Create Your Own
Ocean’s Eleven:
Using
Hackathons to Work Together Towards a Common Goal
Presented by Texas.govTASSCC 2013
What?
Where?
How?
Why?
Agenda
Danny OceanThe RingleaderBrian Stevenson
Rusty RyanPartner-in-CrimePete Eichorn
Rueben TishkoffWealthy FriendRaj Polikepati
Starring …
What is a Hackathon?An event where programmers
and others involved in software
development collaborate on
software projects to achieve a
common goal.
Lean, agile, rapid
development of a solution
(not necessarily software).
Hackathons can be used
for non-technical
situations (e.g. cost
reduction initiatives)
Business
Government
Techcrunch Hackathon
Rallyon Hackathon
Facebook Hackathon
Started with technical brown bags 5 years ago
Progressed to “all hands on deck” workshop 2 years ago
Leverage prototyping and proof-of-concept for new possibilities
Recently held 1st 24-hour Hackathon through grass-root interest
Evolution at
Ideation & Innovation?
Innovation lunches
Problem
solving
Voting Improvise
Good night’s sleep
Large room with whiteboards, sunlight, bright lights, hydration supplies, and lots of food
Laptops/notebooks with access to existing SDLC toolset
Guaranteed support structure (operations) for day-to-day production support
Logistics
Release plan
Epics
User stories
Velocity
Sprint review
Retrospective
Sprint planning
Agile Terms & Roles
Product Owner
Scrum Master
Team
Stakeholder
9:00 am start time; offsite conference room
~20 people – web services, user experience, and server-side web developers
All-hands standup to discuss goals
Input from team on execution approach – chose Agile Scrum
Hackathon Itinerary
Build a mobile app that scans a QR/bar code to renew service
Build a tool to help Finance team with monthly close
Things under control: renewal service, payment service, technologies, financial knowledge
Unknowns: QR code scanning technology
Initial Standup
4 Scrum teams to handle:
Bar code scanning work (biggest unknown)
Creating/utilizing web services needed
Web design & development activities for app
Financial tool for monthly close
Team Formations
Release planning– 4 sprints, 4 hours each
Sprint planning– Select features from product backlog– Finalized acceptance criteria
Sprint standups– Discuss progress across teams
Sprint review & retrospective– Teams demonstrated functionality– Discussed new findings & solutions– What worked, what didn’t– Improvements for next sprint– Food breaks
Hackathon Day Ceremonies
Reusable services Reusable assets (e.g. view
templates & themes)
Scaffolding– Ruby on Rails– Groovy on Grails– ASP.NET Dynamic Data Scaffolding– Spring MVC Scaffolding
Mobile first technology Mock capabilities Contract interfaces
Technologies for Success
License procurement for scanning software
Bullet-proofing Security scanning Show & tell for overall team Coordination with partner for
production release plan Celebrate!!!
Follow-up Activities
Hackathon Benefits
Team building
Employee satisfaction
Learn execution experience
Solve problems
Prototype for new opportunities
Reduce investment risks with proof-of-concept
Improve culture by demonstrating a “can do” attitude backed by results
A New Card in Your Deck
New project execution plans
Emergency handling
Sustained annual planning
And more ….
Fosters blue-sky thinking
Entire organization can participate
Teaches effective decision making
Can deliver results in astonishingly short timeframes
All about the team – environment & empowerment
Executive Viewpoint
