Agile Cafe Boulder - Panelist and keynote slides

Executive Panel

Bill Holst, President & Principal Consulting Software Engineer at Prescient Software Engineering and

Systems Analyst at Colorado Springs Utilities

Adam Woods, Director of Product Development at StoneRiver, Inc.

A Project Methodology Comparison

Waterfall vs. Agile at Colorado Springs Utilities

Presented by Bill Holst President and Principal Software Engineer

Prescient Software Engineering, Inc.

(c) Prescient Software Engineering, All Rights Reserved

Background to Comparison

• Two major phases to Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) Energy Distribution Design – First Phase – Electric Distribution Design – Waterfall

and Fixed Price– Second phase - Gas Distribution Design - Agile - Time

and Materials – CSU assumed the project risk

• Opportunity for comparison of waterfall and Agile

• Equal in scope and technology• Two week session for requirements definition


Why change horses in the middle of a stream? (because you can!)

• Phase I – Waterfall was successful but-– Test cases developed early but many were

wrong– long lag time from requirements to testing– Mismatch of code to logic – Project churn– Disparate tool set

• Key players met to evaluate how we could do things better – Agile approach


Phase II – The Agile Adventure

• Converted Autodesk contract to T&M• Hand picked our Agile team• Engaged Rally for training and coaching• Follow-training at the end of iteration 1• Collaboration tools

– Rally software– Nefsis Conferencing and HD video cameras– Livemeeting and Webex– Two conference call lines– Google Docs for all project documentation – Special storage closet for our “stuff”


The Results

• Project went well through about 5 or 6 iterations

• And then…


We hit the wall!


The Results – the Wall!

• Delivered our first release for review – it was very successful but…

• Logic was confusing, test cases, code and logic did not match

• 7th Iteration stopped mid-stream


Project Velocity – this is not your textbook chart!

.


Reforming the Project• Used an entire iteration to re-define logic based on data

• Logic dropped by a factor of almost 4 in complexity

• Next iteration, rewrote all code and test cases

• On a roll! Being Agile made this possible

• Another iteration – reduced logic complexity again

• We did it again – code rewrite, threw ½ our test cases away! The team had transformed itself into Agile evangelists!


Where We Stand Today• First production release next week – month and a half early

• Costs almost 30% under budget

• 500 defects less than the electric phase

• Less code! Solution data driven, changes made without code changes

• Better test case coverage• Mid-course change avoided change order “Hell” and potential “Shelfware”

• Huge process improvement on material and labor ordering

• Users love the software – even I can design a gas network!


Conclusions – What’s Next• Solution has an amazing usability factor – it works the way it should from

the user perspective (this is one of the ‘ilities’ that is hard to measure but you know when you have it!)

• High Visibility within CSU – huge interest in Agile– Rally has provided scrum training for 18 folks– Rally has provided Agile training for an infrastructure team which is kicking off an

new upgrade project• Probably redesign of the Electric Solution

• Minimal project management expense from Autodesk (a couple hours of administrative cost)

• Amazing Project Metrics! – they tell a great management story– 69% fewer defects– 30% lower project cost (this is the fixed-price fudge factor)– 50% less code– 4x reduction in logic complexity– 20% less test cases, but better test coverage

Summary

• Not your typical government project– Early delivery– Under budget– User ‘love-affair’ with software– “Let’s do it again!”

• Team commitment to success – great management support

• One of my most successful projects!

15Confidential and Proprietary

Proprietary 2010 StoneRiver, Inc.

StoneRiver Agile AdoptionStoneRiver Agile Adoption

Adam Woods

Director of Product Development


Main Challenges Before Agile AdoptionMain Challenges Before Agile Adoption

High and increasing time to implement

Getting stuck at 90% complete for long periods of time

Quality assurance disconnected from development

Lack of automation

High levels of defects

Project success highly dependant on skill of project manager

Project risks / warnings signaling too late to be addressed

Lack of feedback mechanisms for improvement


Early Challenges / ExperiencesEarly Challenges / Experiences

Initially ramped up architecture / platform teams as Agile pilot

Attempted to run Agile teams with existing offshore vendor without re-organizing fundamental team structure or relationships

Lack of buy-in and understanding of Agile principles from executives, project leadership and delivery teams

Distance between delivery teams and product owners

No acceptance, or agreement to do acceptance testing, Agile seen as a development only practice


Middle Maturity Challenges / ExperiencesMiddle Maturity Challenges / Experiences

Structured delivery teams in a blended model of offshore and employees

Greater understanding of vertical slicing by teams and product owners

Delivery teams adopting and owning point sizing

Testing and defect resolution occurring within the sprint

Adjusting testing model to ensure business value vs. focusing on individual component

Increased collaboration between teams and product owners, still no acceptance


Advanced Maturity Challenges / ExperiencesAdvanced Maturity Challenges / Experiences

Increased engagement by product owners

High rates of acceptance

Better consistency of velocity from sprint to sprint

Full automation as a requirement in teams’ definition of done

Steadily declining defect backlog

Increased understanding of executive leadership in Agile principles


Some Specific SuggestionsSome Specific Suggestions

Major organization change takes time, so be patient and persistent

Take the initiative to champion the improvements that you have made even in the face of skepticism, then figure out an improvement to address the skepticism

Sometimes outside training and consulting can present the message in a new and different way that gets heard

If what you are doing is not working, or is showing signs of deteriorating consider going back to the very basic principles


Summary of ExperienceSummary of Experience

Currently, we are 31 sprints into our Agile adoption have, 15 Agile teams working very closely together, across 3 continents

We are still in a position to keep growing the number of teams and refining our practice

Knowing what I know now would I still adopt an Agile methodology for our development organization?


