Strategy implementationsprint by sprint

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Content

• Situation– Scrumming for one year already– Current issues

• Strategy and direction• New portfolio concept and structure• Link to planning• 2 Conclusions

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Company and me

• E-Bros– IT innovation company– Common business with partners– Investing into product development– Always looking for new opportunities and ideas

• Me– 20+ years in IT field– 10 years in big corporate business– 3 years at E-Bros

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Scrum @E- Bros

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SCRUM @ E-BrosOctober 2010 - August 2011

– 417 user stories– 1689 story points

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Performance to compare

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Main benefits

• Happy customers– Predictable short term delivery– Great involvement into the process

• Increasing of SW quality– Doing exactly what’s needed– Prompt feedback– Fast cycle

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New challenges

• People– On the edge of chaos but not beyond

• Teams– Anarchy, federation, collaboration

• Products and platforms– Chicken or egg

• How to manage it all– Clear view, right direction

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Strategy

• From businessdictionary.com:– “A method or plan chosen to bring about

a desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem”.

• www.thefreedictionary.com– Synonym for planning!

• All about a way how to be where we want to be

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Project portfolio as a strategy reflection

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Why it doesn’t work with SCRUM

• Wrong approach– Project isn‘t a list of stories– Project requires change tracking– Project has different acceptance criterion– And so on

• Well managed portfolio became useless– Broken down just in a month– Sprint by sprint rally– Targets and directions somewhere between the

lines

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Project portfolio and SCRUM

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New (old) portfolio concept: areas

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New portfolio concept: targets

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New portfolio concept: backlog

• For each target– User story for each step– Incremental value per user

story

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New portfolio concept: user story

• User stories with size, priorities and status– Level of details on the backlog depends on

time– Keep just a short description for future

stories– More details just before development

• One story could be attach to a few targets

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All together now!!!

Areas

Area1Target1Target2

Area2Target1Target2

Area3Target1Target2

Balance

Area1/Target 1

DefinitionAcceptance CriteriaDeadlineStatus

Value!!!

User story 1 Status SizeUser story 2 Status SizeUser story 3 Status SizeUser story 4 Status Size

Target backlog Execute!!!

Quarter planResource (team) allocationUser Stories

Keep it rolling!!!

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Quarter plan

• Stories to select– A list of user stories for targets to be completed during

the quarter is compiled– + Future targets (from next 2 quarters)

• To avoid just one quarter horizon

• People to mobilize– Team involvement is needed– Review story points per area– Evaluate the workload

• Go back for the targets if unreachable

– Allocate teams for the quarter

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Control of the process• Strategy meetings

– 2-3 times a year– To review areas and directions– Check the target achievement– Set up the new targets/cancel some of them

• Quarter planning– Once per quarter– Review performance and share experience– Review backlogs per area for the quarter

• Check if all the items still valid• Check if we could do this

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Along the strategy

Areas

Targets

Backlog

Strategy planning

Quarter planning

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Conclusions

• Scrum implementation direction– Doesn't matter– It’s most effective when all tears are covered

• Transparency &Commitment– Information flow– Common goals (targets)– Commitment at all levels

• End right before the end– “All wrong but some useful”

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That is all - thank you very much