Multi-site, multi-cultural agile development

Our experience; challenges and solutions applied

Ágiles 2009 – Florianópolis, Brazil

About us

Emilio Gutter

  Co-Founder at 10Pines

  Agile coach and CSP

Alejandra Alfonso

  Agile Practice Lead at Baufest

  Agile coach and CSM

Agenda

 Why bother with distributed agile?

 Case study: multi-site agile transformation

 Cultural aspects of an agile transformation

The melting ice

“If the intent of the Agile Manifesto is

to guide teams to maximize the value

they can produce for the Business,

then they must take into consideration

the Business’ operating model.” M.Gelbwaks – Ágiles 2008 – Bs. As., Argentina

“[…] we have to step outside of the narrow boundaries of "classically" defined Agile. In a certain sense it is sort of we drop an iceberg in an ocean and […] that iceberg has melted and become part of the ordinary ocean.” A.Cockburn – Agile 2009 – Chicago, US

Case study: multi-site agile transformation

Product Owners

Req. Analysts

QA leaders

Scrum Masters

Developers

Architects UX specialists

3 pilot projects spanning 3 countries and 4 cities Over 40 people involved Only the first step in a big scale agile transformation

Core practices

 Short, time-boxed

iterations

 Planning game

 Daily standup

 Review session

 Retrospective meeting

 User stories

 Acceptance criteria  Definition of Done  Unit and Acceptance Tests automation

 Continuous integration

Team structure

GIVEN: key roles are unevenly distributed in all sites AND there is technical specialization on each site AND the workload for each specialty is uneven

WHEN: the Team grows with new team members

THEN: find an effective way to split it into sub-teams

Advanced topic:

 Feature vs Component teams

Didn’t work  Fixed & collocated sub-teams, isolated from key roles

What Worked

 Organic , cross-site

virtual sub-teams

(with shared Velocity)

 Push to broaden

team members skills

Challenges  Team activities involving 2 or more sites

Collaboration GIVEN: key people is remote AND English is nobody’s native language

WHEN: you should build a new revolutionary product with a complex technology THEN: find an effective way to communicate and collaborate while keeping the process lightweight

What Worked  On-site chartering  Visual and electronic tools combined  Frequent trips; team bonding activities  Review “stories’ readiness”

Advanced topics:

 Usability design and incremental development

 Planning horizons; just-in-time vs look-ahead

Cultural aspects - Discussion

Where does

“motivation” come

from?

Does “center vs

periphery” mindset

affect building a

“whole team”?

Merci beaucoup!