Agile Methods and Approaches – A Perspective

TechGig Webinar, Date: 29th February, 2012

Niranjan Nerlige V, M.Tech (IIT- B), PMI-ACP, CSP,CSMFounder ,Chief Consultant, Agile Coach and TrainerExelplus Services, Bangalore.

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NIRANJAN NERLIGE V, M.TECH(IIT-B), PMI-ACP, CSP, CSMFOUNDER, AGILE COACH, CONSULTANT AND TRAINER•His main interests are providing Consulting, Coaching, Mentoring and Training in Agile Methodologies, Transitioning to Agile Successfully, Scrum Project Management, CMMI-Agile(Hybrid Process Model adoption), Project Management, Software Estimation Techniques, Project Management (Traditional and Agile).•17 Years of Experience in Software Quality Assurance, Deployment of Software Development Processes and 2.5 Years as a Consultant and Entrepreneur•He is Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) from PMI, Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and holds Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) certification from Scrum Alliance. •He has been a Consultant to eRevMax Software in Kolkota. He has coached, consulted on Scrum implementation and conducted Scrum workshops in this organisation..•He has been a Consultant and Trainer to Ion Idea for Agile –Scrum Process adoption and development of Agile project management in-house tool •Currently , He is

– Consultant, Agile Coach and Trainer to IpInfusion for Agile-CMMI implementation– Consultant for Arbitron– Regular trainer for Agile and Scrum project management in Yahoo .– Regular Trainer for Oracle-Hyderabad in Agile– Regular Trainer for Symphony Services in Agile, Estimation etc.

•Trained more than 1000 people in Agile Methodologies

Contents

• Why Agility?• Business Case for Agility• Traditional Approach v/s Agile Approach• Agile Values• Agile Benefits• Current Applicability of Agile• Agile Frameworks and approaches

– Scrum – XP– Kanban– Lean – Agile

• Variations In Agile Methods – Selecting an Approaches

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Changing Business Scenario - Rapidity

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Mobile Phones 10-15 years back

Latest Mobile Phones

Markets are very dynamic

Changing Business Scenario – Rapidity(Contd…)

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TVs 10-15 years back

Latest TVs

End Users Needs are changing very fast

Changing Business Scenario – Rapidity( Contd…)

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The changing times of banking industry doing Business

Why Agility?

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Rapidity of Business changes

Rapidity of Business changes

need for agility to respond more

effectively to change.

need for agility to respond more

effectively to change.

Any Enterprise that aspires to respond in real time must have the ability to be agile when needed

Any Enterprise that aspires to respond in real time must have the ability to be agile when needed

Business Case for Agile

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Agile methodologies change the face of software development

People Over ProcessesPeople Over Processes

ROI and time-to-market. Increase in ROI as well as reduce time-to-market. (incremental working software)

Increase in ROI as well as reduce time-to-market. (incremental working software)

Customers see quality, productivity and turn-around time as a risk in Offshore development

build trust and confidence as the customer is part of the team - (customer collaboration & embracing change)

build trust and confidence as the customer is part of the team - (customer collaboration & embracing change)

Agile Methods

Stresses customer satisfactionEmphasizes team work - enable groupware style developmentAllows agile programmers communicate with their customers and fellow programmers quite regularly and empowers them to confidently respond to changing customer requirements, even late in the life cycle

Stresses customer satisfactionEmphasizes team work - enable groupware style developmentAllows agile programmers communicate with their customers and fellow programmers quite regularly and empowers them to confidently respond to changing customer requirements, even late in the life cycle

Agile Methods are successful because, They

The Traditional Approach

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Requirements Gathering

Design

Development

Testing

Rework

Documentation, Signoffs, Handoff

Documentation, Signoffs, Handoff

Documentation, Signoffs, Handoff

Documentation, Signoffs, Handoff

Job Function A Job Function B Job Function C Job Function D Job Function E

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• Linear• Sequential phases• Directed teams

separated by specialty (phase)

• Feedback at end

• Linear• Sequential phases• Directed teams

separated by specialty (phase)

• Feedback at end

Agile: Incremental & Iterative Software Development

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Feature ADesign Develop Test Rework

Feature BDesign Develop Test Rework

Feature CDesign Develop Test Rework

Feature DDesign Develop Test Rework

Feature EDesign Develop Test Rework

Cross-Functional Team (Designers, Developers, Testers)

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Benefits of iterative development:• Early mitigation of high risks • Early visible progress.• Early feedback, user engagement,

and adaptation, leading to a system that more nearly meets the needs of the various stakeholders.

