Agile : Today and Tomorrow

presented by Rick Freedman

Director, Project Management

Adams Gabbert

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Contents

• Introductions

• Agile Core Concepts

• Where We Are Today

• Where We‟re Going

• How The PM Role Will Remain The Same

• How The PM Role Will Change

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Introductions

• Rick Freedman, Director of Project Management, Adams

Gabbert:

– Agile coach and mentor to clients:

• Microsoft, Intel, HP, Motorola, Dept of Homeland Security,

Turner Broadcasting, Bank of NY, Credit Suisse, etc.

– Author:

• “The IT Consultant”, “The e-Consultant”. “Building the IT

Consulting Practice”

• ESI‟s “Agile Project Management” Course

• TechRepublic‟s Project Management Blog

• TechRepublic‟s IT Consultant Blog

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Pandora: The Agile Enterprise

• Tom Conrad, Pandora CTO:

“If you’d asked me during my career, what

were the biggest innovations, I wouldn’t

have said laptops, or the Internet, I

definitely would have said that the

massive change in the way we write

software was the single most

disruptive thing I’d seen.”

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Pandora: The Agile Enterprise

• Tom Conrad, Pandora CTO:

“We were a launch partner for the iPhone,

for Google TV, for Facebook, and if we

weren’t able to respond to these market

opportunities it would have meant the

difference between success and

failure for the entire company.”

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• Agile is Not a Methodology!

• Agility is Strategic!

What Pandora (and others) have learned

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Agility

“Agility is the ability

to both create and

respond to change in

order to profit in a

turbulent business

environment.”

“Agility is the ability

to balance flexibility

and stability.”

Jim Highsmith, one of the originators of the

Agile Manifesto, defined agility as the

following:

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Core Agile Concepts

Results

“First Things Fast”

Focus on high-impact

activities

Creative, innovative

teamwork

Emergent outcomes

Business Agility!

Core Concepts

Iterative, incremental

development

Constant, committed

collaboration

Change-readiness

Self-directed work teams

Measurement by Results!

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Agile Business Objectives

• Continuous Innovation

• Product Adaptability

• Improved Time-to-Market

• People and Process Adaptability

• Reliable Results

• Egalitarian Meritocracy:

– Reality-Based

– Intrinsically Motivated

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The Agile Mindset

• Value over Constraints

– Continuous Flow of Value over Time

– Innovation by Iteration

– Lean Thinking

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Focus on Value, not Constraints

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Traditional vs. Agile Project Triangles

Scope

Cost Schedule

Value

Quality Constraints

Traditional Project Triangle Agile Project Triangle

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The Agile Mindset

• Team over Tasks

– “Manage Things…Lead People”

– Self-Organization means Self-Discipline

– Collaboration and Participation

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The Agile Mindset

• Adapting over Conforming

– Deliver, Inspect, Adapt

– Respond to Change

• Agile is NOT a methodology!

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Agile has become the

majority methodology!

Where We Are Today

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Where We Are Today

VersionOne State of Agile 2011Survey:

Manage Changing Priorities: 87%

Improve Project Visibility: 78%

Improve Team Morale: 71%

Accelerate Time to Market: 70%

Improve Strategic Alignment: 68%

Improvements Cited:

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Where We Are Today:

• My Observations: (Not A Scientific Survey)

– Interest In Agile Is Universal

– Most Agile Experiments Are Bottom Up

– Most Utilize “Tiger Team” Approach

– Most Encounter Resistance From Waterfall

Advocates

– Many Encounter Resistance From Product Or

Financial Teams

– PMOs Can Be Enablers Or Inhibitors

– Vast Majority Are Hybrid Implementations

– As They Mature, Most Orgs Introduce Roadmaps

– “Once You Go Agile, You Won‟t Go Back”

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Where We‟re Going

New Directions in Agile:

Scaling to large teams

Roadmapping

Hybridization

Agile Metrics

Agile Top-to-Bottom

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Scaling

• Large Projects „Look‟ Traditional But „Feel‟

Agile:

• May Require More Structure And Governance, But

Still Adhere To Agile Philosophy:

– Collaborative, Iterative, Change-ready, Self-directed,

Lean

– Create A Leadership Team

– Divide Teams Into Specialty Areas Or Functions

– Collaborate Based On Coupling Requirements

– Push Decision To The Lowest (Efficient) Level

– Teams Of Teams (Scrum Of Scrums)

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Roadmapping

• Executives have 2 questions:

– What‟s the investment?

– What are the risks?

• Engineers have 2 questions:

– Is it feasible?

– What (in our current infrastructure /

architecture) has to change?

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Roadmapping

• For Innovation / Exploration Projects, Detailed

Specs Can‟t Reduce The Risk

– Only Exploration / Iteration / Adaptation Can!

• Iteration 0: Useful But Not Sufficient

• Roadmap Is A Long-term Vision And Strategy,

Not An Estimate

– Less Specific As It Projects Further Out

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3

Roadmap Example

2012: Internal

System Test

Health Care Exchanges 2014

2013: Limited

Public Access

2014:

Regulatory

compliance

2011: Define

Business Rules

Program 1: Process and

Rules Discovery

Program 2: System

Solution and Prototype

Program 3: Production

and Inspect/Adapt Loop

Project

Level

Release

Level

Sprint /

Iteration

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Hybridization

• Scrum-erfall

• Scrum-ban

• Scrum, but

• Selection Criteria:

– Executive Sponsorship

– Size

– Scale

– Risk

– Marketplace

– Agile Readiness

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Agile Metrics

• Our Focus On Adapting Rather Than

Conforming Requires Different Metrics

• Quality: More Than Just “Conforming To Spec”

– Also Requires “Ability To Extend And Adapt”

– Agile Quality Requires Modular Integration

– Agile Quality Enables Continuous Flow Of

Value

• Budget:

– Governance Rather Than An Absolute

Number

– Value For Investment, Not Predictability

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Agile Top To Bottom

• No matter how agile the development team, they

hit the wall when:

– The Strategic Planning Process is Not Agile

– The Budget Process is Not Agile

– The Product Development Process is Not

Agile

• Mature Agile Enterprises Migrate Towards All-In

Agility!

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Agile Top To Bottom

• Agile Strategic Planning Process

– Runs on an agile schedule:

• 90 days, not annually

– Includes the right people:

• Not just executives

– Produces priorities and decisions:

• Not just lists

• Same with Agile Budgeting and Product

Development:

– They‟re inclusive, iterative, Adaptive, Flexible

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How The PM Role Will Remain The Same

• PMs still need to be leaders

• Must be risk-focused

• Must be influencers

• Must have intrinsic authority

• Must understand the processes they‟re

managing

• Must be able to recognize quality and value

• Must deliver business results!

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How The PM Role Will Change

• Just getting an agile certification is not enough!

• PMs must internalize the egalitarian meritocracy

that drives agile philosophy

• They must be collaborative:

– The “Project Bureaucrat” hiding in a room adjusting

Gantt charts will fail: agile is too transparent

• They must be facilitative:

– Facilitation skills drive agile work processes,

decisions

• They must be adaptive:

– Plan driven, constraint-focused PMs will struggle