Distributed Agile Teams

1
Distributed Agile Teams

• SENG 615 Agile Software Engineering
• Mark Dochstader
• 04 December 2007

2
Distributed Agile Teams Outline

• Definition
• Challenges
• Introduce Exercise
• Complete Scenario
• Review Results
• Related Work
• Conclusions
• Final Thoughts and Questions

3
Distributed Agile Teams Introduction

• When you hear Distributed what comes to mind?

Can a distributed team be agile?
4
Distributed Agile Teams Definition

• The use of agile methods when members are not
  collocated
• Geographic
• Temporal
• Different Types
• Remote customers
• Dispersed team
• Distributed team
• Why an agile approach?
• Distributed or not, traditional approaches lack
  adaptability
• Distributed teams need even more sensitivity to
  changing customer needs than collocated teams

5
Distributed Agile Teams Challenges

• What does this mean?
• Pair programming is hard or impossible
• On-site customer is not available for some or all
  developers
• Can we even use agile methods with distributed
  teams?
• No The most efficient and effective method of
  conveying information to and within a development
  team is face-to-face conversation.
• Yes The importance is adhering to the
  principles not the explicit implementations it
  may be harder but can still be done

6
Distributed Agile Teams Scenario 1

• A New Idea (version 0.0)
• You decide to start an individual development
  project for personal use.
• Personal Information Management (PIM) tool
• Unique features
• Unknown technologies

Complete Scenario 1 of the handout
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Distributed Agile Teams Matrix

C / P
C / P-
Communication Focused?
C- / P-
C- / P

-
Process Oriented?
8
Distributed Agile Teams Common Issues
Communication
Strategic Assets
Technology
Security
Process Synchronization
Culture
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Distributed Agile Teams I AM A Team of 1

• Most effective team size for communication
• Simplest All at once model is the single
  programmer
• Internal architecture is centrally stored
• Consistent vision
• Tool Set
• Minimal/Incomplete
• Tailored to the individual
• On-Demand

10
Distributed Agile Teams Scenario 2

• Early Days (V 0.1)
• 2.5 Developers
• Same location
• Different schedules
• Interest from potential users via Internet

Complete Scenario 2 of the handout
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Distributed Agile Teams Distributed Agile
Development (DAD)
Submit Code Meta

• Asynchronous distributed pair programming
• The first programmer works on a task for a period
  of time
• To end their session the programmer composes a
  brief description of what is complete and tested
  and what remains to be completed
• The second (partner) programmer starts their
  session by reviewing the notes and produced code
• The partner then modifies and expands the code as
  required to complete the task

Repository
Developer 1
Get Code Meta
Add Code Update Meta information
Developer 2
Customer
Monitors
Guides
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Distributed Agile Teams Reviewing DAD

• Validation
• Undergrad programming assignments with 4 sets of
  programmers collocation/distributed and
  pairing/non-pairing
• Distributed pairs were synchronous
• Both paired teams performed superior vs.
  non-paired
• Collocated vs. distributed showed little
  difference
• Concerns with the approach
• Added requirement to produce supporting
  documentation vs. verbal communication or
  concurrent completion
• Implicit assumption that both programmers in the
  pair are experts
• Customer guides development by monitoring written
  descriptions
• Focuses on the process changes inflicted by a
  distributed team and not the communication hurdles

13
Distributed Agile Teams Scenario 3

• Diamond in the Rough (version 1.0)
• Added remote teammate
• 2 P/T grad students
• Early Adopter customers
• Located worldwide
• Suggestions growing

Complete Scenario 3 of the handout
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Distributed Agile Teams Tools

• Agile Manifesto individuals and interactions
  over processes and tools
• PRO
• Tools are needed to help synchronize larger teams
  - whiteboards and index cards don't scale.
• CON
• Most tools inhibit communication they're a weak
  reporting mechanism replacing rich discussion.
• Tool Adoption Test Is the tool aiding or
  replacing the intended practice?

