A Journey Through Agile in the Government

A Journey through Agile in

the Federal Government

Richard Cheng - @RichardKCheng

• From the American version of Ottawa

• Agile trainer & coach

• CST, PMP, PMI-ACP

• Founder & executive committee member of Agile Delivery for Agencies, Programs, and Teams (ADAPT)

• Experience in Federal and commercial Agile transformations

2008 – Motley Fool

Team 34

2009 – Office of

Personnel Management

"After failing three times to modernize the federal

retirement system with the big bang approach,

the Office of Personnel Management is taking a new

tack that focuses on incremental changes*.”

*http://www.federalnewsradio.com/86/1937813/OPM-Director-John-Berry-promises-big-changes-for-hiring-

retention-retirement

Scrum Overview

Product Vision

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Identify the Value

Previous efforts tried to do a lot:

Identify the Value

Scrum Overview

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Results

Shifted focus from writing about how we’re going to write the

feed specifications, to actually developing the feed

specifications

Published the Guide to Retirement Data Reporting

o Delivered a real-world working solution vetted by external and internal Federal retirement SMEs

o Retirement Data Viewer

*see http://www.slideshare.net/RichardChengExcella/agile-at-opm

Mr. Kenneth Zawodney in statements before Congress*:

How Agile has helped:

“..Modernize our IT infrastructure incrementally, employing a cost effective and

efficient modular approach to transition away from paper and into the modern

era…”

Results:

• “…Establishing the capability of gathering electronic data..”

• “…In 2012, we launched the Data Viewer…”

• “..11 agencies are in a pilot for the Data Viewer..”

• “..Continue to deploy the Data Viewer to all agencies within the Federal

government…”

*http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Mr.-ZAWODNY-Testimony.pdf

2010 – USAJOBS

Scrum Overview

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USAJOBS 3.0 Product Vision

• Own our data

• Own our website

Product Vision

Roadmap

Idea

The Good and the Bad

The good:oOn time, on budgetoMoved 4.3 TB of data from legacy to new system with

very few errors and no data lossoAll 11 interconnected systems successfully passed data

back and forth with no errors

The bad:oUsers were required to reset their passwordsoCapacity issues caused system delays and outages for

weeks before a cloud solution could be put into placeoSearch configuration was incomplete due to acceptance

testing with only a small data subset

* http://www.slideshare.net/RichardChengExcella/agile-and-usajobs-product-ownership

What I learned

USAjobs.gov struggles after feds take it back from Monster.com

– Computer World, Oct 2011

Web site for federal job seekers continues to frustrate many users

– Washington Post, Oct 2011

USAJobs snafu focus of House hearing

– Washington Post, Nov 2011

OPM says USAJobs recovered from 'death spiral’

– Federal News Radio, Nov 2011

2011 – ADAPT

Dept. of Defense 10 Point Plan

Building our ADAPT Community

Key Issues

Contracts and Procurement

• Governance

• Scaling

• Culture and Legacy

Agile and Federal Contracts

Agile Projects

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 …..

BPA / IDIQ

Task Order 1 Task Order 2 Task Order 3 …..

Fixed Date / Fixed Scope

• Outcomes of Fixed Date / Fixed Scope projects:

o Waterfall

1. Delivered on time and working as expected

2. “Delivered” on time … with issues

3. Cannot deliver on time, need to extend

o Scrum

1. Delivered on time and working as expected

2. The highest valued stories are delivered by the

requested date and working as expected

• Do not sacrifice quality to meet dates

Missed Deadline?

0

200

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1000

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Work Remaining

Project Due Date

Key Issues

• Contracts and Procurement

Governance

• Scaling

• Culture and Legacy

Agile and EVM

• EVM is not inherently anti-Agile

• Problems

o Phase based on a waterfall SDLC

o Baselining

o Measurement of value

Agile and EVM

Req

Design

Dev

Release

QA

EVM Timeline

Development

Development

EVM Timeline

From this to this… Requirements

To this….Sprint 1

Sprint 2

Sprint 3

Sprint N

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EVM Timeline

EVM Focus

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Confirmation > Permission

Key Issues

• Contracts and Procurement

• Governance

Scaling

• Culture and Legacy

Scaled Agile Framework™ Big Picture

Key Issues

• Contracts and Procurement

• Governance

• Scaling

Culture and Legacy

Right about here

Other Agencies

The Future

The Future

Contact Information

Richard K Cheng

richard.cheng@excella.com

703-967-8620

http://www.excella.com

Twitter: @RichardKCheng