This is a presentation that Margaret Menzies has used to introduce myself to new teams. The last section is an executive summary of Scrum methodology and a basic implementation schedule.

1. Margaret A. Menzies
Introduction and
Development Best Practices
The following is a presentation that I have
used to introduce myself to new teams.
The last section is an executive summary
of Scrum methodology and a basic
implementation schedule.

2. Margaret A. Menzies (MAM)
 American, single
 Undergraduate and Master’s degree in
Public Administration with a
concentration in Management
Information Systems
 Have worked in IT/Software
Development for over 20 years now
 Recently for 3 years in Eindhoven, NL
 Previously in Paris FR, Munich DE, Boston
MA, Raleigh NC, Providence RI

3. MAM Continued
 Work with smaller software companies
 Have led development teams since 1994
 Managed co-located & remote staff
 Launched new & revamped existing B2B
products
 Sometimes advise other companies through
VC contacts
 Joined the Agile/Scrum Community in
2005
 But have worked this way for years…

4. Dev Management Guidelines
 Provide Leadership & Direction
 Management=Problem Solving
 Focus Areas
 People
 Planning
 Product
 Processes

5. People
 Hire Exceptional Staff
 Provide Regular Performance Feedback
 Deal with staff issues right away
 Provide Product Feedback
 Direct sales & support feedback to engineering is
especially valuable
 Encourage/Assign Development Staff to Work
With Other Departments
 Help out with Tech Support
 Go on sales calls and work at trade shows
 Promote Teamwork, Not Individual Heroics
 Have Fun Whenever Possible!

6. Planning
 Create a Product Roadmap
 Engineering, Marketing, Tech Support, and Sales
help create it
 Define Each Project’s Scope Up Front
 Take time to define what you want to do
 Focus Engineering Efforts
 Don’t take on too many projects at once
 Get Customer Input
 Form a Product Management Team
 Not necessarily just VP’s or upper management –
involve line staff
 Follow the K.I.S.S. Principle

7. Product Roadmap Example

8. Product
 “Chunkify” - Break Apart Large Projects
 Establish interim deliverables
 Do Requirements and Functional Specs or
User Stories Before Coding
 Repurpose, Re-package & Use Open Source
 You don’t always have to work “from scratch”
 Prototype GUIs and do GUI Iterations
 Use web conferencing tools to show off GUI and
solicit feedback from customers or prospects
 Develop Sales Demos and Sales Tools Along
with the Product
 Put these in your product plan as part of final
deliverable

9. Processes
 Establish Centralized  Use Test Automation for
Source Control and Regression and
Back-ups! Acceptance Tests
 Begin Automated Builds  Hold Company-wide Bug
as Early as Possible Hunts and Beta Testing
 Automate testing  Promote Paired
 Implement Bug Tracking Programming and Code
with a Bug Ownership Reviews
and Fix Policy  Establish
 Involve/Establish QA in Internationalization
Project Planning Processes
 Involve Tech Support in  Hold Meaningful
Testing Progress and Status
Meetings

10. Dev Management Guidelines
 Provide Leadership & Direction
 Management=Problem Solving
 Focus Areas
 People
 Planning
 Product
 Processes

11. Agile/Scrum Introduction
A quick overview and
implementation plan

12. What is Agile Development?
 Emphasizes close collaboration between
the programmer team and business
experts;
 Stresses face-to-face communication (as
more efficient than written
documentation);
 Advocates frequent delivery of new
deployable business value;
 Encourages tight, self-organizing teams
Source: Agile Alliance

13. Agile Development
 An iterative and incremental (evolutionary)
approach to software development
 which is performed in a highly collaborative
manner
 by self-organizing teams within an effective
governance framework
 with "just enough" ceremony
 that produces high quality software
 in a cost effective and timely manner
 which meets the changing needs of its
stakeholders.
Source: Scott Ambler

14. What is Scrum?
 Scrum is an agile process for developing software. With Scrum, projects
progress via a series of iterations called sprints.
 The work to be done on a Scrum project is listed in the Product
Backlog, which is a list of all desired changes to the product.
 At the start of each sprint a Sprint Planning Meeting is held during
which the Product Owner prioritizes the Product Backlog and the Scrum
Team selects the tasks they can complete during the coming Sprint.
 These tasks are then moved from the Product Backlog to the Sprint
Backlog.
 Each day during the sprint conducts a brief daily meeting called the
Daily Scrum, which helps the team stay on track.
 At the end of each sprint the team demonstrates the completed
functionality at a Sprint Review Meeting.
Source: Mountain Goat Software

15. Scrum Model

16. Implementation Schedule
 Hold Scrum training workshops – usually while
finishing up other work (Week 1 & 2)
 Scrum Basics – Roles, meetings, artifacts and sprints
 User stories – what they are and how to write and use them
 The Product Backlog and Scrum Planning (with intro to
Planning Poker) – organize user stories into a product
backlog and begin using it for sprint and roadmap planning
 Start daily stand up meetings (Week 3)
 Organize the product requirements/user stories
(Week 3-5 and ongoing)
 Plan and begin first sprint (Week 4)
 Establish a more defined product roadmap with next
major deliverable (Week 2-5)

17. Other Improvements
 Establish a Team Room
 Post user stories and burn down charts
 Post the Roadmap
 Review the state of automated testing
and continuous builds
 Review items in bug tracking system
and fit them into a user story/sprint
model
 Inspect and adapt …

18. Questions and Wrap-up