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Distributed Agile Teams Tool Coverage

• Acceptance Testing
• Unit Testing
• Pair Programming Supplements
• SubEthaEdit / TightVNC
• Modeling Tools
• Whiteboard and colored markers
• Metrics
• Clover / NCover
• Build Source Control
• Ant/Nant
• CVS/Subversion/VSTeam
• Collaboration Planning
• Project Management
• Wikis
• Rally Lifecycle Management

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Distributed Agile Teams Design Principles of
Collaboration Tables

• Interpersonal Interaction
• Fluid Transitions between Activities
• Mitigate focusing on a single type of activity
• Transitions between Personal and Group Work
• Multiple views (personal / shared)
• Task Collaboration vs. External Work
• Use of Physical Objects
• task-related (notebook, camera)
• non-task-related (beverage)
• Simultaneous User Actions

We can use these design principles to assess
potential tools.
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Distributed Agile Teams Scenario 4

• Solid product with growing customer base
• Divergent focus
• Integrate
• 3 development teams
• New developers
• New customer group

Complete Scenario 4 of the handout
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Distributed Agile Teams Distributed Extreme
Programming (DXP)

• The key problems in DXP are to maintain
  sufficiently rich communication, and a sufficient
  level of respect, between colleagues separated
  widely in time and space.
• Three general cases for cross-site agile
• Agile Outsourcing (AO)
• Agile Dispersed Development (ADD)
• Distributed Agile Development (DAD)

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Distributed Agile Teams DXP Prescription

• Maintain a commitment to the value judgments that
  characterize the core of all agile methods.
• Use XP practice as-is when possible
• Adopt agile-esque substitutes when you cant
  use the existing agile practice
• Use process to guide development when distributed
  aspects violate principles of agile

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Distributed Agile Teams DXP Results

• Validation
• Experience-based
• Commercial projects
• XP-based with Scrum influences
• One Team
• Balanced Sites
• Onsite Visit / Ambassador
• Communication Channels
• Distributed Standup
• One Team, One Codebase
• Unapologetically influenced by personal beliefs
• No empirical evidence
• Limited literature review

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Distributed Agile Teams DXP Matrix

Balanced Sites
One Team
One Team One Codebase
Visits
Distributed Standup
Communication Tools
Communication Focused?
-

Process Oriented?
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Distributed Agile Teams The Scalability Problem

• Single Super Hacker
• Surgical Team
• Extension of the single programmer
• Rare resource
• Pair Programming
• Capture advantages with gt 2 people
• Scrum
• Scale small, cross-functional teams
• Applied to a multi-site distributed team

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Distributed Agile Teams A Scrum Experience

• Easel Corporation (Early 1990s)
• Scrum teams of distributed developers
• Any developer, Any Site, Any Task
• 50 developers in US, Canada Russia
• Large Library System (gt 200 Million Users)
• Focuses On
• Daily Scrum meetings
• Daily meetings of Product Owner team
• Hourly automated builds from one central
  repository
• Developers at different sites on the same team
• XP practices

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Distributed Agile Teams Easel Scrum Matrix

XP Practices
Diff Sites One Team
Auto build One Repo
Daily Product
Daily Scrum
Communication Focused?
-

Process Oriented?
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Distributed Agile Teams Easel Scrum Concerns

• Identify Three Approaches
• Isolated Scrums (Typical Offshore)
• Distributed Scrum of Scrums
• Totally Integrated Scrums
• Requires you already have a scaleable agile
  methodology in place
• How do you build cross-functional teams that
  balance distribution with functional coverage
• Are you trading cross-team visibility for
  inner-team miscommunication?

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Distributed Agile Teams Scenario 5

• 2 new development offices
• Brazil
• Eastern Europe
• Focus expanded
• Coordinate departments
• Branch offices
• Customers
• Integrate new development offices

Complete Scenario 5 of the handout
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Distributed Agile Teams Case Study - Global
Software Development

• US-based company servicing Internal projects with
  globally distributed development units
• Distributed customers and dispersed team
• Interviews with dev. team customers
• Interaction between team customers
• Interaction inside development team
• Key Challenges
• Requirements engineering
• Software development process
• Communication and language
• Culture and context sharing
• Trust

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Distributed Agile Teams Case Study - Solutions

• Solutions adopted focused on
• Planning
• Training
• Standardization
• Requirements Engineering
• Trust and integration
• Identified critical success factors
• Software Development Process
• Training
• Planning and Engagement
• Team building
• Communication and Feedback

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Distributed Agile Teams Case Study - Outcomes
Trust

Dev Process
Planning
Training
Communication Focused?
Requirements
Standardization
-

Process Oriented?
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Distributed Agile Teams Offshoring Experiences -
IBM

• IBM using an agile approach to off-shore
• Challenges
• Decreased communication bandwidth
• Decreased visibility into project status
• Problems with configuration management
• Disconnection on project estimation

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Distributed Agile Teams Offshoring Experiences
(2)

