Scrum: From the Classroom to the Workplace :: FCUP 2018

1. Scrum: From the Classroom
to the Workplace
Cadeira: Gestão de Projetos Informáticos
Orador: Pedro Torres
Data: Dezembro 2018

2. Pedro Gustavo Torres
Engineering Director @
Working in Agile echosystems since 2010
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer

3. https://pt.linkedin.com/in/pedrogustavotorres
https://twitter.com/_pedro_torres
https://pedrogustavotorres.wordpress.com
pedro.gustavo.torres@gmail.com
http://slideshare.net/pedrogustavotorres

4. 2014 2015
2008 2013
2005 2005
2016
2013
2008
2002

5. 2016
2017
2018
2016

6. Ground rules
• There are no silly questions
• Shoot questions as I go
• We treat among ourselves as you (“tu”)

7. What is Agile?

8. Agile Onion

9. Agile Manifesto

10. Agile Adoption in 2017

11. What is Waterfall?

12. Waterfall

13. Waterfall’s origin
• Winston W. Royce’s paper from 1970 “Managing the Development of
Large Software Systems”
• “…I believe in this concept, but the implementation described above is
risky and invites failure.”
Winston Royce

14. Why do IT companies still
use Waterfall?

15. Waterfall “sells” promises hard to keep
• Waterfall is based in a precise plan (usually a Gantt chart)
• Fixed Scope with Time and Budget being negotiable variables
(Quality is considered the 4th variable)
• Agile doesn't sell promises or perfection like Waterfall
• In Agile we share the risk... in Waterfall it stands all on the side
of the supplier... so the latter protects himself regarding costs
and time

16. Let’s face it: Software projects are a challenge

17. Let’s face it: Software projects are a challenge

18. Facts that need to be acknowledge
• Uncertainty exists... so why not deal with it?... instead of ignoring it?
• Risks exists too... so why not share it with all parties involved?
• Software development is not the same thing as putting bricks on a wall (it
is not a repeatable / predictable process)
• onTime, onBudget and onTarget (Waterfall classic project’s success
indicators) are pointless if there is no returned value to the organization /
customers / stakeholders

19. Agile versus Waterfall

20. Benefits of Adopting Agile in 2017

21. Challenges Experienced Adopting & Scaling Agile in 2017

22. Sad but true
• The majority of the current workforce was taught to act and think like
Waterfall
• Waterfall is still a dogma in a lot of companies today

23. Agile versus Agility
• Some companies just want agility and not necessarily Agile

24. Confusion between Agile and “Javardice”
• Shortcuts
• No documentation
• Poor software quality (lack of testing)
• No planning
• No commitment
• No deadlines
• …

25. Misconception of what Agile is

26. Agile as a “buzzword”
• As far as traditional companies go:
• Everyone wants to be Agile
• Everyone wants to say “Agile”
• Very few wants to work in Agile
• And even less knows what Agile is
• In companies well established in Agile practices:
• There are no areas or teams called “Agile”
• You don’t hear the word “Agile” that often
• People just do their “thing”
• It’s in the culture

27. What is Scrum?

28. Scrum was “born” more than 20 years a go

29. Team
• Product Owner
• Scrum Master
• Development Team
Artifacts
• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Increment
• Definition of Done
(Transparency)
Events
• The Sprint
• Sprint Planning
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospective
Scrum in a (Scrum Guide, July 2016)
Framework / Empirical process (Inspection, Adaption, Transparency)
Values
• Commitment
• Courage
• Focus
• Openness
• Respect

30. Scrum greatest value: Courage
• To admit that things might change
• That an estimate is not a certainty
• That we can explain / understand requirements wrongly
• That we don't know everything upfront (in spite of being specialists in the
subject matter)
• To deliver bad news
• To be transparent

31. Scrum in other areas?
• Hardware
• Human Resources (e.g. Recruiting)
• Marketing
• Planning a wedding
• …

32. State of Scrum in 2017

33. How are Agile
transformations?

34. Companies transition to Agile

35. Why companies want to be Agile?
• To be competitive
• To be efficient and effective
• To attract talent (you!)
• Because everybody else is doing it
• To be able to say: “We’re Agile!”

