SCRUM ETC

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SCRUM _at_ ETC

• Dr Alexiei Dingli

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About this talk ...

• Introducing myself ...
• Getting to know the ETC ...
• Before SCRUM
• Implementing SCRUM
• Open issues
• Conclusion

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Introducing myself

• Education
• B.Sc.IT (Hons)
• with specialisation in CS AI
• University of Malta
• Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence
• University of Sheffield, UK
• MBA in Technology Management
• Grenoble Business School
• Work
• Researcher (3 years)
• University of Sheffield
• Senior Manager Business Development (3.5 years)
• ETC
• Lecturer
• Department of AI, Faculty of ICT (to date)

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Maltas PES

• The ETCs mission statement
• To provide and ensure an equitable access to
  training programmes and employment services to
  contribute towards the social and economic
  development of the community

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ETCs Organigram
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Employment Services

• Profiling of unemployed
• Vocational guidance
• Job matching
• Employment schemes (JES, ETPS, etc)
• PAPs
• Employment database
• Law compliance
• Implementation of ESF projects
• Eures Services
• Employment Licences

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Training Services

• Apprenticeships
• Traineeships
• Short competence based courses
• Entrepreneurship programme
• Night Institute for Further Technical Education
• Training grants (BPA)
• Implementation of ESF/ERDF projects

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Supported Employment Services

• Employment and training services to disadvantaged
  persons persons with disability, ex substance
  abusers, ex convicts
• Monitoring of cooperation agreements
• Services in Gozo
• Implementation of ESF projects

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Business Development

• 3 sections
• Labour Market Information (LMI)
• Human Resources Information Unit (HRIU)
• Monitoring Evaluation Unit (MEU)
• Information Communications Technology (ICT)

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ETCs IT Department
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ETCs System (1)

• More than 200 pcs
• Geographically located around Malta Gozo
• Head Office divided into 4 blocks
• 4 Regional offices
• 3 Computer Labs (about 20 pcs each)
• 1 huge network (F/O structured cabling)

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ETCs System (2)
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The Registration Process

• Clients come to our premises.
• Give us their details
• Personal
• Qualifications
• Skills
• Preferences
• We give them back an ID card which will be used
  for registration purposes.
• Actions will be taken based upon our NAP.

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Biometric Registration (1)

• Weekly basis
• Self service registration
• 7000 people are asked to register
• 23 Localities between Malta Gozo

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Biometric Registration (2)
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Back Office Applications (1)
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Back Office Applications (2)

• GIMS (Grants and Incentives Management System)
• Manages schemes under the Business Promotion Act.
• Provides funds to help companies train their
  staff.
• Appointments
• Employment advisors can make appointments with
  job seekers.
• The application automatically checks if a client
  is available.
• When available, it automatically posts a message
  to be picked up when registering.
• Courses
• Manages the creation of courses.
• Ensures tutors and rooms are not booked at the
  same time.
• Notifies clients of the commencement of a course
  by a renewal message and keeping track of
  absenteeism.
• Apprenticeship Schemes
• Enables the training division to coordinate and
  manage Apprenticeship scheme and monitor the
  progress of apprenticeships.

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Back Office Applications (3)
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Back Office Applications (4)

• Client
• Enables ETC employees to view details and perform
  basic operations on clients such as viewing of
• General details
• Employment history
• Registration history
• Submission history
• Exemptions
• Profiling (of Job Seekers Vacancies)
• Each job seeker registering for work is
  interviewed by the employment advisors and a
  detailed profile is created.
• A similar procedure is carried out on each new
  job vacancy.
• Matching Job Seekers with Vacancies
• Jobseekers are matched with vacancies based upon
  the information obtained during the profiling.

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Back Office Applications (5)
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Internet (1)
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Internet (2)

• Provides a variety of e-services to both job
  seekers and employers.
• Job seekers have the facility to
• view a list of vacancies.
• search the most recent local and European
  vacancies updated constantly.
• view and search the most recent upcoming courses.
  
