One of my workshops held at Nova Southeastern University introducing Agile and Scrum to absolute beginners.

1. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Agile Education Series
Getting Started with Scrum
…in plain English!
Alex Kanaan
SCRUM

2. About Me

3. Connect With Me
More about Me http://www.alexkanaan.com
Read My Blog http://www.alexkanaan.com/#latestnews
Contact Me http://www.alexkanaan.com/#contact
Follow my Tweets @AlexKanDu
Connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/arkanaan

4. © 2014 Alex Kanaan 4
Getting Started
“Some Housekeeping Items”

5. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Getting Started
Working Agreements:
• Electronics by Exception
• Be Participative
• Hear everyone
• Phones on silent
• There are no stupid questions
• Think energetic
• Have FUN!
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6. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Getting Started
Definition of DONE
Definition of READY
Definition of FUN
6

7. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Future Sessions
Workshops on:
• Backlog and Writing User Stories
• Sizing Techniques
• Release Planning
• In-Sprint practices
7

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Our baseline
8
Agile Enthusiasm Level
Can’t live
without it
Hate it
AgileKnowledge
Indifferent
Can barely spell it
Understand roles & ceremonies
I can apply it now!
Initial your Dot!

9. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Scrum Bingo
• Scrum Master
• Product Owner
• Backlog
• Sprint
• Velocity
• Point
• User Story
• Sprint Planning
9
Pick 9 terms
• Iterative
• Incremental
• Self directed
• Scrum Team
• Acceptance
Criteria
• Agile
• Retrospective

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SCRUM
What is it?
What’s its value?

11. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Getting Started with Scrum
What’s it All About - Outline
• In layman’s terms
• Why are we doing this
• WIIFM? Selling Agile to your organization &
leadership
• Values and characteristics of Scrum
• Making the Mona Lisa Smile ☺
• Scrum Mechanics
• Overcoming common mistakes
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12. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
What Do all these companies
Have in Common?
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‘My Aha moment’
The Forest vs. The Trees
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Layman’s Overview
“What IS Agile?!”
14
Agile
W/O Agile

15. “INDIVIUALS
AND
INTERACTIONS
PROCESSES
OVER
AND
TOOLS”
“WORKING
SOFTWARE
COMPREHENSIVE
OVER
DOCUMENTATION”
“RESPONDING
TO
CHANGE
FOLLOWING
OVER
A
PLAN”
“CUSTOMER
CONTRACT
OVER
NEGOTIATION”
COLLABORATION
Layman’s Overview
The Agile Manifesto

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Layman’s Overview
Agile Umbrella
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SCRUM
Kanban
eXtreme Programming
LEAN

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Gains from Scrum
10,000 Team Data
17
2x
50%
faster
Balance
Teams
250% better
Quality!
© data analytics by Rally Software https://www.rallydev.com/finally-get-real-data-about-benefits-adopting-agile?nid=6201

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Gains from Scrum
Innovation!
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Exercise
Home Repair Projects
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Exercise
Home Repair Projects
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• Three Projects: A, B, C
• ONE team to do the work
• Each project takes one month to complete
• DEFINTION OF VALUE: Once a project goes live, it will give us
$1,000 of savings per month
• How much Value in $’s do you get over 4 months, if:
a) The team works on the three projects sequentially
b) The team works on the three projects simultaneously
Hint: Select Method with Highest Benefit (value)

21. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Answer
Home Repair Project
21
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Total
Project A Build $1000 $1000 $1000 $3000
Project B Build $1000 $1000 $2000
Project C Build $1000 $1000
$6000
Sequential
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Total
Project A Build Build Build $1000 $1000
Project B Build Build Build $1000 $1000
Project C Build Build Build $1000 $1000
$3000
Simultaneous
Which Method would you choose and why?

22. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Realizing Value Early!
22
Traditional
Project
• Wait until end to
deliver benefits
• Deliver to Plan
SCRUM
Project
• Deliver
incremental
value for early
benefits
• Deliver on value
Month
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Analyze Requirements for
functions A, B, C, D
Build
functions A, B, C, D
Test Deliver
A B
C D
Prioritize
functions based
on Value
Build
Test
Deliver
A
Build
Test
Deliver
B
Build
Test
Deliver
E
Customer
Satisfied!
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

23. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Waterfall vs. Agile
Plan vs. Value Driven
23
Fixed
Estimated
Waterfall Agile
Requirements Resources Time
FeaturesTimeResources
Waterfall
Agile
COST/SCHEDULE Estimates from PLANS
Estimates from Release Themes & Intended Features
Value
Driven
Plan
Driven

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“…plans are useless
but planning is indispensable”

25. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
64% of Software features are
never or rarely used!
25
By Standish Group

26. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Remember this?
26

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Remember this?
27
One of most expensive features built by
Microsoft Office!

