Succeeding with Agile Software Development Using Scrum

by Cohn, Mike

• ISBN13: 9780321579362
• ISBN10: 0321579364
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-26
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Summary

Agile guru Mike Cohn delivers the most practical guide to starting fast with Agile, and succeeding for the long haul--Presents detailed, step-by-step guidance for 60+ tasks that can help software organizations become more agile. Thoroughly covers people, process, and product: everything from scaling Agile and using it in outsourced/offshored environments to overcoming resistance. Helps organizations improve Agile processes they've already implemented, to build better software and drive more value. Agile methods have crossed the chasm to mainstream acceptance, but that doesn't mean all organizations are succeeding with Agile. In this book, one of the world's leading Agile experts draws on his immense experience to help readers anticipate the obstacles to success, and systematically overcome them. Mike Cohn has packed this book with 100% practical and actionable transition advice, real-world case studies, and tips drawn from hard-won experience - everything needed to make Agile work in virtually any environment. Coverage includes: *Why transitioning to Agile is hard - and a transition plan that makes it easier *Managing the process aspects of Agile, from handling backlogs through implementing iteration *Helping people understand their new roles in Agile environments, and work successfully in Agile teams *Building an effective Agile culture and overcoming resistance *Implementing practices that promote higher-quality software *How to scale Agile to large enterprise projects *Using Agile in outsourced and offshored environments *Assessing progress and planning where to go next . This book is designed for every participant in the Agile process, from software leaders to developers: it offers a common language that everyone can use to make Agile work, together with more than 60 specific tasks software organizations can work on to improve their agility.

Author Biography

Mike Coh, founder of Mountain Goat Software, provides training and consulting on Scrum and agile software development to help companies build extremely high-performance development organizations. He authored two of the agile movement's most respected books, User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development and Agile Estimating and Planning. Cohn has been a technology executive in companies ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 40 and has served clients including the BBC, Capital One, Electronic Arts, Experian, Google, Intuit, Lexis Nexis, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Nokia, Philips, Sabre, Salesforce.com, Siemens, Sony, Time Warner, Yahoo!, and many more. He cofounded the Agile Alliance, Agile Project Leadership network, and Scrum Alliance.

