agile technology delivery process mr

Agile Development

By Murray Robinsonwww.linkedin.com/in/murrayrobinsonCopyright and Intellectual Property retained by Murray Robinson.

1

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2Copyright and Intellectual Property retained by Murray Robinson.

What is Agile Development?

• Agile development is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between cross-functional teams

• Agile development is a well defined delivery process that has been proven to reduce time to market, delivery risk and costs for many organisations and projects.

• Agile development applies “Lean Production” principles and techniques to software development

• Agile development can give us a sustainable competitive advantage by allowing us to deliver quality IT systems faster than our competitors at a lower cost

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Agile Development is a family of lean, iterative software development methodologies

Lean Production

RUP

FDDScrum

XP

DesignPatterns

TDD

Continuous Integration

IterativeOOD



In Agile projects requirements are delivered in priority order in a series of small fixed iterations

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Low priority requirements

Medium priority

requirements

High priority requirements

Core infrastructureIteration 1

Iteration 2

Iteration 3

Iteration 4

System Component A


Copyright and Intellectual Property retained by Murray Robinson.5

Agile projects deliver high value features early!

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Features

Total BusinessValue

75%

Bu

sin

ess

Va

lue

Release

Iteration



Agile project progress is clear and predictable

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Actual FeaturesDelivered

PlannedFeaturesDelivered

Iteration

Ve

loci

ty



Agile implementation plan

• Seek Executive support and funding for an Agile change Management Project

• Define Agile processes and deliverables in detail

• Apply Agile in a trial project

• Seek Quality Group endorsement for Agile

• Develop an Agile training program

• Launch Agile

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Problems with a traditional sequential system engineering process



The problem from the business point of view

• IT projects take much longer than the business want• IT projects cost much more than the business expect• IT can’t commit to budgets and delivery dates until the start of build • IT don’t understand the user experience • The business are expected to sign off requirements and design when they’re not sure

their completely right• IT make it very hard to make changes during the project • Fixed price, time and cost projects are anything but• IT Projects often have major cost and schedule blow outs which require major scope

reductions or budget and time increases to bring them back on track • IT infrastructure seems to be a major source of project delays and problems

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The problem from the IT point of view

• Business set unrealistic budget and schedule targets up front before IT know how long things will take and how much they will cost

• Funding approval is a very slow process • Business take a long time to sign off requirements and design • Business constantly change requirements • Business wont prioritise requirements unless project goes off track • Business don’t understand that IT projects are complex and high risk • Vendors and infrastructure groups need very close management to

ensure delivery• Major IT project blowouts are often caused by infrastructure delays• IT projects are dependent on infrastructure and other projects which may

run very late



A sequential system development process has many handoff’s

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Solution Definition

Requirements

Architecture Design Build Test Release



Handoff’s between groups cause a lot of wasted time and effort

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Engagement start up cost and

delays

Wait for resources

Wait while resources learn

the requirements

Wasted time and effort producing

heavy documentation

Switching costs due to

multitasking

High costs due to over engineering

Errors due to lack of knowledge

Errors due to poor co-

ordination with other functions

Rework waste and delays



A sequential project wrongly assumes that the business knows all the requirements in detail up front

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0102030405060708090

100

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

Time

Kn

ow

led

ge

PlannedKnowledge

ActualKnowledge



A traditional sequential project can take a long time to deliver business benefit

