Practical Agile: What’s Working for Stanford, Blacklight , and Hydra

1. Practical Agile:What’s Working for Stanford, Blacklight, and Hydra Naomi Dushay Stanford University

2. Management Might Start Here …

3. Stanford had … 40 projects 10ish “project managers” 8½ developers

4. (Some of our) Goals • Throughput • Transparency • Accurate Planning • Sustainable

5. Improving Productivity … Developer Happiness

6. Max 2Projects/Developer

7. Problem: Competing Priorities 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

8. Solution: Iteration Planning 1 1 1 1 1 1 Now Backlog

9. One Month’s Goals

10. That was … • 40 17 projects • 10ish “project managers” • 8½ developers

11. You Might Try … • Extreme Display: • All “Active” Projects • Priorities • Currently In Progress • Refuse More Than Two Simultaneous Projects

12. Problem: Lack of Focus Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature

13. Solution: Focused Iterations Backlog Now Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature

14. Solution: SMART Goals • Specific • Measurable • Achievable • Realistic • Timely

16. Agile Task Board

19. You Might Try … • Task Board • “Public” View of Your Recent Work

20. Problem: Too Many Meetings

21. Solution: Developer Happiness Hours

22. Solution: Dead Week

23. You Might Try … • Block Out Times In Your Calendar • Multi-Hour “Meetings” With Colleagues • Suggest to Management • They Have Non-Meeting Work Too!

24. Problem: Sharing Knowledge Locally I wonder if someone can help Eh, I’ll just figure it out

25. Workspaces • Co-location • Open Sight Lines • More People Per Room • Less Wall Space for Whiteboards, Task Boards … • Easy Reconfiguration

28. Solution: Open Sight Lines Hey Willy: Have a sec? Jessie, can you look at this?

29. Solution: Non-Developers, too Lynn, is this what you meant? This design is tough to implement; can we revisit?

30. You Might Try … • Demolish Cube Walls • Temporary Co-Location • Large shared office • Conference Room • Study Room • Coffee Shop • Lunch with Coworkers, Product Owners …

31. Flex Room

32. Pair Programming

33. Problem: Lack of Visible Progress

34. Solution: Short Iterations 1 week or 2 weeks or 1 month or … Short is:

35. Solution: Good Communication • Regular Meetings • Email List • Wikis • Tracking System (e.g. JIRA)

36. Solution: Planned Work is Public

37. Solution: Progress is Public

38. You May Need (JIRA) Foo • Versioning • Components • Workflow

39. Problem: Scrum Unrealistic We have too many simultaneous projects I can’t dedicate 5 developers to a single project, even short term

40. Solution: Take Pieces of Agile • Short Iterations of Narrow Focus • Communication Across Roles • Co-Location • Pair Programming • Transparency • …

41. Experiment! • Scrum • Short, Focused Iteration • (2?) – 7 People • Temporary Co-Location • Task Board • Pair Programming • Daily Stand Ups

42. Problem: No Local TDD I’ve been meaning to do it…

43. Solution: Requirement of OSS No Code Without Passing Tests! OK

44. Open Source Software • True Group Ownership • Good Communication • Rotating Roles • Bigger (release manager for pieces) • Smaller (meeting moderator, notetaker)

45. Problem: Distributed Developers (Eddie Shin)

46. Solution: RealtimeContact Weekly Check-Ins As Needed Faceto Face!

47. Problem: Developer Distrust Their stuff is always buggy I hate his code I could do this faster myself … … if I had time

48. Solution:Good Development Practices • Automated tests • Continuous Integration • Automatic Notifications • Code Coverage Data • Transparency • Documentation Coverage Data

49. Solution: No Code Without Tests

50. Solution: Test Coverage Transparency