Agile methods are - David F. Rico

A 1-Hour Introduction
for Executives, Sr.
Managers, and Staff
Dr. David F. Rico, PMP, ACP, CSM
Twitter: @dr_david_f_rico
Website: http://www.davidfrico.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfrico
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1540017424

Author Background
DoD contractor with 28+ years of IT experience
B.S. Comp. Sci., M.S. Soft. Eng., & D.M. Info. Sys.
Large gov’t projects in U.S., Far/Mid-East, & Europe
Published six books & numerous journal articles
Adjunct at George Washington, UMUC, & Argosy
Agile Program Management & Lean Development
Specializes in metrics, models, & cost engineering
Six Sigma, CMMI, ISO 9001, DoDAF, & DoD 5000
Cloud Computing, SOA, Web Services, FOSS, etc.
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Agenda
Agile Introduction
Agile Life Cycles
Agile Practices
Agile Summary
3

Today’s Whirlwind Environment
Work Life
Imbalance
Global
Competition
Vague
Requirements
Overruns
Attrition
Escalation
Runaways
Cancellation
Demanding
Customers
Organization
Downsizing
Technology
Change
System
Complexity
4

Need for a New Model
Need for a new model of system development
Cope with high-level of uncertainty and ambiguity
With just the right balance of flexibility and discipline
R&D Oriented People Centered Adaptive Customer Friendly Fast & Efficient Disciplined
New discoveries
Highly-talented people
Global threats
Customer interaction
New technology
Lightweight strategy
Complex problems
Cross-functional teams
Market threats
A lot of communication
Quick decision-making
Lightweight plans
One-off systems
Small team size
New customer needs
Customer demos
Iterative delivery cycles
Lightweight lifecycles
Vague requirements
A lot of communication
Changing scope
Customer feedback
Frequent deliveries
Security engineering
Incomplete information
Interpersonal trust
Changing technology
Business value focus
Fast delivery schedules
Light requirements
High uncertainty
Rich collaboration
Changing regulations
Customer satisfaction
Short timelines
Light architecture
Experimentation
Empowered decisions
Continuous change
Customer responsive
Fast time-to-market
Lightweight design
Simulations
Sustainable pace
Flexible culture
Customer sensitivity
First-mover capability
Code reviews
Prototyping
Daily interaction
Flexible attitudes
Customer relationships
Minimal process costs
Rigorous V&V
Innovation oriented
Rich communications
Flexible policies
Customer contact
Low work-in-process
-
Rigorous CM
New products
Face-to-face interaction
Flexible processes
Customer involvement
Flexible processes
Rigorous QA
Creative solutions
Cohesiveness
Flexible technologies
Customer driven
Market responsiveness
Project reviews
Augustine, S. (2005). Managing agile projects. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Chin, G. (2004). Agile project management: How to succeed in the face of changing project requirements. Broadway, NY: Amacom.
DeCarlo, D. (2004). Extreme project management: Using leadership, principles, and tools to deliver value in the face of volatility. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Highsmith, J. A. (2010). Agile project management: Creating innovative products. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
5

What is Agility?
A-gil-i-ty (ə-'ji-lə-tē) Property consisting of quickness,
lightness, and ease of movement; To be very nimble
• The ability to create and respond to change in order to
profit in a turbulent global business environment
• The ability to quickly reprioritize use of resources when
requirements, technology, and knowledge shift
• A very fast response to sudden market changes and
emerging threats by intensive customer interaction
• Use of evolutionary, incremental, and iterative
delivery to converge on an optimal customer solution
• Maximizing the BUSINESS VALUE with right-sized, justenough,
and just-in-time processes and documentation
Highsmith, J. A. (2002). Agile software development ecosystems. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.
6

