Shai Raiten's Blog : Visual Studio 2010, Scrum

The Git Hole

shair — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:31:00 GMT

I consider myself a calm person with plenty of tolerance, I believe in productive discussion and love it – Part of my job as a consultant is to talk with Teams and explain them why you should choose a specific product over another, in 99.9% of those meetings there is one guy that don’t like the change (No One Like Changes) and you need in a calm way to explain and show him the benefits of the new tool – Forcing someone to do something is never a good thing.

But sometimes there is no wining side in a discussion, you might say discussion are not about winning is about Accepting and Understanding, but Imagine yourself this scenario - You are a religious man, how about a discussion with a non-religious about “Does God Exists”?

You can throw billion argumentation's but nothing will matter because in this discussion there is not Logic but Faith and Emotions, so you can spend hours but in the end the non-religious will not believe and the religious will.

Even when you talk about Technology there is emotions if you like it or not – If you not believe me you should read some theory's from Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan and Sub Judice , (Latin for "under judgment"), I hope in this discussion you’ll understand you are not the first and for sure not the last how think he can control his emotions when you make a choice.

So why I told you all about that? Lately I’ve being asked about why TFS and Not Git?

First I think Git is a wonderful version control system and I even use it for several projects, I use SVN and several other Open Source Version Control Systems.

The reason sometimes I’m using other systems than TFS, is for specific projects:

Project I do by myself and I don’t need work assignment or project management.
Projects that doesn’t have Testers, Product Manager or anyone else besides Developers.
Projects that doesn't care about team collaboration and think that Email is a great solution for tracking the team.
Project that doesn't have the money to buy TFS (Dream Spark)

The question itself implies that the person didn’t understand what is TFS, and just think about saving his praised code.

Team Foundation Server – This is a suite of development tools all within a single platform
The idea of one platform for the entire team is brilliant. Microsoft created tools for each individual position on the team; there are tools for Requirements Management, design tools for Architects, Developer tools and of course testing tools ranging from manual test to automation and load testing. All is this is now under one platform. When the entire team works on the same platform the collaboration and integration become easy and fluent, collecting data to generate reports no longer needs to take a lot of time. The team’s efforts are now integrated as part of the platform. Synchronizing between different tools is no longer necessary because all are working together in one place.

So after I explain what is TFS the person told me –> but TFS doesn’t have distributed version control.

SO WHAT? Git doesn’t have Bug Management, Load Testing, UML Designer, Build Machine and a lot more. It’s not all about Code!

So developers think that everything about the Product is up to them – and they are wrong! the product is something that everyone is part of, the Project Manager, the Business Analysis, the Developers, Tester and more.

Sometimes one less feature is best for the Team than one extra feature just for you!

Now, let’s go back to the discussion, even after I explain TFS the person still want Git (although his company bought TFS) and in that point I understand that this is the same discussion as “Does God Exists” because the person has HMS (Hate Microsoft Syndrome) and this is what he believes.

Is there a cure? I really don’t know. But I do know that Emotions overcome common sense and facts.

I Love Microsoft and I really Love TFS, but TFS is not the only tool at the market today that gives teams the ability to work together under a single platform, there is IBM Jazz or HP ALM Solution, but with not doubt TFS is mature and most popular ALM tool today and I will continue recommend TFS and I’ll not surrender the HMS!!!

God, give me the strength to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Thanks

TFS 2010 - Urban Turtle for a Better Scrum

shair — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:50:40 GMT

TFS 2010 - Urban Turtle for a Better Scrum

If you doing Scrum in TFS 2010 this is an Add-on you can’t ignore!!! Urban Turtle is built by Pyxis Technologies and provides an awesome Scrum experience for TFS.

Urban Turtle will assist you with your Scrum process with a beautiful Interface and easy functionality though TFS 2010 Web Access.

Sounds Good? give it a try http://urbanturtle.com – You can download it for 30 days

Ream More from Brian Harry

Planning Board

Prioritize your backlog using drag-and-drop interface
Change to priority of a user story and the task will automatically follow
Easy filtering let's you focus on what you are doing
Plan your work with a simple drag-and-drop
Effortlessly add tasks to a user story

Task Board

Task board to view completed, ongoing and remaining work at a glance
Select or close a task in a second using drag-and-drop
Increase the efficiency of your Daily Scrum by providing transparency to your team
Sprint Burndown with live data to make sure you deliver what you are committed to
Makes impediment visible to easily eliminate it

ALM Summit Here We Come

shair — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:25:28 GMT

ALM Summit Here We Come

Application Lifecycle Management for the Microsoft platform will take place as November 16-18, 2010 - Microsoft Redmond.

