Implementing an Agile Methodology at UWS

Kerrin Paterson

k.paterson@uws.edu.au

Across the industry DW projects mostly employ the waterfall SDLC approach

Concept

Initiation

Requirements

Design Build Test

Deploy &

Operate

In spite of our best efforts we continue to have difficulty meeting business expectations

Project Delays

Schedule/cost blow-outs

Scope Reduction

Stressed teams

“Us and them” attitude

Too slow

Disappointed business

Reliable estimation

Sustainable work practices

Happy and relaxed staff

Adaptable

Embracing of change

Delighted business clients

As data warehouse professionals we need to find a better way: agile

Apply

InspectAdapt

Iterative

Incremental Delivery

Responsive to change

Bankstown Campbelltown Hawkesbury Nirimba Parramatta Penrith Other

Students: 6,468 5,606 2,280 948 13,428 8,330 528

Total Students 2010: 37,588 Projected to grow to 53,000 by 2020

UWS is one of the largest Uni’s in Australia in terms of enrolments

“The Education Revolution” is driving rapid growth in the industry

Dem

and Load

RetentionS

atisfa

ction

Oth

er

Measure

s

Sta

ff

Fin

ance

Incom

e Higher Degree

Research

Students

Pu

blic

ations Rankings

Partnerships

Cam

puses

The scope of the UWS BI program will cover all functions

The scope of the BI program is broad, resources are constrained

Callista AlescoOracle

FinancialsOthersRhesysArchibus

Data Warehouse

Reporting Tool

• Oracle 11g

• Wherescape RED

• IBM Cognos, TM1

and SPSS

• MS SharePoint

UNE convinced us to try agile

Individuals &

interactionsProcesses & toolsOver

Comprehensive to-be

documentationOverWorking software

Contract negotiationOverCustomer

collaboration

Following a planOverResponding to

change

“That is, whilst we value the items on the right, we value the

items on the left more”

http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

There are 3 key scrum roles

Scrum processes and formalceremonies

How did we go at UWS?

Project Delays

Schedule/cost blow-outs

Scope Reduction

Stressed teams

“Us and them” attitude

Too slow

Disappointed business

Reliable estimation

Sustainable work practices

Happy and relaxed staff

Adaptable

Embracing of change

Delighted business clients

We rolled out our first report in 4 months with no assistance from consultants

Frequent interaction with the business client achieved high level of engagement

Partnership

Collaboration

Sense of

ownership

Daily scrums have a big impact on productivity and a personal impact too• Focus

• No tangents

• Smooth hand-

offs

• No getting

bogged down

• No

procrastination

• Rapid team

formation

As a <role>

I want <funtion>

So that <benefit>

Decomposing user stories into sprint-sized chunks was difficult

User story template

Cognos Framework Manager

Cognos Report

BI Distribution & Scheduling

Data Warehouse Presentation Layer

Data Warehouse Staging Layer

Data Warehouse Load Layer

Source system

Ralph Hughes ADW provides guidance on how to decompose user “epics”

www.ceregenics.com

Reliable estimating was not achieved

Restructuring to

create a dedicated

BI team in the office

of the Deputy Vice

Chancellor

Corporate Strategy

Dependent on us

being able to

manage the product

backlog better

506

466443

425399 385

367332

298274 272 260

236

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

eff

ort

left

days in sprint

Effort left in sprint

Quality was sometimes an issue

• Insufficient documentation

• Solution design not sufficiently future proof

• Non-standard database and ETL design

Sprint period seemed too intense and the meetings seemed too long

Story Conference

Sprint Planning

One Day

Sprint Review

Sprint Retrospective

One Day

Release Planning

We had dependencies on other teams who are not “agile”.

Scrum seemed “light weight” on the architecture side

• Iteration 0

• Have a senior developer on the srum team

• Reserve sprint time for architecture and

re-work

• Get good at re-factoring databases

• Special sprints “spikes”

• Evolve a reference library - patterns

Ralph Hughes has published the “Agile Data Warehousing” method with many useful enhancements to pure scrum

www.ceregenics.com

Will it work for you?

•Larger Organisations

•Mature DW shopsUse Ralph Hughes ADW

•Smaller organisations

•immature DW shops

•Significantly resource

constrained

Find a balance between pure

scrum and ADW

Recommendations

Get educated,

talk to those who are doing it

Coaching

Persevere – won’t get it perfect first time

Everything in place before you start sprinting

Remember Some problems are cultural and not

related to PM methodology

Trial run – give it a go

Training

Useful references

Ken Schwaber & Mike Beedle

Rowan Bunning

Software with Style

Certified Scrum Trainerwww.softwarewithstyle.com

www.scrumalliance.org

www.agilemanifesto.org

Ralph Hughes

Agile Data Warehousing

www.ceregenics.com

Thank you

Questions?

The Agile Manifesto documents the “philosophy” of agile.

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 toolsWorking software over comprehensive documentationCustomer collaboration over contract negotiationResponding 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.

There are 12 Agile Principles: focus on the tangibles

1. satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of

valuable software.

2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile

processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a

couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout

the project.

5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the

environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job

done.

6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to

and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

Many of them could be applied even within the waterfall context.

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.

8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors,

developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace

indefinitely.

9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design

enhances agility.

10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is

essential.

11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-

organizing teams.

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective,

then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly