-Archiv

Agile Tour Germany / SAFe Meetup Germany PicturesAgile Tour Germany / SAFe Meetup Germany Pictures

Event, Management, Scale, ,

On November 22nd the first Agile Tour Germany was held in Stuttgart. Part of the event was a meet up of experts for the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) which was discussed in several presentations and in an Open Space session.

Short Introduction to Scaled Agile Framework

Markus Meuten did a good job in his presentation where he explained an approach how to successfully combine Scrum and Kanban.

Markus Meuten explaining how to successfully combine Scrum and Kanban.

Short Introduction to Scaled Agile Framework

Hans-Peter Korn did a fantastic job by giving a short introduction to SAFe in just about 20 minutes. In his presentation he delivered the key ideas behind SAFe and why we are going to need such an approach when we want to scale agile.

Hans-Peter Korn talking about scaling agile and the Scaled Agile Framework.

Rally: Tools supporting SAFe

In her short talk Wanda Marginean presented how Rally Software (one of the sponsor of Agile Tour Germany) is supporting agile management on the portfolio and program level.

Wanda Marginean showing how Rally is supporting the Scaled Agile Framework in their products

Open Space Session about SAFe

Later I had the chance to host an Open Space session about the Scaled Agile Framework where we had discussions about more details. As usual when discussing SAFe the time reserved for the session was too short to adress all questions raised but once again Hans-Peter did a good job by shedding light on some more aspects of the framework.

Summarizing the results of the Open Space session about Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).

SAFe Meetup Germany

We then met for the SAFe meetup and had another picture taken.

From right to left: Wanda Marginean, Felix Rüssel and Markus Meuten. All certified SAFe consultants.

The Shocking Truth: You still need to think using your own brain!

Unfortunately the shocking truth is that you still need to think about what you are going to do and how to organize even if you use a process framework like the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and tools from Rally supporting it. In detail SAFe may even proof incorrect and false! So it is helpful but not always correct ;-).

Got angry after I realized that even with SAFe and tools from Rally I still need to think about how to do my job and scale agile successfully. Still no „silver bullet“ or „golden hammer“ at hand … ;-)

Summary

We had fun in Stuttgart and the first Agile Tour in Germany was a great success with a lot of opportunities to meet interesting people and learn great new stuff. This year everybody was talking about how to scale agile and with SAFe we had a good (helpful answer) to many of the questions. Looking forward to the next Agile Tour events in Germany!

Attendees listening to the presentations. Fully booked, no free seats available!
Every chance was used for intensive discussions!
Markus Meuten explaining how to successfully combine Scrum and Kanban.
Hans-Peter Korn talking about scaling agile and the Scaled Agile Framework.
Wanda Marginean showing how Rally is supporting the Scaled Agile Framework in their products
From right to left: Wanda Marginean, Felix Rüssel and Markus Meuten. All certified SAFe consultants.
Summarizing the results of the Open Space session about Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
Got angry after I realized that even with SAFe and tools from Rally I still need to think and do my job carefully. Still no „silver bullet“ or „golden hammer“ at hand …
On November 22nd the first Agile Tour Germany was held in Stuttgart. Part of the event was a meet up of experts for the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) which was discussed in several presentations and in an Open Space session.

Short Introduction to Scaled Agile Framework

Markus Meuten did a good job in his presentation where he explained an approach how to successfully combine Scrum and Kanban.

Markus Meuten explaining how to successfully combine Scrum and Kanban.

Short Introduction to Scaled Agile Framework

Hans-Peter Korn did a fantastic job by giving a short introduction to SAFe in just about 20 minutes. In his presentation he delivered the key ideas behind SAFe and why we are going to need such an approach when we want to scale agile.

Hans-Peter Korn talking about scaling agile and the Scaled Agile Framework.

Rally: Tools supporting SAFe

In her short talk Wanda Marginean presented how Rally Software (one of the sponsor of Agile Tour Germany) is supporting agile management on the portfolio and program level.

Wanda Marginean showing how Rally is supporting the Scaled Agile Framework in their products

Open Space Session about SAFe

Later I had the chance to host an Open Space session about the Scaled Agile Framework where we had discussions about more details. As usual when discussing SAFe the time reserved for the session was too short to adress all questions raised but once again Hans-Peter did a good job by shedding light on some more aspects of the framework.

Summarizing the results of the Open Space session about Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).

SAFe Meetup Germany

We then met for the SAFe meetup and had another picture taken.

From right to left: Wanda Marginean, Felix Rüssel and Markus Meuten. All certified SAFe consultants.

The Shocking Truth: You still need to think using your own brain!

Unfortunately the shocking truth is that you still need to think about what you are going to do and how to organize even if you use a process framework like the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and tools from Rally supporting it. In detail SAFe may even proof incorrect and false! So it is helpful but not always correct ;-).

