introduction to recipes for agile governance in the enterprise (rage)

Instructor: Kevin Thompson, PhD, PMP, ACP, CSP, CSM

The leader in training and consulting for project management and agile development

Principles of Agile Governance

Copyright 2013, cPrime Inc.

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Who is cPrime?Engaged For Your Project-management Success


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Who Are You?

1) How big is your organization?

2) What is the dominant type of project in your portfolio?

3) Which of these best characterizes the products you develop?


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Start Communicating!• Download the white paper “Recipes for Agile Governance (RAGE):

The Enterprise Web.”

• Email: [email protected] • Social media: #RAGEwebinar • Chat room: http://us11.chatzy.com/89016233074361. Password: RAGE

• Share ideas and you could win an iPad! http://www.cprimelabs.org:8090/display/AgileGov/Agile+Governance+Home

• Give a real world example of how a company could use one of the principles discussed in the white paper/webinar.

• Tell us about the biggest problem you face that this model would address.

mailto:[email protected]

http://us11.chatzy.com/89016233074361



http://www.cprimelabs.org:8090/display/AgileGov/Agile+Governance+Home




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After the webinar…

• We will send directions to collect the PDU you will earn from attending this webinar

• We will also send a links to the recorded webinar and presentation slides once they are posted online

• Please hold your questions until the end of the presentation


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About Our Presenter

Kevin Thompson, Ph.D., has a doctorate in Physics from Princeton University, and extensive background in managing software development projects. He specializes in training individuals, teams, and organizations in agile development. Dr. Thompson helps companies make the challenging transition to agile development by working with development teams and business stakeholders to identify their needs, define the right process for the business, determine the steps needed to implement the process, and work through the steps successfully. Dr. Thompson has Project Management Professional (PMP), Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP), Scrum Master (CSM), and Scrum Practitioner (CSP) certifications.

Kevin Thompson


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What will You Learn Today?

• Not a particular Agile process like Scrum, Kanban, or SAFe• But the principles that will enable you to create processes like

these, at any level in an enterprise from project to portfolio• You will no longer be constrained by what processes already exist• E.g., if you like SAFe, use it. If you don’t, create your own process.

We are sharing knowledge gleaned from years of work with very small to very large clients

• This information has not been made public before• Now, it is yours• We intend to provide an open-source solution over time


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How will Principles of Agile Governance Benefit You?

1. With processes that work for your world2. With rapid decision-making at minimal cost

• Reduce the time, effort of making decisions• Make them more frequently• Think Lean Start-Up: Less time spent making plans, quicker test

of your hypotheses• Have more opportunities to experiment, learn, change direction

3. With high visibility for priorities, status of work


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Coming Now, and Coming Soon

Now• The principles of Agile Governance. This is the foundation for

what follows.

Soon• Follow-up presentations of practical examples for a variety of

real-world scenarios• Portfolio, Program, and Project levels• Agile and Hybrid Projects• Metrics, Artifacts, and Techniques


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Motivation: Common Enterprise Problems

• Things that take too long• Time-to-market: 18 months instead of eight weeks• Integration test cycles: too many, too many months

• Things that often fail• Coordination across Business Units• Dependencies• Handoffs

• Confusion• Lack of clarity around authority to make decisions• “Too many cooks in the kitchen”• Lack of understanding about what can be meaningfully estimated• Inadequate determination of ROI to support portfolio decisions


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Poll

Which of the following is your greatest challenge?


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What doesn’t Work

• Business as usual• We’ve tried that. We’re still looking…

• A random collection of point solutions• Every problem has a context• Point solutions help, but are often too narrow

• Scaling Agile• The cure is not “scaling Agile.” It is creating solutions that work.• Companies have complex and widely-varying needs, including

hybrid processes, that can't be addressed by a one-side fits all "Agile scaling" framework.

• Agile processes (Scrum, XP, Kanban) are not always the right solution! There are valid reasons for using plan-driven and hybrid processes.


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Begin by Forgetting what You Know

Imagine a large company that produces technology products

The most important question to answer about the continuing development of these products is not

• What features to build• What technologies to use• What infrastructure to develop• How to manage development

The most important question is• How do we decide what to do?