What are Agile Methods?
People-centric way to create innovative solutions
Market-centric model to maximize business value
Product-centric vs. wasteful processes/documents
Agile Methods
‘Values’
Agile Methods
‘Principles’
Traditional Methods
‘Values’
Customer
Collaboration
also
known as
Customer
Interaction
valued
more than
Contract
Negotiation
Individuals &
Interactions
also
known as
High Performance
Teams
valued
more than
Processes
& Tools
Working
Systems
also
known as
Iterative
Development
valued
more than
Comprehensive
Documentation
Responding
to Change
also
known as
Adaptability
or Flexibility
valued
more than
Following
a Plan
Agile Manifesto. (2001). Manifesto for agile software development. Retrieved September 3, 2008, from http://www.agilemanifesto.org.
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When to Use Agile Methods?
On exploratory or research/development projects
When fast customer responsiveness is paramount
In organizations that are highly-innovative & creative
Traditional Project Management
Predictable situations
Low-technology projects
Stable, slow-moving industries
Low-levels of technological change
Repeatable operations
Low-rates of changing project performance
Long-term, fixed-price production contracts
Achieving concise economic efficiency goals
Highly-administrative contracts
Mass production and high-volume manufacturing
Highly-predictable and stable market conditions
Low-margin industries such as commodities
Delivering value at the point-of-plan
Agile Project Management
High-levels of uncertainty and unpredictability
High-technology projects
Fast-paced, highly-competitive industries
Rapid pace of technological change
Research-oriented, discovery projects
Large-fluctuations in project performance
Shorter-term, performance-based RDT&E contracts
Achieving high-impact product/service effectiveness
Highly-creative new product development contracts
Customer-intensive, one-off product/service solutions
Highly-volatile and unstable market conditions
High-margin, intellectually-intensive industries
Delivering value at the point-of-sale
Pine, B. J. (1993). Mass customization: The new frontier in business competition. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
8

Agenda
Agile Introduction
Agile Life Cycles
Agile Practices
Agile Summary
9

Scrum
Created by Jeff Sutherland at Easel in 1993
Has 5 practices, 3 roles, 5 products, rules, etc.
Uses EVM to burn down backlog in 30-day iterations
Schwaber, K., & Beedle, M. (2001). Agile software development with scrum. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
10

Extreme Programming
Created by Kent Beck at Chrysler in 1998
Has 28 practices, 7 roles, and 7 work products
Popularized pair programming and test-driven dev.
User
Stories
Test
Scenarios
Requirements
New
Stories
Bugs
Architectural
Spike
System
Metaphor
Release
Planning
Release
Plan
Iteration
Latest
Version
Acceptance
Tests
Customer
Approval
Small
Releases
Uncertain
Estimates
Confident
Estimates
Next
Iteration
Spike
Beck, K. (2000). Extreme programming explained: Embrace change. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
11

Lean-Kanban
Adapted to IT by Dave Anderson in 2006
Activities, buffers, queues, WIP limits, tasks, etc.
Lean, JIT pull/demand system leading to high quality
Anderson, D. J. (2010). Kanban: Successful evolutionary change for your technology business. Sequim, WA: Blue Hole Press.
12

Agenda
Agile Introduction
Agile Life Cycles
Agile Practices
Agile Summary
13

Onsite Customers
Term coined by Kent Beck in 1999
Customer who sits with developers full-time
Fast and efficient way to capture customer needs
Tabaka, J. (2006). Collaboration explained: Facilitation skills for software project leaders. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison Wesley.
14

Release Planning
Created by Kent Beck at Chrysler in 1998
Project plan with a 30-60-90-day timing horizon
Disciplined and adaptable project management F/W
Beck, K., & Fowler, M. (2004). Planning extreme programming. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley.
15

User Stories
Term coined by Kent Beck in 1999
Functions or features of value to customers
Highly-adaptable requirements engineering process
Cohn, M. (2004). User stories applied: For agile software development. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.
16

Pair Programming
Term coined by Jim Coplien in 1995
Consists of two side-by-side developers
Highly-effective group problem-solving technique
Williams, L., & Kessler, R. (2002). Pair programming illuminated. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
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Refactoring
Term coined by William Opdyke in 1990
Process of frequently redesigning the system
Improves readability, maintainability, and quality
Fowler, M. (1999). Refactoring: Improving the design of existing code. Boston, MA. Addison-Wesley.
18