Got angry after I realized that even with SAFe and tools from Rally I still need to think about how to do my job and scale agile successfully. Still no „silver bullet“ or „golden hammer“ at hand … ;-)

Summary

We had fun in Stuttgart and the first Agile Tour in Germany was a great success with a lot of opportunities to meet interesting people and learn great new stuff. This year everybody was talking about how to scale agile and with SAFe we had a good (helpful answer) to many of the questions. Looking forward to the next Agile Tour events in Germany!

Attendees listening to the presentations. Fully booked, no free seats available!
Every chance was used for intensive discussions!
Markus Meuten explaining how to successfully combine Scrum and Kanban.
Hans-Peter Korn talking about scaling agile and the Scaled Agile Framework.
Wanda Marginean showing how Rally is supporting the Scaled Agile Framework in their products
From right to left: Wanda Marginean, Felix Rüssel and Markus Meuten. All certified SAFe consultants.
Summarizing the results of the Open Space session about Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
Got angry after I realized that even with SAFe and tools from Rally I still need to think and do my job carefully. Still no „silver bullet“ or „golden hammer“ at hand …

Die „Power-Week“ als Produktivitätsfaktor

Engineering, Management, Teamspirit

Nach einigen Diskussionen über die nicht änderbaren schlechten Schallschutzmaßnahmen in unserem alten Großraumbüro (Straßenlärm bei geöffneten Fenstern, Drucker die von dem ganzen Stockwerk genutzt wurden,…), und einem neuen Mitglied in unserem Entwicklerteam, entschieden wir uns dem Occupy-Movement zu folgen. Wir besetzten also einen Meetingraum (für eine volle Woche) und begannen dort  mit unserer „Power-Week“.

Regeln für die Power-WeekTony Schwartz‘ Artikel „The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time“ bestärkte uns in dem Bestreben erstmal zu definieren wann „Ruhezeiten“ sind, und wie diese auszusehen hatten bzw. wann man für Störungen „zur Verfügung“ stehen wollte.

Wichtig war für gemeinsam im Team zu arbeiten, und damit schnell zu hervorragenden Ergebnissen zu gelangen.

Für die Power-Week hatten wir das perfekte Thema – ein technisches und grafisches redesign (JS-Framework, Usability, neue Steuerelemente) der Suchformulare unserer Seite. Um diese Aufgabe in einer Woche bewältigen zu können bestand das Team aus vier Entwicklern, einem UX-Designer und dem ProductOwner, der sich ebenfalls zu dieser Power-Week commitete.

Dienstags (8 Tage später) mussten die Suchformulare testbar sein, da schon Personen für den Usertest eingeladen waren.

Transport der HardwareMit diesen Bedingungen startete die Power-Week.
Montags um 8:00 versammelten wir uns dann im Großraumbüro und besprachen kurz das Vorgehen für den „Umzug“. Als ScrumMaster hatte ich einen Wagen besorgt, um Hardware (Monitore, Telefon, Switches udgl) und Software (Teammitglieder) in unsere neuen Räumlichkeiten transportieren zu können.

Meetingraum Genf - vorherMeetingraum Genf - nachherNachdem alles angeschlossen war und der ProductOwner die einzige Möglichkeit darstellte wie „die Welt“ mit dem Team kommunizieren konnte war eine „sichere“ Umgebung geschaffen.

Thomas bei der arbeit im Raum Genf Auch unser UX-ler fand im „neuen Büro“ seinen Platz und konnte das Team tatkräftig mit seinem Input zu den neuen Steuerelementen unterstützen.

Er stand somit jederzeit zur Verfügung, wenn es Fragen bezüglich der Usability oder des Designs gab, was kürzest mögliche Entscheidungswege bedeutete.

Ich bat unseren PO am Ende der Woche einen Kommentar für den Blog abzugeben, hier sind seine Worte:

„Im täglichen Doing ging es relativ gut von der Hand. Der Sprint war erfolgreich, ich kann die positiven Punkte nochmals stichpunktartig hervorheben:

  • Der größte Pluspunkt: eine ruhige Arbeitsatmosphäre, kein lautes
    Großraumbüro neben der Autobahn. Dadurch musste auch niemand einen Kopfhörer aufsetzen, um sich vor dem Lärm zu schützen, und so bekam jeder mit, was der andere tat und dachte
  • An spontanen Diskussionen/Fragestellungen konnten sich alle sofort beteiligen
  • Es gab ein Thema, nicht viele kleine, was positiv zur Motivation beitrug. Das know-how war im kompletten Team vorhanden, somit konnte auch jeder zum Erfolg beitragen
  • Dadurch, dass wir nur ein Thema bearbeitet haben, war es dann auch der Erfolg aller am Ende des Sprints“

Mit dem heutigen Tag sind die neuen Suchformulare auf unserer wichtigsten Seite (www.holidaycheck.de) verfügbar, nachdem sie die letzten Wochen für einen kleineren Teil unserer Nutzer auf der österreichischen Seite online gegangen waren.

Hier noch ein paar Screenshots der Formularelemente: