[MM.DD..YY] [PRESENTER]

Aug 24, 2010 Agile or Irrelevant

Agile or

Irrelevant

How websites are built • requirements gathering• planning?• design & development• testing• launch• maintenance

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schoolstreet/163727710

Why do we plan?

• Certainty• On time• On budget• On scope

• Better user experience• End user• Stakeholder

• Improved returns• Waste

What are the outcomes of planning?

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/3707230247

How are we doing?

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dannawi/archive/2009/05/15/2009-standish-chaos-report-we-are-successful-in-the-failure.aspx

Creating valueHow do we know what creates value for end users and stakeholders?

Predict | Test

Best way to gather opinions http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/429194752

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardofrancone/4358780638 http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/2270628017

http://ww

w.flickr.com

/photos/niallkennedy/54261427

Innovation phases

time

inn

ova

tion

high levelspecs

detailedspecs

mockups validation live

Freedom to innovate

Insight to innovate

The fallacy

Web development can be planned to precision

Software development is accidently complex and essential complexEssential complexity cannot be solved with predictive planning

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kraetzsche/3820338564

The fallacy

Web development can be planned to precision

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kraetzsche/3820338564

Parnas and Clements

1. User and customers do not know exactly what they want

2. Even if the developers know the requirements, the details become clear only as they develop the system

3. Even if all the details could be know up front, humans are incapable of comprehending that many details

4. Even if we could understand all the details, product and project changes occur

5. People make mistakes

Empirical processes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/msabbath/2326998337

Individuals and interactions over processes and toolsWorking software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiationResponding to change over following a plan

Empirical processes Empirical Process

move from predictive to adaptive

useful for processes with lots of noise and unpredictability

three cornerstones• transparency• inspection• adaptionhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/picture_taking__fool/99560925

What is ScrumScrum is an iterative and incremental agile framework for completing

complex project

Named from an analogy in a 1986 study by Takeuchi and Nonaka, published in the

Harvard Business Review comparing high-performing, cross-functional teams to the

scrum formation used by Rugby teamshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/sk8geek/4624935280

Example Waterfall Process:

Waterfall vs. Scrum

Requirements

Design

Implementation

Verification

Requirements

Design

Implementation

Verification

Website (6 months)

Feature(2 weeks)

Example Scrum Process:

Value driven process – Sprinting

Three Scrum Roles:

1. ScrumMaster• Facilitator; enforces Scrum process

2. Product Owner• Owner of the product backlog• Works with client to prioritize features• Focused on ROI

3. Team• Responsible for developing functionality• Self-managing, self-organizing, cross-functional

Scrum roles

What happened to…Project manager• Responsibilities distributed to all roles

UX architect• Works one sprint ahead of the team• Opportunity to move from heuristics to

observation

Business analyst• Works both with product owners &

directly with team

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/2743756315

Just in time strategy

Make decisions when you have the most dataMake decisions based on working software (not paper prototypes)

Minimize the amount of work not done

Adequate planning and frequent conversations

Just-in-Time Strategy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/4503154179

Innovation

“Uncertainty is the only thing to be certain of.”- Anthony Muh, Citigroup, Asia

“If you don’t like change, you are going to like irrelevance even less. ” - General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtyler/4296489988

Five Disciplines of a Learning Organizations

1. Personal mastery – commitment by an individual to the process of learning (driven by creative tension)

2. Mental models – assumptions (best practices) held by individuals and organizations. Models must be challenged.

3. Shared vision – creates a common identity that provides focus and energy for learning. Built on the individual visions of staff at all levels.

4. Team learning – ability of the team to learn and think as a whole where the sum is greater than the parts. Driven by open dialogue, discussion, shared meaning and shared understanding.

5. Systems thinking – A conceptual framework that allows people to study businesses as a bounded objects (close systems). Created by making all characteristics apparent at once, in particular connections between cause and effect (feedback).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rytc/282673909

How Scrum drives innovation

• Personal mastery• Learning accountability: held accountable to the team on a daily and sprintly

basis• Cannot do things half way; must meet the definition of done

• Mental models • Challenged and adapted on a regular basis in sprint retros• Allows and encourages frequent observation

• Shared vision• Develops from sprint planning and backlog grooming• Tuned in daily standups

• Team learning• Paired development; work is highly collaborative.• Dialoging is encouraged in sprint planning, daily standups and sprint retros

• Systems thinking• Sprint reviews enable continuous inspection and adaption on the product• Sprint retro enables continuous inspection and adaption on the process

Thank you

Tom McCrackenLevelTen InteractiveDirector

Phone: 214.887.8586Email: tom@leveltendesign.comTwitter: @levelten_tomBlog: leveltendesign.com/blog/tomLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tommccracken