Step Away from the Waterfall: You Really Can Use ... - Rally Software

Step Away from the Waterfall: 

You Really Can Use Agile on an ERP 

Project 

March 7, 2013

Contents 

• Welcome and Introduc,on 

• A Lean and Agile Approach to ERP 

• Lean Agile ERP – Challenges and Success Factors 

• Lean Agile ERP Delivery Models 

• Introducing Kanban to Your Teams 

• Customer Case Study -‐ Orange County, Florida 

• Ques,ons 

© Genesis Consul,ng, LLC 

2 

www.genesisconsul,ng.com

Introduc,ons 


3 


Welcome and Introduc,ons 

Jason Fair 

• CEO, Genesis Consul,ng 

• 20+ years of industry 

experience leading ERP 

implementa,ons 

• Func,onal expert, 

Technical development, 

Integra,on Management 

and extensive Project 

Management 

• PMP, CSM, Cer,fied SAP 

Consultant, CPA 

• Thought leader for Lean 

Agile ERP 

Mike McLaughlin 

• Technical Account Manager, 

Rally SoVware 

• 15+ years of experience 

successfully delivering projects 

with Lean and Agile 

• Focuses on improving 

performance through 

op,mizing: 

– Agile lifecycle management 

– Lean thinking and methods 

– Requirements management 

– Quality management 

– SoVware development methodologies 

• Cer,fied Scrum Master, 

Cer,fied Scrum Product Owner 



Poll – Who is in the Audience? 


5 


Genesis Consul,ng 

We specialize in delivering the following services: 

" SAP Technology: 

• Strategy and Planning 

• Project Management 

• Systems Integra,on and SAP Consul,ng 

• Industry Solu,ons 

– Grantor Management, Public Budget Formula,on (PBF), 

Procurement for Public Sector (PPS) 

" Lean Agile Coaching 

" Enterprise Performance Management 

" Organiza,onal Change Management 

Cer$fied small business in the Commonwealth of Virginia 

and registered with the Small Business Administra$on 


6 


Lean Agile SAP Network 

• QVC 

• Nike 

• Intermec 

• Jabil 

• Medtronic 

• McKesson 

• JJ Keller 

• Crayola 

• Vision Service Provider (VSP) 

• Johns Hopkins University 

• CN Railway 

• RIM 

• SAP -‐ Netherlands 

• U.S. Department of Agriculture 

• Northrop Grumman 

• Raytheon 

• U.S. Army 

• U.S. Department of Interior 

• Orange County Public Schools, FL 


7 


A Lean and Agile Approach to ERP 


8 


Defini,ons 

" Agile is a methodology, derived using Lean thinking. 

" Lean is a “thinking principle”. It tells you how to iden,fy 

opportuni,es for improvement. 

" Agile is Lean in IT. It is the proven project management 

methodology that encourages: 

• Frequent inspec9on and adapta9on 

• A leadership philosophy that encourages team work, self-‐organiza9on and 

accountability 

• A set of engineering best prac,ces that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality 

projects 

• A business approach that aligns development with customer needs and 

company goals 


9 


" Customer Value Added Work: Agile teams learn to make this 

work a priority 

" Business Value Added Work: Agile teams learn to: 

• Develop lighter yet just as effec,ve ar,facts 

• Use new techniques to shorten up these ac,vi,es 

Lean Out the Waste 

• Replace some of the ar,facts with empirical evidence (demos and stand-‐ups 

versus status reports) 

• Iden,fy and simplify the ceremonial ac,vi,es that we tradi,onally 

perform to stay viable/compliant/lawful 

" Non Value Added Work (Waste): Agile teams learn to nego,ate 

this work completely out of a project 


10 


What Is the Big Deal? 

What is the amount of value-added work in most processes? 

Only 5-30% 

— James Womack 

What is the amount of value-added time in most processes? 

