Henrik Kniberg - Scrum and XP beyond the trenches

Scrum & XP
Beyond the trenches
Agile Israel
2011-04-11

Henrik Kniberg
Agile/Lean coach
www.crisp.se

Board of
directors

henrik.kniberg@crisp.se
070 4925284

Once upon a weekend Nov 10-12, 2006

Henrik Kniberg 2

Date: Monday, Nov 13, 2006!
from: Henrik!
to: scrumdevelopment@yahoogroups.com!
subject: Scrum & XP from the trenches - how we do Scrum!

I've written a paper (well more like a small book) describing lessons 
learnt after a year of Scrum experimentation with a group of 40 
developers. Includes details on how we approached multi-team sprint 
planning, testing, retrospectives, etc. 

Here's the final draft: 
http://www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg/ScrumAndXpFromTheTrenches.pdf 

Any feedback is welcome! 

Those of you who are authors, any ideas on what I should do with a 
paper like this? Haven't done this kind of stuff before... 

/Henrik"

Henrik Kniberg 3

4 years later...
250,000 downloads
12 languages

Henrik Kniberg 4

4 years later...
250,000 downloads
12 13 languages
X

Henrik Kniberg 5

Discovery #1
Other people were discovering the same solutions, independently

When I read your book I
recognized all the problems and
solutions, we went through the
same journey!

Henrik Kniberg 7

Discovery #2
Most people don’t read disclaimers

”this is the paper to read if ”We’ve have adopted
you want to avoid learning it as our tech bible
Agile by trial and error” here at my company”

Henrik Kniberg 8

Discovery #3
Copy/paste worked better than I had thought!

”I've started using Scrum in my
company and it's been a success
thanks to your valuable information”

We spend a lot of time
arguing over Focus
But not perfectly... Factor
Who cares about Focus
Factor? Why do you waste
time on that?
We learned
about it from
Oops...
your book...

Well, we stopped doing
that right after the
Henrik Kniberg book came out 9

Purpose of this presentation

!   Many of the solutions in ”Scrum and XP from the Trenches” turned
out to be pretty much universally applicable
!   However, I’ve learned a lot since 2006 and there some things that I
would have done differently if I could go back in time.
!   Purpose of this presentation is to share these insights with you.

Henrik Kniberg 10

Let’s compare notes.
What about you?

When you see this signal No! Yes!
Give me feedback!

= We do this

= We don’t do this

Henrik Kniberg 11

Recommendation #1:

Limit all queues

12

3 items 5 items 10 items 20 items
6 orderings 120 orderings 3,628,800 orderings 2,432,902,010,000,000,000 orderings
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13
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Henrik Kniberg orem ipsum dolor
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Top 10
Product backlog or bug database
Length 100+
9 × 10157 orderings
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Recommendation:
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Limit all queues
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What about you?
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No! Yes!
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14
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Henrik Kniberg
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Recommendation #2:

Have a chief product
owner role

15

PO

CPO PO

Recommendation:
PO Have a chief product
owner role

What about you?

No! Yes!

Henrik Kniberg 16

Recommendation #3:

Express backlog items as
User Stories

17

As a <stakeholder>
User story I want <what>
so that <why>
Independent
As a buyer 8 Negotiable
I want to save my shopping cart Valuable
so that I can continue shopping later Estimable
Small
Testable
How to demo: Acronym courtesy of Bill Wake – www.xp123.com
1)  Enter store
2)  Put a book in shopping cart
3)  Press ”save cart”
4)  Leave store, and enter it again C
5)  Check that the book is in my cart
A B C

Recommendation:
GUI

Express backlog items
as User Stories Client
What about you?
Server

Henrik Kniberg No! Yes! 18
DB schema

Recommendation #4:

Estimate stories
before the sprint
planning meeting

19

Backlog creation & grooming
– sample schedule
Timeline

Initial
backlog
creation Backlog workshop every Wednesday 10:00 – 11:00

Backlog
grooming
cycle

Sprint cycle

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3

Recommendation:
Estimate stories
before the sprint
planning meeting
What about you?

