Scaling the card wall

I love the smell of Sharpies in the morningor, how I learnt to stop worrying and love the card wall.

Friday, 2 March 12

or,Scaling the card wall

Friday, 2 March 12

About me

Friday, 2 March 12

About me

• Politics wonk

Friday, 2 March 12

About me

• Politics wonk

• Developer on GreenHopper at Atlassian

Friday, 2 March 12

About me

• Politics wonk

• Developer on GreenHopper at Atlassian

• @jameshatherly on twitter

Friday, 2 March 12

Friday, 2 March 12

Card walls are awesome

Friday, 2 March 12

Card walls are awesome

• ... but they’re absolutely terrible

Friday, 2 March 12

Card walls

• “We don't learn to do arithmetic using a calculator.  No, one starts with simple addition and by the time your ready to learn division it is done using pencil and paper (long division old school).  Requiring the student to do the hard work of the long division process may help them to understand the conceptual division problem and the solution technique.”

Friday, 2 March 12

What makes me tick

Friday, 2 March 12

What makes me tick

• What growing pains can we expect?

Friday, 2 March 12

What makes me tick

• What growing pains can we expect?

• How have others overcome similar growing pains?

Friday, 2 March 12

What makes me tick

• What growing pains can we expect?

• How have others overcome similar growing pains?

• What are the common patterns to these solutions?

Friday, 2 March 12

Outline

Friday, 2 March 12

Outline

• Background

Friday, 2 March 12

Outline

• Background

• Experiment

Friday, 2 March 12

Outline

• Background

• Experiment

• Further Research

Friday, 2 March 12

Outline

• Background

• Experiment

• Further Research

• Commonalities and Applications

Friday, 2 March 12

Why card wall

Friday, 2 March 12

Why card wall

• Low friction

Friday, 2 March 12

Why card wall

• Low friction

• Low barrier to entry

Friday, 2 March 12

Why card wall

• Low friction

• Low barrier to entry

• Simple

Friday, 2 March 12

Why card wall

• Low friction

• Low barrier to entry

• Simple

• High transparency

Friday, 2 March 12

Why card wall

• Low friction

• Low barrier to entry

• Simple

• High transparency

• High visibility

Friday, 2 March 12

Why not?

Friday, 2 March 12

Why not?

• Forces teams to be co-located

Friday, 2 March 12

Why not?

• Forces teams to be co-located

• Visibility/transparency argument not so strong

Friday, 2 March 12

Why not?

• Forces teams to be co-located

• Visibility/transparency argument not so strong

• Requires data entry to get tooling benefits

Friday, 2 March 12

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

• “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”

Friday, 2 March 12

How we roll

Friday, 2 March 12

Scrum shock therapy

Friday, 2 March 12

Scrum shock therapy

• http://rapidscrum.com/shock.php

Friday, 2 March 12

Scrum shock therapy

• http://rapidscrum.com/shock.php

• For education

Friday, 2 March 12

Scrum shock therapy

• http://rapidscrum.com/shock.php

• For education

• For self improvement

Friday, 2 March 12

Cat-fooding a physical card wall

Friday, 2 March 12

Findings

Friday, 2 March 12

Findings

• Most findings were unsurprising

Friday, 2 March 12

Findings

• Most findings were unsurprising

• Card walls are fiddly

Friday, 2 March 12

Findings

• Most findings were unsurprising

• Card walls are fiddly

• Seriously lo-fi

Friday, 2 March 12

Findings

Friday, 2 March 12

Findings

• Serious hindrance to working from home/working remotely

Friday, 2 March 12

Findings

• Serious hindrance to working from home/working remotely

• No persistence

Friday, 2 March 12

Findings

• Serious hindrance to working from home/working remotely

• No persistence

• No search

Friday, 2 March 12

Findings

• Serious hindrance to working from home/working remotely

• No persistence

• No search

• No linking

Friday, 2 March 12

Finding

Friday, 2 March 12

Finding

• Tooling

Friday, 2 March 12

Finding

• Tooling

• Mylyn

Friday, 2 March 12

Finding

• Tooling

• Mylyn

• Linking commits back to stories

Friday, 2 March 12

Finding

• Tooling

• Mylyn

• Linking commits back to stories

• Reporting & charting

Friday, 2 March 12

My favourite quote from the experiment

• “handwriting is not a talent shared by everyone”

Friday, 2 March 12

So what was good?

