Sussex University, 11th February 2009

Feel the FP-nessBuilding and running a software companyon agile principles

where it all began

“and they have a plan”

we sell puzzles

we invent new kinds of play

we hunt ghosts

Everyone knows how to build software

- Winston W Royce “The implementation above is risky and invites failure”

It didn’t seem to be working so well

Corporate growth pains

We tried Scrum previously and messed it up

We engaged a consultant to help us

Scrum in 3 minutes

SCRUM – AN INTRODUCTION Scrum is based on what is called a Sprint – a focused effort for a 30-day period toward fixed goals.

2–4 weeks

S P R I N T

24 hours

ProductBacklog SprintBacklog

Deliverable

Roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team

Sprints never change length

Sprint backlog is fixed for sprint duration

Daily standups

One product owner

One product backlog

Prioritised requirements

Focused team

Immediate benefits

Change welcomed

Early visible progress

Realistic projections

Minimal overhead

Rationalised stakeholders!

Definitive TODO list

2 weeks til deadline, not 6 months

How fast you will go = how fast you have gone

technical practices

Unit TestingCode ReviewsSource ControlDefect Tracking

Informal LecturesContinuous Integration

Test Driven DevelopmentExplicit Acceptance Tests

Never Leave A Man BehindAutomated User InterfaceTesting

It’s more discipline, not less

Daily meetings

Problems surface early

Planning, review and retrospective always happen

Dealing with change, not discouraging it

“Wireframes are pretty much there. Should

be able to sign them off next week.”

5 months

Thanks to:

- Competitive pressure

- Mid-project learning

- Usability testing

- Unpredictable good ideas

81 revisions to date

Change is going to happen - deal with it Don’t blame the customer

Expect some negativity

Our dev team are as cynical as I am

Some people don’t like working this way

(you should be able to incorporate them)

Scrum gets used in high-pressure environments e.g. medical

“You know nothing of The Crunch”

Spread workload evenly over project life

Plan and replan regularly

Team run at constant pace

Sustainable working life

We’ve eliminated culture of overtime

we still don’t understand...

Join us

We’re special

Sussex University, 11th February 2009

Thanks for listening!

I’ve been Tom.Hume@futureplatforms.com