Алексей Денисюк "When Agile doesn't work. Tips and Tricks"

1. www.luxoft.com
When Agile doesn’t work
Tips and tricks

2. www.luxoft.com
AGILE
Idea

3. www.luxoft.com
Agile in theses
Focus on
result
Be flexible
Work
effectively
Involve
customer

4. www.luxoft.com
Idea of Agile
Choose
Estimate
Develop
Integrate

5. www.luxoft.com
Expected impact
Customers
 Better quality
 Cheaper products
 Faster results
Managers
 Better forecasting
 Better client
understanding
Developers
 More freedom
 More relax
 Better code

6. www.luxoft.com
AGILE
Challenges and improvements

7. www.luxoft.com
Challenge 1 - When and how much?
Two typical questions from customer before project starts
 “When project will be ready?”
 “How much will it cost?”
 “What are the releases and features?”
Typical answers
 “I do not know – it’s Agile”
 “Let me calculate”

8. www.luxoft.com
Challenge 1 - When and how much? - Impact
 Manager calculates project using other method
- Team understanding may differ
 Project delays
 Pressure on developers increases
- Client expects price and change requests explanation based on given
methodology
 Manager needs to map methodologies
- It is not clear for customer, so trust is lost

9. www.luxoft.com
Challenge 1 - When and how much? – Ideas
Solution
Abstract
estimations
Process
framework
Statistics
gathering
Stable
teams
Similar
projects

10. www.luxoft.com
Challenge 2 – Customer is “dummy” in SW Dev.
Typical customers
 Customer doesn’t know what he really wants
 Customer knows “exactly” what he wants
 Customer doesn’t understand Agile process

11. www.luxoft.com
Challenge 2 – Customer is “dummy” in SW Dev. – Impact
 Requirements are changed all the time.
- However price and time is fixed (“We agreed already”)
 Every change requests is a hell for manager
- However sprint is ongoing
 Customer is not really involved as product owner
- Developers do best they can
 Customer doesn’t like it
 Customer is too involved
- Argues about estimations
- Controls every step
- Advices “best” solutions
 No time for code improvements approved

12. www.luxoft.com
Challenge 2 – Customer is “dummy” in SW Dev. – Ideas
Solution
Process
presentation
Example
projects
Agile
training with
customer
Controlled
first sprints

13. www.luxoft.com
Challenge 3 – Team is different
Typical teams are
 Growing at project start
 Have different expertise
 Not a team yet
 Not professionals yet
But Agile process is already applied, so…

14. www.luxoft.com
Challenge 3 – Team is different - Impact
 Team velocity is unpredictable
- New members ramping-up
- Juniors
- Problems between team members
 Planning is not valid
- More pressure from management or client
 Overestimates
 Task assignments
 Micromanagement
 Team leader is assigned
- Conflicts with Agile principles, but actually works 

15. www.luxoft.com
Challenge 3 – Team is different – Ideas
Solution
Apply
Agile
gradually
Stable
teams
Ramp-
up
trainings
Core
team
Gather
Statistics

16. www.luxoft.com
Bunch of questions to be solved
Price estimations
Long-term planning
Release planning
Scalability (Scrum of
Scrums)
Long-term Reporting
Documentation
development
Dependencies
management

17. www.luxoft.com
Some of good things
Scrums
organize
Scrums improve
communications
Retrospective
increases
motivation

18. www.luxoft.com
THANK YOU