Waterfall Agile and the Adaptable PM. Tracy Alldridge

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2 Waterfall Agile and the Adaptable PM Tracy Alldridge

3 Tracy Alldridge I m a PMP and PRINCE2 Practitioner certified IT Project Manager, with more than twenty years of experience leading major IT projects and providing advisory and coaching services. My contact information: Personal: allarsta@gmail.com Business: Tracy.Alldridge@flexedge.com

4 What s the point? The point/objective/goal of this talk is to provide you with some insight into: identifying and dealing with the impact of introducing agile methods into an organization, how to communicate culture change, coaching and training

5 Welcome! Methodology - a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline (Merriam dictionary definition). Is methodology really that important? Can you say I m adaptable Trainable??

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7 In the beginning One of the first decisions we face at the initial stage of an application type project - What are we doing and how? This discussion, of course, is part of our project approach and planning.

8 How are we doing this? For most GC projects, the likeliest approach will be a hybrid of both waterfall and agile methodologies (iterative development) Using any agile methodology is a significant culture shift, which takes time to get promoted through an organization and into regular usage.

9 How many methods?? Within agile there are some frequently used methods, with Scrum, Kanban, and Lean being the most popular. Some agile methods include: Scrum Kanban Lean (LN) Dynamic System Development Model, (DSDM) Extreme Programming (XP) Crystal Adaptive software development (ASD) Agile Unified Process (AUP) Crystal Clear methods Disciplined agile delivery Feature-driven development (FDD) Scrumban RAD(Rapid Application Development

10 Responsive to change? Well-designed systems and processes can make a company or a department more agile. But the focus needs to be on the people change the culture! New systems and processes are only useful if the people have the training and support to use them appropriately

11 Traditional Waterfall vs Agile Very limited business engagement (drop off the business requirements see you in a year.) Mary Lotz on July 5, 2013 Extensive business engagement Frequent interactions, during sprints, Product Backlog reviews, continuous delivery, reviews

12 Agile? Hybrid? In our culture?? Corporate culture - sounds like something exotic and ivory tower; however, in reality, every department, and indeed every branch, has its own culture. So, how do we do introduce new methodologies in this climate? What will work?

13 Arras People

14 Are you adaptable? How do we challenge ourselves and our own mindset to meet these changes? Train yourself

15 Change? From the top down So, how do we set up these changes? Start at the top to change the culture - train the executives. An organization that excels at project management becomes an agile organization that knows how to deal with and drive change, PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, 2004

16 Managing organizational change Moving to agile project and development management means significant change, extensive engagement, and a high need for adaptability from all concerned

17 Our PMO? Enterprise PMO? How do we influence the enterprise PMO to move into this new way to run projects? Simple: be successful using the techniques!

18 Traditional PMO vs Hybrid PMO Using agile techniques is a major change so the enterprise PMO s perspective needs to change to accommodate the new reality Agreement, promotion, communications are all required so you WILL need executive support to start this change!

19 Can we simplify? Of course! Start with simple communications.

20 So Where to start? Project managers are all about change, it s our primary task and responsibility So, bringing in agile as a new(ish) methodology? Best suggestion - Start small, with a simple project, with a client you know well.

21 1 st up - the technical team.. The best approach is to start with the technical team, as they have to at least be willing to adopt agile methods. Most developers have a bit of experience with agile but it is always worth a refresher on what is needed

22 Resistance is futile So, there s still lingering resistance to the new way of working, and team members are nominally complying without really buying into the new approach From: StarTrek.com

23 Starting with your client After you have your technical team onboard it s time to connect with your client. Of course - telling the client they have to be fully and deeply engaged as active participants. Culture shock!!

24 Training your client A little training on agile processes is in order use the KIS principle! Who are these people

25 Communicating the steps In the initial discussions with your client and technical lead, explain how the project will be run, what steps are involved from a client s view It s agile gathering requirements is continuous during the project, not in one big block of time upfront discuss resources!

26 Gates, not going away So, the project is up and running, and you as the PM have regular tasks to do Where do agile PMs struggle? reporting and gates, and lifting the PM processes

27 Agile can be aligned fairly closely with standard gating

28 Reporting in an agile project In traditional waterfall projects, the PMO has preset requirements for reporting. Agile projects still report on the project s progress, but the structure changes to reflect the frequent deliveries.

29 Simplified dashboard. No, this doesn t replace the TBS type dashboards but it does give a good visual of what is really happening in the project

30 Paperwork, not going away Project documentation still exists, and still has the usual review/approve cycle, but it too can be done in an agile fashion

31 Project schedule Development activities are usually identified only by duration, worked out by using the anticipated number of sprints and iterations (3-5 sprints per iteration). Task Name Duration Start Finish Migrate code from DEV to QA environment 5 days Tue Mon Development process (see notes; see user story #42) 120 days Tue Thu Iteration(sprint) review and planning 20 days Tue Tue Business requirement #42 0 days Wed Wed Demo of completed sprints 1 day Thu Thu

32 What s the impact? There is (of course) a significant impact to introducing agile methods Organizational change management is a critical factor to ensuring success Check this link:

33 Change management has a flow, and requires education

34 Roles and responsibilities Roles and responsibilities in an agile project are somewhat different than those in a traditional waterfall project. This needs to be identified early on as part of the governance structure, and promoted through the team, including the client.

35 R & Rs in an agile project

36 Learning a language Finally, everyone involved in agile projects will need to learn a new language, in order to properly communicate with the team

37 Questions?

38 Tracy Alldridge My contact information: Personal: Coaching Business: