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Take No PrisonersHow a Venture Capital Group Does Scrum

Jeff Sutherland, Ph.D., USAIgor Altman, USA

Agile 2009

2010/05/19

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Outline

• Introduction

• Getting Started with Scrum

• Scaling up

• Conclusion

2010/05/19

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Introduction

• OpenView Labs:– A division of OpenView Venture Partner

• Introduce a successful model for implementing Scrum in OpenView Labs

• Not only for software development, but also management, marketing, sales, finance, and so on

• Aggressive removal of impediments– i.e., Take No Prisoners

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Outline

• Introduction

• Getting Started with Scrum

• Scaling up

• Conclusion

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Started with Scrum

• Team Structure– value-add team(4) & deal team(3)– Each has its Scrum Master– Sprint: one week lengths, from Mon. to Fri.

• Product Ownership & Backlog– Scott Maxwell, Chief Product Owner– Backlog housed in Central Desktop

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Started with Scrum

• Stories– Take a lot of time to Understand

• Sizing and Planning– Sizing meeting on every Mon., sizing the story for

the next sprint and sent back the unclear stories– Done in “perfect hours”– Scott prioritizes the stories

• Daily Scrums

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Started with Scrum

• Retrospective• Benefit– Self-managing– Communication level up (Transparent to the team)– Impediment removed– Wrong outputs– Collaboration– Reduction in stress for working several projects

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Started with Scrum

• Benefit– Self-managing– Communication level up (Transparent to the team)– Impediment removed– Wrong outputs– Collaboration– Reduction in stress for working several projects

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Started with Scrum

• Challenge– members are specialized and lacking cross-training– Communication between the Scrum team and its

project stakeholders is poor– Several team members are unsure that Scrum

make sense for the work at OpenView Labs

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Outline

• Introduction

• Getting Started with Scrum

• Scaling up

• Conclusion

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Scaling up

• Team Structure– grows from 4 to 6 and ultimately 9 members– The team splits into two and the team is allowed

to decide how it will split– Functionally specialized team members are in one

and the new team members are in another• Sprint Length– One-week sprint

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Scaling up

• Product Ownership & Backlog– Product ownership for portfolio value-add projects

shift to the role of Open View senior point people– Each portfolio company has its own backlog– Labs team provides feedback into the backlogs

and any change must go through the senior point person

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Scaling up

• Stories– Less communication during the sprint is required

between the Labs team and the portfolio companies and the senior point people/product owners

– Definition of done is now specified and the same for every story

– The done is response to the Labs team completing stories but not to the point people

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Scaling up

• Sizing and Planning– Done in Scrum Room– Settle back on a Sizing meeting every Mon.

• Daily Scrums– Last 15 minutes, with the same three questions

• Retrospective– There is now an impediment backlog if the

impediment cannot removed immediately

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Scaling up

• Benefits– More transparent between Labs team and

between the Labs team and the portfolio company point people/ product owners

– Team collaboration and cross-training increase– Execute more stories across more portfolio

companies and practice development areas

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Scaling up

• Challenge– A Labs team member can’t work within the team– Insufficient cross-training– Focus on perfect hours’ done rather than the

ultimate impact of the story– Long-term projects drag out over long periods of

time because too many projects are being worked on simultaneously

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Outline

• Introduction

• Getting Started with Scrum

• Scaling up

• Conclusion

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Conclusion

• Better focus and more team collaboration– Focus on higher impact stories rather than tasks– Complete projects more quickly at a given time– Weekly lunch-and-learn sessions allow senior

team members to educate the newer ones– Each Friday, all portfolio company point people

attend a meeting with the Labs teams• Remove the impediments

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Thank you

2010/05/19