Impacts of the adoption of Scrum

Impacts of SCRUM adoption

Andrea Di Pinto

04/07/2014

Version 1.1

Author: Andrea Di Pinto Version: 1.1

Project management history timeline

• During the latest 20 years, much attention has been devoted to the optimization of project management methodologies

• The newest approaches tend to simplify processes and promote a frequent communication between teams and clients and among team members

• SCRUM was formally born in the first years of 2000

RUP

2000

PMBOK

1990

AGILE MANIFESTO

2010

SCRUM

XPITIL

LEAN

PRINCE2

19801970

WATERFALL

CRYSTAL

KANBAN

PRINCE

1960

SDLC RAD DSDM

Impacts of SCRUM adoption 2Date: 04/07/2014


Agile ManifestoIndividuals and interactions processes and tools.

Working software comprehensive documentation.

Customer collaborationover

contract negotiation.

Responding to change following a plan.

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

VALUES

PRINCIPLES

3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.

8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.

11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.



Overview of Agile impacts

Agile teams do not have a formal leader.

Agile teams work 8 hours/day and do not work extra hours.

Agile teams’ members are co-located.

Overhead documentation, that is to say project management documentation, is minimized.

Requirements need to be sequenced, prioritizing is not enough.

Agile teams are dedicated to a single project from the beginning to the end.

Agile teams seek and promote technical excellence.

Agile teams’ members need to develop cross-functional competencies.

PROCESSES LOGISTICS

RESOURCE PLANNINGCOMPETENCES

Agile teams work in dedicated and outfitted rooms.



Processes

Agile teams do not have a formal leader.

Overhead documentation, that is to say project management documentation, is minimized.

Requirements need to be sequenced, prioritizing is not enough.

Resistances from former team leaders need to be overcome by proving the concrete advantages coming from the adoption of SCRUM.

Management needs to get accustomed to SCRUM project management tools: burndowncharts, products backlog, team velocity, etcetera.

The Product Owner needs to make sure that the client understands correctly the difference between sequencing and prioritizing requirements.



Logistics

Agile teams’ members are co-located.

Agile teams work in dedicated and outfitted rooms.

Team rooms, or at least dedicated and physically separated areas, need to be allocated to agile teams.

Each team should be provided with a kanbanboard.



Competencies

Agile teams seek and promote technical excellence.

Agile teams’ members need to develop cross-functional competencies.

Training needs to be planned for agile teams.

Management needs to be ready to accept a reasonable experimentation rate in agile projects.

Agile teams’ members need to understand, appreciate and accept this implication of SCRUM.



Resource planning

Agile teams work 8 hours/day and do not work extra hours.

Agile teams are dedicated to a single project from the beginning to the end.

In order to avoid inefficiencies, clients, Scrum Masters and Product Owners need to ensure their support to the Development Team.

Staffing policies need to avoid allocating Development Team members to more than one project at a time.

Since the Development Team effort is constant over time, it is of capita importance to assess and optimize the team velocity (Scrum Master), that is to say productivity.



SCRUM overviewIspezioneAdattamentoTrasparenza

VALUES

PROCESS

Product backlog

Sprint backlog

Dailyscrum

Sprint

Product OwnerDevelopment TeamScrum Master

ROLES

Sprint planning

Sprint review

Sprint retrospective

Shippable artifactNote: Scrum was born for product, not software, development, and so can be applied in virtually any context, not only IT.



When does SCRUM bring more value?Size of Development Team: ~6 people.

Estimated time to develop: a few months, minimum.

Complex and unclear requirements.

Request to generate value as soon as possible.

Commitment not to develop high impact / low value requirements. Short duration Long duration

Clear requirements / low complexity

Unclear requirements / high complexity SCRUM

Fixed price / deadline Variable price / deadline

Fixed scope

Variable scope SCRUMDevelopment/evolution of applications,

products, services, graphical interfaces.Identification of specifications for bids, RFP’s, RFQ’s.

Examples

Quality Time

Costs Scope



Overview of SCRUM impacts

Criteria for career progression and incentives granting need to be re-thought.

The operating models of the relationship with suppliers need to be identified, along with the related contract schemas.

Adding to the already mentioned Agile impacts, we have:

People need to be assigned to SCRUM roles depending on their skills, not previous roles.

CAREERS / INCENTIVES SCRUM VS. OTHER APPROACHES

PROCUREMENT

ROLE FILLING

The coexistence of SCRUM with other methodologies needs to be planned.

CONTRACTUAL ISSUESAd hoc contract schemas need to be introduced to formalize agreements with customers.

RAMP UPTraining, coaching e experienced people hiring need to be planned.



Careers and incentives

ROLES ASSESSMENT CRITERIA (examples)

All roles • Success of the project• Ability to coach junior resources• Ability to provide pre-sales support• Ability to play more than one SCRUM role

Product Owner • Ability to manage progressively more articulated requirements• Ability to manage progressively higher budget projects

Scrum Master • Ability to optimize the productivity of progressively larger teams

Development Team members

• Ability to introduce innovation and/or technical excellence• Ability to manage projects with progressively more complex architectures



Contractual issuesExamples of contractual frameworks that foster client/supplier collaboration.

VARIABLE PROFITABILITY STAGED DEVELOPMENT

The client accepts a controlled risk, always limited to a single development phase.

The supplier has the incentive to perform because the project assignment might not be renewed from phase to phase.

The project plan needs to feature a reasonable number of phases, whose deliverables are as much as possible decoupled from each other.

Both the client and the supplier have the incentive to complete the project ASAP.

The supplier has a time allowance that preserves its profitability in case the project takes longer than expected.

The client is safeguarded in case the supplier is performing worse than expected.



Role filling

People need to be assigned to SCRUM roles depending on their skills, not previous roles.

ProductOwner

ScrumMaster

Development Team Member

Business Analyst

X

Developer X X

Tester X

Project Manager

X X

Functional Analyst

X

…

ProductOwner

ScrumMaster

Development Team Member

Employee 1 X

Employee 2 X X X

Employee 3 X

Employee 4 X X

Employee 5 X

…

Avoid rigidly assigning non-SCRUM roles to SCRUM roles.



SCRUM vs. other approachesExample of coexistence of different project management methodologies within a single organization.

Short duration Long duration

Clear requirements

Unclear requirements

SCRUM

Kanban

Prince2• Software maintenance• Small evolutions

• Project with clear specifications• Short duration projects



Procurement

Contractual schema Project management Risk level

Time & Material • The project management methodology is chosen by the client.

• The client accepts the whole project risk.

Variable profitability

• The project management methodology needs to be agreed upon by both the client and the supplier and is therefore the result of a negotiation.

• The risk is shared between the client and the supplier.Phased development

Other schemas • The risk is typically carried more by the supplier than the client.



Ramp up


External training / support

Mature internal competencies

Trial projects

Structural adoption

The introduction of SCRUM needs to be gradual and should happen through trial projects.

Roles Competencies sourcing

Scrum Master Certified external consultant.

Product Owner Certify an internal resource or hire a certified resource.

Development Team

Mix of internal resources and certified/experienced consultants.

Project characteristics

3/6 months duration, 2/3 weeks sprint, internal client.

Trial project – Risk minimization strategies

Impacts of the adoption of Scrum

Business

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