Agile and Lean and Zombies

Damien Austin-Walker, vInspired

Jo Kerr, Breast Cancer Care

What’s the worst digital

project you have ever

worked on?

Jo’s worst project ever

What made it so bad?

● Lack of clear leadership / governance

● Users not consulted - internally focussed

● Requirements not clearly articulated

● New requirements introduced mid-project

● Timelines not adhered to

● Stressful for everyone involved

Like many projects, this one was

waterfall

Waterfall (HT @andymayer)

Waterfall Mona Lisa

An alternative - Agile

Agile Mona Lisa

Lean (HT @ericries)

Lean principles

1. Eliminate Waste

2. Build Quality In

3. Create Knowledge

4. Defer Commitment

5. Deliver Fast

6. Respect People

7. Optimise the Whole

Who already works like this?

Agile/Lean vs Zombies

See results earlier Can be slow

Feedback constantly No reaction - only moans

Serves your customers Internal agenda

Flexible Fixed focus

Uses brains (data) Eats brains

Why should we work like this?

What are the benefits?

● Efficiency - save time and money

● Focus - don’t build what you don’t need

● Co-creation with audiences

● Data + feedback-led (share early and iterate)

● Impact on wider organisation

Efficiency

Efficiency

Focus

Co-creation

Co-created surprises

Conversion rate up to 4.8%

38% increase in sign-ups

4,300 extra applications a year

Data-led

Data informed lean experiment

Wider organisation

● More data-driven

● More open to sharing early and often

● Greater understanding of digital process

● See where they fit on the roadmap

● Use Lean elsewhere

Have what it takes?

How to go agile and lean

● Influence senior staff

● Build a strong multi-disciplinary team

● Invest in learning and development

● Start small, experiment with models

Influence senior staff

They say: “Isn’t it expensive/untested/risky?”

You say: “...”

● Put into terms they understand (metaphor)

● Case studies

● Meet the development team

● Use a robust Agile contract

Strong multi-disciplinary team

Learning and development

Start small, experiment

● Pick one defined project to try out agile

● Consider ‘Agifall’ or ‘Wagile’ combinationso Agile and lean sprints within phases of a

waterfall timeline

o Agile and lean + milestones for top-level

deliverables

o Waterfall on standard deliverables (CMS) +

parallel agile and lean on key touchpoints

Back to Jo’s worst project ever…

could Agile have saved the day?

Ready to take on the undead now?

Jo @gambollingsylph

Damien @b33god

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