IT Project Management and Scrum, part I

IT project management and Scrum, Agnius Paradnikas

IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND SCRUM, PART I

Agnius Paradnikas


Who am I?

Agnius Paradnikas

• Senior .NET developer at Visma Lietuva.

• Mostly working on web and mobile applications.

• Agile fan.

• Glider pilot.

• @Agnius101

• www.notReallyCode.com


Table of Contents

PART I, IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

• Complexity of software development projects

• Classic mistakes

• What is Agile?

PART II, SCRUM

• My experience before and after Scrum

• Scrum

• Basics

• Artifacts

• Meetings

• Definition of Done

• Estimation


Picture by Roger Do Minh 2007 | http://www.flickr.com/photos/hitchica/719072170/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hitchica/719072170/


4 dimensions

• Great influence to speed, quality and

price

• Each dimension is tightly related

• People – most important, but you

should focus on all at the same time

• Product – the outcome of team work

• Technology – programming language,

architecture, tools, practices

• Process – the way team works

• Environment – great influence, no

control on it

Picture by Steve McConnell, “Rapid Development” (page 11)

Environment


SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT IS COMPLICATED

Picture by Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2012 | http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/


Product: Domain complexity

• In my 7 year career I worked on 7 different domains.

• Examples of domains: medical devices, motion picture special effects, biometric identification, military fighter planes, GIS, commercial airliners, drug development, warehouse management, banking, finance, oil and gas exploration, forestry, car production, cell phones, retail companies, fire safety, smart houses, electric cars, container-ship management, fishing solutions, elderly people care, etc.


Product: Unclear requirements

• You’ll never know what customer wants until the product is completely done.



Product: Software is intangible

• Hard to track progress.

• Hard perceive quality.

• Unclear scope.

Picture by Karin Dalziel 2007 | http://www.flickr.com/photos/nirak/644335254/




Technology: Huge variety

Picture by Wenger | http://www.wengerna.com/giant-knife-16999

• Programming languages: C#, Java, C++, C, PHP, Python, Ruby, F#, Clojure, JavaScript, Visual Basic, Perl, etc.

• Frameworks: .NET, ASP.NET MVC, Java, Spring, Zend, Django, Ruby on Rails, etc.

• Platforms: Azure, node.js, Android,iOS, Windows Phone, etc.

• Tools: IDEs, compilers,collaboration, test, etc.

• Practices: TDD, BDD, Refactoring, Mobile first,Continuous integration, etc.


Technology: Rapidly changes

• Technology moves very quickly.

• Hard to predict.

• Cloud - no need for hardware infrastructure.

• Software as a Service (SaaS).

• NoSQL.

• JavaScript starts to rule (node.js, meteor.js, Windows 8 apps, etc).

• Mobile first.

• Cross-platform mobile development.

• Responsive Web Design.


People: Communication

• Becomes complicated as team grows.

• Essential to sync everyone’s activities.

• <9 need to switch to written documents & formal communication.



People: Motivation

• Critical factor in development speed.

• Hard to grow motivation, easy to destroy.

• If you trying to motivate developer the same way as project manager – you will fail.

• Top motivators for developers: Achievement, Possibility for growth, Work itself, Personal life, Technical supervision opportunity.


People: Productivity

• Developer can be 10x productive than peers.

• Technology and Process may increase productivity drastically.

• Unnecessary meetings kills productivity.


Process

• How to make synergy out of chaos?

• Which communication model suits us most?

• Who is responsible for what?

• Who is doing what?

• What is the progress of our work?

• When we will finish?

• How to control quality?

• How to distribute tasks?

• How to avoid overtime at the end of the project?

• What we need to document?

• How we get requirements?

• What are our priorities?


Waterfall: Grandfather of all processes

• First formal software development process published on 1970.

• Originated from manufacturing and construction industries.

• False assumption that requirements doesn’t change through whole lifecycle.

Picture by Jim Rising | http://www.managedmayhem.com/2009/05/06/sashimi-waterfall-software-development-process/


Environment

• Great impact.

• Unpredictable.

• Throw away product or

adapt.


Environment


CLASSIC MISTAKES

Picture by World Usability Day | http://www.worldusabilityday.org/


Classic mistakes: People

• Incompetence or wrong competence.

• Unrealistic expectations.

• Adding people to a late project.

• Wishful thinking.

• Undermined motivation.

• Heroics.

• Noisy, crowded offices.


Classic mistakes: Product

• Unclear requirements.

• Lack of user input (65% of functionality is almost never used).

• Feature creep.

• Unclear project vision.

• Confusing estimates with targets.

• Shortchanged quality assurance.

• Bug-fixing at the end of project.


Classic mistakes: Product

Bug-fixing at the end of project



Classic mistakes: Process

• Working according waterfall.

• Overly optimistic schedule.

• Too much documentation.

• Roles are not defined.

• Faked deadlines.

• Excessive multi-tasking.

• Insufficient risk management.

• Abandonment planning under pressure.


Classic mistakes: Technology

• Overengineering.

• Silver-bullet syndrome.

• Using unstable technologies.

• Using outdated technologies.

• Strongly coupled architecture.


Classic mistakes: Top 10

• Survey conducted on 2007 by Construx Software (Steve McConnell).

• Slightly >500 survey respondents.


Classic mistakes: Top 10

Survey results by Construx Software | http://www.construx.com/File.ashx?cid=2389


AGILE

Picture by Scott Adams | http://www.dilbert.com


Agile

www.agilemanifesto.org We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.

Feb 11-13, 2001

Snowbird ski resort, Utah

Kent BeckMike BeedleArie van BennekumAlistair CockburnWard CunninghamMartin FowlerJames GrenningJim HighsmithAndrew HuntRon Jeffries

Jon KernBrian MarickRobert C. MartinSteve MellorKen SchwaberJeff SutherlandDave Thomas

Picture from Vaidas Adomauskas slides | http://www.slideshare.net/vaidasa/agile-and-agile-methods-what-is-the-most-important-to-understand-to-succeed


Agile

Agile manifesto 4 main principles:• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan


Agile

Twelve Principles of Agile Software• Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early

and continuous delivery of valuable software.

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

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

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


Agile

Twelve Principles of Agile Software• Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the

environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

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

• Working software is the primary measure of progress.

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


Agile

Twelve Principles of Agile Software• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design

enhances agility.

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

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

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


Agile

Lean

XP Scrum Crystal

Kanban

AUP

DSDMFDD

...Picture from Vaidas Adomauskas slides | http://www.slideshare.net/vaidasa/agile-and-agile-methods-what-is-the-most-important-to-understand-to-succeed


Further reading

• Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules - Steve McConnell

• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering - Frederick P. Brooks

• Leading Lean Software Development: Results Are not the Point - Mary Poppendieck, Tom Poppendieck


Further reading

• Technology radar by ThougthWorkshttp://www.thoughtworks.com/insights

• A Practical Guide to Seven Agile Methodologieshttp://www.devx.com/architect/Article/32836

• Vaidas Adomauskas slides on SlideSharehttp://www.slideshare.net/vaidasa/presentations

• Agile day in Lithuaniahttp://www.agilediena.lt/

http://www.thoughtworks.com/insights



http://www.devx.com/architect/Article/32836

http://www.devx.com/architect/Article/32836

http://www.slideshare.net/vaidasa/presentations

http://www.slideshare.net/vaidasa/presentations

http://www.agilediena.lt/

http://www.agilediena.lt/

IT Project Management and Scrum, part I

Documents

Transcript of IT Project Management and Scrum, part I