVEST

• Vertical Slices

• Iterative and Incremental

Why use User Stories?• Low overhead

• Encourage Collaboration

• Supportive of change

Format of User Stories

As a [USER]

I want [GOAL]

So that [BUSINESS BENEFIT]

Example User Story

As a Player who is new to Poker

I want to see tips pop up in game, that explain good moves I missed out on making

So that I feel like I am learning and hence want to keep playing

War Stories

• Stories about User Stories that have caused

problems?

• What characteristics did those stories have?

What makes for a good User Story?• Independent

• Negotiable

• Valuable

• Estimatable• Small

• Testable

What is wrong with these Stories?

I want the phoenix animation to be visually spectacular

As a regular bingo playerI want to be notified when I have played for 30 minutes

So that I know when time is up

As a seasoned poker playerI want the tips on the flop to be

tested

As a normal roulette playerI want the roulette wheel

animation to glint at 60 degrees from centre with a silver flash

on every second revolutionSo that it seems more realistic

and engaging.

Component Approach

User Interface

Business Logic

Adapters

ServicesSt

ory

DSt

ory

CSt

ory

BSt

ory

A

Vertical Slice

User Interface

Business Logic

Adapters

ServicesSt

ory

A

Stor

y B

Iterative & Incremental approachCombines:

• Vertical Slices of Functionality

• Deferring non-functional aspects

1 2 3

Building complete bits

“incrementing” builds a bit at a time

“iterating” builds a rough version, validates it, then slowly builds up quality

1 2 3

Move from vague idea to realization

Incremental, Iteration combines the ideas

1 2 53 4

User Stories takeawaysWhy: Low overhead, Support Change, Encourage

Collaboration.

Format: As a USER, I want GOAL, so that BUSINESS BENEFIT.

INVEST: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable,

Small, Testable.

Splitting: Incremental & Iterative and Vertical Slices.

Questions?

Agile Estimation

Agile Estimation

• What is it?

• Story Points

• Planning Poker

Human Capabilities for estimating

Roughly how long is this line?

Is this line, twice as long as the previous line?

What is Agile Estimation?• Relative Estimation

• Uses team knowledge

• Focus on speed over accuracy

Story Points• Represent Size of a Story

• Size = Effort, Complexity and Doubt

• Relative to each other. i.e. 2 is twice the size of 1

• Maths holds, i.e. 1 + 2 = 3Effort

DoubtComplexity

Story Points vs. Time

Relative Sizing (Story Points)

is more accurate over a large sample compared to

Time Estimation (Hours or Days)

Story Points are also quicker

Effort

DoubtComplexity

Story Points do not equate to Time

Complexity

1pt

8pts

Duration for Grads = 5 days Duration for Seniors = 5 days

Duration for Seniors = 1 day Duration for Grads = 30 days

Planning Poker• Facilitated by Scrum Master

• 1st time the team selects a Reference story.

• Reference Story is allocated 2 or 3 story points.

• All future stories are compared to this story.

Planning Poker Process1. PO Explains the User Story to be estimated.

2. Team members select card and place face down.

3. Entire team reveals cards at same time.

4. Discuss high and low numbers.

5. Repeat steps 2..4 until consensus is reached.

Planning Poker Number Scale

0 1 2 3 5 80.5

Exercise - Estimating Eating Fruit• Apple (Reference Story, 2 Story Points)

• Banana

• Orange

• Mango

• ½ Watermelon

• Pomegranate

• Peach

Exercise – Estimating Cooking Meals• You are now the Meal Cooking team.

• We produce high quality meals from raw ingredients.

• There is a bakery next door so all bread products are supplied by

them.

Agile Estimation takeaways• Relative Estimation

• Uses team knowledge

• Focus on speed over accuracy

• Story Points: Effort + Complexity + Doubt

• Story Points != Time

• Planning Poker

• Fast Estimation

Questions?

Product Backlog

Management

Product Backlog Management

• Ownership

• Prioritize by Value

• Prioritize by Risk

Ownership• Everyone should feel ownership for the Product.

• Product Owner – is responsible for the backlog.

• Backlog is not locked down, anyone can add to it.

• Not a free for all.

• Product Owner considers all stakeholders, including the

team.

