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AGILE GOVERNANCE TAYLOR MEETS SUTHERLAND

MARIJN DESSENS, SIG

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Agile is becoming ubiquitous

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* Source: 8th Annual “State of Agile” Survey, 2013. (3,501 respondents) 88%#

12%#

YES# NO#

Organiza1ons#prac1cing#Agile#

33%#48%#

57%#

2011# 2012# 2013#

Organiza2ons#with#at#least#5#Agile#teams#

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Organizations are challenged

3

* Source: 8th Annual “State of Agile” Survey, 2013. (3,501 respondents)

Agile runs counter to traditional project governance.

23%$

24%$

28%$

30%$

30%$

Lack%of%predictability%

Lack%of%documenta4on%

Management%opposi4on%

Loss%of%management%control%

Lack%of%up8front%planning%

Top+5$Concerns$about$Agile$

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Governance of agile projects requires a profound managerial change

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Welcome changing requirements

Build projects around teams

Business and IT work together

Frequent face-to-face communication

Self-organizing, self-optimizing teams

Architecture and design emerge

Fix requirements early

Assign people to projects

IT works for the business

Documentation and reporting

Management control

Up-front design

Principles behind the Agile Manifesto, 2001

What certainties does the sponsor have?

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KPIs to give project sponsor confidence and sufficient control, while preserving agility

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Agile Team

Backlog Accepted Production

For team

Sprint Quality How many story points?

Any stories planned but missed?

Code Quality How good is new code?

Has existing code been improved?

For sponsor

Scope Churn How volatile are the

requirements?

Effort at Risk How much effort has not yet been

taken into production?

Value What value is expected? What value is delivered?

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1" 2" 3" 4" 5" 6" 7"

Perfectly Agile Example 1/3

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Expected Value slightly increases as low value requirements are swapped for higher ones.

Effort at Risk drops to near zero after each release.

Multiple moments at which items are added AND removed.

Delivered Value increases with every release.

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Agile only in name Example 2/3

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Effort at risk is constantly climbing as developed code is never moved into production.

Expected Value remains unadjusted (but never materializes).

Scope is never adjusted as initial requirements are never challenged.

1" 2" 3" 4" 5" 6" 7"

Delivered Value remains at zero.

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Strong optimism bias Example 3/3

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Effort at Risk often does not drop back to near zero.

Expected value decreases as scope shrinks.

Requirements are repeatedly dropped as realism sets in.

Delivered Value goes up, but a little less each time.

1" 2" 3" 4" 5" 6" 7"

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Lessons learned so far

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Agile measurement –  Some KPIs are best kept within the team (e.g. Velocity) –  Other KPIs give sponsor sufficient control and predictability (e.g. Scope Churn) –  Backlog data quality is important

How to get started? –  Multi-stakeholder measurement workshop (training and alignment) –  Analysis of historical data (if applicable/possible) –  Implement monitoring process (data collection and reporting)

How to improve? –  Assessment of team work quality (research with Tilburg University) –  Assessment of development best practices

Outlook –  Ongoing research with Tilburg University and VU University … join!