Tagged Posts: AgileApproachesForDeliveringBusinessValue
I’ve spent the last two days Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value, and feel I’ve learnt a lot. Here are my initial reflections on the conference.
Firstly, there are a lot of very smart people thinking about these issues – it was thoroughly enjoyable to have to take on so many ideas in such a period of time.
The second thing that stood out was that most of the people at the conference were involved with the development / supplier side of the IT equation. Hardly surprising, but it does mean that some of what was covered was of particular relevance for the “supply side”. However pretty much every topic had things which can be of use from the customer perspective.
Thirdly, a number of people are applying thought to the problems in getting the benefits of Agile in multi-party environments, and how to support the process with appropriate contracts.
It’s in everyone’s interest that there should be consensus on how to reliably deliver software projects, and how to assess the risk of such delivery (and I don’t mean CMMI) – if we can get to that, then there is more opportunity to deploy financial engineering (e.g. Graham Oake’s idea of completion bonds) to facilitate business improvements through software.
There are clear lessons about the importance of getting a common view of risk between project participants.
DSDM/Atern doesn’t seem to have much visibility yet outside the IT world, but looks worthy of further investigation.
Last but not least, Agile is not just for software (nice to see other people have spotted this to!).
Topics for Further Research and/or reflection
Agile Contracts, and the work of Cem Kaner
DSDM/Atern
How could we use a Acceptance-Test-Driven approach from the customer side?
I need to reflect on, document and develop the work we have been doing on using agile approaches for such things as business analysis / programme shaping etc.
Finally, thanks for thought-provoking conversations to Rachel Davies, Graham Oakes and Antony Marcano.
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
Acceptance Test Driven Development
David Peterson
Summary
- What happens if you put acceptance tests in the
driving seat?
- Fresh ideas about the agile development process
- Practical techniques to improve your project’s agility
- Emphasis on process and practice (non-technical)
Notes
Whilst working at EasyNet, David modified their normal XP iteration cycle to insert a phase where, for each story, acceptance test criteria were agreed and documented. Alongside this their testing harnesses were adapted to provide autoamted testing of acceptance tests wherever possible.
A key enabler was to separate out test case definition (which depends on the business requirement) from test scripting (which is dependent on, and coupled with, the system under test).
The technique adopted was to build test fixtures which interfaced between the (HTML) test cases and the system under test. This way the test cases can stay unchanged whilst the system changes. If the system changes in a way that breaks the test fixture that shows up as broken acceptance tests.
The tool is released as Concordion. Good write up on that site.
Update: See this post from Keith Braithwaite
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
DSDM Atern: The next step in agile!
Keith Richards, Keith Richards Consulting, on behalf of DSDM Consortium
Summary
DSDM Atern (login required) “The Agile Project Delivery Framework”
Latest iteration of DSDM – much more aimed at being a generic project management method rather than IT-specific.
Often used as a wrapper around Scrum and XP to scale them.
Philosophy / Principles / Process / People / Products / Practices
Presentation was a run through material that can be found on the website…
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
When XP Met Outsourcing
Angela Martin, Martin IT Consulting Ltd
Outsourcing is common for software development, and is the context for many projects using agile development processes. This paper presents two case studies concentrating on the customer role in projects using outsourcing and extreme programming (XP).
The studies follow an interpretive approach based on in-depth interviews, and suggest some tensions between some contractual arrangements in outsourcing, and the XP process.
In particular, one suggests XP worked well in the context of their particular outsourcing arrangements, and the other study suggests difficulty in aligning XP with a different set of outsourcing arrangements.
Notes
(to be) Published as a paper on MartinIT website
Method – two interpretative in-depth case studies. Multiple perspectives via semi-structured interviews. Validated data and interpretation with each interviewee.
Two Case studies
Case Study 1 (T&M)
KiwiCorp (customer), DevCorp (outsourcing/software house), BureauCorp(facilities management and infrastructure). 15 months, 11 people. Seen as a success.
Customer saw benefit from the XP process. DevCorp project manager recognised that on fixed price would have had to be harder on the client.
Lots of vendor issues because of differences between DevCorp and BureauCorp.
Case study 2
Project Pinta. Custom-build, fixed price. FalconCorp (US developer), RetailCorp(UK retailer), ManageCorp (big consulting organisation who hired FalconCorp to do the job). FalconCorp to take the cusotm build and sell as a project.
Everyone thought it was doomed… 6 month deadline. In 2 weeks ramped up to 60 people over four XP labs. Weekly iterations. So within a month knew it wouldn’t fly.
FalconCorp felt that as fixed price very little room to move, so moved more to waterfall… Stopped asking questions, to make sure they could just get signoff and the cheque. Kicked the customer rep (ManageCorp) out of the lab – seen as being a “spy”.
