scaling agile in government

1© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved. V4.0.0© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Steve MaynerScaled Agile, Inc.May 19, 2016

Scaling Agile in the Government Space:Common Questions and Uncommon Answers

2© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2

SAFe® Senior Program ConsultantScaled Agile, Inc.

[email protected]@stevemayner #SAFestevemayner


Intro to Scaled Agile, Inc.

4© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Our mission is to help system and software-dependent enterprises achieve better business outcomes, increase employee engagement, and improve

economics through the application of Lean-Agile principles and practices based on the Scaled Agile Framework

Scaled Agile Mission


SAFe® is a freely revealed knowledge base of integrated, proven patterns

for enterprise Lean-Agile development.

Knowledge for people building the world's most important systems

www.scaledagileframework.com


50,000

3,700

70%

Today


Leading the market


Business results


Scaling Agile in Government


U.S. Federal Government State of Agile Adoption


The status quo is no longer acceptable.

One thing we know…


Healthcare.gov

Thanks to one event…


What changed?

US Digital

Service Playbook

TechFAR

18F

US Digital

Service


Late breaking news…

OMB Guidance – Transforming Agency Management Practices for the Agile Age: Becoming an Agile Organization, April 2016

– advocates the creation of digital services teams

– directs agencies towards using open source, cloud-based, and commodity solutions across the technology stack

– provides a helpful synopsis of many of the key principles drawn directly from the Agile Manifesto.

– establishes a timeline for actions - says OMB will create an agile dashboard within 3 months

– states that reports on agile adoption will be “made public based upon agency-reported data in the IT Dashboard starting on May 1, 2016.”


Agile adoption is growing

4USCIS

4CBP

4US Courts

4DOJ

4VA

4EPA

4USDA

4NGA

4CIA

4Secret Service

4FBI

4SSA

4HHS

4NASA

4GSA

4 IRS

4USPTO

4Pockets in DoD


Reality check…

4There is no government-wide mandate to use Agile… only permission

4 Individual agencies and programs can still choose traditional methods

4Agency lifecycle models and governance still assume a waterfall approach

4Many contracting shops don’t understand how to solicit for and manage acquisitions for digital (Agile) services

4Project orientation vs. long lived value streams is deeply engrained in the government context

4Long acquisition lifecycles, multiple contractors, agency silos, etc. create impediments to Agile adoption

4Change is hard... especially in government


CBP ACE – A Case Study

4Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Automated Commerical Environment (ACE)

– CBP is the second largest generator of revenue for the U.S. (after IRS)– Facilitates trade and travel into and out of the US

– ACE and ACS (Automated Cargo System) are the primary mission enabling IT systems for managing shipments of goods into the U.S.

– Primary customer: the ”Trade” (from Walmart and GM to mom and pop importers)

– Legacy ACE systems built on a mainframe platform – fragile, inflexible, difficult to maintain, costly, unable to accommodate the demand for new features

– CBP attempted to replace the mainframe system with modern technology twice..both failed ($3.2B)

– The third time they decided to try something different…$436M, 3 years, and...


Reality check…









Laden, M. (2010, January 31). ACE in the hole. International Trade Blog. www.shippingsolutions.com Office of the Inspector General Report OIG-15-91 May 11, 2015 https://www.oig.dhs.gov

“IN BREACH”


From the OIG report…

“CBP started a pilot program in 2013 which restructured its process to Agile, a rapid deployment strategy that had a shorter delivery cycle and more

oversight and accountability. In June 2013, the program was removed from breach status and ACE development restarted using Agile.”


But my agency doesn’t have a burning platform…

4 Truth: the journey to Agile transformation may be long and difficult

4 Recommendation: facilitate Government-to-Government engagement at agencies with Agile success stories.


Reality check…









Use the tools available…


And implemented SAFe…


Overcoming waterfall governance…

4 Truth: every lifecycle governance standard I have encountered (DoDI 5000.2, SELC, EPLC, PMAS, etc.) has some recognition of iterative and incremental processes, or a tailoring option that gives programs a path to submit a plan that demonstrates how the need for oversight can be met using Agile methods.

4 Recommendation: find other programs in your own agency that have already forged this path and plagarize liberally! Otherwise, be prepared to do the work of mapping Agile to your lifecycle model (and be willing to share the final results!)


Reality check…









It can be done…


Excerpts from the PWS…

SPECIFIC TASKS AND DELIVERABLES

The teams will be guided by Agile values and principles as stated in the Agile Manifesto at www.agilemanifesto.org. Contractor staff assigned to these teams shall have expertise and will be responsible for accomplishing specific tasks derived from accepted Agile practices. These tasks and activities are grouped into five major areas: organization, communications, planning, development and testing.



