Transition to Scrum Midway
through a AAA Development
Cycle: Lessons Learned
Asbjoern Malte Soendergaard
Development Manager
Crytek GmbH
Taking advantage of agile
in a non-agile environment
Agenda
 Why
agile this late
 Our Process
 Next steps (for us)
Agile worked for us

Shiped Crysis 12 months after
implementing Scrum
80 developers (7-12 Scrum teams)
 2/3 of the game was redeveloped
 Meta Critic Score of 91

Why agile this late in the
production?
Feature creep
 Unable to measure progress
 We needed to reduce scope
 Vision blurred by a huge project
schedule

Minimize Waste

Crysis strategy
Cross disciplinary teams when possible
 Teams should always sit together
 Always solve tasks sequeltially, not
simultanously
 Two things can ever be equally important – force
creative priorities
 Progress only counts if it works in the build

Initial Product Backlog
Figure out what features need to be
done
 A feature means something you need
at least two different skillsets to
complete
 Make one big list in excel and try to
group these in related areas
 Prioritize list
 Start with the featuregroup which is
most important

Setting up the first Scrum
Team
Take the people you need out of the
waterfall production team
 Seat them together away from the rest
of the team
 Focus on getting this ONE team
sprinting

Don't panic !
You have just started chaos
 People in the matrix structure will be
frustrated
 Shelter your sprint team
 80/20 Support Rule

Repeat the process
Figure out what is the second most
important feature group on your
backlog
 Create a team based on who is left in
the waterfall project plan
 Iterate these simple steps until
everybody is sprinting
 Make sure leads are not Scrum
Masters
 First team is the hardest

Development
Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Department 1
Department 2
Department 3
Department 4
Department 5
Development
Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Department 1
Department 2
Department 3
Department 4
Department 5
Development
Manager/
Product Owner
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Department 1
Department 2
Department 3
Department 4
Department 5
Development
Manager/
Product Owner
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Department 1
Department 2
Department 3
Department 4
Department 5
Development
Manager/
Product Owner
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Department 1
Department 2
Department 3
Department 4
Department 5
Development
Manager/
Product Owner
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Department 1
Department 2
Department 3
Department 4
Department 5
Development
Manager/
Product Owner
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Lead/Manager
Department 1
Department 2
Department 3
Department 4
Department 5
Product
Owner
Scrum Structure at Crysis
Product Owner
 Customer (Lead)
 Scrum Master
 Team Members

Product Backlog

Managing expectations NOT
schedules



Creating Product Backlog Items is a
process of negotiating with the team what
you expect
You define what you want, they go do it
Tell people what is expected not how to
achieve it
Product Backlog - First
Iteration
Product Backlog Grooming
– Second iteration
Product Backlog Grooming
– Second iteration
Product Backlog Grooming
– Second iteration
Product Backlog

This is what we would like to improve



Estimation process
Valuation process
Need a process to encourage people to
prioritize
Current Product Backlog
..\..\Desktop\GDC-Presentation.jpg
Current Product Backlog
Current Product Backlog
Current Product Backlog
Current Product Backlog
-2
30 5
/0
9/
25
31
/1
0/
25
14
/1
1/
25
30
/1
1/
25
14
/1
2/
25
31
/1
2/
25
14
/0
1/
26
31
/0
1/
26
14
/0
2/
29
26
/0
2/
20
2
14 6
/0
3/
26
31
/0
3/
26
30
/0
4/
26
31
/0
5/
26
30
/0
6/
26
31
/0
8/
26
01
-S
ep
Current Product Backlog
Total Work Burndown
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Final thougths




Common sense works, you just need a
framework to scale it
The product backlog helps you manage
expectations and guide the team
Don’t be affraid to go down the agile path,
but don’t think you are agile just because
you call it a sprint plan
Always fall back to lean principles and
continue to identify areas you can reduce
waste
Questions?
Asbjoern Malte Soendergaard
[email protected]