GAJAH ANNUAL REPORT 2015 | 1

Agile Primer – a 360

Degree Introduction

Today’s presenter: Chris Knotts –

ASPE Technology Innovation

Curriculum Director

In partnership with

FAST LANE 2015 | 2

•What is our Challenge

•What is Expected Now

•Agile Basics

•Agile Benefits, investment / revenue perspective

•Agile Mindset, moving away from “best practices”

•Agile Practices

•Value and Overview

•Risks

Today we’ll discuss:

FAST LANE 2015 | 3

Source: DevOps Days, 2014

Defining our

challenge

• Our development teams are building something that doesn’t exist.

• The customer is attempting to describe what they imagine this non-

existent product should be.

• Our developers then try to imagine what the customer is describing

and the build the product they believe they heard the customer

describe.

• And finally, the first opportunity anyone has to truly see if the product

built is one that the customer needs and wants is after development

is complete.

FAST LANE 2015 | 4

Plan-driven

project behavior

Successfully developing software is

more than simply

creating a plan and then

attempting to follow it.

Old methodologies

treated software development

like traversing the country on a train.

Once the tracks were laid (plans), it was as

simple as following them to the prescribed destination.

FAST LANE 2015 | 5

New project

dynamics New Project Law:

Your Project

Schedule: Scope: Budget:‣ Project delivered within the

timeframe originally identified

‣ No date slips

‣ Every milestone achieved

‣ Everything originally requested is delivered

‣ Everything delivered works perfectly as the customer requested, no bugs

‣ Did not spend a single cent more than originally estimated to spend

‣ Did not need any additional resources, hardware, etc. throughout entire project

=/

+ + =/

FAST LANE 2015 | 6

Defining our

challenge

FAST LANE 2015 | 7

Agile Basics

Historically…

We have learned that the traditional waterfall

methodology fits well for complicated,

sequential projects based on actual material

and physical inputs.

Waterfall is a plan-driven method of developing software.

FAST LANE 2015 | 8

Agile Basics

Software development can be complicated but is also

complex…

Agile is an approach tailored for the complexity of most software development which requires an

empirical process to succeed.

Agile is an adaptive method of developing software.

FAST LANE 2015 | 9

Agile BasicsImportant Observation

VS.Plan-driven Development Adaptive Development

FAST LANE 2015 | 10

Agile Basics What is Agile Software Development?

FAST LANE 2015 | 11

Agile Basics Agile comes in different “flavors”

FAST LANE 2015 | 12

Scrum

FAST LANE 2015 | 13

Agile Basics

Agile/Iterative can be more successful…

Standish Group, Chaos Manifesto, 2012

FAST LANE 2015 | 14

Agile Basics

Benefits of an Agile Approach to Managing Projects

Unisys – IT Leadership in the Age of the Continuous Roll Out

FAST LANE 2015 | 15

Agile Basics

Benefits of an Agile Approach to Managing Projects

Unisys – IT Leadership in the Age of the Continuous Roll Out

FAST LANE 2015 | 16

Agile Basics Frequent Delivery & Demonstration

Stevens, Dennis – Deciding What to Build

What is meant by “Trimming the Tail”?

ValueKnowledge Growing (risk reduction)

Cost Value

Trim the tail

$$

$

FAST LANE 2015 | 17

Agile

MindsetAgile Mindset

Agile is really a mindset… a different way to think about the work.

DSDM.org, 1994

FAST LANE 2015 | 18

Agile BasicsAgile Manifesto

Agilemanifesto.org, 2001

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.

FAST LANE 2015 | 19

Agile Basics The Agile Path: Shu Ha Ri

• Learn

• Detach

• Transcend

“Shu Ha Ri in classical interpretation is a linearsequence which leads the student with minimaldeviations down a path of learning. The studentprogresses from imitation, to reasoning tocreating. When applied to the instructor-lessstudent, Shu Ha Ri becomes a four stage cycle ofimitate, reason, create, and test, cycling back toimitation again.”

FAST LANE 2015 | 20

Agile Basics Traditional Models Agile Model

Punish Problems Problems are Treasures

Best Practices Shu-Ha-Ri (Continuous Improvement)

BDUF (Big Definition Up Front) JEDI (Just Enough Definition Initially)

Silo’s and Specialization Blur the lines – We’re all team members

Command and Control Self-organizing teams, Servant Leadership - Empowerment

Work the Plan The Plan will Evolve

Individual Performance Team Performance

Check Quality Out Build Quality In

Death March is a Tool Maintain a Constant Pace

Shoot for the stars and hit the moon Only commit to a realistic amount of work

PM is One-Throat-to-Choke Team Accountability

A Project Manager Assigns the Work Team Volunteers for the Work

Choose the familiar way to communicate Choose the most effective and efficient way to communicate

Focus on getting tasks done Team has full ownership of the Goal

Sequential Development Iterative and Incremental

Some Mental Model “adjustments” associated with Agile

FAST LANE 2015 | 21

Agile Basics

Five Levels of Agile Planning

Where is value created – at the point of planning or the point of delivery?

