A Manager's Introduction to Agile Development

Pete Deemer CPO, Yahoo! India R&D

For Many of Us Using Traditional Software Development Methods

Time-to-market for projects is too long Project failure rate is unacceptably high ROI of projects frequently falls short Responding to change is difficult and costly Customer collaboration is a problem Software quality is poor Productivity could be higher Employee morale, drive and accountability is weak Widespread micromanagement is required Employee retention rates are low Software development is much harder than it should be!

The Emergence of Agile

The major Agile methods Scrum, XP, TDD are growing in popularity around the world Rapid growth in last 3-5 years at leading global companies, such as:
Google IBM Siemens Nokia Philips Accenture Microsoft Infosys Wipro Motorola HP TCS

The Basics of Scrum

Scrum Master Daily Scrum Meeting

4-Week Sprint
Product Owner
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

The Team

Review

Commitment
Sprint Planning Meeting

No Changes
(in Duration or Deliverable)

Potentially Shippable Product

Product Backlog

Retrospective

Scrum vs. Previous Approach:

Productivity / How much team got done?

5%
Scrum WORSE or MUCH WORSE

68%
Scrum BETTER or MUCH BETTER

50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

+36% Average Increase

ScrumMUCH Much Scrum WORSE Worse

Scrum WORSE Worse

about Scrum About same the Same

Scrum BETTER Better

Scrum Scrum MUCH Much BETTER Better

Scrum vs. Previous Approach:

Morale?
9%
Scrum WORSE or MUCH WORSE

52%
Scrum BETTER or MUCH BETTER

35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

ScrumMUCH Much Scrum Worse WORSE

Scrum Worse WORSE

Scrum About about same the Same

Scrum BETTER Better

Scrum MUCH Much Scrum Better BETTER

Scrum vs. Previous Approach:

Sense of accountability/ownership in project? 6%

Scrum WORSE or MUCH WORSE

62%
Scrum BETTER or MUCH BETTER

35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

ScrumMUCH Much Scrum Worse WORSE

Scrum Worse WORSE

Scrum About about same the Same

Scrum BETTER Better

Scrum MUCH Much Scrum Better BETTER

Scrum vs. Previous Approach:

Collaboration and cooperation in the team? 1%

Scrum WORSE or MUCH WORSE

81%
Scrum BETTER or MUCH BETTER

45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

Scrum MUCH Much Scrum Worse WORSE

Scrum Scrum Worse WORSE

Scrum ScrumAbout about theSame same the

Scrum Scrum BETTER Better

Much Scrum MUCH Better BETTER

Scrum vs. Previous Approach:

Overall quality of what was developed?

10%
Scrum WORSE or MUCH WORSE

44%
Scrum BETTER or MUCH BETTER

45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

ScrumMUCH Much Scrum Worse WORSE

Scrum Worse WORSE

Scrum About about the Same same

Scrum Better BETTER

Scrum MUCH Much Scrum Better BETTER

If the decision were solely up to you, would your team continue using Scrum?

No 15%

Yes 85%

Scrum Disadvantages
Its hard! Makes all dysfunction visible
Scrum doesnt fix anything: the team has to do it Feels like things are worse at the beginning

Bad products will be delivered sooner, and doomed projects will fail faster Some teams and organizations are not right or ready for it
Team willingness Management buy-in and support Risk of turnover

Partial adoption may be worse than none at all Failure can be costly