Clinton Keith gave an insightful session around designing and configuration a Kanban system for leveled video game production.

Clinton described Scrum and Kanban coexisting peacefully. They used cross-functional Scrum teams to drive collaborative creative work at the outset of the project where team members would swarm stories. Aside from creating the game concept and playability, one of the outputs was to design and implement a Kanban system for producing game levels.

Game level construction requires different highly-specialized skillsets cannot help each other out – the audio engineer doesn’t know anything about graphic design. So Kanban is perfect. A system with fixed takt time was constructed and staffed appropriately to have a steady creation of game levels. Even the levels were broken up into zones to reduce batch size and improve flow.

Some team members continued to run 2 week sprints on solving challenging problems that came up during level construction and playability. For this environment it seems like Scrum and Kanban are both appropriate. This is a huge take-away for me – a better understanding of where Scrum makes sense and where Kanban makes sense.

Another interesting story was to Time Box Art to balance customer value with cost/time when developing artwork (see graph below). Artwork can go on very a very long time and it is difficult to define done. One solution to this is to create a timebox to focus work at the point of diminishing returns. Another benefit is that a timebox can drive creative energy. The example given was that for a high-speed car chase through Paris, you don’t need high-resolution buildings.

If you are interested in learning more, his book Agile Video Game Production is coming out May 2010. Video and slides of the session is on InfoQ.

Part of my standard training for Product Owners is to help them understand how they relate to everyone else in an Agile/Scrum world. Hence the drawing below.

Project Community Diagram

The Product Owner is not part of the team since their role is to ask for more to keep productive tension in the system. I like the way Ron Jeffries narrates about the Product Owner Role without ever using the term. This is a good story. So is the follow-up one.

I like the XP notion of the customer team to reflect the group representing the customers interests. (If anyone can suggest a good link/definition, I’ll add it.)

Why is the ScrumMaster outside? Their primary role is to act outside of the system to help it function and grow. Why is the ScrumMaster cheering on top? Ooops. That’s a bug. If I had time to re-draw, I’d put them underneath holding up the whole system as a servant leader.

So what do you do, if you don’t like the way I have parsed the world? Please help me understand your perspective – draw a picture to show me the world through your eyes.

There was a really good session at the Scrum Gathering’s Open Space on some of the challenges around the CST application process.

What I want to share here is some general thoughts on what is required to be a Certified Scrum Trainer that I noted during the open space session. This is only an excerpt on how to succeed – the full session notes are here.

(Part 4 of 5 blogs on the Scrum Gathering in Orlando)

Caveat: There is a Scrum Alliance Improvement Committee working out the new process so this is an informal look at some considerations.

See mindmap below.

It is important to get connected so that people know who you are. If you are considering co-training, find people you like. (N.B. There was some discussion of dropping Co-training requirements so you’ll have to stay tuned on this.)

What you teach when you are CST is your business, however, the evaluation process is based on you wearing your scrum hat. Not your Agile hat. Not your XP hat. Not your PMI hat. Does this mean I need to show a flock of self-organizing geese? Is it OK to share the Agile manifesto? I still don’t know the answer to these questions.

As a CST you will need to develop a curriculum with learning objectives, exercises, etc. There is no official training material that you can use as a baseline – every CST is expected to author training material.

It is important that you contribute to the Scrum Community. This can take the form of organizing a local user group, a conference. Public speaking and publishing articles and blogs is relevant as well.

The big thing I got out of this session is that no one is going to hand you the CST designation because you know Scrum and have run training sessions. Becoming a CST requires excellence and hard work.

You may also want to check out Tobias’s blog posts: So you want to be a CST?, Becoming a CST and Scrum gathering day zero for an informal perspective.

See also my post on becoming a CSC.

I started filling out my CSC (Certified Scrum Coach) application almost a year ago and then I stopped due to fear, uncertainty, and doubt. I had been using Scrum for quite a while and successfully transitioned a number of teams, but didn’t understand the process and have any context around it to understand how to be successful and even if I should bother.

(Part 4 of 5 blogs on the Scrum Gathering in Orlando)

I signed up for help in the Dialog Room’s Scrum Clinic (thanks Gerry Kirk and Michael de la Maza) the Scrum Gathering.  Roger Brown was kind enough to sit outside by the pool with me and fill in the missing meta-data around the CSC application process. The mind-map below is my effort to capture his perspective on this topic.

The big take aways for me were:

1. Now that I know the process, criteria, expectations and outcomes, I feel comfortable proceeding.
2. A submission needs to be business professional and may take 10-30+ hours to prepare.
3. Three reviewers will score each section to arrive at an overall score (like an exam). No minimum for any section.
4. Agile work is OK, but Scrum is preferred and will score higher.
5. I need to publish an article on the Scrum Alliance website.

Thanks also to Bob Hartman for reviewing and offering his time to help.

Caveat: this is not official Scrum Alliance policy – this is just my understanding of a discussion on this topic. Please see official CSC page here.

At the Scrum Gathering Open Space, there was a great session on this with even more details on the CSC program; please check it out.

