DigiTech Magazine - UK CIO2020 - Spring 2015 | Page 19

...................................................................................................................................................................................... TRAVELSPORTGAMES

6.
Failure to
use the
n:
l ve u lopm s en io
retrospective Conc
projects
t
Scrum has 4 well defined points in
software de
If we plot a successful Agile
development project by ‘Customer
Value’ over ‘Time’; we can see that at
the start of the project uncertainty and
risk are the ‘enemy’, so the team will
focus on knowledge acquisition.
the iteration where the entire team
participates for a specific purpose.
These events are crucial to ensuring
that the collaborative nature of
the process is maintained. These
ceremonies are;
1. Daily Stand-up (Scrum)
2. Sprint Planning Meeting
3. Sprint Review Meeting
4. Sprint Retrospective
Time
The Customer Value curve will
increase quite slowly while the team
is reducing uncertainty, prototyping
and managing technical debt. As
the knowledgebase increases and
uncertainty (and therefore risk) is
reduced, the team gains velocity and
we can see that the customer value
increases at a steady rate. Too many
times an organisation will examine
the output of the team in the initial
phase and determine that something
isn’t working as it should. Invariably in
these instances, the decision will be
to revert to more traditional stage-
gate structure in order to regain the
illusion of control.
De-prioritising any of these events
is detrimental to the process but
the one which is most commonly
overlooked is the retrospective. The
Sprint Retrospective is an opportunity
for the entire team to gather, analyse
the previous Sprint and determine
what to start doing, what to stop doing
and what to continue doing. This is an
essential self-analysis that the entire
team needs to regularly participate
in to ensure that it is operating with
maximum efficiency. As Agile Coach
Jean Tabaka once said “Agile adoption
hungers for the nutrients that real
retrospection brings.”
Agile
larity
ining in popu
are steadily ga
m
ru
e ‘State of Sc
as noted in th
icipants
rt
Of the 500 pa
Report 2013’.
and
g
in
are deploy
surveyed, 46%
in a
ith
w
rum projects
managing Sc
O).
M
(P
ce
ement Offi
Project Manag
e of
m
so
ed
have identifi
ur
Hopefully we
yo
in
d
oi
pitfalls to av
the potential
n.
tio
plementa
next Scrum im
If you have any
questions why your
Agile Projects
are failing,
talk to Steve:
Steve.James@
northhighland.com
is
e
v
i
t
c
e
rosp entire
t
e
R
int for the
r
p
S
...the portunity er, analyse
an op m to gath rint and
tea evious Sp t to
the pr etermine wha
d doing
start
Steve
James
CIO Magazine Spring 2015 Issue
19