Scrum – First Sprint
Lately i’ve been pretty excited about work. For the past month i have been a Scrum master in a team of 4 people (including 2 developers, Jose and Pepe and the Product Owner Silvia, who is also the project manager).
What is Scrum?
In a few words, Scrum is an Agile metholodogy for project management. It applies mainly on software engineering projects but is also suitable for other kind of projects. The main idea behind Scrum is to have small iterations of works, delivering a shippable product at the end of each one. The client is really involved in the project (via the Product Owner) and can give his feedback over the product very often and very early in the process. Priorities are decided by him and on each iteration, the team focus on developing the most important stories first, based on the 80/20 rule (80 % of the users will use 20% of the features, so those 20% features should ideally be developped first). Its advantanges compared to more classical approaches (Waterfall) are numerous: flexilibity, frequent and early feedback, prioritization of the scope, …
Scrum methodology
Product Owner
Silvia is the project manager, but for the Scrum needs, she took the role of the Product Owner. Our business situation is a bit complex and it is impossible to get the client involved and working along with us. So Silvia had the dream role of trying to get the client to share his thoughts with us, and it was far from being easy. The day after the beginning of the Sprint, the client finally gave us screenshots of the sites we were supposed to redevelop, … The other main role of Silvia, obviously, was to decide about the priorities of the features. Although at the end we are supposed to develop everything, it is important to focus first on the most important, and thats what she helped us to do by bringing a more business-oriented vision to our daily meetings.
Scrum master
As a Scrum master, i am in charge of keeping the project moving on and making sure that all the team is following Scrum processes and artifacts. I lead the daily meetings and make sure that we are still in phase with business priorities, while also trying to remove impediments from the team. I am not actually doing any development nor have any decision-making role, but i try to help and encourage team’s communication and keeping track of everything that is done and try to foresee what is coming next to give Silvia some vision.
It is my first experience as a Scrum master and only my second experience overall in a Scrum team. One week ago we actually closed our first iteration, and made a demo to Silvia and some stakeholders (3 of my superiors including my head of division).
To be honest, for all of us, this first Scrum experience was really made in a complicated context – most of the time not compatible with Scrum:
- even after beginning the first sprint, we kept adding tasks and changing the sprint, first because the requirements were not 100% complete yet, and second because everybody was discovering the platform so there was many unplanned elements to configure and/or implement,
- the development team is only made of 2 people, not cross-technical. They can’t really replace each other (one is more front-end oriented whereas the other one is more back-end oriented) and don’t work at the same hours and same places,
- we are literally spread all over the world. Jose is working with me in Madrid, Silvia is working from home near San Francisco and Pepe is based in Mexico,
- Internet connections were sometimes failing in Mexico.
But we made it and actually got a nice result, thanks to everybody’s work.
The main issues we had
We had a lot of issues during the Sprint. Some we could and should have anticipated more, some we seriously couldn’t do anything about:
- for both front and back-end, we were behind an internal framework for which there is little documentation and we barely received any training. Good thing Jose was here, cause he knew a lot, but Pepe obviously did struggle for some time on learning how to actually use the framework for the front-end part (being based in Mexico, he barely has any technical support since people using the framework are all in Madrid). He actually learned fast and improved some of the basic stuff that were made from Madrid!
- requirements and technical details of what was REALLY needed were sometimes coming or understood late,
- since we had only two developers, sometimes one for waiting for the other for some explanation or some piece of code logic to be available.
The BIG mistake
We actually started the Sprint without fixing an end date. Although it is one of the basic thing for a Sprint, we thought that just fixing the scope would be enough. BIG MISTAKE. After a while, we realized that we were not focusing anymore on having something deliverable and shippable to show at a given moment. Thats when we started worrying about priorities and really put apart some of the stories, although it was hard.
Despite this, we managed to bring fresh air to the logic and the front-end.
And we are now running the second sprint 
The tools
When doing Scrum, the best situation is when all the team is in the same room, with a big wall or a big whiteboard. People can draw a complete sprint backlog and a complete product backlog on the whiteboard, and physically moved stories (post-its) from one state to the other. The simple act of actually moving a story is usually a real plus in the process.
Unfortunately, due to our particular situation (4 people spread over 3 countries), the physical whiteboard would have been too complicated.
So we went for an Excel sheet, that i improved along the Sprint, basically saying for each story the remaining estimated time; and also gathering also information like the actual velocity of the team, the planned time (supposing people were able to produce 0,7 man day by day), …
We tried also Pivotal Tracker, but found some problems with retroactively doing a Sprint backlog, and with remaining estimations.
About the team communication, well most of it was done through email. Scrum meeting were held at 5pm (CET time), in a meeting room, using Skype for the calls and Webex to share my desktop. I would usually share the Excel backlog and directly input the info on it, live; as well as share the PDF documents or Firefox to read an email together!
