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Originally Posted by Sid323
This year, we are planning on using portions of the Agile/Scrum development process, which I have limited experience with, but most of the members have never heard of it before. Has anyone used this method before, and what advice would you have for a team new to it? I searched for this on CD before, but the answers weren't very clear (most of them suggested that Agile doesn't work that well for FRC on the whole).
Also, considering that our approximately 35 member team is over 50% rookie, do you have any advice for how to approach a situation in which most of the team has never built a robot before? We do have more than a few experienced members and mentors returning, but our team is currently going through a transformation period.
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We tried using scrum in 2014 with mostly rookie team members. Our head mentor and another mentor had experience using it in their day jobs as software engineers.
It was definitely an interesting experiment. There were some things I liked, and some that I didn't. I don't think we had enough folks experienced with it. The software team did a great job using it successfully, but I think our mechanical mentors (myself included) had a hard time translating it into our world.
Some of the concepts though, I think work wonders even if you don't follow the strict scrum process. A stand-up at the beginning of the meeting is really important to keep everyone on the same page, especially when not everyone comes to every meeting. Some sort of
WIP board is also really helpful. It gives kids accountability for completing tasks, and it lets everyone keep tabs on what is being worked. I also really liked the sprint reviews. It gave students the opportunity to speak in front of their friends (we don't do enough to teach public speaking!), and the demos let everyone see where everyone else was an offer suggestions that would help their team (sensor suggestions on mechanisms, for example).