Scrum it ....

I have been meaning to do some reading on SCRUM and make some notes on "How to implement SCRUM in a project in a simple manner?" ... and finally got a chance to do it today ... here are some notes that people may find useful ....

To create a product we need a something known as a product backlog. A product backlog is like a wish list that several people have for a product.

We gather all these features and create a master backlog that is planned under several releases.

But first we need the “Product Owner”….this person owns the product and decides what goes in or what does not go into the product.

Then there is the “scrum master”, the role of the scrum master is to ensure that all the team members have the right tools, facilities etc to create the product and this is the person who conducts meetings to understand where the team stands etc.

Key Roles in Scrum are
• Developers
• Testers
• Customers
• Executives
• Scrum Master
• Product Owner
• SME’s (subject matter experts)

First phase
Create a product Backlog…this should contain the entire set of features that we want to create.

From the Product Backlog, we create the release backlog … this is a subset features planned for each release….

From the release back log we then prioritise each feature and estimate the time required to deliver them … By deliver we mean a proper working version of them.

No matter what happens some SME’s have to be there during estimation phase and to help the testers test.

Now…the Release backlog is broken down into sprints…There must be at-least 4 sprints minimum in a Release … can be more.

Important aspect of each sprint is that at the end of each sprint an end user must be able to use the product piece that is delivered.

Very important to make sure that a sprint is not delayed, and the only way to measure the delay of a sprint is using something known as a “Burn down chart” ….

Burn down chart shows the current status and also the velocity of closure information, ie, the speed at which tasks are getting done. Burn down charts also help in estimating projected completion date based on the velocity.

Burn down chart basically tracks the completion of granular tasks within a sprint on a daily basis.

So take for example a Sprint “X”….

If there are 5 tasks in a sprint each taking various durations to complete … measured in hours…on a daily basis the completion of these tasks are recorded using the developers/testers status’s.

Obviously we have the question of how do we handle bugs? … no software can exist without bugs….bugs must be dealt with within each sprint…. Also we can have additional sprints specifically for killing bugs and call it “bug killer sprints”…
Bugs are tracked in SCRUM and are known as “Defect Backlog”

A feature cannot be closed without all the bugs being closed.

One important thing in SCRUM is to have daily stand up meetings, in these meetings people should stand as these meetings are not supposed t last long….some of the questions that are supposed to be asked in these meetings and answered are …
What are you doing today?
What is your defect backlog like?
What are the things you plan to do to recover from them?
Do you foresee any risks or problems that we need to handle?

Its not mandatory to conduct these meetings daily in a closely knit team that is mature but it is important to have them once in a while.

Finding the right people ...

A friend and I were talking the other day and this interesting topic came up, "why is it hard to find good people to work with in India?" ...

The answer as we concluded is that most people in the west do things because they like to, for example, if a person was writing code, they do that for a living because they enjoy it .... au contrary, things are not so in India, most people join the software industry because they think they can make more money ... people become doctors because they think they can get good dowries and make a lot of money !!!

This brings us down to the point where we have to quote a proverb ... "Do not chase money ever, do what you are good at and money will come to you automatically".

I thought I got to pen this somewhere as this was an intresting view...

Developers are not too fond of project managers ...

I notice that in general most developers dislike project managers, I have been trying to figure out the root cause for this dislike and my conclusion is that its very similar to a teenager not liking his or her parents for what they expect out of them.

In some cases, this hatred is absolutely valid, I say this because not all project managers are disciplined themselves, there are the few who are just bums on seats and do not add much value to the work happening, in fact these set of people are survivors put in the role of a project manager who make the life of people working under them miserable.

In general, the project manager wants absolute discipline and processes to be followed, like a mother and father expecting their children to grow with some values, but the team wants to take as many short cuts as possible, just like the kids think what they do is right. The challenge is in getting the unruly kid to behave and do what is right for everyone.

Discipline in India is like asking for an ice cream in the arctic circle ... not very easy to find, one who drives on Indian roads will be able to understand this in a much better manner. We do not follow lane discipline, we do not do not understand the concept of "Right of way" and in many places we don't understand what signals are meant for.

The biggest challenge for the project manger is to deliver what is needed in time using these people who think they are "gods gifts to mankind", its a pretty thankless job and only one who has been through the pain of failure by attempting to deliver something without project managing it will be able to appreciate it.

Hello World

Hello Viewer,

If by any chance you have been looking for a information repository on project management as a subject, as a science, as a theory and are looking for some serious answers, you are not in the right place.

I have been doing project management in India for the last two years and thought that there is a lighter side to this so called profession and so I have created this forum to share some of my thoughts.

Of course this is not about sharing jokes in your day's work, but I want it to be a platform where I can share some sterio types about this role and how others feel about it.

There are a lot more thoughts that I will hopefully post in this blog, but for now I will have to stop since I have a burning project awaiting my attention ...