Agile Scrum - A Brief by Manish Manekar

2010 CUNIX Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Manish Manekar

[WHAT

IS AGILE/SCRUM? ]

Agile has gained huge popularity and is fast spreading out in the software development community. Scrum focus on Agile management and it is like Getting It Done. This brief is first step to the introduction of Agile/Scrum.

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Table of Contents Wh a t is Ag i le / Sc r um ? ............. .................... ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ ...... 3 Va ri ou s R o le s i n S cr um De v el op me nt ....... .......... ...... ....... ....... ...... ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ....... ...... ...... ..... 4 Pi g & C hi c ke n An a lo g y ...... ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ......... ... 4 Pr od u ct Ow ne r ................. ....................... ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............ ............. .............. ............. .......... .... 4 Te a m M em b er ...... ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ......... ... 5 Sc r u m M a st er ...... ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ......... ... 5 Other Stakeholders............................................................................... 5 B a c kl og ...... ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ......... ... 5 U se r St o r i es ...... ............ ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............ ...... 5 Pr od u ct B a c kl og ............ .................. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ........ 5 Sp r in t B a ck lo g ................. ....................... ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............ ............. .............. ............. .......... .... 5 Sc r um M ee t in g s ......... ................ ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ ...... 6 Re l ea s e P la nn i n g ................. ........................ ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ ...... 6 Sp r in t P la n n in g .......... ................ ............ ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............ ............. .............. ............. .......... .... 6 Da i ly Sc r um ...... ............ ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............ ...... 6 Review .................................................................................................. 6 Re t r o sp ec t iv e .................. ........................ ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ........... ..... 6 Th e Sp r in t Pl a nn in g ............. .................... ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ......... ... 7 Sc r um M et r ic s ...... ............. ............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ........... ..... 8 Ve lo ci t y ...... ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ...... 8 St o r y P o in t ............. .................... ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ...... 8 B ur nd o w n Ch a r t ........ .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ........... ..... 8 Test Cases and Defects ........................................................................ 9 Ne xt St ep s ................. ........................ ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ...... 9 Ap p en di x A: Ho w it Wo r ks in Ag il e? .... ....... ...... ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ..... .. 10 Minutes of Meeting ............................................................................. 10 Co nf ig ur a t io n Ma na g em en t ..... ........ ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ....... ...... ...... ...... ....... ....... ..... .. 10 Ha nd li ng Ch an ge R eq ue s t ..... ........ ...... ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ...... ....... ....... ...... ..... 10 Testing Procedures ............................................................................. 10 Ap pe nd ix B: Ag il e Co di ng Gu id el in es ..... ....... .... .... .... .... ..... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... ..... .... .... ..... ..... .... .... .... .... .. 11 11

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What is Agile/Scrum? Dictionary meaning of A gile is “able to move quickly and with suppleness, skill, and control”. It is synonymous with Lively, Alert, & Responsive. Agile is a quick & well coordinated movement. It is adaptive and people oriented. [Wikipedia] Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative developme nt, where requirements and solutions evolve through collabora tion between selforganizing cross-functional teams. The term was coined in the year 2001 when the Agile Manifesto and the Twelve Principles were formulated. [www.agilemanifesto.org] The terms methodology, methodology, framework, method, practice, technique in reference to Agile are used depending on its context, but here we will use most of  those loosely to refer to Scrum. Please note, this document is intended for Agile novice audience to introduce Scrum in a manne r that is brief and simple. While there are several Agile methods, for the purpose o f this document, all the references are in respect respect to Scrum. Here is pictorial representation representation depicting the Agile Scrum methodology: methodology:

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Agile methodology is based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing crossfunctional teams. It values Individuals and interac tions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive document ation, c ustomer collaboration over contract negotiation and respond ing to change over following a plan. Iteration refers to short cycle, typically 2 weeks and also referred to as a sprint. Self-organizing team is a close group of motivated individuals committed to Agile values & principles who have been empowered to take initiatives & decisions. Scrum is a team-based iterative, incremental incremental framework that allows teams to deliver a potentially shippable set of f unctionality unctionality per iteration, providing the agility needed to respond to rapidly changing requi rements. Its principles are customer satisfaction, responding to change, workin g software, and continuous improvement, teamwork of self organized individuals, sustenance, simplicity, trust, and conversation. conversation. A lot emphasis is put on maximizing individuals‟ interaction individuals‟  interaction – amount as well as frequency. Let us now see who all these individuals are…

