Distributed Agile Patterns

©2015 GlobalLogic Inc.

Distributed Agile Patterns-ShriKant Vashishtha


About Me!• Agile Coach at Globallogic Noida • 16+ years of IT experience • Trainer on Agile, Agile Testing, Continuous

Delivery, Specification by Example or

BDD, Continuous Inspection • Singer, counsellor, self-help thinker • Twitter - @vashishthask


Blogs on agilebuddha.com

http://agilebuddha.com


Distributed Agile Failure Points

• Not actually doing “Basic” Scrum in the first place.

• Inadequate tools and governance mechanisms to make asynchronous communication successful

• “We vs they” or “Vendor vs Customer” mindset

• Unbalanced distribution of work and ownership


Distributed Agile Success Factors


Don’t Distribute in First Place

Scrum Team

Product

Owner

GEO1 GEO2

Scrum

Master

Sprint

Backlog

Function1

(e.g. Dev)

Function2

(e.g. Test)

Function

Lead


Trust


Courage to Change


Innovation


Communication


Patterns Types• Structural

• Implementation


Structural Patterns


Local Control, Distributed Team

Scrum Team

Product

Owner

Function1

(e.g. Dev)

Function2

(e.g. Test)

GEO1 GEO2

Scrum

Master

Sprint

Backlog



• Most useful when

• Total team size is small:for example, a single team 4 to 8 person Scrum team

• Team members are peers; little or no mentorship required

• Natural overlap of about 4 to 5 “core” working hours per day in all timezones

• Continuous Communication channel open between all team members during core hours

• Good tool support

• Frequent face to face contact between team members to maintain team identity



• Problems to watch out for

• Non-peer developers or too large a team

• Limited face-to-face communication

• “Remote” team members will eventually start to feel detached.

• Limited natural overlap in working hours

• Team members will get burned out

• Lack of good real-time tools and asynchronous communication tools


Remote Functional Team

Scrum Team

Product

Owner

GEO1 GEO2

Scrum

Master

Sprint

Backlog

Function1

(e.g. Dev)

Function2

(e.g. Test)

Function

Lead


Remote Functional Teams• Most useful when

• Strong functional expertise and ownership in remote geography

• Disciplined Scrum implementation with artifacts available globally in real-time


Remote Functional Teams• Problems to watch out for

• Remote team members cannot attend full kick-offs, retrospectives and team meetings

• Remote team will be missing the context and fall behind the on-shore team


Remote Self-Contained Teams

Self-

Contained

Scrum Team

(4 - 8 people)Product

Owner

GEO1 GEO2

Scrum

Master

Sprint

Backlog

Self-

Contained

Scrum Team

(4 - 8 people)

Scrum

Master

Sprint

Backlog

Proxy

Product

Owner


Remote Self Contained Teams

• Most useful when

• Coupling between product components and interfaces is or can be defined well enough that each can separately evolve.

• Domain and product expertise exists or can be developed in the remote site(s)

• Frequent face-to-face visits between team members

• “High trust” culture exists or can grow

• Effective governance model in place so that cross-team, cross-geography decisions can be made with full buy-in


Remote Functional Teams• Problems to watch out for

• Product components too tightly coupled, or no domain expertise remotely

• Too much synchronous communication required to support full effectiveness

• Lack of face-to-face visits, or “low-trust” culture in place

• One team may feel threatened by the other and attempt subtle sabotage

• Lack of effective, inclusive governance model

• Remote team will become disempowered


Implementation Patterns


Implementation Patterns For…

• Distributed Teams on two locations

• Distributed Teams on Two Locations with opposite time-zones

• Fully Distributed Teams

• Distributed Teams on Multiple Location


Distributed Collocated Teams


Remote Pairing


Virtual Collocation


Local Retrospective


Pseudo Product Owner and Specs By Example


Acceptance Criteria (Executable Spec)

Customer who buys 2 albums gets an album free

Number of Albums Gets Free Album1 No2 Yes


Nut-Bolt Pattern


Backlog Grooming and Definition of READY

source: http://www.solutionsiq.com/images/definition-of-ready.gif

http://www.solutionsiq.com/images/definition-of-ready.gif


Definition of Ready


PO Kanban Board


One Team Multiple ProjectsTi

me/

Stor

y Po

ints

0

20

40

60

80

Time

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10Week 11

No work available

Work Available


Distributed Collocated Teams with Opposite Time-zones


One TeamCommunication

Shared Vision

Active Participation

Shared Goals

Shared Ownership


Create Overlap


No Local Meetings in Overlap Hours


Scrum Meetings Attended by Whole Team

source: http://www.infoq.com/resource/articles/dutch-railway-scrum/en/resources/image2.jpg

http://www.infoq.com/resource/articles/dutch-railway-scrum/en/resources/image2.jpg


Continuous Backlog Grooming

Software

Distributed Agile Patterns