Prioritise by Value• To maximise ROI, should prioritise Value first.

• Need effective User Stories.

• PO assists the team by explaining the business

value.

Prioritise by Risk Mitigation• To reduce Product and Project risk, we need to tackle the

unknowns.

• Team assists the Product Owner by explaining these risks.

• Technical Debt should also be considered

Combined result1. Early: Reduce Product and Project Risk

2. Middle: Focus on Value

3. End: Trim the tail

Exercise – Prioritising the City Break Backlog

Velocity• Post Measure of delivery rate of the Team.

• Velocity = Sum of Story Points of User Stories that got to

‘Done’.

• Will fluctuate

• Average Velocity is useful guide

What happens with undone Stories?• Do not count towards velocity.

• Carry over to next planning meeting, either included or

dropped.

• Count towards velocity in the sprint that they are done.

• Velocity will fluctuate but will average out.

Product Backlog takeaways• PO owns the backlog, but anyone can add to it

• Backlog prioritisation balances Value delivery with Risk mitigation

Questions?

Continuous Development

Continuous Development

• Sequential vs. Continuous

• Approaches

Sequential development

Sprint N Sprint N + 1 Sprint N + 2

Continuous Development• Scrum teams do a little of everything at once: Design, FE, BE,

QA.

• Hence different approaches are needed

Sprint N Sprint N + 1 Sprint N + 2

Approaches for Continuous Development

• Iterative and Incremental User Stories

• Evolutionary design and architecture

• Management of Technical Debt

• Technical Practices

• Agile testing

Iterative and Incremental User Stories• Covered in a previous section

Evolutionary Design & Architecture• While some Design and Architecture will occur upfront

• It will also occur continuously throughout development

Evolutionary Design &

Architecture

Continuous Integration

Refactoring

Simple Design

Technical Debt• What is Technical Debt?

• Who is responsible for Managing Technical Debt?

Technical Debt• Team identify debt, raise User Story

• Write User Story in business terms

• Work with PO to prioritise the User Story

Technical Practices• Version Control

• Coding Standards

• Code Reviews

• Refactoring

• Test Driven Development (TDD)

• Continuous Integration (CI)

• Simple Design

• Pair Programming

• Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD)

Traditional Testing vs. Agile testing

Conformance to Requirements.

Identify issues.

Quality meets the Customers needs.

Maximise Value.

Agile testing• Quality Assurance is a whole team responsibility.

• Test Specialists will focus on testing, but

everyone should be involved.

• Consider Testing from the very beginning.

• Focus on Repeatable, Fully Automated, Self

Reporting Testing.

Continuous Development takeaways• Game Design, UX, Code Design, Architecture all occur

continuously.

• Rigorous Technical Practices are needed.

• We need to manage our Technical Debt.

• Quality assurance is everyone's responsibility.

Questions?

Wrap up

Wrap Up

• Review

• Reference Material

• Other Available Workshops

Putting it all together

Agile ManifestoSet of Values and Principles

You can be ‘agile’, you cannot do ‘agile’

Framework based on ScrumWork and technology agnostic extensible framework that adheres to Agile Manifesto

You can do Scrum, if done well, you will be agile

Technical Practices Code Reviews, TDD, CI, etc.

Make it possible to do Scrum

Other Practices Co-location, User Stories, Story Points, etc.

Very effective extensions for Scrum

Organisational Management System Rules, Practices, Portfolio Management, etc.

scaling of methodology, specific to your organisation

Summary of today

Agile manifesto: what is it, where it came from.

Scrum: roles, ceremonies, artefacts, rules.

User Stories: format, Acceptance, INVEST, Iterative &

Incremental.

Agile Estimation: Story Points, Planning Poker, Fast Estimation

Backlog management: Ownership, Value, Risk.

Continuous Development: Design, UX, Practices, Testing,

Tech. Debt.

One thing you will take away

• Please take 2 minutes

• Write down one thing you will take away from

today

• We will share them with the group

Reference Material

Other Available Workshops

Agile & Scrum Workshop

Effective User Stories

Scrum Master

Product Owner

Software Development Workshops

Software Testing Workshops

Agile Leadership Workshop

Becoming a Technical Leader