scaling the heights of agile: achieving and measuring success

Scaling the Heights of Agile: Achieving and Measuring Success

Damon Poole

• Chief Agilist, Eliassen Group’s Agile Practice– Coaching: Transformation and Tune-ups– Training– Staffing

• 20 years of process change ranging from small co-located teams to multi-hundred team global enterprises

• Founder and past CTO and CEO of AccuRev• Creator of multiple Jolt-award winning products• Past President of Agile New England• Author of “DIY Agile Kickstart”

www.synerzip.com

Agenda

• Scaling Agile• Organizational Support for Scaling Agility• Measuring Success

www.synerzip.com

Scaling Agile

www.synerzip.com

“Scaling”

• What do we mean by “scaling?”• A typical definition of scaling:

– Adding more resources adds proportionally more capacity for doing work

• Does traditional development scale?

www.synerzip.com

Scaling up from success at the team level

USER

STORIES

TEAMCONTINUOUS

INTEGRATION

www.synerzip.com

Inspect and Adapt (Self-healing)

• Organizations, people, projects, markets are constantly changing

• Healthy Agile requires constant monitoring and adjustment

• Agile process improvement mechanisms– Standups– “Scrum of Scrums”– Retrospectives– Stop the line

www.synerzip.com

Escalation Tree

S109:00am –09:15am

S209:30am –09:45am

Daily standupManagement involvementManagement involvement

Rapid turnaround.Rapid turnaround.

www.synerzip.com

Escalation Tree

1 hour

Frequent Retrospective

1 hour

www.synerzip.com

Agile Scaling Model

USER

STORIES

TEAMCONTINUOUS

INTEGRATION

ESCALATION

www.synerzip.com

Each Feature is Comprised of Many Aspects

✔

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

www.synerzip.com

A Typical Iteration#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

Traveller wants to see their upcoming trips

Traveller wants to see their upcoming trips

2

Tom

Traveller wants to delete a booking

Traveller wants to delete a booking

1

Sue

Traveller wants to enter a booking

Traveller wants to enter a booking

3

Bob

Traveller wants to register with the system

Traveller wants to register with the system

3

Sue

Admin wants a report of site-wide activity

Admin wants a report of site-wide activity

5

Bob

Traveller wants to edit a booking

Traveller wants to edit a booking

2

Tom

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

www.synerzip.com

“One Piece Flow”

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

#define a b/* * This is great code. */bool doStuff ( ) { index++;}

Done!Done! Done!Done! Done!Done!

Done!Done!

www.synerzip.com

Agile in Action

Customers / Market

Product Mgmt

$$

One piece flow across multiple teams

$$Customers / Market

Product Mgmt

Organizational Support for Scaling Agility

www.synerzip.com

AgileTraditional

www.synerzip.com

AgileTraditional

www.synerzip.com

AgileTraditional

www.synerzip.com

AgileTraditional

www.synerzip.com

Misaligned, Functional Goals

FunctionalGoals

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Project AProject A Project BProject B

Late, missing scope

Late, missing scope

Not as relevant as hoped

Not as relevant as hoped

www.synerzip.com

Moving to Managing Business Value Delivery

• Switch to business value delivery metrics• Align everyone connected to a line of business

or product to the same goal: delivering of business value

• Examples:– Old

• number of defects found per release• coding tasks completed

– New• test coverage per new user story• # of story points associated with done stories

www.synerzip.com

Fully Aligned Goals

SecondaryGoals

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

PrimaryGoals

✔ Project AProject A Project BProject B✔

www.synerzip.com

One Solution: Organize around Business Value Delivery

Line of Business A

Line of Business A

Line of Business B

Line of Business B

✔✔

www.synerzip.com

Top Ten Headwinds and Tailwinds

www.synerzip.com

Agile Scaling Model

ARCHITECTURE

AGILE OFFICE

I3I3I2I2I1I1

RELEASE TEAM

USER

STORIES

TEAMS

CONTINUOUS

INTEGRATION

EPICS

LOB LEADERSLOB CUSTOMERS

MAN

AGEM

ENT

ESCALATION

www.synerzip.com

Agile Scaling Model

ARCHITECTURE

AGILE OFFICE

I3I3I2I2I1I1

RELEASE TEAM

USER

STORIES

TEAMS

CONTINUOUS

INTEGRATION

EPICS

LOB LEADERSLOB CUSTOMERS

MAN

AGEM

ENT

ESCALATION

www.synerzip.com

Measuring Success

www.synerzip.com

Agile Organization Metrics

www.synerzip.com

Measuring Agile Maturity at the Team Level

www.synerzip.com

Measuring Agile Maturity at the Team Level

www.synerzip.com

Measuring Success

• Profits• Net Promoter Score• Business value anecdotes• Agile capabilities

– Organizational– Team– Individual (by role)

www.synerzip.com

Additional Metrics

• Shippability• Work in Progress• Cycle time

www.synerzip.com

Cycle Time

2 years 3 months

2 4 61 3 5 7

DevelopmentIntegration and testingPreparation

months

www.synerzip.com

Cycle Time

2 4 61 3 5 7

1 month iterations

PrepPrep

DoDo

Ship

PrepPrep

DoDo

Ship

PrepPrep

DoDo

Ship

PrepPrep

DoDo

Ship

PrepPrep

DoDo

Ship

PrepPrep

DoDo

Ship

www.synerzip.com

Cycle Time

2 4 61 3 5 7

1 month iterations

PrepPrep

DoDo

Ship

Cycle Time

www.synerzip.com

The Eliassen Advantage

www.synerzip.com

A Multi-layered Approach to Agile Transformation

• Large-scale classroom training– Bootcamp for Agile 2012

• Open space events• Guest experts• Targeted workshops• Individual, team, and leadership coaching• Agile Sustainability Program

Eliassen at Agile 2012Training 11 teams

www.synerzip.com

Synerzip in a Nut-shell1. Software product development partner for small/mid-sized

technology companies• Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies, typically venture-

backed companies in growth phase• By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clients• Deep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment

2. Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals for each client

• Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparency• Stable teams with very low turn-over• NOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support

3. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery• Experienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering discipline• Practices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined

4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking offshore

team captive – aka “BOT” option

www.synerzip.com

Our Clients

www.synerzip.com

Q&A

Call: 1-800-354-2773

Email: solutions@eliassen.com

Visit: www.eliassen.com

Call: 469-322-0349

Email: hemant@synerzip.com

Visit: www.synerzip.com

www.synerzip.com