agile for startups: sendgrid's history with agile (2013)
DESCRIPTION
In SendGrid's 5-year history, we've had both successes and failures using Agile methodologies. Victor Bonacci (SG's first Agile coach) walks through some achievements and pitfalls in an attempt to guide new entrepreneurs adopting Agile.TRANSCRIPT
Agile for Startups
SendGrid’s history with Agile
Victor Bonacci MBA, PMPAgile Coach @SendGrid@AgileCoffee
SoCal Code Camp -- November 2013
SendGrid powers your app
Cloud-based email service– delivers email on behalf of your app/site– increases deliverability– improves customer communications– via SMTP or REST API
We grow with your site• scalable email infrastructure• metrics on outgoing email• handle the time consuming tasks
involved with implementing unsubscribe links, abiding by anti-spam regulations, and maintaining corporate branding
Stay out of the Spam folder
SG has sent over 160 Billion emails
http://sendgrid.com/careers
SG Culture
Flat Org Structure
CEO|
VP Engineering|
Developers, QA Engineers, Project Mgrs
Founders (3) Board (6)
INSPECTADAPT
DOPLAN
Agile Flavors
Scrum
Agile…
… is a discipline
… is not a silver bullet
FIVE YEARS OF CHANGESendGrid’s Agile practices, 2009 - 2011
Five Years of Change• 2009 – inception (sweat equity)• 2010 – ramp-up (turning on the
spigot)• 2011 – going Agile (aligning
strengths)• 2012 – hello, Scale (massive growth)• 2013 – future-proofing (more growth)
year 1: 2009
inception
• 3 founders • 1 customer• Scrambling to start something up
year 2: 2010
Lift Off !
• $$$– Received funding– Customers– A lot of opportunity came at once
• Staff size = 20– sales, support, dev relations, accounting, marketing– ENGINEERS
year 2: 2010
how did we prioritize?• Skype culture
• Customers had direct access to developers (SnapChats)– Asked for customer feedback > Rapid response
• Flood of tickets
• Pivotal Tracker (without any basis in Agile understanding)
year 2: 2010
Engineering organization• Ad Hoc
• Devs branched into features – became experts based on skillset– Organic
• Tim (co-founder, backend expert) would give direction– No real timeframes (due dates)– Devs would figure out how – no documentation or
requirements
year 2/3: 2010/2011
tools in the early days
• Skype• Google Docs• Pivotal• BaseCamp• RedMine
year 2/3: 2010/2011
urgent questions
• How can we do more faster?
• Where are we with regards to Roadmap?
• What’s the ETA of features?
Enter Agile
… and Vic
Transition to Agile• First acceptance criteria:
“Make Shit Not Suck”
year 3: 2011
Training from Rally“SendGrid is one of my favorite groups to have worked with.
I always love checking in to see their progress.”- Ann Konkler, Rally Software
– Week 1: execs for one day– Week 2: full Engineering staff
• No tools, only cards on walls
– Week 4: follow-up with full staff
year 3: 2011
new VP Engineering
• Brought Agile experience• Encouraged experimentation• Was available to all Engineers• Huge motivating force
year 3: 2011
Agile roles
• ScrumMaster (SM) duty rotated among team members
• Product Owner (PO) was usually a VP (Finance, Sales) or founder
year 3: 2011
Geography• Tom organized Eng staff seven into teams
– All co-located: four in Anaheim, one in Boulder, one in Romania– Plus new Ops team split between CO & CA
• POs and non-Eng in Boulder– Support– Sales, Mktg, Finance, HR…
• Specialists / contractors– Newsletter team in Romania– Graphic Designer in Phillipines
year 3: 2011
Agile ceremonies
• Daily standups in the morning– Overlapping time – Vic floated to observe, capture
dependencies
• Retrospectives included full Engineering staff– Vic facilitated
• Demos lasted up to two hours– Every team demo’d every story/bug/task
year 3: 2011
Dev Days• Mid-sprint Wednesday• Opportunity for engineers to work on “something
cool”
• Not well organized• Tech Debt / Bugs• Low accountability
– Abused by some– Gone after 8 months
year 3: 2011
Bug Sprint
• Succeeded in cleaning up large backlog of accumulated defects
• Rewarded with K1 Racing day
• QA engineers on each team
year 3: 2011
Spice up the Experience
• Named the sprints• Team banners
25 Billionth email sentIn just over two years, 25B messages passed through the pipes
SCALE had not yet begun to show itself…
year 4: 2012
Kickoff in Mexico
• All employees (~90) met in Cancun for three days of – Tacos – Tequila – Teamwork
• Payback for the pre-Agile demands– Heroku & Rackspace integrations
year 4: 2012
Another Tool change
• Switched from Rally to Pivotal Tracker
year 4: 2012
2nd VP of Engineering
• Isaac (founder) as interim VP• Additional Eng team in Boulder• Second Project Mgr / Agile Coach
hired (Anaheim)– Each PM was SM of three teams
• First POs hired (Boulder)
year 4: 2012
Agile Education
• Tech Talks• Conferences
year 4: 2012
SendGrid Labs
• R&D in Rhode Island• Loader.io
year 4: 2012
Weekly Stakeholder meeting
• Weekly?!?• Started as status update• Priorities get set, reset• No consistent focus on either
Scalability/Stability or new features
year 4: 2012
Engineering & Ops
• 3rd VP of Engineering hired– Formerly of Amazon– Metrics-driven– * Not great culture fit
• Director of Ops hired– Ops now out of Engineering
year 4: 2012
Agile changes
• Agile training “Refresher”– 2-days with all Eng & Ops staff in Anaheim
• Team retros after each sprint (not full dept)– Quarterly Eng retro
• Include sprint metrics (velocity, etc) in team’s Demo
year 5: 2013
Mike Cohn, then Mexico
year 5: 2013
Yet Another Tool change
year 5: 2013
Changes
• Team restructure– Eight Eng teams– Team Leads
• 3rd PM/AC hired
• Overlapping sprints (every other week)• Smaller demos (groups of teams)
– Goal of increasing attendance / participation by non-Eng
Pair-programming• 2 programmers solving one problem
– 2 chairs, 2 monitors, 2 keyboards
• Saves time– Knowledge transfer– Better coding practices– Built-in code review
year 5: 2013
Camp SendGrid
• Replaces Agile refresher for full staff• Quarterly visits to offices to train new
staff (not just Eng)
year 5: 2013
New VP Eng
• Joe (employee #4) as interim VP Eng
• “Going Green” – 20% of items each sprint– Bugs, tech debt, security, stabilization
• 80% new features
Product Management
year 5: 2013
Director of QA
• Director and four QA engineers
STILL TO COME…
2015 Goals• More Pair-programming• CI / CD• Kanban• TDD
2015 Goals• Getting to Innovation vs. hardening /
strengthening • Build an ecosystem for 3rd-party
developer community
Challenges• Leadership turnover• Long-term planning• Tool change
Questions?
THANK YOU
Victor Bonacci MBA, PMPAgile Coach @SendGrid
@AgileCoffee