Only 0.5% – 5% 

—George Stalk 

79% of CEO’s polled, feel cost and cycle time reduction are 

a major need 

…Only 31% feel they do a good job 

— The Nations CEOs Look to the Future Foundation for the 

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Study 818407 

“The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that 

created them.” — Albert Einstein 

© Genesis Consul,ng, LLC 11 


Founda,ons of Agile 

• Empiricism – Ability to perform, stop, reflect, improve, 

con,nue in a step by step process in efforts to increase 

produc,vity 

• Priori9za9on – Deliver work based on value 

• Self-‐Organiza9on – The team knows best how to deliver the 

work based on the resources and constraints 

• Time-‐Boxing 

• Collabora9on 



Feasibility 

Definition 

Waterfall vs. Agile – 

Delivering Incremental Value 

Design 

Construction 

Waterfall 

Release 

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5 Sprint 6 Sprint 7 Sprint 8 

AGILE 

2 wks 2 wks 2 wks 2 wks 2 wks 2 wks 2 wks 2 wks 

Release #1 

Release #2 

Release #3 



Waterfall to Itera,on 

ASAP 

“Waterfall” 

Agile 

Approach 


14 


A Lean and Agile Approach to ERP 

Lean Thinking 

• Eliminate Waste 

• Pull From Demand – Focus 

on business value 

• Empower Workers 

• Enable Con,nuous 

Improvement 

Agile is a 

journey, not a 

des$na$on. 

Some Agile Techniques 

• Frequent inspec,on and adapta,on 

• Aligning development with customer needs & 

company goals 

• Co-‐loca,on 

• Self-‐organiza,on and accountability 

• Becoming a team player 

• Elimina,on of “waste” and “ceremony” 

• Empirical demonstra,on of results 

• Customer is always present 

• Product managers and owners 

• 5 planning events: product planning, release/ 

feature planning, itera,on planning, sprint 

review, and stand-‐ups 


15 


Lean Agile ERP – 

Challenges and Success Factors 


16 


Applica,on Development vs. ERP 

• Feature Sets versus Process Sets 

• Not necessarily promo,ng “code” to produc,on aVer each sprint 

• Coding vs. Configura,on 

• Complexity of Business Requirements 

• Diverse set of skills required to complete ERP Process Sets 

• Introduc,on of integra,on sprints 

• Concurrent “Support” teams with dependencies 

– Systems Administra,on 

– Security 

– Organiza,onal Change 

– Quality Assurance / Tes,ng 

– Training / Deployment 


17 


Challenges in Applying Agile to ERP 

• A new way to manage projects 

– Makes all the dysfunc,on in a team or organiza,on visible 

– Bad products will be delivered sooner, and doomed projects will fail faster 

– People may follow the mechanics but not the values of Agile 

• People are most comfortable with what they know 

– ERP consultants have an aoachment to waterfall development 

– Lack of incen,ve to increase speed to delivery 

• ERP solu,ons are all encompassing 

– Environment includes development, proprietary programming system/language, a run 

,me environment, a source code control system 

– Integrated end-‐to-‐end business process that are difficult to decompose 

• ERP configura,on is NOT programming 

• Managing dependencies and sequencing of stories, tasks, ac,vi,es 

• Management of RICEFW objects in line with Sprint delivery 

• Integra,ng off-‐shore development 


18 


• Conduct Agile Readiness and Cultural Assessments 

• Iden,fy the Execu,ve Champion(s) 

Success Factors 

• Be flexible in crea,ng a model that works for the culture of the 

organiza,on 

• Consider varying steps of adop,on (it’s a journey…) 

• Select the right first project – Not all projects are good 

candidates for Agile 

• Train the team – at all levels 

• Develop a Product Council that is willing to work 


19 


Success Factors 

• Find the right Product Owner and engage Stakeholders 

• Focus on Team Work over mechanics 

• Collabora,on over co-‐loca,on 

• Building the Backlog – Story Mapping and Stories 

• Set rules of engagement for the team 

• Selec,ng the right metrics and the right repor,ng tools 

• Align team and individual performance metrics to tangible 

project goals 


20 


Lean Agile ERP Delivery Models 


21 


Phased Planning 

Planning and Requirements 

Waterfall 

Build/Test/Deploy 

• Constraints of resources 

• Unknown scope/requirements 

• Lack of Buy-‐in from Stakeholders for Scope 

• Known Gaps/Solu,on Complexity 


22 


Itera,ve Waterfall – “Agilefall” 

