Post on 16-Apr-2018
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Contents
• Introductions
• Agile Core Concepts
• Where We Are Today
• Where We‟re Going
• How The PM Role Will Remain The Same
• How The PM Role Will Change
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Introductions
• Rick Freedman, Director of Project Management, Adams
Gabbert:
– Agile coach and mentor to clients:
• Microsoft, Intel, HP, Motorola, Dept of Homeland Security,
Turner Broadcasting, Bank of NY, Credit Suisse, etc.
– Author:
• “The IT Consultant”, “The e-Consultant”. “Building the IT
Consulting Practice”
• ESI‟s “Agile Project Management” Course
• TechRepublic‟s Project Management Blog
• TechRepublic‟s IT Consultant Blog
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Pandora: The Agile Enterprise
• Tom Conrad, Pandora CTO:
“If you’d asked me during my career, what
were the biggest innovations, I wouldn’t
have said laptops, or the Internet, I
definitely would have said that the
massive change in the way we write
software was the single most
disruptive thing I’d seen.”
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Pandora: The Agile Enterprise
• Tom Conrad, Pandora CTO:
“We were a launch partner for the iPhone,
for Google TV, for Facebook, and if we
weren’t able to respond to these market
opportunities it would have meant the
difference between success and
failure for the entire company.”
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• Agile is Not a Methodology!
• Agility is Strategic!
What Pandora (and others) have learned
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Agility
“Agility is the ability
to both create and
respond to change in
order to profit in a
turbulent business
environment.”
“Agility is the ability
to balance flexibility
and stability.”
Jim Highsmith, one of the originators of the
Agile Manifesto, defined agility as the
following:
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Core Agile Concepts
Results
“First Things Fast”
Focus on high-impact
activities
Creative, innovative
teamwork
Emergent outcomes
Business Agility!
Core Concepts
Iterative, incremental
development
Constant, committed
collaboration
Change-readiness
Self-directed work teams
Measurement by Results!
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Agile Business Objectives
• Continuous Innovation
• Product Adaptability
• Improved Time-to-Market
• People and Process Adaptability
• Reliable Results
• Egalitarian Meritocracy:
– Reality-Based
– Intrinsically Motivated
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The Agile Mindset
• Value over Constraints
– Continuous Flow of Value over Time
– Innovation by Iteration
– Lean Thinking
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Traditional vs. Agile Project Triangles
Scope
Cost Schedule
Value
Quality Constraints
Traditional Project Triangle Agile Project Triangle
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The Agile Mindset
• Team over Tasks
– “Manage Things…Lead People”
– Self-Organization means Self-Discipline
– Collaboration and Participation
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The Agile Mindset
• Adapting over Conforming
– Deliver, Inspect, Adapt
– Respond to Change
• Agile is NOT a methodology!
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Where We Are Today
VersionOne State of Agile 2011Survey:
Manage Changing Priorities: 87%
Improve Project Visibility: 78%
Improve Team Morale: 71%
Accelerate Time to Market: 70%
Improve Strategic Alignment: 68%
Improvements Cited:
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Where We Are Today:
• My Observations: (Not A Scientific Survey)
– Interest In Agile Is Universal
– Most Agile Experiments Are Bottom Up
– Most Utilize “Tiger Team” Approach
– Most Encounter Resistance From Waterfall
Advocates
– Many Encounter Resistance From Product Or
Financial Teams
– PMOs Can Be Enablers Or Inhibitors
– Vast Majority Are Hybrid Implementations
– As They Mature, Most Orgs Introduce Roadmaps
– “Once You Go Agile, You Won‟t Go Back”
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Where We‟re Going
New Directions in Agile:
Scaling to large teams
Roadmapping
Hybridization
Agile Metrics
Agile Top-to-Bottom
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Scaling
• Large Projects „Look‟ Traditional But „Feel‟
Agile:
• May Require More Structure And Governance, But
Still Adhere To Agile Philosophy:
– Collaborative, Iterative, Change-ready, Self-directed,
Lean
– Create A Leadership Team
– Divide Teams Into Specialty Areas Or Functions
– Collaborate Based On Coupling Requirements
– Push Decision To The Lowest (Efficient) Level
– Teams Of Teams (Scrum Of Scrums)
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Roadmapping
• Executives have 2 questions:
– What‟s the investment?
– What are the risks?
• Engineers have 2 questions:
– Is it feasible?
– What (in our current infrastructure /
architecture) has to change?
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Roadmapping
• For Innovation / Exploration Projects, Detailed
Specs Can‟t Reduce The Risk
– Only Exploration / Iteration / Adaptation Can!
• Iteration 0: Useful But Not Sufficient
• Roadmap Is A Long-term Vision And Strategy,
Not An Estimate
– Less Specific As It Projects Further Out
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Roadmap Example
2012: Internal
System Test
Health Care Exchanges 2014
2013: Limited
Public Access
2014:
Regulatory
compliance
2011: Define
Business Rules
Program 1: Process and
Rules Discovery
Program 2: System
Solution and Prototype
Program 3: Production
and Inspect/Adapt Loop
Project
Level
Release
Level
Sprint /
Iteration
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Hybridization
• Scrum-erfall
• Scrum-ban
• Scrum, but
• Selection Criteria:
– Executive Sponsorship
– Size
– Scale
– Risk
– Marketplace
– Agile Readiness
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Agile Metrics
• Our Focus On Adapting Rather Than
Conforming Requires Different Metrics
• Quality: More Than Just “Conforming To Spec”
– Also Requires “Ability To Extend And Adapt”
– Agile Quality Requires Modular Integration
– Agile Quality Enables Continuous Flow Of
Value
• Budget:
– Governance Rather Than An Absolute
Number
– Value For Investment, Not Predictability
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Agile Top To Bottom
• No matter how agile the development team, they
hit the wall when:
– The Strategic Planning Process is Not Agile
– The Budget Process is Not Agile
– The Product Development Process is Not
Agile
• Mature Agile Enterprises Migrate Towards All-In
Agility!
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Agile Top To Bottom
• Agile Strategic Planning Process
– Runs on an agile schedule:
• 90 days, not annually
– Includes the right people:
• Not just executives
– Produces priorities and decisions:
• Not just lists
• Same with Agile Budgeting and Product
Development:
– They‟re inclusive, iterative, Adaptive, Flexible
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How The PM Role Will Remain The Same
• PMs still need to be leaders
• Must be risk-focused
• Must be influencers
• Must have intrinsic authority
• Must understand the processes they‟re
managing
• Must be able to recognize quality and value
• Must deliver business results!
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How The PM Role Will Change
• Just getting an agile certification is not enough!
• PMs must internalize the egalitarian meritocracy
that drives agile philosophy
• They must be collaborative:
– The “Project Bureaucrat” hiding in a room adjusting
Gantt charts will fail: agile is too transparent
• They must be facilitative:
– Facilitation skills drive agile work processes,
decisions
• They must be adaptive:
– Plan driven, constraint-focused PMs will struggle