Effective Scrum

By Jacob Svalastoga

Jacob

•Works at MarkMonitor Copenhagen (Anti-Piracy)

lDtecNet won the Gazelle (most growing danish company) award in 2010 and was subsequently acquired by MarkMonitor which was then acquired by Thomson Reuters

•Likes:–Agile software development–Reverse-engineering–Challenges / bets–My motorcycle and my dog–Any racquet sport (orig. tennis)

You

What about you? :-)

Introduction...

lBefore scrum:

lJFDI

lNo development improvement

philosophy

The level 0 scrum

•Product owner–Product vision, Fill the backlog

•Scrum Master–Facilitator/secretary (organize rituals, track progress)

•Team member–Worker (take task, complete task, do scrum updates)

•Time wasters–Reminding people to do their work/update burndown bla bla –Punish other people for 1 persons short comings–Robot-Retro

Robot retrospective

An automated band-wagon response instead of a continuous improvement focus

New mindset

lMindset: Long term greedy

lTime spent on anything that is not development is an investment in the future

lSimple/small changes could be big discoveries

lExperiment, do not be afraid

My mission

•Creating/nursing teams of productive and happy people

•Chasing technical excellence and software quality

•Keep people inspired, passionate, proud and interested* in the future

*

•Passion–Passion is when you put more energy into something than is required to do it. It is more than just enthusiasm or excitement, passion is ambition that is materialized into action to put as much heart, mind body and soul into something as is possible. –Urban dictionary–Caring beyond responsibility

•Pride–Take pride in achievements

Delivering the mission

To deliver the mission we must find a way to understand

people better and also understanding our work better

McGregor

The X and Y theory of McGregor can help to understand people

Understanding people: McGregor X

•Unwilling to give the best, motivated by fear of loosing the job, does not take responsibility, not optimistic about the future

•Unintentional failing of sprints, ex.:lHigh complexity lBad estimates

•Bad retrospectives•Hopelessness•Change request ignored, change not in effect

Understanding people: McGregor Y

•Wants to work, puts a lot of energy into each objective

•Failing and learning from it, cause and effect•Celebrating achievements/victories•Learning from retrospectives•Delivering hard objectives•Solving complex problems•Succeeding with changes

There are both attractive positive and dangerous negative spirals centered around the retrospective

This fact makes the retrospective by far the most important ritual to improve

Understanding people: Findings

Understanding PCW:

Comfort zones

The Special Operation Forces (SoF) comfort zone model

can help to express the perceived complexity of our work (PCW)

Understanding PCW:

Comfort zones

lWork complexity

lComfort/simple

lChallenge

lRed zone / Finding Unicorns

lMicro-management potential

lManageable

lPartially manageable

lUnmanageable

lMcGregor type compliance

lX

lY

lY

Velocity oriented/Managed team

lComfort

lChallenge/spike

lDrawbacks

lPush backs

lComfort zone does not feel as good as yellow zone

lIllegitimate inventions

lPlanning overhead

High performance team

lComfort

lChallenge

lR&D time budget

lDrawbacks:

lLess stable

lNeeds high efficiency

lVulnerable to Prio 1s

lVelocity as a performance parameter is unreliable

Understanding PCW: Findings

Both models can work well. Its necessary for teams to decide with strategy to use.

The high performance strategy has way more output usually, but also more risk.

Effective scrum

•All non-development related activities are meaningful

•All development activities are focused

•Convert problems into challenges–Challenge every team member to solve it

•Improvement contract

Q & A

Q & A

Team reflections

Some team member qualities can grow and be nourished

The Great Product Owner

•Has a strong product vision•Knows about strengths and weaknesses of the product(s)•Knows the market and the customers•Takes interest in areas that might affect requirements (customer processes, market related information)•Is capable of answering any customer/csm question with minimal help from team•Is passionate about the products and follow development of them with great interest•Is also a teamplayer!•Loves automation•Likes value more than most other things•Is a catalyst for team approved changes

The Great Scrum Master

•Not afraid of anybody or anyone•Knows and understands some change management•Favours micro changes and evolution over revolution•Thinks about the future and involves the team•Is a catalyst for team approved changes•Creates and facilitates the continous improvement dialogue

The Great Team Members

•Works fast and efficient when not disturbed•Works on something interesting•Ambition/pride/passion•Fills the empty space•Listens and understands•Asks good questions•Does not hide many secrets from team

The Great Rituals and Meetings•Good Participation •Timely •All come prepared•Parking slot

•Improve duration and frequency

Final things to consider

•A team should own everything they build

•Build trust, keep promises, explain rationales

•People are always running FROM something and TOWARDS something else and they can be VERY different

•Simple goals are good

Goals

Simple goals are good

My dog has very simple goals

lMaximize food intake

lMaximize attention from people

lSleep if none of the above goals can be worked on

My dog is very successful