• apply for a course and pay online.
• provides means for the submission of CVs.
• those that submit their C.V. will receive jobs
  via SMS and Email based on their preferences.

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Internet (3)
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Extranet (1)
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Extranet (2)
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In the beginning ... (4 years ago)

• Priorities?
• Friendship?
• Sympathy?
• Need?

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In the beginning ... (4 years ago)

• Problems
• Important projects are not given the right
  priority (who decides it?)
• Small projects keep falling back (8 yrs in one
  case)
• Requests done ad hoc
• Changing requirements
• No real quantification of our limited resources
• Everyone expects everything yesterday
• Some of them lost all hope!

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In the beginning ... (3 years ago)

• Partial Solution
• Install a computerised helpdesk (Priorities,
  categories, etc)
• Setup a first line of support
• Freeze requirements
• Setup link with top management

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In the beginning ... (3 years ago)
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In the beginning ... (3 years ago)

• Problems
• Important projects are not given the right
  priority (Management decides)
• Small projects keep falling back (but take less
  time)
• Requests done ad hoc (Done based on urgency)
• Changing requirements (Frozen)
• No real quantification of our limited resources
• Everyone expects everything today! (at least)

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SCRUM came along (2 years ago)
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Modified SCRUM
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Step 1

• Manager prioritises the divisional requests
• Not all requests are valid
• Manager should decide the priorities of his/her
  department
• Large projects should be prioritised by
  management
• Small projects/requests are just prioritised by
  the manager

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 2

• Divisional product backlog
• List of
• Large projects
• Small projects
• Requests
• Problems
• Prioritised based upon the Managers judgement

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 3

• Prioritise Top Projects
• Get top projects of all divisions
• Performed by top management
• Decide priorities based upon corporate priorities
• Ensure alignment

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 4

• Corporate product backlog
• List of
• Large projects
• Prioritised based upon Top Managements judgement

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 5

• Estimation meeting
• Get top project
• Gather requirements
• Brainstorming session, Workshops, etc
• Estimate size
• Get top small projects/requests per division
• Gather requirements
• Meeting
• Estimate size

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 6

• Selected Product Backlog
• Estimates of
• Top project
• Top small project
• Top requests

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 7

• Sprint planning meeting
• Divide available time (two weeks)
• Top project
• Small project
• Requests
• Contingency

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 8 (1)

• Chicken Let's start a restaurant!
• Pig What would we call it?
• Chicken Ham n' Eggs!
• Pig No thanks. I'd be committed, but you'd only
  be involved!

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Step 8 (2)

• Daily Sprint
• What we did so far?
• What worked?
• What did not work?
• What were doing today?
• Scrum master solves problems

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Step 8 (3)

• Daily burn-down chart

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Step 8 (4)

• To do
• In progress
• Done
• Parking Lot

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 10

• Sprint review meeting
• Meeting stakeholders
• Presenting what was done
• Getting feedback
• Deploying new functionality

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 11

• Retrospective Analysis
• What went fine?
• What went wrong?
• What could be improved?
• What should we change?
• Everyone writes whatever he/she feels on post-it
  notes.

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Modified SCRUM
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Step 12

• First line of support
• Solves problems
• Avoids us from modifying sprint
• Escalate problems only in case of emergency

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Open issues ...

• ETC not a profit making organisation
• How do you prioritise?
• Which project reduces the staffs effort?
• Which project makes us save money?
• Which project is in line with corporate
  priorities?
• Create a business case
• (not always possible ?)

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Conclusion (1)

• Since management chose projects
• Priorities did not change
• Clients became more disciplined
• Programers happier
• Production was more stable
• Completion date was given to client
• Clients happier

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Conclusion (2)

• There is still a long way to go, but there was a
  tangible improvement with SCRUM ?
• Thank you for listening!
• Hope you enjoyed my talk ?
• Any questions ?
• Contact
• Dr Alexiei Dingli, Department of AI, Faculty of
  ICT
• alexiei.dingli_at_um.edu.mt