PM s and BA s in an Agile World: Where do we go from here? PMI Professional Development Days September 22-23, 2014

Transcription

1 PM s and BA s in an Agile World: Where do we go from here? PMI Professional Development Days September 22-23, 2014

2 2 Introductions Scott Bird Lead Agile Coach in the PMO at Great- West Financial, responsible for process definition and agile support for all teams and projects. He has over 10 years of experience in various agile roles. Prior to that he has 20 years of project management experience. He is a PMP, CSP, and PMI-ACP. Jim West Manager in the PMO, responsible for providing direction and career management for product owners and analysts. Jim has over 20 years experience at JP Morgan / Great-West in a variety of roles including analyst, programmer, and project manager. He is a PMP and CSPO.

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4 4 Overview of the JP Morgan Great-West Journey 2008 JP Morgan pilots agile 2010 RPS starts experimenting with agile 2013 Mass adoption of agile, climbing the maturity curve 2014 Great-West Financial Acquisition

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6 6 Agile Transformation Results to Date 75% of all team members would recommend agile to other organizations 93% of stakeholders would recommend agile to other organizations Biggest benefits to implementing agile: Ability to manage change Better alignment between IT and the business Biggest drawbacks to implementing agile: Lack of documentation Culture change Lack of upfront planning Over 86% of stakeholders agree with the following: Our teams deliver more software Our teams deliver more business value Our teams deliver higher quality software

7 8 Systems Thinking An approach to problem solving, by viewing "problems" as parts of an overall system, rather than reacting to specific part, outcomes or events and potentially contributing to further development of unintended consequences. Wayne Madden, Building Blocks of Systems Thinking,

8 9 System Model of an Organization The Model Customer Top Customer Middle Bottom Customer Customer Barry Oshry, Seeing Systems System Model,

9 10 One System in a traditional organization Flavius Ștef, Team Leaders and Scrum Masters,

10 11 With a dash of Barry Oshry Middle Top Bottom

11 12 The Agile System Empowered Team Flavius Ștef, Team Leaders and Scrum Masters,

12 13 The Agile System Facilitated by Scrum Master

13 14 How does the Agile Manifesto Apply? We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

14 15 And the 12 Principles Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Working software is the primary measure of progress.. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. At regular intervals, the team reflects on on how to become more.

15 16 Attributes of a good Scrum Master Responsible Committed Influential Knowledgeable Humble Collaborative Attributes of a good Scrum Master Mike Cohn, Succeeding with Agile

16 17 Scrum Master: Our Experience at Great-West Tech Leads initially Stepping stone to management Not good at non-technical aspects of job Then PM s Mostly positive Some command and control Some us/them mentality What about the functional manager? Do they make a good scrum master? Shares many of the positive traits of the Scrum Master And also the pitfalls of the project manager mentality With one really big one: Today, in this meeting, am I talking to my boss, or am I talking to a team mate?

17 18 So What s the Answer, PM s or Tech Leads? There is no easy answer Look at the goals of the position and your organization Find the person who has the traits you are looking for AND the desire to do that job Inspect and Adapt

18 19 Other paths for the PM Scrum Master If you can overcome the old habits of directing the team and making all the decisions Team member If you miss the technical challenges Product Owner If you are very knowledgeable about the business and customers Mike Cohn, Mountaingoat Software,

19 Other Paths for the PM (cont) 2 0

20 21 Case Study - TriZetto Provider Solutions PM s became the first SM s Dev team began to ask Just what is the value of the PM s were adding to their team? Each team was allowed to select their own SM PM s started doing cross-team coordination and agile coaching Eventually, PM s evolved into program delivery managers Brian Lawrence, TriZetto Provider Solutions

21 23 Analysts Moving to an Agile World Business Analysts (BA) & Business Systems Analysts (BSA)

22 24 Adopting Agile / Scrum Product Owner Scrum Master Development Team The Scrum Guide by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland

23 25 Analysts Moving to an Agile World I deal with the customers so the engineers don t have to. I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people! Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people? - Tom Smykowski Office Space

24 26 The Pilot Adopt Scrum Form the team Product Owner Scrum Master Development Team Analyst added for context Learning began

25 27 What we learned Some things stayed the same! Traditional Analyst Business domain knowledge Talk the business talk Critical listening skills Organization skill Leadership Communication oral / written Adaptability Agile Analyst Knowledge of the business is key Speaking business terms is critical Listen for understanding Ability to stay organized Leading teams to discovery /solution Effectively communicate to all Adapt to change

26 28 What we learned Some things did NOT stay the same! Traditional Analyst Business Requirements Document Requirements Workshop Comprehensive Documentation Sign-off Part-time Agile Analyst User Stories Story Review Incremental Collaboration Dedicated

27 29 Learning and Adapting Product Owner (Strategic) Leads customer and product-discovery activities Create strategic product plans and define business value Communicate product roadmap and plans to internal/external stakeholder Decisions backlog requirements for agile release planning Leads and/or participates in agile planning and retrospective workshops Agile Analyst (Tactical) Leads and/or participates in backlog refinement and estimate prep Specifies acceptance criteria for each backlog item Leads story review with the team Participates daily with team for ad hoc questions & decision-making Acts as Product Owner Proxy It s the Goal, Not the Role: The Value of Business Analysis in Scrum by Ellen Gottesdiener and Mary Gorman

28 30 Learning and Adapting (Community of Practice) Knowledge transfer addressing common problems Sharing lessons learned and best practices Establishing common tools & deliverables Held separately at first / with quarterly cross-pollination Combined for on-going meetings / with separate

29 31 Other Paths? Product Owner Assessing business value Defining and driving the strategy of the product Development Team member Problem-solving mentality Technical skills Scrum Master Understanding of Agile Scrum and Practices Coaching mindset Tester Understanding of systems and processes I want to break it! mindset Elizabeth Larsen, Is the Business Analyst a Product Owner or Tester on Agile Projects?,

30 32 BA s: Our experience at J.P. Morgan Analysts in the Agile World Analyst skills are still in high demand But you have options Product Owner vs. Analyst Both can live together in a harmonious world Think about strategic / tactical relationship Community of Practice Share common goals and practices Working collectively

31 33 Update the text poll What role do you think the BA/BSA is best suited for? a) Product Owner b) Agile analyst reporting to the Product Owner c) Scrum Master d) Agile analyst as part of the team e) Tester as part of the team f) None. I like being part of a traditional organization. I m outta here!

32 34 Suggestions for your Journey Create/Understand the goals and requirements of the roles first Then evaluate based on skills and traits of candidates Inspect and Adapt

33 35 Retrospective Using text polling