agile development at w3i

Agile Development Methodology

Jeff BollingerVP of Information Systemsjeff.bollinger@w3i.com @Jbollingerwww.jeffbollinger.net

St. Cloud State UniversityIS 350 10.13.2010

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Agenda

• Software Development Methodologies• Waterfall• Agile• Scrum @ W3i

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What’s a Development Methodology?

• A process or methodical approach to developing software.

• A repeatable process used to:– Handle Requirements– Improve Quality– Manages Risk

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Examples of Methodologies

• Waterfall• Agile

– Scrum W3i’s Flavor– XP

• Kanban

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Waterfall

Requirements

Design

Implementation

Testing

Deployment

Maintenance

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Waterfall Works Well When…

• Requirements are stable• Technology is well known

and mature• Everything happens as

one would expect• We are not taking on

anything new or unknown• We have done this many

times before

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Waterfall

Requirements

Design

Implementation

Testing

Deployment

Maintenance

Change

Takes too long

Gets skipped

The Real World

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What is Agile?

• Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams.

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The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools • Working software over comprehensive documentation• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation • Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

http://agilemanifesto.org/

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Agile Principles

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

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Agile Principles

• Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

• Working software is the primary measure of progress.

• Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

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Agile Principles

• Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done is essential.

• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

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Why Agile?

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The Agile Paradigm Shift

PLANDriven

Fixed

Estimated

VisionVALUEDriven

Waterfall Agile

Requirements

Features

Resources Time

Resources Time

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What is Scrum?

• Scrum is popular flavor of agile• Used @ W3i for past 5 years

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Scrum Illustration

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Scrum

User Story

Epics

Planning Meeting

Review MeetingStory Points

TasksBacklog

Velocity

Burndown Chart

Retrospective

Estimating

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User Stories

• A software requirement formulated as one or two sentences in the everyday business language of the user

• Format: As a (role) I want (something) so that (benefit)

• Example: – As a customer service representative, I want to

search for my customers by their first and last name, so that I can spend less time browsing lists.

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Estimating

• A consensus-based estimation method• Estimate effort or relative size of

development tasks • Estimate in Story Points• Story points possibilities are

0,1,2,3,5,8,13

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Velocity

• Number of story points completed in one sprint (iteration)

• Calculated by taking the last three sprint’s rolling average

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Planning Meeting

• Approximately one day• Includes Development Team and Business Owners• Pull prioritized stories from the backlog and

technically plan them– Call in business owners to clarify requirements– Database design – ERD– API Specifications– Break stories down into several tasks

• Commitment is made to Business Owners to deliver stories by end of the sprint

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Daily Scrum

• Stand-up meeting• Not longer than 15 minutes• Each developer answers 3 questions:

– What did you work on yesterday?– What are you going to work on today?– What are your roadblocks, if any?

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Burndown

• Illustrates the progress of the current sprint.

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Sprint Reviews

• Occurs at the end of every sprint • Business owners and Development Team

are present• Demonstration of working software is

given by the development team

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Retrospectives

• Learning• Continuous Improvement• Meeting with product management, team

members, managers• Discussion on successes and areas for

improvement in the current sprint

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Questions?Jeff BollingerVP of Information Systemsjeff.bollinger@w3i.com