Agile solution delivery - · PDF fileAgile solution delivery ... • Never ending cyclical...

Collaborative Consulting Ltd tel: 0560 2266 375 email: [email protected] www: collaborativeuk.com

Agile solution delivery

Delight your business,increase your job satisfaction &

maximise your potential


Overview

• Delight your business– Fit-for-purpose solutions delivered on time – every time– Aligned to changing business priorities– Faster ROI– Removes silos & increases efficiency– Maximises potential of existing resources– Increases innovation

• Increase your job satisfaction and recognition of your value– Involvement throughout– Empowered teams– Close collaboration

• Maximise your potential and continual development– Develop technical skills– Strong interactive communication develops soft skills– Increased business domain knowledge & value


Overview

• Delight your business

• Increase your job satisfaction and recognition of your value

• Maximise your potential and continual development

• Reviewing a real story we will explore:

– Why to consider an agile approach?

– An outline of how it works

– Dispelling the concerns about agile

– Explore the benefits


Software Development Co.

• 30 years in business

• Market leading position

• Competitive market

• Significant investment in new software products

• Diversification to address new markets

• 100+ people directly involved in product development

• Pressure to deliver had put significant stress on staff

• More with less

• Products faster to market

• Improve quality

• Faster ROI to build confidence in new product development

• Survive – need to innovate

– Responsive to maximise opportunities

– Proactive

– Drive competitive advantage

Organisation Business Requirements


Challenges with existing delivery process

Close

Deploy

UAT

Test

Build

Design

Requirements

Initiation

ExecutePrepare

BUSINESS

TECHNICAL

Rework


We are not alone

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Per

cen

tag

e (%

)

Failed Challenged Succeeded

IT Enabled Business Change Project Performance (9,236 projects)

Source: The Standish Group –Worldwide project performance survey results 2004

01020

30405060

Per

cen

tag

e (%

)

Failed Challenged Succeeded

UK Government IT Enabled Business Change Project Performance (409

projects)

Source: Office of Government Commerce Gateway Reviews April 2004-June 2006

“If there ever was a silver bullet to kill the demons of project failure it is an iterative and agile process.”Source: The Standish Group, Chaos Rising 2005

BCS Management Forum Strategic Panel:

Top issues in IT management – Survey 2009• 325 - 71% large organisations• 516 issues & topics refined & prioritised• #1 “Aligning IT with business”


Agile framework recommendation

• DSDM facts– Proven agile framework evolved since 1995, based on industry best practice

• Track record of success - 1000’s of successful projects

• Latest version of DSDM - Atern - published in 2007

– Over 30,000 people trained

– Certification programme for staff, based on mix of theory and experience

• Comprehensive best practice guidance - still agile, but has substance

• Business benefits focused

• Covers complete lifecycle

• Scalable

• Inclusive - clear Roles & Responsibilities for all

• Focused on early delivery of business benefits through fit-for-purpose

solutions

• Integrates with other approaches such as Prince2 & XP


DSDM Productivity

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Productivity

94/95 95/96 96/97 97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01

Year

TRAD

DSDM

280%

173%

303%

97%

80%

333%

150%

Figures on bars show percentage improvement of DSDM over Traditional

Productivity

Source: Study Commissioned by Xansa: 7 Year Longitudinal study


Delivery Time

Average project team size

5

11

Average time to delivery(in months)

4-6

18-24

Using traditional approaches

Using Atern

% of completed projectsrated good to excellent

77%87%

Source: British Airways IM Department, Newcastle


Concerns about an Agile approach

• Never ending cyclical process

• No control

• Poor quality solutions

• No documentation

• Solution maintenance nightmare

• Very little design (mostly on the fly!)

• Need extrovert team members

• Developer / Techie driven


What is DSDM Atern?


DSDM Atern - Concepts

• User involvement ensures right business solution

• Requirements evolve but timescale is fixed

• Early delivery enables early pay-back

• Implement the 80/20 rule

• Nothing is built perfectly first time


DSDM Atern - Concepts


DSDM Atern - Components


1. Focus on the business need

2. Deliver on time

3. Collaborate

4. Never compromise on quality

DSDM Atern - Principles


5. Build incrementally from firm foundations

6. Develop iteratively

7. Communicate continuously and clearly

8. Demonstrate control

DSDM Atern - Principles


Implementing the pilot agile project


DSDM Atern – Project Roles


DSDM Atern Process – The Lifecycle


DSDM Atern - Practices

• Iterative Development

• MoSCoW Prioritisation

• Timeboxing

• Facilitated workshops

• Modelling

DSDM defines 5 core techniques . . .


Iterative Development

• Allows evolution from high level concepts to delivered product

• Three perspectives– Functional

– Usability

– Non functional

• Development cycles for Exploration and Engineering


MoSCoW Prioritisation

• Must Have – Requirements fundamental to solution

– Defines Minimum Usable Subset – basic working solution

• Should Have – Requirements important to system

– Measured in terms of value or impact

• Could Have– Can do without in the short term

• Won’t have this time– Will wait till later


Timeboxing

• Achieves defined objectives by a fixed deadline

• Leverages MoSCoW

• Maintains focus on on-time delivery – every time

• Manages dependencies within a project

• Enables regular assessment of real progress

• Prevents scope creep


Building business confidence

Delivery Increments

1 2 n . . .3

I CR I CR I CRI CRI CRI CRI CR

Timeboxes(approximately 2 to 6 weeks)


Facilitated Workshops

Used throughout DSDM Atern to achieve . . .