And i think thats it… Other sprints are on their way so i’ll let you know about any relevant new info about Scrum or our use of Scrum!
Nicolas.
[FR/ES/EN] 5 ans of vida international
[FR] 5 ans. Aujourd’hui, 7 septembre, je célèbre le 5ème anniversaire. Cela fait 5 ans que j’ai commencé ma vie internationale. Il y a 5 ans, j’arrivais à Blackrock, dans la banlieue de Dublin, et je débutais mon Erasmus. Le temps passe si vite, j’ai l’impression que c’était hier en fait. Tant de choses ont eu lieu dans ma vie que je n’aurai jamais pu imaginer ce 7 septembre 2005. J’ai déménagé en Belgique, où j’ai vécu 2 ans, puis Salamanca, qui fut encore mieux que mon Erasmus, et maintenant Madrid. Madrid où je suis vraiment arrivé il y a un an tout juste. Autre anniversaire. Que dire… C’est une sensation étrange que celle de penser qu’il y a 5 ans, tout commençait… J’ai déménagé plusieurs fois, ai commencé de nouvelles vies depuis zéro… et pourtant je n’ai pas changé tant que cela… Le meilleur est je l’espère encore à venir. En 5 ans, j’ai compris que ce genre de choses ne dépendent que de moi. On verra bien où je serai dans 5 ans!
Erasmus - (Ex)change your life!
[ES] 5 años. Hoy, el 7 de septiembre, es el quinto aniversario. Hace 5 años, llegué a Blackrock, en las afueras de Dublin, y asi empezaba mi Erasmus. Y asi empezaba mi vida internacional. El tiempo pasa tan rapido, me parece que fue ayer que llegue ahí. Tantas cosas han occurido en mi vida, que ni siquiera me podia imaginar aquel 7 de septiembre 2005. Fui a vivir a Belgíca por dos años, luego Salamanca, lo cual fue aún mejor que mi Erasmus y ahora Madrid. Madrid donde de verdad he llegado hace justo un año. Otro aniversario jaja! Qué mas decir… Es una sensación muy extraña pensar que todo empezaba hace ya 5 años… Me he trasladado varias veces, he empezado nuevas vidas desde cero… y sin embargo, no he cambiado tanto… Pienso que el mejor queda por venir. En 5 años, he entendido por lo menos una cosa: toda está entre mis manos. A ver donde estoy en 5 años!
[EN] 5 years. Today, 5th of September, is the fifth anniversary. 5 years ago i was arriving to Blackrock; in Dublin’s suburbs. It was just the beginning of my Erasmus, and of my international life. It never stopped actually. It seems it was yesterday. So many things happened since then, that i could never have imagined on that 7th of September. I moved to Belgium, where i lived 2 years, and then Salamanca, which was even better than my Erasmus, and now Madrid. Finally living the dream. Madrid where i arrived exactly one year ago. Another anniversary to celebrate it seems! What else… Its a really strange feeling to think that its already 5 years that it all started. I moved several times, started three times a new life from scratch… and yet, i havent changed that much, im still the same… I actually think the best is still ahead of me. In 5 years, theres at least one thing i learnt: that its all up to me. Well… we’ll see where i am in 5 years!
Stockholm – Vasa museum
[disponible ici en français]
Vasa museum is one of the most interesting museum i’ve visited in my life. It is all about a huge 17th century Swedish warship, restored 95% similar as the original.
Vasa warship
Here is the text you can find on the leaflet (translated from the leaflet in french):
On August 10th, 1628, the Vasa entered the sea for its first journey ever and sank in Stockholm harbour. The wreck was rised in 1961 after spending 333 years at the bottom of the sea. This warship was restored similar 95% to the original, is wonferdully decorated with hundreds of sculptures.
Vasa is now one of the biggest touristic attractions in the world and offers a unique journey through Sweden during the 17th century.
This museum really amazed me. Besides the opportunity to see and visit an original warship, a real one; the Vasa museum offers multiple stands and little exhibitions explaining various things, such as:
- navigation of such a big warship,
- daily life on board this ship
- naval battles at this time
- the rescue of the wreck
- the different theories about the shipwreck
- a sight of the life in Sweden in 1628
- the conservation of the ship nowadays
- the story of some people that died during the shipwreck (some skeletons were pieced together)
- the construction site of the ship
- …
Model
The ship is now very old (more than 350 years) and ways need to be found to keep it preserved as long as possible. Therefore, for obvious reasons, it is not possible to actually go on the boat itself. However, with his 5 opened floors, many angles and many views of the ship remain possible. From the left, from the right, from the top, from the bottom, almost everything can be seen.
A model at a real scale of one of the upper deck even got reconstitured; where you can see many kids.
