Visualization in Agile

Pune Agile Professionals

Visualization in Agile16 January, 2016 @ Mastek Pune

http://www.meetup.com/Pune-Agile-Professionals/

http://www.meetup.com/Pune-Agile-Professionals/events/227327401/


These thoughts were originally presented at the workshop “Visualization - The unsung hero in your Agile

journey” at the Pune Agile Professionals Meetup on January 16, 2016.

2

Event Link: http://www.meetup.com/Pune-Agile-Professionals/events/227327401/

Facilitators:

Ankit Tandon @tandon12, https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankit-tandon-04317631

Vineet Patni @patnivin, https://in.linkedin.com/in/patnivineet

http://www.meetup.com/Pune-Agile-Professionals/


https://twitter.com/tandon12

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankit-tandon-04317631

https://twitter.com/patnivin

https://in.linkedin.com/in/patnivineet

www.ScaleUpConsultants.com

Let’s start with our ritual

source: www.agilemanifesto.orghttp://agilemanifesto.org/

http://www.scaleupconsultants.com/

http://agilemanifesto.org/


12 Agile Principles…

Satisfy

Customer

Harness

Change

Deliver

Frequently

Work Together Daily

Motivated Individuals

Face-to-Face Conversation

Measure Working Software

Sustained pace

Technical Excellence

Keep it SimpleSelf

Organizing Teams

Reflect-Tune-Adjust


VISUALIZATION IN AGILE


Why do projects fail?



Top reasons of project failure

Lack of Visibility of all Projects Unclear Project Objectives No Visibility into Resource Workload / Over allocated Resources Gaps in Communication / Poor communication Management not paying enough attention Failure to hammer out the nitty gritty details Scope Creep Unhelpful teams and technology just complicate things Senior Management Meddling Bad Project management / The “Accidental Project Manager” Poor estimations / Underestimated timelines / Unreliable Estimates /

Unrealistic Schedules Lack of Team Planning Sessions No Risk Management Poor Change management / Failure to Understand the Impact of

Changes



Due to lack of visibility and predictability

Predictability: The degree to which a correct prediction or forecast of a system's

state can be made either qualitatively or

quantitatively.

Visibility: The state of being visible

(that can be seen; perceptible to the eye:

apparent; manifest; obvious; being constantly

or frequently in the public view;)



Executive management Project management Team members

Variability and Predictability needed at ALL levels for project success

What visibility and predictability do they require?



By Making things visible. Literally!

“Real” over “speculative” reporting- Working Software is the only measure of progress.

Avoid overheads of reporting by making it simple to report, access and understand.

How do we bring Visibility and Predictability to our Projects?



Visualization



What is Visualization?

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Making mental or real images or pictures

Any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message, or develop an understanding.



Our Brain is Wired for Visuals

source: https://blog.slideshare.net/2014/11/10/the-power-of-visuals-10-facts-you-need-to-know/


https://blog.slideshare.net/2014/11/10/the-power-of-visuals-10-facts-you-need-to-know/


The traditional project plans and status reports are not as effective

Infuse collaboration Increase communication Focus on the right things See the whole, look at the big picture Reducing risk

Why Visualize our Work?



Visualization in Agile Projects



Linking Visualization the Agile Values and Principles

Satisfy

Customer

Harness

Change

Deliver

Frequently

Work Together Daily

Motivated Individuals

Face-to-Face Conversation

Measure Working Software

Sustained pace

Technical Excellence

Keep it SimpleSelf

Organizing Teams

Reflect-Tune-Adjust



Shared documents aren’t shared understanding. It takes more than words to tell a story. Stories are about more than what to build. The whole story is bigger than a developer can build in a

couple of days.

Jeff Patton says..

Why documents fail…



Many levels of Agile Work Visualization

Strategy

Portfolio

Product

Release

Iteration

Daily



Visualization Tools



Information Radiator



Also known as a Big Visible Chart (BVC)

An information radiator displays information in a place where passersby can see it.

With information radiators, the passersby don't need to ask any question; the information simply hits them as they pass.

Most Popular Information Radiators:

Task boards Burn-down charts Build health indicators

Information Radiators



A large graphical representation of project information kept plainly in sight within an agile development team’s shared workspace.

Also known as a Big Visible Chart (BVC)

The term is generic rather than specific:

Burn down charts, task boards, planning boards and storyboards are among the possibilities.

An information radiator is usually hand-drawn or printed but can also include computer-generated charts and electronic displays.

The purpose of information radiators is to help keep the team focused on what really needs their attention and to promote transparency.

Information Radiator



Simple: Should be brief and concise

Current: Information displayed should be current

Transient: The problems and errors shouldn't be there on the chart for long; once the problem has been rectified, it should be taken off.

Influential: Influences the team members and management; and empowers the whole team to take decisions.

Highly visible

Minimal in number

Characteristics

What makes a good Information Radiator



Evolutionary change through

visualization, flow management and

collaboration

Kanban



Kanban Boards



“Kanban” is a Japanese term meaning a “task Board”, or “signboard”

Kanban Is a concept related to Lean and just-in-time (JIT) production.

It’s a just-in-time scheduling system for inventory control

It uses a continuous pull system to take work through the stages of development

A Kanban Board shows the current status of all the tasks to be done within this iteration.

