Service Knowledge Result

Overcoming Distances:Scrum with Distributed Teams

16 November 2010Silvana Wasitova

Case Study

Paris 11

Grenoble 4

Munich 4London 4

Madrid 1

Milan 1

US, Ireland

India

Team size: 16 - 25

Rolland Garros

February

Schedule Highlights

January April May JuneMarch

Rugby 6 Nations Wimbledon

TDF

EuroParis-Dakar Tour de France

Moto GPGolf, Athletics, CyclingBasketball

BoxingHorse RacingSnookerHockey

FOOT: Olympic Games qualifiers World Cup qualifiers

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Challenges

Team Size Geographic DistributionTimezone differenceKeen stakeholdersAgressive deliverables schedule

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What is a Distributed Team?

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Best Practices: Phone, Chat, Email

•Headset; Mute button, full duplex•Speaker phone, satellite microphonesPhone•Real time, informal, status & conversation; history•Always on, always monitored at each locationChat•Webcam, Video Conferencing•Low-res is better than nothingVideo•Do you see what I seeScreen Sharing

•Collaborative site, actively used•Info radiator and repositoryWiki

Use several modes

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Communication Modes

http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/communication.htm

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Release PlanningProduct BacklogSprint Planning

As much as budget & time allows: meet in person

Nurture self-direction

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Telephone, Tele-presence

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“Off-site” persons get priority: speaking, bringing up

concernsEasy to “lose connection” with persons off-site Easy to hand-signal those on-siteIf unsure, ask to repeat/clarify

Tell – a – person

Photo courtesy J. Vonlanthen

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Team Dynamics

Four stages ofteam formation: Forming, Storming, Norming,

Performing

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Awareness of Motivation, Personalities

Maslow hierarchy of needsTheory X and YMyers-Briggs - MBTI

INTJ – Don’t change *my plan*, there will be consequences!

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Remote “Team Building” and “Having Fun”

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Alternatives to lunch or bowling together:

Arrive early at conf. callsGet (a bit) personalShare picturesJoke and tease

Treat all equally well

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Build Rapport

Be approachablemake it your job tobuild the bridge of rapportCare about team membersspend time talking about their interests and activitiesSupport them in things that don’t directly benefit youhang out, without “talking shop”Ask what they think

Initiate the conversation

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You’re only talking about Communication!

Risk #1 for software projects: lack of communication

People working large distances/timezones away: More challenges to communication Different languages, different culturesDistance reduces the type and amount of communication,need to COMPENSATE

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Better to over-communicate

http://www.it-cortex.com/Stat_Failure_Cause.htm

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Apply Distribution to Scrum Teams?

57% respondents work with distributed teams41% respondents currently, or plan to, do agile with outsourced development.

The agile ideal of co-locating the entire team in a single room is at odds with what’s actually going on within a large part of the software development community.Success rate for co-located team (in same room) isover 20% higher than for geographically distributed team

VersionOne “State of Agile Development”, 2008 Survey, n=3061

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Why use Distributed Teams?

Development CostTalent Availability24/7 around the globeCloser to customerMarket OpportunityFlex-time

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50% of US workforce can be mobile on any given day.Total Employee Mobility® Benchmarking Report, Runzheimer International, October 2008

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Why use Agile Philosphy?

• Frequent product delivery• Transparency: daily standup• Collaboration: developers and

customers• Regular reviews with Customer &

PO• Strip-off non-essentials• Retrospective: Continuous

improvement

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Adapt to change

© Silvana Wasitova

Scrum vs. Waterfall: Time To Market

Develop & QASpec

Develop & QASpec

Scrum

Waterfall

12 weeks 3-6 wksx

wks

9 weeks3 months

6-10 months

CollaborativeResults-Oriented

3 MONTHS

x wks

Updates

Sequential Process-Oriented

6-10 MONTHS

Faster Time to Market Higher Quality Satisfied Customer

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64% implemented features are rarely or never used

Ref: Standish Group's Chaos Report, 1994, 2002

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Hyper-productive Distributed team

http://jeffsutherland.com/SutherlandFullyDistributedScrumXebiaAgile2008.pdf

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Extreme Success

Jeff Sutherland re. Xebia:1. “Home Team” start scrum: 3 wks prep, 2 x 2wk sprints2. Collocate home and off-shore team, 3 x 2wk sprints3. Achieve co-located hyperproductivity 4. Achieve hyperproductivity from two locations;

one Product Backlog fed 4 Sprint Backlogs

Xebia delivers 7x Function Points over industry average waterfall teams

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Agile in 3D

Virtual World Interaction

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You knew this was next

Agile in 3D worlds brings teams closer to face-to-face

Aug 2010 – Lessons from Second Life Avatars -

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/software-quality/agile-in-3d-worlds-brings-teams-closer-to-face-to-face/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZxOT1fEB8U

TELEPLACE or AgileZen (Rally)

RESPECT

PURPOSE

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Passionate team members, driven by common purposecan overcome any obstacles

TRUST

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Build Trust

Spend time getting to know each other Do what you sayGo the extra mileBe “their” advocate, act on “their” behalfTeamwork

How much do you trust each other?

