Implementing Scrum and Agile Techniques in Higher Ed (166236321)

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Implementing Scrumand Agile Techniques in Higher Ed

EDUCAUSE Midwest - Chicago

March 19, 2013



Who are we?

• Kristen Morin, CSM

Manager of Applications Development

• Sherry Morrill, CSM, PMP, ITIL Foundations

Director of Project Management

• Michelle Sorensen, CSM, PMP, ITIL Foundations

Lead Project Manager

• Tracy Weber, CSM, PMP

Manager of Applications Development



INTERACTIVE STUFF • Post-its to plot adoption as people come in

• “Where is your school in it’s adoption of Agile?

• Wannabe, Pioneer (Training, education, first project/team), GainingMomentum (Few projects/Teams), Taking Hold (Many

projects/teams), All-in (Widespread adoption)

• (2 words)

• (after key concepts introduced) What do you perceive as your

biggest challenge or barrier to Agile adoption?

• Ask, write on flip-chart



Implementing Scrum and Agile Techniques in Higher Ed

Higher education institutions have the unique challenges of multiple

missions, academic traditions, and shared decision making structures. Asan IT organization, how do you conceive of introducing agile concepts in

an environment that has traditionally involved slow, shared, and sometimes

very messy decision making? With creativity and perseverance!

The University of Notre Dame will share examples of how they haveleveraged agile techniques beyond software development, for many types

of projects as well as operational work. Join us for an interactive

discussion and come away armed with ideas on how to move your organization down the path to agility.

Disclaimer: What we will present today is not Scrum or Agile in its purest form.

Rather we will show our journey in adopting agile methodologies and the

challenges we faced as a higher education institution.



About Notre DameFounded in 1842 by a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Notre Dame is an

independent, national Catholic research university located adjacent to the city of

South Bend, Indiana, and approximately 90 miles east of Chicago.

The University is organized into four undergraduate colleges, 14 major research

institutes, two dozen centers and special programs, and the University Library

system. Enrollment is approximately 8,400 undergraduates, and 12,000 total

students.

University Goals:

1. Offer an unsurpassed undergraduate education

2. Become a preeminent research university

3. Ensure that the University’s Catholic character informs all its endeavors

4. Create a sustainable culture of continuous improvement and service excellence

to support the University’s mission

5. Communicate strategically to internal and external constituents



AGILE IS…

A group of methodologies united by concepts such as:

• Iterative and adaptive development

• Collaboration, co-location

• Frequent delivery of business value

• Tight, self-organizing teams

Source: agilealliance.org

Agile is…



FLAVORS OF AGILE…

Scrum Kanban

XP(Extreme

Programming)

Many more…

Flavors of Agile



SCRUM KEY CONCEPTS

Source: scrumalliance.org

• Sprints of 2‐4 weeks

• Daily Scrum

• Burndown chart• Sprint demo

• Retrospective

Scrum Key Concepts



KANBAN KEY CONCEPTS

Source: agilealliance.org

• Kanban – Japanese for “ visual board”

• Visualize and manage workflow

• Limit work in progress (“WIP limits”)

New work is pulled in when there is capacity to handle it Queue Analysis Dev Test Deploy

Kanban Key Concepts



ND’s Scrum/Agile Implementation Experience

• Pioneers – 1 year • Gaining momentum – 2 years

• Taking Hold – 2 years

• Are we “All in” yet?



Pioneers• Milestones to learn and increase awareness

– Visit to SunGard – July 2008

– Participation in ScrumU – Aug 2008

– Presentation to all IT Project Managers – Sept 2008

– Funding requested for ScrumMaster training

– ScrumND group formed – Oct 2009• And a turning point…

– The1st project run using Scrum at ND – starting Feb 2009



ScrumU

• 4 founding members

• Notre

Dame• Georgia Tech

• Wake Forest

• Cornell

• Bi‐weekly conference calls

• Current

Members• Notre Dame

• Georgia Institute of Technology

• Wake Forest University

• University of Alaska

• Owens

Community

College• Emory University

• Kent State University



CARP: TRADITIONAL

SCRUM

Project Faculty Profile –Custom developed application used to manage the hiring

and appointment process for faculty

Approach • Product backlog prioritized

by

Product

Owner

• Sprint planning, demos and retrospectives

• Three‐week sprints

Notes • Fully

dedicated

scrum

team• Team co‐located in dedicated space

• Supportive product owner, but with conflicting demands on time

• IT resources from 1 team, customers from 1 department

Credit: Janet Shulaw

Our First Scrum Project



Project Team

Sprint stories and Burn‐

down chart

Product Backlog



Check out

this feedback

1st Retrospective



Challenges that emerged …• Cross-departmental and/or non-dedicated teams

• New team for each project

• Campus Setting

• Multiple product owners

• Competing campus priorities

• Sprints can’t go on forever, next customer waiting

• Integrating approach with existing project framework



• Pioneers– 1 year • Gaining momentum – 2 years






Gaining Momentum

• ScrumMaster Training

• Kanban Emerges

• Adventures in Scrum

• Cell Team Pilot



Kanban emerges as an alternative…• PMO sponsored Agile & Kanban training

• Group changes to “AgileND”

