Fountain project model

The Fountain Project Model

Rikupekka Oksanenrioksane@jyu.fi

● One easy to understand method

● One that actually enables projects to succeed.

The Fountain Project Model

Bridging the gap between WaterfaIl and Agile

They tend to be hard

The thing about IT projects

One in a million?

Successful IT-project

● How to get funding● How to keep every stakeholder

happy● How to actually succeed

Many aspects in IT projects

● The end user● The manager● The project team

The Three Stooges

We have widespread use of Agile project management methods

In 2013

● Is iterative● Brings value early on● Makes developers talk with the

customer● Shows problems and actual needs

early● ... so you can react to them

Agile

helps projects to succeed

Which makes customers happy

While making the developers look good

Most importantly Agile

Not every project uses agile...

One downside there is

The managers with the money.

And it is because of these guys/gals

Because they don't get Agile

"I don't get it? Where's the planning stage?"

1.Define2.Plan3.Develop4.Test5.Deploy6.Use happily ever after

They have milestones and easy to understand Gantt-charts

But they DO understand Waterfall

1. Define

2. Plan

3. Develop

4. Test

5. FINISH

Only gives money to projects he can understand.

Ok. So you have to choose Waterfall.

You get the funding and start doing your project using Waterfall...

The person with the money

There is one downside...

Waterfall fails

Every time

God didn't use Waterfall when He created Earth

didn't define and plan for 5 billion years.

...

He

Started by deploying a planet to our solar system in the first day of his project.

THEN he filled it with content.

He

But then again, He is God.

He did all this in 6 days

● Had to wipe out all mankind. They were behaving bad.

● And dinosaurs too. ● (All the furry animals were saved

though)

First version wasn’t all good

Small success is better than epic fail

-> Dinosaurs and evil men roaming the Earth at the same time?

The point is

That would be cool…

Carry on.

● http://pascal.gugenberger.net/thoughts/waterfall-accident.html

● http://www.onedesk.com/2013/01/waterfall-vs-agile/

Read more about WaterfaIl

● "Agile success stories": 4 400 000● "Waterfall success stories": 368 000

o -> Mostly starting by phrases like:"Report says Agile is more successful"..."Where is Waterfall failing us"...

Google it

1.Is easy to understand and sell to the managers

2.Actually enables the project to succeed

So we need a project model that

Combining in the easy understandability of Waterfall and the power of Agile methods.

The Fountain Project Model

-> 1st step is Deployment

Wow, isn't that kind of hard?

Empowered by the Talaskivi method

-> Planet Earth on the first day

So...

A puny working software on the second day

Should be doable.

Remember God

● Apply Fountain Project Model to web-projects where you as a developer already know on which technology would suffice.

● Select the technology stack which is the most familiar to the developers/your organization

Lets set some boundaries

People have bended different systems to do something that the system really wasn't meant to do...

You can do anything with everything in IT-world

You must do different things with different people

● The end user: provide working software

● The manager with the money: provide easy-to-understand checkpoints

● The develoment team: get out of their way

As a project manager...

1.Deployment2.Customer/end user figures out the

next 3 most important features3.Develop (BDD, TDD, whatever suits

you) and deploy again to the preview-site

4.Talk to the customer again, 3 next most important features

5.Develop until customer is happy enough

The stages of springing a Fountain

You can make it look like this for the Managers1. Stage ONEdate xx.yy.zzzz

2. Stage TWO.date xx.yy.zzzz

3. Stage THREEdate xx.yy.zzzz

4. Stage FOUR date xx.yy.zzzz

5. FINISHdate xx.yy.zzzz

● You can show him a "Gantt-chart" of different phases of the Project

● He can feel pleased with himself as he "gets it"

● If some dates are off, its okay - remember - IT-projects tend to fail. They’ll understand

● But eventually this project actually succeeds and the Manager gets more money

Benefits for the Manager

And this is how it actually looks for the Customer1. Deploymentdate xx.yy.zzzz

2. Development A.

3. Release A

4. Development B.

5. Release B.

Start getting profit for the first set of features!

See the first version of the service and define 3 next most important things

See the changes in the demo site as things evolve

Customer is already getting value from the product

● On the second day of the project, the customer gets a working site.

● It's easier for the customer to see what's missing than to explicitly define what should be added

● The customer can then point and comment on things

● In the end (or beginning!) the customer gets a working system!

Benefits for the Customer

And this is how it looks like for the developers

● Developers get the funding!● Developers can easily discuss with

the customer using the demo site● Developers can focus on only 3

things at a time.● Don't have to develop features that

nobody uses at the end● Satisfied customer, satisfied CEO

-> a bonus?

Benefits for the Developer

...if not a bonus, at least the feeling that you have done well.

Well...

When the Fountain is so big it makes a rainbow with the Sun shining behind it.

When is the project ready?

DO not apply in Russia. They don’t like rainbows.

Warning.

● Talk to the end users - show and tell, and let them tell you

● Use Agile methods in the actual development

● ...and disguise them when talking to managers.

Remember

rioksane@jyu.fiTwitter: rikupekka#fountainprojectmodel

Thank you!