Want More InformationWant More Information

Adam Woods

● 303.729.7508

● [email protected]

● http://www.linkedin.com/pub/adam-woods/6/1ba/236

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/adam-woods/6/1ba/236


Jean TabakaCertified Scrum Trainer and Agile Fellow

12 Agile Adoption Success Modes

12 Agile Adoption Success Patterns

Jean Tabaka, Rally

Softwarewww.rallydev.com

Agile is not the problem

Success

Prepare to change

WORLDyour

your group

your organization

your company

your customers

Don’t abandon Agile

Knowledge-creating company

Expansio

n not

Scarcity

Custom

er Value

3 categories of patterns

“Getting started” patterns

“In it” patterns

“Sustainability”

patterns

Each pattern has practices

“Getting started” patterns

A clear and compelling goal

#1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/inkybob/122476158


Be clear about the “Why Agile?”


Crisis or culture of improvement

Examples from some real customers:

• Earlier business value via faster time-to-market

• Transparency, visibility, predictability

• Improve employee engagement and teamwork


Scarcity vs. Expansion

Vision

A high levelAgile plan has VISION

Engaged executive sponsorship

#2

Fully committed to success

Israel Gat – Cutter Consortium

Israel Gat – “I want us all to succeed. I will do everything I can for you. Please help me help you.”

Social contract with organization

What’s in it for me? (WIIFM)

“We will learn and all of us will have better skills as software professionals.”

Planning framework for rollout

#3

Create a rollout plan

How will we know if we are successful?

High-Level Business Goals[Co-create clear goals at an overall level, and also at lower

levels as appropriate.]

1.2.3.

Success Metrics

Goal Metric How Reported

63

Example of Agile Rollout for 500

Use 5 levels of planning

Vision

Roadmap

Release

Iteration

Daily

High level plan to a daily plan

Rank organizational backlog

Backlog Planned In Progress Complete

Rollout Coach helps hire internal coach

ARP with leadership to plan next waves

Add Rally-developed apps

IATs for new teams

Release Planning after 3d iteration

On-site CSM

On-site CSPO

T&E consulting

Engage your plan with guidance

#4

Find bright spots

Bring in experienced mentors

Books are not enough. We need to find others and work with them.

Train everyone in their roles

The team knows what to do

AGILEORGANIZATION

Quarterly Business Cycle (Cross Organizations)

Product Cycles (Cross Departments)

Team Cycles

Start pilot teams based on rollout plan

Learn and mature before you scale

“In it” patterns

Create strong leadership context

#5

Servant leadership

Not command and control

Support collaboration

Form support councils not status reporting

Coordinate and support teams

Multi-Team Program

Team-of-Teams Program Steering

Portfolio Mgt & Governance

Architecture Council

Release Mgt

Create the right team context

#6

Team ownership

Team commitment

Team success and growth not heroes

Embrace Agile team habits

#7

Adopt Agile ceremonies

Incremental Delivery of Customer ValueProductBacklog

ReleaseBacklog

Iterations1-4 Weeks

DailyMeetings

ProductIncrement

Releases1-4 Months

95

• Release planning• Iteration

planning• Daily planning• Demo and

Retrospetive• Product council

Build feature by feature

GUIGUI

Business LogicBusiness Logic

DatabaseDatabase

SLICESVERTICAL

Story 1Story 2

Use fast feedback loops

Inform next iteration through feedback from this iteration

Iterations1-4 Weeks

DailyMeetings

Releases1-4 Months

Continuous, fast feedback through the Agile ceremonies

Vision

Roadmap

Release

Iteration

Daily

Inform the Vision from the daily plan

Pull testing forward

STORYONE

Task Estimate Owner

Code the UI 6 Brenda

Code the middle tier

8 Yi

Create and automate tests

4 Alan

Invest in a robust infrastructure

Ensure code is always releasable

Measure the right things

#8

Definition of Done

Sample Definition of Done

Readiness of the product backlog

Readiness of the product increments

“Watch the work product not the worker”-- Don Reinertsen

Flow of value

FLOW of VALUE

Customer’s Pull ValueCustomer’s Pull Value

Agile

Create a culture of continuous learning

#9

Retrospect with teams regularly

Retrospect the organization regularly

Create knowledge flow up and down

Create knowledge across the organization

“Sustainability”

patterns

Prepare to scale

#10

Architect for change

Support organizational growth

Employ passionate change agents

Be patient and repeat patterns

#11

It takes time!

AGILEAlignment

Corporate Level

Departmental LevelTeam Level

Personal Level

Revisit your compelling goal

Earlier business value via faster time-to-market?

Transparency, visibility, predictability?

Improve employee engagement and teamwork?

Revisit the strength of your sponsorship

Israel Gat – Cutter Consortium

Israel Gat – “I want us all to succeed. I will do everything I can for you. Please help me help you.”

Continually improve your organizational backlog

Backlog Planned In Progress Complete

Rollout Coach helps hire internal coach

ARP with leadership to plan next waves

Add Rally-developed apps

IATs for new teams

Release Planning after 3d iteration

On-site CSM

On-site CSPO

T&E consulting

Apply these patterns to your context!

#12

Prepare to inspect and adapt!

Wrap up our story

Agile is not the problem

Success

Start where you are

A clear and compelling goal

#1


Apply these patterns to your context!

#12

Knowledge-creating company

Expansio

n not

Scarcity

Custom

er Value

A story of Agile success

Prepare to change

WORLDyour

12 Success Patterns for Agile Adoption

Jean Tabaka, Rally

Softwarewww.rallydev.com

Agile Cafe Boulder - Panelist and keynote slides

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