[SCRUMDEVELOPMENT] Requesting Suggestions for Mini-projects for Agile Training

[[e-mail] [SCRUMDEVELOPMENT]]

There are many good games and simulations available in the web to illustrate Agile concepts and methods.
But for a 3-day Intro to Agile training program I would like to ask the participants to develop and test small applications using Agile practices.
I have some ideas for applications from business domain (not sure whether they can be developed in 3-days).
Need some suggestions (or pointers to resources) for mini-projects from domains like healthcare, CAD/CAM, embedded software that can be completed in 3-days (three one-day sprints) by a team of 5-6 people of moderate technical competence.
Would highly appreciate your assistance.
Thanks in advance
Gopinath

['Steve Ash' [e-mail] [SCRUMDEVELOPMENT]]

Hello Gopinath



What are you trying to achieve with your 3-day Agile Intro course?



Are you just concentrating on the programming elements of Agile?

Are you going to give them a set of user stories to develop?

Will you be speaking about Philosophy and Principles?

What about the governance aspects needed for an Agile product development?



My opinion that if you intend to include Philosophy, Principles, Roles and
Responsibilities and potential Agile Practices (Techniques), then you will
not have enough time to develop (program) anything in the 3 days.



I contend that even if you are just doing this intro for programmers, they
need to understand the Agile background to be able to work in an Agile way;
just learning the so-called Agile programming techniques of Test-Driven
Development, Pair-Programming, Continuous Integration and Refactoring etc
will not equip them to be an effective Solution Development Team.



My own approach to training a group of people for a product development is
to gather all 'roles' from Business Sponsor to new hire programmer including
major business and technical stakeholders and start from forming the
development vision, through business objectives and requirements (User
Stories), technical constraints (architecture, infrastructure, standards and
rule etc) and planning. I use the Product under consideration as the Case
Study for the 'course' exercises.



You can get to the Sprint Plan for the first Sprint in 3 to 4 days depending
on the size of the project.



I then will spend 2 to 3 days with the Dev Team setting up any tools and
teaching them how to use the programming techniques as part of the first
Sprint as 'Just-in-Time' training.



My 2-pennyworth



Steve Ash



There are many good games and simulations available in the web to illustrate
Agile concepts and methods.
But for a 3-day Intro to Agile training program I would like to ask the
participants to develop and test small applications using Agile practices.
I have some ideas for applications from business domain (not sure whether
they can be developed in 3-days).
Need some suggestions (or pointers to resources) for mini-projects from
domains like healthcare, CAD/CAM, embedded software that can be completed in
3-days (three one-day sprints) by a team of 5-6 people of moderate technical
competence.
Would highly appreciate your assistance.
Thanks in advance
Gopinath

[[e-mail] [SCRUMDEVELOPMENT]]

Hello Steve,
Thanks for your response.
In 3 days I would like the team to get a real feel of developing a very small product/app end-to-end - From product visioning to potentially shippable features. I am looking for suggestions for a mini-project that is effort-wise mid-way between 1-hr Scrum/XP simulation games and a product development that takes takes weeks. I plan to have 3 sprints each having a length of about 6 hrs per day where a a small working prototype is developed in about 100 person-hrs (assuming a team of 5-6 people working about 6 hrs a day for 3 days. ).


To answer your other questions -
1. "if you intend to include Philosophy, Principles, Roles and Responsibilities and potential Agile Practices (Techniques), then you will not have enough time to develop (program) anything in the 3 days."

I agree. In fact I will be addressing these and also the Sprint ceremonies in a separate program ( 2 -3 day session) before the 3-day project begins.There I may make use of well known games and simulations to illustrate the concepts.

2. "My own approach.........Just-in-Time Training"

This is my approach too when I am having a longer consulting/coaching assignment. But for a short duration 3 days which may be a public program and/or where participants come from different backgrounds I will be focusing more on the process aspects. Yet I would like them to do some hands-on development and testing as a cross-functional team using technical practices they already know.

Regards
Gopinath







---In ***@stage.yahoogroups.com, <***@...> wrote :

Hello Gopinath

What are you trying to achieve with your 3-day Agile Intro course?

Are you just concentrating on the programming elements of Agile?
Are you going to give them a set of user stories to develop?
Will you be speaking about Philosophy and Principles?
What about the governance aspects needed for an Agile product development?

My opinion that if you intend to include Philosophy, Principles, Roles and Responsibilities and potential Agile Practices (Techniques), then you will not have enough time to develop (program) anything in the 3 days.

I contend that even if you are just doing this intro for programmers, they need to understand the Agile background to be able to work in an Agile way; just learning the so-called Agile programming techniques of Test-Driven Development, Pair-Programming, Continuous Integration and Refactoring etc will not equip them to be an effective Solution Development Team.

My own approach to training a group of people for a product development is to gather all ‘roles’ from Business Sponsor to new hire programmer including major business and technical stakeholders and start from forming the development vision, through business objectives and requirements (User Stories), technical constraints (architecture, infrastructure, standards and rule etc) and planning. I use the Product under consideration as the Case Study for the ‘course’ exercises.

