Experiences with working in distributed teams (Dennis Kayser). Dennis talks about work done with a large retail company on building their new e-commerce site using a combination of scrum (and waterfall) with a 300 man team distributed across 3 countries and timezones. Including some pointers on what to do and what not to do.

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AGILE IN DISTRIBUTED TEAMS
Dennis Kayser
Co-founder, CEO
#AgilityLab - Apr. 14th
2015

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Who am I?
●
Dennis Kayser
CEO & Co-founder of Forecast.it
●
IBM, Varien, IMT Labs...
●
M.Sc. Computer Science
●
Kanban, Scrum Master, Prince2

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About Forecast.it

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What we are offering
• An advanced — easy to use — SaaS solution dedicated
to improve project planning and execution based on:
– Business Intelligence
– Machine learning
• The Forecast.it solution can:
– Work as a stand-alone solution
OR
– Complement and use existing data and IT investments more
intelligent

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Benefits
Predictable estimates
Automatic insights
Easy-to-use
Reduction in administration
Transparency, tracking and control

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Building a new web platform

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eCommerce targets drives the need for
a New Web Platform
Web Presence
Strategy
eCommerce
Strategy
Customer Relation
Strategy
XXX Strategy
Multichannel
Direction
…and more
FY 2020
• 10% of business = eCommerce
• EUR 50 billion in total sales
• 1,5 billion visitors (+100%)

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Main drivers
Key strategic initiatives need
capabilities that we cannot deliver
with current setup
CRM
Campaign
managementCommon view of XX’s
customers
eCommerce
Product
catalogues
Cross sell/
Up sell
Web
Multichannel
experience
We have performed several business
studies in the areas of Web and CRM to
understand the needed capabilities and
detailed requirements
Current IT Implementation of today's
solutions insufficient
• High support and maintenance costs
• Long time to market for new
functionality
Time for a
“major
renovation”

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The existing solution
● More than 12.000 SKU's
● 2.000 new SKU's pr. annum
CENSORED

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Project organization
Channel
Build
Back End
Build
Programme Director
IT Program Manager
Program Partner
Program
Architects
PMO
New Web Platform
(NWP)
Program Steering Board
Offshore Delivery
Front End and
Wireframing
Back End Package Customer Hub Integration
Sterling Order
Management
(SOM)
NWP Lead Architect
Business Transformation
Business Analysts
Product Specialists
POC SpikePOC Spike
UAT
SMEs
Web Front End
& Industry
Product
SMEs
Web Front End
& Industry
Product
Infrastructure

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NWP and SOM
New Web Platform (NWP)
~150 PAX
Sterling Order Management
(SOM)
~150 PAX
●
Agile using “Scrum”
– “New” project
– Respond to changing
requirements
– Releasable in small parts
●
Waterfall
– Done many times before
– Static requirements
– Not possible to release in small
increments
Release

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Project plan
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Planning Implementation
Deployment
Pre-Pilot IR
Deployment
Pilot UK
Postlive
Support
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 S10
FE Package Block 1 FE Package Block 2 FE Package Block 3
SOM Block 1 SOM Block 2 SOM Block 3
S11 S12 S13 S14 S15 S16
SIT BAT PAT
FEP Block 4
SOM Block 4
FEP Block 5
Data Migration
SIT BAT PAT
Data Migration
Develop & support Change Management, Transformation & Rollout
Migration Block 1 Migration Block 2 Migration Block 3
Establish Infrastructure & Security – Test & Production
Integration Block 1 Integration Block 2 Integration Block 3

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NWP teams
●
9 teams
– Design & concept prototyping team
– Business Solution team 1
– Business Solution team 2
– Business Solution team 3
– Front end team 1
– Front end team 2
– Back end team
– Architecture team
– Supporting resources

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Distributed teams

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Governance
Product Owner Group/
Steering Committee
Product Owner Group/
Steering Committee
BAL (PO)BAL (PO)
Scrum
teams
Scrum
teams
Stakeholder
alignment
BAL (PO)BAL (PO)
BAL (PO)BAL (PO)
Scrum
teams
Scrum
teams Scrum
teams
Scrum
teams
Q&A
Directions & feedback
Approvals

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How did we do it?

