Schatz Happens...Deal With It!

Sample Definition of Done

2011-07-12T18:37:00.000-04:00

I continue to receive a lot of questions about the Definition of Done. Now, a lot of content out there talks in generic terms, but I have a sample that provides a good starting point for your team or organization to consider when creating your own.

I can't stress enough the importance of having this in place. It is the work standard and quality standard which the team(s) should follow. It doesn't matter if you're doing Scrum, XP, Kanban, or some Franken-process...you still need a definition of done to ensure quality and completeness of your process steps.

Many problems that teams have implementing their agile techniques are rooted in not having a clear definition of done checklist with quality checks. Maybe its a good time to make sure you have a Definition of Done in place, well communicated, and followed with discipline.

The link below has my Sample Definition of Done in two formats and an exercise to create the initial version if you don't have your own today.

http://www.box.net/shared/erszagsh3c

Good Luck! I welcome any questions, comments, or suggestions

When in Doubt...Act It Out

2010-08-25T15:18:00.000-04:00

I was recently working with a team on planning their first sprint on a new project. After a couple of very confusing hours talking about what the project even was about, I asked the team to create personas for their users on large sheets on the wall to help them visualize it, thinking it would help them break through the confusion. But, it didn't really work which really let me know how bad the problem was.
So, it was time to improvise...I had each of them take one of the user roles and write it on a post-it, then stick it to themselves. Then we just acted out the system functions with each person taking on one of the user roles and describing how they would use a feature and how they would be interacting with another user. It worked, it was fun, and it helped everyone get a clear view of the features and the user interactions.

Learn something new everyday! I will certainly be using this technique again. Give it a try.

What's Your Circuit Breaker?

2010-07-15T22:20:00.000-04:00

I was working with a group this week and we were in a discussion about making sure that their Scrum teams do the proper level of capacity planning for each sprint in order to avoid overloading. We took a break and I was looking at a home grown power distribution system in the room where two strings of 3-4 power strips each were connected in parallel to two outlets in the floor. No surprise, seen that before. But it got me thinking of yet another metaphor...

Each of the outlet strips has a circuit breaker on it, and the building has breakers for the circuits running through the building. Below is a excerpt from howstuffworks.com explaining circuit breakers:

The circuit breaker is an absolutely essential device in the modern world, and one of the most important safety mechanisms in your home. Whenever electrical wiring in a building has too much current flowing through it, these simple machines cut the power until somebody can fix the problem. Without circuit breakers (or the alternative, fuses), household electricity would be impractical because of the potential for fires and other mayhem resulting from simple wiring problems and equipment failures.

Harris, Tom. "How Circuit Breakers Work." 09 May 2002. HowStuffWorks.com.

Fires and Mayhem! Yikes! Sounds like a few of the projects I've seen in my career. So I thought it would be a good topic after the break to point out what happens when we run too much current through a wire with a certain capacity (no, I did not light the place up!)...a good chance of fire and mayhem. Circuit breakers establish the parameters that allow power to effectively and efficiently flow through the system. When the limits are hit, the breaker shuts down the whole circuit until action is taken to bring it back within limits.

Establishing the teams capacity and the "focused task time" keep the team safe and allow them to increase their speed with experience and learning. When overloaded they often wind up in fire and mayhem.

What are your team's circuit breakers for the sprint? How do you establish the parameters? What signals your breakers to trip? Who has to take action to reduce the load if they do trip? Do you have surge protection?

Zero Point User Stories

2010-06-12T10:15:00.004-04:00

Recently, with a few clients, I have suggested that they put user stories in their backlogs with zero points. These stories identify work that is being done, but does not add value for the end user. People have used zero point stories in the past to identify some unit of work that was very small. But I'm seeing another angle...

I'm doing this is because if we look at the points that we typically put on a story, we primarily are doing it to identify the relative size. However, I have seen a lot of stories for things like defect fixing (when the team has not conquered the zero defect concept yet), or supporting an audit for ISO or CMMI. By having the stories in the backlog, we make sure the work is visible, by giving it zero points we make sure that that work is not showing as "value points for an end-user".

Before trying this, I was having teams reserve hours in their capacity for things like this and that worked fine. This just makes it a little easier and stops us from counting non-value add work in velocity. Seems to be working great! Give it a try...

Morning Meetings and Daily Scrums

2009-10-29T08:02:00.003-04:00

I was amazed the other day when my daughter Melanie (currently a student teacher) and I had a discussion of a technique she is using in her classrooms called the Morning Meeting. The morning meeting is a new strategy being used in schools to get kids engaged and focused on the goals for the day. We both had a good laugh as she explained that process, and then I explained how I have to teach adults to do the exact same thing in something we call the Daily Scrum. We ordered a couple books from Amazon on the subject of Morning Meetings and I began to browse through them to see what the objectives of the process were from a teachers perspective. The main point is to bring in the socialization of children and learning the learning experience as a critical piece in addition to the content of the subject.

In the book "The Morning Meeting Book" by Roxann Kriete she lays out the purpose of the Morning Meeting as follows:

Morning Meeting sets the tone for respectful learning and establishes a climate of trust.
The tone and climate of Morning Meeting extend beyond the Meeting.
Morning Meeting motivates children by addressing two human needs: the need to feel a sense of significance and belonging and the need to have fun.
The repetition of many ordinary moments of respectful interaction in Morning Meeting enables some extraordinary moments.
Morning Meeting merges social, emotional, and intellectual learning.

