How to move a team from waterfall development model to scrum model? What all are the steps that one need to follow to achieve a smooth transition. What would be the acceptance curve and will it be successful altogether?
First the team needs to want the change, and the business has to support it.
There isn't a set sequence of steps, and success can vary widely, as much depends on your particular situation.
I'd recommend getting Mike Cohn's book Succeeding with Agile, which gives some excellent advice for such a transition.
Though there are many ideas on how to implement scrum within an organization, starting with one team is certainly a consistent thread. So good work on starting that way. From there find someone with experience in implementing agile. A contractor, a colleague, or advice at meetup groups. Here's a link to one I have attended in the DC area - http://groups.google.com/group/dcnova-scrum-user-group
From there, my opinion is to adapt scrum to your team. It's size, it's need for adjustment, etc. Everyone has opinions, but if your team doesn't buy it, it's not worth it. Don't take that as a license to cut things from scrum. Keep the daily standups, the commitment, the retrospectives, the demo (etc), but adjust the size of the sprint, etc.
I recently saw a compelling presentation that advocated implementing pieces of scrum/agile as the team/business was ready. See this gentelman's site for details - http://www.dragile.com/
A big key is to not get lazy - do scrum. And have a high standard. If you're going to go it alone (which can be dangerous) - read your heart out. Read examples, talk to others, go to meetups, etc. Don't let your inexperience in scrum sour your team to it.
Another good link for an example of one team's experience implementing scrum.
http://www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg/ScrumAndXpFromTheTrenches.pdf
In my experience with learning to manage a team using agile there are two critical components to making agile/scrum work. I think that Jody's point about not being lazy is really important, with the more free-flowing work pattern of agile it can be easy to succumb to skipping meetings or other such nonsense.
Get a good web based task tracker. This allows developers to login and see what they need to do and will help track progress. I've been very happy with Pivotal Tracker (www.pivotaltracker.com). Of course the tracker is only worthwhile if you actually keep it up to date, which leads me to point two.
Having meetings EVERY day. The daily standup discussed in the scrum and agile books is by far the most important aspect of the routine. Keep the meetings short, do it in the same place at the same time every day. Update the task tracker during this meeting and keep it organized.
Transitioning a team from waterfall can be difficult. Having everyone on the team read about scrum is important. Also, understand that not every aspect of the scrum model will work in your environment. Facilitate an open discussion about what aspects of the model you want to adopt as a team. The more input you get from the team the more buy-in you'll have.
How to move a team from waterfall development model to scrum model ?
Strategizing Phase: Well, the first step off course is the thought for change. Then comes the buy-in from the Management, and the Product Development Teams.
Release Planning and Virtual Product Discovery: Ideally, you would start by identifying all stakeholders and identifying all the requirements by using the Agile Release planning method - which is a really lean way of doing Release Planning. You would identify virtual products at this stage if not already identified.
Team Forming and Infrastructure: Next step would be forming cross functional teams based on what virtual products need to be built. This step can be tough. It may require RE-organization. Cross functional teams mean there will be no requirements gathering team, or software development team, or QA team. You would have to pull a experienced lot of people from each department to form a cross functional team. A Scrum Master and a Product for each team will have to be appointed. Basic infrastructure will need to be established for the cross functional teams to operate smoothly, without interruption.
Start Sprinting With Team(s): Start following the Scrum/Agile principles and have them Sprint. Capture various artifacts and use them to inspect and adapt.
WALAH you are Agile!
What all are the steps that one need to follow to achieve a smooth transition. What would be the acceptance curve and will it be successful altogether?
Steps are mentioned above in order. Acceptance curve varies based on how well you execute the steps I mentioned above. Lastly Yes, off course it will be successful. 100% guaranteed successful.
Kidding, I wish I could guarantee that, but I can't. :) What I suggest is this - When you read my statement "Yes, off course it will be successful", the hope you might have got, just hold on to that hope and take that first step!
I happened to be a part of a team which was migrating from waterfall to scrum. If the teams large and distributed, I don't think its easy for everyone to migrate to scrum all at once as a change in organization takes certain amount of days/months/years.
Once such approach that you may like to try is Tracer Bullet, although this term is used more in agile world, but you can surely prove your point to get the buy-in and lead by example if you/your team is stuck in the middle of waterfall and scrum and are looking to go nowhere in quick time.
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