Henrik Kniberg 20
No! Yes!

Recommendation #5:

Don’t estimate tasks

21

Stories vs tasks
Break into tasks
(normally during sprint planning meeting)
Split stories
Write failing Create DB Write form
test schema validation
User admin
5
Register new user Write Do
Do GUI
server-side integration
design
logic test

User admin
3
Find user
13
Administrate
users User admin
2
Edit existing user

User admin
8
Delete user

Henrik Kniberg 22

Recommendation:

Estimation alternatives Don’t estimate tasks

What about you?
Stories Tasks
No! Yes!
1. Don’t estimate stories. Just count them. 1. Skip tasks

2. Don’t estimate tasks. Just count them.

2. Estimate stories in t-shirt size

S M
L
S M L
Hours?
Days? 3. Estimate tasks in days
Weeks? 1d
3. Estimate stories in story points 0.5d 2d

1sp 2sp 5sp 4. Estimate tasks in hours
4h 12h
8h
4. Estimate stories in ideal man-days

1d 3d
6d
Henrik Kniberg 23

Recommendation #6:

Skip focus factor

24

Skip Focus Factor

Henrik Kniberg 25

Focus Factor MAY be useful when starting
a new project with a new team...
As a X
Facts:
I want Y 8sp Hmmm.... we think THIS
so that Z
story is about 6 ideal man-
•  Team size = 6 people days
As a X
•  Sprint length = 2 weeks I want Y 2sp
so that Z

Estimate: As a X
I want Y 3sp
•  2 sp = 6 imd so that Z
•  Focus factor: 50% As a X
I want Y 5sp
so that Z
Calculation:
•  Calendar days in sprint: 10 days
•  Man-days in sprint: 60 md
•  Ideal man-days in sprint: 60 md x 50% = 30 imd
•  Velocity: 30 imd / 3 = 10 sp / sprint

Henrik Kniberg 26

”simple” velocity calculations are simpler
and usually no less accurate
Likely future velocity:
V= 8 V= 7 V= 9 7-9 per sprint
1 2 2 1 1 2
Velocity
2 3 1 3 1 2 2 1
Sprint Sprint Sprint April
1 2 3 May
June
Recommendation:
Skip focus factor
Q3?
What about you?

No! Yes!

Henrik Kniberg 27

Recommendation #7:

Don’t fill the sprint

28

The sprint commitment
Common misconceptions
!   ”We promise to achieve this goal”
!   ”We promise to deliver all stories included in the sprint backlog”

Team’s commitment to the product owner:
”We promise that...”
!   ... we believe we can reach the sprint goal.
!   ... we will do everything in our power to reach the sprint goal,
and will let you know immediately if we no longer believe we can
reach it.
!   ... we believe that we can complete all stories included in the
sprint backlog.
!   ... we will demonstrate releasable code at the end of the sprint
!   ... if we fall behind schedule we will talk to you and, if necessary,
remove the lowest priority stories first.
!   ... if we get ahead of schedule, we will add stories to the sprint
from the product backlog, in priority order.
!   ... we will display our progress and status on a daily basis.
!   ... every story that we do deliver is Done.

11-04-11

Henrik Kniberg 29

No Slack = Long queues
Car in Car out

100% Road utilization
=> Terrible throughput

CPU: 100%

Http://.... CPU: 100% <html>....
CPU: 100%
Request in Response out

100% Server utilization

As a ...
I want ... ! !
So that ...
! !
Feature request ! ! Feature
in 100% Team utilization out

Henrik Kniberg 30

Product Sprint
backlog backlog

• Team: We’re pretty sure we
can finish all of these.
• PO: These are definitely the
highest priority items, their
priorities won’t change
during the sprint.

SLACK
• Team: We might finish some of
these, but probably not all
• PO: Some of these might be
reprioritized during the sprint

• Team: We’re pretty sure we
won’t finish any of these
Recommendation:
Don’t fill the sprint

What about you?

