Reducing Risk in Agile Projects

Jeremy Jarrell@jeremyjarrell

What is Risk?

Building the wrong thing

Not working as a team

Festering problems

“This project is too riskyfor agile.”

Frequent demos to the customer

Daily stand upsRegular

retrospectives

Iteration

Project

Project Risk.

Features Deadline

Team

Features

Deadline

Iteration Risk.

What could happen?

How likely is it?

P×I=E

P×I=E.Mmm,

As a customer, I want to review my transactions, so I can see where I’m spending my money.

There’s too many transactions to pull quickly.

Some transactions are delayed.

Some transactions are delayed.

Probability = 3

Impact = 1

Exposure = Probability × Impact= 3

There’s too many transactions to pull quickly.Probability = 2

Impact = 3

Exposure = Probability × Impact= 6

There’s too many transactions to pull quickly.

Invest time in performance tuning.

Pre-aggregate the transactions.

As a customer, I want to view how my current spending compare against my budget,so I can see how I’m pacing for the month.

The graph doesn’t work in IE6.

The ‘UI Guy’ gets sick mid-sprint.

The graph doesn’t work in IE6.Probability = 3

Impact = 1

Exposure = 3

The ‘UI Guy’ gets sick mid-sprint.

Probability = 3

Impact = 3

Exposure = 9

The ‘UI Guy’ gets sick mid-sprint.

Pair with another developer.

Peer code reviews.

P×I=E

What’s next?

Tackle high risk stories first

Beware of stories with many risks

Look for patterns