Chaos and
Collaboration
A Successful Adoption of
Scrum
by a Government Department
Pete George
George Training & Development Ltd
www.GeorgeTD.com
“Almost exactly a year ago I set
you the challenge of delivering a
… capability … You successfully
met this challenge and delivered
us a significant new capability
in July. Since then, the
capability has been used to
support a large number of …
operations, a number of which
have represented major gains for
HMG … It’s been a fantastic 7
months … we couldn’t have done it
without you!”
Extract from a letter by the Deputy Director of a large HMG department, Jan
2010
The Challenge
APP1
APP2
APP3
APP4
APP5
APP6
APP7
APP8
The Answer??
“[Scrum] was a breath of fresh
air really. It helped us clear
the deadwood out of our
processes and practices, which
we’d adhered to ‘slavishly’. It
gave us a clear connection to
users”
Technical Architect, Blazing Saddles Team
2005 – Customer Wanted
2005 - Construction
2008
2008 - Customer Got
2008 - Customer Finally
Got
2008 - Customer Wanted
The Conclusion
APP1
APP2
APP3
Scrum Artefacts
Product Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Product Increment
Burndown Chart
Sprint
Release Period
Scrum Artefacts
Product Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Product Increment
Burndown Chart
Sprint
Release Period
Scrum Roles
Scrum Master
The Team
Product Owner
BzS Product Owner
• Saw Team’s problems first-hand
• Relegated Backlog items
• Managed users’ expectations
• Focused Team on completing applications
• Ensured most important applications
delivered
• Collaborated on estimates for post-July
work
BzS Product Owner
• Saw Team’s problems first-hand
• Relegated Backlog items
• Managed users’ expectations
• Focused Team on completing applications
• Ensured most important applications
delivered
• Collaborated on estimates for post-July
work
Scrum Ceremonies
Product
Backlog
Prioritisation
Daily
Scrum
Sprint
Backlog
Planning
Review/Demo
Retrospective
Sprint
Scrum Ceremonies
Product
Backlog
Prioritisation
Daily
Scrum
Sprint
Backlog
Planning
Review/Demo
Retrospective
Sprint
“One of the best things I found
was the close working with the
principal users, having them
present in the daily stand up
was a boon in sanity checking
our understanding of
requirements and also to get
‘micro priority judgements’…It
was a satisfying way of working
because of the continuous
feedback.”
Developer, Blazing Saddles Team
“[the user community] always
had something constructive to
add and it made it seem to me
that they were delivering a
‘buy in’ to the Product.”
Tester, Blazing Saddles Team
Increased Collaboration
• Demonstration feedback
• Test charters
• Pair-based exploratory testing
• Alpha testing
• Beta testing
Increased Collaboration
• Demonstration feedback
• Test charters
• Pair-based exploratory testing
• Alpha testing
• Beta testing
Chaos?
• Technical Debt
• Support Costs
• Practices not principles
• Culture shock within Team
• Conflicting methodologies across the
organisation
• No time for Retrospectives
Chaos?
• Technical Debt
• Support Costs
• Practices not principles
• Culture shock within Team
• Conflicting methodologies across the
organisation
• No time for Retrospectives
Chaos?
• Technical Debt
• Support Costs
• Practices not principles
• Culture shock within Team
• Conflicting methodologies across the
organisation
• No time for Retrospectives
What Success Looks Like
Agile Team
Health
Check
A Workshop for Agile Teams
Who Are Still Improving
www.georgetd.com
Agile Team Health Check
The Health Check is a half-day workshop for any team (max 20 members)
who would like to improve their current way of working with the help of an
experienced Agile facilitator. George T&D will provide the facilitator. All you
need to do is provide a suitable venue (and coffee!).
The workshop consists of a series of group exercises designed to help the
team reflect together on how they are currently operating in the light of the
12 Agile Principles, and how they can perform better.
Schedule
09:00
Who are we?
09:45
Why Agile?
10:45
Coffee break
11:00
How are we doing?
12:00
Where are we going?
12:30
Finish
Introductions and team exercise
Agile Principles review exercise
Coffee break
Retrospective exercise
Action brainstorm exercise
For more details or to book the workshop, email:
enquiries@georgetd.com