Agile Truths and Misconceptions

TRUTH OR MISCONCEPTION

Agile Software Development

Richard Cheng

◊ Agile trainer & coach

◊ Lead, Excella Agile Training Center

◊ Member of Scrum Alliance, Agile Alliance, Agile Leadership Network, PMI

◊ CST, CSM, CSPO, CSP, PMI-ACP, PMP

◊ Founder & executive committee member of Agile Defense Adoption Proponents Team (ADAPT), the Agile DoD Task Force

◊ Deep expertise in Federal, commercial, and non-profit Agile transformations

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TRUTH OR MISCONCEPTION

Agile Software Development

Truth or Misconception

Agile is just a high level concept.

TRUTH!

“Traditional” IT Project Management

◊ Process and tools◊ Comprehensive documentation◊ Contract negotiations◊ Following a plan

This is how we control projects….

Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions

over Process and tools

Working software over Comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over Contract negotiation

Responding to change over Following a plan

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

http://agilemanifesto.org/

1. "Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.”

2. "Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.”

3. "Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.”

4. "Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.”

5. "Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.”

6. "The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.”

7. "Working software is the primary measure of progress.”

8. "Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.”

9. "Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.”

10. "Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.”

11. "The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.”

12. "At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly."

Principles Behind The Agile Manifesto:

Identifying and delivering value……

◊ Identify value and eliminate waste◊ Prioritize features◊ Deliver early and often◊ Inspect and adapt◊ Empower team


Agile and Scrum are the same thing.

FALSE!

Agile Methodologies

Agile

Scrum XP

Kanban

Lean

Scrum Overview

1. Project development is performed in 2 to 4 week iterations.

2. Product Owner creates a prioritized backlog of features

3. Highest priority features delivered first4. At the end of the iteration, the deliverables are

reviewed by the business customers5. The team reflects on the process6. This is repeated until the project is completed

Scrum Elements

Scrum

Roles

Meetings

Product OwnerScrum Development TeamScrumMaster

Product Backlog RefinementSprint PlanningDaily ScrumSprint ReviewRetrospective

Product BacklogSprint BacklogProduct Increment

Artifacts

Scrum Framework

* Diagram from Scrum Primer From the Scrum Primer

Iterative / Incremental Deployment

At any given point, the product is “deployable”

Deployed


Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) is the base level Agile/Scrum certification.

TRUTH!

Scrum Alliance Certifications

• After the class, Scrum Alliance will email instructions for taking the assessment / exam on your computer.

• 35 questions• Passing score is 24 correct answers from 35 questions.

How do I take the CSM exam?

• 2 Years. Towards the end of your term, Scrum Alliance will send you instructions for how to renew.

• A continuing education program is planned for 2014.

How long does certification

last?

• This class 14 PMI PDUs / contact hours towards both PMP and PMI-ACP. Details for claiming them will be sent after the class.

What about PMI PDUs?

• http://www.scrumalliance.org/resources/2747CSM Test Outline

FAQ

http://www.scrumalliance.org/pages/faq_training_and_certification




Scrum does not believe in planning, estimating, forecasting.

FALSE!

Release Planning

Project / RoadmapD

ay

Sprint…

…

…

Pla

n

Day

Day

Daily Scrum

Revie

w

Retr

o

Sprint

Pla

n

Revie

w

Retr

o

Pro

posa

l

Initiation ReleasePla

n

Release ReleasePla

n

Pla

n

Time

Timeline

◊ In a two week sprint, our planning takes one day.◊ Thus our planning period is 10% of our overall

timeline.◊ Extremely short (by industry standards) and

effectiveM T W TH F

Planning

Planning

Estimating and Forecasting

• Team members provide Estimates

• Completed work represent Actuals (Velocity)

• Velocity used for Forecasting

Velocity and Forecasting

Sprint Work Remaining Velocity1 625 752 560 653 490 704 421 695 350 71678

1 2 3 4 50

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Project Burndown


Scrum is not good for fixed price and/or fixed date work.

FALSE!

Fixed Date / Fixed Scope

Outcomes of Fixed Date / Fixed Scope projects:

Waterfall1. Delivered on time and working as expected2. “Delivered” on time … with issues3. Cannot deliver on time, need to extend

Scrum4. Delivered on time and working as expected5. The highest valued stories are delivered by the requested date

and working as expected

Be cautious of sacrificing quality and best practices to meet dates

1/1/

2010

3/1/

2010

5/1/

2010

7/1/

2010

9/1/

2010

11/1

/201

0

1/1/

2011

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Work CompletedWork Remaining

Scrum Delivery

Project Due Date


Agile ignores risk.

FALSE!

Problems with Waterfall

Requirements

Design

Develop

Test

Deploy

“I believe in this concept, but the implementation described above is risky and invites failure” – Dr. Winston Royce

What happens if something goes wrong?

Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, Winston Royce (1970)

Advantages of Scrum

◊ Manages risk by delivering high value, high risk

items early– Identify and resolve problems faster– Showing tangible results throughout the project– High assurance of product vision due to continual

inspection by business representatives

◊ Daily standup exposes risk

◊ Adaptability (Scrum) versus Predictability

(Waterfall)– Waterfall makes it expensive to make changes to

the project– Scrum development minimizes the cost of change

◊ Quality is built in

◊ Continuous improvement


Agile development requires a lot of rework.

TRUTH!

“Refactoring is a disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior.” – Martin Fowler, Refactoring.com

◊ Simplify◊ Fix◊ Optimize◊ Improve

Real time payment of technical debt.

Refactoring

Software Development

CHANGE IS EXPENSIVE


Scrum does not believe in metrics or documentation.

FALSE!

Agile Metrics

Metrics for Business Initiatives

Effort Area Story Points Percentage

Foundational 78 22%

Maintenance 9 3%

Optimization 168 48%

New Product 98 28%

First Quarter Initiatives

Metrics for Business Value

Features Story Points Business Points

Comment

Feature 1 40 8 High effort, mid value

Feature 2 20 13 High effort, good value

Feature 3 4 8 Low effort, mid value

Feature 4 13 40 Mid effort, high value

Feature 5 5 20 Low effort, high value

Metrics for the Project

Project Burn Down / Burn Up Chart

Metrics for the Sprint

Metrics for Team Performance



For a Scrum team, key goals include:

1. Achieving a high completion percentage (actual velocity / projected velocity)

2. Stabilizing velocity

3. Increasing velocity (after 1 and 2)

Cumulative Flow Diagram

Cost Metrics

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Story Pts Remaining 1200 1300 1123 987 978 876 725 655 524 411 290 110 0

Cost (in thousands) 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 -100 -200-300

-100

100

300

500

700

900

1100

1300

Cost Feature Burn Down

Documentation

Identifying and delivering value……1. Identify value and eliminate waste2. Prioritize features3. Deliver early and often4. Constant inspection5. Empower team

Generally, documents are consumables, not deliverables

Contact Information

Richard K [email protected]: @RichardKCheng

Book Resources

Agile Project Management with ScrumKen SchwaberISBN #073561993X

Agile Estimating and PlanningMike CohnISBN #0131479415

The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to AgilityMichele Sliger, Stacia BroderickISBN #0321502752

Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products Jim HighsmithISBN #0321658396

The Art of Agile DevelopmentJames ShoreISBN #0596527675