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Silvana Wasitova

Itecor.comVevey, Switzerland

s.wasitova@itecor.com

+41 79 558 05 09

Scrum & Agile Coach

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ReferencesGuido Schoonheim and Jeff Sutherland - Aug 2010 – “Mind the Gap! Principles of Hyperproductive fully Distributed Scrum” Jeff Sutherland - SirsiDynix - Agile with Outsourced Teams 2007 - http://jeffsutherland.com/SutherlandFullyDistributedScrumSirsiDynixHICSS2007Jeff Sutherland - Xebia - Agile 2008 - http://jeffsutherland.com/SutherlandFullyDistributedScrumXebiaAgile2008.pdf Yves Hanoulle, http://www.hanoulle.be/2009/10/how-to-work-with-a-whiteboard-with-a-distributed-team/ Henrik Kniberg, “Scrum and XP From the Trenches”Cory Foy, Aug 2010 Distributed Teams Tools and Techniques:Blog: http://blog.coryfoy.com/2010/08/technically-distributed-tools-and-techniques-for-distributed-teams/ , Slides http://www.slideshare.net/CoryFoy/technically-distributed-tools-and-techniques-for-distributed-teams Scott Ambler – The Distributed Team, Oct 2007http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid92_gci1277064,00.html Chris Christensen, Managing Virtual Projects, 2006 - http://www.camcinc.com/library/Managing%20Virtual%20Projects.pdf “The State of Agile Development” 2008 Survey by VersionOne http://www.versionone.com/pdf/3rdAnnualStateOfAgile_FullDataReport.pdf Employee Mobility® Benchmarking Report, Runzheimer International, 2008Alistair Cockburn, Agile Software DevelopmentA Practical Guide to Distributed Scrum, IBM Agile Community - http://www.distributedscrum.comIBM – Using Scrum to Complement Organizational Transformationhttp://www.distributedscrum.com/downloads/Transformation20100810.pdf Microsoft, Ade Miller, Distributed Agile Development at Microsoft, October 2008 Craig Larman & Bas Vodde, Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Successful Large, Multisite & Offshore Products with Large-Scale Scrum, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0321480961 Mobile Companies Finish First – Why Being Out Is In, Runzheimer International, November 2008http://www.scrumalliance.org/articles/165-scrum-success-in-a-distributed-team-environment

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More ReferencesElizabeth Woodward, IBM - A Practical Guide to Distributed Scrum Video Interview: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/software-quality/elizabeth-woodward-face-to-face-communication-is-biggest-challenge-with-distributed-scrum/ Mike Cohn http://blog.mountaingoatsoftware.com/build-trust-between-teams-with-ambassadors Salesforce - Kerievsky & Dourambeis, Large Scale & Distributed Agile http://agile2010.agilealliance.org/distributed Bland, 7 Ways to Humanize Distributed Teams, Aug 2010, http://agile.dzone.com/news/7-ways-humanize-distributed Bland, Distributed ScrumMasters and the art of digital facilitation, Aug 2010, http://www.slideshare.net/7thpixel/distributed-scrum-masters-d-bland-agile2010 Agile in 3D – Aug 2010:

Bill Krebs – Virtual Worlds - Lessons from “Second Life” Avatars - http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/software-quality/agile-in-3d-worlds-brings-teams-closer-to-face-to-face/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZxOT1fEB8U Todd Olson, Visualization Tool: AgileZen (from Rally Software) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcMEphXdwnY Virtual World using Teleplace - http://www.teleplace.com/products/index.php

http://www.agile2010.org/scale.htmlKent Beck, Tools for Agility, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=AE7E07E8-0872-47C4-B1E7-2C1DE7FACF96 Thushara Wijewardena Aug 2010, “Why You Suck at Offshoring, Even with Agile – View from the Other Side” Video of interview With Dave Prior – 17 mins - http://www.blip.tv/file/3273357?utm_source=player_embedded Scaling Agile in distributed environment - http://www.agileindia.org/scalingdistributedagilebythomas The Drexler Sibbet Team Performance Model

http://www.grove.com/site/ourwk_gm_tp.htmlhttp://www.robertmcneil.com/pages/pages/dsmodel.html

The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz http://intjforum.com/showthread.php?t=22045

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Photo Credits

p.4 Beijing Olympics Stadium, Clive Rose, Getty Images

p.5 Flickr, Yahoo team; Flickr, by blackdood

p.5, 9 Jonas vonLanthen, used with permission

p.8 Beer: psdgraphics.com, Working Lunch, Silvana Wasitova

p.5, 9 Jonas vonLanthen, used with permission

p.21 SecondLife.com