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Characteristics of Scrum
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Characteristics of Scrum?
Teams
– Dedicated collaborative self-organizing
– Communicate using various ceremonies
– Evolve using Inspect and Adapt
– Team wins/loses together
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X

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Characteristics of Scrum?
• Iterative Development
• Sustainable pace
• Servant-Leadership
• No hard-defined requirements
• Change is OK!!
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31. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Characteristics of Scrum
Incremental vs. Iterative
➢ Defined Scope
➢ Fully formed
Idea delivered
one bit at a time
11/15/14 31
© Jeff Patton, all rights reserved, www.AgileProductDesign.com
➢ Vague Scope
➢ Start with a rough
version and build-
up by validating
vs.
Incremental Iterative

32. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Incremental Approach
© Jeff Patton, all rights reserved, www.AgileProductDesign.com
1 2 3 4 5
• Build one bit at a time

33. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Iterative Approach
© Jeff Patton, all rights reserved, www.AgileProductDesign.com
• Build a rough version,
validate it, then slowly
builds up quality
1 2 3 4 5

34. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Growing Pains
Hang in There
• In early sprints, team is starting to jell
• Around sprints 3-5, team learns their
sustainable velocity, and becomes more
predictable
• Fail often, fail fast
• Don’t give up, inspect and adapt!
• It’s a change, it will not “feel” natural
initially. We are un-learning certain
habits
11/15/14 34

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Agile Team Game

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Game Rules!
37
Get as many balls completed as possible
within the two minute timebox
• The ball must touch every person on the team
• You may not pass it to the person immediately to
your right, or immediately to your left
• The ball has to have AIR time
• The ball has to end in the same place it started

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Agile Team Game
“What did we learn?”

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Break
10 mins

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Scrum Mechanics
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Scrum Machine

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Scrum Machine
Roles
Ceremonies
Artifacts

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Product Owner

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The Product Owner
• Product expert
• From the Business
• Represents interests of stakeholders, business
customers and users
• Responsible for value!
• He or she gets to decide which features get to
be delivered and when
• Keeps features in Product Backlog and decides
on priority sequence
• Accepts or rejects the work

45. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Product Backlog
Order User Story Size
1 As a student I want class
ratings to make better class
selections
40
pts
2 As an administrator, I want
to update class ratings to
reflect latest survey
5 pts
3 As a professor, I want to
view my class ratings for
feedback
8 pts
4 As a professor, I want to
get an alert when my class
rating changes >10% for
feedback
20
pts
…. As a user, I want
something, for a benefit
xx pts
45
Product Owner
• List of Stories and epics
(requirements from the user
perspective)
• Prioritized in value order
• Owned by Product Owner
• What the team pulls from to
work, in each Sprint
Value

46. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
User stories
As a <user role>,
I want
<functionality>
so that <value>.
• Acceptance
criteria..
• …..
• …..
• ….

47. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
User stories
As a professor, I want
to view my class
ratings for feedback
• Acceptance
criteria..
• Hide student rater names
• Update numbers hourly
• Link to course descriptions
User Story
The Who, What, Why
Delivers value!
Acceptance Criteria
How to test it
Identify is it Done?

48. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Good User Stories
48
Independent
Negotiable
Valuable
Estimatable
Small
Testable
Bill Wake, Extreme Programming Explored and
Refactoring Workbook

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Scrum Master

50. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
The Scrum Master
• Servant leader
• Empowers team to self-
organize
• Facilitates removal of
impediments
• Responsible for Scrum
ceremonies
• Ensures team focus and
protects team against
external disruptions
• Does not direct the
team
• Does not assign work
• Does not size or set
delivery dates
• Is not a PM
DO’S DON’TS

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Team!

52. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
The Team
• Cross functional team
• Self-organizing
• Delivers working code every sprint
• Sizes the work
• Plans the Sprint plans
• Commits to the Sprint plan
• Ideal size is 5-9 members – 2 pizza rule
• Fully allocated members
• Accountable
• Collaborate with each other and the Product Owner
Always includes:
Developers
Testers
Sometimes
includes:
BA’s
Architect
UX
DBA
Other tech SMEs

53. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Scrum Roles
• We have just completed the roles…
• Let’s Recap the roles:
– Product Owner
– Scrum Master
– Team

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55. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Sprint Backlog
User Story Pts Tasks Hrs Owner
As an administrator, I
want to update class
ratings to reflect latest
survey
5 Task – Design entry Screen
Task – Build entry Screen
Task - Retrieve rating value
Task – Update class table
Task – Functional test
Task – Integration test
Task – update user manual
8
6
2
6
12
8
2
Jim
John
Jen
Janet
Jack
Jessa
James
User story2 X Task a, Task b, Task c….. xx names
55
Team
• List of stories team commits to, the upcoming sprint
• Broken down to tasks that are estimated in hours
• Team self assigns tasks
• Stories = Points, Tasks = Hours
Sprint n Plan

56. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Sprint Planning
56
• A ceremony at the beginning of each Sprint
• Team pulls the prioritized story on top of the
backlog
• Team decomposes this story to tasks
1. Teams pulls next prioritized story
2. Team continues to pull and decompose into
tasks, UNTIL the sprint capacity is met!
3. Team Commits to the sprint plan!
Prior to Sprint Planning, Backlog refined and
prioritized. Stories must meet Definition of Ready!

57. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Daily Standup
57
• Attended by entire team
• Same time everyday
• 15 minutes MAX
• 3 Questions:
− What I did yesterday
− What I will work on today
− Any Impediments
• Not a status report
• Only team members speak
Who are they giving the updates to?

58. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Sprint Review/Demo
58
• A ceremony at the end of each Sprint
1. Team demonstrates the accepted stories, potentially
shippable increment
Sprint Retrospective
• A ceremony at the end of each Sprint
1. Team identifies opportunities for improvement
2. What went well, what we need to improve

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60. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Sample Calendar
60
Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri
S2 Sprint
Plan
S3 Refine S3 Refine
S2 Demo
S2 Retro
S3 Sprint
Plan
S4 Refine S4 Refine
Daily Standup
Daily Standup
Daily Standup
Daily Standup

61. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Overcome Common Mistakes
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62. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Let Scrum Values
Be Your Compass
• Focus
• Commitment
• Respect
• Openness
• Courage

63. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Mistake #1: Mini waterfall
• Agile is not mini waterfall!
– Each Sprint must be potentially shippable
– Test early!
– Stories are not “tasks”, e.g. test story.
63
Design Built Test
Sprint Sprint Sprint
No!
D B T
Sprint Sprint Sprint
Little better, but No!
High risk of non-delivery
D B T D B T
Sprint Sprint Sprint
Yes!

64. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Mistake #2
Projects instead of Teams!
64
Scrum Master
Product
Owner
Developers
Testers
BA’s
• Teams jell and become high
performing.
• Do not assign them to other
work , dedicate them
• Do not disband them at project end
• Ensure a good pipleline of work
• Team has predictable momentum

65. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Mistake #3
Chasing Velocity
• What happens when team is pushed?
– Burn out
– Team dynamic breaks down
– Quality suffers
– Team starts to fudge their numbers, to
look good
– Team focuses on achieving velocity than
achieving the work
65
Strive for sustainable pace!

66. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Closing
• Scrum adoption is a journey
• Don’t do it for the sake of following
another SDLC
• Strive to realize innovation and
flexibility
• Live the Scrum values, mechanics
alone are not enough
• This is true change, it takes courage!
Scrum is simple but not easy!
66

67. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Future Sessions
Workshops on:
• Backlog and Writing User Stories
• Sizing Techniques
• Release Planning
• In-Sprint practices
67
We will contact you for
upcoming workshops

68. © 2014 Alex Kanaan 68
Parting Words

69. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Class Retrospective
69
Keep Stop
Add New idea’s!

70. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Where are we now
70
Agile Enthusiasm Level
Can’t live
without it
Hate it
AgileKnowledge
Indifferent
Can barely spell it
Understand roles & ceremonies
I can apply it now!
Initial your Dot!

71. © 2014 Alex Kanaan
Resources
• Agile Project Management with Scrum
– Ken Schwaber
• Succeeding with Agile, User Stories
Applied
– Mike Cohn
• Agile Retrospectives
– Esther Derby and Diana Larsen