Achieving the Full Potential of Your Distributed Agile Team (AgileAus 2013)

Achieving the Full Potential of Your Distributed Agile Team

A workshop for those working in complex environments

Scalable. Flexible. Open.

Dipesh PalaAgile Capability Lead

Kurt SolarteAgile Practice Lead

kurt.solarte@au1.ibm.com

@KurtSolarte

au.linkedin.com/in/ksolarte

dipeshpala@au1.ibm.com

@DipeshPala

au.linkedin.com/in/dipeshpala

Morning AgendaTopic1. Background and Introductions 9:00

Social Contract

2. Why are we distributed?

Group Discussion: Why are you distributed?

BREAK 10:30

3. Types of Distribution 11:00

Exercise: What are your greatest challenges?

4. Choosing Communication and Collaboration Methods

Demo: Collaboration with Rational Team Concert

5. Time Zone Issues

Exercise: Picture with 2 sentences

LUNCH 12:30

Afternoon Agenda Topic

LUNCH 12:30

Exercise - Mini Farm 1:30

BREAK 3:00

6. Language and Culture Issues 3:307. Dealing with Teleconference Dysfunctions8 . Tips for Distributed Agile ActivitiesOpen Discussion

Close 5:00

Part 1:

Background and Introductions

Our Social ContractWe, as a team, agree that:

we will…

•

•

And we will not…

•

•

Our Social ContractAnyone breaching this social contract will be rewarded with an opportunity to enlighten the rest of the team with a small motivational talk. The topic of the talk will be randomly picked by the individual from “the jar” that will be pre-populated with a selection of topics.

All team members are requested to submit a topic by placing a stick-note with the talk title in “the jar”. You can continue submitting the random topics as you come up with them in the future.

Each talk should be no less that 30 seconds and to a maximum of 2 minutes in duration.

Our Expectations

Agile Scaling Factors

Agile Community Survey Circa 2007

Members from 7 Business Units responded -- SWG, STG, GBS, GTS, CHQ, Research, Learning Members in 12 countries (India, China, US, Netherlands,

Sweden, Germany, Italy, Ireland, UK,Brazil, Mexico and Canada) provided feedback98 projects were represented

What is Your Greatest Challenge?

#1 Challenge for IBM Teams was…?Working as a distributed team!

Note: This is just one unit, IBM Software Group

CanadaToronto,Ottawa

Montreal, Victoria

EdinburghLondon / StainesMilton Keynes

Haifa Rehovot

ChinaBeijing

Shanghai Yamato

Taiwan

ParisPornichetBeaverton

KirklandSeattle

Foster CitySan FranciscoSVL/San Jose

AlmadenAgoura Hills

IrvingEl SegundoCosta MesaLas Vegas

AndoverBedford, MABedford, NHLexington

WestboroughWestford

Cambridge

CorkDublinGalway

IndiaBangalore

PuneHyderabadGurgaon

Cairo

Rome

Gold CoastSydney Canberra

Fairfax Raleigh

CharlotteLexington, KY

AtlantaBoca Raton

TampaPerth

KrakowWarsaw

Sao Paulo

Malaysia

Delft

Stockholm

PittsburghPoughkeepsieSomers

Rochester, MNBoulderDenver

Lenexa, KATucsonPhoenixAustinDallas

Boeblingen

HursleyWarwickYork

SouthburyNew York CityPrinceton

Example Mid-Size Team

338 Members World Wide

China 40

Westford 22Dublin 10

India 20

Sydney 44

Raleigh 79

Boeblingen 123

Core TeamUS 101Germany 123China 40Sydney 44Dublin 10India 20Total 338

We turned to the broader Agile community for discussion…

…and to the creators of Scrum for

validation of adherence

to spirit

Agile transformation

is a culture change

“Culture reflects the realities of people working together every day…

…a set of values, practices, and traditions that define who we are as a group.”

--Frances Hesselbeim

Uwe Kils) http://www.ecoscope.com/iceberg/

Of course, Agile provides us with values, practices, traditions…

Individuals and interactions over processes and toolsWorking software over comprehensive documentationCustomer collaboration over contract negotiationResponding to change over following a plan

Agile ManifestoValues

Satisfy the Customer

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer

through early and continuous deliveryof valuable software.

Welcome Change

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness

change for the customer's competitive advantage.

Deliver Frequently

Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of

months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

Business + Development

Business people and developers must work

together daily throughout the project.

Trust the Team

Build projects around motivated individuals.

