Scrum take quality to the next level

INDIUM SOFTWAREAn Independent Software Testing Firm

SCRUM – Take Quality to the Next Level

“Business Assurance through Quality Assurance”

© 2014 Indium Software

ENHANCING SOFTWARE QUALITY

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Every picture tells a story



Agenda

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Introduction

Agile’s Scrum

Storyboard

Speed of Development

Control Mechanism

How Scrum Controls Risks

Inference

Benefits

Shortcomings in Scrum

Conclusion



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Introduction

• Traditional models like Waterfall and v-Models seem to be fading away

ThePast

• Agile and its processes have the limelight nowThe Present

• Cycles that provide visibility into early error detection

• A delivery method for frequent releases

The Need



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Agile’s Scrum

Formation is Rugby

When a formation brings success to Rugby, why not try it for software development?

The need for a formation that is highly comfortable with rotating pieces, one that is ready to handle all the quick moves, formed the basis for inventing Agile's Scrum.

Scrum and its formations have attracted several software development organizations.



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Storyboard

A Point Of Sales web application that is currently being developed needs to be tested

Requirement

2 manual testersTest team size

6 weeksTimeline

50 story points

Total story points in backlog

License (9); EDI (6); Order Entry (8); Report (13); Pricing (7); Maintenance (7)

Modules (Assigned points)



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Speed of Development - Scrum

Plans and assigns prioritized backlog to releases and teams

Has fixed iteration cycles

As a process, Scrum:

At the beginning of an iteration: The Product owner prioritizes the Product backlog

During iteration: The Team focuses on completing the items they committed to

At the end of an iteration: Team demonstrates working code to the relevant stakeholders and conducts a retrospection

Advantages

With the Product owner carefully prioritizing the story points, a majority of them in the backlog will get into the iteration grouped based on modules

Because length cannot be altered, planning is done accordingly

Every phase in the process being religiously followed helps avoid slippage



Speed of Development – Kanban and XP

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Kanban• Iterations are not prescribed• No specific process flow on planning,

process improvement or release• The scenario would be mostly event-

driven picking items based on resource availibility leading to self-limiting of work

• Very little governance over the system

XP• XP starts with pair programming on

the design phase and changes over to test-driven development and continuous integration

• The possibility of bottlenecks is high with this continuous integration and infrequent integration may lead to severe impact

• Code freeze is delayed because of uncertainty



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Control Mechanism - Scrum

The Product owner being clear about the desired output for a release choses the right items for a Sprint

Once into a sprint, the requirement cannot be altered

The Product owner cannot alter items when already made part of a sprint

Close tracking system reflecting every update keeps the entire team on the same board

Advantages

Similar requirements are bundled together knowing the need of the customer

No focus shift on requirements

A leak proof tracking system that is always up to date on progress



Control Mechanism – Kanban and XP

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Kanban• The Product owner can make changes to

the Backlog and Selected columns any time he likes

• The backlog is just a wish list of the entire team, in no particular order and no one is specific has complete control over it

• Prioritization is not the focus• Switching focus back and forth can lead to

quality dips

XP• The backlog items are selected by the

developers• Does not have sets of specific

development process• Emphasis is not on avoiding

communication gaps• Does not follow any specific tracking

system



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Scrum and Kanban Boards

Scrum:

Items picked are made part of the committed listOnce picked to be committed a change cannot be madeItems then move from committed to Ongoing to Done

Kanban:

The whole workflow is on the same boardThe “selected” column contains the high priority items, with a Kanban limit of 2



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How Scrum Controls Risks

Scrum with strict timelines, it is only wise to have the estimates right.

Buffer for these unforeseen risks.

Risk assessment fits most naturally into the release planning and

product backlog grooming sessions.

Risk mitigation in Scrum:Pick items that represent risks

Assess the probability of the risk occurringAssign points to the risk based on the impact

Measure total risk in unit pointsTrack the risk and the product backlog items in a similar manner

Challenges that might arise:Difficulty in coming up with size estimation for unfamiliar featuresHow one understands a feature may not be another’s perspective



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Inference - Speed

Scrum: With clearly defined requirements, Scrum kick starts with highest number of story points and with regular catch-ups and no deviation it meets deadline with ease.

Kanban: With the freedom to change the backlog and selected columns and where estimation is optional, leads to extended time lines.

XP: With the refactoring and TDD approach and the possibility of regular integration issues block progress.



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Inference - Quality

Scrum: A good combination of requirements are chosen by the Product owner. And clarity in feature helps in early defect detection.

Kanban: With the wish list / priority changing and changes welcome all the way, there is no proving a bug is valid or not.

XP: Lack of clarity leads to finding invalid bugs impacting development focus. Also the effects of refactoring yields results only in the later stages of testing.



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Inference - Cost

Scrum: In first few weeks, Scrum finds a bundle of defects and gets done with it. The earlier fixed the more cost efficient it is. Also effort reduces and testers can be freed up for parallel releases.

Kanban: Kanban cuts short in committed work resulting in need for additional time and money.

XP: Unclear requirement can shift focus therefore leading to effort / cost variance.



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Benefits

Key LeverScrum

vs.XP and Kanban

Reasons

Test execution Faster by 25%• Scrum master's complete control• Focused requirements

Defect detection Increased by 30%• Invalid defects count is minimal saving

time on review

Quality Increased by 35% • Regular catch-ups preventing de-railing

Backlog Reduced by 35%

• Stories for the sprint from the product backlog is selected by the Product owner which assures the right requirements are picked

Cost Does not exceed budget

• Work is done earlier can help release resource from current Sprint

• WIP at the end of Sprint can cause extension exceeding budget



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Shortcomings in Scrum

Scrum rigidly uses velocity as a key

performance indicator

Unless the Scrum team is quite small, the team will rarely work one issue at a

time

Unstable velocity while working on dissimilar projects

Role accountability



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Conclusion

Requirements not fully

developed?

Need flexibility?

Does your environment

keep changing?

PlayAgile’s Scrum!



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Thank You

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Scrum take quality to the next level