1. Overcoming MORE Impediments to Agile Transformation:
Scaling Agile
Distributed Teams
Hybrid Projects
Michael de la Maza, PhD
August 30, 2012

2. Who is cPrime?
Engaged for Your Project Management Success

3. After the webinar…
• We will send information to collect the PDU you will earn
from this webinar
• We will also send a link to the recorded webinar once it
is posted online

4. About Me
• PhD in Computer Science from MIT
• Former VP of Corporate Strategy at Softricity
• During the past year, I have been an agile coach at
PayPal, Symantec, and Blue Cross
• Previously, I have done agile training and coaching at
Carbonite, EMC, Intuit, Verizon Wireless, etc.
• Startup mentor at Blackbox.vc
• Co-author of Professional Scrum with Team
Foundation Server
Copyright© Agile Transformation Inc

5. How We Chose The Topics

6. Poll
• What topics are you most interested in?
1. Scaling agile
2. Hybrid projects
3. Distributed teams

7. Poll
• How large is the organization that might do agile?
1. Under 10 people
2. Between 10 and 50 people
3. Between 50 and 150 people
4. Between 150 and 500 people
5. Over 500 people

8. Scaling Agile

9. Assumptions
• Agile has worked on one to three teams!
• These teams are, by definition, early adopters.

10. Poll
• At what stage is your agile adoption?
1. Innovators
2. Early adopters
3. Early majority
4. Late majority
5. Laggards

11. Uh oh!
• Early adopters have, by definition, succeeded. If they
hadn’t, you wouldn’t be scaling agile!
• But 84% of organizations which do agile have had at least
one project fail! (source: Sahota, Agile 2012).
• 75% of organizations do not get expected benefits from
scaling agile (source: Schwaber).
• Scaling agile means that the people who do not want to do
agile will have to make a choice.
You will almost certainly run into serious problems when scaling

12. Environment Checklist
• Availability of personnel with right skills?
Do you have Scrum coaches, Product Owners, Scrum Masters,
development teams, etc.?
• Management support?
Has management taken an agile course? Has management ever
done agile? Do all executives agree on what “agile” means?
• Perceived time to transition?
Do folks think that a full transition to agile will take less than a year?
• Budget constraints?
Do you have a budget of $100K+ per team?
• General resistance to change?
When was the last time a change initiative worked?

13. Culture Check
• What do you need to do in this company to succeed?
– Collaboration: Working together
– Control: Getting and keeping control
– Competence: Being the best
– Cultivation: Learning and growing
• An agile organization will focus on collaboration and
cultivation. Control is almost completely absent.
Source: Schneider Culture Model

14. Poll
• What do you need to do in your organization to be
successful? (choose one)
1. Collaboration: Working together
2. Control: Getting and keeping control
3. Competence: Being the best
4. Cultivation: Learning and growing

15. What Flavor of Agile?
• Kanban: Control organizations.
• Extreme Programming: Competence organizations.
• Scrum: Collaboration and Cultivation organizations.
(Source: Sahota, An Agile Adoption and Transformation Survival Guide)

16. Setup Your Org Structure
• Where do Product Owners and Scrum Masters come
from? (for those who are scaling Scrum)
Common pattern is for POs to come from Product Management
and for Scrum Masters to come from Project Management.
• Do you have an Enterprise Agile Team?
Example at 1000 person company: COO (Product Owner), SVP
of Operations (Scrum Master), VP of IT, VP of Administration, Dir
of Software Development
• Is your HR organization on board?
New job requirements, career paths, training curricula, job titles, etc.

17. The Ability To Navigate Through Conflict
• The Dip
• Is conflict suppressed in your organization? Is power
used to resolve conflict?

19. Distributed Teams

20. Standard Advice
• Don’t do it!
• Violates agile principle: “The most efficient and effective
method of conveying information to and within a
development team is face-to-face conversation.”
• Off shoring is cost effective only when offshore
personnel cost 10% of local personnel (source:
Sutherland).
• Create a communication plan (include escalation path).
• Make sure to create a project charter and product vision.
• Consider bringing people together for six weeks at the
start of the project.

21. Poll
• What, in your experience, is the overhead cost of
distributed teams?
1. Under 20%
2. About 50%
3. Over 100%

22. The Simple Case
Product Owners and Dev Teams are split
PO Dev PO Dev
Team Team
California Kazakhstan
• Split into two teams, each with a Product Owner and
Scrum Master
• Create Scrum of Scrums which meets once or twice per
week
• Maintain shared understanding by being able to work on
any product backlog item

23. The Hard Case: Two Types
PO or Dev exists in only one location
• Physically distributed but similar time zones
Example: Boston and Buenos Aires are one hour apart.
• Physically distributed and different time zones
Example: California and Kazakhstan are 13 hours apart

24. Similar Time Zones
• Make extensive use of videoconferencing
Idea: Setup a laptop with Skype and keep it on all day. Cost < $500
• Consider telepresence technologies
Product: Oculus (xaxxon.com). Cost < $300.
• Use games for planning and retrospective
Product: Innovation Games (innovationgames.com)
• Keep meetings to no more than one hour
• Pair

25. Radically Different Time Zones
• Work together for the first six weeks of the project. Work
together one sprint every quarter.
• Establish clear daily routine.
Example: Dev team in California checks in code at end of day. QA
team in Kazakhstan tests code. Dev team fixes bugs in the
morning.
• Make extensive use of agile project management tools
Product: Assembla (assembla.com). Price: ~$50/month.
• Conduct review together if at all possible
Example: 8pm in California, 9am in Kazakhstan

27. Hybrid Projects

28. Two Key Sources of Friction
• Culture
• Cadence

29. Two Types of Hybrid Projects
• On a multi-team project some teams are agile and some
are not
• Upstream and downstream activities are not agile

30. The Hybrid PMO
Program
Manager
Project Manager Project Manager Project Manager
Scrum Master Scrum Master
(Software team) (Upstream) (Downstream)
Program Manager must
be equally adept at agile
and non-agile projects

31. Poll
• Does your organization have a hybrid PMO?
1. No, but we wish we had one.
2. Yes, but it does not work very well
3. Yes and it works well
4. No. We have something better!