Agile project & SCRUM & SCRUM for Hardware

Scrum approaches have matured for software projects while hardware projects continue to hold traditional development approaches. Many innovation projects fail due to late clarification of technical practicability.

Particularly high-tech projects require innovative solutions to meet the restrictions of cost and schedule while still delivering high performance critical systems. Since Scrum does not have any software-specific content, it can also be used in other development areas such as hardware development.

Introduction

Scrum has been used to manage work on complex products since the early 1990s. It is the most popular and widely used agile framework.

Even though it is usually used in software development, the application of this project management technics in hardware has been vigorously growing.

Agile vs Waterfall methodologies

The Agile and Waterfall project development methods are two of the most widely used these days. These are very contrasting and they both offer a large number of advantages when used in the right environment.

Figure 1 - Waterfall and Agile workflow diagrams [1]

Figure 2 - Agile workflow diagram [2]

Agile

Agile methodology is a practice that helps continuous iteration of development and testing in the product development process. In this model, development and testing activities are concurrent, unlike the Waterfall model. This process allows more communication between customers, engineers, managers, and testers.

The development is composed of sprints, usually a few weeks long, in which the same set of tasks is always performed. This makes the development much more flexible, since only a few weeks are planned at any given time, and feedback is received after every sprint. The sprint begins with the planning phase, in which the team, product owner, and other members such as stakeholders decide what will be done in the current sprint. This is usually defined as a list of issues or user stories. The next phase involves the actual development and concurrent testing of the product. The last phase, to close the sprint, consists of the sprint retrospective. In this phase the development team presents the features developed to the product owner, and he will decide whether everything is as he envisioned, or if some will have to be perfected (or even redesigned) in the following sprint. Afterwards, the next sprint starts, and this process is repeated until the project is complete. This strategy allows the development to be focused on the client given the large amount of feedback the development team receives [4].

Waterfall

On the other hand in the Waterfall model, also known as the Linear Sequential Life Cycle Model, development follows a sequential order in which a phase only starts when the previous is complete.

The first step is to plan the entire development of the project, followed by the actual development, testing and finally the delivery. This makes the planning and development easier, since everything is defined from the beginning, and it isn’t interrupted by testing or presentations, which will take place after the project is complete. Unfortunately, this makes it almost impossible to change any of the product’s specifications since it would require a redesign of the whole development process which would cost a lot of time and money, and is usually not worth it. Any early-on mistakes will be very expensive to fix, since they will usually only be found in the testing phase, which starts after the whole development has started. The Waterfall method is only worth it if the project isn’t large scale, the requirements are clear, not subject to change, and if the delivery must be fast [4].

Figure 3 - Waterfall workflow [3]

Figure 4 - Scrum Sprints [6]

Scrum

Scrum is an agile framework for developing, delivering and sustaining complex products commonly used on software development.

It is applied on teams of no more than 10 members who break their work into goals that can be completed within time-boxed iterations, called sprints (usually around 2 weeks). The scrum team track progress in 15 minutes daily meetings called scrums.

At the end of each sprint, the team holds sprint review, to demonstrate the work done, and sprint retrospective to improve continuously [5].

Figure 5 - Scrum rugby [7]

Name origin

First time used in a 1986 paper called “The New New Product Development Game”, in order to emphasize teamwork.

Term borrowed from rugby (scrum is a formation of players).

Key ideas

Scrum Team:

Product owner (1 person)

o Represents the product’s stakeholders and the voice of the costumer;

o Require a deep understanding of business and engineering;

o Negotiates priorities, scope, funding and schedule.

Developers / Team members

o Build increments of valuable output every sprint;

o Self-organized.

Scrum Master (1 person)

o Removes impediments to the ability of the team to achieve the product goals;

o Ensures that the scrum framework is applied.

How to implement SCRUM

Table 1 - Scrum implementation

Figure 6 - Scrum Board [8]

Figure 7 - Affinity Mapping [9]

Figure 8 - Burndown Chart [10]

Scrum for Hardware

It is possible to combine the best of what Agile and SCRUM have to offer into the practical realities of hardware development.

Given that working with software is very different from working with hardware, the final delivery of each sprint must naturally be different.

If on the one hand the deliverables of the software sprints are the features, on the other hand, the hardware sprints deliver progress. For hardware, that can mean, for example, finishing the assembly of a product or completing a design review [11].

Hardware sprints are typically 4 weeks, slightly longer than software sprints, since in general, progress on hardware is also more time consuming than on software.

The sprint structure helps the development team stay focused, organized, consistent, and on pace for their estimates. It also helps them improve estimates in the future, since it will give them quick feedback on how realistic that plan is. With real feedback, it can become possible to manage, adjust resources or modify schedules as necessary [11].

Another advantage of using scrum in hardware development is the existence of multidisciplinary teams working around the same objective. This allows, among others [12]:

Reduce time to put the product in the market;
Increase innovative power;
Boost close collaboration among technical and business individuals;
Increase employee commitment and satisfaction.

Below, we have a short video about scrum for hardware, which explains quite well the concepts associated with the subject:

Relevant Projects

Scrum within Hardware Development, Insights of the application of Scrum for the development of a passive exoskeleton. By: Annette Isabel Böhmer and Philipp Hugger

Project conclusions: “With the integration of Scrum […] a favorable alternative is identified […] emphasis on early prototyping, quick feedback and incremental development. It still might not be the favorable method for use in large scale industrial development projects where formal procedures might still be preferred, but the prototyping advantages in mechatronics development are valuable. Incremental development and rapid prototyping for example gives many opportunities for the development team to reflect, learn and improve” [13]

Figure 9 - The conceptual design of the exoskeleton [14]

Cyber Physical Systems icon set. Four elements in diferent styles from industry 4.0 icons collection. Creative cyber physical systems icons filled, outline, colored and flat symbols.