Table of Contents

Forword	p. XVII
Acknowledgements	p. XIX
About the Author	p. XXIII
Introduction	p. XXV
Getting Started	p. 1
Why Becoming Agile Is Hard (But Worth It)	p. 3
Why Transitioning Is Hard	p. 5
Why It's Worth the Effort	p. 10
Looking Forward	p. 17
Additional Reading	p. 18
ADAPTing to Scrum	p. 21
Awareness	p. 23
Desire	p. 26
Ability	p. 31
Promotion	p. 34
Transfer	p. 37
Putting It All Together	p. 40
Additional Reading	p. 41
Patterns for Adopting Scrum	p. 43
Start Small or Go All In	p. 43
Public Display of Agility or Stealth	p. 47
Patterns for Spreading Scrum	p. 50
Introducing New Technical Practices	p. 55
One Final Consideration	p. 57
Additional Reading	p. 58
Iterating Toward Agility	p. 61
The Improvement Backlog	p. 62
The Enterprise Transition Community	p. 63
Improvement Communities	p. 70
One Size Does Not Fit All	p. 79
Looking Forward	p. 79
Additional Reading	p. 80
Your First Projects	p. 81
Selecting a Pilot Project	p. 81
Choosing the Right Time to Start	p. 84
Selecting a Pilot Team	p. 86
Setting and Managing Expectations	p. 88
It's Just a Pilot	p. 92
Additional Reading	p. 92
Individuals	p. 95
Overcoming Resistance	p. 97
Anticipating Resistance	p. 97
Communicating About the Change	p. 101
The Hows and Whys of Individual Resistance	p. 104
Resistance as a Useful Red Flag	p. 114
Additional Reading	p. 115
New Roles	p. 117
The Role of the ScrumMaster	p. 117
The Product Owner	p. 125
New Roles, Old Responsibilities	p. 134
Additional Reading	p. 135
Changed Roles	p. 137
Analysts	p. 137
Project Managers	p. 139
Architects	p. 142
Functional Managers	p. 144
Programmers	p. 146
Database Administrators	p. 148
Testers	p. 148
User Experience Designers	p. 151
Three Common Themes	p. 153
Additional Reading	p. 153
Technical Practices	p. 155
Strive for Technical Excellence	p. 155
Design: Intentional yet Emergent	p. 166
Improving Technical Practices Is Not Optional	p. 171
Additional Reading	p. 172
Teams	p. 175
Team Structure	p. 177
Feed Them Two Pizzas	p. 177
Favor Feature Teams	p. 182
Self-Organizing Doesn't Mean Randomly Assembled	p. 189
Put People on One Project	p. 191
Guidelines for Good Team Structure	p. 197
Onward	p. 199
Additional Reading	p. 199
Teamwork	p. 201
Embrace Whole-Team Resposibility	p. 201
Rely On Specialists but Sparingly	p. 204
Do a Little Bit of Everything All the Time	p. 206
Foster Team Learning	p. 209
Encourage Collaboration Through Commitment	p. 215
All Together Now	p. 217
Additional Reading	p. 218
Leading a Self-Organizing Team	p. 219
Influencing Self-Organization	p. 220
Influencing Evolution	p. 227
There's More to Leadership Than Buying Pizza	p. 232
Additional Reading	p. 233
The Product Backlog	p. 235
Shift from Documents to Discussions	p. 236
Progressively Refine Requirements	p. 242
Learn to Start Without a Specification	p. 249
Make the Product Backlog DEEP	p. 253
Don't Forget to Talk	p. 254
Additional Reading	p. 254
Sprints	p. 257
Deliver Working Software Each Sprint	p. 258
Deliver Something Valuable Each Sprint	p. 262
Prepare in This Sprint for the Next	p. 266
Work Together Throughout the Sprint	p. 268
Keep Timeboxes Regular and Strict	p. 276
Don't Change the Goal	p. 279
Get Feedback, Learn, and Adapt	p. 283
Additional Reading	p. 284
Planning	p. 285
Progressively Refine Plans	p. 286
Don't Plan on Overtime to Salvage a Plan	p. 287
Favor Scope Changes When Possible	p. 292
Separate Estimating from Committing	p. 296
Summary	p. 305
Additional Reading	p. 305
Quality	p. 307
Integrate Testing into the Process	p. 308
Automate at Different Levels	p. 311
Do Acceptance Test-Driven Development	p. 317
Pay Off Technical Debt	p. 320
Quality Is a Team Effort	p. 323
Additional Reading	p. 323
The Organization	p. 325
Scaling Scrum	p. 327
Scaling the Product Owner	p. 327
Working with a Large Product Backlog	p. 330
Proactively Manage Dependencies	p. 333
Coordinate Work Among Teams	p. 340
Scaling the Sprint Planning Meeting	p. 345
Cultivate Communities of Practice	p. 347
Scrum Does Scale	p. 352
Additional Reading	p. 353
Distributed Teams	p. 355
Decide How to Distribute Multiple Teams	p. 356
Create Coherence	p. 359
Get Together in Person	p. 367
Change How You Communicate	p. 372
Meetings	p. 375
Proceed with Caution	p. 386
Additional Reading	p. 387
Coexisting with Other Approaches	p. 389
Mixing Scrum and Sequential Development	p. 383
Governance	p. 394
Compliance	p. 396
Onward	p. 402
Additional Reading	p. 402
Human Resources, Facilities, and the PMO	p. 405
Human Resources	p. 406
Facilities	p. 412
The Project Management Office	p. 420
The Bottom Line	p. 424
Additional Reading	p. 424
Next Steps	p. 427
Seeing How Far You've Come	p. 429
The Purpose of Measuring	p. 429
General-Purpose Agility Assessments	p. 430
Creating Your Own Assessment	p. 437
A Balanced Scorecard for Scrum Teams	p. 438
Should We Really Bother with This?	p. 443
Additional Reading	p. 444
You're Not Done Yet	p. 447
Reference List	p. 449
Index	p. 465
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