More than Code: Contributions in Scrum Software Engineering Teams

Presentation slides for the CHASE 2020 paper “More than Code: Contributions in Scrum Software Engineering Teams,” F. Ramin, C. Matthies, and R. Teusner, in IEEE/ACM 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering Workshops, ACM Press, 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/3387940.3392241

http://www.chaseresearch.org/workshops/chase2020

Transcript

1. Hasso Plattner Institute,
   University of Potsdam, Germany
   christoph.matthies@hpi.de
   @chrisma0
   More than Code: Contributions in Scrum
   Software Engineering Teams
   Frederike Ramin, Christoph Matthies, Ralf Teusner
   July ’20
   13th International Workshop on Cooperative and
   Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE’20)
   

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2. Motivation & Background
   2
   Agile Software Development and Scrum
   [1] CollabNet Inc. 2019. “13th Annual State of Agile Report”. Technical Report.
   https://www.stateofagile.com/#ufh-i-521251909-13th-annual-state-of-agile-report
   [2] Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. 2017. “The Scrum Guide - The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game”.
   Technical Report. scrumguides.org. 19 pages. http://scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2017/2017-Scrum-Guide-US.pdf
   ■ Agile methods, e.g. Scrum, are de facto standards in SE [1]
   ■ Teams with all the competencies required for project work [2]
   Software engineers’ contributions to progress &
   success of modern software projects are varied
   

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3. Research Goal
   3
   A Model of Scrum Teamwork Contributions
   ■ Scrum and Agile approaches rely on visibility of project progress [3]
   ■ Capturing & categorizing contributions to project success
   ensures team awareness of accomplished work
   Goal: Model of Scrum contributions. Enable appropriate
   appraisal & appreciation of Scrum team efforts
   [3] Henrik Kniberg. 2015. “Scrum and XP From the Trenches” (2nd ed.). C4Media
   

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4. Definition
   4
   What is a Contribution of a Software Engineering Team Member?
   Contribution: Any activity, demanding human resources, that
   adds to the fulfillment of project goals, by adding value to the
   developed product or the (future) effectiveness of the team.
   ■ Technical aspects, e.g., source code changes
   ■ Also process improvement activities,
   meeting facilitation & effective communication [4]
   [4] D. Ford, T. Zimmermann, C. Bird, and N. Nagappan. 2017. “Characterizing Software Engineering Work with Personas Based on Knowledge Worker
   Actions”. ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement. 394–403.
   

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5. Related Work
   5
   What do Software Engineers Spend their Time on?
   ■ Devs spend only ¼ of their time on coding-related activities [5]
   [5] André N Meyer, Gail C Murphy, Thomas Fritz, and Thomas Zimmermann. 2019.
   “Developers’ Diverging Perceptions of Productivity”. Apress, 137–146.
   

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6. Contributions in Scrum
   6
   Roles of the Scrum Process
   ■ Scrum acknowledges different
   task profiles / “roles” within teams [2]:
   ■ Product Owner (PO)
   ■ Scrum Master (SM)
   ■ Development Team (Dev.)
   [2] Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. 2017. “The Scrum Guide - The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game”.
   Technical Report. scrumguides.org. 19 pages. http://scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2017/2017-Scrum-Guide-US.pdf
   

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7. Model Construction
   7
   Contributions Listed in the Scrum Guide
   ■ Model from first principles, based on the seminal Scrum Guide [2]
   ■ Successively code text passages
   ■ Extract mentions of work items, tasks, meetings,
   project requirements and responsibilities
   ■ Deduplicate and cluster
   ■ Assign short name and designated role
   [2] Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. 2017. “The Scrum Guide - The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game”.
   Technical Report. scrumguides.org. 19 pages. http://scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2017/2017-Scrum-Guide-US.pdf
   

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8. Results
   8
   Extracted Scrum Teamwork Contributions
   ■ 17 individual Scrum teamwork contributions
   ■ Explicitly included the role All
   ■ Highlight level of collaboration
   ■ Contributions arranged along 3 dimensions
   ■ Technical, Contentual, Managerial
   ■ Based on related work [4,6]
   [4] D. Ford, T. Zimmermann, C. Bird, and N. Nagappan. 2017. “Characterizing Software Engineering Work with Personas Based on Knowledge Worker
   Actions”. ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement. 394–403.
   [6] Judy L. Wynekoop and Diane B. Walz. 2000. “Investigating traits of top performing software developers”.
   Information Technology & People 13, 3 (2000), 186–195
   

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9. Example
   9
   Extracted Scrum Teamwork Contributions
   ■ Scrum Guide extracts [2]
   ■
   ■
   ■ Short name: Process Improvement
   ■ Role: All
   ■ Dimension: Managerial
   [2] Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. 2017. “The Scrum Guide - The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game”.
   Technical Report. scrumguides.org. 19 pages. http://scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2017/2017-Scrum-Guide-US.pdf
   

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10. Scrum Contribution Model
    10
    Scrum Contribution Model
    (adding to product increment utilizing technical skills)
    (influencing the product’s prospect and direction) (concerned with adapting the work process)
    

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11. Model Usage
    11
    Envisioned Use Cases for Scrum Contribution Model
    ■ Use Case: Scrum Team Status Check
    ■ Model as means of conformance analysis, contrasting model’s
    teamwork contributions and team’s self-identified ones
    ■ Mismatches represent starting points for discussion
    Facilitate retrospection of chosen
    process adaptations and their rationales
    

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12. Summary
    12
    A Model of Scrum Contributions
    ■ Structured exploration of the project member’s
    contributions described by the Scrum Guide
    ■ Constricted scope of initial model promotes
    clarity and traceability of construction
    ■ Representative of key contributions in
    unmodified, theoretical, “vanilla Scrum” [7]
    [7] Lucas Gren, Richard Torkar, and Robert Feldt. 2017. “Group development and group maturity when building agile teams: A qualitative and
    quantitative investigation at eight large companies”. Journal of Systems and Software 124 (2017),104–119.
    

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13. Conclusion
    13
    A Model of Scrum Contributions
    ■ Model makes the often implicit contributions of Scrum team
    members to project progress explicit & visual
    ■ Allows analyses that foster self-reflection and retrospection
    regarding teamwork processes & contributions
    May prove particularly useful in
    Retrospective meetings
    

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14. Recap
    14
    christoph.matthies@hpi.de
    @chrisma0
    

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15. Image Sources
    15
    In order of appearance
    ■ donation by Vectors Market from the Noun Project
    ■ coding by Gerald Wildmoser from the Noun Project
    ■ Project by Nithinan Tatah from the Noun Project
    ■ goal by Alice Design from the Noun Project
    ■ Scrum team by Sharon Showalter from the Noun Project
    ■ Definition by Sumana Chamrunworakiat from the Noun Project
    ■ analysis book by achmad mulyana from the Noun Project
    ■ List by hans draiman from the Noun Project
    ■ Check Server Status\ by Ex Eyecon from the Noun Project
    ■ icecream by Adrien Coquet from the Noun Project
    ■ Curtain by NTT from the Noun Project
    

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