1. Introducing Scrum to a New Games Development Studio Harvey Wheaton

2. What to Expect Today A bit about us and our industry How we are implementing Scrum The stages we’ve been through Scrum and : Some interesting things we’ve tried What we’ve learned along the way

3. Some of Today’s Themes Creating a full, prioritised and sized product backlog User stories: level of detail, points-based sizing, defining done Cross-discipline scrum teams Scrum rollout to match team maturity Sprint planning and sprint review Retrospectives Release and roadmap planning Basic metrics and analysis Please ask questions as we go! (or we’ll finish in about an hour)

4. A Bit About Harvey Worked in a variety of industries – Manufacturing – Public – Retail & Investment banking – Games Range of PM methods, mostly waterfall Joined Electronic Arts 2003 First introduced to Scrum in 2004 Run many projects using Scrum over last 5 years Evangelist and trainer within EA Scrum Alliance board member Left EA August 2008 to create a new games studio...

5. About Supermassive Games New games development studio Established Sept 2008 Built from the ground up Currently 28 people Working on two PlayStation 3 exclusive games – Multi-disciplinary – Tight deadlines – Organic approach to development – Very suited to Scrum

6. Our Studio

7. Games Development Creative, organic process Requirements are discovered as we go Multi-discipline teams Rapid iteration is critical to us It’s all about what you can play – the software Teams are generally process-averse Public & physical works very well for us It’s very fertile ground for Scrum

8. Our Projects 15-30 people 12-18 months Multi-discipline Scrum Teams – Code – Art – Design – Audio – And more... 3 distinct phases Target is a games console (PlayStation 3) Generally still shipping boxed products to retail Pre-Production Production Final

9. Scrum: “Big Bang” vs. Phased? Big Bang Start as you mean to go on Follow the ‘texts’ as closely as possibly Scrum works best as a holistic set of processes Vs. Phased Introduce Scrum a piece at a time Focus on the things that address immediate risks Have a plan to roll out the full framework over time

10. Phased Felt Right for Us... Build processes in parallel with team and culture Get some early wins Get buy-in from the team as we tailor things Our processes evolve just as our games do Focus on priorities as they emerge Takes into account team maturity and growth

11. Fits Team Maturity Growth Hershey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership D1D2D3 D4 Senior team run the scrums Planning is generally central Goals are given to the team Planning is central and with team Goals are proposed to the team Teams starting to run own scrums Review is driven by senior staff Team run the scrums Central planning high level only Team set goals with support Reviews starting to be driven by team Self organising teams Central planning high level only Team set goals Team lead reviews

12. Our Phased Approach (not a master plan!) Phase 1 – Basic product backlog, dailies and visible progress, goals and tasks Phase 2 – More structure for sprints, regular retrospectives Phase 3 – More fidelity in the Product Backlog, improved tracking Phase 4 – Continual improvement Start with the end in mind - Do the right thing next Phase 1 Sept - Nov Phase 1 Sept - Nov Phase 2 Dec - Feb Phase 2 Dec - Feb Phase 3 Feb - Mar Phase 3 Feb - Mar Phase 4 April -> Phase 4 April ->

13. Phase 1 – Get Working! Scrum teams and daily meetings Two-weekly goals Some form of Product Backlog, however high level Short term roadmap Focus on our immediate priorities Weekly, whole-team show & tell

14. Phase 2 – Learning and Context More formal sprints, refined planning Sizing what we can see Regular whole-team retrospectives More formal sprint reviews Senior team dailies Whole project roadmap

16. Phase 3 – Clearer Goals More detail in the backlog A more organised backlog Better defined goals/stories Template planning cards Sizing the whole product backlog Basic metrics Delegating Scrum Mastery

17. Phase 4 – Done-ness & Metrics Defining ‘done’ for iterations Increasing the Scum Master pool ‘Proper’ scrum of scrums Focus on application of metrics Enhanced risk analysis

18. Some Things We’ve Found Important High level roadmap plan 3-Tier Planning Refining our story cards Iterating to quality

19. Roadmap Plan

20. 3-Tiered Planning (Mike’s Pyramid in Action) 123 2-12 months 4-6 weeks2 weeks

21. Evolving our Story Cards

22. Visual Stories

24. Iterating to Quality Our (evolving) 4-stage process 1 “ S ketch” 2 “ C ommit” 3 “ A lpha” 4 “ F inal”

25. Some of our Learning along the Way Scrum is a highly intuitive method – Myers Briggs ‘S’ and ‘J’ types beware! “Don’t sweat the units” – c.f. anxieties last year: – Getting to a full backlog – Story points across disciplines – What done looks like Team maturity and level of delegation over time Getting to good goals/stories Timing of how much to delegate and when Keep trying and learning, “fail often to succeed sooner” Involve the whole team in improving the process The best process is invisible – keep it ‘back office’ The process needs to be as iterative as our games development