7. and they wanted to switch to
Scrum... at least, some of
them did.
8. “You can use ‘scum’ or whatever you
want. Just give me a Gantt chart, tell
me what day you will be done all the
work and how much it will cost.”
9. Here’s the rub...
Dir. of IT/Product Owner wants a fresh start,
embracing change and believes deeply in the
benefits of Scrum
Senior Mgmt./Project Sponsor wants results, but
is not interested in changing how the company
looks at work
We needed to find a way to keep both sides
happy so we could get the work done.
10. the not helping part...
Sr. Sponsor: When will it be done?
Product Owner: When you stop asking for more
stuff.
Sr. Sponsor: What will you have ready for me on
Date X?
Product Owner - Whatever we’ve got completed
at that time
11. How we solved it...
Both the Tech Lead and PM assigned were CSMs
1 CSM to lead development
1 CSM to manage communication and
relationship with senior management
Tailoring of the output of the Scrum Process for an
audience looking for more traditional PM
reporting
12. Project Leadership
Product Owner - storehouse of knowledge of what the
application is supposed to do and how it was done
before
Scrum Master - traditional CSM role...leads scrum
efforts, manages technical team’s efforts
PM/Scrum Master - acts as the “anti-corruption layer”
between senior sponsor and product owner, translates
sprint reporting into something palatable by senior
management
13. Why do they want what they
want?
There is the “thing” being demanded
There is the reason it is being demanded
If you can’t meet the demand, meet the
motivation
Uncovering why they need what they are asking
for can create options for meeting their true
need instead of their demand
14. Want - Need
They want a Gantt chart with milestones, cost estimates,
staffing requirements
They need to be able to demonstrate to the organization
that the project is on track and moving in a positive
manner towards completion
A lack of visibility can appear as chaos to those who are
already worried. This drives fear, which drives stress
Stress is way bad
Scrum offered a level of transparency that was ideally
suited to this situation... except for one thing
15. The one thing...
Senior Management did not have the bandwidth to
attend the daily stand-ups or visit the war room or get
involved with the project at a participant level
Senior Management just needed information that they
could trust and they needed it provided with minimal
effort required of them
16. Care and feeding...
While Senior Management was asking for traditional
reporting, what they really wanted was a clear picture,
week to week, of how the work was progressing and
some reassurance that we could meet the deadline
Option 1: Develop a best guess Gantt Chart that would
be based only on the initial estimates provided by the
Product Owner and hope we’d be able to keep pace
with it.
Option 2: Use the output of the Scrum process to build
a story, sprint by sprint, that earned trust repeatedly by
showing concrete examples of output and progress
17. Getting Started with Option 2
We began the project with a backlog of all
functionality to be provided in the deliverable.
The product owner provided the team with complexity
estimates on each item to be delivered and had
converted those into time estimates as well.
The product owner assumed no reusability for the
components to be produced, working under the
assumption that this would provide some padding in
the schedule.
18. Working Time
While there were some staffing fluctuations across the
life of the project, we began with the assumption that
we could expect to see an average of six hours of
productivity, per day for each resource working on the
project. We also assumed that each of them would
work five days per week.
19. Planning the Sprint
During Sprint planning meetings, we worked with
our ideal hour of labor for that sprint and added
items, based on prioritization. Each item would be
estimated for both complexity and labor required to
complete.
We added only enough work to fill the number of
available hours per sprint
Because work on the use cases was just beginning at
the start of the project, the team had to rely on the
product owner to understand the requirements for
each deliverable item
20. Watching the Variance
At the start of each sprint we had a set list of tasks
for the team to work on.
We had complexity estimates and labor estimates for
each task provided by both the Product Owner and
the Development Team.
We began tracking the variance, sprint to sprint
between available hours and actuals and between
planned hours and actuals
We also began tracking the variance between the
original estimates and team estimates for both
complexity and labor required to complete.
21. The slightly educated guess
By tracking the variance in Fibonacci estimation
across sprints, we determined that the original
estimates for complexity were, on average, 155%
of what the team estimated for the same work.
By tracking the variance in labor estimation across
sprints, we determined that the original estimates
for labor were 125% of what the team estimated
for the same work.
