Agile Development

Agile development
Maria Zianika, Agile Coach @ Intracom Telecom S.A
Nikos Batsios, Agile Coach @ Intracom Telecom S.A
!
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Informatics, February 2014

How do we learn to be AGILE ?
4
FOLLOW
BREAK
TRANSCEND

What are the problems we are solving with agile ?
5
Time Box

The Tunnel of Uncertainty 
8

What is our mindset to succeed with
uncertainty?
9

Which is our attitudes and habits to succeed with
uncertainty?
10

Fixed vs Growth Mindset - Context of Personal
Life
11
Avoid challenges and obstacles because risk of failure.
Stick to what they know and can do. Failure is an
impression of lack of talent
therefore quick to blame and be defensive.
Feedback and criticism is personal as it impacts self-
image.
Not change or improve so to this confirms that “they are
as they are.”
Desire continuous learning. Confront uncertainties.
Embrace challenges because will learn something new
Not afraid to fail – an opportunity to learn 
Put lots of effort to learn and master something new
 
Feedback and criticism is not about them but about
current capabilities
Elicit feedback since it is a source of new information
and learning

Fixed vs Agile Mindset - Context of Work
12
Desire to avoid failure and be on schedule
regardless of the changes.
Avoids challenges and obstacles because risk of
failure.
Stick to what they know and can do. Failure is an
impression of lack of planning,
therefore quick to blame and be defensive.
Feedback and criticism is the team as it impacts
self-image.
They don’t welcome change or learn so to but
rather push away the change as much as possible
Desire continuous learning. Confront
uncertainties.
Embracing challenges because will learn
something new
Not afraid to fail – an opportunity to learn 
Put lots of effort to learn and master something
new
Feedback and criticism is not about team but
about current product
Elicit feedback since it is a source of new
information and learning

What to do to handle uncertainty?
13
FIXED MINDSET
APPROACH TO MANAGING
UNCERTAINTY
!
REDUCING UNCERTAINTY BY “NAILING
THINGS DOWN.”
LOOKING TO FIX AND CONFIRM
THINGS.
AGILE MINDSET
APPROACH TO MANAGING
UNCERTAINTY
!
REDUCING UNCERTAINTY BY
DISCOVERING AND LEARNING.
LOOKING TO LEARN AND DISCOVER IN
THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY POSSIBLE.

Agile Manifesto
14
UNCERTAINTY
AGILE MINDSET
SW DEVELOPMENT
AGILE MANIFESTO
+
+
=

Agile Manifesto
15
Manifesto for Agile Software Development

!
We are uncovering better ways of developing 
software by doing it and helping others do it. 
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools 
Working software over comprehensive documentation 
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on 
the right, we value the items on the left more.

Agile Mindset
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AGILE IS A
MINDSET
A MINDSET IS THE ESTABLISHED SET OF ATTITUDES HELD BY
SOMEONE
GOAL TO LEARN
FAILURE AS AN OPTION TO LEARN
FAIL FAST, LEARN CONSTANTLY
EMBRACE CHALLENGE
EFFORT IS THE PATH TO MASTERY
ABILITY CAN GROW
PERFECT IS A VERB

Agile Mindset
17
AGILE IS A
MINDSET
ESTABLISHED
THROUGH FOUR
VALUES
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 Mindset
18
AGILE IS A
MINDSET
ESTABLISHED
THROUGH FOUR
VALUES
GROUNDED BY
TWELVE
PRINCIPLES
#1 OUR HIGHEST PRIORITY IS TO SATISFY THE CUSTOMERTHROUGH
EARLY AND CONTINUOUS DELIVERYOF VALUABLE SOFTWARE
!
#2 WELCOME CHANGING REQUIREMENTS, EVEN LATE IN
DEVELOPMENT AGILE PROCESSES HARNESS CHANGE FOR THE
CUSTOMER'S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
!
#3 DELIVER WORKING SOFTWARE FREQUENTLY, FROM A COUPLE OF
WEEKS TO A COUPLE OF MONTHS, WITH A PREFERENCE TO THE
SHORTER TIMESCALE
!
#4 BUSINESS PEOPLE AND DEVELOPERS MUST WORK TOGETHER
DAILY THROUGHOUT THE PROJECT
!
#5 BUILD PROJECTS AROUND MOTIVATED INDIVIDUALS. GIVE THEM
THE ENVIRONMENT AND SUPPORT THEY NEED, AND TRUST THEM TO
GET THE JOB DONE
!
#6 THE MOST EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE METHOD OF CONVEYING
INFORMATION TO AND WITHIN A DEVELOPMENT TEAM IS FACE-TO-
FACE CONVERSATION