• Speed– Decisions made in days, not months

• Ownership– All stakeholders present

• Productivity– Ideas born and grown quickly

• Overall perspective– Wider involvement of participants possible

• Consensus – Agreement and acceptance from empowered stakeholders

• Quality decision making– All parties hearing the same information


Modelling

• Powerful

• Improves communication through shared visualisation

• Models deployed according to project needs

• Atern advocates standard industry techniques…

– Selected to your organisation’s requirements

– Enough to satisfy the purpose – no more


DSDM Atern - Products

• Defined set of products for each lifecycle stage

– The system itself (evolving through iterative development)

– Planning and management products

– Technical products

– Quality and review products

– Support products

– Defined quality criteria for all products

• Too many products to cover in this short briefing


Delivering quality

• Solution quality

– Customer satisfaction

– Addressed business needs

– Achieved standards set (performance)

– Support documentation delivered

– Maintainability acceptable

– Focus on delivering fit-for-purpose solution

• Process quality

– Project followed accepted best practices

– Solution met standards expected (technical & support)

– Project remained under effective governance


•DSDM Atern techniques in testing

– Facilitated workshops

– Iterative development

– Timeboxing

– MoSCoW

– Modelling

Delivering quality

•Testing concepts in DSDM Atern

– Fail fast

– Collaborative testing

– Repeatable testing

– End-to-end experience

– Independent testing

– Prioritised testing

– Test-driven development

– Risk-based testing

Auto


Initial Agile concerns addressed


� Never ending cyclical process

� No control

� Poor quality solutions

� No documentation

� Solution maintenance nightmare

� Very little design (on the fly!)

� Need extrovert team members

� Developer / Techie driven

Initial Agile concerns addressed

� Defined plans & outputs

� Detail controls throughout

� High quality inherent

� Appropriate documentation

� Maintenance requirements defined up front & built in

� Planned & collaborative design

� Supportive teamwork

� Not developer led – a project team collaborative effort

Initial concerns about Agile Addressed by DSDM Atern


Case study - the result

• Significantly improved cross-functional working relationship

• Increased motivation, commitment, innovation & value recognition

• Higher quality levels

– Zero errors before delivery & zero errors on integration with overall software product

– Business acceptance at each small delivery

• Faster deliveries (2/3rds reduction in delivery time)

• Faster return on investment & responding to opportunities

• Delighted business & IT functions

• Agile practices rolled out as standard project approach

• Not all projects will be full Atern but . . .

– You can use SOME of Atern ALL of the time

– You can use ALL of Atern SOME of the time

• DSDM Atern Project Approach Questionnaire

– Helps identify projects where Atern adds most value for least risk

The result: Pragmatically applied:


How does an agile approach ‘delight the business’?


Delighting the business

• Focus on business need

– Continual verification that priorities match business case

– Continual prioritisation responds to change in requirements

• Never compromise on quality

– Acceptance criteria agreed & refined during planning steps

– Testing throughout

– Culture of delivering robust fit-for-purpose solution

– Regular acceptance testing throughout timebox & increments


Delighting the business

• Deliver on time

– Build incrementally from firm foundations

– Regular delivery heartbeat provides confidence

– Guaranteed on time delivery

– Early delivery of business benefits from project – faster ROI

• Better cross-functional working relationship & synergy

– Maximises the potential of existing resources’ experience and skills to deliver business objective

– Removes silos

– Greater project delivery efficiency

– Greater ownership, accountability & commitment to deliver business objectives


Increasing job satisfaction


Increasing job satisfaction

• Involvement throughout the whole lifecycle– Develop strong understanding of requirements & evolving solutionbeing developed

– Time to test effectively & thoroughly

– Inherent focus across project team of delivering a quality solution

• Empowered teams influence effective testing– Helps to ensure effective QA throughout by all

– Strong voice to highlight & address quality issues

• Close collaboration with whole project team– Different perspectives able to shape solution

– Develop understanding of challenges of different roles

– Demonstrate value & influence other roles

– Greater recognition of Software Testers value


Maximising team members’ potential


Maximising team members’ potential

• Collaboration & empowerment– Develops technical skills

• Strong interactive communication & influencing throughout whole lifecycle– Active contribution

– Encourages positive innovative environment

– Supports development of soft skills

• Develop greater business domain knowledge– Better able to appreciate business challenges

– Contribute better to shaping business solutions

– Increases value and recognition by the organisation

– Increases opportunity to develop further in the organisation

• Organisations increase efficiency by better utilising existing skills & experience, enabling better development of their potential


Summary


Summary

• Delight your business– Fit-for-purpose solutions delivered on time – every time– Aligned to changing business priorities– Faster ROI– Removes silos & increases efficiency– Maximises potential of existing resources– Increases innovation

• Increase your job satisfaction and recognition of your value– Involvement throughout– Empowered teams– Close collaboration

• Maximise your potential and continual development– Develop technical skills– Strong interactive communication develops soft skills– Increased business domain knowledge & value


Next steps

• Please contact me:

– Discuss further concerns or thoughts?

– Discuss how to pragmatically apply an agile approach that delivers results in your organisation

email: [email protected]

tel: 0560 2266 375 mobile: 07785 925906

www: collaborativeuk.com

Thank you

Agile solution delivery - · PDF fileAgile solution delivery ... • Never ending cyclical...

Documents

Transcript of Agile solution delivery - · PDF fileAgile solution delivery ... • Never ending cyclical...