Agile for Business Advantage Creoss 2 of 2

Copyright 2010, Creoss, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized Duplication Prohibited

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Brian BoelsterliCREOSS Business Solutions

September, 2010

Agile for Business Advantage

Part 2 of 2


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Agenda• Setting the stage

• Where did the data for this presentation come from?

• Challenge / Technique

• Looking at the Top 10 list

• Techniques for addressing challenges

• Summary

• A recipe to consider


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Setting the stage• Overwhelming amount of information on Agile adoption(Agile challenges)

• This presentation focuses on our experiences, our convictions

• What follows comes directly:

• From experience (over 10 years) in

• implementing ALL Agile projects (over 125),

• across major vertical markets (over 9),

• across a variety of team sizes (6 to over 400),

• across multiple technology realms (purely Microsoft, ubiquitus/mixed, purely Open Source, Legacy development and/or modernization),

• spanning team structures (co-located/local to international/disbursed)


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Agile challenges• Business/IT Alignment

• Adoption

• Rigor

• Integrating Agile

• Velocity

• Sustainability


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• Today’s Agile methodologies do not directly address alignment between business imperative and technology initiative

• http://nevermindthebusiness.blogspot.com/: The evidence is damning. IT is failing to meet the needs of the Business. The business does not trust IT, and it's gradually taking control of technology itself, more and more. IT must change or be left behind......

• An ISACA study last year, "Changing Business Needs and Unmet Expectations Are Leading Causes of Technology Project Failure", revealed that nearly half of the Organizations surveyed have ended technology projects prematurely, with the top two reasons being that business needs had changed (29.9 percent) and the project did not deliver as promised (23.4 percent).

Challenge: Business / IT Alignment

http://nevermindthebusiness.blogspot.com/

http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=774

http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=774

http://www.isaca.org/Template.cfm?Section=Press_Releases1&CONTENTID=42336&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm




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Challenge: Business / IT Alignment

• Top right quadrant is the goal of effective and aligned

• Does the software delivered improve value of any kind to the stakeholders?

• Key point: todays Agile techniques do not address Business/IT alignment

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/articles/2007/fall/49102-1/the-path-to-itenabled-growth/

http://www.succeedingwithagile.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Reported-Benefits-of-Agile.zip




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Technique: Business / IT Alignment

• Portfolio brings Agile to better alignment

• If doing Scrum, look for the “Scrum of Scrums” in your approach OR adopt a more advanced Agile approach

• Incorporates Portfolio and KPI as part of its core principle

• http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/articles/2007/fall/49102-1/the-path-to-itenabled-growth/: “Contrary to conventional wisdom, the path to IT-powered growth lies first in building high effectiveness and only then ensuring that IT projects are highly aligned to the business”

• Artifacts which specifically tie Corporate Objective to IT Strategy to IT Initiative

• Key point: awareness of being portfolio versus project-driven

SOURCE: Agile Unplugged/Creoss Business Solutions






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Challenge: Adoption

• Current average “heartbeat” is 2-4 weeks; too long?

• Adaptation intervals (retrospectives) of 2 to 4 weeks lengthens the adoption curve significantly

• Inspection intervals (demos) of 2 to 4 weeks lengthens the potential for things to go wrong and money to be spent

• Transparency intervals (planning and standups) of 2 to 4 weeks increases potential for risk to permeate the projects/initiatives

• Key point: Heartbeat has significance on Agile adoption







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Technique: Adoption• Shorter cycles/iterations

• Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation occur more frequently ==>Faster Adoption

• Team proves delivery in shorter cycles, then evolve to longer cycles

• Key point: Consider shorter cycles/iterations

4 week cycles

1 week cycles




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Challenge: Rigor•Adaptation, not “Casual-agile”

•Rigor, not “Story-bleeding”

•Accountability, not “Procrastination”

•Estimations based on historical truth, not “Thumb-in-the-air”

•Key point: rigor is being left behind due to casual-agile


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Technique: Rigor• Rigor around

• Buyer/seller of artifacts

• Change control

• Velocity metrics

• Cycle/iteration transition

• Software factory metaphor (stacked working pattern)

• Meeting management

• Key point: inject a special “flavor” of rigor with the above concepts


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Challenge: Integrating Agile•“My ecosystem has many existing projects flowing

through it in its current form. How do I integrate an Agile initiative into what exists today?”

•“Can/Should we start with a pilot or should we convert completely, everything at the same time?”

• Is top down or bottom up more effective?

•Key point: how to integrate an Agile initiative into your shop?


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Technique: Integrating Agile1. Solidify stakeholder

support

2. Select pilot project

3. Select pilot project team

4. Setup Agile support tools

5. Solidify roles/routines

6. Conduct pilot team training

7. Execute Agile

• Weekly heartbeat

• Artifact Review

• Cycle/iteration planning

• Cycle/iteration transition/retrospectives

• Snapshot metrics

• Change control

• Stand-ups

• Make Transparent, Inspect and Adapt

Key point: apply a top-down support with bottom-up implementation your Agile adoption play


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Challenge: Velocity• Velocity==>Rate at which teams consistently deliver value

• Velocity==>Indicator of capacity / capability

• Best indicator for velocity is historical

• “Accuracy of velocity and speed of achieving this accuracy is directly proportionate to the frequency at which velocity metric is taken”

• More frequent snapshots, more accurate estimates

• Non-existent velocity==>poor estimates==>missed milestones

• Key point: do you truly understand what your team(s) are capable of producing (in terms of completed/working feature/functionality)?


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Technique: Velocity• Re-factor velocity numbers at end of cycle/iteration

• Move to shorter cycles/iterations (weekly)

• Thurs-Wednesday

• Establish user story/use case metric at begining of effort

• Rigorous attention towards measuring true velocity

• Key point: leverage cycles/iteration transitions to solidify understanding of true-velocity


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Challenge: Sustainability•“It is one thing to introduce Agile into your shop; it

is yet another to sustain Agile over the long run”

•Most Agile adoption plays ==>Introduction of Agile

•Sustaining an Agile adoption initiative requires rigor==>adaptation with boundaries

•Key point: sustainability of Agile adoption requires rigor


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Technique: Sustainability

http://www.crisp.se/scrum/books/ScrumPapers20070424.pdf

Scrum types (A, B,C) •Software Factory metaphor

•Rigor around Retrospectives

•Rigor around Metrics

•Consider dual-spin (advanced/enhanced Scrum)

•Key point: Continuous flow of cycles/iterations, disallow breakages in flow




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Summary• Agile Adoption

Challenges

• Business / IT Alignment

• Adoption

• Rigor

• Integrating Agile

• Velocity

• Sustainability

TH

E R

EC

IPE!


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Summary• Setting the stage

• We discussed the background/context from which the list of challenges and techniques originated from (pure experience!)

• Challenge / Technique

• We enumerated and discussed the Top 10 list of challenges and techniques that you can use in your shop today

• Recipe (combining techniques)

• We compiled all the techniques into one list


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Next steps

•Ask us about our Agile Adoption Assessment

•Development practices and tools


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Teaming

•Here is how we are partnered

•CREOSS Business Solutions - Agile Adoption expertise

•Visit us at www.creoss.com

•Visit our blog at www.agileunplugged.com

•ADC - MKS solutions for CA 2E and CA Plex

•Visit us at www.adcaustin.com

http://www.creoss.com/

http://www.agileunplugged.com/

http://www.adcaustin.com/