FAST LANE 2015 | 22

Agile Basics Five Levels of Agile Planning

Strategic

Tactical

H. Smits, 2006

FAST LANE 2015 | 23

Agile Basics

Release 1 Release 2 Release 3 Release 4

Inventory

Database

Payment

Systems

Security

Fulfillment

Systems

Product Tracking Customer Loyalty

Advertising

Product Roadmap

Product Vision1

2

3

4

5

Agile Overview – A Recap

FAST LANE 2015 | 24

Agile Basics The Mechanics of Scrum

Product

Backlog

2-4 Weeks

Daily

Sprint

Backlog Product

Increment

Product Vision /

Roadmap

Product

Release

Retrospective

Process Overview

FAST LANE 2015 | 25

Agile Basics Demos

• Showcase working software

• Welcome feedback• Great forum for gathering new user stories (requirements)

• Not a presentation format

FAST LANE 2015 | 26

Agile Basics Retrospective

• Most powerful tool available to an Agile team

• Must be a safe environment

• Inspect and adapt forum for the team

• What worked well?

• What did not work well?

• What will we improve?

FAST LANE 2015 | 27

Agile Basics Forming the Agile Team

The Customer Unit

• Customer

• Product Manager

• Marketing

• Executives

• Stakeholders

• More…

The Development Unit

• Developer

• Business Analyst

• QA

• Project Manager (Scrum Master)

• Creative

• Tech Writer

• More…

What How

FAST LANE 2015 | 28

Agile Basics Self-Directed/Self-Organized Teams

FAST LANE 2015 | 29

Agile Basics Estimating

• If we know that estimates drive expectations, what do we do with our estimates?

• This leads to “estimate bloat”in highly dependent, traditional project plans

Or we INFLATE them!

We pad our

ESTIMATES

FAST LANE 2015 | 30

Agile Basics

FAST LANE 2015 | 31

Agile Basics Relative Estimating

• Not time based(days, hours, weeks...)

• Size

• Complexity

• Skills

• Triangulate with other known factors

FAST LANE 2015 | 32

Agile Basics Story Points

• “Unitless” measure of…

• Size

• Complexity

• We know that 8 is four times the size of 2

• Based on Fibonacci’s sequence

8

2

FAST LANE 2015 | 33

Agile Basics User Stories

•Agile term for a requirement

•Brief statement of a need or value

•Resides on a prioritized list called the Product Backlog

•Sized in Story Points (relative unit of size)

•Progressively elaborated Just-In-Time before being

implemented.

FAST LANE 2015 | 34

Agile Basics Agile Overview: a Recap

Customer Team Development Team

TIM

ECreate Product Vision

Create Product Roadmap

Write User Stories

Size User Stories

Prioritize Product Backlog

Identify Baseline Velocity

Create Release Plan

FAST LANE 2015 | 35

Agile Basics Benefits of an Agile Approach to Managing Projects

In the project space, constant adjustment

and refinement are necessary.

Agile Management provides unique

benefits to teams, and stakeholders in

learning how to be adaptive to what they

discover as they execute their projects

FAST LANE 2015 | 36

Agile Basics Agile Risk Points

1. Workers don’t have the skills to self-organize

2. No change management plan in place, specifically around communicating the

whys and hows

3. Fast outputs of software or features overwhelm, do not get deployed quickly, or

cause change management or breakage issues (you need DevOps!)

4. Weak business unit engagement leading to no Product owner

5. Product Owner or ScrumMaster designate has no authority or wrong ratio of

authority

6. Iteration cycles pushing way past the maximum 4 week length

7. Teams fixates on perfecting each build, get mired in mud of rework

8. Team never properly learns story point estimating

9. Team doesn’t learn how to change from role to work based planning

FAST LANE 2015 | 37

• DevOps Implementation Boot Camp (3 days)

• Hands-On Agile Engineering (3 days)

• Continuous Integration Workshop (3 days)

• Continuous Delivery Workshop (3 days)

• Agile-Driven DevOps (2 days)

• Agile Coaching Workshop (3 days)

• Test Automation Boot Camp (3 days)

• Docker Containerization Boot Camp (3 days)

• Ansible Configuration Management Boot Camp (2 days)

• Agile Boot Camp (3 days)

• Full specialty curriculum of Agile training and coaching

Learning solutions for Agile, DevOps, and

Modernized Technology & Software ManagementFrom Fast Lane & ASPE Training

GAJAH ANNUAL REPORT 2015 | 38

THANK YOU

In partnership with