Test-Driven Development
Term coined by Kent Beck in 2003
Consists of writing all tests before design
Ensures all components are verified and validated
Beck, K. (2003). Test-driven development: By example. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.
19

Continuous Integration
Term coined by Martin Fowler in 1998
Process of automated build/regression testing
Evaluates impact of changes against entire system
Duvall, P., Matyas, S., & Glover, A. (2006). Continuous integration: Improving software quality and reducing risk. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.
20

Agenda
Agile Introduction
Agile Life Cycles
Agile Practices
Agile Summary
21

Agile Myths
Common myths still abound, although agile methods
have been around for ~20 years
• Agile methods are only good for rapid prototypes
• Agile methods are only for software development
• Agile methods are only for small co-located teams
• Agile methods have no requirements or documents
• Agile methods need traditional system architectures
• Agile methods have no project management model
• Agile methods are undisciplined and unmeasurable
• Agile methods create unmaintainable systems
• Agile methods result in security vulnerabilities
• Agile methods mean deliver it fast and fix it later
Rico, D. F., Sayani, H. H., & Sone, S. (2009). The business value of agile software methods: Maximizing ROI with just-in-time processes and documentation.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL: J. Ross Publishing.
22

Agile Case Studies
80% of worldwide IT projects use agile methods
Includes highly-regulated industries like U.S. DoD
Even split between top-down and bottom-up adoption
Industry
Org
Project
Purpose
Size
Metrics
Electronic
Commerce
Google
Adwords
Advertising
20 teams
140 people
5 countries
1,838 User Stories
6,250 Function Points
500,000 Lines of Code
Shrink
Wrapped
Primavera
Primavera
Project
Management
15 teams
90 people
Collocated
26,809 User Stories
91,146 Function Points
7,291,666 Lines of Code
Health
Care
FDA
m2000
Blood
Analysis
4 teams
20 people
Collocated
1,659 User Stories
5,640 Function Points
451,235 Lines of Code
Law
Enforcement
FBI
Sentinel
Case File
Workflow
10 teams
50 people
Collocated
3,947 User Stories
13,419 Function Points
1,073,529 Lines of Code
U.S.
DoD
Stratcom
SKIweb
Knowledge
Management
3 teams
12 people
Collocated
390 User Stories
1,324 Function Points
105,958 Lines of Code
Rico, D. F. (2010). Lean and agile project management: For large programs and projects. Proceedings of
the First International Conference on Lean Enterprise Software and Systems, Helsinki, Finland, 37-43.
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Benefits of Agile Methods
Analysis of 23 agile vs. 7,500 traditional projects
Agile projects are 54% better than traditional ones
Agile has lower costs (61%) and fewer defects (93%)
3.00
2.25
1.50
2.8
1.1
Before Agile
After Agile
20
15
10
18
11
Before Agile
After Agile
0.75
61%
Lower
Cost
5
39%
Less
Staff
Project Cost in Millions $
Total Staffing
20
18
13.5
Before Agile
After Agile
2500
2270
Before Agile
After Agile
15
1875
10
5
24%
Faster
1250
625
381
93%
Less
Defects
Delivery Time in Months
Cumulative Defects
Mah, M. (2008). Measuring agile in the enterprise: Proceedings of the Agile 2008 Conference, Toronto, Canada.
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Conclusion
Agility is the evolution of management thought
Confluence of traditional and non-traditional ideas
Improve performance by over an order-of-magnitude
Agile methods are …
Systems development approaches
New product development approaches
Expertly designed to be fast and efficient
Intentionally lean and free of waste (muda)
Systematic highly-disciplined approaches
Capable of producing high quality systems
Right-sized, just-enough, and just-in-time tools
Scalable to large, complex mission-critical systems
Designed to maximize business value for customers
“The world of traditional methods belongs to yesterday”
“Don’t waste your time using traditional methods on 21 st century projects”
Wysocki, R.F. (2010). Adaptive project framework: Managing complexity in the face of uncertainty. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
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