If you are an ALM practitioner, lead, or manager who is passionate about mastering your craft, this is an event you don’t want to miss, and Sela Collage as ALM leader in Israel will be there as a gold sponsor.

Sela is going to announce of two tools for TFS and Visual Studio 2010:

Scrat – Quality Center 2 TFS 2010 Migration Tool – Home Page
Wimbi – More details after the summit

Here is the agenda:

Day 1: Agile Acceleration Day

Scrum: The Third Decade - Ken Schwaber
ALM Adoption and Futures - Dave West
Heterogeneous ALM Environments - Jamie Cool
IT for the Future - Moving into the Cloud - Tony Scott
Achieving true 'ALM' through analytics - Stuart McGill
Using Failure to Pave the Path for Success - John Szurek
Scenario-Focused Engineering - Austina De Bonte
Agile transformation during acquisition - Chris Kinsman
Agile transformation of a Microsoft product team - Cameron Skinner

Day 2: Collaborative Development

From Individual to Team to Organization - Brian Harry
Making Continuous Delivery a Reality from Product Backlog to Virtual Lab - Amit Chopra
Successful software project management styles - Stephanie Cuthbertson
Increasing Revenue Opportunities with Automated Development Tools - Karel Deman
Extending the ALM Platform - Mario Cardinal
Connecting ALM to Developer Workflow: the Task-Focused Interface - David Green (Tasktop)
Synchronizing and migrating ALM environments - Grant Holliday
The Future of Collaborative Development - Mary Czerwinski

Day 3: Engaging the Whole Team

The Agile Consensus - Sam Guckenheimer
Introducing Agility into the Enterprise at Nordstrom - JB Brown
Testing Tools in an Agile World - Vinod Malhotra
Transcending Dogma: How are they different, really? - Eric Willeke
Shared Values - The Why of ALM - Jim Newkirk
Exploratory Testing - Jon Bach
Professional Scrum Developer Practices - Richard Hundehausen
Quality is the Soul of Agile - Peter Provost

ALM Summit Home Page

Brian Harry will also be at the Summit as a presenter. (Brian on the Summit)

I hope to see you there!

Black Jack Using Scrum – Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

shair — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:01:00 GMT

Black Jack Using Scrum – Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Last year I attended MIX10 conference in Las Vegas, because MIX is very near (Yes I’m GOING!!!!) I decided to plan my strategy of wining (I lost the last time…) in “Black Jack” based on Scrum Methodology.

Many thanks Yaniv Kessler for helping me finish this article.

So Before I Reveal My Custom Scrum Methodology let's talk about? -> What is Scrum?

Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for project management and agile software development.

Although Scrum was intended for management of software development projects, it can be used to run software maintenance teams, or as a general project/program management approach.

Really what is Scrum?

[Full Article] SCRUM is a loose set of guidelines that govern the development process of a product, from its design stages to its completion.
It aims to cure some common failures of the typical development process, such as:

· Chaos due to changing requirements - the real or perceived requirements of a project usually change drastically from when the product is designed and until it is released. Under most product development methodologies, all design is done at the beginning of the project, and then no changes are allowed for or made when the requirements change.

· Unrealistic estimates of time, cost, and quality of the product - the project management and the developers tend to underestimate how much time and resources a project will take, and how much functionality can be produced within those constraints. In reality, this cannot be predicted accurately at the beginning of the development cycle.

· Developers are forced to lie about how the project is progressing - When management underestimates the time and cost needed to reach a certain level of quality, the developers must either lie about how much progress has been made on the product, or face the indignation of the management.

Among the most important ideas of scrum are developing in short iterations and having daily meetings with your team, these ideas help tackle and fix problems quickly, help measure the project’s velocity and finally allows for a more accurate estimation of the project’s completion date.

If you want to know more about Scrum in couple of minutes I’ll recommend you to see Scrum in under 10Min by Hamid Shojaee

Let’s Get Started – Scrum Vegas Style

Everyone who comes to Vegas and wants to gamble has a “Product” ready:

Product = “Earn A Lot Of Money & Have A Great Time” -> It is the “What” that will be built or achieved.