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Togetherness, cross-team
collaboration!
IT Solution Analysts
• IT requirements
• IT steering
• IT landscape
Information Architect
• Wireframe sketches
• Detailed wireframes
Business Analysts
• User stories
• Information model & business rules
• Processes, tasks & skills
Subject Matter Experts
• Guidance
• Retail best practice
• Standard implementation
• Process knowledge
Front/Back End developer
• Recommendations
• Limitations
• Code
Collaboration
Co-location
Simplicity
Focus
Designers
• Designs
• Mockups
• Guides

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Workshops to gather requirements
Needs on current site
Known flaws
Strategic directions
Needs on current site
Known flaws
Strategic directions
• Decisions on click &
collect flow
• Decision on channel
specific delivery on
item level/order level
• Decisions on click &
collect flow
• Decision on channel
specific delivery on
item level/order level
Workshops and project
team work session
• Roles
• Walkthrough of the relevant
wireframes & requirements
• Any missing requirements
• Q&A
Existing & new
user stories
Existing & new
user stories
Needs on current site
Known flaws
Strategic directions
Needs on current site
Known flaws
Strategic directions
• Decision on the
strategy and vision for
yyy functionality
• Decision on the
strategy and vision for
yyy functionality
Workshop outcomesWorkshop outcomes
Wireframe changes
Open questions for
NWP
New user stories
Change/remove user
stories
Need for follow up
workshops
Open questions for line
org.
New requirement
stakeholders
New wireframes
Business rules
Outcome WS XX
Shopping
Planning
Outcome WS XX
Shopping
Planning
WireframesWireframes

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Requirements → development
Frontend
wireframes
- Detailed
technical
wireframes
developed by
feature
- UI design
Scrum team
development
Content strategy
User stories,
business
requirements
Design & UX
Technical & product
requirements
Consumer usability
testing for key user
journeys and key
features/functionalities
Consumer usability
testing for key user
journeys and key
features/functionalities

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Process flow for requirements
BA & Dev.DevelopmentBA/UXBA
Workshops
Stakeholder
decision
finalized
User story
detailing
Wireframing
Story
estimation 1
Review
Final
estimation
Final sign off
Release
Planning
Sprint x
Planning

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Prioritization of 800+ stories

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Prioritization approach
Requirement
Basket
Business Area
Lead
Prioritization
Product Owner
Group Review
(and Scoring)
Must Have Should Have Nice to Have
Out of
Scope
1 2
1
Should Have
Nice to Have
2
IT
Estimation
Business
Feedback / Involvement

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Backlog
Product
Backlog
 Product Backlog is a single
list of User Stories in order
 User Stories are ordered in
priority by the business
 IT might re-arrange order
with business agreement
(outcome of evaluation)
Product Backlog
Board used by developers to see sprint
During development cycle:
- Back end development is
aligned to front end sprint

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Grooming the backlog
Backlog
High Level User Stories & Site
Map (All)
Detail User Stories & Hi-Fidelity
Wireframes (Sub Set)
Architecture & Product Decision
(Sub Set)
POC Spikes/ Conference
Room Pilots
Release
Planning
Sprint x
Planning
Steering
Committee
Review

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Sprint process
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3
Content strategy
Create front end wireframes
Prioritized user stories
Start exploring design style
Develop HTML Prototype
Integrate HTML prototype
with the Service Layer
Run Test Cases
Develop UI Design
Develop Solution Design
Architecture Review
Write Test Cases
Content strategy
Create frontend wireframes
Prioritized user stories
Start exploring design style
Develop HTML Prototype
Integrate HTML prototype
with the Service Layer
Run Test Cases
Develop UI Design
Develop Solution Design
Architecture Review
Write Test Cases
Content strategy
Create frontend wireframes
Prioritized user stories
Start exploring design style
Develop HTML Prototype
Integrate HTML prototype
with the Service Layer
Run Test Cases
Develop UI Design
Develop Solution Design
Architecture Review
Write Test Cases
Design & Concept
Prototyping Team
FE Scrum team
Stream 1
FE Scrum team
Stream 2
Scrum teamsScrum teams

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Priority and scope changes
Changes within Development Cycle (or Sprints):
Product owner might re-prioritize something (after reflection – it happens)
Best practice is to log as “Change Request” first for quick re-prioritisation
If “Minor” (i.e. no cost/commercial impact) then can “handshake” there
(Most changes are about minor “look & feel” rather than major re-develop)
“Major” (i.e. affect on time, cost, risk, etc) has to be re-evaluated first
(will require agreement at Program Level and/or Steering Committee)
Allowing flexibility within sprints (but not overall solution design)
Minor
Change
Minor changes result in:
- re-shift WIP stories
(re-order sequence)
- may ‘park’ some for
later sprints (if agreed
& applicable)

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Key takeaways

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Improving the process
• Create a common glossary of terms
• Identify general roles for user stories to ensure consistency
e.g. know customer, unknown customer
• If requirements are rapidly changing insert a change process
to mitigate rework and start stop mentality
• Daily scrum and scrum of scrum necessary to align
communication
• Time zones are a major issue, so schedule meetings to best
of ability (schedule core hours)
• Gather the entire project team to meet face-to-face at least
once - to build trust an coherence

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Collect the data and use it!
• Data is your best weapon to ensure predictability
• Collecting data in a structured manner from your
projects enables learning that can be used extensively
– It is possible to obtain more than 95% accuracy
– Estimating becomes 2nd
nature and will not require
heavy amounts of work
– Inexperienced PM's, developers etc. will still be able to
estimate accurately

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Thank you!
info@forecast.it
+45 6177 9722
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