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Tips, Tricks and Experiments:
How to pick a story, start a sprint and get
the work done.
The Future of Agile Symposium
Rob Healy
27 October 2016
About Ammeon
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
2
Our Focus
Accelerating service
delivery through
transformation
Our Capabilities
We are a services and
solutions company
offering Consultancy,
Training, Development,
Testing and Managed
Services
Our Team
We have a team of 200+
DevOps, Open source,
Cloud, IT and network-
experienced people
Our Locations
Dublin, Belfast, Belgrade,
Reading, Stockholm
Some of our customers
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
3
About me
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
4
Product Owner, Engineer, Wannabe Farmer
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
5
? Product Owner of two scrum teams. CPO, PSM,
Greenbelt Lean Six Sigma Experience in Kanban, Scrum,
CI/CD DevOps, FollowTheSun, SAFe, multiple Waterfall
to Agile transformations
? Co-founder of the Agile & Entrepreneurship (A&E)
meetup. Founder member of the Agile-Lean Ireland (ALI)
society. Member of Engineers Ireland
? From rural Roscommon. PRO of Rathangan Macra Na
Feirme
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
6
Tip:
How to PICK a Story
PICK a Story
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
7
All agile methodologies require a
prioritised backlog of work. This
backlog might be subtasks, user
stories, epics and so on.
My Backlog
Increasing
Priority
PICK a Story
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
8
? All agile methodologies require a
prioritised backlog of work. This
backlog might be subtasks, user
stories, epics and so on.
? Usually the backlog is prioritised
by business value and then either
an estimate of time / effort
required or the tickets broken
down in Goldilocks Estimation
(#NoEstimates)
My Backlog
Sprint 1
Sprint 2
Sprint 3+ ?
Now, PICK a Story
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
9
Implement Challenge
Possible Kill
High
Low
Payoff
HardEasy Effort
Observed Benefits
of PICK?
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
10
? A visual technique to visualise work in two-
dimensions (effort and value)
simultaneously.
? Useful for brainstorming with team /
stakeholders and getting buy-in on what is
the next most important piece of work and
why.
? Identifies the almost impossible and the not
really needed and encourages work on the
valuable and achievable.
Issues closed during 26 Feb review of Team
Lumberjacks backlog
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
11
Experiment:
When to start (and end) a sprint?
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
12
? The Ishikawa / Fishbone diagram with the 6Ms suggest there are 5
areas to be considered when planning a sprint and probably 4 in
the software industry
? Of these 4 areas two are major costs to the project, the manpower
and the machinery (development and test) required.
? Decisions on when to start a sprint need to focus on maximising
output and minimising costs
Effect of
Problem
occuring
Man: Method: Measurement:
Machine:Mother Nature:Materials:
What could possibly go wrong?
Some Assumptions
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
13
? An example project uses a three week sprint cycle starting on a Monday and ending on a
Friday.
? The engineers (Dev, Ops and Test) work a standard 40 hour working week, Monday to Friday.
? The hardware is available (apart from maintenance) 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
? The aim is to continuously deliver a new potentially shippable ISO every weekday and run a
series of Continuous Integration test loops every day to achieve this.
? Not all tests take the same amount of time, most take a minute or less but some take several
hours to execute
? The final deliverable is delivered after the last day of the sprint after all tests have passed and
all features have achieved a Definition of Done.
? Demo / Retro for previous sprint and Sprint Planning are all completed on the first day of the
sprint.
What is the best day to start?
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
14
Start on Wednesday of Week 1
? The limiting factors on the project are the cost of the
engineers and the cost of the hardware on which to
develop the software and run the automated tests.
? To optimise the resources it makes sense to use the
hardware of development, test authoring and
debugging issues during the 8 hour working day and to
run automated test suites in the 16 hour interim
periods.
? Run longer tests at the weekends with debugging on
Monday.
? Also resists shifting cadences from public holidays,
sickness and vacation
Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun
Wk 1
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
15
Trick:
When will we be done?
Our old definition
of done
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
16
? A correct, agreed and published list.
? Flagged as important and mostly ignored
? Often not considered until the very last
minute where someone could check the
DoD and argue whether the criteria were
met.
? Elements of ¡°Broken Window¡± Syndrome.
For some stories the criteria didn¡¯t apply
which undermined the entire document.
www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute.
17
? A living document updated for each story and as it progresses
? Gives a single point for the status of each story to team members
? Shows past successes, where deviations were necessary and
current blockers
? Very successful, widespread adoption by teams
Story ID Status Code
on
ISO?
All
Tests
Pass?
Doc.
Review
ed?
Tasks
Closed
?
PO
Demo
done?
Stake.
Notified
?
Notes
TKT-111 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
TKT-105 Some No Blocking bug
open
TKT-198 Yes No Some No No No
TKT-059 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Done: 12 Oct
TKT-056 N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes N/A Doc only: 4 Oct
Our new Definition of Done
www.ammeon.com Ammeon@ammeon
Thank You

