JIT, Lean and Agile | Microsoft

Presenter: Mohit Dhagat

Student ID:

0928088

Date: 19 November 2014

Background graphic from MS Internal Marketing \\BrandTools | Microsoft Confidential

• Scope of this presentation• Will focus on Soho Productions, Microsoft Studios.• App services & video games production wing of

Microsoft.• Known for their work in ‘Sesame Street’ for

Windows, ‘Sky’ and ‘Canal+’ apps for Xbox 360, ‘Upload’ and ‘Upload Studios’ for Xbox One, and ‘Brazil Now’ for Xbox One.

• Route Map• Current challenges in Soho Productions;• Agile and Push approaches in Soho Productions;• Agile Supply Chain (or, SDLC) at Soho Productions;• Summary.

Introduction

Figure on right pane: Screenshot of Brazil Now | Match Details Page post Test complete milestone, Date accessed: 30/05/2014

Deliver games/apps in a very short

development cycle.

Stakeholder requirements change very

frequently.

New games/apps

are developed using only

internal experience and market research.

Customer demands & asks on an

existing games/apps are highly

unpredictable.

Varying budgets

throughout FY.

Challenges Faced

3 of 7Source: Product planning and strategy meeting by SLT, Microsoft Studios, Redmond WA, Date: 06/01/2014

Agile approach to development

Top priority is to keep their users satisfied

Welcome changes in requirements at anytime

Simplicity is key

Aligns strategically across the company

Easier collaboration and partnering

Having more face-to-face communication

Efficient feedback-loop system

Push approach to management

Work Items (tasks or bugs) are in the Product Backlog

Work Items are prioritised by Program Managers

Work Items are then ‘pushed’ to developers and/or testers by Dev and/or

Test Lead

Each individual now has a queue of stack ranked work items to work over

sprint

Source: Agile principles in the Software Engineering industry - http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/agile-project-management-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

Push v/s Pull methodology in the Software Engineering industry: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/elee/archive/2010/01/21/push-vs-pull-in-scrum.aspx

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Agile & Push approaches

Agile Supply Chain (or, SDLC)

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Concept (Iteration -

1)

Inception (Iteration 0)

Development Iterations

Transition (Release) Production Retirement

Start work on v2

Phase Type What happens in this phase?

Concept (Iteration -1) Brainstorming the game/app (Ideation) & project budget approvals by SLT.

Inception (Iteration 0) Initiate designing & prototyping the game/app.

Development Iterations Developing & Testing the game/app in multiple iterations.

Transition (Release) Deploying release v1 to PROD from PPE & starting work on v2.

Production Launch, Operate, Maintain and Support v1 across launch markets.

Retirement Remove v1 from PROD and/or upgrade to v2.

‘Traditional’ Agile

methods doesn’t

translate entirely in

software dev.

Principles & practices

do translate entirely in

software dev.

Almost all teams in Microsoft follow an

Agile SDLC.

It enables teams to be

quicker, smarter,

flexible and efficiently respond to stakeholder changes.

The opportunity for teams to be leaner is very slim.

Teams should try to adopt the pull model instead of

push.

Management

techniques can vary

significantly depending on team

dynamics.

Summary

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Any questions?

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