• Managed complexity – no compounding of complexity by postponing the implementation phase.

• Learning within an iteration.

Benefits of iterative development:• Early mitigation of high risks • Early visible progress.• Early feedback, user engagement,

and adaptation, leading to a system that more nearly meets the needs of the various stakeholders.

• Managed complexity – no compounding of complexity by postponing the implementation phase.

• Learning within an iteration.

Agile Methods which are in Wide-Spread use are• Extreme Programming (Kent Beck)• Scrum (Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, Mike Beedle)• Crystal (Alistair Cockburn)• DSDM (Arie van Bennekum)• Feature-Driven Development (Jeff De Luca)• Lean Development (Bob Charette)• Adaptive Software Development (Jim Highsmith

Agile Methods in Wide Spread Use

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Agile Umbrella

Scrum XP RUPLeanDSDMFDD

More…

• Extreme Programming (Kent Beck)• Scrum (Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland,

Mike Beedle)• DSDM (Arie van Bennekum)• Feature-Driven Development (Jeff De

Luca)• Lean Development (Bob Charette)• Crystal (Alistair Cockburn)• Adaptive Software Development (Jim

Highsmith)

• Extreme Programming (Kent Beck)• Scrum (Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland,

Mike Beedle)• DSDM (Arie van Bennekum)• Feature-Driven Development (Jeff De

Luca)• Lean Development (Bob Charette)• Crystal (Alistair Cockburn)• Adaptive Software Development (Jim

Highsmith)

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“All models are wrong, some are useful…..”George Box, industrial statistician

“All models are wrong, some are useful…..”George Box, industrial statistician

Benefits Of Agile Methods in Software Development

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Business Value

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Source: Thanks to Pete Deemer

Uncertainty and Risk

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Source: Thanks to Pete Deemer

Where Agile Methods is being used for

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• Large – Scale enterprise software projects• Consumer software products• US FDA approved software for X-Rays, MRIs• High availability systems(99.99%)• Financial Payment applications• Large database applications• Embedded systems• CMMI Level 5 organizations• Multi Location development• Sustenance and Maintenance Projects• Non-Software Projects

Agile Methods & Approaches

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Scrum Methodology

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Antithesis of Agile Dynamics

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sequential progress; disparate roles; accountability & ownership issues

Agile: Scrum -team moves as one unit

Term used in Japan in 1987 to describe hyper-productive development

Term used in Japan in 1987 to describe hyper-productive development

The Essence of Scrum

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Definition of Scrum“Scrum…is a framework within which you can employ various processes andtechniques…within which complex products can be developed”-Ken Schawber, ScrumGuide,, May 2009

Definition of Scrum“Scrum…is a framework within which you can employ various processes andtechniques…within which complex products can be developed”-Ken Schawber, ScrumGuide,, May 2009

Scrum Basics

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Daily 15-minute“Stand-up” Meeting

The Team1-4 Weeks

Product Owner

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Prioritized Listof Requirements

(product back log)

Team MakesCommitmentfor the Sprint (Sprint Backlog)

Sprint Review

ScrumMaster

Input from End-Users,Customers, Team andOther Stakeholders

Team Selects How Much ToCommit To Do By Sprint’s End

Potential ShippableProduct Increment

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Benefits of Scrum

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Benefits of Scrum•Targets Product Owner’s functions-of-value•Focus on team communications•Frequent demonstrations for early feedback from stakeholders•Team spirit •Sense of accomplishment

Benefits of Scrum•Targets Product Owner’s functions-of-value•Focus on team communications•Frequent demonstrations for early feedback from stakeholders•Team spirit •Sense of accomplishment

Remember the following

•Sprint is not a “mini- waterfall”•Must result in quality,, demonstrable value to Product Owner•Beware of defect build-up (aka technical debt)•Thinking “smaller” chunk of work aka “user stories” to demonstrate in each sprint is challenging at times.•Each sprint should have requirements, design, development, and testing activities

Remember the following

•Sprint is not a “mini- waterfall”•Must result in quality,, demonstrable value to Product Owner•Beware of defect build-up (aka technical debt)•Thinking “smaller” chunk of work aka “user stories” to demonstrate in each sprint is challenging at times.•Each sprint should have requirements, design, development, and testing activities