Kanban



1. Visualize work

2. Limit Work in Progress (WIP)

3. Measure & Manage Flow

4. Make Process Policies Explicit

5. Enable Continuous Improvement (Kaizen)

Kanban Core Principles



Visualize your flow

FLOW



Visualize your flow

FLOW

Use columns, rows, lines to represent your flow either on wall / white boards

Workflow helps to see progress, improve collaboration and reveal bottle necks

Keep it Accessible, Simple, Clean and keep Evaluating



Visualize your norms

• Definition Of Done and Team Habits



Let’s Explore..

How we can bring in visualization in the Agile projects?

Some examples…



Visual Indicator 1



Visual Indicator 2



Visual Indicator 3



Visual Indicator 3 (Cont.)



Visual Indicator 4



Visual Indicator 5



Visual Indicator 6



Some More Visualization Techniques…



Legend



Avatars

• Name Post Sticks



Avatars

• Cartoon Characters



Avatars Big and Small

Big one is the main task team member is focusing upon while small one is where he is helping out



Confidence Smileys



Confidence Smileys

At the end of daily stand up team ask themselves how confident they are of finishing the story by the end of sprint

Update the stories with color of Confidence Smiley accordingly

An effective alternative to Sprint Burndown chart



Dotting

Put a new dot each day for tasks In Progress

Tasks should not have more than a few dots

Dots reveal bottlenecks

Effort should be made towards completing ‘In Progress’ tasks before picking new ones



Blocked

Red color sticky for blocked tasks

Description, date and a new dash for everyday it is blocked for

Discussion in daily stand up to review and resolve



Express Lane

• Criteria – Prod Issue, CI blocker, Blocks other team etc



Parking Lot (With States)



On Time Stand Ups

+1 every time stand up starts on time

Beat the highest score for a team lunch



What’s Hot Today

Put general information sharing items in ‘What’s Hot Today’

Once information is shared clear the section for next day’s standup



Umpteen In 15

Have a separate 15 minutes technical discussion just after the standup to avoid running it over

Write down the items in the board under ‘Umpteen In 15’ section



LATE=PIZZA

Draw a pizza

When someone is late for the stand up, put that persons name in one of the slices

When the pizza is full, count the winner

Winner treats everyone with pizza in the lunch



Standup Timer

Just putting a timer on the desk while doing stand ups helps – It has got Magic powers



Stand Up Wall



Stress Meter



Pair Programming Matrix

Helps to visualize pair programming in the team

Put a dash in the corresponding box after each pairing session

Review and talk about the results in the retrospectives / any other decided meeting



Pair Programming Map

Teams can also try pairing map for the same purpose



Story Point Ruler



Pyramid Backlog

Base of the backlog has epicsEpics break into stories and percolate to the top of pyramid

Top stories form sprint backlogEnsures ‘Just enough / Just in time’

Rules on story size can be imposed, i.e. only stories less than 8 can go to priority level 2 or higher

Can be useful for Kanban / Scrum ban type frameworks



Dependency Spider



Kudos Wall

Whenever a team member feels someone else has done something great and deserves appreciation, he puts it on a sticky on the Kudos wall

A great tool to enhance intrinsic motivation within a team



Fail Wall

Team member puts a post sticky with description on the fail wall whenever he has messed up

Does a failure bow

Team members applaud for giving them a learning

Creates safe and conducive environment for experimentation / learning



Achievement Poster

At the end of retrospective meeting summarize your sprint achievements on a poster

Bigger the sticky bigger the achievement

You can also try different color sticky for different events



Interruption Bucket

Categorize interruption on post sticks as per their common source

Decide upon a threshold for ex. 4

Whenever threshold is reached call a meeting to discuss ways to reduce them



DND Hour Glass

Request for undisturbed, uninterrupted time

Put it on your table with a note

Amount of sand left will be an indicator when your will be free

45 Mins



Retro Input Wall

Capture the retro inputs on the wall as soon as they catch your attention

Creates transparency

Validates real issue

Review them in the retrospectives



Retro Input Box

Use it when team does not want to make the inputs public

Review them in retrospectives



Waste Snake Wall

Every time there is a delay, write it down on sticky and add it to the end of snake

Include the time lost, things affected, cause with reporter’s initials

It becomes an information radiator to analyze, quantify, resolve impediments and reduce waste



Kaizen Board

Track the retrospective actions through out the sprint

Use post sticks for each action

Move them out from the board once the real time impact is observed



How to peel sticky notes and Blue tack

Traditional Way – Bottom to top. Results into curl up and it doesn’t hold for longBetter Way – Left to Right. Still results into raised corner. Not very effectiveCorrect Way – With thumb under Post It. Hold the stack from underneath with the other hand and instead of pulling up, pull back in one movement to have perfectly flat sticky.

If it still does not stick, Use Blu Tack. It’s cheap and super effective.



References

http://blog.crisp.se

http://www.jurgenappelo.com

https://blog.pivotal.io/labs/labs/pair-programming-matrix

http://www.ccpace.com/the-backlog-pyramid/

http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/12/snake-on-the-wall

http://agiletestinglessonslearned.wordpress.com/

http://thekaizone.com/2014/06/agile-kaizen-speeding-up-continuous-improvement/


http://blog.crisp.se/

http://www.jurgenappelo.com/

https://blog.pivotal.io/labs/labs/pair-programming-matrix

http://www.ccpace.com/the-backlog-pyramid/

http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/12/snake-on-the-wall

http://agiletestinglessonslearned.wordpress.com/

http://thekaizone.com/2014/06/agile-kaizen-speeding-up-continuous-improvement/


Happy Visualizing !

Please share your feedback or suggestions at:

Ankit Tandon [email protected]

Vineet Patni [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Visualization in Agile

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