No! Yes31
31 !
Henrik Kniberg

Recommendation #8:

Visualize more than
just the sprint

32

Product backlog Sprint

What happens What happens
upstream? downstream?

PO

Henrik Kniberg 33

Product User acceptance test
Goal backlog Development & production

Policies &
working
agreements

Analysis

Technical debt
Support

Henrik Kniberg 34

Team 1 Team 2 Team 3

Recommendation:
Visualize more than
just the sprint
Henrik Kniberg 35
What about you?

No! Yes!
35

Next! Develop! Release!
1 3 2
Concept! Playable! Features! Polish! Done!
Team
Pac man Bingo
Solitaire
1

Zork Mine
Team Pong sweeper
2
Dugout
Team Donkey Duck
Kong hunt
3

Team 1 Team 2 Team 3

36

Recommendation #9:

If sprints don’t work,
use Kanban

37

Sprints aren’t the only way to be agile

Sprints
week 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8

Sprint 1 Sprint 2

Plan & commit Review
Retrospective
(release?)

Separate cadences week 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8

Retrospectives (4w)

Planning cadence (2w)

Release cadence (1w)

Event-driven week 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8

Retrospectives (4w)

Planning (on demand)

Release (on demand)

38

A simple kanban system Migrate invoicing

To Do! Doing!
Ready for Done!!
production!
!
reports to the new
format

5 3 5
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Recommendation:
If sprints don’t work,
use Kanban
What about you?

No! Yes!
39
Henrik Kniberg

Recommendation #10:

Use simple metrics
for planning &
improvement

40

Velocity = features per week (”bandwidth”)
Simple & useful metrics Cycle time = weeks per feature (”ping”)

DONE! Velocity
To Do! .....! ....! ....! this week! Week Items done
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week 6 4 items
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week 7 8 items
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Avg cycle time: 10 days
Cycle time
Item Cycle time
Start
Jan 5
14d ! Done
Jan 19
#22 14 Days #22 Migrate
#23 6 Days
invoicing reports to
Henrik Kniberg
#24 10 Days
the new format ! 41

14

12 Recommendation:
We’re 90% certain
10 that next feature
Use simple metrics for
Lead planning &
time will be done
8 within 7 days improvement
(days) 7
6 What about you?
5
4
3 No! Yes!
2

0

Cycle
'me
per
feature

Elapsed

Days

Henrik Kniberg 42

Recommendation #11:

Visualize top 3
impediments

43

Manager

Top 3 Top 3 Top 3
impediments impediments impediments



SM SM SM

Henrik Kniberg 44

Dev
manager
PO
Top 3
Ops
impediments
manager
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SM
SM
SM SM
SM
SM

SM SM

Henrik Kniberg 45

Top 3
project
impediments

Top 3
project
impediments

Recommendation:
Visualize top 3
impediments
What about you?

No! Yes! 46
Henrik Kniberg

Recommendation #12:

Continuously
measure employee
satisfaction

47

Happiness Index

Lack of
motivation

.....

.....

”How does it feel to come to work?”
(scale 1-5)
1 2 3 4 5

Henrik Kniberg 48

Managers &
Product owner developers talk about
moves closer motivation
to developers .......
Reorganization in
management team

Bug Bash tuesdays

.......

Henrik Kniberg 49

Result Happiness Index

It is better to use imprecise
measures of what is wanted,
rather than precise measures of
what is not

Russel Ackoff

Henrik Kniberg 50

•  Name (optional)
•  Satisfaction level (1-5)
•  Last updated (date)
•  What feels best right now?
•  What feels worst right now?
•  What would improve your satisfaction level?

Happiness metric –
the Wave of the Future

Recommendation:
Continuously
measure employee
Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum
http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2010/11/happiness-metric-wave-of-future.html satisfaction
http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2010/12/scrum-inc-sprint-2-retrospective.html
What about you?
Henrik Kniberg 51
No! Yes!

