Scrum as an Agile Project & Requirements

Management Framework

July 22, 2015

Roland Petrasch

Scrum as an Agile Project & Requirements

Management Framework

● Agenda

● Project Management

● Classical Project Management and Scrum

● Project Management: Power Structure

● Scrum: To do, or not to do ...

● Scrum Process: How it begins

Karl talks about „Scrum and BPM“

}20 min.

Goals: Shake you up with nice colors, initiate the Scrum discussion, prepare for Karl's talk

Project Management

● Project (Management): It's (not only) about time ...

... but too late still means: you failed

Project Management

● Project management (even with Scrum)

● Is a task that lasts from set-up until finishing

● Consists of

– Planing (planned tasks, resources, cost))

– Monitoring (comparison: planned / actual values)

– Control (measures to stay on track)● Aspects: accounting, leadership, collaboration,

knowledge, structuring, socializing ...

I've read the textbook

Questions: „When did our project started and when will it end? What are the goals?Where are the requirements?“

No start, no end, no goals? No project!

Classical Project Management and Scrum

● Classic Project Management and Scrum: Same same or different? Or: Same same, but different ...

Development Team

Team

Project Manager

Scrum Master

Requirements Engineer

Product Owner

SRSProduct Backlog

ProjectPlan

Burndown Chart

Sure, it's about Project Management

But: VERY BIG differences

Classical Project Management and Scrum

● So what are the main differences?

● Scrum means a different power structure (not top-down)

● Team is a (relatively) autonomous entity (resource planning)

● Responsibility is shared (Product Owner, Team, Scrum Master)

● Strong “connection” to software product (deliverables) → Integrated requirements management

● Agile Manifesto (agilemanifesto.org), e.g. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Scrum (→ abr. of scrummage) used in Rugby; meaning: disorderly struggle

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.Albert Einstein

Classical Project Management and Scrum

● Sport, e.g. soccer

● Team (not the coach) plays 90 min. (autonomy)

● Single player has responsibility, but team wins or loses

● Coach gives orders ...but not every single minute

● Strategy / tactics clear before (!) the game starts,but can change on-demand and spontaneously

Player 18: step aside!

Player 19: kick now!

Player 17: jump to the left!

Classical Project Management and Scrum

● Classical Project Management

● Project Manager:

– authority to give directives

– responsible for the team

– plan, monitor, control ● Team member

– responsible for own work

– follow the plan

– execute directives

Project Management: Power Structure

● Classical organizational structure

● Pyramids or hierarchies (with a leader / manager and people who support him/her and obey)

● Leadership → the right to command and enforce,administration of resources (responsibility):plan, monitor, control

● Team member → only responsible for own work, a resource with assigned tasks and a workload (PM view)

PM

Team members

Project Management: Power Structure

● Agile means different power structure(s)

● Team is (more) autonomous (→ committee)

● Self-managing / -organizing (Scrum Master is responsible for process) → Lean management

● Team member: responsible for work of all team members

● Product Owner has to negotiate with the team, can't give orders

TeamProduct Owner

Project Management: Power Structure

● Consequences for middle and upper management

● Lack of project manager = less control over single team member (“Who is doing what, where and when?”)

● Planning is not “top-down” → negotiation with team

● Team is “creating” its own development process

● Management loses power

● Question:

– Really no need for leader / manager for team?

– Does it work under all conditions?

Scrum: To do, or not to do ...

● Really no need for leader / manager for team?

● Wrong question

● One word to leadership and management

● Leadership: "ability to create a solid vision of a better future for those people he/she is leading" [Buckingham, 2005]

● Management: "ability to match people’s tasks with their skills" [Buckingham, 2005]

● Scrum projects need leadership ... not (many) managers

Scrum: To do, or not to do ...

● Does it work under all conditions?

● No.

● Some aspects

– Mixture between experienced and young professionals

– Awareness of team responsibility,no obedient little workers or hackers

– Ability to communicate often, openly and constructively

– Willingness to improve (own) behavior and processes

– Need for proper requirements understood

– Start with a real project: real start, real end, real users, real goals, real requirements

Scrum: To do, or not to do ...

● Scrum is a framework: modifications, extensions, combintations ... are welcome

● Scrum has many colors – go and find your color combination

Scrum Project: How it begins

● Where to start?

● Product Backlog Items are requirements,but where do they come from? Product Owner knows it ...

Product Backlog

Sprint Backlog

Sprint (Iteration)

Product

Requirements

OutputIntput

?

Requirements are specified during the project, but ...

Scrum Process: How it begins

● BPM and Software Development

● Sometimes it's a good idea

– to analyze or optimize processes first and (maybe)

– then develop or introduce software (if necessary)

Product Backlog

Business Process (Re-)EngineeringProject

Product Business Needs orProcess Backlog

Business Processes, Data Model

Software Engineering / DevelopmentProject

On the right path

To be continued:Karl Schindler talks about „Scrum for Business

Process Reengineering Projects“