'Nexus: How We Do Scrum with 150+ People' by Artem Kolyshkin & Konstantin Razumovsky

Nexus is a framework for scaled Scrum developed by Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber and Scrum.org community. It addresses the most painful problems of scaled development – dealing with dependencies and building 'Done' integrated software every iteration. In our short talk, we are going to explain the key concepts of Nexus and illustrate them with our own case study where 150+ people successfully do Scrum to build software for a big North American retail company using Nexus.

Transcript

1. 7/12/2017 1 1 CONFIDENTIAL NEXUS: HOW WE DO SCRUM WITH 150+ PEOPLE ARTEM KOLYSHKIN KANSTANTSIN RAZUMOUSKI 7 July, 2017 2 CONFIDENTIAL • Artem Kolyshkin – Senior Delivery Manager • Kanstantsin Razumouski – Agile Coach ABOUT US
2. 7/12/2017 2 3 CONFIDENTIAL CONTENTS The Pain 1 Nexus Framework 2 Our Experience with Nexus 3 Nexus+ 4 4 CONFIDENTIAL THE PAIN
3. 7/12/2017 3 5 CONFIDENTIAL • 100% re-engineering of existent warehouse system that runs on the AS/400 (iSeries Server). • The product is used by stores for day-to-day operations: ordering, inventory management, shipping and receiving, reporting, and much more. • Accessed through either “dumb terminals”, thin clients or using a PC. The “dumb terminals” are “Green screen” interface, rather than Windows/Graphical Interface. Also, keyboard-driven, little or no mouse use. CUSTOMER & PRODUCT Customer Product • A big retail company in North America, that offers a broad range of retail products, home and financial services. 6 CONFIDENTIAL THE PROJECT: FROM GREEN SCREEN TO WEB BROWSERS
4. 7/12/2017 4 7 CONFIDENTIAL • Which process to use? THE QUESTION 8 CONFIDENTIAL THE NEW PAIN: DEPENDENCIES Data Management Claims & Settlements Order Management Deal Management APO Placing & Seasonal Signage Reporting Employee Purchase Workforce Management Security Inventory Management Shipping & Receiving Store Analysis Management Reporting Operational Reporting System Utility Daily Sales Fast Find Inquiry Returns Management Price Management Search Multi-Store Functions APAP AIM Merchandising Regular Order
5. 7/12/2017 5 9 CONFIDENTIAL NEXUS FRAMEWORK 10 CONFIDENTIAL • Created by Ken Schwaber and Scrum.org • Fully defined in 11 page Nexus Guide • Heavily focused on dependencies NEXUS FRAMEWORK: OVERVIEW Nexus (noun) - a relationship or connection between people or things
6. 7/12/2017 6 11 CONFIDENTIAL NEXUS 12 CONFIDENTIAL “We need multiple-teams Scrum, not multiple Scrum teams.” Craig Larman #ScaledScrumIsStillScrum cbn Group work by Eldan Goldenberg “Nexus is an exoskeleton of scaled Scrum” Ken Schwaber
7. 7/12/2017 7 13 CONFIDENTIAL OUR EXPERIENCE WITH NEXUS 14 CONFIDENTIAL ORGANIZING TEAMS
8. 7/12/2017 8 15 CONFIDENTIAL IDENTIFYING DEPENDENCIES: THEORY 16 CONFIDENTIAL IDENTIFYING DEPENDENCIES: OUR PRACTICE
9. 7/12/2017 9 17 CONFIDENTIAL IDENTIFYING DEPENDENCIES: OUR PRACTICE 18 CONFIDENTIAL ROADMAPPING
10. 7/12/2017 10 19 CONFIDENTIAL HOW WE DO THIS? 20 CONFIDENTIAL INTEGRATED INCREMENT MUST BE “DONE”
11. 7/12/2017 11 21 CONFIDENTIAL • Accountable for Nexus integration • In normal mode acts like a virtual team • Raises awareness of dependencies • Ensures integration tools and practices are known and used • Serves as consultants, coaches, and communication links • Facilitate shared architecture NEXUS INTEGRATION TEAM: THEORY 22 CONFIDENTIAL • Facilitating cross-location communication and decision making issues • Facilitating grooming sessions for dependencies identification • Ensuring Nexus rules are understood and followed, e.g: – Integrated Increment meets DoD and deployed to STG env – Sprint-related information is transparent for all stakeholders • Continuous deployment process runs like clockwork • Common engineering excellence practices are in place and supported by all teams NEXUS INTEGRATION TEAM: OUR PRACTICE Product Owner Solution Architect DevOps QA Delivery Manager Project Manager BA
12. 7/12/2017 12 23 CONFIDENTIAL TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE IN NEXUS: THEORY “Many software development practices are needed to create an Integrated Increment. Most of these practices require automation. The automation helps manage the volume and complexity of the work and artifacts especially in scaled environments.” Nexus Guide 24 CONFIDENTIAL TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE: OUR PRACTICE Auto Manual Automated tests cover 97% of requirements
13. 7/12/2017 13 25 CONFIDENTIAL NEXUS DEFINITION OF ‘DONE’ DoD • All acceptance criteria are met • All required types of auto-tests are created • Story tests are all green • The story is in the QA environment • All smoke tests are green • Regression tests are more than 85% green • Code review is done before merge and all review issues are resolved • Non-functional requirements are implemented • Architectural, developer's guidelines, standards conventions must be obeyed • REST API is documented • There is no new sonar ‘major’ issues • Git branch is deleted after merge • PO has accepted the story 26 CONFIDENTIAL NEXUS+
14. 7/12/2017 14 27 CONFIDENTIAL 1. Low cohesion between some parts of the Nexus. 2. Complexity of long-term scaled planning. 3. Monotony of scale. 4. Difficulty/cost of changes. 5. Keeping up engineering excellence (moving to level 4). NEW CHALLENGES As we grow and have reached 150+ size we have faced some new challenges: 28 CONFIDENTIAL AT SCALE YOU ARE UNIQUE (TRIBUTE TO JURGEN APPELO) Product Backlog https://medium.com/agility-scales/stop-your-agile-transformation-right-now-6cf2ef2fa1a#.vbk4oydgh
15. 7/12/2017 15 29 CONFIDENTIAL OUR BARBAPAPA (TODAY) APO Area (9 squads) Original Nexus (now 12 teams) Integration Area (5 squads) Product Backlog 30 CONFIDENTIAL NEXUS POINTS OUT FAULTS AT ENTERPRISE LEVEL cbn Group work by Eldan Goldenberg “Scrum is like your mother-in-law, it points out ALL your faults” Ken Schwaber © Mountain Goat Software, 101 Inspiring Quotes about Agile
16. 7/12/2017 16 31 CONFIDENTIAL 1. Nexus helps to capitalize on your existing Scrum experience. 2. Nexus (scaled Scrum) is still Scrum. 3. New roles/artifacts/rules address the pain of dependencies and integration. 4. Automation and technical excellence are crucial at scale. 5. Nexus+ recognizes uniqueness at scale and only provides guiding principles. 6. Nexus is a catalyst for business agility, but not a silver bullet. LESSONS LEARNED 32 CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCES
17. 7/12/2017 17 33 CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCES www.scrum.org/Nexus Scaled Professional Scrum, 2 day course Nexus + 50 scaling practices = 34 CONFIDENTIAL • Artem Kolyshkin – Artem.Kolyshkin@gmail.com – linkedin.com/in/akolyshkin • Kanstantsin Razumouski – www.proscrum.by – linkedin.com/in/razumovsky QUESTIONS?