Microsoft Project Document

ID Task Name Duration Start Finish

1 Traditional TDP Project Plan 34.5 mons Tue 1 Jan '08 Mon 23 Aug '10

2 Peer Review Milestones 28.25 mons Mon 4 Feb '08 Mon 5 Apr '10

19 Idea Development (ID) 1.25 mons Tue 1 Jan '08 Mon 4 Feb '08

22 Solution Definition (SD) 5 mons Tue 5 Feb '08 Mon 23 Jun '08

23 Initiate Project 0.75 mons Tue 5 Feb '08 Mon 25 Feb '08

28 Define Business Requirements 1.75 mons Tue 26 Feb '08 Mon 14 Apr '08

36 Identify Solution Impacts 1.75 mons Tue 15 Apr '08 Mon 2 Jun '08

45 Develop Business Case 0.75 mons Tue 3 Jun '08 Mon 23 Jun '08

50 Design & Build (D&B) 23 mons Tue 24 Jun '08 Mon 29 Mar '10

51 Plan Project 0.75 mons Tue 24 Jun '08 Mon 14 Jul '08

58 Define requirements 2.75 mons Tue 15 Jul '08 Mon 29 Sep '08

73 Define Solution Architecture 4.75 mons Tue 30 Sep '08 Mon 9 Feb '09

99 Design Solution 3.75 mons Tue 10 Feb '09 Mon 25 May '09

106 Build Solution 6 mons Tue 26 May '09 Mon 9 Nov '09

120 Testing 4 mons Tue 10 Nov '09 Mon 1 Mar '10

131 Prepare for Solution Deployment 1 mon Tue 2 Mar '10 Mon 29 Mar '10

139 Solution Implementation (SI) 1.25 mons Tue 30 Mar '10 Mon 3 May '10

147 Solution Effectiveness (SE) 3 mons Tue 4 May '10 Mon 26 Jul '10

155 Project Management 32.5 mons Mon 25 Feb '08 Mon 23 Aug '10

Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q42007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015



Sequential Projects deliver value at the end.Agile projects deliver value earlier

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Time

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ue D

eliv

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Agile Project

Sequential Project



Waterfall project assumptions are not realistic

Assumption Reality

Stakeholders can define the system requirements in detail up front

Stakeholders can’t define all the system requirements in detail up front. The business often discover what they really want when they try out the user interface. Also requirements change as the market changes.

We can get the solution architecture and design right the first time

It’s not possible to get the solution right the first time. Many unexpected issues arise during a project that must be solved at the time. The attempt takes a lot of time and effort and leads to over engineering and over documentation.

Each step in the SDLC should be done by a different group

Specialist groups have different priorities to projects. They have significant start up time and costs; spend a long time producing very detailed documents and take little responsibility after their phase is completed. The handover causes major delays, loss of knowledge and loss of accountability.

System integration will go well System integration often goes badly because integration assumptions are wrong leading to wholesale rework.

IT can deliver a fixed scope project on schedule and on budget

It’s very difficult to deliver a fixed scope IT project on time and on budget. Estimates are usually off by 100% and there are always a large number of unknowns that need research.

Changes will be small and manageable

For the reasons above changes on IT projects are constant, substantial and high priority.

A sequential SDLC is a low risk process

A sequential SDLC is a high risk process because it handles change poorly.


The Agile Development Process in More Detail



Agile Assumptions

• Systems grow and evolve over time

• Stakeholders can’t fully define what they want until they see it

• Business requirements change as the market changes

• All IT projects have to trade off scope against time, budget and quality

• The risk of project failure increases linearly as the size of the project increases

• There are always a lot of unexpected business and technical issues that must be resolved as you go along

• Most delays and waste are caused by handoffs from one group to another

• There are substantial communication delays and costs when teams are separated by organization, location and culture

• Co-located, Cross functional project teams resolve issues much faster than specialized functional teams in separate locations

• The best way to reduce delivery risk is to integrate and deliver as often as possible

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The Agile Manifesto

In Agile projects we value

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding 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.

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Agile Principles• Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early

and continuous delivery of valuable software. • We welcome changing requirements, even late in

development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

• We deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

• We build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

• Working software is the primary measure of progress.



Agile Principles• The most efficient and effective method of conveying

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

• Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

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

• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.



