visualization in agile
TRANSCRIPT
Visualization in Agile
Presented By: Ankit TandonPlayscrum Pune Event, 30th April 2016
Visualization – Why is it important?
A picture is worth a thousand words..
Why visualize our work?
• Make things transparent • Infuse collaboration• Increase communication• Reduce risk• Focus on right things first• See the whole, look at the big picture
Visualization Onion
Strategy
Portfolio
Product
Release
Iteration
Daily
Information Radiator
Activity: List 10 general visual indicators
Visual Indicator 1
Visual Indicator 2
Visual Indicator 3
Visual Indicator 3(Cont.)
Visual Indicator 4
Visual Indicator 5
Visual Indicator 6
What makes a good information radiator?
Visualize your flow
FLOW
Visualize your flow
FLOW
Use columns, rows, lines to represent your flow either on wall / white boards
Workflow helps to see progress, improve collaboration and reveal bottle necks
Keep it Accessible, Simple, Clean and keep Evaluating
Visualize your norms• Definition Of Done and Team Habits
Legend
Avatars• Name Post Sticks
Avatars• Cartoon Characters
Avatars Big and Small
Big one is the main task team member is focusing upon while small one is where he is helping out
Confidence Smileys
Confidence SmileysAt the end of daily stand up team ask themselves how confident they are of finishing the story by the end of sprint
Update the stories with color of Confidence Smiley accordingly
An effective alternative to Sprint Burndown chart
Dotting
Put a new dot each day for tasks In Progress
Tasks should not have more than a few dots
Dots reveal bottlenecks
Effort should be made towards completing ‘In Progress’ tasks before picking new ones
Blocked
Red color sticky for blocked tasks
Description, date and a new dash for everyday it is blocked for
Discussion in daily stand up to review and resolve
Express Lane• Criteria – Prod Issue, CI blocker, Blocks other team etc
Parking Lot (With States)
On Time Stand Ups +1 every time stand up starts on time
Beat the highest score for a team lunch
What’s Hot Today Put general information sharing items in ‘What’s Hot Today’
Once information is shared clear the section for next day’s standup
Umpteen In 15 Have a separate 15 minutes technical discussion just after the standup to avoid running it over
Write down the items in the board under ‘Umpteen In 15’ section
LATE=PIZZA Draw a pizza
When someone is late for the stand up, put that persons name in one of the slices
When the pizza is full, count the winner
Winner treats everyone with pizza in the lunch
Standup Timer
Just putting a timer on the desk while doing stand ups helps – It has got Magic powers
Stand Up Wall
Stress Meter
Pair Programming MatrixHelps to visualize pair programming in the team
Put a dash in the corresponding box after each pairing session
Review and talk about the results in the retrospectives / any other decided meeting
Pair Programming MapTeams can also try pairing map for the same purpose
Story Point Ruler
Pyramid BacklogBase of the backlog has epicsEpics break into stories and percolate to the top of pyramid
Top stories form sprint backlogEnsures ‘Just enough / Just in time’
Rules on story size can be imposed, i.e. only stories less than 8 can go to priority level 2 or higher
Can be useful for Kanban / Scrum ban type frameworks
Dependency Spider
Kudos Wall
Whenever a team member feels someone else has done something great and deserves appreciation, he puts it on a sticky on the Kudos wall
A great tool to enhance intrinsic motivation within a team
Fail Wall Team member puts a post sticky with description on the fail wall whenever he has messed up
Does a failure bow
Team members applaud for giving them a learning
Creates safe and conducive environment for experimentation / learning
Achievement Poster At the end of retrospective meeting summarize your sprint achievements on a poster
Bigger the sticky bigger the achievement
You can also try different color sticky for different events
Interruption Bucket
Categorize interruption on post sticks as per their common source
Decide upon a threshold for ex. 4
Whenever threshold is reached call a meeting to discuss ways to reduce them
DND Hour Glass
Request for undisturbed, uninterrupted time
Put it on your table with a note
Amount of sand left will be an indicator when your will be free
45 Mins
Retro Input WallCapture the retro inputs on the wall as soon as they catch your attention
Creates transparency
Validates real issue
Review them in the retrospectives
Retro Input Box
Use it when team does not want to make the inputs public
Review them in retrospectives
Waste Snake WallEvery time there is a delay, write it down on sticky and add it to the end of snake
Include the time lost, things affected, cause with reporter’s initials
It becomes an information radiator to analyze, quantify, resolve impediments and reduce waste
Kaizen Board Track the retrospective actions through out the sprint
Use post sticks for each action
Move them out from the board once the real time impact is observed
How to peel sticky notes and Blue tack
Traditional Way – Bottom to top. Results into curl up and it doesn’t hold for longBetter Way – Left to Right. Still results into raised corner. Not very effectiveCorrect Way – With thumb under Post It. Hold the stack from underneath with the other hand and instead of pulling up, pull back in one movement to have perfectly flat sticky.
If it still does not stick, Use Blu Tack. It’s cheap and super effective.
Happy Visualizing !
References• http://blog.crisp.se
• http://www.jurgenappelo.com
• https://blog.pivotal.io/labs/labs/pair-programming-matrix
• http://www.ccpace.com/the-backlog-pyramid/
• http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/12/snake-on-the-wall
• http://agiletestinglessonslearned.wordpress.com/
• http://thekaizone.com/2014/06/agile-kaizen-speeding-up-continuous-improvement/