Thursday, April 1, 2010 1 Beyond Scrum © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 2 Clinton Keith - Background Agile coach and Scrum trainer 24 years of development experience 14 years of game development experience 7 years of agile development experience in the game industry Introduced agile to the industry in March 2005 3 Thursday, April 1, 2010 Beyond Scrum • Filling out the framework • Appling project management practices where needed • Using common sense, not dogma No rules, just shared practices © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 4 Games Recently Shipped That Used Scrum © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 5 Game Development Challenge • Manage • Fixed ship dates • Minimum required feature sets • Long project cycles with production • While avoiding crunch © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 6 Fixed Ship Dates © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 7 The Project Management Triangle Scope Product Backlog Schedule Cost (resources) Velocity © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 8 Better & Cheaper & Faster © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 9 Velocity & Fixed Schedules Brooks’s Law: Scope “Adding manpower to Goal a late software project makes it later” Deadline!Fred Brooks (1975) Resources Crunch, Extra people Time © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 10 There are often scope limits • Minimum marketable features • Cutting scope by 50% to meet a date may produce a product that won’t sell • Example: A Word Processor without a printing feature © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 11 Minimum Marketable Features = RISK + Fixed Schedule © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 12 Applying PM, Attacking Risk • Identify minimum marketable feature set • MuSCoW analysis • Identify critical paths • Example: Game running on the PS3 • Identify path risks • Example: Graphics throughput on the RSX • Prioritize work based on risk • E.g. Spike to demonstrate demo level on PS3 with maximum desired detail • Find and address bad news early • Example: Need to create lower resolution levels © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 13 High Value !"#$%&"' !"#$%&"' !"#$%&"' (")*+,' -./"01))"$' ("2%+03%,"' !"#$%&"' !"#$%&"' Low !"#$%&"' Value Progress © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 14 MuSCoW Analysis Must Have Should Have Could Have Won’t Have © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 15 Minimum Required Feature Set Must Haves • Example: Console FPS • 8 + hours single-player campaign • Online multiplayer • XBox 360 • PS3 Dropping any of these means failure © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 16 Minimum Required Feature Set Should Haves • Example: Console FPS • Cooperative Online Multiplayer These add great value, but aren’t absolutely necessary © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 17 /97:8"'*8#;"&' 67897"'-.' 12)3045' ./0' <"=9:7' ())*"&#+,"'-.' ()>"?@=="$' <"2%:?A%7"' !"#$%&"' !"#$%&"' !"#$%&"' !"#$%&"' © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 18 Backlog Prioritization Value Cost Risk Knowledge © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 19 Risk Prioritization © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 20 Critical Path • The things that need to happen, in sequence. • Usually dependent on one another PS3 Critical Path Development Engine Game Performance Multiplayer Environment Running Running ??? Subcontractor © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 21 Critical Chain Staffing PS3 Single Player (6 people x 10 (20 people x 12 months) months) Xbox 360 (4 people x 16 Multiplayer months) (12 people x 8 months) Cooperative MP (4 people x 6 months) © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 22 Putting it all together • Have dedicated people/teams/time for each major feature • Have them work off their own backlog • Watch out for • Inconsistent progress • Great Multiplayer, bad single player • “Feels like” different experiences • Not enough sharing • Example: Multiplayer on the PS3 © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 23 Production Risk © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 24 Agile is phase-less Iteration Iteration Iteration Design Design Design Code Code Code Create Assets Create Assets Create Assets Debug & Tune Debug & Tune Debug & Tune ...is game development? © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 25 Not Quite 100% Production 75% Development Design Concept 50% 25% 0% Alpha/Beta Production #1 Production #2 Production #3 Production #4 Pre-ProductionPre-Production #1 Pre-Production #2 #3 We have stages © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 26 Production is Debt Deadline! Production Start Date! Pre-Production Production Sure...why not... Crunch Pre-ProductionPre-Production ProductionProduction © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 27 Schedule Probabilities Date? Probability Date of (peak, not mean) Completion Time © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 28 Refining Production Dates Deadline! Pre-Production Production ProductionProduction © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 29 Selecting the right tools for pre-production and production © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 30 Process tools driven by certainty Far from Agreement Anarchy Complex Requirements Scrum (fun) Complicated Lean Pre-production Simple Close to Production Agreement Close to Far from Certainty Technology Certainty Iterative Source: Strategic Management and Organizational az by Ralph Stacey in Agile Software Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle. Incremental © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 31 Lean/Kanban Deadline! Kaizen Work Uncertainty Time © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 32 More on Kanban... November 2008 feature article in Gamasutra Chapter in upcoming book © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 33 Common sense © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 34 Don’t follow labels ScrumBan Lean Kanban XP Scrum Lean-Agile © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 35 • Scrum isn’t the goal • Following the rules no matter what • Focus on the principles • Empiricism - Science vs. alchemy • Emergence • Time-Boxing • Prioritization • Self-Organization • Iterate on the process • Provide leadership • Plan, plan, plan © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 36 Summary. Changes. Iterate and we’ll Devs given suspect measure velocity dates & crunch towards the goal Devs solely responsible Biz is responsible for for achieving the goal achieving the goal Delivery of We’ll optimize resources Completion of activities features Devs make biz Devs make dev decisions, biz makes decisions, biz makes dev decisions biz decisions © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 37 Clinton Keith [email protected] www.ClintonKeith.com Questions? © 2010 Clinton Keith Consulting Thursday, April 1, 2010 38.