Get Agile - Scrum for UX, Design and Development

GET AGILE!

165 166

Pieter Jongerius et al.

BIS Publishers
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bis@bispublishers.nl
www.bispublishers.nl

ISBN 978-90-6369-302-2

Copyright © 2012 BIS Publishers,
Pieter Jongerius & Fabrique
[brands, design & interaction]
www.fabrique.nl

2 All rights reserved. No part of this 3
publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording or any information
storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the copyright
owners.

While every effort has been made to
trace all present copyright holders of the
material in this book, any unintentional
omission is hereby apologized for in
advance, and we should of course
be pleased to correct any errors in
acknowledgements in any future editions
of this book.

Contents

Preface 006 5. Go sprint! 084

1. Introduction 008 5.1 Sprint planning 088
5.2 Daily standup 095
2. What, why, when 014 5.3 Daily reviews 096
5.4 Backlog grooming 099
2.1 It all began with waterfall 018 5.5 Sprint demo 100
2.2 What is Agile? 018 5.6 Retrospective 107
2.3 What is Scrum? 020 5.7 Final retrospective 108
2.4 When to Scrum 022
2.5 When not to Scrum 024 6. Sprinting secrets 110

3. How to set up a project 028 6.1 Integrating UX and development 114
6.2 Advanced deliverables 120
3.1 A project is made up of sprints 032 6.3 Quality is flexible, honest! 122
3.2 Sprint setup 034 6.4 Maintaining creativity 122
3.3 Flexible scope 036 6.5 Integrating user centered
3.4 How many sprints do you need? 038 design (UCD) 124
3.5 Building a Scrum team 039 6.6 Documentation 125
3.6 One room for all 043 6.7 Dealing with clients 126
3.7 Pigs and chickens 044 6.8 Dealing with the agency 128

4. Sprint 0 046 7. Troubleshooting 130
4 5
4.1 Strategic intake & research 050 7.1 People 134
4.2 Product statement 052 7.2 Process 136
4.3 Design Concept 055 7.3 Product 138
4.4 Technical solution outline 057
4.5 Product backlog 057 8. Meet the team 140
4.6 Definition of Done 064
4.7 Sprint 1: scope estimate 064 Scrum Master 144
4.8 Sprint goal 065 Scrum Master 146
4.9 Practical agreements 067 Product owner 148
4.10 Setting up the Scrum room 067 Strategist 150
4.11 Phew! 083 Interaction designer 152
Visual designer 154
Web developer 156
Project manager 158

Glossary 160

Preface By Gert Hans Berghuis

When we established Fabrique in 1992, we had been freshly trained at the
TU Delft in design methods where we worked step by step from a design
brief towards a product. This was a serial approach which we nowadays
call the waterfall method: a method that provides a guideline and
guarantees results, especially in static and straightforward situations.

In the course of the years, there have been In 2008, we got started on Scrum. Through Fabrique, a multidisciplinary agency, has
many changes in our work environment. trial and error, we found out that this scrummed for 28 national and international
The dynamics in developing digital media, method offers a very good response to the clients in the past four years. Our Scrum ex-
in particular, have increased to a point changing demand in our design practice perience consists of numerous projects for
where a classical approach will no longer as well. In the past four years, at Fabrique, a wide range of industries such as finance,
do. For one thing, our customers are through experimentation, evaluation retail, fashion, education, and transport.
asking for shorter lead times. Moreover, and fine-tuning we expanded the Scrum With 59 Scrum Masters, designers, devel-
they increasingly have pertinent expertise method from a software development tool opers, copywriters, directors and strate-
themselves, and it is therefore very to an integral innovation method in the gists, we scrummed for 36,455 hours, to-
useful and desirable for them to actively field of digital media. All this time we were gether with product owners, photographers,
participate instead of just placing an driven by our — admittedly somewhat content managers, technical partners,
order. On a regular basis, projects are geeky fascination for the design process. and stakeholders, in 146 sprints. In that
too large for controlled development and time, we completed 1,312 stories with a
documentation, while at the same time So, is Scrum the Holy Grail of digital media total of 17,061 tasks. 17,062... 17,063...
keeping up the pace, with conventional development? Of course not. Scrum bears 17,064... and counting...
methods. And our customers are not only certain risks, and the decision to use it
demanding the final result; they also must be carefully considered. This aspect
want influence on the journey towards is covered in-depth in the book as well.
the goal. On top of all that, we are working
6 in a multidisciplinary environment A book? 7
where strategists, interaction and visual
designers, copywriters and programmers Yes, a book. Scrum is a very physical
want to work together. Therefore, it was method. You cannot miss it if people are
time to think about a new approach. scrumming somewhere: there will be post-
its and flip-over sheets all over the place.
Therefore, we found it very appropriate to
bundle all of our knowledge and experience
in an old-fashioned book — another
physical object that you can soon have
lying about in your Scrum rooms.

We wish you success!

Gert Hans Berghuis
Managing Partner, Fabrique

1 Introduction By Pieter Jongerius

• 1
•

Intro
•

• duction
8 9

1 Introduction By Pieter Jongerius

Agile design & development, and Scrum, mean the return of common
sense. In Agile, future quality is more important than past decisions.
Trust is more important than documentation. Freedom in exchange for
commitment.

With Scrum, you as the design & develop- signment? How do you get the right Scrum is one of the most difficult pro-
ment team invite the client into your terri- ambition in the team? The team will cesses to master. It all comes down to the
tory. Together you will develop the insights start ideation, do basic design and set ability to improvise, craftmanship, and
and products which will help his business up technical architecture. It will divide authentic hard-won team building (so not
grow. You will be open to his ideas and you the project into manageable chunks. the semi-survival blindfolded paintball-on-
will be required to expose many differ- 5. Go sprint! - This is the real deal. a-ledge surrogate teambuilding that you can
ent facets of yourself. Together you will Kick-offs, progress monitoring, evalu- buy just anywhere).Take this handbook with
overcome disappointments and celebrate ations and more. This chapter focuses you wherever you scrum, you will need it!
victories. Selling Scrum is selling an expe- on the daily practice of the Scrum.
rience. Scrum is never boring! 6. Sprinting Secrets - Now that the In the next chapter we will start with the
basics of Scrum are covered, we can first step: deciding whether to use Scrum
Due to the set rules in Scrum projects, di- elaborate on some of our real secrets: or not.
lemmas come to light at top speed: break how can you simultaneously design and
off or give a bit more time? Discuss now develop? How do you maintain or en-
or let things simmer? Dig into it or make hance your creativity? How do you deal
assumptions? This requires the very best with difficult product owners?
from teams. In this book the main steps 7. Troubleshooting - Like in any good
and issues are discussed, and team mem- handbook there is a problem solving
bers tell us about their experience: section. The most common problems
12 are briefly described and we offer pos- 13

2. What, Why, When - This chapter sible solutions.
discusses the history and philosophy of 8. Meet the Team - Eight team mem-
Scrum, the reasons for applying it, but bers from different disciplines (director,
also possible reasons why not to use interaction designer, visual designer,
Scrum. developer, Scrum Master, project
3. How to set up a project - If you’ve manager, client) each answer important
decided to scrum, you will want to questions about their role, how Scrum
know what the team has to look like, has helped them, about the dangers,
how much time it costs, what the etc. We offer links to five minute video
structure of Scrum projects is and interviews online.
what the requirements are in terms of 9. Glossary - Yes, Scrum uses a lot of
organization and facilities. slang terms. Here are the most impor-
4. Sprint 0 - This first special stage tant ones.
provides base and defines direction.
How do you get to grips with the as-

4 Sprint 0
By Anton Vanhoucke

So you’ve got everyone on board and have decided to Scrum! Sprint 0
is where you get down to it. Imagine your Scrum team as a unit of
highly trained commandos standing around a map in a low-lit field HQ.

At Sprint 0, the team determines the Product backlog Questions about market & end-users
strategy and everyone synchs their Definition of Done
watches. They focus on prep-work, like Sprint 1 scope estimate What is the company’s vision and what
packing the right equipment and deciding Sprint goal is its mission?
which are the right steps to take in order to What are the main ambitions for the
reach their goal. The discussion and shared Process oriented elements: upcoming years?
understanding of these steps is key here. Which resources have already been as-
Yes, the main deliverable of Sprint 0 is the Practical agreements signed to realize these ambitions?
product backlog—but the backlog is no Setting up the Scrum room How is the competition doing, and which
more than the minutes of a meeting about direction is the market heading?
stories. Unless your project requires a large Is there enough knowledge available of
amount of groundwork, Sprint 0 is not as the customers or end-users of the prod-
From this point on, team members should intense as later sprints. It is more reflec- ucts that you are about to create?
have read up on Scrum. But, hey, they tive and has a slower pace. Sprint 0 usually
probably won’t have if they’re like most has a runtime of several weeks, during Questions about brand:
busy people involved in websites. Now which each team member spends several
might be a good time to explain the basics days preparing his or her own work. This Is there a defined brand? Is your client
of Scrum to them. may seem like a lot, but envision Sprint 0 aware of it?
as an insurance against wasted time. In What is the company’s “tone-of-voice”?
50 The point of Sprint 0 is to do the ground- Sprint 1, the boat sails full steam ahead Is there a corporate visual identity? Is 51
work that will allow you to go full speed and it had better be going in the right everyone happy with it?
ahead with development in the next direction.
sprints. To do this, you must establish your Questions about touchpoint strategy:
focus. Sprint 0 ensures there is a clear vi-
sion and team support for the development
strategy, and for the next sprints, whereby
4.1 Strategic intake & Which media and channels does your
client use to reach customers? Which For some projects, we create extra user
you will focus on tactics. The Sprint 0 research ones are successful and which are not? insight by carrying out street scans, inter-
groundwork consists of: What will the new product’s role be in views, and participatory design sessions.
Before designing and building things, you the touchpoint strategy? This book is not about how to implement
Content related elements: will want to know what corporate strategy these user-centered tools. We are saying
your project is embedded in. You will want If certain questions don’t get clear-cut that Sprint 0 is the time to acquire all of
Strategic intake & research answers to some important questions, answers, you can assume that additional the necessary insights.
Product statement such as: strategies or insights must be created, for
Design concept example by conducting more research.
Technical solution outline

By Patrick Sanwikarja

On the last Scrum day, you definitely want Ideally, backlog grooming is done daily, but
to do the daily product review with the at least once a week. Like cleaning your
whole team. Then, what the stakeholders house, frequent short sessions are better
get to see will hold no surprises for anyone. than an occasional long grooming session.
This is also the opportunity to spot those
last flaws and clean them up before the Also, ideally try to estimate as many sto-
demo. ries as possible within 5 minutes. It’s not
necessary for each backlog item to be writ-
ten at user story level. They can also be ep-
5.4 Backlog grooming ics (as described in the previous chapter).
But remember: when estimating epics,
The founders of Scrum advise teams to don’t do it as thoroughly as you would dur-
spend 5% of their time on “backlog grooming a sprint planning. Keep estimates quite
ing.” This means discussing the backlog rough. Do this by multiplying the numbers
with the PO, determining high priority sto- on the Planning Poker cards by 10: so 2
ries, and making sure they’re well written. stands for 20, 5 stands for 50, and so on.
The PO is responsible for this happening —
but obviously needs the team’s help. Handling complex stories or epics

98 For small projects, most if not all user For more complex stories or epics, sep- 99
stories may have already been defined in arate “sizing sessions” can be organized.
Sprint 0. In this case, backlog grooming Call in specialists from outside the team.
may simply mean detailing user stories; (They may join the team once the user sto-
or combining stories, if that makes more ries end up in a sprint) Discuss what you
sense; or even eliminating stories that want to achieve with a story or an epic. The
prove to be obsolete. specialists can help detail the user story
and come up with various solutions.
For larger projects, user stories are being
developed continuously. In this case, back- A good practice is to come up with three
log grooming may also include discussion different versions, or “flavors,” of a story
of the newly added stories and getting solution: solutions that may differ in com-
a sense of how to realize them. The PO plexity. We call them “light,” “medium,”
needn’t always do this with the whole team and “deluxe.” The light version is the most
and may choose to invite just the leads minimal solution you can think of. As sim-
from each discipline. ple as using the CMS for example, which
requires no programming at all. It may not

6 Sprinting Secrets

If most of what you have read up until now seems like child’s play, it’s
time to become more ambitious. In this chapter you will find a number
of insights that will help improve the success of your Scrum projects.