22. The slightly educated guess
In order to get closer to an understanding of when the
project was likely to actually end, based on what we
knew about the deliverables we had to provide, we
applied the 3 Point Pert Estimation formula:
Optimistic + Most Likely + Pessimistic
3
23. 3 Point Pert Application
While not an entirely proper use of the formula, it
provided a more likely estimate than just using one of
the three:
Pessimistic: Original Labor Estimate
Most Likely: Original Labor Estimate/Labor
Estimation Variance
Optimistic: Original Labor Estimate/Fibonacci
Estimation Variance
25. Working with the educated
estimate
With an established labor capacity (# of team members
* 6 hours/day * 5 days/week) and a revised estimate on
how many hours of labor we expect to actually have to
complete, we can determine how long it will take to
get through the backlog.
4 team members * 6 hours/day * 5 hours/week = ideal
work capacity of 120 hours per week
26. Applying capacity to the Pert
Estimate
With an ideal capacity of 120 hours of labor per
week
And an estimated 815 hours of labor to burn down
The project should take 6.8 weeks to complete
27. Tracking Performance
By tracking the team’s actuals against their
planned work, we were able to determine, on
average, how effective they were at reaching their
goal each week.
If we know the team is planning for 120 hours of
work per week, but, on average, they only
complete 90% of that work, we can make
adjustments to how we report on the burndown.
28. Tracking Performance
120 hours/wk * 90% = 108 actual performed
hours realized per week
If we are three weeks into our 815 hour project,
we will have realized 324 hours of work instead
of our expected 360 hours of work
This leaves us with 491 hours of work remaining
after week three
29. Tracking Performance
Given that we are realizing only 324 hours/week,
we have to adjust expectations with the client
because the remaining 491 hours will now take
longer than originally expected
491/108 = 4.5 weeks will be required to complete
the remaining work as opposed to the 4 weeks it
would take if we were performing at 120 hours as
planned
30. Tracking Performance
At the end of each sprint, adjustments were made
to all of the previous calculations based on new
performance data, as well as any new items added
to the backlog.
These adjustments to the estimates keep the
reporting as near to real time as possible and it
goes a long way with respect to demonstrating the
value provided of this type of reporting over the
originally request Gantt chart.
31. Keeping It Real
You need to re-evaluate the variances and update the
forecasting based on revised averages which include the
new performance data at the end of each sprint and
report on this, showing how it trends as the work
progresses
This not only helps you re-evaluate the total work
remaining each Sprint it build a story for Sr.
Management that can show positive or negative trends
The story that is created through this type of reporting is
what “sells” the value to Sr. Management
32. Wrapping it up for the folks
upstairs...
No matter how much information you have
on work performed, or work remaining, it is
only as good as your ability to communicate
it to the parties who need to be able to digest
it
33. One Report to Bind It All
The weekly report to management
Summary Page of Issues/Accomplishments
Summary Table of Performance Data
Trend and Completion Information
Breakdown of recorded man hours worked
and cost of those hours
(if these can be tracked against an original set budget, even better)
34. Example of a the Summary
Table of Performance Data
Project Development Summary
Week Ending 7/25/08
Estimated Total Man Hours of Work Available 3118
Total of Actual Man Hours Worked To Date 1018
Percent of Total Man Hours Worked To Date 33%
Hours of Work Completed in Sprint Ending (7/25/08) 87
Hours of Work Planned for Sprint Ending (7/25/08) 94
Percent of Work Completed to Work Planned 93%
Percent of Work Completed to Work Planned Last Sprint 97%
Velocity Change Since Last Week -4%
Estimated Hours of Available Work Remaining 1620
Hours of Development Work Not Yet Done Done 2009
Average Estimation Accuracy (Original vs. Developer) for Open Development Work 145%
Adjusted Number of Development Hours Remaining 2922
Adjusted Remaining Development Work - Remaining Available Work 1302
Weeks off based on Variance (with 150 wk Man Hours) 8.68
35. Additional Data Points
We also track the following on a Sprint to
Sprint basis:
Targeted (ideal) hours vs. Actual Hours
Achieved
Hours Achieved vs. Hours Planned
We report on these each week to show trends
here as well
37. What’s Missing
The Summary and Trend Analysis is a great
starting place and provides excellent detail that
you can use to measure progress, similar to earned
value
But there is an easier way...
44. Summary
You can use Scrum in a Waterfall Environment, even if the
environment will not be converted
It may work best with a pair of scrum masters, one for the team
and one for management
Understanding the needs of management, not just what they
demand is the key to your success
You need to tailor the information you provide them with to
meet their needs. If Scrum does not give them what they want,
take what Scrum give you and translate it into something they
can digest
Management likes Pie
