robert mc geachy common pitfalls agile

Common Pitfalls When Moving to AgilePresented by : Robert McGeachy, PMP

Thursday April 17, 2008

© Copyright 2008 Sapient Corporation | Prepared for ProjectWorld Business Analyst World 2

Learning Objectives

Learn the key benefits of Agile Methodologies versus more traditional approaches

Understand the major issues organizations face when adopting agile processes

Recognize the critical success factors that are needed to be successful with Agile

Moving your organization to Agile is akin to moving to a new country with a

new language and culture. No amount of training can prepare you for every

challenge.


Issues in IT Development Today

Waterfall versus Agile

The Reasons Waterfall Fails

The Principles and Benefits of Agile

Common Pitfalls in Adopting Agile

Critical Success Factors for Your Organization

Agenda


Who is the presentation for?

The people or organizations that are looking to improve on the efficiency of their development processes and the quality and alignment to business requirements

Generally, these methodologies are applied to the software or IT project. But Agile approaches can be adopted for other types of projects.

Some basic or general understanding of Agile Methodologies is assumed

We wont solve all the problems, but will point out the areas organizations should focus on when making a change to Agile








Agenda


Current state of IT development (What’s the Problem)

The Standish Group reports that nearly two-thirds of the features built are rarely or never used, in other words, waste

The root cause of this waste is fundamentally driven by the ways that teams engage with their clients

Customers have been burned and aren’t willing to wait before seeing ROI – they want to know the solution will meet their needs


What we’ve been told about projects today….

Too slow“My needs are changing, but IT can’t keep up”

“Nothing gets done in less than a year”

Not valuable enough“Project scope is wrong. And we’ve already coded half the system”

“I’ve got lots of documentation that no one uses for a system that doesn’t meet my needs.”

“We waste time designing and building features that are never used”

Not responsive“Projects force the business to close on requirements before they really know what they want”

“Every little modification results in a change order”

Not in control“Don’t know what’s going on with the project”

“I’m stuck with a development team that don’t provide value”








Agenda


Waterfall vs. Agile

A project is broken into releases (a release should occur no less frequently than every 4 months)

Releases are broken into short (1-4 week) iterations

Discovery Design Implementation Manage

Waterfall

DefineRelease 1 Release 2

Agile

It 1 It 2 It 3 It 4 It 5 It 6

Release 3

It 7 It 8 It 9

Release 4

It 10 It 11 It 12

Iteration N Iteration N

MonMon Local team: acts as interface to client, does some dev work

Local team: acts as interface to client, does some dev work

team: develops and tests team: develops and tests Fri

Fri

Mon: Iteration kick-off with client

Mon: Iteration kick-off with client

Fri: End-of-iteration checkpoint with client

Fri: End-of-iteration checkpoint with client

Go Live

Go Live








Agenda


The Two Major Reasons Waterfall Projects Fail

Too much emphasis on project scope There is a tendency to scope everything up frontAs the project progresses, to view scope changes as hard and negative. With business environments changing faster than ever, the over-emphasis on scope may slow the pace of change.

Lack of FlexibilityWaterfall techniques depend on completing one phase before moving on to another. Requirements are frozen and then passed on to become working software, with no opportunity for change as users recognize issues or as the business changes.Delayed integration leads to last minute surprises, “well, the design looked good on paper – we never thought it wouldn’t work!”








Agenda


Agile Delivery Model

Short Iterations

(1-4 weeks)

24 hours

(1) Validate/Reprioritize scopeAt the start of each iteration,the team works with the client to validate planned iteration scope and if needed reprioritise or swap scope

(2) Build iteration planThe team works with the client to gain a deeper understanding of the iteration requirements and be able to break the work down allocated to their track. Each track uses this to create an iteration plan

(3) Daily teamMeetingThe team meets daily to report status and address roadblocks

IterationScope

(4) Deliver potentially deployable functionalityThe team performs Analysis & Design, Requirements detailing, Development and testing of the selected scope items to deliver something of value to the client at the end of each iteration

Potentially DepoyableFunctionality

IterationPlan

Checkpoint with client


Agile principles

Highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development and focus on the customer's competitive advantage

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

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

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation


Agile principles (continued)

Working software is the primary measure of progress

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-organising teams

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


The Four Main Benefits of Agile (if done right!)

