Agile Scrum Methodology

 Agenda:

• Introduction
• What is Agile methogology
• What is Scrum?
• Histroy of Scrum
• Functionality of Scrum
• Components of Scrum
• Scrum Roles
• The Process
• Scrum Artifacts
• Scaling Scrums

 Introduction:

• Classical methods of software development have many disadvantages
• huge effort during the planning phase
• poor requirements conversion in a rapid changing environment

What is Agile:

• Agile methods are considered
• Lightweight
• people based rather than plan-based
• Agile methods
• Scrum
• Extreme Programming
• Adaptive Software Development (ASD)
• Dynamic System Development Method(DSDM)
• Agile Alliance(http://www.agilealliance.org/)
• A non-profit organization promotes agile development

Scrum:

• Scrum is an agile process that allows us to focus on delivering the highest business value in the shortest time
• It allows us to rapidly and repeatedly inspect actual working software (every two weeks to one month)
• The business sets the priorities.  Our teams self-manage to determine the best way to deliver the highest priority features
• Every two weeks to a month any one can see real working software and decide to release it as is or continue to enhance for another iteration

History of Scrum:

• 1995
• Analysis of common software development processes
• Not suitable for unpredictable and non-repeatable processes
• Design of new method: Scrum by Jeff Sutherland & Ken Schwaber
• Enhancement of Scrum by Mike Beedle & combination of Scrum with Extreme Programming
• 1996
• Introduction of Scrum at OOPSLA conference
• 2001
• Publication "Agile Software Development with Scrum" by Ken Schwaber & Mike Beedle
• Successful application of Scrum in over 50 companies
• Founders are members in the Agile Appliance

Characteristics:

• Self-organizing teams
• product progresses in a series of month-long "sprints"
• Requirements are captured as list of items in the list of "product backlog"
• No specific engineering practices prescribed
• Uses generative rules to create an agile environment for delivering projects
• One of the "agile processes"

How Scrum works:

 Waterfall Vs. Scrum:

Scrum Framework:

• Roles
• Product Owner
• Scrum Master
• Cross functional Team
• Ceremonies
• Sprint planning
• Daily Scrum meeting
• Scrum-of-Scrums
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospection
• Artifacts
• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Sprint Burndown chart

Product Owner:

• Defines the features of the product
• Decide on release date and content
• Be responsible for the profitability of the product (ROI)
• Prioritize features according to market value
• Adjust features and priority every iteration, as needed
• Accept or reject work results

Scrum Master:

• Represents management to the project
• Responsible for enacting Scrum values and practices
• Removes impediments
• Ensure that the team is fully functional and productive
• Enable close co-operation across roles and functions
• Shield the team from external interferences

Picking Scrum Master:

• Traits of an effective Scrum Master
• Highly committed to the success of the team
• Good people skills
• Good communication skills
• Observant, Good listener
• Courageous mindset
• Proactive, helpful personality
• Technical expertise helpful but not mandatory
• Best results will come from a full-time Scrum Master
• If dedicated person is not available, a team-member will have to play the role, and take a much lighter load of tasks
• Avoid having the team's manager be Scrum Master

Scrum Team:

• Typically 5-10 people
• Cross-functional
• QA, Programmers, UI Designers etc.,
• Members should be full-time
• May be expectations (e.g., System Admin etc.,)
• Teams are self-organizing
• Membership can change only between sprints

Ceremonies:

• Sprint planning meeting
• Sprint
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Review meeting

Sprint planning meeting:

 


Parts of Sprint planning Meeting:

• 1st Part: (Grooming)
• Creating Product Backlog
• Determine the Sprint Goal
• Participants : Product Owner, Scrum Master, Scrum Team
• 2nd Part:
• Participants : Product Owner, Scrum Master, Scrum Team
• Creating Sprint Backlog

Product Backlog:

• A list of desired work on the project
• List is prioritized by Product Owner
• Typically a Product Manager, Marketing Internal Customer, etc.,
• Requirements for a system, expressed as a prioritized list of Backlog items
• Is managed and owned by Product Owner
• Usually created during the Sprint Planning Meeting
• Can be changed and re-prioritized

Product Backlog Estimation with Planning Poker:

• Estimation of each user story in product catalog can be done as
• size = Effort x Complexity x Uncertainty
• Team make use of poker cards to estimate the user story
• Poker cards can have a
• Fibonacci order (0,1/2,1,2,3,5,8,13,20,40,80,100,∞,?)

Sprint Backlog:

• A subset of Product Backlog items, which defines the work for a Sprint
• Is created by Team members
• Each team has it's own status
• Should be updated everyday
• No more than 300 tasks in the list
• If a task requires more than 16 hours, it should be broken down
• Team can add or subtract items from the list

Sprints:

• Scrum projects make progress in a series of "Sprints"
• Target duration in one month
• +/- a week or two
• But, a constant duration leads to a better rhythm
• Each Sprint begins with the Daily Scrum Meeting
• Product is designed, coded, and tested during the sprint
• NO outside influence can interfere with the Scrum team during Sprint

No Changes during the Sprint:

•  Plan sprint durations around how long you can commit to keeping change out of the Sprint

Daily Scrum:

• Parameters
• Daily
• 15 minutes
• Stand-up
• Not for problem solving
• Three questions
• What did you do yesterday
• What will you do today
• What obstacles are in your way?
• Chickens and Pigs are invited
• Help avoid other unnecessary meetings
• Only Pigs can talk

Sprint Burndown Chart:

• Depicts the total Sprint Backlog hours remaining per day
• Show the estimated amount of time to release
• Ideally should burndown to zero to the end of the Sprint
• Actually is not straight line
• Can bump up

Sprint Dashboard:

Sprint Burndown Chart:

Sprint Review Meeting:

• Team presents what is accomplished during the sprint
• Typically takes the form of a demo of new features or underlying architecture
• Participants
• Customers
• Management
• Product Owner
• Other engineers

Sprint Retrospective Meeting:

• Scrum Team only
• Feedback meeting
• Usually lasts 1-2 hours
• Make 4 lists
• what went well (During the sprint)
• What could have been better (During the sprint)
• Things to try (To do better in the next sprint)
• Issues to escalate (To Upper Management)

Scalability of Scrum:

• A typical Scrum team is 6-10 people
• Jeff Sutherland - up to over 800 people
• "Scrum of Scrums" or what called "Meta-Scrum"
• Frequency of meetings is based on the degree of coupling between packets