You can get to the Sprint Plan for the first Sprint in 3 to 4 days depending on the size of the project.

I then will spend 2 to 3 days with the Dev Team setting up any tools and teaching them how to use the programming techniques as part of the first Sprint as ‘Just-in-Time’ training.

My 2-pennyworth

Steve Ash

There are many good games and simulations available in the web to illustrate Agile concepts and methods.
But for a 3-day Intro to Agile training program I would like to ask the participants to develop and test small applications using Agile practices.
I have some ideas for applications from business domain (not sure whether they can be developed in 3-days).
Need some suggestions (or pointers to resources) for mini-projects from domains like healthcare, CAD/CAM, embedded software that can be completed in 3-days (three one-day sprints) by a team of 5-6 people of moderate technical competence.
Would highly appreciate your assistance.
Thanks in advance
Gopinath

[Andrew Burrows [e-mail] [SCRUMDEVELOPMENT]]

Perhaps you could do some variant of the Elephant Carpaccio exercise? It
was created by Alistair Cockburn, and you can find a great facilitation
guide online by Henrik Kniberg.


http://blog.crisp.se/2013/07/25/henrikkniberg/elephant-carpaccio-facilitation-guide

Post by ***@yahoo.com [SCRUMDEVELOPMENT]
Hello Steve,
Thanks for your response.
In 3 days I would like the team to get a real feel of developing a very
small product/app end-to-end - From product visioning to potentially
shippable features. I am looking for suggestions for a mini-project that
is effort-wise mid-way between 1-hr Scrum/XP simulation games and a product
development that takes takes weeks. I plan to have 3 sprints each having a
length of about 6 hrs per day where a a small working prototype is
developed in about 100 person-hrs (assuming a team of 5-6 people working
about 6 hrs a day for 3 days. ).
To answer your other questions -
1. "if you intend to include Philosophy, Principles, Roles and
Responsibilities and potential Agile Practices (Techniques), then you will
not have enough time to develop (program) anything in the 3 days."

I agree. In fact I will be addressing these and also the Sprint

ceremonies in a separate program ( 2 -3 day session) before the 3-day
project begins.There I may make use of well known games and simulations
to illustrate the concepts.
2. "My own approach.........Just-in-Time Training"

This is my approach too when I am having a longer

consulting/coaching assignment. But for a short duration 3 days which may
be a public program and/or where participants come from different
backgrounds I will be focusing more on the process aspects. Yet I would
like them to do some hands-on development and testing as a cross-functional
team using technical practices they already know.
Regards
Gopinath
Hello Gopinath
What are you trying to achieve with your 3-day Agile Intro course?
Are you just concentrating on the programming elements of Agile?
Are you going to give them a set of user stories to develop?
Will you be speaking about Philosophy and Principles?
What about the governance aspects needed for an Agile product development?
My opinion that if you intend to include Philosophy, Principles, Roles and
Responsibilities and potential Agile Practices (Techniques), then you will
not have enough time to develop (program) anything in the 3 days.
I contend that even if you are just doing this intro for programmers, they
need to understand the Agile background to be able to work in an Agile way;
just learning the so-called Agile programming techniques of Test-Driven
Development, Pair-Programming, Continuous Integration and Refactoring etc
will not equip them to be an effective Solution Development Team.
My own approach to training a group of people for a product development is
to gather all ‘roles’ from Business Sponsor to new hire programmer
including major business and technical stakeholders and start from forming
the development vision, through business objectives and requirements (User
Stories), technical constraints (architecture, infrastructure, standards
and rule etc) and planning. I use the Product under consideration as the
Case Study for the ‘course’ exercises.
You can get to the Sprint Plan for the first Sprint in 3 to 4 days
depending on the size of the project.
I then will spend 2 to 3 days with the Dev Team setting up any tools and
teaching them how to use the programming techniques as part of the first
Sprint as ‘Just-in-Time’ training.
My 2-pennyworth
*Steve Ash*
There are many good games and simulations available in the web to
illustrate Agile concepts and methods.
But for a 3-day Intro to Agile training program I would like to ask the
participants to develop and test small applications using Agile practices.
I have some ideas for applications from business domain (not sure whether
they can be developed in 3-days).
Need some suggestions (or pointers to resources) for mini-projects from
domains like healthcare, CAD/CAM, embedded software that can be completed
in 3-days (three one-day sprints) by a team of 5-6 people of moderate
technical competence.
Would highly appreciate your assistance.
Thanks in advance
Gopinath

[[e-mail] [SCRUMDEVELOPMENT]]

Andrews, Thanks for suggesting Elephant Carpaccio exercise. As you mentioned the facilitation guide is great. The exercise is rather short 2 hrs.( I need something that should take about 20 hrs). But it is a good starting point to extend it further .

Gopinath