www.persistentsys.com
© 2014 Persistent Systems Ltd
Scaling Scrum To Large Distributed Teams and its ChallengesPooja Wandile
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Scrum
As designed for use2 – 4 weeks sprintsSmall and self organized team,
7 members +/- 2 Co-locatedFace to face communicationCross functional3 roles, 3 artefacts, 4 scrum
meetingsPotentially shippable product at the end of each sprint
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Scrum XXL?
Complex Products
Large Teams
Agile Manifesto & Principles
Scrum Practices
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Scrum: S to XXL
Different versions Multi locations3> Scrum teams < 20-25100+ peopleTeam size > SNon IT teamsGlobal teamsEnterprise adoption
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Enterprises Adopting Agile Rapidly
57%Enterprises having 5+ agile
teams. Doubled in last 2 years!
43%Enterprises having 10+
agile projects
76%Enterprises have distributed teams, doubled in an year
SCRUM continues to be most popular agile practice, Scrumban is gaining momentum.
Agile projects’ failure could be attributed to inappropriate Change Management.Cultural Change is cited as most challenging aspect.80%
Source: 8th Annual State of Agile Survey by Version One: http://www.versionone.com/pdf/2013-state-of-agile-survey.pdf
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Agile methodologies intended for smaller teams were not designed for large scale deployment
Agile practices alone can’t serve the purpose of enterprises IT
Scaled deployment is possible by blending with Portfolio & Program practices
Can Agile Scale?
Program Management
Agile Methodologies
Portfolio Management
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Key Considerations
Business Value
Productivity
Time to market
Changing Priorities
Large scale deployment is rising
Business wants prioritized delivery of value at a speed to rival the competition at the reduced cost
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Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
Agile Manifesto
Manifesto is unclear about key Enterprise Asks
PredictabilityBusiness IT-Alignment
StrategyRisk Management
ProcessesIT Budgets
Security Architecture
InnovationPortfolio Management
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Scrum XXL Challenges
Scrum FrameworkRolesEventsArtifacts
Team structureTeam Communication &
CollaborationKnowledge & ReuseInfrastructure & Operations
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Scrum Roles Challenges
Product OwnerInsufficient bandwidthOverloadedAddressing teams queries
Scrum MasterToo many meetingsManaging dependencies and
issues across teamsTeam
More processes & Documentation
Someone else is calling the shots
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Product Backlog groomingProduct Scope vs. Budget,
what gets in – what gets out, ongoing exerciseLong grooming meetings for all teams
Sprint planningMapping of Sprint goal vis-à-vis big pictureInter team dependencies
Daily Scrum MeetingHard to accommodate distributed team membersDifficulty in understanding active participation (body language/facial expression)
Scrum Events Challenges
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Sprint ReviewFragmented view of features developedNot exactly complete increment, value stream missing
Sprint RetrospectionComplete lack of active participation in the retrospection conference “It is not my problem” attitude
Scrum of ScrumsManaging Impediments across teamsAggregated view of progressCo-ordination challenges, too many people involved
Contd…
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Team Structure Challenges
Pyramid team structureDelay in communication
Dealing with additional rolesPigs & Chickens roles merging
Component and feature teamsAdditional non feature based
teamsAddition of PMO
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Communication & Collaboration Challenges
Overdose of email communicationEvery email is urgent
Internal & External communicationConflicts, misunderstandings,
uncertainty in communicationMore documentation, can’t help
Keeping documents up to dateDependency on multiple
collaboration toolsMore teams, more confusion, more
delay in decision making
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Knowledge & Reuse Challenges
Reinventing the wheelFor the same set of common
issues Duplication of effortsLack of consistency in
processes across teams
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Infra & Ops Challenges
Lots of different environmentsDev, INT test, staging, UAT, production
Environment configuration & Management issues
Budget constraintInfra not scaling in proportion with
team scalingVPN, Access request, Licenses
issuesAutomation
Test, build, integration, regression, deploy
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Restructure teamsProduct, Engineering, Feature, Ops, QA, PMO
Adapt to Scrum framework Tailoring of scrum events
Consolidate Communication & Collaboration channelsCommunication modes, collaboration tools and processes
Establishe Chapters & Guilds for capability buildingSpotify model
Optimize cost and usage by investing in Cloud infrastructure and VMs
Steps
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Project Management Office
Team Metrics
Program Metrics
Overall Status: Costing, Budgeting & ReturnsProgram Sponsor
Offshore Program Manager
Project Manager
1
Scrum Master 1
Scrum Master 2
Project Manager
2
Scrum Master 3
Scrum Master 4
Client Program Manager
Onsite Program Manager
Onsite Team
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Product Management Team Chief Product Manager
Product Manager, Feature Product Manager, UX/UI
Product Owners, FeatureUX/UI Designers
Business Analysts
Overall owner of the product roadmap, release plan, final authority in conflicting situations
• Manage program backlog• Provide Feature feedback
• Manage Feature backlog• Provide user story feedback
• Act as a liaison between team and PO
• Resolve day to day queries
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Engineering TeamChief Architect• Own system architecture
and infrastructure
System Architect• Define technical Epics
Enterprise Architect• Define NFR epics• Define enterprise architecture governance
Solution Architect• Define technical stories
Team Captains : Technical• Own low level implementation• Manage tech debt
1 2 3
Team Captains : Enterprise• Own performance, load and
other NFR implementation
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Scrum team, QA, Ops
Create build: Feature 1
Integration, Regression, UAT testing of features
Create build: Feature 2
Create build: Feature 3
Deploy and release to staging & production
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Product backlog groomingCPO & PMs: Program backlog: Once in 2 weeks groomingPMs, POs, Architects, BAs: Feature backlog: Weekly grooming
Sprint planningBA, Scrum Team: Team Sprint backlog: One sprint ahead
SoSTeam Captains, Architects, POs: Impediment log: Once a week, Inter team dependencies, backlog status
Scrum Framework Adaptation
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Sprint ReviewUser Story acceptance by POs at sprint levelMonthly demo of features to other stakeholders
Sprint retrospectionTeam retrospectionMonthly Common retrospection
Consolidated findings across teamsMetrics
Contd…
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Communication & Collaboration
IM, VDO chatsConfluence, wiki
Home page for the programTeam space for each Scrum teamTeam space for Prod, PMO, Architects,
Enterprise teamsBlogs, Contact details, Vacation planAnything and Everything goes there
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Knowledge & Reuse
Adopt Spotify modelSet up “Chapters” forums for
each communityDesign processes & Guidelines
Conduct training to create awareness
Chapter forums for effective learning and continuous improvement
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Infra & Ops
Common code base, frequent auto builds, continuous integrationSVN, JenkinsSonarqube
Weekly automated regression testing
Automated deployment INT to Staging to Pre prod
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Performance metricsRelease and sprint velocityVelocity varianceDelivered business valueEffort utilization
Product metricsCode coverage and automation coverageDefect leakagePerformance metricsBuild statistics/build efficiency
CSAT
Metrics
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Scaling practices are not easy to implement Sense of ownership and responsibility becomes looseCommunication gets harder as more and more org layers get addedInter team dependencies only gets more & more complexSprint Zero is definitely needed
Start small as against big bang approachInvolve teams on process improvementsInvest in infrastructure and automationA combination of Kanban, Scrum and XP practices works well
Summary & Conclusion