Agile Scrum An Insider View: (With 19 Case Stories & 20 Practical Exercises)

By Wodajeneh Cherinet

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669873242

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Copyright © 2023 by Wodajeneh Cherinet.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/13/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

852436

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Prologue

Preface

What is this book about?

Why did I write this book?

Who should read this book?

What is unique about this book?

Disclaimer

Introduction

Chapter 1:   Agile Scrum in a Nutshell

1.1.Purpose

1.2.Keywords and Expressions

1.3.Key Questions

1.4.Introduction

1.5.Agile scrum: Advantages

Case Story 1: Kefa Coffee (KC)

Exercise 1: Understanding Agile Scrum

Answers to Exercise 1

Case Story 2: Jiru Online University (JOU)

Exercise 2: Detailing Agile Scrum

Answers to Exercise 2

Case Story 3: The Jihur Online Bank

Exercise 3: Analyzing Agile Scrum

Answer to Exercise 3

Exercise 4: Working on Requirement

Chapter 1: Summary

Chapter 2:   A Brief Account of Agile Scrum

2.1.Purpose

2.2.Keywords and Expressions

2.3.Key Questions

2.4.Introduction

2.5.The Agile Manifesto

2.6.Brief Account of Agile

2.7.The Birth of Scrum

Case Story 4: Forming Agile Farm

Exercise 5: Evoking the History of Agile

Answer to Exercise 5

2.8.Scrum Values and Principles

2.8.1.Commitment

2.8.2.Focus

2.8.3.Openness

2.8.4.Respect

2.8.5.Courage

2.9.The Six Principles of Scrum

2.9.1.Empirical Process Control

2.9.2.Self-Organization

2.9.3.Time-Boxing

2.9.4.Value-Based Prioritization

2.9.5.Collaboration

2.9.6.Iterative Development

Case Story 5: Addis Bus Trucker (ABT)

Exercise 6: Understanding Scrum Values

Answers to Exercise 6

2.10.Agile Manifesto: What is it about?

2.10.1.Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools

2.10.2.Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation

2.10.3.Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation

2.10.4.Responding to Change over Following a Plan

Case Story 6: Addis Ambulance Dispatcher (AAD)

Exercise 7: Examining a Project for Agile Values

Answers to Exercise 7

2.11.Fundamentals of Agile Principles

2.11.1.Customer Satisfaction through Early and Continuous Software Delivery

2.11.2.Accommodate Changing Requirements throughout the Development Process

2.11.3.Frequent Delivery of Working Software

2.11.4.Collaboration between the Business Stakeholders and Developers throughout Project

2.11.5.Support, Trust, and Motivate the People Involved

2.11.6.Enable Face-to-Face Interactions

2.11.7.Working Software is the Primary Measure of Progress

2.11.8.Agile Processes to Support a Consistent Development Pace

2.11.9.Attention to Technical Detail and Design that Enhances Agility

2.11.10.Simplicity

2.11.11.Self-organizing Teams Encourage Great Architectures, Requirements, and Designs

2.11.12.Regular Reflections on How to Become More Effective

Case Story 8: Core Values and Principles

Exercise 9: Agile Principles in Practice

Answers to Exercise 9

2.12.Agile Scrum. Who is it for?

Case Story 9: For whom is agile scrum?

Exercise 10: Agile scrum who is it for?

Answers to Exercise 10

2.13.Agile scrum: Why is it important?

Case Story 10: Chat between Two Product Owners

Exercise 11: Why Agile?

Answers to Exercise 11

Chapter 2 Summary

Chapter 3:   Strategic Components of Agile & Agile Scrum Team Roles

3.1.Purpose

3.2.Keywords and Expressions

3.3.Key Questions

3.4.Introduction

3.5.Strategic Components of Agile Scrum

3.5.1.Epic

Case Story 11: Ethiopian Coffee Export

Exercise 12: Writing Epics and User Stories

Answers to Exercise 12

3.5.2.Sprint

3.5.3.The Agile Scrum Board

Case Story 12: Building Agile Board

or Abesha Coffee House

Exercise 13: Building Agile Board

3.5.4.Product Backlog

3.5.5.Agile Team

3.5.6.Agile Scrum Tools

3.5.7.Agile Planning

Case Story 13: Ethiopian Career Finder (ECF)

Exercise 14: Using Templates for Writing Meeting Minutes

Chapter 3 Summary

Chapter 4:   Agile Scrum Team Roles

4.1.Purpose

4.2.Keywords and Expressions

4.3.Key Questions

4.4.Introduction

4.5.Scrum Roles

4.5.1.Scrum Master

4.5.2.Product Owner

4.6.Development Team

4.7.Agile Team Workflow

4.7.1.Ideation Step

4.7.2.Inception Step

4.7.3.Iteration Step

4.7.4.Release Step

4.7.5.Production Step

4.7.6.Retirement Step

4.8.Definition of Done (DoD)

4.9.Value Added Report

Case Story 14: Project Kick-off Speech (EBS)

Exercise 15: Building Agile Team

Answer to Exercise 15

Chapter 4 Summary

Chapter 5:   Agile Characteristics and Core Steps

5.1.Purpose

5.2.Keywords and Expressions

5.3.Key Questions

5.4.Introduction

5.5.Agile Characteristics

5.5.1.Being T-shaped

5.5.2.Cross-functionality

5.5.3.Being Adaptable

5.5.4.Being Curious

5.5.5.Entrepreneurial

5.5.6.Team-oriented

5.5.7.Committed to Excellence

5.5.8.Highly Productive

Case Story 15: EMSA, what is lacking in my team?

Exercise 16: The Agile Team

Answers to Exercise 16

5.6.Agile Core Process

5.6.1.Project Planning

5.6.2.Road Creation

Case Story 16: Abesha Online Gebeya (AOG)

5.6.3.Release Planning

5.6.4.Sprint Planning

5.6.5.Daily Scrums

5.6.6.Sprint Review and Retrospective

5.7.Agile Scrum Team Size

5.7.1.Recommended Team Size

5.7.2.Best Industry Practice

5.8.Creating and Maintaining an Agile Scrum Team

5.8.1.Tuckman’s Theory

Case Story 17:

Exercise 18: Building Agile Team

Answers to Exercise 18

5.9.Maintaining Scrum Team

5.9.1.Understand Expectations

5.9.2.Promote Learning from Mistakes

5.9.3.Prioritize Team Communication

5.9.4.Involve and Evolve

5.9.5.Embrace Open Feedback Culture

5.10.Going Agile Scrum

Case Story 18: Critical Review of AIS

Exercise 19: SWOT in Practice

Answers to Exercise 19

Chapter 5 Summary

Conclusion

About the Author

References

Notes -

Dedication

I primarily dedicate this book to my wife, Meaza Lulseged, who has been by my side with words of encouragement until I wrap up writing this book. Then, to my beloved daughter, Ruth L. Wodajeneh who always challenges me to be true to myself and respect others regardless of their rank in society.

I also dedicate this book to my father, the late Cherinet Gelagel. With him, I reached this level of prominence. He taught me the value of hard work and guided me through my grade schools and social attributes. He was a great man aware of the modern enlightenment, so he inspired my colleagues and me to attend school. He was a compassionate man who cared for life, whether a human or other creations. He was an advocate for the little ones and the voiceless.

By the same token, I dedicate this book to my most loving mother, the late Terunesh Aregahegne. My mother had always been exceptional. She was such a candid, earnest, and kind woman that words might run short of explicating her as is.

Finally, I dedicate this book to my big sister, Woinshet Cherinet, who was always there for me, big or small, particularly in times of need during my high school and college years. Her love for me knew no bounds.

All credit be to them!

Acknowledgments

This book wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Alan Crouch, Capital Terefe, and my dear friend Zeke Ayele. Thanks to all of them for reading the book from start to end and providing constructive comments at the expert level.

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Daniel Solomon Beyene (Ph.D.), who gave me comprehensive productive comments and remarks. The expediency and pragmatism of his counsel on the Case Studies used in several chapters across the book were very much obliged to bring home the agile mindsets discussed across the book.

I also want to thank Alemtsehay Cherinet Gelagel, Workeye Eshetu Zewudie, and his wife, Azeb Bekele Woldetadak, for their bottomless support in prayer and supplication for the success of this book.

That said, I like to give kudos in advance to all the players I interfaced with on the publisher’s team for the fantastic work they did.

Thank you all for your unfailing support!

The goal is NOT to write code. We would if we could ship products and make all this money without writing any code. Your job is to ship products EXACTLY on time. Whether you’re a developer, tester, program manager, or product manager does not matter. Everybody’s job is the same.

- Chris Peters,

former Microsoft program manager.

Foreword

The legacy practices of software development need to be updated for the modern world. Their relevance is vanishing away in times of change. The number of companies that practice waterfall, which only emphasizes fixed scope as part of triple constraint, is reducing alarmingly.

As we witness, there are fundamental shifts in people’s attitudes toward these companies. The overwhelming traditional waterfall software development and its management and leadership cannot cope with the day’s demand.

We are in a world where man and machine live together fast, heading from the physical to the digital arena of life. We demand to be less manual and more automated. We need everything to be at our ease. Most of the global funding is made for making life easy using emergent digital technologies and by developing and implementing simple and easy-to-use software.

That is why the software industry is so relevant to our time. Turing the manual effort into the hands of machines is one of its principal activities. Thus, it needs an approach that moves in pace with the demand.