Yesterday, Gerry Kirk and I kicked off a 4 day Agile Assessment with a presentation aimed at taking some of the uncertainty out of Agile and providing context for the transition/assessment.  See slides below.

The values and agile project life cycle slides were not show; instead, Gerry did a live diagram construction (see photo below). This approach worked well and we got lot’s of great questions.

One of the questions was about Agile contracting.  There is a good presentation I commented on in a recent post.

I was really excited to see the presentations from the Munich Scrum Gathering posted on the ScrumAlliance site since I was not able to attend due to a date conflict with Agile Tour Toronto. It took some time to go through all of them so I thought I would post some of the ones I found interesting here to encourage you to check them out and maybe some others. A big thank-you to the Scrum Alliance and authors for posting them.

Ideas from Other Fields

Making Change Happen – Peter Stevens

Peter Stevens has a visually pleasing presentation – Making Change Happen – that summarizes organizational adoption challenges and includes key ideas from one of my favourite books – Fearless Change. The diagram at the left illustrates that there are often factions in an organization pulling in different directions with different agendas – not just your favourite (Scrum or Agile). Check this out if you are involved in organizational change.

Social Objects in Software Development – Dave Harvey

Scrum talks about self-organizing teams. How do you get there? One idea is that we need to think about social networks. These form around social objects, so this is a good place to start. Social objects reinforce our identity and sustain our tribal identity. Consider the photo showing other dimensions of people’s lives. Not only can networks form around this, but it also primes our behaviour to think about others as … people. The presentation is done in zen style and I would totally love to hear Dave in person.

Self-Organizing & Subtle Control: Friends or Enemies? – Mike Cohn

Mike talked about self-organization not happening in a vacuum. It is management’s responsibility to guide the evolution of behaviours (rather than specify what how everyone needs work). He then went on to talk about Containers, Differences and Exchanges as a way of making indirect changes to a team. There is also a discussion of Philip Anderson’s 7 levers for influencing team evolution. Worth checking out if you are interested in coaching teams.

Stories from Scrum in Practice

Agile at Telefonica R&D Gemma_Hornos & Monica Izquierd

Although the presentation is about large scale enterprise adoption of Scrum, there are lots of interesting bits of information that apply in general. One example is image is about styles of growth of Scrum within an organization – I really like the viral/mosquito! Lot’s of other great visuals as well.

Practical Roadmap to Great Scrum – Jeff Sutherland

Jeff shares some of his key understandings of doing Scrum well. Want to double productivity? –> Focus on DONE. Want to double again? –> Focus on READY. Self-organization is identified as the 3rd way to double performance. The presentation also talks about large scale adoption and CMMI. Lot’s of good bits of info packed in here.

10 Contract Forms For Your Next Agile Project – Peter Stevens

Peter has a great analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of different types of contracts from both the vendor and the supplier perspectives. Phased development (see photo at left) is one that balances the interests of bother parties and encourages cooperative behaviours. If you need to set up a contract, check out this presentation.

Kicking Scrumbut – Rowan Bunning

Rowan takes a fun and informative look at some common failure modes that organization exhibit when adopting partial Scrum (AKA Scrumbut). Of course all the failure modes are matched with advice on what to do to resolve the problem. Even if you are an experienced coach or Scrum practitioner, you will be sure enjoy and learn from a different perspective.

This is a list of some resources that are useful for getting started or growing your understanding of Agile.

The permanent page for this content on my website is here (so this is better place to link to since it will be updated).

Getting Started

Short articles for printing out and reading while you are on the train/subway.

• Agile Manifesto – Web page
• Agile Manifesto Principles – Web page
• Article on the history of Iterative developement
• Connections between Lean and Agile
• Short Scrum Guide – 13 page article/guide
• Scrum on a page – This you can put on a wall near you.

Intro to Scrum/Agile

• A Gentle Introduction to Agile – Presentation
• Agile Executive Briefing – Presentation
• Scrum in 10 minutes – Video (10 min)
• A Day in the Life of a Scrum Team – Video (6 min)
• Scrum Overview by Ken Schwaber – Video (60 min)
• Overview Powerpoint by Mike Cohn

Other Stuff you need to know to get your project started

• Getting started with User Stories – Book Excerpt
• Agile Estimation and Planning by Mike Cohn – Video (90 min)

Next Steps

• Check out some of the other resources below.
• Start reading some of the books.
• You have started a journey of learning – be patient and enjoy the trip.