Various Roles in Scrum Development Pig & Chicken Analogy A pig and a chicken are walking down the road. The chicken looks at the pig and says, “Hey Pig, why don‟t we start a restaurant ?” The pig looks at the chicken and says, “That‟s a great idea, but what do we call it?” The chicken replies, “Why don‟t we call it „Ham and Eggs‟?” The pig thinks about it and says, “I don‟t think so. I‟d be committed but you‟d only be involved.”  Individuals in a scrum team assumes either of two r oles – in the Pig role are those who committed to scrum and in the Chicken rol e are rest of those who are involved otherwise. Product Owner The Product Owner is a customer advocate who know what customer wants, along with its value to th e customer. This person h olds the final authority for setting and maintaining the backlog as well as the priorities throughout the release, determining the value of product delivered , and terminating a sprint when necessary. He drives release planning, participates participate s in scrum meetings, elaborates elaborates on stories for the team, and accepts/rejects stories d emonstrated. Product Owner is the role whose commitment greatly influences the success

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Team Member The team member is another committed individual who directly contributes to the delivery of working software. This individua l is architect, designer, developer, tester, usability, build engineer and wh oever works o n the produce. A typical scrum team is about 7 members (+ /- 2). A great agile team is one that has assimilated agile values and principles, and can handle the power and responsibility responsibility that comes with it. Scrum Master The Scrum Master is the servant leader committed to ensure the highest priority needs of the team are being served. A grea t Scrum Master is one who is a good listener, coach, humble, committed, c ollabora tive, and knowledgeable. That he/she removes any impediments out of team‟s w ay on a daily basis yet refrain from micro-manage the team. Scrum Master is the leader with no authority. Other Stakeholders The rest of the parties involved in the project are the customer, v endor, user and management. These stakeholders participate at v aried degree and at different stages in the flow as and when necessary. We just met the entire scrum team; now let us see what work they do…

Backlog The work that is comprised of requirements, scope a nd specifications i s captured in the form of stories. A story is a templ ate to gather e nough information about the feature or requirement to give the team a high level idea about it. Since it is a story of user requirement, it is popularly known as User Story. We will know more on its use in next topic. User Stories Product Owner who owns the vision of final delivera ble based on input from customers, end users, field people, industry experts and other stakeholders. These requirements are transformed into User Storie s so as to inform the team what is required to produce and deliver in small increments. Product Backlog A Product Backlog is Product Owner‟s wish list in t he form of User Stories. The Product Owner set priority to each story in the backlog based on the associated business value and risk. The team is committed to deliver the highest priority items first. Sprint Backlog

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Scrum Meetings Since we value individuals and interactions while d iscounting on comprehensive documentation and claim to respond to change, meetings are critical to success. Keep in mind that every scrum meeting is face-to-face meeting and the team is expected to participate at all levels. Release Planning What: Brainstorming high level scope/theme scope/theme of entire project/release project/release Who: Driven by Product Owner; Attendance mandatory mandatory to all When: At the beginning of the project/release; project/release; lasts for a day or two Outcome: Product Backlog Sprint Planning What: Focus on highest priority backlog items Who: Driven by Product Owner; Attendance mandatory to team When: At the beginning of every Sprint; a few hours in a day Outcome: Sprint Backlog Daily Scrum What: Every team te am member share what did I do yesterday, what‟s for today and anything stopping me from getting there Who: Driven by and mandatory to team members When: Every Working Day; not more than 10-15 min Outcome: Impediment Impediment Backlog Backlog (list of issues issues that Scrum Master will work to resolve) Review What: Who: When: Outcome:

Review of work completed during the Sprint Driven by Product Owner; Attendance mandatory to team At the end of every Sprint; a couple of hours Accept/Re jected User Stories