36. “Someone” from the Scrum Alliance in 2016
• Companies around the globe struggle with the implementation of
Agile
• “…It takes at least 2 years to start to get comfortable with the
uncomfortable…”

37. Learning: People have 3 zones
• Comfort zone
• Learning zone
• Panic zone

38. Corporates: Moving from Individuals to Teams
• The change of focus from individuals to teams
• Performance reviews should be team based
• Tips for Agile teams:
• Search for consensus and not unanimity
• We don’t need project managers (to control teams)… we need self-organizing
teams

39. Corporates: Flat organizations vs Heavy hierarchies
• Middle managers tend to be a big resistance to change (afraid of losing
power)
• The more middle managers you have the bigger is the distance between
top management and the majority of the employees
• In 2016 excess management is costing the U.S. $3 Trillion Per Year ( )
• 3 Trillion = 3,000,000,000,000

40. Corporates: Complicated, bureaucratic and “politic”
• Big corporates forget to simplify things... And they add extra layers of complexity:
• Activity Planning
• Capacity Planning
• Timesheets
• …
• Timesheets:
• focus on idle people and not on idle work
• why do we need to be 100% busy?
• why do we need to report time spent on things?
• Where are the startup and entrepreneurship spirits? Big corporates should act
more times like if they were startups

41. Outdated: Scientific Management (aka Taylorism)’s origin
• Frederick Winslow Taylor’s paper from 1911 “The Principles of Scientific Management”
• Managers and workers
• Micromanagement
• United States’ Portrait of that time:
• Civil war between 1861 and 1865
• Slavery abolished in 1865
• In 1900, 11 percent of the 14 years old and over was illiterate. *
• Only 50% of 5 to 19 years-olds were attending school in 1900. *
• Women didn’t had the right to vote
*120 years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait
Frederick Taylor

42. Watch the baton not the runner
• If you are just concerned about the runner running... what happens if
he runs on the wrong direction?

43. Regarding change how effective
do you believe evangelization
is?

44. Changing people
• Evangelization isn’t that effective
• You need empowerment to “promote” change
• Everybody wants to change… but nobody wants to be changed
• People will always resist to change: Fear of losing their job, of not being good in the new way of
working, losing power… “the unknown is always worst than the known”
• Comfort zone is change’s worst enemy
• People also need time to change… if they are too busy… overloaded with work… how can they
change? Even worst…how can they innovate?
• Planning at 100% capacity kills your chance to continuously improve

45. New generations will make everything easier
• They are the hope for software development and the Agile mindset
• eduScrum
• Scrum classes
• Scrum popularity
• Communities of Practice
• Events, Meetups, etc.
• ...
• Other generations don't like to change.. they are comfortable in their zone... so why
change?
• Only if they are in a very painful situation... and still... sometimes it is not enough to
change

46. But all this is about transitions to Agile
• What about companies that were born agile?

47. A couple of Companies in Portugal “born” Agile

48. Common characteristics of “born” Agile companies
• Great Culture
• Informality
• One or two weeks sprints
• Continuous Integration
• Continuous Delivery pipelines
• Unit & Integration (automated) Testing
• Frequent releases
• Bleeding edge technologies
• Multiple scrum teams
• Fun environment
• …

49. What’s in it for me with
Scrum?

50. Scrum greatest virtues: IKEA Effect
• Build the product with your customers

51. Scrum greatest virtues: Sustainable pace
• Software development is a marathon not a 100 meters race

52. Scrum: How to start?
• 7 easy steps:
0 - put everyone on board (communicate to all stakeholders)
1 - create backlogs
2 - create teams (POs, SMs, Devs, QAs, etc.)
3 - decide sprint length
4 - have a sprint zero / grooming / planning
5 - start sprinting
6 - have a new sprint while there is still work to be done J

53. Scrum not enough? Story Points
• Estimations: Collective (Scrum) vs Single head (Waterfall)
• Story Points versus Time
• Accuracy (uncertainty) vs Precision (silver bullets)... people being
fooled by themselves

54. Scrum not enough? Vertical teams
• Should you organize your teams around the
layers of your architecture?
• Should you create feature (vertical) teams?
• Maybe a mix of both?
1999 UEFA Champions League Final
Manchester United vs Bayern Munich

55. Scrum not enough? Vertical slices
• People love horizontal work instead of vertical work (it’s easier)... and
then things go wrong... because Scrum isn’t just about working in
iterations!
• You need to deliver completed work
• Analyze
• Develop
• Test

56. Scrum not enough? Extreme Programming (XP)

57. Scrum not enough? Kanban

58. Scrum not enough? Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose
• “The surprising truth about what motivates us” by Dan Pink
• Delegate and let decisions be made closer to where the work is
• To delegate you need to trust them
• When you trust you need to be prepared to be screwed (just like in a
marriage)
• Self-organization, empowerment, accountability, delegation, etc.

59. Scrum not enough? Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose
• Self-organization works for nature… so why not for teams?

60. Scrum not enough? No managers

61. Scrum not enough?: #NoEstimates
• Do we really need estimates?

62. Scrum not enough?: DevOps Culture

63. Which advices I would like to
give to you?

64. Advice
• Challenge the status quo
• Always ask “Why?”

65. Advice
• Don’t be fooled by the false sense of security

66. Advice
• You will always need luck to succeed
• Luck = Competence + Opportunity

67. Advice
• Choose carefully the company you will work for… you should search
for companies that work with Agile practices

68. Advice
• Watch out for “propaganda”

69. Advice
• Choose the right tool for the job

70. FIM
Scrum: From the Classroom
to the Workplace