Additional Learning Resources

• Scrum
  • Scrum Overview by Ken Schwaber – Website
  • Scrum Overview by Mike Cohn – Website
• XP
  • eXtreme Programming on C2 Wiki.
• User Stories
  • An Introduction to User Stories – Presentation
• Agile Estimation and Planning
  • Agile Estimation and Planning – Presentation
• Lean
  • Demo showing impact of bottlenecks
  • Lean for Business – Website
• Fun Stuff
  • Punchy video about how Agile can improve on Waterfall
• Agile Team Room
  • Agile Team Room – Photos
  • How does radical collocation help a team succeed?
• Pairing – team collaboration on tasks
  • Benefits of Pair Programming – C2 Wiki
  • Benefits Research Paper – Cockburn & Williams
  • How Pair Programming works - General concepts behind pairing and pair programming] (used in training)
  • Promiscuous Pairing - Some ideas on how rapid pairing can cultivate creativity. Also, How-to Article
• Agile Documentation Practices – Web Article
• Agile Testing – Video (60 min)
• Automated Testing
  • Automated Acceptance Testing – Presentation
• How Agile are you? (Agile Adoption)
  • Nokia Test – basic Agile test
  • Uncle Bob’s more extensive test
• Crystal Clear – low ceremony Agile process
  • 7 Properties of Crystal Clear – Article
  • 7 Properties Mind Map

Books to Read

Stage 1: Getting the basics in place

• Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager’s Guide
• Scrum I: Agile Software Development With Scrum – Basic Instructions
• Scrum II: Agile Project Management With Scrum – Stories about Scrum Usage
• User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development
• Scrum and XP from the Trenches
• Agile Estimating and Planning

Deepening the practice

• Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash
• Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game
• The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility
• Scrum III: Enterprise Scrum

eXtremeProgramming

• Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
• Extreme Programming Installed
• Art of Agile Development

Technical Practices

• Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
• Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

Lean

• Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit
• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
• Critical Chain
• Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation

Other good ones

• Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams
• Managing Agile Projects
• Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas

Games & Simulations

• XPGame – learn how Agile really works
• Leadership Game - learn different leadership styles and how you relate to them
• Bottleneck Game – learn how to improve your processes to eliminate bottlenecks
• Business Value Game – learn strategies and challenges with prioritizing work (product backlog)

Below are the slides from my first presentation at AgileTourToronto. It is based on ideas from Alistair Cockburn (among others) and has been a work-in-progress since I started sharing Agile ideas in 2002.

Presentation Overview

There are a lot of choices and alternatives for getting started with Agile. It can be confusing. This talk will give you a brief guided tour of Agile methodologies so that you have some understanding of how they are similar and how they differ. We’ll cover some of the history of iterative development and waterfall as well as the Agile Manifesto to provide context. At the end of this, you will have an understanding of key principles and the Agile landscape.

Slides on Slideshare

A Gentle Introduction To Agile

As one of the organizers of Agile Tour Toronto I was thrilled with our success in attracting attendees – we sold out a month before the conference.  We decided that we would rather have a smaller conference with a good experience rather than a larger one that is more than we can manage in our first year running it.

To run the conference, we created a not-for-profit organization – Toronto Agile Software Development Community – with a mission of helping people and companies in the Toronto area with Agile techniques.  I was sad that we could not do more to help grow Agile in the community.

A few days ago, Yves Hanoulle, announced that he would like to do some training to help justify flying all the way to Toronto just for a one day conference.  I agreed to help and we are going to jointly run not one, but two workshops around the time of Agile Tour Toronto.  This will allow Yves to attend and present as well as provide an opportunity for those who can’t attend Agile Tour Toronto.  The works are:

Agile Kick Start – Monday, Oct. 19th

Agile Kick Start is for those new to agile as well as those interested in learning more about the technical pillar of Agile called XP.  We also talk about agile values, self-organizing teams, project vision, scaling agile, visual management, the famous XP game.

Agile Games Day – Wednesday, Oct. 21st

Agile Games Day provides hands-on experience with key Agile concepts through a day of learning by doing.  This includes defining business value, leadership/self-organization, and learning how to go faster using the Theory of Constraints.  If you haven’t tried before, this is a great way to learn and internalize concepts.

Why offer these sessions?

As organizers of Agile Tour Toronto, we noticed that there were a lot of people registering groups of people from their company to get basic training.  Hence the motivation for offering Agile Kick Start.

One of the things we talked about doing as part of Agile Tour Toronto was to run a games track since we know how important hands-on learning is.  Then we hit complications like finding more space, soliciting proposals and just didn’t have enough time.

Yves and I are really excited to be able to offer these workshops as a complement to Agile Tour Toronto and hope you can attend.

I’m writing about a talk given by Paul Hodgetts at Agile 2009 called “ScrumMasters Considered Harmful – Where Did We Go Wrong?” (Link to full presentation).

So, why doesn’t the title of this blog post match?  The title is really catchy, but the the talk was more of an investigation and discussion of what the ScrumMaster role really entails.  Check out the Mind Map below.

Some of the interesting things to note are that there are a lot of roles that a ScrumMaster is supposed to take on if you are following Scrum – see the green checkmarks.  (If you are not following Scrum – why do you have a ScrumMaster?  Anyway, it’s a tough job!

One hot area  is around the role of Project Manager or Task Master – there is often a management expectation that they will play this role.  I have seen this many times.  Hint: a better answer is that work needs to come through the Product Manager and that the team is un-interrupted for the duration of the Sprint.  But every situation is different, so there is no always in this.

On the left in purple, can be seen a number of candidates for taking on the role of ScrumMaster.  It can be a tough role to fill.