Recommendation #13:

Use the ”king & servant”
pattern to enable
continuous delivery

52

Parallellitis (n)
The mistaken belief that you get more done by doing
everything at once.
Register is done! Let’s
publish to trunk!
To do! Doing! Done!
No wait, there is
partially complete
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Register
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Deposit code!
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Lemee finish!
Deposit
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Withdraw
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To do! Doing! Done! OK Deposit is done!
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Register & Deposit
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Henrik Kniberg 53
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The king & servant pattern
•  Anyone working on the top priority story is King. To do! Doing! Done!
•  Everyone else on the team is a Servant.
•  You want to be King. Try to find ways to help Register orem ipsum dolor
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out with the top priority story.
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•  Whenever a King needs help, Servants Deposit orem ipsum dolor
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•  A Servant may never check in unreleasable code Withdraw
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on the team branch. A King may check in
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whatever he pleases (as long as he doesn’t
violate a branch policy of course).
•  As soon as the top priority story is Done, Recommendation:
anyone working on the next story is now King. Use the ”King & servant”
pattern to enable
continuous delivery
What about you?

No! Yes!

Henrik Kniberg 54

”Version Control for Multiple Agile Teams”
http://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-version-control

Flow down R2.4.2
continuously
Release
codelines R2.3 R2.4

No flow up
Mainline
Flow down
continuously
Work Team A Team B
codelines
Team A
Flow up at spike
stable
points

Henrik Kniberg 55

Recommendation #14:

Use Definition of
Done as a quality
tool

56

Definition of Done
To do! Doing! Done! Releasable
•  Merged to trunk
Register
•  Acceptance tested
Deposit •  No increased technical debt
Withdraw
= I haven’t messed up
Transfer the codebase

Simple design
1. Passes all tests
2. No duplication
3. Readable
4. Minimal
Kent Beck

Henrik Kniberg 57

Recommendation:
Use Definition of Done
as a quality tool

What about you?

No! Yes!

58

Recommendation #15:

Test automation backlog

59

Step 1: Decide what needs to be tested
!   Change skin
!   Security alert
!   Transaction history
!   Block account
!   Add new user
!   Sort query results
!   Deposit cash
!   Validate transfer

Henrik Kniberg 60

Step 2: Classify each test
Pay every
Pay once
time

Manual Test Automation
Test case Risk
Cost Cost

Change skin low 0.5 hrs 20 sp

Security alert high 1 hrs 13 sp
Transaction
history med 3 hrs 1 sp

Block account high 5 hrs 0.5 sp

Add new user low 0.5 hrs 3 sp
Sort query
med 2 hrs 8 sp
results

Deposit cash high 1.5 hrs 1 sp
Validate high 3 hrs 5 sp
transfer

Henrik Kniberg 61

Step 3: Sort the list
Automate first!
Manual Test Automation
Test case Risk
Cost Cost

Block
account high 5 hrs 0.5 sp
Validate
transfer high 3 hrs 5 sp
Transaction
history med 3 hrs 1 sp
Sort query
results med 2 hrs 8 sp

Deposit cash high 1.5 hrs 1 sp
Security
alert high 1 hr 13 sp Automate last
Add new (or never)!
user low 0.5 hrs 3 sp
Change skin low 0.5 hrs 20 sp

Henrik Kniberg 62

Step 4: Allocate capacity
Product backlog

PO 80% Sprint backlog

Test automation backlog

20%

Henrik Kniberg 63

Top 10
Customer
requirements

Top 5 Internal
improvements
Recommendation:
Test automation
backlog
What about you?

No! Yes!
64
Henrik Kniberg

Have you learned anything new today
that you will try to apply?

No! Yes!

Henrik Kniberg 66

Perfection is a direction, not a place
!  Find a balance: appreciate your current
solution, while looking for a better one.
!  Just because today’s solution seems better,
doesn’t mean yesterday’s solution was bad.
!  Copy/pasting solutions from other contexts
is OK, as long as you also adapt.
!  Keep experimenting &
make sure the learning never stops.

Henrik Kniberg 67

Henrik Kniberg - Scrum and XP beyond the trenches

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Henrik Kniberg - Scrum and XP beyond the trenches