Be Agile…Stay LeanA gentle introduction to agile/lean principles

• Giuseppe Lucio Sorrentino

AgendaStay Agile…Be Lean G. L. Sorrentino 40m

Does software fail?

The new product development game

Lean principles

Empirical by definition

SCRUM and Kanban

Does software fail?

How often software fails? 1

• 5 to 15 % of the IT project will be abandoned before or shortly after delivery as hopelessly inadequate

• Many others will arrive late and over budget or require massive reworking

“Failure is not an option…

…it comes bundled with the software”Unknown Auhtor

Why waterfall fails more? There are many replies…

• Waterfall • Agile/Lean

The new development game

The new product development game 2

“Companies are increasingly realizing that the old, sequential approach to developing new products simply

won’t get the job done. Instead, companies in Japan and the United States are using a holistic method as in

rugby, the ball gets passed within the team as it moves as a unit up the field.”

Manifesto for agile software development 3

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

The 12 Principles of Agile Development

They can be divided into four categories 4:

1. Delivering the project

2. Communicating and working together

3. Project execution

4. Constantly improving

Delivering the project1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of

valuable software

2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile process harness

change for the customer’s competitive advantage

3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with

a preference for a shorter timescale

Activity TimeWhat’s in your team?

Communicating and working together

4. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a

development team is face-to-face conversation

5. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project

6. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support

they need, and trust them to get the job done

Activity TimeWhat’s in your team?

Project execution7. Working software is the primary measure of progress

8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The

sponsors, developers and users should be able to maintain a

constant pace indefinitely

9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design

enhances agility

Activity TimeWhat’s in your team?

Constantly Improving10. Simplicity – the art of maximize the amount of work not done – is essential

11. The best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from from self-organizing

team

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, than tunes and

adjusts its behavior accordingly

Activity TimeWhat’s in your team?

Be agile…Many Agile Framework describe:

• Governance

• Time-boxed Strategy

• Meetings and Tools

SCRUM is just one of many Agile Frameworks

DSDM, AUP and many others agile frameworks exist

Lean principles

…Stay Lean! 5

Two Principles (JIT and Jidoka) to:

• reach organization goals

• driven by oranization values

• through specific tools and methods

Kanban cards and boards were just two lean methods used in Toyota

Kanban was choosen as name for aFramework from D.J.Anderson in 2010

Goals

Just-In-Time Jidoka

Methods and Tools

Values

Just-in-time

Airport Check In Process

Client Arrives Client On Board

Three main types of wastes:

• Activities not adding value (Muda)

• Uneveness (Mura)

• Overburden(Muri)

Two main objectives:

• Eliminate wastes in the process• Defend the process flow

Just-in-time

Airport Check In Process

Client Arrives Client On Board

Security Check

THROUGHPUT TIME - TT

CYCLE TIME - CT

Bottlenecks Law: increase TT and create Queues

Effects of Variation Law: More variation increase TT

Activity TimeProcess Simulation

Jidoka 5

Two main objectives:

• decide as late as possible

• empower the team

• see the whole

Empirical by definition

One more thing… 6

References1. http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/why-software-fails

2. https://hbr.org/1986/01/the-new-new-product-development-game

3. http://agilemanifesto.org

4. Learning Agile, A. Stellman and J. Greene, O'Reilly, Nov. 2014

5. This is Lean, N. Modig and P. Ahlstrom, Rheologica Publishing, Nov. 2012

6. http://intenseminimalism.com/2010/the-dot-loop-the-simplest-process-possible/