Harvey Wheaton spoke at ProductTank October 2011 and shared his experiences of building and running Agile teams at his games studio Supermassive Games.

1. Agile Gardening
Harvey Wheaton
Studio Director

2. Pre-History Harvey...
B.C.
A.D.

3. Harvey!

4. About Our Company
Independent games development studio
Established Sept 2008
Currently 90 employees
Two PlayStation3 titles + 1 PC title published
Plus lots of downloadable content
(LittleBigPlanet)
Today, working on 5 projects

5. Our Teams
Typically 15-25 people, getting bigger
Multi-discipline
• Code
• Art
• Design
• Audio
• And more...
Often highly specialised

6. The Gardening Bit...

7. Agile: A set of values and Principles, not a Methodology
a.k.a. Preparing fertile soil for seedlings to thrive in
The Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this
work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

8. Agile: A set of values and Principles, not a Methodology
a.k.a. Preparing fertile soil for seedlings to thrive in
The Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this
work we have come to value:
People talking to each other and working as a team
Software that works and we have discussions around
Involving our customers as fully as we can, as we go
Embracing change and being great at dealing with it

9. Agile: A set of values and Principles, not a Methodology
a.k.a. Preparing fertile soil for seedlings to thrive in
The Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this
work we have come to value:
People talking to each other and working as a team
Software that works and we have discussions around
Involving our customers as fully as we can, as we go
Embracing change and being great at dealing with it

10. 1. Individuals and Interactions
a.k.a. “talking to each other and working as a team”
• Culture and values
• A physical Environment that encourages interaction
• Public, physical and visual

11. Team
Clear communication
Open and honest critique
Culture & Values
Decisive Creating a Deliberate Culture*
Make mistakes early and cheaply
Respect and support each other
as a team
Individuals
Ownership First draft of our studio
Leadership values from October „08
Flexibility
Contribution
Process
Goal driven
Continual review
Software focused
Enables not hinders
*Rather than letting one form accidentally

12. Culture & Values
• Hiring the right people
• Using the language of the values
• Story telling
• Culture and Agile/Scrum induction for all new starters
• Emphasis on delivery as a team and as studio
• Careful and inclusive language, continually reinforced
• “We” not “he”, “she”, “it” or “they”
• “Public and Physical” e.g. Planning and design
• Daily software reviews
• Regular and honest communication, in person
• Demonstrated „safe environment‟ for people to speak their mind

13. Culture & Values
Building Conversation Opportunities into the Process

14. Physical Environment
• Seating
• Making use of every inch of space
• Pin boards, whiteboards
• Post its, cards, pictures

15. 15

16. Public, Physical, Visual

17. Public, Physical, Visual
17

18. 2. Working Software
a.k.a. “Software that works and we have discussions around”
• Software as the measure of progress
• Playing the software as early an often as possible
• Making mistakes quickly and at cheaply
• Number of iterations, not the amount of time
• Working from low fidelity to high fidelity

19. Working Software
Software as the Measure of Progress
• Continuous integration
• On-demand builds for anyone
• „Drop-in‟ build review every day
• Has driven an emphasis on our build tools
• “Fix major issues immediately” culture
• Much lower bug count in final stages
• Sprint reviews are software led
• Conversations about design and priorities happen around software
• Has to be in the build (on disk) to count as ‘done’
• Outlawing a ‘works on my machine’ culture

20. Working Software
Rapid Iteration
“Even a Great Masterpiece Starts with a Sketch”

21. Working Software
Rapid Iteration
“Even a Great Masterpiece Starts with a Sketch”

22. Working Software
Working Low to High Fidelity

23. Working Software
Working Low to High Fidelity

24. Working Software
Working Low to High Fidelity

25. Working Software
Knowing What „Done‟ Means
1. “Sketch”
2. Commit (a.k.a. “Good Draft”)
3. Testable (by kids and big kids!)
4. “Alpha”

26. Working Software
Knowing What „Done‟ Means
26

27. Thoughts and Consequences
• “People will make important what you pay attention to” (Mike Laddin, Leaderpoint)
• With the right environment, „magic‟ happens on teams
• Principles are more enduring than the exact method
• Once a culture takes hold, it is amazingly self-perpetuating
• It does take a lot of energy and enthusiasm to keep momentum
“
• The values need constant reinforcement – words and actions (!)
• Can take time for some people to adapt
• Previous culture, experience of Agile or Scrum
• Responsibility for individuals feels big – can feel scary
• People enjoy their work 

28. Thanks for Listening!