Give them the environment and support they need,

and trust them to get the job done.

F2F Communication

The most efficient and effective method of

conveying information to and within a development

team is face-to-face conversation.

Working Software

Working software is the primary measure of progress.

Sustainable Pace

Agile processes promote sustainable development.

The sponsors, developers, and users should be able

to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Technical Excellence

Continuous attention to technical excellence

and good design enhances agility.

Simplicity

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount

of work not done--is essential.

Self Organizing

The best architectures, requirements, and designs

emerge from self-organizing teams.

Reflections

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes

and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Embrace the values and principles to fully benefit

Part 2:

Common Reasons for Distributed Teams

Group Discussion:

Why are you distributed?

Do you consider it a “valid” reason?

Distribution - Why & How

Access to New Markets2012 Gartner CEO and Senior Business Executive survey:

Expansion into new markets or geographies was one of top three 2012 priorities.

Cost Reduction

“In Asian countries, labor cost is very low. In India, the labor wages are less than 50% of their equivalent labor in USA and other European countries.”*

*Fabriek, Matthias, Reasons for success and failure in Offshore Software development projects, Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrech University, The Netherlands, August, 2007.

Growth Country

2012 Cost Index

% Cost Advantage

China 74.2 25.8%

India 74.7 25.3%

Mexico 79.0 21.0%

Russia 80.3 19.7%

Brazil 93.0 7.0%

KPMG’s Competitive Alternatives survey

Expanding for Innovation and Thought Leadership

“Multinational companies

produce more ideas than purely domestic counterparts.”

Chiara Criscuolo "Why Are Some Firms More Innovative? Knowledge Inputs, Knowledge Stocks, and the Role of Global Engagement"* April 2004

Telecommuting and Convenience

“30 percent of workers in India, Mexico, and Indonesia claim to telecommute regularly, and one in ten overall work from home every day.”*

*http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/24/us-telecommuting-idUSTRE80N1IL20120124

Speed to Market with “Follow the Sun”

“We conclude that there was an approximate10% reduction in development duration - rather thanthe theoretical 50% of FTS.”

Erran Carmel, et al. Follow The Sun Software Development: New Perspectives, Conceptual Foundation, and Exploratory Field Study

AcquisitionsAs of June 6, 2011 IBM had invested more than $14 billion in 24 acquisitions to expand just its analytics capabilities.

Microsoft has acquired approximately 148 companies.

Cisco has acquired approximately 153 companies.

Access to Needed Skills

Improved Tools for Distance Collaboration• High-speed Internet• Voice Over IP• Video Conferencing• Whiteboards• Electronic Meeting Tools• Electronic Whiteboards• Collaborative editing tools• Chat• Email• Blogs• Forums• Social Networking• Mobile/Smartphone• ALM Tools…

Part 3:

Types of Distribution

Types of Geographical Distribution

* Greater opportunity for language and cultural differences.

Collocated

Collocated part-time

Distributed with overlapping work hours*

Distributed without overlapping work hours*

Increasing Challenge

Isolated Scrum Teams

Deliverable A:Cross-Functional Scrum Team (3-9 Team Members)

Deliverable C:Cross-Functional Scrum Team (3-9 Team Members)

Deliverable B:Cross-Functional Scrum Team (3-9 Team Members)

Sutherland and Schoenheim, Fully Distributed Scrum, 2008

IBM Global Business Services Examples

Distributed Scrum of Scrums

Scrum of Scrums1. What did your team do yesterday?2. What will your team do today?3. What blockers do you have?4. What blockers might you throw in another team’s way?

Sutherland and Schoenheim, Fully Distributed Scrum, 2008

IBM ResearchTechnology Integrationand IBM Global Business Services Examples

Totally Integrated Scrum (with Scrum of Scrums)

Deliverable A:Cross-Functional Scrum Team (3-9 Team Members)

Deliverable B:Cross-Functional Scrum Team (3-9 Team Members)

Deliverable C:Cross-Functional Scrum Team (3-9 Team Members)

Scrum of Scrums

Sutherland and Schoenheim, Fully Distributed Scrum, 2008

Large-scale Product Development Examples

Feature Teams

Team is aware of how their work addresses the needs of end users.

Dependencies are reduced. Handoffs are reduced. Planning is easier. Design issues are found and

corrected earlier.

Administer user accounts

Administer Web server accounts

Bill for services

Administer email accounts

Feature teams work on customer-centric capabilities delivered as features in the final product.

