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Distributed Requirement Handling

Distributed Requirement Handling. Kjetil Moløkken-Østvold – Conceptos Consulting XP2010, 2.-3. June, Trondheim. The easy part when implementing agile processes. Having some meetings while not sitting down Moving yellow notes around a whiteboard

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Distributed Requirement Handling

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  1. Distributed Requirement Handling Kjetil Moløkken-Østvold – Conceptos Consulting XP2010, 2.-3. June, Trondheim

  2. 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?)

  3. The hard part when implementing agile processes • Developing and prioritizing requirements • Providing (accurate) estimates • Collaborating between developers and customers

  4. The hard part is even harder in a distributed environment

  5. The case: Lindorff Lindorff Group 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 • 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

  6. Internal improvement study Q4 – 2007, findings: • Poor routines for communicating and prioritizing requirements • Effort overruns • Internal collaboration rated as average

  7. Describing, refining, prioritizing and communicating requirements is difficult for business people Understanding, estimating and developing requirements is difficult for software developers

  8. Problem: inefficient communication

  9. Solution • Implement a flexible sharing regime for requirements, prioritization and estimates • Lindorff joined a project financed by Innovation Norway • Main development partner was Symphonical

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. Results

  13. Main results (two years after) • Lindorff improved on all studied areas • Respondents provided ratings (1-5, 1=best) • Effort overrun (perceived) was reduced from an average of 25% to 12%

  14. Responses from Lindorff • Requirement handling • All respondents (IT and business) reported that use of Symphonical had greatly improved how requirements were specified, refined and communicated • Estimation • About half reported that Symphonical had improved the estimation process • The other half reported no discernible impact from Symphonical by itself (though it could have played a role along with other improvements) • Responses to a large extend depended on company role, with business perceiving most value

  15. 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

  16. 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

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