Planning 

Requirements 

Build 

Test 

• Not sure if Agile “will work for us” 

• Introduc,on of Agile to Teams 

• Resistors to Agile 

Deploy 


23 


Lag Teams 

Iteration #1 Iteration #2 Iteration #3 Iteration #4 

Development 

Team 

Quality/ 

Testing Team 

• Compliance and regulatory tes,ng 

• Independent tes,ng and QA teams 


24 


Agile Itera,ons 

PLAN/REQUIREMENTS/BUILD/TEST/DEPLOY 

Release #1 Release #2 Release #n 

• Known scope and requirements 

• Teams with func,onal and technical exper,se 

• Smaller projects 

• Shorter release cycles 

• Smaller teams 


25 


INTEGRATION LAYER 

Scrum of Scrums 

Team 1 Team 2 

Team 3 

• Large teams 

• Complex solu,ons 

• Integrated Dependencies 


26 


Introducing Kanban to Your Team 


27 


Kanban ( 看板 ) 

• Literally means signboard in Japanese 

What is Kanban? 

• Describes a Lean, pull-‐based process that controls knowledge 

workflow with visual no,fica,ons and by limi,ng waste from 

Work in Progress or WIP 

• At the crux of Kanban is—as with any lean or agile process— 

ongoing process improvement, 

…with one key principle in the star,ng point: 

First step is to change nothing (or as liGle as possible)!* 

…and another principle to guide a team toward maturity: 

Build a culture of metrics-‐driven delivery improvements. 

*DJAA Kanban 


28 


Evolu,onary Change 

Agile/Scrum v. Kanban Change Curve 

" Agile can require significant up-front development process and 

organizational change 

" Kanban seeks to leverage existing development processes and limited initial 

organizational change 



5 4 4 

3 2 2 

Kanban Board 

Input 

Queue 

Analysis 

In Prog Done 

Dev Development 

Ready In Prog Done 

Build 

Ready 

Test 

Release 

Ready 

Stage 

Prod. 

Flow 

Courtesy David J. Anderson & Associates, Olav Maassen QNH 


30 


Manage Flow 

Input 

Queue 

(WIP 1 =5) 

Analysis 

(WIP 1 =3) 

DEV 

(WIP 1,2 =7) 

INT 

Test 

(WIP=4) 

QA Ready 

QA 

Release/ 

Verify 

(WIP=4) 

PROD 

Ready 

PROD 

Release/ 

Verify 

(WIP 3 =3) 

Expedite 

(Max 2) 

In Progress Done In 

Progress 

Done 

Minimize time from start to finish – CYCLE TIME! 

Fixed 

Delivery Date 

(Max 3) 

Blockers building 

Standard/ 

Intangible 

(No Max) 

These queues are getting low… 


31 


Customer Case Study -‐ OCPS 


32 


OCPS – Proof of Concept 

• Orange County Public Schools – 10 year SAP customer 

• Full SAP suite of applica,ons (FI/CO, MM, HR/Payroll, etc.) 

• Ac,ve produc,on support team 

• Poruolio of on-‐going con,nuous improvement projects 

• Developed Lean Agile SAP Proof of Concept with Genesis 

• Selected Performance Management Project 

– Defined scope, selected resources 

– Legisla,ve mandate to automate performance appraisals by 3/1/2009 

– 3 weeks behind schedule before Lean Agile SAP 

– Implement EP and Performance Appraisals 


33 


§ Raise OCPS Lean Agile Awareness 

§ Just-‐In-‐Time training 

§ Frequent demonstra,on of completed product to customer 

§ All-‐Hands demonstra,on of Scrum Technique 

§ High visibility of project health via informa,on radiators 

§ Led Team through ‘First 

Awkward Use’ 