6.1 Integrating UX and Staggered sprints offer a number of ad-
vantages:
development
A hot topic in many publications is the Agile A clear overview of the project — As
integration of User eXperience design (or with waterfall, all stories go through
UX) and development. Bringing interactive a design & development phase. This
design, visual design, copy and development makes them comprehensible and
much closer together guarantees that our therefore less daunting for seasoned
Scrum interpretation is Agile. We have seen waterfall users.
that the level of success in this area depends Because the whole team is always in
on many factors — especially social and one room, working on the project si-
psychological ones. It’s all about the team. multaneously and reviewing it together,
It is not just experience that counts, but also there is much more peer supervision
courage and open-mindedness. than in classic waterfall.
This can be a safe approach in situa-
We use two different models for parallel tions where the PO has limited mandate
development and design. But before taking a and must check many things with the
look at them (below), it would be a good idea stakeholders. The designs get a seal of
to revisit the Agile UX & Development princi- approval before they are developed.
114 ples (see the inside cover of this book). 115
There are also some significant disadvan-
Staggered sprints tages:

First, we have staggered sprints. This is a A substantial chunk of waterfall re-
rough model that gives designers a one- mains. This means that more designs
sprint lead over developers. Each sprint pro- may be created than is necessary, and
duces two types of stories: finished design that iterations are more expensive. In
and finished developed product. Each has its fact we sometimes jokingly call stag-
own Definition of Done. The sprint demo is gered sprint projects “waterScrum.”
also made up of these two components. You It’s much trickier to maintain a healthy
may even decide to set up two Scrum boards capacity distribution between design &
— as long as the team stays in the same development. The true impact of spe-
room! The sprint planning, daily standup, cific designs only becomes apparent
and other reviews are also done with the after a week or two.
whole team. Editors are in limbo and go from one
story to another. Which copy is needed

Scrum Master / Interaction Designer

For a Scrum Master, the biggest challenge is striking a balance. On My role is that of a facilitator. I make sure design documentation. And the ultimate
the one hand, I ensure that the team is happy and finds their work the Scrum board is in order, and that the elimination of waste applies to the end
Planning Poker goes well. I push the team product. What should or shouldn’t I include
gratifying. And I act as a sort of ‘shield’ for the team. If the PO wants to do the daily stand up. in the product? A well focused product has
to go to them directly with various questions and requests, they must only those features that are most relevant
go through me first. On the other hand, of course, the POs want their I love the fact that everyone sits together for the business and the users.
money’s worth. I help to ensure that they get it. in the same room. This always enhances
the quality. Another huge advantage is that I think Scrumming will become more and
things actually get finished. You don’t sub- more popular. On the other hand, there has
mit a nice design, only to discover a very also been a rise of “flex-work” and work-
disappointing outcome at a later stage. In ing from home. This is an interesting area
Scrum you’re constantly involved and what of tension, as it clashes somewhat with
you supply is exactly as you want it to be. Scrum. Scrum’s added value is partly due
to having everyone sit together. This is
Team members must be willing to embrace where much of the synergy lies. I would be
the method and take matters in hand. Your very curious to see if it might be possible to
team must have a good balance of senior Scrum remotely. I hope I get the chance to
and junior staff. It is also important that try this out one day.
the PO is someone who has a good under-
standing of how Scrum works—and who Patrick Sanwikarja,
can truly make decisions. At best, you es- Scrum Master / Interaction Designer
tablish a flow whereby the team is working
together smoothly, and the PO is getting
144 the quality she expects. 145

One of Scrum’s most important principles
is “Eliminate waste.” For instance time-
boxing, which lets you make sure that a
sprint planning yields at least something
to work with within three hours. Another
example is the elimination of superfluous

Watch the video
fabrique.nl/getagile/patrick

Get Agile - Scrum for UX, Design and Development

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