Agilitate.com From Mountain To Molehill Saving Millions With Agile Programme Management Bill Nicholas - 8 th September 2011 1
Agilitate.com About The Scrum Chef Title E-mail Address : Director Of Agile At Agilitate : bill.nicholas@agilitate.com Certified Scrum Practitioner, Scrum Master, & Scrum Product Owner Certified PMP & Prince2 Project Manager Certified.Net & Java Engineer Scrum Chef Bill Nicholas Bill comes from a Software Development consultancy background and has over 15 years of experience building applications with a wide range of technologies including Silverlight,.Net, Lotus Domino & Java, both with small software houses where he was responsible for all design and development, and for major innovators such as IBM & Hewlett Packard. Bill has spent 10 years managing products, projects, programs and delivery departments with both Agile & classic methodologies including setting up and running his own company with an offshore team in central Europe & Bangalore. 2
Introduction Today we are celebrating 10 years of Agile Alliance. As a project delivery methodology Agile has matured. It is widely accepted as Industry best practice. Yet At the programme level it has hardly been adopted at all. Agile Programme Management Is As Yet An Unconquered Field. As a programme manager I have personally used agile to save millions of pounds per year. 2009 Saved 1.7m on a 2.75m budget 2010 Saved 2.4m on a 3.5m budget 2011 Delivering a 15m project for 600,000 3
Why Might Management Resist Agile? Size Managed Programmes Mean Larger Companies. Larger Companies Are Less Agile By Nature Process Larger Companies Often Work According To Set Process (eg CMMI) Accountancy Practices Corporate IT Departments Are Run Based On Complex Accountancy Rules Accountancy Practice Is Often Mis-Quoted As A Barrier Exclusion Scrum In Particular Connects Budget Holders Directly With Engineers Scrum Implies The Exclusion Of Middle Management
This Talk In This Talk I m Going To Talk About Agile Techniques To Use At The Programme Level Using Examples From A Real Contract We Completed In 2010. In 2010 I Was Charged With Delivering The 2010 Budget For A Major UK Governement Agency With 60% Less Budget You ve All Seen Agile Be Beneficial At The Project Level But I Want To Motivate You All To See How Much more Beneficial It Is At The Programme Level.
The Six Sigma Approach Define Re-Examine Critical Success Criteria In Detail Measure Data Visualization Analyse Find Low Hanging Fruit & Big Wins Improve Iterative Approach Control Regular FeedBack
How To Save Millions With Agile Clarify Problem Elements & Statement 1) High Cost Of Delivery 2) Large Number Of Requirements To Deliver 3) Insufficient Funds To Deliver Requirements Backlog At Current Rate Identify Potential Solutions 1) Reduce Monthly Burn Rate Use Off-Shore Teams Successfully Automate & Virtualise Where Possible 2) Reduce The Requirements To Deliver Prioritize The Projects In The Roadmap According To Strategy Prioritize The Functionality In Each Project According To Business Case Connect Functionality Directly To Funding 3) Find New Funds 7
8 Techniques To Address High Running Costs Fire Everybody!! ;-)
Reducing Costs There Are Three Types Of Cost Capex (Bad) - Money you pay out to get something back (Hopefully) Opex (Very Bad) Money you have to pay out just to operate Revex (Terrible) The cost of borrowing something you can t keep 9
Cost Minimizing Tips Tip 1) Refuse To Pay For Any Revex Costs Either Buy It & Capitalise Or Get Someone Else To Pay (ie The Business or Group IT) Say No To Hosted Infrastructure! Tip 2) Capitalize Your Staff Normally Only Staff Are Opex. Agile Delivery Allows You To Capitalize Staff. Remove any staff you can t capitalise. Tip 3) Minimize Your Resource Profile 10
Analyse Your Resource Usage & Processes Original Timebox High Risk Low Financial Gain Medium Risk Medium Gain 11
Agile Resource Profile Solutions Keep It In The Team Use Virtual Environments To Give The Delivery Team Ownership Of Everything They Need To Produce An Accepted Iteration. Use Virtual Environments To Ensure Delivery Team Do Not Need To Engage Corporate Process To Change Environments Cut Out The Middle Man Get The Business To Communicate Directly With The Teams Ensure Business Dedicates A Minimum Of 1 FTE No Roles Are Mandatory Create Refresh on Demand Sandboxes Use Continuous Integration To Give Everyone Their Own Stable Play Area Remove Dependencies On External Teams Evaluate Cheaper Labour Options If Success Criteria Are Clear & Teams Autonomous - Outsource 12
Original Deployment Process DBA & WebSphere Admin (2 FTE) DBA & WebSphere Admin Release Manager & ENV Test (4 * 0.25 FTE) Local Dev Machines System Test UAT 2 DBA & WebSphere Admin + Security Manager Release Manager & 2 ENV Test (8 * 0.125 FTE)(5 * 0.084 FTE) (3 MD) Pre- Production Production Total FTE = 4.5 13
New Deployment Process (0 FTE) (0 FTE) Local Dev Machines CI Server On Demand Test (2 * 0.125 FTE) System Test (0FTE) UAT (8 * 0.125 FTE) Pre- Production (5 * 0.084 FTE) Production Total FTE = 1.5 14
Use Distributed Teams Distributed Agile Needs A Good ALM System & Good Comms Split Your Project Or Programme Into Components And Outsource Them To Mini-Product Feature Teams Do Expensive Risky POCs In Cheaper Locations Always Use Highly Skilled Offshore Teams Use Velocity Calculations To Mathematically Assess Benefits Good Vendors Will Provide Velocity Data Use Procurement Policies To Drive Efficiency Based Contracts
Resource Profile Analysis Original Timebox High Risk Low Financial Gain Medium Risk Medium Gain