Agile Development applies the principles of Lean Production to software development

1. Eliminate waste

2. Amplify learning

3. Keep your options open

4. Deliver as fast as possible

5. Empower the team

6. Build integrity in

7. Optimize the Whole

8. Put the customer first

9. Continually Improve the Process

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Agile uses the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle in every iteration



Agile uses Object Oriented Design to reduce the cost of change

User Class• Data

• UserID• First Name• Last Name• …

• Methods• View• Edit• …

Product Class• Data

• ProductID• Product Name• Setup price• Annual price…


User Products Class• Data

• UserID• ProductID• Status• …


View User Process• Data

• User Name• …

• Methods• Validate• Create User

View• …

View User UI• Data

• User name• …

• Methods• Display• Validate• Update• …

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Agile Projects use co-located cross functional teams to minimize handoff delays

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Team members play multiple

roles

Architect / System

Designer

Team Lead / Scrum Master

Test AnalystUI /

Component Developer

DBA / Sys Admin /

Network Eng

SME / Business Analyst



Overall Agile Funding Process

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Define Idea

Develop funding

request for Solution Vision

Define Solution Vision

Develop Business case for Solution

Delivery

Deliver requirements

in priority orderClose Project

Fund Solution Vision

Fund Solution Delivery



Solution Vision

Plan Solution Vision

Develop overall system model and UI concepts

Develop product roadmap & high level feature list

Develop Project Plan, Budget and Business Case

Solution Vision Retrospective

Initial Use Case Model

Product Roadmap

Initial Object Model

Initial System Model

Initial Project Plan

Project Estimate

Initial UI Design Concepts

Business Case

Initial Prioritised Feature List

Solution Vision Plan

Solution Vision Lessons Learned

Solution Vision Process Changes



Solution Delivery

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Agile projects deliver batches of features in short, regular iterations

Design, Build &

Test

Design, Build &

Test

Design,Build &

Test

Design,Build &

Test

Release 1 Release 2

UAT & Deploy

UAT & Deploy

UAT UAT

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4

Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design



Iteration Analysis & Design

Iteration Use Cases

Iteration Class Diagrams

Iteration System Model

Iteration Plan

Detailed Feature List

Iteration Wireframes

Iteration Activity Diagrams

Iteration System and Acceptance Test Cases

Iteration Graphic Design

Iteration Test Plan

Iteration Lessons Learned

Iteration Process Changes



Iteration Design & Build

UML Sequence Diagrams

Automated Regression

Tests

UI CodeObject Oriented

Code

Automated Xunit Tests

Test Results

Technical Proof of Concept

Updated Iteration Plan

Updated Feature List

Iteration Lessons Learned

Progress Charts

Iteration Process Changes



Each iteration each agile team pulls the top priority items off the feature list

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Feature 6

Priority Iteration Feature group Description Dependencies Status Owner

Feature 5


Feature 4


Feature 3


Feature 2


Feature 1


Feature 6


Feature 5


Feature 4


Feature 3


Feature 2


Feature 1


Detailed features

Built & tested features

High level features

Feature 6


Feature 5


Feature 4


Feature 3


Feature 2


Feature 1


Component team 1

Analysis & Design team Component team 2

Feature 6


Feature 5


Feature 4


Feature 3


Feature 2


Feature 1


Deployed features

Deployment team



The Feature list

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Feature 6

Priority Iteration Component Description Dependencies Status Owner

Feature 5


Feature 4


Feature 3


Feature 2


Feature 1




Agile Teams have a Daily Cycle

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Daily 15 minute team meeting

Resolve issues

Update project report

Build & Test

Over night code integration

Over night regression test



Agile Change management is fast and efficient

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Identify change in

scope

Add to feature list

Review backlog next

iteration

If a change is a top priority it can be analyzed in one iteration and delivered the one after.



Agile deliverables are lean, visual and iterative

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Use Cases

UML Activity Diagrams

UML Class Diagrams

UML Sequence Diagrams

System and Acceptance Test Cases

List of Test Cases

Automated Regression

Tests

Wireframes

Graphic Design

UI Code


Object Oriented Code

Automated Xunit Tests

Test Results

Use Case Model

Prioritised Feature List

UML Object Model

UML System Model

Product Roadmap

Release Plan

Project Plan

Project Budget

Progress Charts

Project Management UI Design

Business Analysis Design and Build Testing

Deployment Package

UI Concepts Test Plan

Business Case

Product Management

Training Package

Comm’s Package

Comm’s Plan




Senior Management play a critical role

• A fast moving agile project will reveal many blockages in the organisation that are slowing progress for all teams

