Agile's Dirty Secret

Agile’s Dirty SecretTim GiffordLean TECHniques@TimGifford

http://www.flickr.com/photos/93413187@N06/8492516706/

Lean TECHniques

Agile/Lean/XP Coaching

Product Strategy

Defect Free Software Delivery

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What’s the secret?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestraft/

Remember when...agile was a mindset not a process?

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehension documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

SAFe Planning

PSI – 8 weeks

Sprint Sprint Sprint Sprint

Requ

irem

ents

Des

ign

Dev

elop

Test

PSI Demo

Planning: Artifacts (or WBS)

• Epics•MMF–Features»User Stories•Acceptance Criteria• Examples/GWT

Planning: List or Map

List

Profiles

Discounts

Map

Profiles

• A• B• C

Discounts

• A• B• C

Incremental and Iterative

Incremental

Iterative

Lessons Learned

• Weinberg's - Law of Raspberry Jam

• 2nd Team Problem

• Incremental & Iterative

• Release Planning

Story: Automated Testing Tragedy

http://wlppr.com/2010/10/10/robot-attack

Testing Boundaries

10

10

101000

10

10

10

100

100 ~1100

10

101

~230

Testing External Systems

Current System External Systems

Lessons Learned

• Test Boundaries

• Knowledge doesn’t change behavior

• Large Problems need Leadership & Courage– Self Organizing not Self Managed

Story: Large Teams

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Large Teams – How did we get here?

• Initially – 7 +/- 2• More people => fewer questions => less

learning• More meetings/communication• Interpersonal issues on a team• Diluted Responsibility

Small Feature Teams

• Roll out with constraints– Size– Geography– Co-location– Duration– Separate meetings– Full Stack

Small Feature Teams – Structure

PO

Feature Team

Feature Team

Feature Team

QAMarketing

Why and When What and How

Large Teams - Lessons Learned

• Inverse relationship with size– Responsibility– Engagement

• No Sprint “Defects”

• Support emerging leadership

• 100% Time

Story: Agile Confidence

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reidmix/

Done, Done, Done?

Production

Accepted

In Process

Backlog

Agile Confidence - Lessons Learned

• Delivery requires constraints• Responding to Change over Having a Plan– Perfection is the enemy of “good enough”

Story: Drowning in Defects

Value Stream Map

CS submits defect

Devs “triage” defect

Devs fix defect

Release to production

10 minutes

1-2 hours

1-2 days

2 hours

1-3 days

30-120 days

2-30 days

2.5 days

33-153 days

Efficiency: 1.6% - 7.5%

Prioritization

Priority Severity Customer Characterization

High High Angry

High Low Angry

Low High Angry

Medium High Angry

Variability == Angry Customers

• Lies!• Angry Customers call CEOs• CEO prioritizes defects above all else• Repeat

• Defect age from 2 hours to 2 years

FIFO

Defects – Lessons Learned

• Prioritization can be waste• Capacity needs to align with demand• Leadership doesn’t come from authority

CelebrityAgilist.com/agileday

Tim Gifford@timgifford

tgifford@leantechniques.co

Thank you