At a large governmental organization we started with one scrum team, but it very quickly became clear that there was only one way to really make it work: Go big or go home. This talk will be about the challenges we faced in a organization that almost only works with third party (off site) contractors, a new way of working in a very political environment. We were successful to a point where higher level managers got nervous because they didn't hear any complaints. This talk might be interesting for you if you work in large organizations where you have to work with more traditional project management methods and if you feel that just focusing on your own team is simply not getting you enough results.

1. T H E R E M U S T B E
S O M E T H I N G W R O N G
W E A R E G E T T I N G S O F E W C O M P L A I N T S A B O U T Y O U G U Y S
Jasper Sonnevelt #LLKD14

2. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
W H AT I T S TA R T E D L I K E
• Large work packages
!
• Parttime team allocation
!
• Tasks and activities WAY to big

3. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
T H E P R O J E C T
• Development of a system that will be used by different
ministeries and local governments
• Important project
• Already late

4. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
T H E S T R U C T U R E
Project Backog
Work Package
ScrumMaster

5. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
T H E S T R U C T U R E
Project Backog
From third party
Work Package
All at different locations the people using it
The people
making decisions
ScrumMaster

6. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
T H E A P P R O A C H
• Make the team work smooth and predictable
• Get development process to work (Scrum)
• Make policies explicit
• Involve customer in the process

7. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
A N D A F T E R T H AT…
• Grow to involve the rest of the organization
• Ops
• Structure project portfolio
• One team for the application

8. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
M A K I N G S E N S E O F W O R K I T E M S
• Large items carry risk
• Focus is on the wrong things
• Is it actually the right stuff?

9. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
A B O U T S T O RY M A P P I N G
“ D E S I G N Y O U R P R O J E C T I N W O R K I N G L A Y E R S T O A V O I D H A L F - B A K E D
I N C R E M E N TA L R E L E A S E S . B Y J E F F PA T T O N ”
Source: http://www.agileproductdesign.com/writing/how_you_slice_it.pdf
Makeitmoreawesome What we need to make it work

10. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
S T O RY M A P S : E X A M P L E
Makeitmoreawesome
Wheels Steering Brakes Engine Lights
What we need to make it work

11. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
T H E P R O J E C T S T O RY M A P. T RY 1
Functions
Priorities Stories and tasks

12. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
W H AT I T D I D
• Was very helpful when splitting tasks
• Gave us something to look at while talking
• Drew attention to our project

13. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
R E S U LT S T O T H I S P O I N T
• Happy team
• Regular retrospectives
• User Stories that actually are small enough to do in a 2
week sprint

14. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
T H E B O A R D
Expectation for
this sprint

15. L E A D T I M E
4-5 weeks 2 weeks
When we started After 3 months

16. T H E B O A R D
Smell!
Same process

17. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
O U R “ R E A D Y ” P R O C E S S
Work
package
User Stories
&
Tasks
Priorities
&
splitting
Project
Backlog

18. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
G O B I G O R G O H O M E
• Limited use of people working on the project
• max 2 days a week
• no real portfolio priority list
• overworked OPS team

19. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
O U R P R O J E C T
Priorities
&
splitting
Project
Backlog
The Team
Incidents & Small Changes
Project B
Project C
ScrumMaster

20. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
O T H E R P R O J E C T S
• Same people
• Same whiteboard
• Same application
The organization around us became more and more an issue we
needed to fix in order be effective

21. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
T H E N E W S T R U C T U R E
Priorities
&
splitting
Project
Backlog
The Team
Incidents & Small Changes
Project B
Project C
ScrumMaster

22. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
W H E R E T H E I N T E R E S T I N G S T U F F
H A P P E N S
Work
package
User Stories
&
Tasks
Priorities
&
splitting
Project
Backlog

23. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
“I don’t hear anything from your
project. That doesn't feel right…”

24. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
B I G L E S S O N N U M B E R 1
Don’t forget to involve management

25. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
B I G L E S S O N N U M B E R 2
This is government…

26. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
Project
Backlog
H E R E ’ S W H AT H A P P E N E D
Manager

27. T O R O U N D U P

28. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
A N D T H E N G R O W I T
Let scaling start small

29. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
M A K E S U R E I T ’ S T H E I R S U C C E S S T O O !
Don’t forget to include
“invisible” stakeholders

30. @jaspersonnevelt|#LLKD14
O P T I M I Z I N G T H E I R “ R E A D Y ” P R O C E S S I S
J U S T A S I M P O R TA N T T O G E T F L O W !
Optimizing teams is important

31. T H A N K Y O U V E RY M U C H !
@ J A S P E R S O N N E V E LT
!
M A I L @ J A S P E R S O N N E V E LT. N L
J S O N N E V E LT @ X E B I A . C O M