Thriving in an Agile Environment. Kathryn Poe Rocky Mountain Chapter Feb 16, 2012

Transcription

1 Thriving in an Agile Environment Kathryn Poe Rocky Mountain Chapter Feb 16,

2 Agenda 1. Who Am I? 2. Development Methodologies 3. What Agile Is and Isn t 4. What Agile Means for Doc 5. Best Practices 6. References & Questions 2

3 Who am I? STC Fellow Documentation Specialist for DataCert Inc. Currently managing docs for 4 product teams in 4 locations Dallas, Houston, 2 in India Agile zealot! Certified SCRUM Master 3

4 Development Methodologies First, there was Waterfall Iterative Waterfall Then came Agile extreme Programming (XP) Scrum 4

5 Waterfall 1. Lots of in-depth requirements, design, analysis- internal docs! 2. Development gets requirements and codes based on them 3. QA gets the finished product and tests 4. When everything else was done, the product comes to us for external doc. Development QA Documentation 5

6 Where Did Agile Come From? Agile Manifesto drafted 17 representatives of new methodologies met to discuss the need for lighter alternatives to the traditional heavyweight methodologies Became the Agile Alliance 6

7 Who s Using Agile?

8 Agile Process Allows for collaboration More iterative, less prescriptive Makes project status transparent to stakeholders People Requires more discipline Needs everyone to be flexible Embraces change Does not eliminate the need for documentation 8

9 What Agile is A methodology or framework using: Iterative development A lighter and more people-centric viewpoint Driven by tests and releases of the evolving product. Uses frequent feedback as its primary control mechanism 9

10 What Agile is Not A magic wand Meant to exclude doc An easy adoption Iterative waterfall For the change resistant 10

11 Two Common Types of Agile Scrum Scrum teams work in 2 week to month long iterations ( Sprints ) Scrum teams do not allow changes during their sprints The Scrum product owner prioritizes the tasks Scrum doesn t prescribe any engineering practices XP XP teams work in shorter iterations - two weeks max XP teams will swap tasks XP teams work in a strict priority order XP does test-driven development, the focus on automated testing, pair programming, simple design, and refactoring 11

12 About Pigs and Chickens Who are the chickens? Users, Customers, Managers Who are the pigs? Product owner, Team members, Scrum Master And we must be pigs! 12

13 How Does Agile Work? 13

14 So What Does This Mean to You? 14

15 Deliverables There s a deliverable product at the end of each Sprint including the docs. For me this means: All features (as they stand) in Release Notes Updated Help Updated supporting docs (Install, Architecture Guides, etc.) Info added to Training documents 15

16 Agile Doc Advantages In Agile Doc is Part of the process Involved from the start There for input on UI, Msgs and more Should be required for a card to be complete 16

17 Agile Doc Disadvantages Content can/will change Review and edit schedule may be tight Remember this is for one iteration only Must be proactive and involved Can t just be reactive You have to be flexible Translation timeline can be tricky 17

18 The Agile Doc Misconception Agile mostly eliminates internal docs Detailed up-front requirement, analysis, project plan, etc Agile does not eliminate external docs Help, Release Notes, Architecture Guides, Training, etc Too many Agile implementations confuse the latter with the former And claim neither is needed 18

19 What You Can Do Agile Product Owner writes User Stories Includes test/acceptance criteria Make sure these include all content Be proactive with the Product Owner Discuss how docs benefit the user Be part of the Scrum team Stay involved with the entire team Be helpful, not a hindrance Be a pig, not a chicken 19

20 Best Practices Doc is part of the deliverable In the loop Being an active invited participant in meetings Building trust with rest of team Dev, QA, Product Owner, Scrum Master Show how we add value Greater Visibility 20

21 Conclusion Agile is not doc as usual It s better doc! Are you ready? 21

22 Questions? 22

23 Online Resources runningagile.com xprogramming.com 23

24 Books Agile Documentation by Andres Ruping Agile Project Management With Scrum by Ken Schwaber Agile Software Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle Integrating Agile Development In The Real World by Peter Schuh User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn 24