Is this because of the process, the contract, or Winner’s Curse? (over-bid)
Got to 6 month demo – and custoemr accepted it! (the demo didn’t show the broken bits…).
FalconCorp went into bug-fix mode and laid off 2/3 the staff. Then new management came in and found that actually the product was full of holes. Treated it as a throwaway prototype, and went into a fixed-price waterfal project to re-engineer as a saleable product.
Questions (and for Duncan too)
Q: How do you sell Agile to your client?
A: Don’t – until you are sure you can deliver in an agile way
Q: What are the client drivers for fixed price?
A: Need someone to blame “not the client’s problem”
Q: Which has pects of Agile do you keep/drop when customer insists on fixed price:
A: All of them (internally) as a delivery engine.
Q: Why does the industry encourage under-bidding?
A: (Keith) We have allowed purchasers of IT to think it is a fungible commodity so competition is on price. Look for shared-risk, shared-reward…
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
Can IT Projects be Insured?
Graham Oakes, Graham Oakes Ltd
Summary
In the movie industry, the people financing new productions can buy “Completion Bonds” – effectively insurance policies that repay their investment if the film isn’t completed on time and in line with the original proposal. Such bonds cost perhaps 2-6% of the total production budget. Could we do the same for IT projects?
(more…)
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
Fit for the Future: The future of Agile Acceptance Test Tools
Antony Marcano, testingReflections.com
- The role of acceptance test tools in agile teams
- Where have they come from; what are they; what is their future?
- Report on the vision created during the Agile Alliance Functional Test Tools Visioning Workshop, which included Ward Cunningham, Brian Marick, Jim Shore, Elisabeth Hendrickson and the presenter, Antony Marcano.
- Delegates will be encouraged to discuss these ideas and suggest some of their own.
(more…)
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
Examples, Exemplars, Requirements, Tests
Keith Braithwaite, Zuhlke (but speaking on behalf of SPA)
Summary
- Automated Functional Tests ensure quality and drive process change
- Test failures are more often due to misunderstood requirements than sloppy coding
- Treating tests as executable specifications can help with both
- Tests based on examples lead to an exploration of the problem space that discovers requirements and provides a foundation for trapping defects.
(more…)
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
Using Agile: the QA perspective
Chris Ambler – QA Director Electronic Arts
Not a developer, never have been, never will be.
Not a techie! But have worked in testing (of various sorts) for 28 years.
Focus is product, and quality.
What does quality really mean? How does it affect the business? How can we measure it?
(more…)
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
Scaling Scrum
Rachel Davies, Agile Experience Ltd.
Summary
Scrum is the simplest possible agile method so it’s easy to get started with a small team of software developers. What happens when you try to apply Scrum to large projects? This talk shares experiences of working with large projects with multiple scrum teams and distributed scrum teams. Come to this talk to explore how to scale Scrum without losing the essence.
(more…)
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
Leading Agile Teams
Dot Tudor, TCC
Summary
One school of thought is that good leaders make a big difference to the successful outcome of any initiative. On the other hand, some agilists want to eliminate leaders and go with situational leadership and self-organising teams. There is also a large contingent in the agile community with the view that the right approach is to change the style of leadership, not to eliminate leaders.
This interactive workshop will explore the workings of an agile team and attempt to identify the issues and approaches to leadership styles that support an agile environment. This will be fun, informative – and there may even be prizes!
Notes
Workshop format…
Will have to think about how to transcribe this!
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
Agile – Why Should Your Business Care?
Bill Birnie, Senior Manager, IS Development Solutions, Standard Life Employee Services Limited, Ollie LaFontan, Exoftware
Summary
- What does my business want from Agile ?
- Creating an Agile culture and the importance of measures
- Consolidating gains and driving more change.
Standard Life’s award-winning use of Agile techniques is helping it achieve remarkable levels of productivity from its application development spend, and is supporting the positioning of technology provision at the heart of its business proposition.
This session will cover the importance of linking your Agile enablement strategy to the needs of your business, and the challenges created by trying to change processes and beliefs that have been in place for many years.
(more…)
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
National Packaging Waste Database – a DSDM Case Study
Steve Watkins, Head of IT Portfolio Office, Environment Agency and Jeremy Renwick, Kubernetes Ltd
Summary
- Delivering the National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD) on time and to budget
- Facilitating a very diverse stakeholder community drawn from industry and the 4 regulators
- Managing the culture shock of imposing agile on a waterfall community
- Managing an agile project with a geographically distributed team
- Learning the lessons
(more…)
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
Agile Analysis: A Proposition Assessment Case Study
Luke Barrett, Senior Business Analyst, Thoughtworks
Summary
While the benefits of taking an Agile approach to the heart of the software development cycle are becoming increasingly recognised, this people-centric, communication-oriented, test-driven way of working is also powerful in helping teams and organisations early in the evolution of a idea or proposition.