Increases Flexibility It minimizes up front investment and maximizes return on investment (ROI) by creating an efficient IT development process

Delivers the Right SolutionIt aligns users and stakeholders with the right people to deliver the solution that the business actually needs

Accelerates Delivery Iterations get to the right solution faster

Reduces Risk and Increases Quality Greater stakeholder visibility and control








Agenda


Lack of discipline

Although it may seem counter intuitive, Agile is an extremely disciplined approach to working

Agile does not equal sloppiness. Most people will have a difficult time adjusting to this

Tracking stories to closure, accounting for the velocity of an iteration, tracking one’s estimate to complete -- these are all things where every team will slip up the first few iterations

Without discipline Agile will not work. Setting good examples and continually following up are essential


The iterative death spiral

People misinterpret the term ‘iterative’ to mean that there is unlimited ability to revisit scope

In fact, Agile success hinges on incremental completion of scope throughout the project

Teams that do not effectively define their “exit criteria” for each work unit (known as “story”), will never get real closure on work in progress

This leads to endless cycles of revisions that are really scope changes but which are not labeled so because of the misperception, causing delays, overruns, and a demoralized team


Changes in working style

Developers used to working in a solo mode will have a bit of a hump to get over when working in small teams to complete stories.

This can manifest itself in stalled work, as communication reverts to inefficient mechanisms such as email (instead of sitting together, or picking up the phone)

In a typical project the pressures of learning the business, addressing technology, business, and team personality issues, will very quickly overwhelm even the most prepared person

Add to this a major change in delivery methodology and it will lead one to revert to known approaches

A major mitigation here is training and more importantly, effective support from someone with actual experience in the field


The new role of testing

Automated testing is fundamental to quality, short delivery cycles, and hence the agile model

Yet, there are many barriers: taking on a legacy application with no existing test suites; lack of tools for many aspects of an application; lack of team knowledge on how to do this

People will want to revert to more comfortable manual testing approaches

TDD (Test-Driven Development) will be a struggle to adopt. It is counter-intuitive unless tried


The change in responsibilities and expectations

Given focus on transparency and on pushing responsibility to the team, the Project Lead will be less of a task manager, and more of a problem solver, and will have to “let go” of a lot of previously-held control

Developers will work hand in hand with testers and cannot declare a piece of code “done” until the tester gives the green light

Testers who are used to having a more clearly specified set of tasks will struggle, as the Agile tester role involves more thought, planning, and business knowledge

For Business Analysts, working just in time on requirements will feel very unnatural. Working hand in hand with developers to define requirements and then to help test them as a developer works will feel very foreign

This problem will be exacerbated by the multiple reporting structures that exist between team members








Agenda


Is Your Organization Ready For Agile?

Trust pervades the culture of the organization, the interactions between its people, and its clients

Individuals demonstrate a high level of enthusiasm for or openness toward change

Management empowers individuals to take risks without fear of repercussions

Disciplined execution is representative of the organization’s delivery practices or broadly viewed as a goal worth of striving for

Teams and management alike evidence the commitment and patience necessary to seeing through changes despite challenges and disappointments along the way

A willingness exists to make reasonable investments in tools, training, coaching and mentoring to facilitate successful adoption and sustained change.


Learning Objectives

Learned the key benefits of Agile Methodologies versus more traditional approaches

Understood the major issues organizations face when adopting agile processes

Recognized the critical success factors that are needed to be successful with Agile

We reviewed the major “gotchas” that can derail a project with team

members new to Agile.


Robert [email protected]

robert mc geachy common pitfalls agile

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