2. 2
Who am I?
Lead Technical Communicator for very agile software company
STC Associate Fellow
Agile veteran since 2001-ish
I remember using punch cards …
john@garisons.com
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU 2
3. Who are you?
3
What’s your interest in Agile?
I’m just curious …
Not now, but it’s coming …
Currently work in Agile development environment
… and don’t like it
… and do like it
4. What is Agile?
4
What the book says
What it really is
What it really isn’t
What it can be
And there’s something in
it for writers
5. What’s So Special About Agile?
5
Agile is series of structured discussions among all the
people on a cross-functional product team
The goal is to make sure that everything is identified,
assessed, and discussed so that the team can deliver quality
products predictably with minimal risk
The product – not just the code – is continually developed,
tested, and integrated
The team decides its own metrics
The team determines its own internal practices
No two agile implementations are the same – even those
within the same company
6. MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU 6
Waterfall methodology
I’ve set the wedding date …
But I haven’t asked her out yet
10. Agile Components, Terms, and
Concepts
10
Epics
Stories
Tasks
Backlog Grooming
Sprint Planning
Daily Scrum
Reveals
Retrospective
Fibs
Chickens and Pigs
Done done
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
Attend meetings
Speak up!!
Be the user advocate
11. Make Grooming Work for You
11
The backlog grooming meeting does sprint pre-planning
Address large issues (epics and stories)
Determine priorities – what’s more important and why
Define what, why, and relationships with other stories
Define scope
Pre-fibbing / T-shirt sizing
How do I make grooming meetings work for me?
Attend the meeting. If not invited, get invited or attend anyway!
Listen ! Grooming explains WHY things are being done
Speak up if you have input
Request follow up meetings if necessary
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
12. Make Sprint Planning Work for You
12
Each sprint begins with a sprint planning meeting
Select backlog stories to be completed in the new sprint
Discuss stories in detail; identify important components and risks
Fib stories, create and assign tasks … and minimize risk
The team agrees on work to be completed in the sprint
How do I make planning meetings work for me?
Attend the meeting. If not invited, get invited or attend anyway!
Speak up if you have input
Request follow up meetings if necessary
Make sure you have appropriate tasks and cards
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
13. Making Scrum Work for You
13
Each day begins with a scrum
Short - 15-minutes max - stand up meeting
Team members report on what they are doing that day
Identify dependencies and impediments
Post-scrum discussions if needed
How do I make scrums work for me?
If you can’t get something done, say you are blocked
If you have a dependency on someone , say you are blocked
Get cards assigned to others as necessary
Request follow up meetings as necessary
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
14. Making Reveals Work for You
14
Reveals happen near the end of a sprint
Team members demo code and UI developed in the sprint
Ideally, separate front- and back-end reveals
How do I make reveals work for me?
Watch others demo their work – even if it is not final
Speak up if you have questions; follow up offline as needed
Be the user advocate during the meeting … and later
Show what you have done at least once a release
Present process changes and new deliverables
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
15. Making Retrospectives Work for You
15
Retrospective meetings happen at the end of each release
Take the pulse of the team
Assess and improve team processes
What to start to make improvements
What to stop to reduce/eliminate problems
What to continue that is working well
How do I make retrospectives work for me?
Suggest and discuss proposals for change
Point out what has improved for you or you can improve for others
Point out what has gotten worse for you, and how to improve it
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
16. Make your Agile Tools Work for You
16
The more information in descriptions, the better for everyone. Your
teams should consider adding components like these:
Elevator pitch (Epics): 30 second description of a new feature that
explains both the problem and the solution
Business value: (Stories): What’s in it for the users – internal and
external
Description: (Stories, tasks, bugs): As much detail as necessary to
explain the problem and how the solution works to solve it. Point
out possible risk areas. Include steps to replicate bugs and how
they were fixed. Indicate the desired result. List non-goals, too
Open questions: If some things are unknown, or some decisions
not yet made, list them (and move them elsewhere once decided)
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
17. Documenting Agile applications
17
Write the documentation your actual users need
Provide it where they can find it
Minimize content overlap
When draining a swamp, stay on dry ground
Write just enough, not too much
There is an Agile documentation standard: ISO/IEC/IEEE 26515:2011
Agile is not an excuse to stop documenting
Documentation is as much a part of the product as the code
But “Agile calls for less documentation!” – Less design documentation, not less
user documentation
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
18. Time for a Little Truthiness …
18
It is rare to really have to have ‘ready to ship’ documentation at
the end of every sprint
Agile works best if it’s supported from the very top of the company
to the bottom … as well as sideways
Not every agile implementation is successful
Agile is itself agile - No two agile teams are alike or follow the
same process, even within the same company
Agile CAN work for you – but sometimes takes time and patience.
It’s kaizen engineering … gradual improvement
What you get out is directly proportional to what you put in
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
19. Agile is Agile
19
If agile isn’t working for your product team, change it so that it does
My teams change/add things to better suit our needs – yours can too!
Some of our innovations include:
Post-Scrum – Discussions as needed following daily scrum
Mini-groom – Short grooming meeting for individual ‘hot’ issues
Three Amigos – Development, SQA, Product meet to discuss
potential problems
Melting Pot – Generic story container for small (< 2 hours) tasks
Add story fields – “Requires end-user documentation”
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
20. The Path is Not Always Smooth …
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Believe it or not, problems can arise when working in an agile
environment!
How do I get developers to listen to me?
How do I deal with multiple teams?
How do I make time for all those meetings?
The developers finish their code long before it’s released and go
on to the next when I’m still documenting … how do I keep up?
Different teams play by different rules … how do I cope?
Even though I say I’m blocked, they just close my cards and move
on … how do I deal with this?
MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU
21. MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU John Garison
How do I know if Agile is working?
21
Your team is agile when things are constantly getting better.
22. MAKING AGILE WORK FOR YOU John Garison
Questions?
22
Speak up!
Start practicing this now for your next agile meeting!
Like STC, what you get out is proportional to what you put in
Feel free to contact me:
John@garisons.com