17 Techniques To Reduce The Amount Of Work I ve Always Been A Slacker But Now There s A Method To It!
Remind Me Why I m Doing This?? The Larger Your Company Is, The More Stakeholders Your Programme Has, The More Likely That You ll Get Bullied Into Doing Something That Makes No Sense The More People That Are Involved In Something That Makes No Sense, The Fewer People Will Query It. Re-Examine Every Project s Business Case In Detail Every Time Ensure That The Person Who Is Requesting Is The Person Paying! Even When Playing With Wooden Dollars Ensure This Is Tracked Cite CMMI! Remember Your Pigs & Chickens Security Upgrade Example Why Should I Do It? Prove The Risk. Risk To What, When Where. Likelyhood Etc. Mitigation Are Workarounds Are Cheaper! 18
Resetting Expectations Cut Big Projects Down To Size Separate Security & Infrastructure Upgrades Into Different Releases From Functionality. Ensure There Is A Business Case By Getting Corporate Security & Infrastructure To Fund It Not The Business. Split Major Projects Into Smaller Releases To Force The Business To Prioritise Further Than Their Original MoSCoWed Requirements. Use Gap Analysis When Defining Requirements Get Each Stakeholder To Clarify Why Their Requirement Is Different From That Already Supported & Whether Duplication Or Modification Is Required Track Cost Per Stakeholder Use ALM Systems To Give Each Stakeholder A Nominal Code. Make It Clear That Even If Funded Centrally The Cost Incurred By Each Stakeholder Is Reportable 19
Analyse Your Product In Detail 20
Alignment in Product Definition Enable Customer Participation Provide Vision Resolve Organizational Impediments & Risks Provide Resources Resolve Priority disputes Enterprise Backlog Executive Backlog Executive Steering Product Definition Team Chief Product Owner Chief BA Chief UX Tech Lead Deploy Lead PMO Rep POs Product Owner able to represent decisions made with Stakeholders Stakeholders voice is heard, differences resolved, vision clarified, priorities and value established Represent the Customer and Business needs Use Change Management Value Stream Product Backlog Business Stakeholder Product Owner Business Stakeholder Business Stakeholder Business Stakeholder Change Management Product Owner Business Stakeholder Business Stakeholder Business Stakeholder Product Owner Business Stakeholder Business Stakeholder Support POs Architect Business Analyst Development QA Deployment Deliver Value Partner w/business Sprint Backlog Sprint Teams Sprint Teams Sprint Teams Sprint Teams Sprint Teams Sprint Teams 21
Value Modelling Model Real World Cases Affected by Functionality High Mission Critical Partner Differentiating Market Differentiating Who Cares? Case Coverage Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Low Low High Scenario 3 Scenario 4 Scenario 5 Scenario 6 Scenario 7 Scenario 8 Scenario 9 Scenario 10 22
Analyse, De-Risk & Prioritise Work Queues 23
Slice & Re-Slice Slicing Up Your Projects Into Smaller Chunks Limits Risk & Forces The Business To Concentrate Their Requirements Carefully Small Timeboxes Cause The Business To Focus On Minimum Market Offering & Success Criteria 24
Revisit Technical Solutions Original Solution Scope 413,000 Proposal 285,000 Budget Agile Solution Implemented 17,000 Delivered 25
Squeezing The User Interface How Much UI Do You Want To Pay For? 26
The 17,000 Solution 27
28 Implement Tighter Control
Implement Joined Up Thinking & Traceability 29
Invest In Detailed Real-Time Reports 30
Continually Assess Performance 31
32 Finding New Revenue
Methods To Raise More Funds Find New Business Benefits For The Existing Projects Improved Business Case Over Time Through Reuse of Components & Process Find New Customers For The Existing Product Internally / Externally Apply The Existing Product To New Markets Change Your Product To Fit New Markets 33
Agile Financial Control Summary 34
www.agilitate.com www.scrumkitchen.com Thank You! Twitter.com/scrumchef 35