Extreme Programming

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Extreme Programming• A collection of best practices – each done to the

“extreme”• Sounds extreme, but very disciplined• Created by Kent Beck, Ward Cunningham, Ron

Jeffries • Adds specific engineering practices to Scrum’s

project management approach• A tough target to hit but highly productive if

you do

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Scrum works well as a wrapper around Extreme Programming

Scrum works well as a wrapper around Extreme Programming

Extreme programming(XP)

• Twelve practices

– Based on what has worked on projects, taking them to extreme

• If something is good why not do it all the time?

• Small teams (under 20)

• Onsite customer presence

• Planning game

– Negotiate requirements in form of stories captured on index cards

• 2 to 3 weeks iteration

• Scales well for smaller team

– But, a competent smaller team is better than a large team following heavier methodologies

• Deemphasizes documentation

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XP PracticesCustomer Practices

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On Site CustomerOn Site Customer

Small ReleasesSmall Releases

Quality Practices

MetaphorsMetaphors

Test Driven developmentTest Driven

development

Simple DesignSimple Design

RefactoringRefactoring

Pair ProgrammingPair Programming

Planning GamePlanning Game

Sustainable PaceSustainable Pace

Collective OwnershipCollective Ownership

Coding StandardsCoding Standards

Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration

Choose Extreme Programming if

• …you have loosely-defined or volatile requirements• …you have or can develop strong engineering skills and practices• …customers can be involved on a daily (hourly) basis• …Suitable for small teams (Upto 12 Nos)- Small teams are more

flexible, and better able to adapt to change than fifty- or one-hundred-person programming behemoths.

• … Strong Commitment to XP (from the top echelon of executives all the way down and Customers)

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Kanban Cards Limit Excess Work In Progress

• Kanban literally means “visual card,” “signboard,” or “billboard.”

• Toyota originally used Kanban cards to limit the amount of inventory tied up in “work in progress” on a manufacturing floor

• Not only is excess inventory waste, time spent producing it is time that could be expended elsewhere

• Kanban cards act as a form of “currency” representing how WIP is allowed in a system.

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Why use Kanban in Software Development?

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Time-boxed iterative development has challenges

Common problems include:• Short time-boxes give more frequent opportunity to measure

progress and inspect software but force development items to be smaller

• Smaller development items are often too small to be valuable and difficult to identify

• Chances of sacrificing Quality often suffers as testers race to complete work late in the development time-box

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Why use Kanban in Software Development?

Using a Kanban approach in software drops time-boxed

iterations in favor of focusing on continuous flow.

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Kanban in a nutshell

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Visualize the workflowSplit the work into pieces, write each item on a card and put on the wallUse named columns to illustrate where each item is in the workflow.Limit WIP (work in progress) Assign explicit limits to how many items may be in progress at each workflow state.Measure the lead time (average time to complete one item, sometimes called “cycle time”), Optimize the process to make lead time as small and predictable as possible

Visualize the workflowSplit the work into pieces, write each item on a card and put on the wallUse named columns to illustrate where each item is in the workflow.Limit WIP (work in progress) Assign explicit limits to how many items may be in progress at each workflow state.Measure the lead time (average time to complete one item, sometimes called “cycle time”), Optimize the process to make lead time as small and predictable as possible

This simple process flow has the steps: 1.Analysis 2.Development3.Test4.Deployment5.Done

Kanban – When to choose?

• Scrum, XP more rules to follow, whereas Kanban less rules to follow• Beware of less rules, it shouldn’t drive you to “ whatever you can do”• Used when time to completion is more important than time boxed

iterations

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Source: Scrum and Kanban by Henrik Kniberg

Kanban – How to choose

• Kanban is applied even for few people working in small projects , where as Scrum requires 7 people and + 2 or -2 .

• More suitable in support environment where less people are involved

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Lean –Agile Software Development

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Lean software development is a translation of Lean manufacturing and Lean IT principles and practices to the software development domain. Adapted from the Toyota Production System, a pro-lean subculture is emerging from within the Agile community.

Lean software development is a translation of Lean manufacturing and Lean IT principles and practices to the software development domain. Adapted from the Toyota Production System, a pro-lean subculture is emerging from within the Agile community.