That is exactly why we have Daily Scrums. Sure we need to know about where we all are in accomplishing a goal, but the REAL purpose is the same set of points above. Creating that environment everyday leads to better results and a more engaged, energized team. I can't wait to see these kids grow up and enter the workforce with that level of social skills! It will be very interesting.

In the meantime, you may want to take a look at what teachers use as tools for Morning Meetings and see if you can't apply that to your Daily Scrums. Go talk to your son or daughter about this and see if they are doing it at school. The next time you have a parent-teacher conference, ask the teacher about Morning Meetings. I find it fascinating how our childhood is so tightly linked to adulthood even though most of us never make the connection.

Thoughts for a Change Agent

2009-08-28T10:41:00.004-04:00

Here's a thought for any of you that are trying to drive change, whether at work or anywhere else in your lives...

Are you getting frustrated when you put new ideas "on the table" and you meet a lot of resistance? Does that get you frustrated and blaming the people you are trying to change? Well, here's a thought you might want to consider:

Sometimes the brick walls we run into are actually mirrors.

It is important for a change leader to understand the people they are presenting new ideas to. To understand the goals and fears of the targets of change. Put yourself in their shoes.

If you find yourself always blaming everyone else for not listening to you or even considering your ideas you might want to take a good look in the mirror.

Emergency Landing Procedures....No Thanks!

2009-07-22T23:13:00.002-04:00

Wow! I had a flight lesson the other day that really tested my "how do you react in a panic" brain cells. I was up flying around practicing S-turns and turns around a fixed point, feeling pretty good about the progress I have made since my first flight.

Then my instructor reaches for the throttle and pulls it back to idle while at 2500 feet and says "OK, you just lost engine power...what are you going to do now?" My response was "you mean after I finish [performing a bodily function] (paraphrased)???" I was simply terrified!

But then we walked through the mechanics of focusing on getting the plane to its best glide speed (yes, fixed wing aircraft can stay in the air as long as you don't screw it up), then looking for a place to land, trying to restart the engine, and finally communicating the emergency to others. After doing that a few times, I didn't panic anymore. I wonder if anyone on the ground while I practiced this stuff was a bit curious! But who knows how you'll react when it happens for real and you're either alone, or you have a passenger.

Good practice; and it got me thinking about how you always have to be thinking of contingencies and how you will react when things don't go the way you planned. Better to work through your possible options when you're not paniced, so maybe it becomes "muscle memory". I think we all saw the miracle of that US Airways pilot that put the plane down safely in the Hudson. Very impressive!

Learning to Inspect and Adapt...Quickly

2009-05-11T14:28:00.003-04:00

I took the first big step today towards my next goal in life. I'm going to work toward my Private Pilot License. I took the introductory flight, which was basically me flying the plane with the instructor making small adjustments (at least it seemed like that to me!) during the flight.

But they don't waste anytime getting you flying. I watched about 30 minutes of introduction videos, then met my instructor, and we headed out for about a 30 minute flight around Philadelphia.

It was the most incredible feeling! I highly recommend the intro flight to anyone. I immediately signed up for my first real lesson tomorrow. It is a little scary at first thinking you can just fly the plane, but it seems like that's what the plane wants to do. I'm sure I'm going to be learning a lot, and that's really exciting! I am completely hooked!!

Eating Chinese Food in Norway

2009-02-24T16:49:00.002-05:00

I'm on a trip doing some training in Norway. So usually when I visit places I try to eat the local cuisine so it makes it interesting and becomes a learning experience for me.

On the first couple nights here I had my choice of many local pubs and restaurants and I'd pick one and order something that I typically would not have access to in my home in Philadelphia, PA.

Tonight is my final night and I'm flying back to the US tomorrow. I had a craving to eat Chinese food. I felt a little guilty putting my nose up to the locals and choosing to eat Chinese, until I realized they like Chinese food too, or else the restaurant probably wouldn't be here. This was related to the feeling I got when I walked into a McDonald's in Beijing,China!

Anyway, the point is that I like Chinese food and I've eaten it in just about every country I've been in (including China of course). I like the style, the types of ingredients, and the flavors. But in each restaurant that I go to there is always a little difference based on the cook's style, local tastes, and available variants of ingredients. So, for example in Norway the fish dishes are a little different than you would get in Chicago.

Bringing it back to Scrum....when people ask what kinds of projects to use Scrum or not use Scrum I always give an answer that you can use it anywhere it makes sense to you, as demonstrated in my Family Scrum post. Every application of the techniques may have a little twist related to the specifics of the project, but the foundation is very similar. The style, flavors, types of ingredients are consistent; the variations come from the local influence.

Just like eating Chinese food in Norway!!

Interesting Uses for Scrum

2009-02-21T08:49:00.004-05:00

Do you have any interesting applications where you've used Scrum?

Recently, I used it with my family when we were having a lot of "churn" in deciding how to re-decorate our family room. Everyone had their own idea of what it would be, but no common goals.

So, over some Dunkin Donuts coffee and donuts we ran a planning session and created a prioritized backlog. From there we went out and executed very efficiently and turned everything around in less than a week.

My wife Sheri was the Product Owner (of course), I was the ScrumMaster, and the rest of the gang was the team. My wife came up with 3 prioritized goals for the room, and then everyone wrote 2-3 user stories. We then sized them, put a value on them, and prioritized the list. From that point it was just a matter of going to a furniture store, carpet store, and a few clicks on Amazon and that was it....Done!

It was very interesting to see how fast everything moved when we had a set of common goals and everyone had a chance to participate in the outcome.

My students love when I show the pictures from this session and it really highlights how Scrum is useful for many different types of projects!

Do you have any interesting applications of Scrum?