• Senior management need to ask their agile teams everyday “what blockers are you having that you can’t resolve yourself”

• Management should focus on removing these blockers as soon as possible at the root cause level

• Often the best way to solve these problems is to move specialists from different groups and organizations into co-located, cross functional project teams

• And to streamline business processes to minimize queues of work



Business Benefits of Agile

1. Delivers high priority requirements to market in months

2. Removes a lot of delays and overhead from the process

3. Allows us to commit to a fixed budget and schedule early

4. Projects can get to a funded business case sooner

5. Allows lots of early feedback from users

6. Doesn't require the business to sign off everything up front

7. Easy to make high priority changes during the project

8. Provides a predictable delivery speed and cost

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IT Benefits of Agile

• Allows IT to commit to a fixed budget and schedule early • Funding is quicker and easier to manage• Ensures signoffs are done quickly and regularly • Handles requirement changes quickly and easily • Ensures requirements are prioritized properly every

month • Ensures that issues are found and resolved early• Cross functional teams bring the different groups much

closer together • Reduces project dependency issues

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Criteria for Agile projects

• Use an Agile scorecard to determine if projects are suitable for Agile development

• Implement strategies to address issues that might block Agile development.

• For example if the team has no Agile experience, the vendors methods are hostile to agile processes and the customer is largely unavailable then it would not be a good candidate for Agile development

• We can address these issues by bringing on an experienced Agile coach, changing to a vendor whose methods support agile development and getting the customer to appoint a full time product manager/ BA

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Agile Scorecard



A Documented Agile Process can be Methodology compliant

• Compliant with PMBOK v4

• Compliant with TQM processes

• Compliant with ITIL 3.0

• Compliant with CMMI

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Agile Definitions

Agile Term Explanation

Object Oriented Design and Development

A way to design and build a flexible system from self sufficient software modules. Each module contains all the data and functions to manipulate one business object (such as a user, invoice or interface). ODD is the foundation of all agile methods.

Lean A translation of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the software development domain. Focuses on optimizing the end to end process by minimizing waste - particularly queues of work in progress.

Scrum An iterative incremental framework based on a co-located, cross functional team of 5 to 8 with full responsibility for delivering a system component every 2 to 4 weeks.

Rational Unified Process

RUP is an iterative software development process framework focused on modelling requirements and design using use cases, UML and OOD.

Test Driven Design and Development

A test focused iterative process based on writing the acceptance, system and unit tests before coding so that the development team can test and fix the code immediately themselves.

Feature Driven Design and Development

FDD is an iterative model-driven process based on defining the overall architecture model, identifying the features and then planning, designing, building and testing by feature.

Design Patterns An organised collection of object oriented architectural solutions to common design problems. An extension to OODD.

Extreme Programming

An iterative software development process based on a small team of highly skilled developers who perform all SDLC activities. Uses TDD, OODD, Scrum and Pair Programming.



Agile DefinitionsAgile Term Explanation

Agile Coach Experienced Agile process consultant – equivalent to a TDP champion

Agile development An iterative software development process

Agile methods Lean, Scrum, RUP, FDD, OOD, Extreme Programming, TDD

Agile Team A cross-functional project team that can perform the whole SDLC. AKA Sprint team,

Customer proxy A business analyst

Feature A requirement that can be delivered by a developer in an iteration. I.e. Create user, delete user, list users

Feature backlog A prioritized list of requirements that the team will work on in the future

Iteration A regular fixed time period in which the team develops functions that could be released. Usually 2 or 4 weeks. AKA Sprint

Product owner The product manager or general manager who owns the product the system is for

Scrum master Facilitator of the scrum process. A consultative team leader or project manager. Updates the burn down chart.