• Project Process Improvement Initiative

• Six Sigma, Yellow Belt training

ScrumMaster Training (FINALLY!)• Joe Little and Kristine Shannon (trainers)

• 20 participants

• Deputy CIO, IT Director, PMO staff, Application Developers,Systems Engineer and customers



Adventures in Scrum…

• Alumni Online Engagement

• Performing Arts Center Ticketing System• Chart of Accounts Revision

• Travel and Expense System

• Course Instructor Feedback

• SQL Server Upgrade



Alumni Online Engagement Scrum Project

Sprint Boards

Vendor Timeline

Team Color Coding



Performing Arts Center Ticketing Project

Sprint Boards

Vendor Timeline

Team Color Coding

The big finish Scrum room



Chart Revision Project - The Traveling Scrum Board!

Credit: Chris Corrente



CIF SCRUM BOARD

Course

Instructor Feedback –

The “wall of my

office” ScrumBoard!

Credit: Chris Corrente



TRAVELND SCRUM

BOARDS

TravelND Scrum Project - A real team

room at the customer location! Credit: Chris Corrente



TRAVELND SCRUM

BOARDS

Getting the infrastructure folks involved!Credit: Julie Pawlak



“Cell Team” Pilot

• Dedicated team working outside of traditional roles

• Multiple projects• Team room

• Daily morning scrums

• Burndown charts

Challenges:

• Breadth of skill sets needed to meet campus needs

• Ultimately thought not scalable for shared IT resources

• Separation of responsibility concerns – not ready to make thatleap



• Pioneer phase – 1 year • Gaining momentum – 2 years






Taking Hold

• Post-its Take over!

• Project Process Wins

• Scrum/Kanban/Scrumban Innovations

• A Kanban conversion to Scrum

• Seeing the link between Quality and Agility• Tackling space challenges



Post-its take over!



Project Process Wins

• Increased project throughput by 30%

• Goal was to increase by 25%

• Increased customer satisfaction survey scores by over 30%

• Goal was to increase by 20%



Innovations…

Credit: Tracy Weber



Innovations…

Credit: Michelle

Sorensen

box.com project

Kanban



Innovations…

Credit: Michelle

Sorensen



Innovations…

Credit: David

Schulte

The “One Sprint”

Project Scrum

Board



Innovations…

Credit: Kristen

Morin



Innovations…

Credit: Bill

Herman

The

“Personal”

Scrum Board



Innovations…

Credit: Julia

Bruckert

Due Dates tracked

on Kanban board



Innovations…

Credit: Carleen

Quinlan

SharePoint used to manage sprint



Using a cloud Scrum ToolInnovations…



Innovations…Release Planning

Credit: Michelle

Sorensen



Kanban to SCRUMNew Cloud Service Delivery

Pilot→ Kanban

Agile enabled

flexibility

strong team identity

Deployment→ SCRUM

Taking it to the next level,

with the same core team

Queue Analysis Dev Test Deploy

Introducing Agile



Kanban conversion to SCRUMNew Cloud Service Delivery

Pilot→ Kanban

• Agile new to most teammembers

• Infrastructure team members

• Lot of discovery and unknowns

• Very large team structure withindependent work

• Kanban stages configured touse cases

• Visual progress tracking

Agile allowed for significantflexibility and strong teamidentity.

Deployment→ SCRUM

Taking it to the next level,with the same core team:

• Timeboxing with release

planning

• Defined interim objectives

• Focus on greater

transparency and

manageable “chunks”• Regular review of work at

Sprint demos and planning



Making the link between quality and agility…

Step 1 – Hired a QA person and assigned to a Scrum team

“REVOLUTIONARY”

Step 2 – Designated “QA Champions” representing different teams

Step 3 – Test Driven Development Initiatives

• For custom code - “test first” approach

• Automated Testing Tools –

• DbFit – Test Driven Database Development• Selenium – Automating web apps for testing purposes



Space constraints drive the move to agile…



Summarize all this!

Embrace the “buts”!

Or

Provide freedom and flexibility to use a combinationof Agile methods and reap benefits related to

Transparency, Accountability and TEAMWORK!



Looking back at what we’ve learned…

You can apply Agile and Scrum techniques …

• In all different business contexts

• To all types of projects – even infrastructure!

• With cross-functional non-dedicated teams

• With remote people on the team

• Without an official team room• With a little bit of leadership support

• With multiple product owners

• Without really having any type of grand vision

• With A LOT of super-stickies!



And the million dollar question…

After 5 years, are we “All In”?

Implementing Scrum and Agile Techniques in Higher Ed (166236321)

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