Select the Minimum Marketable features that makes sense to users and deploy

Select the Minimum Marketable features that makes sense to users and deploy

Lean Principles applied on Software Development

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1) Eliminate waste2) Amplify learning3) Decide as late as possible4) Deliver as fast as possible5) Empower the team6) Build integrity in7) See the whole

1) Eliminate waste2) Amplify learning3) Decide as late as possible4) Deliver as fast as possible5) Empower the team6) Build integrity in7) See the whole

Unnecessary code and functionality Delay in the software development process Unclear requirements Insufficient testing, leading to avoidable

process repetition Bureaucracy Slow internal communication

Unnecessary code and functionality Delay in the software development process Unclear requirements Insufficient testing, leading to avoidable

process repetition Bureaucracy Slow internal communication

Running tests as soon as the code is written.

Avoid writing adding more documentation Requirements gathering could be simplified

- UI screens Usage of short iteration cycles

Running tests as soon as the code is written.

Avoid writing adding more documentation Requirements gathering could be simplified

- UI screens Usage of short iteration cycles

Delay decisions as much as possible until they can be made based on facts and not on uncertain assumptions and predictions

Delay decisions as much as possible until they can be made based on facts and not on uncertain assumptions and predictions

The sooner the end product is delivered without considerable defect, the sooner feedback can be received, and incorporated into the next iteration.

The sooner the end product is delivered without considerable defect, the sooner feedback can be received, and incorporated into the next iteration.

The lean approach favors the aphorism "find good people and let them do their own job," encouraging progress, catching errors, and removing impediments, but not micro-managing

The lean approach favors the aphorism "find good people and let them do their own job," encouraging progress, catching errors, and removing impediments, but not micro-managing

The complete and automated building process should be accompanied by a complete and automated suite of developer and customer tests

The complete and automated building process should be accompanied by a complete and automated suite of developer and customer tests

“Think big, act small, fail fast; learn rapidly” “Think big, act small, fail fast; learn rapidly”

Lean –Agile Software Development for an Enterprise Agility

•While Scrum is effective at the team level, Enterprise Agility requires an Enterprise view. •Trying to build an holistic view from pieces is not nearly as effective as driving from the Enterprise to begin with. •Lean provides guidance in both "optimizing the whole" as well as "respecting people" to create a balance of effective team working on Enterprise goals . `

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While Scrum has caught on in the industry, many companies are finding scaling it to be problematic

Lean –Agile Software Development for an Enterprise AgilityLean Agile Software development to maximize realized business value, requires:•Managing how product enhancements are initiated •Giving guidance for product managers to work together to perform product portfolio management •Managing dependencies between the software development organization and the other groups which it works with •Managing dependencies across the software development organization •Integrating development and QA roles to increase quality of software and eliminate waste •Deciding on engineering practice standards across software development teams

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/Scrum/ Agile

Summary - Selecting an Approach

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Factor XP Scrum Scrum-Lean Kanban Lean thinking

Keeping team intact Prescribed Prescribed

Use time-boxed intervals Yes Yes Yes No

Prioritize users stories across a team

Yes Yes Yes No

When to release completed work

At the end of selected iteration

At the end of selected iteration

At the end of selected iteration

Whenever at the discretion of team

Works in Support Environment

No No No Yes Yes

Co-Located Teams No guidance No guidance Use fast-flexible-flow to create optimal flow

Manage with appropriate WIP limits

Use fast-flexible-flow to create optimal flow

Support for the product-management organization

No No Yes Partial Yes

Code Quality Yes Not discussed

Use a workflow that increases quality

Use a workflow that increases quality

Use a workflow that increases quality

Questions ?

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List of References

• Selecting a development Process by Mike Cohn, Mountain Goat Software

• Scrum and Kanban from Trenches by Henrik Kniberg

• Lean-Agile Software Development by Alan Shalloway, Guy Beaver and James R.Trott

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Thank You For Your Time …………..

Niranjan Nerlige V, M.Tech ( IIT, Bombay), PMI-ACP, CSP ,CSMFounder, Chief Consultant , Trainer and Agile CoachExelplus ServicesA1, Samhita Vista, 1st Main,Pai Lay Out, Bangalore-560016Mobile: 99000 55943E-Mail: niranjan@exelplus.comWebsite: www.exelplus.com

Global Excellence Through Innovative solutions

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