Figure 10 - Cyber Physical Systems [15]

Scrum for Cyber-Physical Systems: A Process Proposal. By: Stefan Wagner

Project conclusions: “[…] we plan to work with other research groups in electrical and mechanical engineering to apply Scrum CPS in student projects. We will closely monitor these projects to better understand its benefits and problems to further improve it.” [16]

How Agile can transform manufacturing: the case of Wikispeed. By: Stephen Denning

Project conclusions: “As a result, incumbents may well take no notice of Wikispeed’s rapid innovation and continue to focus on slowly improving their core products for their core customers, until suddenly one day they realize that the Agile manufacture has improved quality and is ‘‘good enough’’ for their customers. And eventually Wikispeed may be innovating so rapidly that it will pose serious competition for established manufacturers who someday may become yet another set of victims to disruptive innovation.” [17]

Figure 11 - Evolution of the Wikispeed Car [18]

Related Books

Scrum for Hardware Desing, Supporting Material for The Mechanical Design Process. By: David G. Ullman

Scrum for Hardware. By: Paolo Sammicheli

Flexible Product Development: Agile Hardware Development to Liberate Innovation. By: Preston G. Smith

Related Papers

Agile Hardware Development with Rapid Hardware Definition Language. By: Jacob N. Allen, Dr. Hoda S. Abdel-Aty-Zohdy and Dr. Robert L. Ewing

Hardware Development: Agile and Co-Design. By: Glaydson Luiz Bertoze Lima, Guilherme Augusto Lopes Ferreira, Osamu Saotome, Adilson Marques da Cunha and Luiz Alberto Vieira Dias

Conclusions

To sum up, the use of agile methodologies such as scrum allows to deal more easily with the setbacks that appear throughout the projects. Furthermore, in the development teams that use agile methodologies, as there is a more frequent communication between all the elements, it is easier to analyze and change the direction of the project. Taking this into account, the percentage of products that are successfully developed and within the estimated time is higher in teams that apply agile methods.

Therefore, considering all these advantages, hardware development teams are also increasingly using this scrum-based working method, because although the type of final deliverables is different from the software, simply because there is greater proximity to the end customer and the product deliveries are incremental, this allows teams to have a higher rate of success and control of the delivery times.

References

[1] Moving From Waterfall To Agile With Kanban.[online] Available at: <https://www.digite.com/blog/waterfall-to-agile-with-kanban/> [Accessed 26 December 2020].

[2] What is Agile Methodology and what benfits does it have for your company. [online] Available at: <https://www.wearemarketing.com/blog/what-is-the-agile-methodology-and-what-benefits-does-it-have-for-your-company.html> [Accessed 26 December 2020].

[3] Waterfall methodology.[online] Available at: <https://www.smartsheet.com/content-center/best-practices/project-management/project-management-guide/waterfall-methodology> [Accessed 26 December 2020].

[4] Waterfall vs Agile.[online] Available at: <https://www.guru99.com/waterfall-vs-agile.html> [Accessed 26 December 2020].

[5] En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Scrum (Software Development). [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(software_development)> [Accessed 16 December 2020].

[6] The SlideTeam Blog. 2020. Top 25 Agile Powerpoint Templates For A Smooth Transitioning. [online] Available at: <https://www.slideteam.net/blog/top-25-agile-powerpoint-templates-f

[7] Therugbymagazine.com. 2020. The Scrum: Is It A Waste Of Time In The Professional Game?. [online] Available at: <https://therugbymagazine.com/spirit-of-the-game/the-scrum-is-it-a-waste-of-time-in-the-professional-game> [Accessed 23 December 2020].

[8] Scrum Inc. 2020. Scrum Board - Scrum Inc. [online] Available at: <https://www.scruminc.com/scrum-board/> [Accessed 20 December 2020].

[9] Open Practice Library. 2020. Affinity Mapping. [online] Available at: <https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/affinity-mapping/> [Accessed 20 December 2020].

[10] Chick, Timothy & Hayes, Will & Miller, Suz & Lapham, Mary & Wrubel, Eileen. 2014. Agile Metrics: Progress Monitoring of Agile Contractors. [online] Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266049888_Agile_Metrics_Progress_Monitoring_of_Agile_Contractors> [Accessed 20 December 2020].

[11] Medium. 2020. SCRUM For Hardware? Yes!. [online] Available at: <https://medium.com/supplyframe-hardware/scrum-for-hardware-yes-6c848806a8c1> [Accessed 26 December 2020].

[12] Gladwell COM. 2020. What Is Agile For Hardware? | All You Need To Know | Gladwell Academy. [online] Available at: <https://www.gladwellacademy.com/agile-for-hardware/> [Accessed 26 December 2020].

[13] A. Böhmer and P. Hugger, "Scrum within Hardware Development, Insights of the application of Scrum for the development of a passive exoskeleton", 2017.

[14] "ResearchGate", 2020. [Online]. Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-conceptual-design-of-the-exoskeleton_fig1_312101837>. [Accessed: 20 December 2020].

[15] R. Vectors and C. Vectors, "Cyber physical systems icon set four elements in vector image on VectorStock", VectorStock, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/cyber-physical-systems-icon-set-four-elements-in-vector-27540415. [Accessed: 20 December 2020].

[16] Stefan Wagner, "Scrum for Cyber-Physical Systems: A Process Proposal", 2020.

[17] S. Denning, "How Agile can transform manufacturing: the case of Wikispeed", Strategy & Leadership, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 22-28, 2012.

[18] Scrum for Hardware - xm manufacturing - wikispeed", Scrum Inc, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.scruminc.com/scrum-in-hardware/. [Accessed: 20 December 2020].

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