Summary of Agile best practices and common pitfalls using Scrum With my experience in working with Agile Teams and as scrum master - I have encapsulated basics of both in a few slides along with common misunderstandings and pitfalls which beginners are prone to fall through. Keep these in mind and we are good to go Agile!

1. Agile Best Practices
Akhil Munjal

2. The Concept of Agile
Definition & Sample Sprint
• Agile helps teams respond
to the unpredictability of
building software by using
iterative and incremental
development. Typically,
requirements and solutions
evolve through
collaboration between
cross functional teams and
clients
• Agile promotes adaptive
planning, evolutionary
development and delivery, a
time-boxed iterative
approach, and encourages
rapid and flexible response
to change.
2
Project
Initiation
Sprint 0
Sprint 1
Sprint 2 Release Sprint 1
Integration
Test Sprint 0
 High-level project
planning
 Initial Stakeholder
engagement
 Define ways of working
Project Initiation
 High level requirement
gathering
 Commit to sprint
lengths, team capacity
 Delivery team roll-on
Sprint 0
 Reprioritise backlog
with client
 Commit to and deliver
stories
 Shippable product at
the end of each sprint
Sprints 1+
Product
Backlog
Sprint
Backlog
Sprint
Backlog Product
Fig: Sample Sprint Cycle

3. Agile Terminology
Overview of Agile Approach
Product Owner – ‘Voice of the
Customer’
• Ensures end product delivers
value to the business or
customer
• Sets and adjusts priorities and
product backlog
• Accepts or rejects work via
showcases and pilots (review)
Scrum Master
• Accountable for delivering
Sprint goals
• Removes obstacles for team and
keeps momentum
• Coaches and provides
motivation
Team Members
• Develop and deliver product on
a daily basis
• Self directed and self organizing
• Cross functional (change,
process, design, test)
Design,
Build Test
Inception
Prioritise
Retros
pective
Plan
Showcase
& Deploy
Iterative deployment
• User Stories
• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Burndown Chart
• Potentially shippable Product
increments
Roles Products Events
• Product Owner
• Scrum Master
• Team
• Sprint Planning
• Daily Scrum (Daily
Standup Meeting)
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospective
• Backlog Refinement

4. Agile Implementation
Key Activities
Advisory and Strategy Team
• Understand the client drivers and
motivation for Agile
• Help the leadership and C-suite
understand Agile Impact
• Work along business divisional
leads in rolling out Agile
Program Manager
• Establish and launch Governance
Structure & Processes
• Integrate project work plans and
clearly capture milestones and
dependencies
• Confirm delivery processes each
project should use
Agile Coach
• Co-ordinates with Agile Strategy
Team to understand vision &
roadmap
• Work with Project Team to define
Agile Delivery Model and Setup
Agile Practices
• Participates in all Key initiatives
and fine tuning it

5. Agile Best Practices
What works well
Conduct early and regular Showcases
• Provide early mock ups of the product / change deliverables to put theory into immediate practice
• Pilot the product (including surveys, training or communications) prior to full deployment
Involve the client/customer and stakeholders in continuous dialogue
• Run Agile basics and refreshers at the commencement of the project
• The review process should be streamlined: present only the executive summary
Be flexible with hybrid Waterfall/Agile approaches
• Agree in sprint 0 the Agile methods and ways of working with the client/customer
• Agile projects commonly incorporate waterfall practices (such as code freezes and CRP), and change must
adapt their models accordingly
Plan differently
• Change planning should feature only critical path change activities
• Change planning should be flexible and adaptive to changes, while keeping aligned to the overall journey
Change team in a silo and not immersed in scrum activity
• Change team members must attend daily scrums and showcases
• Change team members should adopt a major and minor role in the team
Change team not focused on critical path activities
• Change activities must always focus on business value and not become ‘top heavy’
• Change activities must be targeted on each sprint release date
Change team not adapting rapidly to changes in product development
• Change team should respond to changes in priorities with flexible planning
• Change team should maintain and communicate a clear view of the impact of ongoing changes
Change team too focused on delivery and not fostering engagement
• Change team have a vital role to play in team well-being and recognition
• Change team should ‘step back’ each sprint to take an active and driving role in retrospectives
Change team not aligning sprints to the overall journey
• Each sprint should align with the journey and business case as expressed in epic user stories
• Agile is not an ‘excuse for poor planning’ – a change plan is required to set expectations
What Can
go Wrong
in Agile
What
Works
Well

6. Agile Best Practices
Success Factors & Metrics
Sponsorship
• Actively engaged senior management sponsors to
communication change, strategy and direction
• A sponsorship strategy that builds and sustains
support throughout phases
Sponsorship
• Measurable linkage to business objectives with
cross-organizational focus
• Accelerated implementation approach to quickly
address known challenges
Balance
• Leverage of leading practices from the industry and
our expertise
• Focus on adopting leading practices while keeping
in mind our clients’ realities, priorities, and
constraints
Team Compensation
• The right resources at the right time, with pilot
projects to insert ‘player-coaches’ on the ground
• Effective knowledge transfer throughout the project
Metrics and Measurement
Burndown Chart for tracking Sprint progress
• Automatically generated visual chart when electronic tooling
is used
• Represents development complete by stage or completed
user stories
• Includes Work in Progress
Velocity
• Estimate of rate at which team can do work (no. of points
needed for each story x no. of stories estmated per sprint)