So with this idea in mind, I started planning my Product Backlog (integrating some important lessons from the last visit) by filling my wish list:

Sprints – Define how long you’re going to Play

The general recommendation is that iterations should be as short as possible, in Scrum max 30 days for sprint, each Sprint should contains the Goal of a specific sprint – My was – Not Losing!

Because my Vegas trip is limited only for 4 days I decide to schedule 8 Sprints (it’s also recommend to create at least 4 sprints).

* You need to define the total time (Money) you can afford to achieve your Product. – My was 1000$ or 4 Days

Sprint duration will be no more than 7 hours (Normal is between 3-30 days) and will include between 125$ - 250$ (In Development this is Work Remaining) – It is Very Important not to exceed the amount above – if so, this is the Time to speak with your Scrum Master (See below about Roles) and discuss how to continue with our Sprints and check if the Product release will be delayed or worst will not achieved? (Depends on how much money you lost :-()

After each Sprint you need to perform a 1 hour break (The normal is 15 minutes) that will include a stand up meeting (Monitor your progress – Burn Down Chart – See Below) with your Scrum Master (As I wrote above discuss all your problems and plan ahead), Pipi time, Search for another Table (Change Table change Luck) and Rest, because each day contains 2 Sprints. (Not Normal)

Roles & Tips

This "Product” cannot rely solely on your shoulders, So Let’s meet the Team

The main roles in Scrum are:

The “ScrumMaster”, who maintains the processes (typically in lieu of a project manager)
The “Product Owner”, who represents the stakeholders and the business
The “Team”, a cross-functional group of about 7 (Default) people who do the actual analysis, design, implementation, testing, etc.

In our “Product” I’ll have the “Product Owner” role (After all I know what I want and it’s my Money :-D) and the “Team” role (I’m not letting anyone playing with my money….).

But the “ScrumMaster” has to be someone you trust (anyone beside you) in helping you. Now, you’re probably asking yourself why would you need someone’s help?

If you are losing too much money, you become a “compulsive gambler” and you don’t want to stop or can’t – your Scrum Master is needed to pull you back to your room until the next sprint.
On the gambling floor, the Drinks are FREE, if you can’t control yourself - counting cards becomes impossible – the Scrum Master will help you count the cards.
You’re gambling and manage to control yourself from drinking alcohol, but than a Show comes up and couple of Beautiful Ladies are dancing just around your table and cause you to lose focus – Again, the ScrumMaster has to be there and ask those ladies to go and wait in your room, No No No – the ScrumMaster should help you continue your game by removing those obstacles!!!

Tips:

The ScrumMaster has to be someone you Trust and even in very bad situations, such as when you are drunk. His words must have a deep effect on you. (Thanks Adam)
Buy your return Flight Ticket before and make sure this is “No Refund Ticket” – so you can’t use your way back home as stakes in a gamble.
Don’t come to play with 10$(If you don't know how much you can spend, use a subject expert matter to examine your budget and define a reasonable amount to Play – Same as Estimated Work) this is still a game of luck (Same as Life), have a basic amount to help you cross the BadMojo. :-D

Start and Track

After each sprint it’s very important to monitor your progress (This is what you do in the Stand Up Meeting) using “Burn Down Chart” - The “Burn Down Chart” is the number 1 reason for Scrum popularly, Burn Down shows remaining work (or Remaining Money) in the sprint backlog, this will help you see if your product is progressive smoothly.

Using the “Burn Down Chart” and it’s very easy to calculate the “Burn Down Velocity” - Velocity only helps you make achievable commitments in future iterations.

Finally “Burn Down Chart” helps you to provide a good estimation about the project’s completion date.

For example: if you allocate between 125$-250 (Developer = Remaining Work) for each sprint and from Sprint 1 to Sprint 2 I lost 500$ (1400$ - 900$) I could use the “Burn Down Chart” to see that in the current velocity (the velocity in which you lose money) you are going to lose all of it when we get to the 4th Sprint. (This is good for Development Team because this means that on the 4th Sprint the remaining work will be 0 and you’re done, but certainly not good for me.)

You might say to yourself that it is only an approximation and not the real thing- You are absolutely right - Burn Down shows"ESTIMATION"
but the graph below shows the same result in life as it shows in the graph above.

Summary

I hope this article helped you to understand Scrum from a different perspective and made you think about moving to developing\playing with Scrum.

Next time I get to Vegas, I’ll try my Black Jack Scrum Methodology and you can be sure I’ll let you know how it fared!

Enjoy – Winner Winner Chicken Dinner