Upload
kjetil-molokken-ostvold
View
497
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Adopting some agile practices, like stand-up meetings and yellow notes, is easy. The hard part is handling requirements and estimates, especially in a distributed environment. Describing, refining, communicating and prioritizing requirements is difficult for business developers. Estimating and understanding requirements is difficult for developers. This talk describes a flexible sharing regime, implemented in a distributed in-house development environment, which succeeded in improving requirement handling and estimation.
Citation preview
Distributed Requirement Handling
Kjetil Moløkken-Østvold – Conceptos ConsultingXP2010, 2.-3. June, Trondheim
The easy part when implementing agile processes
• Having some meetings while not sitting down
• Moving yellow notes around a whiteboard• Using strange titles
(career as a ScrumMaster anyone?)
The hard part when implementing agile processes
• Developing and prioritizing requirements• Providing (accurate) estimates• Collaborating between developers and
customers
The hard part is even harder in a distributed
environment
The case: Lindorff
Lindorff Group• Lindorff Group is a leading
outsourced receivables management company in Europe and on a global basis
• Lindorff has approximately 2200 employees
• Offices in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Russia and Sweden
NextLevel Project• Developers in Oslo and
Bø• Testers and business
developers in Oslo, Røyken and Trondheim
• Users/customers in Røyken, Oslo, Trondheim and other areas
Internal improvement study Q4 – 2007, findings:
• Poor routines for communicating and prioritizing requirements
• Effort overruns• Internal collaboration
rated as average
Describing, refining, prioritizing and communicating requirements is difficult for business people
Understanding, estimating and developing requirements is difficult for software developers
Problem: inefficient communication
Solution
• Implement a flexible sharing regime for requirements, prioritization and estimates
• Lindorff joined a project financed by Innovation Norway
• Main development partner was Symphonical
About Symphonical
• Symphonical is a web-based collaboration platform, that integrates documents, tasks and communication
• Cloud based (Amazon) since 2008
• Spin-off from Simula Research Laboratory
Example features used by Lindorff
• Live (collaboration)• Sharing (to collaborators)• Voting/estimation (for requirements/user
stories)• Conversations (history, replaces mail etc.)• Template – default text on notes
(requirements/user stories)• Tool – reuse settings/templates
Results
• Lindorff improved on all studied areas• Respondents provided ratings (1-5, 1=best)
Main results (two years after)
Selected areas 2007 2009
Collaboration business/IT 2,4 1,9
Requirement handling 3,0 1,9
Estimation process 3,3 2,2
• Effort overrun (perceived) was reduced from an average of 25% to 12%
Responses from Lindorff
• Requirement handlingo All respondents (IT and business) reported that use of
Symphonical had greatly improved how requirements were specified, refined and communicated
• Estimationo About half reported that Symphonical had improved the
estimation processo The other half reported no discernible impact from
Symphonical by itself (though it could have played a role along with other improvements)
o Responses to a large extend depended on company role, with business perceiving most value
Lessons learned
• Analyze your situation regarding requirements and overruns
• Get rid of static documents (word, excel etc.) shared via email
• Implement a web-based collaboration platform
Thank you!
• Presentation: http://www.conceptos.no/
• Email:
• Kenny Rogers (The Gambler):“Then somewhere in the darkness, the gambler he broke even. But in his final words I found an ace that I could keep”
• This research project was funded by Innovation Norway
• Caveat Emptor: the author of this presentation is a member of the board of directors at Symphonical, and has ownership interests in the company