Margaret A. MenziesIntroduction and

Development Best Practices

The following is a presentation that I have used to introduce myself to new teams. The last section is an

executive summary of Scrum methodology and a basic

implementation schedule.

Margaret A. Menzies (MAM)

American, single Undergraduate and Master’s

degree in Public Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems

Have worked in IT/Software Development for over 20 years now Recently for 3 years in Eindhoven, NL Previously in Paris FR, Munich DE,

Boston MA, Raleigh NC, Providence RI

MAM Continued Work with smaller software

companies Have led development teams since

1994 Managed co-located & remote staff Launched new & revamped existing

B2B products Sometimes advise other companies

through VC contacts Joined the Agile/Scrum Community

in 2005 But have worked this way for years…

Dev Management Guidelines

Provide Leadership & Direction

Management=Problem Solving

Focus Areas People Planning Product Processes

People Hire Exceptional Staff Provide Regular Performance Feedback

Deal with staff issues right away Provide Product Feedback

Direct sales & support feedback to engineering is especially valuable

Encourage/Assign Development Staff to Work With Other Departments Help out with Tech Support Go on sales calls and work at trade shows

Promote Teamwork, Not Individual Heroics

Have Fun Whenever Possible!

Planning Create a Product Roadmap

Engineering, Marketing, Tech Support, and Sales help create it

Define Each Project’s Scope Up Front Take time to define what you want to do

Focus Engineering Efforts Don’t take on too many projects at once

Get Customer Input Form a Product Management Team

Not necessarily just VP’s or upper management – involve line staff

Follow the K.I.S.S. Principle

Product Roadmap Example

Product “Chunkify” - Break Apart Large Projects

Establish interim deliverables Do Requirements and Functional Specs

or User Stories Before Coding Repurpose, Re-package & Use Open

Source You don’t always have to work “from

scratch” Prototype GUIs and do GUI Iterations

Use web conferencing tools to show off GUI and solicit feedback from customers or prospects

Develop Sales Demos and Sales Tools Along with the Product Put these in your product plan as part of

final deliverable

Processes Establish Centralized

Source Control and Back-ups!

Begin Automated Builds as Early as Possible

Automate testing Implement Bug

Tracking with a Bug Ownership and Fix Policy

Involve/Establish QA in Project Planning

Involve Tech Support in Testing

Use Test Automation for Regression and Acceptance Tests

Hold Company-wide Bug Hunts and Beta Testing

Promote Paired Programming and Code Reviews

Establish Internationalization Processes Hold Meaningful Progress and Status Meetings

Dev Management Guidelines

Provide Leadership & Direction

Management=Problem Solving

Focus Areas People Planning Product Processes

Agile/Scrum Introduction

A quick overview and implementation plan

What is Agile Development?

Emphasizes close collaboration between the programmer team and business experts;

Stresses face-to-face communication (as more efficient than written documentation);

Advocates frequent delivery of new deployable business value;

Encourages tight, self-organizing teams

Source: Agile Alliance

Agile Development An iterative and incremental

(evolutionary) approach to software development

which is performed in a highly collaborative manner

by self-organizing teams within an effective governance framework

with "just enough" ceremony that produces high quality software in a cost effective and timely manner  which meets the changing needs of its

stakeholders.Source: Scott Ambler

What is Scrum? Scrum is an agile process for developing software. With Scrum,

projects progress via a series of iterations called sprints.

The work to be done on a Scrum project is listed in the Product Backlog, which is a list of all desired changes to the product.

At the start of each sprint a Sprint Planning Meeting is held during which the Product Owner prioritizes the Product Backlog and the Scrum Team selects the tasks they can complete during the coming Sprint.

These tasks are then moved from the Product Backlog to the Sprint Backlog.

Each day during the sprint conducts a brief daily meeting called the Daily Scrum, which helps the team stay on track.

At the end of each sprint the team demonstrates the completed functionality at a Sprint Review Meeting.

Source: Mountain Goat Software

Scrum Model

Implementation Schedule Hold Scrum training workshops – usually while

finishing up other work (Week 1 & 2) Scrum Basics – Roles, meetings, artifacts and sprints User stories – what they are and how to write and use

them The Product Backlog and Scrum Planning (with intro

to Planning Poker) – organize user stories into a product backlog and begin using it for sprint and roadmap planning

Start daily stand up meetings (Week 3) Organize the product requirements/user stories

(Week 3-5 and ongoing) Plan and begin first sprint (Week 4) Establish a more defined product roadmap with

next major deliverable (Week 2-5)

Other Improvements Establish a Team Room Post user stories and burn down

charts Post the Roadmap Review the state of automated

testing and continuous builds Review items in bug tracking

system and fit them into a user story/sprint model

Inspect and adapt …

Questions and Wrap-up