§ U,lized a seasoned Lean Agile 

Master Coach to mentor team, 

customer and management 

§ Hands-‐on demonstra,on of 

disciplines, techniques and tools 

POC Approach 


34 


Project Team Training 

• Cer,fied Scrum Master Training 

• Advanced Project Management training 

for PMO Program and Project Managers, 

Business Managers and Project Coordinators 

• Team Training 

– Lean-‐Agile Orienta,on 

– Release Planning 

– Scope Confirma,on 

– Team Roles 

– Story Telling and Documenta,on 

– Project/Release Backlog Crea,on 

– Itera,on Planning and Tasking of Work 

– Effec,ve Daily Stand-‐ups 

– Sprint Close-‐out and Performance Data 

Collec,on 

– Uncovering Root Cause of Barriers 

– Applying Improvements 

– Leadership training 


35 


Planning Tools 

" LSAP introduces 

batch processing 

by breaking scope 

up into small 

product units 

called stories 

" Stories sit in a list 

controlled by the 

Product Owner 


36 


Lean Agile to Manage SAP Ini,a,ves 

• Visual 

Management 

approach 

• Promotes self-management 

 

• Transparency of 

assigned work 

• Facilitates 

teamwork and 

cross-‐training 

• Immediate 

knowledge of 

project status 


37 


POC Results 

§ Completed project 1 week ahead of schedule 

§ Team realized a 200% increase in produc,vity and efficiency 

§ Project validated that customer needs evolve 

§ Scope Changes – 

§ 20% Adds 

§ 18% Drops 

§ Process validated Lean Agile processes are adap,ve 

§ Team was not disrupted by the scope changes 

§ Team adapted to change in just 4 sprints 

§ Customer, Team Members and Project Management 

§ Confirm empirical evidence is beoer that Progress Reports 

§ Scrum planning events free up significant ,me for teams to focus on “Value 

Add” work 

§ Work products completed significantly faster 

§ Team habits have changed – becoming “Lean Thinkers” 

§ OCPS now deploying Lean Agile approach across poruolio of SAP Projects 

Change is an Asset and Not a Liability 


38 


Customer Tes,monials 

"Having the business decision-makers in the room to answer my questions in a timely manner, 

as well as to make decisions right when I needed them, was very powerful. In the past seven 

days, I saved one week’s worth of work." – SAP Developer 

“This team was able to get three weeks worth of work done in just one week by using this 

Lean Agile SAP approach." – Business Process Specialist 

"By being collocated there is a higher awareness of each of the team members' 

contributions towards the project's common goal. This has helped us as a project team have 

clearer communication on levels we don’t normally have" – NetWeaver Analyst 

"Post production support will be much easier and quicker, because the support people have 

been involved from the beginning and truly understand what we will be delivering on golive" 

– Business SME 

"This process requires that we demonstrate our work every few weeks. The project 

stakeholders are now so much more informed about what we are doing, and the business 

is more prepared for what we will be delivering to them when we go live." – Configuration 

Analyst 

"I was just so impressed. Everyone was so happy and proud when they demonstrated their 

work to the stakeholders after each iteration" – Project Manager 

“Before this process, I was uncertain how this project would get done in time. Now I am 

comfortable that we will get it done in time.” – Business SME 

SAP project teams are realizing up to 200% increase in productivity and efficiency. 


39 


Expanding Lean Agile to 

Manage SAP Opera,ons 


40 


A New Process Evolves 

Portfolio 

Planning 

Portfolio 

of Work 

Blue Print 

Backlog of 

Customer 

Valued Stories 

To stay productive 

these activities must 

be ready to request 

work Just-in-Time 

Customer 

Care 

Escalated 

Problem 

Product 

Council 

Approved 

Stories/Release 

Plan 

Service 

Request 

Power 

User 

Break 

Fix 

Expediter 

Capacity Stats 

Urgent 

Request 

to Fix 

Business Realization 

Business 

Solutions 

Independent Test 

The Lean Agile Team 

performs work here 

Deploy 

Validated 

Production 

Ready 


41 


Managing Your Agile Projects -‐ Rally 


42 


Integra,ng and Accelera,ng 

§ Partnership with Rally SoVware 

§ Developing SAP templates as 

accelerators 

§ Considering developing 

Solu,on Manager adapters 

• Rally iden,fied as leader for 

Agile development 

management tools * 

• Rally provides the capability to 

provide real ,me status 

updates for Program 

Management 

* Source: "The Forrester Wave TM : Agile Development Management Tools, Q4 2012," Forrester Research, Inc., October 2012 


