AGILE. IS IT ONLY FOR IT?

Transcription

1 AGILE. IS IT ONLY FOR IT? By Chris Vandersluis President, HMS Software

2 Learning Points You will leave this presentation with a new way of thinking about deploying complex projects Starting tomorrow, you will be able to apply Agile concepts on complex enterprise and change management projects and how Agile methodology can be applied to business processes outside the software development arena. You will have an understanding of which aspects of Agile are appropriate to apply to your enterprise business process projects and what types of projects will benefit the most from this approach.

3 Introduction Founder of HMS Software; publishers of TimeControl, a project-based timesheet system Over 30 years experience in project and timesheet systems Author of the EPMGuidance.com blog Teaches Advanced Project Management at McGill University Writing has appeared in: Fortune Magazine, American Management Association s Project Management handbook, PMI s PMNetwork, Microsoft s TechNet, Computing Canada, and PM Times magazines.

4 Agenda Introductions What is an Enterprise Project? Enterprise Project Challenges What is Agile? Agile s history Does this Agile stuff really work? Big Bang vs. Phased Approach Potential Pitfalls Wrapping Up

5 What is an Enterprise Project? It affects operations across the enterprise; the organization It changes behavior Examples: Changing the Finance system, moving our headquarters, Corporate merger/acquisition, implementing a centralized Project Management Office

6 What is the challenge of an enterprise project management initiative Underestimating Enterprise projects are almost always underestimated and therefor underfunded, under supported and under sponsored Omnibus Mentality Just as in politics, enterprise projects can be so large that everyone tries to stick their pet projects into them and the scope therefore becomes unwieldy

7 Common Pitfalls Technology can solve any problem Management is behind us aren t they? We will do everything at once in one big bang

8 What is Agile project management? Agile is a methodology that is almost always thought of for software development in which the creation of software is an iterative process of releasing small waves of development as it is complete With each wave, the software is expected to be useable right away with whatever functionality has been completed

9 The Agile Manifesto Manifesto for Agile Software Development: 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. Source:

10 Agile History The incentive: Y2K Precursors Rapid Application Development Design-Build Rolling Wave

11 Design Build Traditional Project Tracking Design Build Design/Build Project Tracking Design Build Test Design Build Test Design Build Test Test Commission Commission

12 An Example of Rolling Wave (Circa 1987)

13 Does Agile work? Yes it can The proof is in the pudding... Agile has worked to bring complex software development to manageable levels

14 So Agile is just for software? No Agile was always conceived as a methodology which could be applied to both software development and process change

15 What is applicable from Agile to managing an enterprise project? Lots We can eat the elephant if we can make the bites small enough

16 Agile Practices Acceptance test-driven development Agile Modeling Backlogs Sprints Behavior-driven development Cross-functional team Continuous integration Domain-driven design Information radiators Iterative and incremental development Pair programming Planning poker Refactoring Scrum meetings Test-driven development Agile testing Timeboxing Use case User story Story-driven modeling Velocity tracking

17 Agile Practices Acceptance test-driven development Agile Modeling Backlogs Sprints Behavior-driven development Cross-functional team Continuous integration Domain-driven design Information radiators Iterative and incremental development Pair programming Planning poker Refactoring Scrum meetings Test-driven development Agile testing Timeboxing Use case User story Story-driven modeling Velocity tracking

18 Agile Practices Backlogs Backlogs are the functions and features that will become a part of the final delivered project Backlogs are unassigned scope items Backlog items are assigned to resources only once they are about to be started as part of a Sprint

19 Agile Practices Sprints A sprint is a short mini project of a few days in duration All tasks in the Sprint are expected to be completed within the Sprint s duration Work is both tightly managed yet team members feel freedom within the Sprint

20 Agile Practices Cross-Functional Teams A cross-functional team includes members from across all the resource groups required to deliver this section of the project Siloed teams often find they work at cross purposes with other groups

21 Agile Practices Continuous Integration Continuous integration brings elements of the project from different groups together ongoingly so that no one element of the project becomes a silo Integrating continuously reveals potential challenges while they re in their infancy

22 Agile Practices Information Radiators The resurgence of the Project War Room The team project team congregates regularly in the room to update the project The entire team becomes more effective thanks to improved person-to-person communication

23 Agile Practices Iterative and Incremental Development This is a fundamental aspects of Agile that is highly applicable to any enterprise project When a project like an enterprise project is difficult to accurately predict, working incrementally is very effective The larger the scale, the higher the risk This is similar to the Rolling Wave planning concept as described in the PMBOK

24 Agile Practices Scrum Meetings Scrum meetings are meetings in which the cross functional project teams meet with a facilitator to update the project and take on new tasks Scrum meetings are almost always blissfully quick and it is easier to focus on a smaller aspect of the project The facilitator who is neutral can resolve conflicts quickly and keep the project moving forward

25 Agile Practices Time Boxing Timeboxing takes a scope of work and puts it into a schedule; a box of time. While this is not always a primary focus of Agile, it is common to more traditional project scheduling and a great place for both concepts to align

26 Agile Practices Use Case A Use Case describes what someone will do to complete a function. Instead of just a task title, the use case describes the function s steps one after the other Use Case techniques can reveal deficiencies in the process which could cause delays in the project down the road

27 Agile Practices User Story Unlike the Use Case, a User Story is a narrative of a business problem. This is often forgotten in project planning as team members focus on delivery of the solution rather than remembering the original problem When you create a User Story, you are describing in plain language what the problem is and how it can be overcome.

28 How to implement Agile thinking in our project management practices? Use Agile thinking to deploy your Agile changes Think phased approach vs. big bang Use Trim Tabs to turn the ship

29 Benefits Benefits Big bang or phased deployment? Big Bang Phased 100% 100% 80% Time Time

30 Implementing Agile Big Bang vs Phased approach Big Bang Benefits: Better chance that the entire vision will be implemented Disadvantages: The longer the project lasts, the more chance no value will be delivered at all Phased Benefits: ROI happens fast and continues Disadvantages: Better chance that the entire vision will not be implemented thanks to the law of diminishing returns (80/20 rule vs 20/80)

31 Potential pitfalls Adopting everything Wholesale change Not managing this change as a change management project

32 Trim Tabs How do we shift from one way of managing projects to another?

33 Turning the ship

34 Ship Rudder

35 Buckminster Fuller s Trim Tabs Trim-tab Rudder

36 Learning Points You will leave this presentation with a new way of thinking about deploying complex projects Starting tomorrow, you will be able to apply Agile concepts on complex enterprise and change management projects and how Agile methodology can be applied to business processes outside the software development arena. You will have an understanding of which aspects of Agile are appropriate to apply to your enterprise business process projects and what types of projects will benefit the most from this approach.

37 Wrapping up Lessons Learned Next Steps

38 Contact Information For more information, please contact me at: Chris Vandersluis Tel: HMS Website: LinkedIn: Blog: YouTube: youtube.hms.ca

39 Thank you