… because this covers everything else


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Analyze

DecideAct

Decision Loops are Key

1. Analysis guides decisions

2. Decisions drive actions

3. Actions produce results, which inform a new analysis

• The better our decisions, the better our results• Focus should be to optimize decision-making• This focus leads us to the concept of “governance”


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Governance

• Is often mentioned, but seldom defined• Is commonly seen as being about control• Is really about decisions that lead to actions

Our definition:

“Governance is the formalization and exercise of repeatable decision-making practices”

• In other words, Governance is how to decide what to do


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Agile Governance

• Agile Governance is an Agile style of governance• Enables rapid decisions, based on lightweight artifacts developed

with minimum effort• Is applicable to any process (Agile, Plan-Driven, Hybrid, etc.)

• Agile Governance reflects the values of the Agile ManifestoEmphasizes interaction, collaboration, results, adaptation to change

OverProcesses, tools, internal documents, contracts, plans

• Agile Governance is adaptable, not rigidly prescriptiveCustomizable recipes“Thou Shalt Do Things Exactly as Prescribed”


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Levels of Governance

• Classic perspective• Project: Temporary endeavor to deliver a fixed scope• Program: Collection of linked projects• Portfolio: Group of Programs/Projects to be managed together

• Classic definitions don’t map well to Agile world, but…• Hierarchical organization is still relevant.• Our levels for Agile Governance

• Project Level: Refers to work of a single Team, which is a persistent grouping of people

• Program Level: Refers to the collaboration between Teams• Portfolio Level: Refers to the development and management of

business initiatives that lead to program- and project-level work


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Levels of Governance


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What is your biggest issue in portfolio

governance?

Poll


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Inspiration from Scrum

• Scrum is our “pathfinder” process, because it• Is prescriptive enough to have a meaningful identity• Supports customization for local needs

• A Scrum process provides many “governance points” at which decisions are made, in meetings or on the fly

• We seek not to “scale up Scrum,” but to1. Understand how governance is conducted in Scrum2. Develop principles that can be applied in other contexts


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Principles versus Recipes: What’s the Point?

Define “governance recipe” to be a mildly prescriptive and customizable technique

for making a specific type of decision

• A process such as Scrum contains a particular set of governance recipes• Scrum as “Prix Fixe” menu

• The point is not to meet only the needs of purely-Agile projects• Unrealistic to expect a single “Agile scaling” framework to handle the

variety of practical, real-world scenarios (e.g., hybrid projects)• The point is to

• Understand the principles that enable effective governance• Help you to construct useful governance recipes to organize work

effectively for your world


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Some Common Principles for Agile Governance

1. Standard Recipe Elements2. Common Role Types3. Categories of Governance Points4. “Good Enough” is “Good Enough”5. Granularity6. Definition of Done7. Handoffs

Download Recipes for Agile Governance: The Enterprise Web from www.cprime.com for much more detail

http://www.cprime.com/


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How the Principles Work Together

Recipes have Standard Elements, including Common Role Types and Categories of Governance Points. We organize deliverables at each level into a small number of coarse-Granularity items, which we rank by value, and for which our estimates for effort, value, etc. should be Good Enough for the current need, and no better. Work is always completed to a Definition of Done, and the Handoff from source to receiver is accomplished through sustained interaction over time.

Download Recipes for Agile Governance: The Enterprise Web from www.cprime.com for much more detail

http://www.cprime.com/


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1: Standard Recipe Elements1. Roles

A Role defines areas of responsibility associated with different aspects of governance. People who fulfill these Roles collaborate with others to decisions, but have sole authority over their area.

2. CeremoniesCeremonies are recurring meetings, with specific and standardized agendas, attendance, and practices, and for specific purposes.

3. ArtifactsDifferent artifacts serve different purposes (requirements, planning, etc.), but most decisions make use of artifacts to some degree.

4. Tracking and MetricsTracking progress requires collecting data for useful metrics.

5. Governance PointsA governance point is a moment at which someone who fulfills a particular Role makes a decision in the domain of that Role’s authority, based on standard practices, metrics, and artifacts.


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Example: Scrum Recipe Elements1. Roles

ScrumMaster owns process. Product Owner owns product requirements. Team owns estimates, and task definition / assignment.

