Agile Development - Mitch Lacey & Associates, Inc.

In November, 2008 there was a discussion on the Scrum Development yahoo group about how Scrum benefits the individual, and why anyone would want to work on a Scrum team. Here is what was asked:

What does Scrum (or other Agile umbrella method) offer to an individual seeking improvement?

I realize that TDD helps one improve one's skillset and so do some of the other Agile practices.

But, specifically to Scrum, which practices are intended to address individual achievement/improvement?

The reason I ask is because teams have stronger and weaker members and would like to know both what the team can do to help the weaker embers and what the weaker members can do to help themselves. While till attaining/maintaining a high velocity, of course. Preferably with o overtime.

This got me thinking, what are the values and benefits? It turns out it was easier to answer than I thought. I had been saying these things for years, in workshops and on teams. Here they are:

 People who work on Scrum teams will have the opportunity to improve/practice/polish/learn/grow in the following areas

1. Technical skills (any) by working in a collaborative space, hopefully pair programming
2. Interpersonal skills through daily conversation and human interaction
3. Presentation skills by having to show working software every two to four weeks
4. Relationship skills by having to work with people you may or may not especially like
5. Leadership skills by teaching others your unique perspective on how you have solved problems in the past
6. Self confidence by going out of your comfort zone, stretching yourself and growing
7. Self awareness by understanding what actions, or inactions, your decisions have on others and the system you are building
8. Communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal, through daily standup meetings, pair programming, customer demo meetings, sprint planning meetings
9. Estimation skills by having a better understanding of the whole system through the practices of collaborative estimation and collective code ownership
10. Continuous improvement by having the discipline and trust in your team to allow the items above to become a reality

I use this list when I meet with new teams that are adopting Scrum. Try it out and let me know how it goes!

 

 

A big thank you to everyone who attended my talks at the SQE Agile Development 2008 Conference in Orlando, Florida.

You can download the slides on the resources page or you can grab them here:

• Mixing Roles in Scrum: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
• Are We There Yet? Defining Done

Many people ask me about team spaces and how to set them up. Not long ago, colleagues Ade Miller and Ajoy Krishnamoorthy did a walkthrough of the Microsoft patterns & practices space - it is built around agile teams. When watching this video, consider that this team started out in a two person office with 6+ people crammed in it. From there, they began booking conference rooms, one room per team member per day. They were told they could not do this, so they got creative and started booking random times to ensure the conference rooms (aka team space) were always available. This went on for a couple of years before facilities asked what they needed to stop the madness. This video shows you the end result of a team room.

Click here to see the video on MSDN Channel 9.

My colleague Ade Miller at Microsoft just published a paper titled Distrubuted Agile Development at Microsoft patterns & practices. I had a chance to read draft versions of the paper and find it a good read.

You can download the PDF here

Here is the abstract:

Distributed development is a fact of life for many teams. Unfortunately most agile methodologies or approaches assume that the team is located in a single team room. Until recently there has been little guidance about how to apply these approaches with a geographically dispersed team.

Microsoft’s patterns & practices group has been following an agile, distributed development approach for the past five years. During this time teams within the group have experimented extensively with different approaches to best address the challenges of distributed agile development. This paper outlines the challenges faced by geographically distributed agile teams and details some proven practices to address these issues and build successful distributed teams.

I was browsing InfoQ this morning and I came across this newly published paper from Borland that talks about integrating automated tools in agile. It is not bad, and has a few nuggets of goodness provided you can get past the sales pitch for Silk. Pages 4-7 are the best, in my opinion and have some value. It's worth a glance.

the teaser from InfoQ:

"More and more companies are moving to agile software delivery approaches. But agile delivery brings with it a new set of challenges; among them, functional test automation - opinion is divided in the Agile community on the value of automated testing. However the reality is that software teams must manage quality if they are to avoid operational risk. Businesses are encouraged to adopt an agile process that fits their unique needs. Nothing about agile is pre-determined or dictated so it's no surprise that businesses find it challenging to implement agile as a trusted business process – using tools to automate their agile delivery process is yet another variable that complicates the decisions they must make. 

This paper discusses the benefits and offers some guidance on incorporating automated functional testing and testing tools into agile software delivery environments. You will learn about the critical role that automated testing plays in helping companies implement and support an Agile process. The paper discusses aspects of Borland's own transformation to agile practices as a reference point or use case. You'll see how a geographically distributed team overcame challenges and leveraged automated testing and other tools to ensure a successful transition. We'll discuss the lessons learned in our transformation and as a result how Borland's automated tools are being developed to support and enhance Agile delivery methods."

