MS Agile Process Guidance

Question

I have recenty started at a new company, that uses MSF Agile for SCRUM

On starting I have been told that beacuse that they use SCRUM there is no need for documentation.

How do I correct them?

Answer 1

This is a common myth about Scrum - that documentation is not needed.

Instead of you feeling like you need to correct them, I'd turn the tables and ask them to explain to you why they feel Scrum warrants a lack of documentation.  Scrum emphasizes collaboration and responding to change, but it certainly doesn't push for no documentation.  If you get any of the good Scrum books out there (Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber is a great one) you'll find that nowhere in the books do the authors advocate for no documentation. 

Thanks.
Aaron Bjork
http://blogs.msdn.com/aaronbjork

Answer 2

Maria, can you clarify which process your company is using?

One of the standard process templates available from Microsoft for Visual Studio Team System is "MSF for Agile Software Development". This is commonly called "MSF Agile", and is produced by Microsoft (MSF stands for "Microsoft Solutions Framework").

There are also several third party process templates available that provide a Scrum based process for Visual Studio Team System, e.g. http://www.scrumforteamsystem.com/. Scrum is an agile methodology, but this is different from "MSF Agile" (or other Microsoft Solutions Framework methodologies).

In fact, the two processes can to a degree be used together, because Scrum is mostly a management process and says little about actual engineering practices (e.g. which documentation to create). There are two different answers depending on whether your company is using "MSF Agile" or "Scrum", but is neither case can they claim there is no need for documentation.

First of all, trying to "correct" them may be adversarial and not get you anywhere (except into a disagreement). What may be better is to follow the specific methodology they are supposed to be using and then if they question it, back it up with a reference to the process.

If your company is using MSF Agile, then the guidelines definitely reference different documentation work products. (Although documentation is relatively lightweight.)

For example, one of the early steps in a project is Capture Project Vision. As well as writing a Vision Statement, the business analyst should also document the users of the system via Personas.

The exit criteria for Capture Project Vision include "The personas are written and published to the project portal."

The MSF for Agile Software Development process template includes a sample persona document along with guidelines for what it should contain.

The list of work products is available in the MSF Agile guidance on the Index tab in the Work Products section. (Links to templates are on the left in the "See Also" section for each work product.) Other work product documentation includes Vision Statement, Scenario Description, Threat Model, Test Approach.

If your company is also using Scrum for project management, or is following one of the Scrum templates, then as pointed out above Scrum itself is largely silent on the issue of documentation.

Scrum is a low-ceremony, low documentation approach -- but low does not mean none. One thing that agile methodologies have in common (including both Scrum and MSF Agile) is that they value working software more than comprehensive documentation (althought they still value some documentation).

In fact, if you read the answer to the question "Do I need to stick to a month time frame?" on the Scrum for Team System site (http://www.scrumforteamsystem.com/ProcessGuidance/v2/FAQ/FAQ.aspx#timeFrame), then it specifically states:

"during the Sprint we need to do analysis in addition to high level design, architecture, infrastructure, low level design, coding, testing and documentation and it tends to take about a month to do that"

It specifically states that one of the things you need to do during a Sprint is documentation. (The FAQ answers are from Ken Schwaber, one of the creators of Scrum).

Scrum does not detail what the documentation should cover, but in general it should be lightweight -- the level of documentation detailed in MSF Agile should be appropriate.

Sly Gryphon
Readify