Retrospective What: Review what went well, what did not work for the team in the recent Sprint and decide what the team would like to do different Who: Driven by and mandatory to team members When: After Review meeting and before beginning of next Sprint; couple of hours at most Outcome: Best Practices to follow in coming Sprints All Scrum meetings are time boxed and facilitated and moderated by Scrum Master. The agenda and format of each meeting is fi xed and the time

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The Sprint Planning Agile is iterative approach to deliver working soft ware in increments. This iteration is of a short period typically development cycle of 2-4 weeks. Such a cycle is called a Sprint. Series of Sprints conclude as a Release. Length of  a Sprint is generally generally constant throughout the Release. Before the Sprint Planning meeting, the team members are expected to do a little homework. Product Owner ensures that the Pro duct Backlog is up to date with priorities. All members announce their av ailability (also called Velocity) during this Sprint. Responsible members t ake a look at their respective User Stories with next highest priority in the Product Backlog. Where possible, it is broken down into small activi ties known as tasks along with estimates. There are various ways of estimating User Stories; however, the team has to follow one agreed method. During the Sprint Planning Meeting, Product Owner s hares his vision of the Release again and along with the team defines the Sprint Goal. If the team needs any clarification on respective User Stories, Product Owner provides the necessary details that help the team estimate i t. At the end of this meeting, there is a mutually agreed Sprint Backlog. Post Sprint Planning Meeting, the team makes sure t hat estimated tasks are added to all items in the Sprint Backlog and respective task owners ar e identified. All these activities are recorded on a storyboard – which is either generated using some project management software softwar e tool or a physical board with sti cky notes on it. Here is how it looks like – in the middle of a Sprint - while we keep the details out of t his document…

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Scrum Metrics We can measure the success using a variety of metri cs. Some of the popular and useful ones are listed here: Velocity Velocity is the availability of a team member and i s recorded either as hours, days or percentage. Team velocity is the total of all team members. This is measured and tracked Sprint over Sprint. As a general guideline, you cannot accomplish total estimated hours greater than the t eam velocity in a ny particular Sprint.

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Test Cases and Defects We can always collect the usual metrics around Test Cases and Defects.

Next Steps 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Learn & Assimilate Agile Values & Principles Learn the Basics of Agile/Scrum Learn & Identify Challenges in Agile Adoption Pilot Agile Development Coach the Team and Go Agile

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Appendix A: How it Works in Agile?

Minutes of Meeting Agile values interactions and insists that everybody everybody in the team including the stakeholders and entire organization, where desired , should have access to the progress, impediments and the decisions/results of all the meetings. While most of the teams use storyboards storyboards as th e tool for all this in formation, formation, there is no need for separate minutes of meeting. T his info rmation is recorded on the storyboard and everybody has access to it. If you still find value in maintaining and/or distributing it separat ely, there is no stopping. You may prepare and use some template that delivers value to the recipients. Configuration Management Streamlined process and Automation are the keys to Configuration Management in Agile environment. While there are so me patterns you may use, the best practices such as Source Control, Aut omated Build-MigrateDeploy, Test Automation and Continuous Integration is the way to go about it. Remember the Agile teams are closely interacting and committed to follow the process. Besides, the daily scrum meeting expos es any configuration problem within a day – which makes it difficult for the team to breach the process repeatedly. Handling Change Request Agile vouch for responding to change. While Scrum d oes not recommend distracting team during the sprint, the Product Own er can always mak e necessary changes to the product backlog that will be considered during the following sprint. Since the sprint duration is typi cally 2 weeks, most of the change requests those can wait for 2 weeks are seamlessly accommodated. In extreme situation, the Product Owner may also decide and terminate ongoing sprint and call on Sprint Planning for the new sprint.

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Appendix B: Agile Coding Guidelines While there is no mandate as Agile Coding Standards , considering that we deliver software in increments and respond to chang e, there certainly are some best practices those serve as guidelines. Here is a partial list for your information. Modeling/Design      

Simple, flexible and scalable Model in small increments Apply patterns gently Update only when it hurts Collective ownership Use simple tools

Coding Your usual coding standards addresses following:    

Standardize on Consensus Collective Code Ownership Coding Discipline Refactoring

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