43 


Story Mapping 

Visually display the 

rela,onships between Epics 

and Stories 

Use Story Maps to create 

stories that represent an end 

to end business process 


44 


Inside the Story 

Aoachments can be made for 

documenta,on of each business 

process capability. 

Dependencies and Parent/Child rela,onships 

are tracked to keep work grouped together as 

well as roll up to the process map. 

Genesis Solu,on Accelerators such as BC 

Sets are referenced in the Story: Z-‐ 

SRM_PPS: Define Order Type 


45 


Requirements Traceability 

Requirements can be set up 

under a separate project as 

requirement stories. 

Requirement Stories are then 

referenced as a child to the 

Business Process user story 

for traceability. 


46 


Story Dashboard 


47 


Rally Poruolio Management 


48 


ERP Work Breakdown Structure

Priori,zing and Grooming

Itera,on Tracking

Program Repor,ng

Execu,ve Status

Program Roadmaps

Ques,ons 


55 


Upcoming Events 

• Step Away From the Waterfall – Part 2 -‐ Webinar 

April 18 th – 1:00PM ET 

• Agile Readiness 

• Ge|ng Started on your Agile ERP Projects 

• Epics, Stories and Story Mapping 

• Release Planning 

Register by responding to Rally invita,on or 

Sending email to registra,on@genesisconsul,ng.com 

 

• Geang Started with your Agile ERP Journey -‐ An Agile Workshop 

April 25 th – All Day Workshop and Networking Recep,on 

Denver, Colorado 

• Agile Concepts 201 

• Developing an Agile ERP 

Framework 

• Assess Your Agility 

Register by sending email to registra,on@genesisconsul,ng.com 

• Epics and Stories – How Do I Get Started? 

• Story Mapping Techniques 

• Kanban Simula,ons 

• Simulate an ERP Project using Agile 

 


56 


Upcoming Events 

• “Agilize” Your SAP Project Poreolio – ASUG/SAPPHIRE Pre-‐Conference Workshop 

May 13 th – 2:00 – 5:00 ET 

Orlando, FL 

• Beyond the Basic of Lean and Agile 

• Ge|ng Started on your Agile ERP Projects 

• SAP Customer Success Stories and Lessons Learned 

• ASUG/SAP Integra,on of Agile into the ASAP Roadmap 

• Hands – On Exercises to Learn More About Lean and Agile 

• Simula,ons of Agile Techniques to take to your Projects 

• Networking Recep,on 

For more informa,on or register by sending email to registra,on@genesisconsul,ng.com 


57 


Connect with Genesis Consul,ng 

www.genesisconsul,ng.com 

Blog: 

hop://www.genesisconsul,ng.com/archives/category/blog 

LinkedIn: hop://www.linkedin.com/company/229924 

Twioer: @GenesisSAP 

Facebook: hop://www.facebook.com/GenesisConsul,ngPartnersLLC 

YouTube: hop://www.youtube.com/user/GenesisConsul,ng1 


58 


jason fair 

CEO 

5207 Hickory Park Drive, Suite E 

Glen Allen, VA 23059 

e | jason.fair@genesisconsulting.com 

t | 804.523.8007 

w | www.genesisconsulting.com 

mary fowlkes 

Managing Partner 



e | mary.fowlkes@genesisconsulting.com 

t | 804.523.8007 


nick coticchia 

Vice President, Solutions 



e | nick.coticchia@genesisconsulting.com 

t | 804.523.8007 


lari young 

Vice President, Marketing and Sales 



e | lari.young@genesisconsulting.com 

t | 804.523.8007 



59 


Visit our website: 

www.genesisconsulting.com

Step Away from the Waterfall: You Really Can Use ... - Rally Software

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