Component TeamsWhere teams are focused primarily on “layers” or components rather than features:

Limited understanding of problem Increased dependencies Delays for feature teams Bottleneck for feature teams that use the

components Slower to detect and correct design flaws Creates risk

Feature:Administer

user accounts

Component Team:

Database TeamComponent Team:

Web Services Team

Component Team:Billing System Team

Feature:Administer

Billing details

Component Teams

Exercise:

What is the greatest challenge that your Distributed teams (might) face?

Challenges & Tips

Part 4:

Choosing Your Method for Communicating and Collaborating

Strive for the Richest Communication Channel Possible

Nonverbal CommunicationEdward T. Hall (1959), a renowned social anthropologist, argued that in a normal conversation:

“More than 65 percent of social meaning occurs through the nonverbal channel.”

Critical Tools for Distributed Team Communication1 •Conference phones and headsets

2 •Screen sharing

3 •Instant messenger

4 •Video conferencing

5 •Agile Project Management (Electronic Storyboard)

6 •Lifecycle Management

That Was Basic Communication…

What About Collaboration?

Silo’d teams; disconnected data

Important discussions are lost to email -project records are missing the “real reason” for decisions

Unified team shares linked data

ALM environment tracks what is important for delivering

“Am I blocking others” “Are others waiting for

my approval”

www

Collaborating in Real-time and in Context of Project Work

Team Awareness Shows team members and their online

status Discussions kept with work for all time

Change Awareness Automatically links to changes if

mentioned in chat

Drag and drop any work item or query into chat

Avoid Duplication Find potential duplicates Subscribe team members Move / Copy work between projects

Rational Team Concert

Part 5:

Dealing with Time Zone Issues

Approaches to Time Zone Issues

Use a Liaison

Whole teamConsistent Date/time

Whole teamAlternating

Meeting Times

Documentation(and chat)

Using documentation

Anyone who cannot attend documents their answers in an e-mail or wiki

The Scrum Master reads their answers in the meeting

BUT… Lack of opportunity for Q&A Less rich communication vehicle People don’t always read about what team mates are doing Reduces the whole team experience Reduces peer pressure

Meeting via instant messaging (form of documentation)

Transcript of session produce notes for the meeting Makes the meeting easier for non-native speakers

BUT… Complete loss of non-verbal communication Difficult to gauge if everyone is paying attention Depends on the Scrum Master to start on time Hard to follow if the meeting is not structured

Instant Messaging

Taking a Liaison Approach Team schedules the meeting at

two different times Team members attend at the

meeting time most convenient to them

One team member serves as a liaison and attends both meetings

Liaison communicates information from the other meeting

47

Taking a Liaison ApproachPros

Better for sustainable pace

Allows for a degree of visibility on everyone’s work

Can be better than docs because people can ask questions.

Richer communication medium.

ConsThe liaison is basically “playing telephone”The liaison may not present all the detailsRisk of fracturing of the teamNegative impact on “whole team” viewNegative affect on the work-life balance of the liaison

Exercise: Describe this in 2 sentences…

(in 1 min)

3 Important Questions

What days/times work best for you (including hours outside of normal hours)?

Which days/times are okay?

Which days/times are off limits?

1

2

3

Even if you have fancy tools… ask!

Or, you can alternate meeting times for whole team Team identifies two different times

for the meeting Team alternates the time used for

the daily scrum at a set frequency (every day, every week)

Everyone is encouraged to attend Anyone who cannot attend

documents their answers in an e-mail or wiki

The Scrum Master reads their answers in the meeting

52

Alternating Meeting Times

Pros

Everyone shares equally in the compromise

Aligns best with interactive spirit of Scrum and Agile

Verbal communication

Opportunity for Q&A

Greater pressure to deliver on commitments

Cons

Challenging for sustainable pace

Some may not be willing to share the pain

Loss of information from members if team members don’t show up during the hours that are bad for them

Distributed Scrum GameMiniature Farm

Game: Miniature Farm

The aim is to create a miniature farm while using the Distributed Scrum Framework.

TimingsEvent Duration

Release Planning / Planning Poker 30 mins

Sprint (including Sprint Planning) 6 mins

Sprint Review 5 mins

Sprint Retrospective 5 mins

Final Production Release (Demo) 5 mins

Miniature Farm – Release Planning (30 mins)

Inputs• Product Backlog• Product Vision• Team Capacity• Risks, Issues, Dependencies

Agenda Product Owner presents the product vision and goals Product Owner reviews key milestones and dates Product Owner presents the first cut of the Product Backlog Team asks questions to understand the stories Team estimates the stories at a high level Team estimates initial capacity/velocity per sprint Team produces a Release Plan Key Risks, Assumptions, Risks and Dependencies are recorded

Miniature Farm – Sprint Planning

Inputs• Product Backlog• Prior velocity• Team capacity• Risks, Issues, Dependencies

Agenda Product Owner proposes the Product Backlog for review Product Owner and Team review and clarify each item Larger Stories are broken down if necessary Team and Product Owner clearly define the Acceptance Criteria for every story Team estimates all resultant stories Team selects the stories they can complete within this sprint Team identifies the Sprint Goal or Theme Product Owner agrees with the order in which work will be completed

The Agile Farm

Part 6:

Language and Culture Issues

Literally Speaking…

Publicity photo from Oprah Winfrey show. Some rights reserved.

What does this mean?

Paul is a bit blue today.

Paul ist blau.

Paul is true blue.

Until Paul is blue in the face.

Communication Tools

Addressing Language Issues

1 • Keep language simple

2 • Say the same thing more than one way

3 • Give everyone a chance to be heard

4 • Use text or verbal as needed

5 • Confirm understanding

6 • Use translator/transcription as needed

Cultural Differences

The meaning of

“Yes”

Cultural Differences

1 • Impacts effectiveness of communication

2• In some cultures, it is

inappropriate for someone to say they do not understand the speaker

3 • Humor does not always translate well

4• Each person interprets

conversation based on their cultural background…

5 • Impact on Holiday Schedules

Part 7:

Dealing with Teleconference Dysfunctions

Teleconference Dysfunctions

Side conversations One person talks too much Lack of understanding Lack of attention Too little information “Us” vs “Them” Assuming commitment

Teleconference TipsMake sure

everyone can dial inWork in meeting

rooms with telephones

Identify the speaker until team becomes

more familiar

Handle missing visual cues

Encourage participation

Limit the side conversations

Mute the linesCheck for

agreement and disagreement

Name a remote team representative

When nothing else works, everyone

dials inEveryone is a

moderator

Part 8:

Tips for Distributed Sprint Activities

Trust and Connection

Get to know each otherCulture, customs,

personality, family, likes, dislikes…

Distributed Planning May have to do planning in two chunks of time

rather than one solid (4-hour) block Will need/want an electronic agile planning tool

to pull stories into the Sprint plan Typically use electronic modeling, drawing

tools and screen sharing. May do some diagrams offline and share electronically.

Easy Planning Poker (Chat, everyone enters the number of story points)

Teams will share files and links to facilitate discussions

Distributed Daily Scrums

Distributed Retrospectives“At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.”*

Demos

“Rotation” Approach

Example Social Contract We commit to be honest with each other. If we have a concern, a doubt, a worry,

or if we see a problem, we commit to surface it to each other immediately. If we are unhappy about something that has happened, or something that the

other has done, we commit to surface this immediately to each other. We commit not to escalate a problem to upper management without first trying

to work it out with each other. If an escalation does become necessary, we commit to letting each other know in advance, so it doesn't catch anyone by surprise.

We recognise that people make mistakes and have misunderstandings, and that the important thing is to find and fix the mistake or misunderstandings as quickly as we can. For this reason, we commit to each other that there will be no retribution for surfacing a problem or a concern, a mistake or misunderstanding, or for speaking honestly.

Key Takeaways1. Even though one of the primary tenets of The Agile Manifesto is that teams need to be

co-located, it’s no longer required for everything

2. If you’re not co-located, tight collaboration and coordination is imperative. Make sure that everyone is communicating, both in real time and in non-real time

3. Tools are critical, but they are not the only answer. It’s necessary to have good processes in place, and for team members to meet in person as frequently as possible

4. Technology will help bridge most obstacles so code review, wikis, discussion forums, bug tracking, requirement tracking, Continuous Integration and SCM tools are very important

5. Having one integrated platform helps breeding synergy, transparency, productivity and trust increases efficiencies across projects and organisations.

WOWs!, Risks, & Parking

Related Books

Thank YouOur Contact details:

Dipesh PalaAgile Capability Lead

Kurt SolarteAgile Practice Lead

kurt.solarte@au1.ibm.com

@KurtSolarte

au.linkedin.com/in/ksolarte

dipeshpala@au1.ibm.com

@DipeshPala

au.linkedin.com/in/dipeshpala