Agile Business Conference. 9 th October 2013

Transcription

1 Agile Business Conference 9 th October 2013

2 Shaun White Certified Product Owner and Qualified Business Analyst Matthew Spottiswoode Certified Scrum Master and IT Delivery Manager Dorothy Tudor Founder and Technical Director of TCC Limited

3 - Brighton based - Financial Services - ~400 employees - > 2 million customers

4 Our Agile journey - First Scrum pilot project in IT software delivery following Scrum since - Bottom up Agile adoption approach driven by IT - Training and consultancy support for IT only - Nominated for Best Agile team in First DSDM training in 2011, incorporated DSDM alongside Scrum in Change Framework - Organisation support to move to next level of adoption

5 What was the project? - Cash administration platform - Wrapped and unwrapped products - Broad market appeal - Build from scratch - Licensable product

6 3 stages for assessment Stage 1 Project inception Stage 2 End of foundations Stage 3 In delivery

7 Stage 1 Evolution of Agile/DSDM

8 Stage 1 Business Case There appeared to be a need in the market for the product we were looking to provide Interest shown from a number of leads, with detailed talks taking place with 1 partner about co-funding development Committee of Management support for the concept No partner had formally signed any agreement Availability of development resources

9 Decision Time!! What would you do? OR

10 Decision Agreement to continue: Define and acquire appropriate toolset Carry out necessary training Establish team Complete Foundations

11 How did we measure up? - Agile - The best architectures, requirement, and designs emerge from self-organising teams - Over zealous IT policies led to constraints on the team and it took time to challenge them to allow the teams to do the right thing for the project This led to us being drawn back to established techniques for a time before moving on unfettered - Agile - Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project - DSDM - Communicate continuously and clearly - There was complete support to collocate the teams and provide a dedicated project area to ensure this was as effective as possible

12 Stage 2 Evolution of Agile/DSDM

13 Stage 2 Business Case Foundations provided estimated plans and project was forecasted to be within budget and timeline Partner who was looking to cofund the development had to walk away due to corporate restructure Still 3 others in the frame Committee of Management still showing support for the concept 2 nd partner started to work closely with us on requirements Funds for lending scheme introduced

14 Decision Time!! What would you do? OR

15 Decision Agreement to continue: Carry out 3 sprints Improve learning to ratify theoretical velocity etc. Buy time to assess potential in market without disbanding team Produce tangible application delivery

16 How did we measure up? - Agile Welcome changing requirements Agile processes harness change for the customer s competitive advantage - Using Agile allowed us to alter direction with the changes in potential partners Managing and re-ordering the prioritised requirements list simplified the process of aligning priorities to the new partner - Agile - Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project - DSDM - Communicate continuously and clearly - The team had learned to work really well together and this was in no small part to the collocation of the team - The team were accused of elitism and this sort of response does need to be closely managed

17 Stage 3 Evolution of Agile/DSDM

18 Stage 3 Business Case Interim findings and recommendations of the strategic review started to emerge New CEO implemented a complete strategic review of the organisation A number of developments with existing leads: Primary potential partner put project on hold Another reduced potential transaction volumes Small proposition pulled out of conversations 2 new substantial partners came into the frame Working software delivered to support further commercial conversations

19 Decision Time!! What would you do? OR

20 Decision Project put on hold: Focus to be on implementation of new strategy No speculative developments to take place There was no confirmed benefit

21 How did we measure up? - DSDM Focus on the business need - Agile working software is the primary measure of progress - Whilst we had started producing working functionality it was felt that we could of thought about the wider business need rather than just the project Some functionality could be re-usable outside of the project but this was not prioritised for delivery - DSDM Demonstrate control - Good controls demonstrated in relation to project timelines, resources, budgets etc - Lacking control over the overall business case and the affect of being all things to all people rather than focusing on greatest business benefit

22 Coach s Comments 1. Good Sponsor and Visionary involvement 2. Good business involvement, of the right people 3. Co-location of whole team one team 4. Good collaboration 5. Scrum and DSDM combined well 6. Firm Foundation, delivered on time 7. Reasons for stop outside of team s control, but Focus on Business Need invoked

23 Where are we now? Evolution of Agile/DSDM

24 On Reflection.

25 Conclusions It is clear that Agile does fully support a speculative project and is ideally suited to provide the framework and control mechanisms to ensure you are utilising business resources for the best possible result However, no matter how well you implement Agile the project must still be delivering business benefit We hit a tipping point in the project where the speculative benefits no longer allowed us to continue the project and so it had to come to an end. We must not however underestimate the benefits derived from this project in determining how we would tackle a project like this again in the future

26 Any Questions?