In this talk from Southern Fried Agile 2014, Cory Foy gives an overview of the patterns necessary to have successful agility when working with distributed and dispersed teams. He looks at Scrum, Kanban and various virtual tools.

1. Distributed Agile
@cory_foy | Cory Foy | foyc@coryfoy.com
http://www.coryfoy.com

3. “We won’t see fewer distributed
teams going forward”
–Thomas Schranz

4. Co-located agility

5. Distributed agility

6. Patterns of Distribution
Distributed vs Dispersed
Dispersed
Distributed
Dispersed
Distributed

7. Patterns of Distribution
Distributed Cross-Functional
Product
Owner
Feature Team
Feature Team

8. Patterns of Distribution
Offshore with Local Management
Management Team
Offshore Team

9. Patterns of Distribution
Fully Dispersed

10. Principles of Agility
Communication
Understanding
Team Growth

11. Formal Container
Informal Container
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33695724@N07/3998201723
https://www.flickr.com/photos/equinoxefr/3934157442
Large
Team
Medium
Team
http://www.flickr.com/photos/97668927@N06/14744329878
Self Contained
Small
Team

12. Co-located agility
The whole is different
than the sum of its
parts
Distributed agility

13. Distributed agility is about
closing the gaps caused by
distributing the team
!
Make sure the ROI is worth it

14. Pairing
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=24486
Office
Mates
Same
Floor
Different
Floor
http://alistair.cockburn.us/ASD+book+extract%3A+%22Communicating,+cooperating+teams%22

15. “Project costs increase in proportion
to the time it takes for people to
understand each other”
–Alistair Cockburn

16. understand Scrum

17. Distributed Patterns for Scrum
Name
Problem
Forces
Solution
3 Roles
3 Meetings
3 Artifacts

18. Problem

19. Stand ups, just
via phone
Demos, just via
Remote Desktop
What Doesn’t Work
Pairing, just via
serialized code reviews
Distribution, just by
offshoring testing

20. Rapid access to high impact
communication methods
Whole team coming together
What Does Work
Close collaboration
Shared understanding

21. Standard
Scrum
Inspect and Adapt
Standard Work
Standard Process
New Process
New Process
Inspect and Adapt

22. Expect Well
Less
Well
Change
What we
wanted to
happen
What went
well
What didn’t
go so well
What we
want to
try

23. Roles

24. Roles
Uber Scrum Master
Product
Owner
Team
Team 1
Scrum
Master
Feat A
Team 2
Team 3
Feat B
Feat C
Technical
Vision
Business
Vision
Tech
PO

25. Meetings

26. Meetings
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Daily Stand Up
Team communication of
WIP and blockers
Needs Trust, and clear
communication
- Over video
- Over Chat w/Board
- Asking Directly
- Participant Board
Stand Ups build trust
and camaraderie

27. Meetings
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Sprint Planning
Understand and commit
to upcoming work &
progress towards release
- Collaborate with PO
- Learning about Stories
- Estimation
- Fly Team In
- Virtual Whiteboards
- Video
- Backlog Grooming

28. Meetings
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Estimation
Understand and estimate
stories in backlog
- Collaborate with PO
- Learning about Stories
- Honest Assessment
- Video Estimation
- Facilitator gets and
shows estimates for
remote members
- Online Estimation

29. Meetings
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Sprint Demo
Demonstrate work done
& get feedback from PO
- PO Gets Understanding
- No Powerpoint
- High Impact Comms
- Fly Team In
- Fly PO In
- Video

30. Meetings
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Retrospective
Explore what’s working
and what can be
improved
- Need High Trust/Safety
- People need to add
their own feedback
- Fly Team In
- Facilitator monitoring
chat
- Everyone on Chat

31. Artifacts

32. Artifacts
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Product Backlog
Understand Business Value
Proposition of work
- Used for forecasting
- Needs grooming
- Team should have a
line of sight
- Check in regularly w/
team for
understanding
- Product Vision
- Visualize Product

33. Artifacts
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Sprint Backlog
Review work remaining
based on team’s velocity
- Need velocity
- All Work Visible
- Commitments
- Information Radiator
- Electronic Boards
- Synchronized Physical
Boards

34. Artifacts
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Burn Down Chart
Project out progress to
know when commitments
and work at risk
- Daily updates
- Meaningful values
- Ability to take action
- Formally talk about
progress
- Look at Cycle Time /
Queue Lengths

35. Artifacts
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Scrum Board
Information Radiator to
help the team quickly
visualize work in process
and bottlenecks
Needs to be able to
radiate information -
not have information
reached for
- Sync’d Physical Boards
- Extra Monitor for
showing board always

36. Tools

37. Tools

38. Tools
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Explore Ideas
Different people learn
and explore in diff ways
- Need Understanding
- Looking for Solutions
- Strong Opinions
- Virtual Whiteboards
- Smart Boards
- Online Innovation
Games

39. Tools
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Visualize Team
Keeping team connected
with each other
- Personalities expressed
through body language
- May not always work
together
- Time Zone Bubble
- Team Pictures
- “Who’s Where When?”
- Virtual Chairs for calls

40. Tools
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Short Iterations
We learn the most when
we try to integrate
- Working Software
- Automated Builds
- Automated Tests
- Quality Mindset
- Shorter Iterations
- Continuous Integration
- Acceptance-Test Driven
Development

41. Tools
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Kanban
Work ends up pooled, &
seems to take forever
- Distributed By Role
- Required workflow
- Dependencies on other
teams or vendors
- Visualize Work / Make
all work visible
- Track Cycle Time
- Monitor Queues
- Limit WIP

42. Tools
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Small Talk
Lots of knowledge
happens through air flow
- Not Co-located
- Working on similar
things
- Shared knowledge
- Open Mic / Video
- Dedicated “virtual
office”
- Virtual workspaces
- Dedicated Chat Room

43. Tools
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Hack Days
Increase collaboration
and new ways of working
- Requires slack
- Needs Collab Tools
- Needs Org Trust
- Best for dist teams
- Challenge teams to
split into virtual teams
w/members from each
diet team and build
something - then demo

44. Artifacts
Name:
Problem:
Forces:
Try:
Focus Time
Too many meetings
coordinating work
between different parties
- Strong Leadership
- Organizational Respect
- Set a time when there
are no meetings
allowed to be
scheduled (10-noon)
- Try Work Sessions

45. Principles of Agility
Communication
Understanding
Team Growth
Rapid
High Impact
Incidental
Virtual Whiteboards
Onsite Visits
Formalize Agreements
Team Events
Fly In
Shared Vision

46. Product
Owner
Feature Team
Feature Team

48. Thanks!
@cory_foy | Cory Foy | foyc@coryfoy.com
http://www.coryfoy.com