Lessons Learned in Agile
Development
Jim Smith
PDX, Inc.
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Disclaimer:
• I am not a consultant! (not that there’s
anything wrong with that)
• I am:
– Developer, by trade.
– Been in management for the past eleven years.
– Oversee development of four complex product
lines.
– Approximately 250 programmers, QA testers,
Software architects and DBA’s.
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Context
• PDX. . .
• The original PDX Agile project. . .
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Lesson #1
• Everybody thinks they’re already Agile.
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Lesson #2
• Enabling developers to commit has
spectacularly good effects:
– They own it!
– They manage their own overtime!
– They drive teammates!
– They escalate!
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Lesson #3
• Managers get to do good things:
– Coach/mentor
– Strategic organizational and infrastructure
enhancement and fixes (e.g. – switch from proprietary
bug tracking system to Jira)
– Audit
– Get and stay plugged into business
– Keep foot soldiers educated
– Give morale maintenance the care and feeding it
deserves
– Talk to each other
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Lesson #4
• Write good user stories.
– Good user stories are beautiful.
– Apply the “no system” litmus test.
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Lesson #5
• The industry feels that pre-planning is
necessary.
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Lesson #6
• TDD: a way of life
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Lesson #7
• At all levels, currents push us back toward
waterfall:
– More docs
– More time up front
– More time for regression testing
– Email, IM and bug record correspondence
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Lesson #8
• Even the best and brightest have trouble with
collaboration.
– It’s a required skill in today’s software
development shop.
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Lesson #9
• The team will gladly turn in slackers.
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Lesson #10
• [Lean] documentation is still good.
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Lesson #11
• “Nothing is over! Nothing!” –John Rambo
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Lesson #12
• The team must understand: You can’t do
everything that falls out of retrospectives.
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Lesson #13
• Although not ideal, team members can be
scrum masters.
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Lesson #14
• You can get executive, managerial and
customer buy-in with your first demo and
through training on user stories
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Lesson #15
• Customers and other stakeholders at demos =
bueno!
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Lesson #16
• Let the scrum team stay focused; retain a
production support team.
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Lesson #17
• Get your DBA team to agree to an SLA.
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Lesson #18
• Break down those user stories!
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Lesson #19
• Keep noisy managers and executives out of
kick offs.
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Lesson #20
• The stand up is for all.
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Lesson #21
• The PO must appreciate the value of paying
technical debt.
– 20%
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Lesson #22
• The PO is not the team owner.
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Lesson #23
• People won’t talk? Slamming doors? Putting
up walls? = dysfunctional Agile team.
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Lesson #24
• Parties and other rewards after demos ==
bueno!
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Lesson #25
• Don’t let a sprint go longer than five weeks.
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Lesson #26
• Train your developers to sign off on user
stories early.
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Lesson #27
• The PO position is a fulltime job, for a member
of the business, who can appreciate technical
debt.
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Lesson #28
• Co-location of sprint team members is good!
• At a minimum, members of a given sprint
team should live on the same continent
(except business analysts and architects)
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Lesson #29
• Your development and test environments are
production environments.
– Enormous waste when they’re down.
– Many grumpy people when they’re down; they’re
missing deadlines to which they committed!
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Lesson #30
• Don’t treat your India folks like warm
bodies. . .or they’ll act like warm bodies.
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Lesson #31
• Sashimi is a great idea, but not always 100%
possible.
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Lesson #32
• Velocity steadily increases when your team
rosters are constant, and working on the same
product(s).
– If you frequently change team rosters, then
abandon hope that velocity will increase.
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Lesson #33
• The product ought to be ready for production
after every sprint.
– Although not always practical, strive for it with
every sprint!
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Lesson #34
• The Scrum Master is a strong servant leader.
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Lesson #35
• Plaster that product backlog EVERYWHERE!
– The whole team needs to know it!
– The company brass needs to know it!
– Customers need to know it!
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Lesson #36
• Developers are professionals – not privates in
the army. Treat them as such.
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Lesson #37
• “Scrum” is not an acronym.
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Q&A
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Hemant Elhence
hemant@synerzip.com
469.322.0349
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Synerzip in a Nutshell
1. Software product development partner for small/mid-sized
technology companies
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Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies, typically
venture-backed companies in growth phase
By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clients
Deep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment
2. Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals for
each client
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Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparency
Stable teams with very low turn-over
NOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support
3. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery
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Experienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering discipline
Practices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined
4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage
5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking
offshore team captive – aka “BOT” option
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Our Clients
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Thanks!
Call Us for a Free Consultation!
Hemant Elhence
hemant@synerzip.com
469.322.0349
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