More Related Content

FutureOfAgile

  • 1. Tips, Tricks and Experiments: How to pick a story, start a sprint and get the work done. The Future of Agile Symposium Rob Healy 27 October 2016
  • 2. About Ammeon www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 2 Our Focus Accelerating service delivery through transformation Our Capabilities We are a services and solutions company offering Consultancy, Training, Development, Testing and Managed Services Our Team We have a team of 200+ DevOps, Open source, Cloud, IT and network- experienced people Our Locations Dublin, Belfast, Belgrade, Reading, Stockholm
  • 3. Some of our customers www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 3
  • 4. About me www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 4
  • 5. Product Owner, Engineer, Wannabe Farmer www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 5 ? Product Owner of two scrum teams. CPO, PSM, Greenbelt Lean Six Sigma Experience in Kanban, Scrum, CI/CD DevOps, FollowTheSun, SAFe, multiple Waterfall to Agile transformations ? Co-founder of the Agile & Entrepreneurship (A&E) meetup. Founder member of the Agile-Lean Ireland (ALI) society. Member of Engineers Ireland ? From rural Roscommon. PRO of Rathangan Macra Na Feirme
  • 6. www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 6 Tip: How to PICK a Story
  • 7. PICK a Story www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 7 All agile methodologies require a prioritised backlog of work. This backlog might be subtasks, user stories, epics and so on. My Backlog Increasing Priority
  • 8. PICK a Story www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 8 ? All agile methodologies require a prioritised backlog of work. This backlog might be subtasks, user stories, epics and so on. ? Usually the backlog is prioritised by business value and then either an estimate of time / effort required or the tickets broken down in Goldilocks Estimation (#NoEstimates) My Backlog Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3+ ?
  • 9. Now, PICK a Story www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 9 Implement Challenge Possible Kill High Low Payoff HardEasy Effort
  • 10. Observed Benefits of PICK? www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 10 ? A visual technique to visualise work in two- dimensions (effort and value) simultaneously. ? Useful for brainstorming with team / stakeholders and getting buy-in on what is the next most important piece of work and why. ? Identifies the almost impossible and the not really needed and encourages work on the valuable and achievable. Issues closed during 26 Feb review of Team Lumberjacks backlog
  • 11. www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 11 Experiment: When to start (and end) a sprint?
  • 12. www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 12 ? The Ishikawa / Fishbone diagram with the 6Ms suggest there are 5 areas to be considered when planning a sprint and probably 4 in the software industry ? Of these 4 areas two are major costs to the project, the manpower and the machinery (development and test) required. ? Decisions on when to start a sprint need to focus on maximising output and minimising costs Effect of Problem occuring Man: Method: Measurement: Machine:Mother Nature:Materials: What could possibly go wrong?
  • 13. Some Assumptions www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 13 ? An example project uses a three week sprint cycle starting on a Monday and ending on a Friday. ? The engineers (Dev, Ops and Test) work a standard 40 hour working week, Monday to Friday. ? The hardware is available (apart from maintenance) 24 hours a day 7 days a week. ? The aim is to continuously deliver a new potentially shippable ISO every weekday and run a series of Continuous Integration test loops every day to achieve this. ? Not all tests take the same amount of time, most take a minute or less but some take several hours to execute ? The final deliverable is delivered after the last day of the sprint after all tests have passed and all features have achieved a Definition of Done. ? Demo / Retro for previous sprint and Sprint Planning are all completed on the first day of the sprint.
  • 14. What is the best day to start? www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 14 Start on Wednesday of Week 1 ? The limiting factors on the project are the cost of the engineers and the cost of the hardware on which to develop the software and run the automated tests. ? To optimise the resources it makes sense to use the hardware of development, test authoring and debugging issues during the 8 hour working day and to run automated test suites in the 16 hour interim periods. ? Run longer tests at the weekends with debugging on Monday. ? Also resists shifting cadences from public holidays, sickness and vacation Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun Wk 1 Wk 2 Wk 3 Wk 4
  • 15. www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 15 Trick: When will we be done?
  • 16. Our old definition of done www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 16 ? A correct, agreed and published list. ? Flagged as important and mostly ignored ? Often not considered until the very last minute where someone could check the DoD and argue whether the criteria were met. ? Elements of ¡°Broken Window¡± Syndrome. For some stories the criteria didn¡¯t apply which undermined the entire document.
  • 17. www.ammeon.com ? 2016 Ammeon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Confidential - Do Not Distribute. 17 ? A living document updated for each story and as it progresses ? Gives a single point for the status of each story to team members ? Shows past successes, where deviations were necessary and current blockers ? Very successful, widespread adoption by teams Story ID Status Code on ISO? All Tests Pass? Doc. Review ed? Tasks Closed ? PO Demo done? Stake. Notified ? Notes TKT-111 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes TKT-105 Some No Blocking bug open TKT-198 Yes No Some No No No TKT-059 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Done: 12 Oct TKT-056 N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes N/A Doc only: 4 Oct Our new Definition of Done