Friday, 2 March 12

So what was good?

• Collaboration and discussion became synchronised

Friday, 2 March 12

So what was good?

• Collaboration and discussion became synchronised

• Better communication on issues and subtasks

Friday, 2 March 12

Where to from here?

Friday, 2 March 12

Where to from here?

• Card wall with manual synchronisation

Friday, 2 March 12

Where to from here?

• Card wall with manual synchronisation

• batched

Friday, 2 March 12

Where to from here?

• Card wall with manual synchronisation

• batched

• manual data entry

Friday, 2 March 12

Where to from here?

• Card wall with manual synchronisation

• batched

• manual data entry

• fragmented discussion

Friday, 2 March 12

Really?

Friday, 2 March 12

That’s it?

Friday, 2 March 12

So what are the alternatives?

Friday, 2 March 12

So what are the alternatives?

• Let’s reconsider our old wallboard

Friday, 2 March 12

So what are the alternatives?

• Let’s reconsider our old wallboard

• self-synchronising

Friday, 2 March 12

So what are the alternatives?

• Let’s reconsider our old wallboard

• self-synchronising

• inherently distributed

Friday, 2 March 12

So what are the alternatives?

• Let’s reconsider our old wallboard

• self-synchronising

• inherently distributed

• can include extras - builds, etc

Friday, 2 March 12

So what are the alternatives?

• Let’s reconsider our old wallboard

• self-synchronising

• inherently distributed

• can include extras - builds, etc

• non-interactive - deal breaker

Friday, 2 March 12

Same goes for...

Friday, 2 March 12

Same goes for...

• sprint.ly

Friday, 2 March 12

Same goes for...

• sprint.ly

• Trello

Friday, 2 March 12

Same goes for...

• sprint.ly

• Trello

• Scrumblr

Friday, 2 March 12

Same goes for...

• sprint.ly

• Trello

• Scrumblr

• any web-based cardwall/taskboard tool

Friday, 2 March 12

Same goes for...

• sprint.ly

• Trello

• Scrumblr

• any web-based cardwall/taskboard tool

• If you’re used to a physical card wall, the interaction model just isn’t quite right

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives• Smart whiteboards and

other touch-capable screens

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives• Smart whiteboards and

other touch-capable screens

• Expensive

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives• Smart whiteboards and

other touch-capable screens

• Expensive

• Again, the interaction model is just wrong

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives• QR codes on your card wall

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives• QR codes on your card wall

• batched synchronization

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives• QR codes on your card wall

• batched synchronization

• no data entry, automated reporting

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives• QR codes on your card wall

• batched synchronization

• no data entry, automated reporting

• stories & tasks are addressable

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives• QR codes on your card wall

• batched synchronization

• no data entry, automated reporting

• stories & tasks are addressable

• still a problem for working from home

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives• QR codes on your card wall

• batched synchronization

• no data entry, automated reporting

• stories & tasks are addressable

• still a problem for working from home

• no audit trail - not really a problem for agile teams

Friday, 2 March 12

Examples

Friday, 2 March 12

Alternatives

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Winner of 2010 ultimate wallboard competition

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Winner of 2010 ultimate wallboard competition

• Pretty much the coolest thing ever

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Winner of 2010 ultimate wallboard competition

• Pretty much the coolest thing ever

• RFID chips for each card, readers update in software back-end on status change

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Winner of 2010 ultimate wallboard competition

• Pretty much the coolest thing ever

• RFID chips for each card, readers update in software back-end on status change

• Changes which bypass the card wall trigger a change printout

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Winner of 2010 ultimate wallboard competition

• Pretty much the coolest thing ever

• RFID chips for each card, readers update in software back-end on status change

• Changes which bypass the card wall trigger a change printout

• A whole lot more

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Hands-on set up - RFID cards, RFID readers, label printer, projector, video camera

