A Journey through Agile in

the Government

Richard Cheng - @RichardKCheng• Agile trainer & coach

• CST, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, PMI-ACP, SAFe SPC,

Certified Less Practitioner, CAL 1, Certified

Enterprise Scrum Trainer

• Founder & executive committee member of

Agile Delivery for Agencies, Programs, and

Teams (ADAPT)

• Experience in government and commercial

Agile transformations

I’m going to talk about…

Bringing Agile to Government

Scaling

Contracts

Culture

The Future

2007 – Motley Fool

Team 34

2009 – Office of

Personnel Management

"After failing three times to modernize the federal

retirement system with the big bang approach,

the Office of Personnel Management is taking a new

tack that focuses on incremental changes*.”

*http://www.federalnewsradio.com/86/1937813/OPM-Director-John-Berry-promises-big-changes-for-hiring-

retention-retirement

Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions over Process and tools

Working software over Comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over Contract negotiation

Responding to change over Following a plan

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by

doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have

come to value:

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value

the items on the left more.

http://agilemanifesto.org/

Focus

Openness

Respect

Courage

Commitment

Scrum Values

Focus

Openness

Respect

Courage

Commitment

Identify the Value

Previous efforts tried to do a lot:

Identify the Value

Scrum Overview

Product Vision

RoadmapD

ay

Sprint…

…

…

Pla

n

Day

Day

Daily Scrum

Revie

w

Retr

o

Sprint

Pla

n

Revie

w

Retr

o

Idea

Initiation Release

Pla

n

Release Release

Pla

n

Pla

n

Time

Quality Engineering

Do This First

1. Version

Control

2. Build

Automation

3. Automated

Unit Testing

4. Continuous

Integration

Next Do This

5. Static Code

Analysis

6. Dependency

Management

Then Do This

7. Automated

Integration

Testing

8. Automated

Acceptance

Testing

9. Deployment

Automation

Mr. Kenneth Zawodney in statements before Congress*:

How Agile has helped:

“..Modernize our IT infrastructure incrementally, employing a cost effective and

efficient modular approach to transition away from paper and into the modern

era…”

Results:

• “…Establishing the capability of gathering electronic data..”

• “…In 2012, we launched the Data Viewer…”

• “..11 agencies are in a pilot for the Data Viewer..”

• “..Continue to deploy the Data Viewer to all agencies within the Federal

government…”

*http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Mr.-ZAWODNY-Testimony.pdf

Agile Adoption

Retirement

Systems

Service

Credit

Services

Online

Support TeamEndeavor

Core

GalacticaBI/Reports

OdysseyData WH

InfinityOnboarding

SerenityCore

• Managers

• Customer

Comms

• DBAs

• Sys Admins

• 508 Lead

• Security

• Test

Coordinato

r

• PO

• SM

• Archite

ct

• Devs

• BAs

• PO

• SM

• Architect

• Admin

• Devs

• BAs

• PO

• SM

• Architect

• ETL

• SQL

Expert

• Devs

• BAs

• PO

• SM

• Architect

• Devs

• BAs

• PO

• SM

• Architect

• Devs

• BAs

Super Product Owner

Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)

Scaled Agile Framework™ Big Picture

Agile and Federal Contracts

Agile Projects

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 …..

BPA / IDIQ

Task Order 1 Task Order 2 Task Order 3 …..

Acquisition / Procurement

• Contracting professionals:

o Work early and often with the business

o Training and coaching

• Request for Proposals:

o State desired outcome, not statements of work

o Smaller, shorter contracts

o Past experiences based on results, not knowledge

• Governance

o Shift away from approval before start to acceptance when complete

o Govern outcomes and milestones, not work and sequencing

Fixed Date / Fixed Scope

• Outcomes of Fixed Date / Fixed Scope projects:

o Waterfall

1. Delivered _____ and working ________

2. “Delivered” _____ … with ______

3. Cannot deliver on time, ______

o Scrum

1. Delivered _____ and working ________

2. The _____ items are _______ by the requested date and working _______

• Be cautious of sacrificing quality to meet dates

Fixed Date / Fixed Scope

• Outcomes of Fixed Date / Fixed Scope projects:

o Waterfall

1. Delivered on time and working as expected

2. “Delivered” on time … with issues

3. Cannot deliver on time, need to extend

o Scrum

1. Delivered on time and working as expected

2. The highest valued stories are delivered by the

requested date and working as expected

• Do not sacrifice quality to meet dates

Missed Deadline?

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Work Remaining

Project Due Date

2011 – ADAPT

Right about here

Agile in Government

The Future

The Future

Contact Information

Richard K Cheng

richard.cheng@excella.com

703-967-8620

http://www.excella.com

Twitter: @RichardKCheng