Simplified and easy-to-use software needs new thinking and software development methodology, namely agile project management.

Since 2001 the Agile Manifesto became the core for software development used to deliver value faster. This new agile software development methodology approach requires constant team collaboration, flexible enough to change. As a result, the agile teams become effective and produce higher-quality products that satisfy end users.

As opposed to traditional (waterfall) project management, agile project management is an approach that features constant team collaboration, adaption to change, and iterative work. Software development companies began working on projects in the agile mindset in the mid-1990s.

Again, the process was established in 2001 with the Agile Manifesto, which outlined a way to innovate software. This new thinking has given birth to the agile scrum approach as a significant move towards addressing the prevailing needs.

This book is the first to uncover the agile scrum methodology as a kind of instrument of management and leadership in one blend.

Whether the old-fashioned or the agile kind, the concept that some of us might tend to have been managers and leaders are born, not made is a perplexing riddle not to make the due progress in the area.

While it is true that some people might be born managers and leaders, some managers and leaders are born during adversity. Often, very modest people who have never had management and leadership practice in their respective life will stand up and take the role of a manager and a leader when a situation they care about requires it.

Considering the IT industry’s traditional management and leadership skill sets, it might not help achieve the desired goals of producing business outcomes. But managers and leaders who adapt to changing environments might do the job better.

However, once they can identify the right approach to leading and managing their respective projects, they might stay within the point of their success. Therefore, training is a prerequisite, particularly when it comes to agile management and leadership. That makes books such as this significant and relevant to the current industry.

Some research here in the United States of America has made it clear that a great majority of the working population, to be more specific, about 70% of them in America, are actively disconnected or disengaged from their jobs and that managers and leaders are the number one cause of these job dissatisfaction (Leaders and Influence, 2021).

In my several years of experience in the IT industry, I have witnessed that most of the experts leave their job not because they are not well paid or for any other personal or collective reasons but because they are not happy with the way they are handled by their respective managers and or team leads.

Most complain about top-down command and control during agile practices, long bureaucracy, lack of involvement or belongings in their project, job-focused management, poor attention to the task force, and thinkers. Nonetheless, agile management and leadership do not have to be this way.

Instead, it is an entirely new approach to leading people in a very collaborative manner. Actual agile managers and leaders would focus on re-engaging their teams, revitalizing their organizations, and changing how work gets done. So, it is both a job and people-focused management and leadership. Based on my experience, leadership is for the current and the next generation of business bests.

Agile leaders in all levels of organizations need to adapt to the Servant Leadership style. To be an agile leader, they must have the aptitudes, the attitude, and the competencies. In addition, influential agile leaders must develop specific traits critical for managing organizations toward agility. For example, their decisions should be clear and organized when utilizing their authority.

These clear decisions allow employees to perform their jobs better because the vision, goals, and objectives are clear. They need to trust employees and then delegate it to their subordinates. The decision-making process will be complicated if the leader is unorganized and fails to give proper instructions.

Agile leaders also focus on the needs of others. They acknowledge other people’s perspectives, give them the care they need to meet their work and personal goals, involve them in appropriate decisions, and build a sense of community within their teams. This leads to higher engagement, trust, and stronger relationships between the team members and other stakeholders.

Applying the concepts of Agile to leading any given workforce, particularly in the Software industry, is innovative and evolving. The world is looking for leaders unsatisfied with the status quo and seeing that the world is changing around them. We want the next generation of business leaders ready to embrace a better way to get things done; that is where agile management and leadership pop up.

This book is the first part of its series and is well-timed. It is written when the world demands such books that are obliging in injecting and vaccinating an ever systematic and progressing management and leadership that is, Agile.

As a final remark, I appreciate the author, Mr. Wodajeneh Cherinet, for writing this book and sharing all his knowledge, rich experience, and reading on the subject matter.

The book will help the software industry advance in agile management and leadership practices. Therefore, one cannot afford not to read this book whatsoever.

Very respectfully,

Workeye E. Zewudie

President, Almartha IT Consulting Inc,

Prologue

I have been involved in agile-based software development projects for over two decades. While agile had seen much success in the private industry, it was initially unknown how successful it could be in the government, where complex regulations, slow delivery, and a risk-averse culture were pervasive. The government did not march as fast as the private industry, and the race to adopt agile was no different.

Nevertheless, some government agencies successfully implemented agile and made a positive impact on their mission through iterative, rapid delivery. Government leaders in these agencies showed the attitudes, aptitudes, and competencies to practice and be successful in agile. Their practice of agile and DevOps success continues today, proving that they are not the exception. This success has started a movement of adoption across the federal government as agencies learn from the success and failures of others.

Adopting agile is not always successful. Private industry and government agencies still struggle to make agile software development part of their culture. Based on