1. Agile: Just the Facts
8 Oct 2019
Leah.burman@collabraspace.com

2. Leah Burman
• SPC4, CSM, CSPO, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, Scrum@Scale
• 10+ years agile experience
• Java software developer, now Agile coach
• Coached agile transitions ranging from a single team to over 29 teams
• Northrop Grumman Agile Center of Excellence enterprise agile coach
• DOD, intelligence, federal, and other customers

3. Individuals & Interactions
Working Software
Customer Collaboration
Responding to Change
Processes & Tools
Comprehensive Documentation
Contract Negotiation
Following a Plan
Agile Values
AGILE MANIFESTO
• 2001
• Jeff Sutherland, Ken Schwaber
and 15 others
• http://agilemanifesto.org/
Iterative, adaptive process built on
self-managing teams empowered to
embody the principles and values
in the Agile manifesto.
OVER

4. World of Agile
• Scrum
• Kanban
• DevOps
• Continuous
Integration
• Planning Poker
• Stories
• Story Point
Estimation
• Daily standups
CERTIFICATIONS
ORGANIZATIONS
SCALED AGILE
PRACTICES

5. Agile Methodologies
• Scrum
• Kanban
• Crystal
• XP
• Lean Software Development
• Feature Driven Development(FDD) Also:TDD/BDD
• Dynamic Systems Development Methodology (DSDM)

6. Scrum framework
Sprint
Execution
2 week cycle
Sprint
Planning
2 hr/2 wks
Sprint
Retrospective
30min/2 wks
Sprint Demo
1 hr/2 wks

7. Scrum Ceremonies
FOUR AGILE CEREMONIES IN SCRUM
OTHER MEETINGS
• Sprint Planning Meeting
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Demo/Review
• Sprint Retrospective
• Storytime (Backlog Grooming)
• Release Planning Meeting

8. Kanban
FOCUS ON FLOW
NO PRESCRIBED MEETINGS OR ROLES
VISUALIZE WORK
LIMIT WIP

9. Agile Teams

10. Agile Teams
Team has all the expertise
needed to create value.Team size should strive for 7
plus or minus 2 (5-9 people)
UX
Business
Lead
Sys Admin
Developer
Tester
Scrum
Master
Cross Functional
Developer
DeveloperProduct
Owner

11. Product Owner Responsibilities
• Owns the priority and scope of the product backlog
• Is a member of the agile team
• Managed product backlog to maximize business value delivered
• Works with stakeholders and customers to determine the
business value and urgency for product backlog items
• Works with the team to define “what” needs to be delivered with
each story
• Accepts work agile team has completed
• Communicates team progress

12. Scrum Ceremonies and the Product Owner
SCRUM CEREMONIES
OTHER MEETINGS
Sprint Planning Meeting
• Sets the sprint goal and determines the priority
and scope of the work desired in the sprint
Daily Scrum
• May attend and listen to the team collaborate.
• May provided clarification on scope or priority if
requested by the team
Sprint Demo/Review
• Demonstrates the state of the product
• Provides visibility into the top priority for the next
sprint
Sprint Retrospective
• As a team member, participates in inspect and
adapt process
Storytime (Backlog Grooming)
Release Planning Event

13. Scrum Master Responsibilities
• Servant Leader for the team
• Shepherds/protects team from outside distractions
• Breaks down impediments to team progress
• Agile process and practice mentor
• Enables team to be the most functional team possible, delivering
quality, high value products in an iterative cycle
• Not a decision maker; has no authority
• Facilitates scrum ceremonies

14. Scrum Ceremonies and the Scrum Master
SCRUM CEREMONIES
OTHER MEETINGS
Sprint Planning Meeting
Facilitates Planning meeting, allowing team to plan,
estimate, and commit to the work within a set timebox
Daily Scrum
Facilitates daily scrum, ensuring it is focused on
collaboration instead of status and under 15 minutes
Listens for blockers and dependencies to take action on
Sprint Demo/Review
May or may not attend
Sprint Retrospective
Facilitates and participates in inspect and adapt
process
Scrum of Scrums
Storytime (Backlog Grooming)
Release Planning Event

