Going global – Expanding your development team to the global stage – Globally distributed software engineering
Going global – Expanding your development team to the global stage – Globally distributed software engineering
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gdse_presentation
On Github jjpe / gdse_presentation
Going global
Expanding your development team to the global stage
Created by Team Nuclear Beast Unicorn
Introduction
Who are we?
Sietse Au Joey Ezechiëls Aditya Nagaram Wing Lung Ngai
Globally distributed software engineering
Main challenges & issues
- Geographical dispersion
- Cultural differences
- Timezone differences
- Loss of "teamness"
- Coordination breakdown
- Loss of communication richness
SCRUM
In a globally distributed setting
- Materializes as different challenges for Scrum
SCRUM
How does it work?
- Sprint meetings
- Sprint planning
- Daily progress (stand-up) meetings
- Sprint & product backlog
SCRUM
Common problems
- Hard to plan due to little time-overlap
- Longer meetings
- Ambiguity in communication
- "team" is not singular anymore
SCRUM
Sprint meetings: Challenges
- Communicating requirements
- Reaching consensus
SCRUM
Sprint planning: Challenges
- Keep it transparent
- Planning velocity of "team"
SCRUM
Daily progress (stand-up) meetings: Challenges
- Synchronizing the "start" of the day.
- Reduce (increased) alienation of busy stakeholders
SCRUM
Product backlog: Challenges
- Keep the product & sprint backlogs synchronized across team distribution sites
- Product owners may not be available all the time
SCRUM
Common grounds
- Conventional way of collaboration needs to be revised
- Perceived distance must be reduced
- Scrum needs to be patched for a distributed setting
SCRUM
Some patching
- Team-building activities
- Provide an always-on video chat
- Agree on cultural differences and get it over with
SCRUM
Sprint meetings: Solutions
- Prepare requirements as well as possible
- Devise a strategy for reaching consensus
SCRUM
Sprint planning: Solutions
- Use collaborative backlog management software
- Devise strategy to normalize workload definition
SCRUM
Daily progress (stand-up) meetings: Solutions
- Plan meetings carefully w.r.t. any overlapping work hours
- Ask team members to attend meetings outside of work hours
- Agree on unconventional working hours
SCRUM
Product backlog: Solutions
- Collaborative backlog management software for planning and synchronizing
- Product owners need to be self-conscious about their role
Scrum still works
Bottlenecks
- Analyse bottlenecks introduced by taking distributed approach
- Weigh benefits to costs of eliminating bottlenecks
Scrum still works
Overcoming bottlenecks
- People
- Collaboration
- Technology
Conclusion
- SCRUM can help in migrating to a distributed setting
- Commitment is the key, make it work (for you).