Scrum meeting 15 minute team meeting every morning

SDLC System development lifecycle for the plan, analyse, design, build, test and deploy tasks

Smoke test An automated high level regression test of the whole system

Waterfall A sequential system development process in which all the work for one stage of the SDLC is completed and approved before moving to the next stage



Scrum Process Summary



Acceptance Test Driven Design & Development

User Story

Acceptance Criteria

Automated Acceptance

Tests

Exploratory Testing

Automated UI Tests

Automated Performance

Tests

Automated Unit Tests

Add a unit test

Run test

Change code

Refactor code

Fail Pass


Agile Structure for Large Projects with Offshore Vendors



Large projects are divided up into components which are delivered by small agile teams of 7 people

Component team 1

Component team 7 Component

team 2

Component team 3

Component team 4

Component team 6

Component team 5

Management team

Design team

Analysis team

Testing team

Common Component

team

Onsite team

Product team

Infrastructure team

Agile component teams synchronize by contributing members to cross functional project teams.



A large project team is organized by feature set and function

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IT Project Manager

Business Analyst Architect Test manager Infrastructure

manager

Vendor Project Manager

Component team 1

Component team 2

Component team 3

Component team 4

Component team 5

Infrastructure component

team

Test Automation

Lead

Business Project

Manager

Product managers Process analyst Training

managerCommunication

manager



Agile projects have a stable resource profile

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Solution Vision

Quarter 1 Release

Quarter 2 Release

Quarter 3 Release

Quarter 4 Release

Vendor design team

Vendor Build & Test Team

IT project team

Business project team



Offshore teams have onshore representatives who liaise with other onshore teams on their behalf

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Onsite team

Project Manager

Component team onsite

rep


rep


rep


rep

Offshore team

Project Manager

Component team

Component team

Component team

Component team



Vendors are engaged on a capped T&M with a constant resource plan and fixed price per month

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Project stops when funds run out or at any time with one months notice to the vendor

Plan work one iteration ahead

Capped T&M SOW for entire project with a constant resource plan and a fixed price per month

Capped T&M SOW to develop solution estimate

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Related Agile projects are synchronized by a fixed release calendar

Solution Vision & Business

Case

Quarter 1 Release

Quarter 2 Release

Quarter 3 Release

Quarter 4 Release


Case

Quarter 2 Release

Quarter 3 Release

Quarter 4 Release

Quarter 1 Release


Case

Quarter 3 Release

Quarter 4 Release

Quarter 1 Release

Quarter 2 Release

Project 1

Project 2

Project 3

Synchronized release52


Appendix



Strengths and weaknesses of a well defined systems engineering process

• Well defined process• Enforces that a consistent system

development process is followed • Can be tailored• Provides deliverable templates• Provides a training program• Has a Quality Governance framework• Regular quality audits• Agreed and understood by most users• Most projects that use the standard

process deliver something

• Sequential process that takes much longer and costs far more than the business want

• Heavy documentation overhead• Very resistant to change• Lots of delays for reviews and approvals• Requires a big up front design effort

when our knowledge is poorest • Many projects have major cost or

schedule blow outs and have to reduce scope to get back on track

• Lot of wasted time and effort designing things that are changed or de-scoped

• The critical build process is often a black box

Strengths Weaknesses

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Agile development is based on an iterative development process.

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High priority scope changes can be implemented in 1 iteration

Build &Test

Build &Test

Build &Test

Build &Test

Release 1 Release 2

UAT & Deploy

UAT & Deploy

UAT UAT


Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

In an ideal process the agile team does all SDLC activities during one iteration

Requires a very experienced, co-located, cross functional team onsite



Solution Delivery

56

Agile projects deliver batches of features in regular, short iterations

Build &Test

Build &Test

Build &Test

Build &Test

Release 1 Release 2

UAT & Deploy

UAT & Deploy

UAT UAT


Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design



Sometimes the testing is done one iteration afterwards

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High priority scope changes can be implemented in 3 iterations

Build &Test

Build &Test

Build &Test

Build &Test

Release 1 Release 2

UAT & Deploy

UAT & Deploy

UAT UAT


Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

Analysis &

Design

A slower more cautious approach


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