• Classify the project
• How well does the team understand what is to be
  delivered?
• Does the team know how it is going to deliver?
• How complex is the project?
• Balance Agility with Discipline
• How dynamic are the requirements?
• How much order does the culture need?
• How many people are involved?
• How critical is the project?
• How many expert developers do you have?
• Tailor the Method
• Apply the Method
• Gather Method Feedback (Retrospective)

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Distributed Agile Teams Offshoring - Agility
vs. Plan Driven

• Barry Boehm, Richard Turner Balancing Agility
  and Discipline, Addison-Wesley, 2003

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Distributed Agile Teams Offshoring Experiences -
Overview

• Provides an inventory of available
  strategies/tools for different situations
• Targets the process designer, not the end-user
• Relies on centrally planned assembled
  development methodology
• May contain agile-inspired techniques but not
  organic
• Hampered by IBMs Global Services Method
• Insight into unpredicted challenges
• considerable cultural issues
• High turnover / job-hopping
• Communicate through code product (dog-fooding)

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Distributed Agile Teams Review Whiteboard

• Does anything jump out?
• Trends in proposed solutions to management
  challenges
• Group opinions on observations
• Individual does this match your personal
  experience?

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Distributed Agile Teams Conclusions

• Developer/Customer
• OSS developers tend to be their own customers
• helps mitigate communication issues
• often expert developers
• Domain expert developers rely on the customer
• Less frequently for understanding
• Just as much for guidance
• Size
• smaller projects tend to be less impacted by the
  communication challenges
• As team size grows, process rigidity increases
• A necessary formalization?

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Distributed Agile Teams Conclusions (2)

• More documentation can help
• Can be informal (screen shots, notes)
• GOAL Capturing collective understanding
• Shared Planning Tool
• Web-based project planning or collaboration
• Daily meeting substitutes
• Isolated Scrums, Scrum of scrums, sub. Weekly
• Travel No replacement for Face-Time
• Solution must focus on communication
• Adaptability requires immediate feedback, close
  communication and task visibility

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Distributed Agile Teams Final Thoughts

• Process and/or tools dont replace critical
  assessment.
• Projects and teams (especially distributed)
  change strategies must change too
• If possible structure the project so that teams
  are basically not distributed for major
  iterations.
• Agile toolset is not all/none use what works
• Distributed teams are a growing phenomenon
  embrace it!

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Chandler Information

• Personal Information Management (PIM) software
  suite
• Focus on Information Workflows (GTD)
• Collaboration and Sharing
• Destruction of Information Silos Note ? Email ?
  Calendar Event
• Started Spring of 2001
• Apache License
• Cross-platform (Python)
• Effort 25 developers (variable)
• Cost 5 to 10 Million (Guess)
• Status Preview 0.7.2 (Nov 13, 2007)
• http//chandlerproject.org/
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_28PIM29

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Distributed Agile Teams Discussion Questions

• Whats the difference between agile practices and
  agile principles?
• Why differentiate?
• You are finishing a distributed agile project
• What were the big challenges?
• What worked?
• What didnt?

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References

• Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres Extreme Programming
  Explained Embrace Change (2nd Edition),
  Addison-Wesley (2005) p.18
• Keith Braithwaite and Tim Joyce XP Expanded
  Distributed Extreme Programming, Springer Berlin
  / Heidelberg, 0302-9743 (Print) 1611-3349
  (Online), 2005
• Keith Braithwaite and Tim Joyce XP Expanded
  Patterns for Distributed eXtreme Programming
  (April 2006) http//www.keithbraithwaite.demon.co.
  uk/professional/papers/2005/europlop/patterns_dist
  ributed_xp.pdf
• Herbsleb, J. D., and Moitra, D. An empirical
  study on Global Software Development Distributed
  IT Projects, IEEE Software, March/April,
  USA,2001, p. 16-20.
• Brooks , F.P. The Mythical Man-Month, Addison
  Wesley Pub. Co., 1975, 25th Anniversary edition,
  2000.
• Nidiffer, K. E. and D. Dolan, 2005, "Evolving
  Distributed Project Management," IEEE Software
  22(5) 63-72.
• Scott Rosenburg Dreaming In Code, Crown
  Publishers, (2007).ISBN978-1-4000-8246-9
• Christoph Steindl Distributed Agile, IT
  Architect and IT Specialist Institute - Central
  Region in Herrenberg, Germany, 2004.
  http//www.agilealliance.org/system/article/file/1
  420/file.pdf