Agile development

By Sam Chamberlain
First a bit of history..
Waterfall development and the V model
 Waterfall the V model
• In the beginning there was no process
• Then waterfall is / was a very heavily used
software development lifecycle (SDLC)
• V model is an enhancement on the waterfall
method with corresponding testing materials
being prepared at each stage
• Traditional project management is similar. For
example PRINCE 2, MS Project, Gant charts etc.
 V model characteristics
• Try and decide requirements at the beginning
• Budget and time also fixed
• Lots of detailed, up-front specification and
modelling (UML for example)
• What usually happens is requirements change
somewhat and then time and budgets slip as well
• Disconnect between business and development
• Testing and quality often an afterthought
 Introducing Agile
• Iterative and incremental
• Fixed, time-boxing but then changing, prioritised
requirements
• Customer focussed
• The Agile manifesto
– Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
– Working software over comprehensive documentation
– Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
– Responding to change over following a plan
 More from the Agile Manifesto
• Customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of useful software
• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development
• Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
• Working software is the principal measure of progress
• Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace
• Close, daily co-operation between business people and developers
• Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-
location)
• Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
• Simplicity- The art of maximizing the amount of work not done - is
essential
• Self-organizing teams
• Regular adaptation to changing circumstances
 Agile and Agile Scrum
• Scrum is a popular Agile methodology
• Different to XP - eXtreme Programming or Unified
Process, Lean etc.
• But methodologies can be mixed
• Characteristics of scrum
– Sprints
– Product and sprint backlog
– Stand-up
– User stories
Agile scrum - lifecycle
 Scrum roles
• Product owner
– Responsible for Product Backlog
– Interface with business, stakeholders and customers
– Removes product obstructions
• Scrum master
– Facilitator for the scrum team
– Enforces rules
– Removes team obstructions
• Development team
– Programmers
– Testers
 Scrum lifecycle
• Daily stand-up / scrum – “what have I done, what am I
doing next, are there obstructions”
• Backlog grooming with Product Owner
• Sprint planning and “planning poker ”mainly with
Development team
• Development and testing
• No new stories in the sprint
• “Done, done”
• Product release – working software  and communication
with stakeholders
• Sprint retrospective
Agile – board
Sample – burn-down chart
 User stories and their use
• "As a <user type> I want to <do some action> so that
<desired result>“
• Small piece of functionality needed by a user
– Stack rank – i.e. priority
– Story points – important: measure of complexity only
– Associated tasks – with time estimates
• Includes detailed “acceptance criteria”
• Should be at least one test for each acceptance criteria
item
• “Done, done” means a story has been closed – i.e. all
tests passed successfully
 Agile bugs
• Bugs found in the iteration should be fixed in the
iteration, otherwise the relevant story should be removed
from the iteration. Planning needs to make time for this
• Other bugs or customer bugs are placed in the backlog
and put into iterations during planning
• Bugs need to be reproducible and fully analysed before
they are added to the backlog
• Continuous integration and automated testing as well as
experienced scrum will mean less bugs. A well working
scrum often has no open bugs
 Successful Agile
• Constant improvement of process
• Deliver around the same amount of story points each iteration
• Even burn-down rate
• Contents of iteration planning match what is released at the
end of each iteration
• Confident stakeholders – “if we don’t get it this iteration, we’ll
get it in two weeks”
• Constant refactoring
• No or very few open bugs
• Regular “cool-down” and refactoring iterations
 Other aspects of Agile
• Product roadmap and vision
• Release notes and other documentation
• Self organising teams
• No managers, aside from line-managers
– Scrum Master tries to enforce rules, remove impediments
– Product Owner manages the product backlog and priorities,
but has no control over what the scrum actually does
• Pair programming – used allot in XP
• Scrum / Agile works very well with SAAS
 Continuous integration
• Technical: Scrum / developer responsibility
• Code repository and daily builds
• Constant check-ins
• Tests run frequently
• Automated testing – build up a regression test suit (code)
that can be run any time, quickly
• Separate Dev, testing, staging and live systems
• Can help to have a tool to manage everything from the
scrum, to the code and check-ins, to the test suit, to
reporting – for example MS TFS
Implementing Agile for a Company
• Asses suitability of Agile and appropriate parts
• Form team and define roles
• Good to have experienced Scrum Master
• Need dedicated tester(s)
• Need Product Owner
• Decide on tool(s)
• Product Road map
• Define and start to prioritise and groom user stories
• Start scrum cycles
• Move towards continuous integration and automated testing
 Sam Chamberlain – relevant skills
• Plan and implement high level Agile processes
• Guidance on Agile and Agile principles
• Product ownership
• Product road map and product release
• Business and systems analysis
• Extensive technical knowledge
• Testing and training
• Supplier shortlisting, selection and management
• Recruitment
Questions?
Thank you