In regard to organization, the Government will provide a product owner for each team who will act as the voice of the customer and work directly with each Sprint development team. The Contractor shall provide staff operating in dedicated, integrated teams capable of delivering an increment of tested, deployable software for the Sprint in which they are assigned. The Contractor shall keep oversight and governance as lean as possible to empower the teams and push decision-making as close as possible to those doing the work. Contractor Team members shall choose their tasks from the highest priority work available, rather than have it assigned to them by a manager, fostering commitment from team members to the work, and also encouraging team members to venture outside their typical roles to help in whatever way most benefits the team as a whole, in accordance with the Agile development methodology.



As Agile values embrace the expectation that the development teams will inspect and adapt their development process to provide greater customer value, specific tasks may be modified over time through a regular process of retrospectives that look back and take advantage of lessons learned.

The Contractor shall develop software following an Agile methodology. Requirements shall be organized into a prioritized Product Backlog starting with the current, existing backlog. Software shall be developed according to the prioritization of this backlog.

The Contractor shall follow the below Agile methodologies:

Time boxed sprints Frequent releases User Stories Story Points Agile estimation

Team velocity Sustainable pace Definition of done Product backlog Release planning

Automated builds Continuous integration Refactorting Version control Coding standards


No excuses…

4 Truth: The FAR (with guidance provided by the TechFAR) has all of the flexibility necessary to create fully Agile centric contracts!

4 Caution: Many “agile contracts” are regurgitated waterfall contracts with a few “agile” terms sprinkled in here and there… avoid at all costs!

4 Recommendation: find examples of REAL agile RFPs and provide to customers, contracting officers, etc. (a POC for follow-up questions would be helpful too).

Jonathan Mostowski Matthew Kennedy, PhD Mark SchwartzProcurement Advisor Senior IT Specialist Chief Information Officer

US Digital Service Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

USCIS


Reality check…









Phil LandfriedActing Executive DirectorCargo Systems Program OfficeOffice of Information and Technology

Brenda SmithLead Business AuthorityExecutive DirectorACE Business OfficeOffice of International Trade


Leaders must lead

It is not enough that management commit themselves to quality and productivity, they must know what it is they must do.

Such a responsibility cannot be delegated.

—W. Edwards Deming


Leaders must lead

People are already doing their best; the problems are with the system.

Only management can change the system.

—W. Edwards Deming


Learning from great leaders

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world”

Mahatma Gandi

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”

Nelson Mandela“If you treat people right they will treat you right…90% of the time.”

Franklin Roosevelt

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”

John F. Kennedy

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”

Martin Luther King

“A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader… a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”

Ronald Reagan


Transformational leadership

‣ Offer support and encouragement to individual followers

‣ Keep lines of communication open

‣ Offer direct recognition for contributions of each followerGrowthCreativity

Vision Authenticity

‣ Be a role model; set the example

‣ Create an environment of trust and respect

‣ Articulate a clear vision

‣ Inspire passion and motivation to achieve goals

‣ Challenge the status quo

‣ Encourage followers to learn, be creative, explore new ways of doing things

‣ Empower decision making

plan doadjust

check

Transformational leaders inspire change balanced with focus on productivity and performance…Dr. Ronald Riggio


Why it matters:

Herold, Fedor, Caldwell, & Liu. (2008). The effects of transformational and change leadership on employees’ commitment to a change: A multi-level study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 346-357. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.93.2.346

Transformational leadership has a greater influence on followers’ commitment to supporting

organizational change than implementing specific change management practices.


Phil LandfriedActing Executive DirectorCargo Systems Program OfficeOffice of Information and Technology

Brenda SmithLead Business AuthorityExecutive DirectorACE Business OfficeOffice of International Trade

Brenda SmithAssistant CommissionerCustoms and Border ProtectionOffice of International Trade

Phil LandfriedActing Chief Information OfficerCustoms and Border ProtectionOffice of Information and Technology


Leadership matters…

4 Truth: There is a direct correlation between the level of success in Agile adoption in government agencies, and the quality of the leaders championing the transformation (in my experience)

4 Recommendation: help leaders who have the vision and the desire but not the knowledge by getting them trained so (to quote Deming) “they know what they must do...”

4 Recommendation: get government leaders to talk to their peers who are further along in their transformation journy.


Gain the Knowledge

Explore the SAFe®

knowledge base and find free resources at:

ScaledAgileFramework.com

Leading SAFe® 4.0with SA Certification

Implementing SAFe® 4.0with SPC4 Certification

Find SAFe® trainingworldwide at:

ScaledAgile.com


Final note…

4The ACE program completed all 13 program increments exactly as scheduled

4Their customers (”the Trade”) have given the program tremendous praise for consistent, predictable delivery, better usability, better performance, higher quality, higher reliability

4They just held their celebration of completing the third attempt at replacing the mainframe less than a month ago.