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Hands-on set up - RFID cards, RFID readers, label printer, projector, video camera

• Non-portable

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Hands-on set up - RFID cards, RFID readers, label printer, projector, video camera

• Non-portable

• Minor lag of changes getting onto the wall

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Hands-on set up - RFID cards, RFID readers, label printer, projector, video camera

• Non-portable

• Minor lag of changes getting onto the wall

• Contains some ‘hacks’

Friday, 2 March 12

Vodafone web team card wall

• Hands-on set up - RFID cards, RFID readers, label printer, projector, video camera

• Non-portable

• Minor lag of changes getting onto the wall

• Contains some ‘hacks’

• Still, awesome.

Friday, 2 March 12

Potential alternatives

Friday, 2 March 12

Potential alternatives

• SAP research InnoBoard

Friday, 2 March 12

Potential alternatives

• SAP research InnoBoard

• Cool tech, really nice potential card wall replacement

Friday, 2 March 12

Potential alternatives

• SAP research InnoBoard

• Cool tech, really nice potential card wall replacement

• Platform developed, ref-app is based on collaboration, not agile development.

Friday, 2 March 12

Potential alternatives

• SAP research InnoBoard

• Cool tech, really nice potential card wall replacement

• Platform developed, ref-app is based on collaboration, not agile development.

• They want to do other applications on top of their platform, agile makes sense

Friday, 2 March 12

Commonalities

Friday, 2 March 12

Commonalities

• Bi-directional propagation of changes

Friday, 2 March 12

Commonalities

• Bi-directional propagation of changes

• Real-time (or near-to) updates

Friday, 2 March 12

Commonalities

• Bi-directional propagation of changes

• Real-time (or near-to) updates

• Central and tangible

Friday, 2 March 12

Commonalities

• Bi-directional propagation of changes

• Real-time (or near-to) updates

• Central and tangible

• Allow for changing status, assigning to someone, adding new cards (kanban specific)

Friday, 2 March 12

Commonalities

Friday, 2 March 12

Commonalities

• No manual steps (other than set-up)

Friday, 2 March 12

Commonalities

• No manual steps (other than set-up)

• Some level of traceability

Friday, 2 March 12

Commonalities

• No manual steps (other than set-up)

• Some level of traceability

• Automated reporting & chart generation

Friday, 2 March 12

Enter: Microsoft Kinect

Friday, 2 March 12

We’ve tried this before

Friday, 2 March 12

We’ve tried this before

• My colleague Shihab and I worked on this last year

Friday, 2 March 12

We’ve tried this before

• My colleague Shihab and I worked on this last year

• Blinded by cool tech, we lost sight of the “solve one problem and solve it well” ideal

Friday, 2 March 12

We’ve tried this before

• My colleague Shihab and I worked on this last year

• Blinded by cool tech, we lost sight of the “solve one problem and solve it well” ideal

• Shipped a tech demo, got some positive feedback, went nowhere with it

Friday, 2 March 12

Keen to try again

Friday, 2 March 12

Keen to try again

• But curious as to whether analog-or-death types agree with me that there’s value

Friday, 2 March 12

Keen to try again

• But curious as to whether analog-or-death types agree with me that there’s value

• Feel free to share your thoughts afterwards

Friday, 2 March 12

Recapping

Friday, 2 March 12

Recapping

• Card walls face problems, not just as the team grows, but also as the organisation the team exists within grows

Friday, 2 March 12

Recapping

• Card walls face problems, not just as the team grows, but also as the organisation the team exists within grows

• Current alternatives can’t solve every problem, but they might solve your’s

Friday, 2 March 12

Recapping

• Card walls face problems, not just as the team grows, but also as the organisation the team exists within grows

• Current alternatives can’t solve every problem, but they might solve your’s

• No silver bullet

Friday, 2 March 12

Recapping

• Card walls face problems, not just as the team grows, but also as the organisation the team exists within grows

• Current alternatives can’t solve every problem, but they might solve your’s

• No silver bullet

• No free lunch

Friday, 2 March 12