In this case study we look at applying an Agile way of working to the analysis of a new business idea at its inception – this includes the creation and iteration of key deliverables (financial model, project roadmap, core processes and usage scenarios) to allow a go / no-go decision.
Note
What is role of business analyst in an agile organisation?
Agile values of simplicity, openness, communication, courage…
Apply agile software approach to evaluating business propositions.
Project – a new business idea which the owner wants to get funding for…
New business idea – challenge to validate within limited time and funds. e.g. what could be done in a week?
Objective – Prepare a Pitch, based on a clearer definition of the proposition, e.g.: financial model, key processes and goals, capacity model, customer scenarios, development roadmap for the business.
Small team – two consultants plus client.
1 week – each day based on two Action-Reflection cycles – 2 hr workshop, consolidate, 2 hr workshop, consolidation.
Keep it self-documenting
Models: traditionally use lots words of words to drive out ambiguity – but words are slippery! Important to facilitate a feedback-driven iteration towards consensus of the stakeholders. Use lots of visual models.
- Started with finances – costs, revenues… A very quick ballpark analysis. Over the 5 days about 1.5 days on this.
- Processes, roles and goals – the core of what the business does. Imagine a “day in the life”.
- Capacity model – what resources needed to deliver the service?
- Service development roadmap – how does the business grow?
- Customer scenarios – what will it be like for a customer to use the service? Lots of Post-Its and pictures!
Put client in position to pitch to prospective investors and customers with supporting information, and brought to life with the scenarios.
The output had a positive reception!
Co-location of the team was vital – and if you aren’t, you can’t have a virtual beer together! (relationships vital).
Importance of dedicated time, dedicated effort / resources. “the heartbeat of feedback”
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
The Ten Golden Rules for Successful Agile Projects
Keith Richards, Keith Richards Consulting
Summary
- Agile approaches to projects are maturing and becoming mainstream, yet some are more successful than others
- This presentation describes the ten golden rules that will increase the chances of success, and make the difference between an “OK” project and an “excellent” project.
- The golden rules also highlight what NOT to do.
Speaker
Keith Richards – process/method consultant, specialising in Agile projects. Author of “Agile Project Management” (TSO). Led team for DSDM Atern.
The Golden Rules
No survey – just first hand experience…
- Define the project objective in less than 10 words
- Build a team with those who say “can”
- Go slow early to go fast later
- Look backwards to go forwards
- Change is great!
- To be understood, seek first to understand
- Collect actuals – “oxygen” for your project
- Use fat communication channels
- Work hard at controlling what you can’t control
- One more day? NO! We’ll catch up NO!
If you can’t understand the rationale for doing a project you shouldn’t be doing it! Expect to spend half a day writing the <10 words.
Good people above good process – in fact good people more important than that they have the skills. Test: ask “Can I ask a favour?”
How much design up front (DUF) is enough? Answer: Enough! But try and avoid grabbing early at solutions. Test: “Is it safe to move on?”
ALWAYS have project reviews! Kaizen is vital.
Embrace change… How do you feel when the customer changes their mind? Should be happy! Change to get a closer fit to the business need (depth change) is good – change in breadth might be a problem… (signals possible issue with project objective)
Facilitation and influencing skills are core competencies for Agile projects – especially for the project manager. Try the 10 second silence when getting a progress update!
Measuring actuals – start now, start simple, start using to calibrate your estimates…
Communication – go visual, use workshops, never write when you can talk…
Continuously manage external risks – be “a bit of a worrier” – actively manage your risk log!
Time focus is your greatest weapon. Force the issue – timeboxes, not milestones. If you are going to fail, fail early. Never extend deadlines.
I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value
The stated goals are to provide:
- a forum for the exchange of information regarding all agile development technologies;
- an opportunity to hear case studies from a variety of sectors
- [an opportunity] to find out new viewpoints and developments and learn from the experiences of others
Sessions:
Day 1
Day 2
Update – my initial learning reflections on the conference.
I’m planning to attend Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value next week.
It looks like an interesting set of sessions, and although I doubt I’ll be liveblogging, I aim to post some notes here as soon afterwards as I can.
I’m particularly interested in two of the talks on the second day:
“A Square Peg in a Round Hole: Agile and fixed-price contracts” by Duncan Pierce;
“When XP Met Outsourcing” by Angela Martin.
In my current environment almost all our systems development is carried out by suppliers in various contractual models, and I’ve hit some frustrations in getting acceptance of Agile methods. I’m keen to learn how others may have constructed a “win-win” in this sort of situation.