Agile Mindset
19
AGILE IS A
MINDSET
ESTABLISHED
THROUGH FOUR
VALUES
GROUNDED BY
TWELVE
PRINCIPLES
#7 WORKING SOFTWARE IS THE PRIMARY MEASURE OF
PROGRESS
!
#8 AGILE PROCESSES PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
THE SPONSORS, DEVELOPERS, AND USERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO
MAINTAIN A CONSTANT PACE INDEFINITELY
!
#9 CONTINUOUS ATTENTION TO TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE AND
GOOD DESIGN ENHANCES AGILITY
!
#10 SIMPLICITY—THE ART OF MAXIMIZING THE AMOUNT OF
WORK NOT DONE--IS ESSENTIAL
!
#11 THE BEST ARCHITECTURES, REQUIREMENTS, AND DESIGNS
EMERGE FROM SELF- ORGANIZING TEAMS
!
#12 AT REGULAR INTERVALS, THE TEAM REFLECTS ON HOW TO
BECOME MORE EFFECTIVE, THEN TUNES AND ADJUSTS ITS
BEHAVIOR ACCORDINGLY

Agile Mindset
20
AGILE IS A
MINDSET
ESTABLISHED
THROUGH FOUR
VALUES
GROUNDED BY
TWELVE
PRINCIPLES
MANIFESTED
THROUGH MANY
DIFFERENT
PRACTICES
RODUCT VISIONING, PROJECT CHARTERING, AFFINITY (RELATIVE) ESTIMATION 
SIZE-BASED (POINT) ESTIMATION, PLANNING POKER, GROUP ESTIMATION 
VALUE-BASED DOCUMENTATION, PRIORITISED PRODUCT BACKLOG 
USER STORIES, PROGRESSIVE ELABORATION 
STORY MAPS / MMF, STORY SLICING, ACCEPTANCE TESTS AS REQUIREMENTS 
SHORT ITERAONS, WIP LIMITS 
EARLY AND FREQUENT RELEASES 
ROADMAPPING VELOCITY-BASED
PLANNING AND COMMITMENT
ITERATION PLANNING / ITERATION BACKLOG RELEASE PLANNING / RELEASE BACKLOG 
TIME BOXED ITERATION 
ADAPTIVE (MULTI-LEVEL) PLANNING, PAIR PROGRAMMING, CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION 
RISK BACKLOG TEAM STRUCTURE, TEST AUTOMATION, VERSION CONTROL 
PULL-BASED SYSTEMS SLACK SUSTAINABLE PACE, BURN UP/BURN DOWN CHARTS

Agile Mindset
21
AGILE IS A
MINDSET
ESTABLISHED
THROUGH FOUR
VALUES
GROUNDED BY
TWELVE
PRINCIPLES
MANIFESTED
THROUGH MANY
DIFFERENT
PRACTICES
SCRUM KANBAN YOUR AGILE PROCESS

Doing Agile, Being Agile
22
DOING AGILE
LEARNING THE
PRACTICES AND
APPLYING THEM
WITHOUT KNOW THE
MINDSET AND
PRINCIPLES TO KNOW
WHEN TO TAILOR AND
HOW TO SELECT THE
APPROPRIATE
PRACTICES
BEING AGILE
INTERNALIZING THE
MINDSET, VALUES,
AND PRINCIPLES
THEN APPLYING THE
RIGHT PRACTICES
AND TAILORING
THEM TO DIFFERENT
SITUATIONS AS
THEY ARISE

Other Domains?
23
SW DEVELOPMENT
4 VALUES
12 PRINCIPLES
FINANCE
? VALUES
? PRINCIPLES
EDUCATION
? VALUES
? PRINCIPLES
MARKETING
? VALUES
? PRINCIPLES
OPERATIONS
? VALUES
? PRINCIPLES
OTHER
? VALUES
? PRINCIPLES

Scaling Agile
! Scaling Agile in Feature Development
▪ There are 6 sites, geographically distributed (Germany, Greece, Croatia, Italy etc)
▪ In total there are 44 teams, each comprising of 6-8 team members
▪ The distribution of teams in the various sites is more or less even.
▪ Feature development relies a lot on collocation of teams (if possible).
▪ ~ 70% of features involve 2-3 teams. In these cases collocation of Scrum teams is usually
feasible.
▪ ~ 30% of the features involve more than 4 teams and up to 7 teams
▪ Duration of features varies
• small features are at the range of 24- 33 weeks
• large features 42 weeks – 51 weeks
▪ Scrum Masters are responsible for no more than two teams each.
▪ PDO are responsible for no more than 2 teams. In the case of large features, a proxy PDO is
appointed per 2 teams while a Main PDO is in charge of the Feature
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Diameter Signaling Controller Development
! Distributed development team
▪ 4 teams in Aachen, Germany
▪ 2 teams in Thessaloniki
▪ 2 in Athens
!
! 1 Backlog , 8 Pdos, 5 ScM
!
! Heavy use of tele- & video- conference for information distribution and problem solving
▪ eg. daily across team stand up
!
‣ Close customer collaboration
!
‣ Facilitation team
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References
! The Power of an Agile Mindset, L. Rising
! History and overview of Agile Development, A. Sidky
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Agile Development

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