15. Agile Management:
Decentralize Decision Making
“When given clear responsibility
and authority, people will be
highly engaged, will take care of
each other, will figure out
ingenious solutions, and will
deliver exceptional results.”
“A good agile leader doesn't
grant permission for teams to
try new things. Instead, a good
agile leader takes away the
need for permission”
-Mike Cohn

16. Agile Managers = Change Leaders
• Decentralized decision making is
key to empowering self-organizing
agile teams
• Cultivate a learning culture
• Support team by removing
impediments
• Ruthlessly prioritize and seek
alignment across all teams towards
a common vision
• The people doing the work are best
able to plan and estimate that work

17. Learning Culture
• Bias Towards Change
• Failure is learning
• Lead by example and budget
• Organization structure -> System -> Culture
• Reduce specialization and division of labor
T Shaped People
Breadth of experience, skills
Deep high level expertise in
one discipline
Analysis Testing
Development

18. Lean-Agile Governance
Reference: Scaled Agile, Inc.
Traditional Lean-Agile
Plan everything in detail up front Plan high-level up front, detail plan
incrementally
Absolute estimates up front Relative estimates with frequent updates
Lock requirements at start and control
scope change
Iteratively prioritize requirement
Centralized control with infrequent
staged gates
Decentralized decisions with incremental
reviews
Work breakdown structure Agile estimation and planning
Centralized up front planning Decentralize, rolling wave planning
Detail project plans and heavy artifacts Lightweight business case, backlogs,
roadmaps, demos

19. What is DevOps?
DevOps (a clipped compound of "development" and "operations") is a software
development methodology that combines software development (Dev) with
information technology operations (Ops). The goal of DevOps is to shorten the
systems development life cycle while delivering features, fixes, and updates
frequently in close alignment with business objectives. It is a set of practices
intended to reduce the time between committing a change to a system and the
change being placed into normal production, while ensuring high quality
-Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2uJDp1sNy0

20. Scaling Agile

21. What is Agile at Scale?
Large agile adoption rates within corporations lead to a
need to coordinate the work of many agile teams
throughout an organization
WHO IS
SCALING AGILE?
Several Frameworks exist for scaling agile
beyond a single team

22. Scrum of Scrum of Scrum
SCRUM OF SCRUM OF SCRUMS
SCRUM OF SCRUMS SCRUM OF SCRUMS
SCRUM
TEAM
SCRUM
TEAM
SCRUM
TEAM
SCRUM
TEAM
SCRUM
TEAM
SCRUM
TEAM

23. Questions?

24. Next Meetup
Women in Agile Mid-Atlantic is the Annapolis/Baltimore/Columbia Maryland local
chapter affiliated with the national Women in Agile organization
(http://www.womeninagile.org ) The Women in Agile community drives toward
equality and inclusion of diversity representation, expertise, and involvement in
the agile community. We value diverse idea representation to empower the agile
community and enterprises and believe everyone is better off when more ideas
are shared.
We will be hosting events monthly and all are welcome to attend regardless of
gender.
WIA Mid Atlantic Meeting
October 21st, 2019
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Book Club: Own the Room
November 19th, 2019
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Agile Games for Everyone
January 25th, 2020
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

25. Next Meetup
Just the Facts: Agile Basics
October 8th, 2019
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
CollabraSpace Offices
306 Sentinel Drive, Suite 350
Annapolis Junction, MD 20701
(Virtual Available)
Scrum Master: Trick or Treat?
October 25th, 2019
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Agile Roles & Responsibilities
November 8th, 2019
12:00 PM to 1:00PM
Scaling Agile: Lessons Learned
November 20th, 2019
12:00 PM to 1:00PM
Visit www.CollabraSpace.com/Agile to stay up to date on events, tech talks, and to
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