2. CeremoniesBacklog Grooming, Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-Up, Sprint Review, Retrospective

3. ArtifactsStories, Task Breakdowns.

4. Tracking and MetricsTaskboard, Burndown Chart.

5. Governance PointsStory completed to Definition of Done. Product Owner approval of Story.


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Example: Waterfall Recipe Elements1. Roles

Project Manager manages project. Program Manager manages set of projects and their interactions. Product Manager develops high-level product requirements. Business Analysts develop detailed requirements. Project Team implements product. QA Team tests product.

2. CeremoniesDaily Status Meetings, Post-Mortems

3. ArtifactsProduct Requirements Documents, Change Requests, Task definitions, Project schedule.

4. Tracking and MetricsGantt Chart, % done per Task

5. Governance PointsPhase Gates


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2: Common Role Types

These responsibilities are very common, and it is useful to formalize the responsibilities and authority into associated Roles

1. Define specifications for deliverables2. Monitor progress, remove impediments, and enforce the

defined process3. Build and validate deliverables

Example: Scrum Roles• Product Owner• ScrumMaster• Team


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3: Categories of Governance Points

These types of decisions occur frequently

1. Develop Specifications for Deliverables2. Rank Deliverables3. Plan Implementation4. Perform Implementation5. Monitor Status of Work

These resemble the Project Management Institute’s Process Groups, but differ because the notion of a Project as a one-off effort to deliver a unique result differs from the concept of continuing work to augment products over time.


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4: “Good Enough” is Good Enough

Estimates for scope, effort, or value for a new product or feature are not possible.• Goal of estimation should be a number that is good enough to

meet immediate needs, and no better.


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5: Granularity

At all levels• Define, estimate, and plan deliverables at coarse granularity,

focusing on a modest set at any one time• Work by ranking (sequencing) deliverables, and estimating

what will fit into a specific period of time• Use simple decision criteria, and crude (but quick) estimates to

enable rapid decision making and quick generation of plans

It is occasionally necessary to create longer-term plans at a detailed level (as for Release planning), but these are costly and time-consuming efforts, and seldom appropriate for what-if analyses. Engage in these efforts only when the cost is truly justified.


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6: Definition of Done

A “Definition of Done” (DoD) is a policy statement about generic criteria that work on deliverables must satisfy before work can be considered “done.” It excludes specific test cases for specific deliverables.

Examples:• A DoD can be created for a specific Team’s work on Stories

(the DoD for Stories)• A set of Teams doing similar work may share a DoD for their

Stories• An organization may define a DoD for a product release, that

must be satisfied before the product can be released to production for use by customers


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7: HandoffsHandoffs of information or work from one group (source) to another (receiver) are common. Handoffs can be conducted in three ways.

1. Documentation: Source writes a document or fills out a form2. Discussion: Source and Receiver meet to discuss the

handoff, and ensure that it is successful3. Collaboration: Source and Receiver meet as many times as

needed to work through issues, and do whatever work is needed after meetings to make the handoff successful

The right choice depending on the degree of complexity and uncertainty involved. These are often under-estimated, resulting in handoffs that fail.


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Governance versus Scaling versus SAFe• The focus of scaling is to create an Agile process, for a particular type of

deliverable, that works on larger scales than one Team. SAFe is an example of such a scaled process.

• The focus of Agile Governance is to discover principles that enable the development of effective decision-making recipes that work at all levels, and across multiple organizations or business units, in a large enterprise. • A particular process, such as SAFe, can be described by a particular set of

Agile governance recipes

• SAFe defines specific and highly prescriptive practices for developing and delivering software applications. It defines technology-related roles and a variety of software-engineering practices, mixing decision-making and execution into a single process. It is not designed to address heterogeneous environments with widely-varying needs.


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Conclusion

• The Principles of Agile Governance enable rapid decision-making through a combination of standard elements

• The focus is to create or customize a process by defining a set of Agile Governance Recipes that define how decision-making is done for that process• Some processes (like Scrum) come with these• Some (like Kanban) are standardized but incomplete, and can be

“retrofitted” with governance recipes• Some must be developed from scratch, for specific situations• Enterprises routinely have a combination of processes, some

Agile, and some not• These principles are not limited to a specific context, but are

useful for a wide variety of situations and processes


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Coming Up: Practical Recipes for Different

Worlds• We have presented some principles for effective and Agile

governance

• Our follow-up presentations will provide examples of practical

recipes for specific situations:

Portfolio Governance

Program Governance for Application Development

Program Governance for Production Deployment

Project Governance for Distributed Scrum Teams


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Question & Answer