If this ship is so important, it is because the shipwreck made a lot of noise at this time (a bit like that of Titanic in 1912). Many years of constructions, hundreds of workers, square kilometers of construction sites, hundreds of cut trees… for only 1500 tiny meters in the sea.
There are multiple theories to explain that shipwreck; among them:
- Crew members was not prepared enough: more than sailors, they were villagers looking for a nice amount of money,
- the ship was way too light: at the departure, the tons of food were not yet on board; therefore the ship was really light and more sensitive to the wind,
- the ship was built and finished very quickly; probably too quickly. The king pressured the construction so that the ship would be finished quickly; for political and image reasons,
- …
Ok i hope you liked this presentation. I’m not a sailor, neither do i have a particular passion for ships or 17th century history; but i think it is not possible to remain insensitive to that amazing and huge ship.
From an other angle
I strongly suggest you to go.
Nicolas.
Some links:
[available in english below]
[FR] La vieille ville
La vieille ville, ou Gamla Stan pour les suédois, est située sur l’île du même nom. Très typique et très bien conservée, on peut s’y balader dans des rues pavées et parfois étroites, longeant ainsi des maisons aux façades de multiples couleurs. A côté des traditionnelles boutiques de souvenir, on peut croiser quelques cafés accueillants où vous pourrez partager une fika avec vos amis (équivalent du goûter, mais par fika les suédois évoquent également l’acte de se retrouver ensemble, et non pas uniquement le fait de manger quelquechose de sucré).
Sur la vieille ville, vous trouverez le Palais Royal (Kungliga Slottet), et sa place semi-circulaire où vous pourrez assister à la relève des gardes. Le Palais Royal mérite également une visite, même si ce n’est pas celle que j’ai préféré. Vous aurez notamment accès aux chambres royales, très bien conservées mais un peu trop dorées à mon goût, ainsi qu’aux joyaux de la couronne (plusieurs couronnes de roi et reine, des sceptres, …). Pensez à prendre un billet multiple, qui vous permet d’aller à la fois au Palais Royal, aux joyaux de la couronne et à l’Hôtel de Ville.
Vieille ville / Old Town
[EN] Old Town
The old Stockholm town, or Gamla Stan for Swedish people, is located on the homonyme island. Very typical and in a very good state, this part of the city offers the opportunity to have nice walks on cobble-stoned and sometimes narrow streets, along multiple-coloured houses. Next to the usual gift shops, you will find very welcoming and warm cafe where you’ll be able to share a fika with some of your friends (equivalent to goûter or tea time, but fika also means the act of gathering along with some friends, not only the fact of eating something sweet).
Inside this old town, you will find the Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet), and its semi-circular square where you’ll have the chance to attend the guards change ceremony. The Royal Palace also deserves a visit, even though its not the one i prefered. You’ll be able to visit royal chambers, very well conservated but a bit too full of gold in my opinion. The crown jewels can also be seen (king and queen’s crowns, sceptras, …). Don’t forget to take a multiple ticket, which will give you access to the Royal Palace, the Crown Jewels and the City Hall, all this for a reduced price.
Wandering in the streets / Errant dans les rues
Stockholm (in english)
[disponible en français ici]
During my trip to Sweden, i spent 4 days in Stockholm, a city that i appreciated so much that i actually fell in love with it.
There would be many things to say about Stockholm, whether it is about its history, its culture or its geography. But let me skip this part, because i’m sure specialized web site will teach you much more than me about these subjects.
On a more touristic point of view, Stockholm is a city that deserves to be seen… at least twice. Let me explain.
I went there a few days ago, which means in full winter. Currently the city (well, the country) is covered with snow. I had the impression to be in a Christmas tale. Lakes are frozen as far as you can see, people wear many layers of clothes, families are enjoying some good time while ice skating, ice sculputres can be found in some places. All those Christmassy aspects give Stockholm an incredible charm.
Stockholm sous la neige
But obviously, most people that go visit Stockholm come in summer. Weather is better and warmer (25°C), days are larger (well, nights are shorter, which is something to see), bright colours, ships and boats everywhere you can possibly look at on the different lakes surrounding Stockholm, a list of activities almost infinite…
Stockholm durant l'été (Crédits photo Claudio.Ar @ FlickR)
So there are two Stockholm to visit, two different atmospheres and two ways of enjoy life.
Let me warn you: at this time of the year, its pretty cold out there, between -15°C and -5°C when i was where. But warmly dressed, with a cap, a scarf, some gloves, you won’t feel the cold. At least it didn’t prevent us from having walks in the center, on some islands and even to cross the bridge.
I leave you with those few photos, thanks to Eva to have taken them
Une maison suédoise
Stockholm et ses lacs gelés
Stockholm et son port enneigé
In one of my next article, i’ll tell you about 3 visits i’ve made here in Stockholm and that i really enjoyed.
Take care.
Nicolas