Get the paper here

A very big thank you to Version One for hosting the APLN Atlanta leadership summit. We had a great turnout. I was lucky enough to be invited by Mike Cottmeyer to give a talk. I did "Mixing Roles in Scrum" and it was great. You can find the slides in the resources section available for download.

Also, I am giving a "Mixing Roles" tutorial at the SQE Agile Development conference in Orlando next month. I hope to see you there!

My good friend Tiago Andrade e Silva at Fullsix in Portugal wrote a quick start guide to my Microsoft Excel Sprint templates. I have added the guide to the downloadable files. If you have any suggestions, please send me updates to the guide as you use the sheets.

Just announced! UW Extension is doing an agile certification program. The program is broken into three quarters.

• Quarter one: Agile overview and ScrumMaster certification, taught by yours truly
• Quarter two: Applied agile development practices, taught by Robert Down
• Quarter three: Advanced topics in agile software development, taught by Chris Sterling

Chris and I put a lot of time in putting the program together, we hope you can attend.

Growing up, I had a dream of being a photographer. I didn’t know why I was drawn to it, but it was something I wanted to do. I bought my first camera when I was 10 years old – it was a Kodak Disc camera. My second camera was a Konica TC Autoreflex – it was my first real camera. I worked a summer for my dad at the wonderful rate of $2.50 per hour – I thought it was good for 11 years old. As I got older, I became more into photography.

I recently collaborated with Semana Informática on a Scrum article. If you can read Portuguese, tell me how it is! :)

Register now

We have a fantastic program lined up and a uniquely collaborative conference format.

Key note speeches from

Lisa Haneberg, author of several books including "High Impact Middle Management", "Focus Like a Laser Beam" and "Two Weeks to a Breakthrough", and John Yuzdepski, Chief Marketing Officer at TestQuest, former VP & GM at Openwave and prior to that VP & GM of Sprintpcs.com. A CIO panel - featuring leaders from firms around Seattle, participants to be confirmed.

Think Tank / Open Space Sessions led by recognized leaders in the agile field, including...

Luke Hohmann, Collaboration Games
David Anderson & Corey Ladas, Kanban
Brent Barton & Lance Young (of Solutions IQ), Scrum
Mitch Lacey & Julie Chickering, Getting Started with Agile
Bruce Eckfeldt & Jim Benson, Writing Agile Contracts
Mike Griffiths, Agile Program Management
Chris Matts & Olav Maassen, Real Option Theory
Arlen Bankston & Jeff Patton, Agile User Experience

On Day 1 each Think Tank facilitator will lead an open space group to develop new material, thinking and ideas. Participants are free to choose a single session or wonder freely from session to session learning and contributing to each.

On Day 2 each session facilitator will present a 20-30 summary of the findings from the previous day. The output from all 8 sessions will be made available to participants.

Please come and join us. Enjoy the beautiful venue. Enjoy the Seattle summer weather. Enjoy mixing and networking with leaders in the agile and board members of the APLN.

It's a mini-Agile Conference in the Northwest!

Enjoy the great food at the luxury Edgewater Hotel. Join us for the cocktail reception in the evening of the 17th.

I was teaching a Certified ScrumMaster course recently and the discussion of “done” came up. I love this topic, it is one that I am very passionate about.

The analogy I use when I think of what done means to me is around wrapping gifts. For this example, we’ll consider Christmas gifts, where done equals a wrapped present under the tree, with a nametag on it, making it potentially shippable – I can add the bow and ribbon later – the additional features required to really wow my customers. The story goes like this.

Hello!

I have just added a new section titled Resources. Here you can find my published papers and decks, Scrum tools that I use on my projects and a reading list. I will continue to add to this list over time as it grows!

Enjoy!

Hi folks.

 As you may have read, I am in the process of writing a book, titled Adopting Agile: 101 tips to survive the first year.  As a result, I am spending 90% (whatever that means) of my time on the book and the other 10% with the family. As a result, my blog posts will be limited, however, my book postings (separate section on the site) will be abundant. 

Please visit the book section of the site for new hotness!  Be sure to check out the working table of contents as well and provide feedback!

-Mitch

ClearContext IMS v4 Review.  I must say, this is the best tool that I have used for productivity.  I’ve raved about it before, and if you’re reading this because you are searching for information on if you should buy CC v4, just buy it. It will change your email management life.

Agile is about collaboration and cross functionality.  There are no Heros on Agile teams.  How, then, do the hero's in your company fit in an Agile team or project?  Putting them full time on the project may impact other projects because the expertise is taken offline.  Further, it may cause the persons morale to dip and leave your company, going to a competitor.  That is bad.  What about when we find that we need a SME (or hero) on your project, but only in a limited or short term capacity?  How do you structure your team? 

Here is a messed up interview question that I like to ask when I have at least 1.5 hours with people.  Sovle it now and you've got a job!

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