The Effects of Team Backlog Dependencies on Agile

Multiteam Systems: A Graph Theoretical ApproachAlexander Scheerer | Saskia Bick | Tobias Hildenbrand | Armin Heinzl

HICSS-48 Minitrack: Agile and Lean Software Engineering

Agenda

Foundations

Modelling Approach & Results

Implications & Future Work

Introduction1

2

3

4

Introduction

3

Dev. Team 1

What are the impacts of dependencies in the team backlog?

Prod

uct O

wne

r

Dev. Team 5Dev. Team 2

Dev. Team 3 Dev. Team 4

Foundations: Multiteam Systems

4

Product Team

Proximal Goals

Superordinate Goals

System Setup Goal Hierarchy

Team 1

Team 2 Team 3

Team 4

(Mathieu, Marks, & Zaccaro 2001)(Zaccaro, Marks & DeChurch 2012)

“two or more teams that interface directly and interdependently in response to

environmental contingencies toward the accomplishment of collective goals” (Mathieu, Marks, & Zaccaro 2001)

Foundations: Large-Scale Agile Development

5

Scaled Agile Framework

Prog

ram

Bac

klog

Team

Back

log

Team

Back

log

(Larman and Vodde 2010)

(Leffingwell 2014)

(Ambler and Lines 2012)

Scrum-of-Scrums

Disciplined Agile Delivery

Foundations: Requirements Prioritization & Ordering

6

a

a

c

c

c

b

1

2

3

4

5

6

OrderingPrioritization

Modelling Approach

Degree of FreedomTeam Backlog

𝐷𝑜𝐹 =

nr 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠nr 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝐴𝐺

𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠nr 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝐴𝐺

𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠

• DoF of 58 million backlogs with dependencies

• 1-10 item backlogs

Calculation

7

Results

8

Degrees of freedom in 2 - 10 item backlogs

Results

9

Excerpt showing minimum, average and maximum DoF for a 8 item backlog

Implications and Future Research

10

Multiteam System

Team

Implications

11

Overview of the connections between

requirements

• user story mapping (Patton 2008)

• walking skeleton (Cockburn 2004)

Composition of multiteam systems and teams

• feature vs. component teams

Management Avoidance

Focus on splitting requirements (“user stories”)

in smaller chunks (Leffingwell 2011)

Capture dependencies collaboratively and analyze

visually (Hildenbrand 2008)

Backlog management and tracking tools

Architecture of the software

• modularization strategies from open source

development, i.e. plug-in architectures (MacCormack et al 2006)

Thank you!contact:

scheerer@uni-mannheim.de

bick@uni-mannheim.de

tobias.hildenbrand@sap.com

heinzl@uni-manneim.de

12

Bibliography

Ambler, S.W. and Lines, M. Disciplined Agile Delivery: A Practitioner’s Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise. Pearson Education, 2012

Cockburn, A. Crystal clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams. Addison-Wesley Professional, Amsterdam, 2004

Hildenbrand, T. Improving Traceability in Distributed Collaborative Software Development: A Design Science Approach. 2008.

Larman, C. and Vodde, B. Practices for Scaling Lean and Agile Development: Large, Multisite, and Offshore Product Development with Large-Scale Scrum. Addison-Wesley Professional, Upper Saddle River, N.J, 2010.

Leffingwell, D. Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2011

Mathieu, J. E., Marks, M. A., & Zaccaro, S. J. (2001). Multiteam systems. In N. Anderson, D. S. Ones, H. K. Sinangil, & C. Viswesvaran (Eds.), Handbook of Industrial, Work andOrganizational Psychology Volume 2 Organizational Psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 289–313). London: Sage Publications Ltd.

MacCormack, A., Rusnak, J., and Baldwin, C.Y. Exploring the Structure of Complex Software Designs: An Empirical Study of Open Source and Proprietary Code. Management Science 52, 7 (2006)

Patton, J. User Story Mapping. 2008. http://guide.agilealliance.org/guide/storymap.htmlZaccaro, S. J., Marks, M. A., & DeChurch, L. A. (2012). Multiteam Systems: An Introduction. In S.

J. Zaccaro, M. A. Marks, & L. A. DeChurch (Eds.), Multiteam Systems An Organization Form for Dynamic and Complex Environments (pp. 3–32). New York, NY, USA: Routledge.

13