The Benefits of

Agile Software Development

for

Senior and Executive

Management

Agile Lean Kanban

http://www.AgileLeanKanban.comDavid Updike

February 2014

About David Updike

An IT veteran since 1980’s

Agile Coach since 2008

Developer for 19 years, Architect, IT Delivery Manager, Scrum Master and former Vice President of Agile Transformations

Member of Agile Alliance, Scrum Alliance, DFW Scrum User Group

and Agile Leadership Network

Blogger at http://www.AgileLeanKanban.com

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) since 2006

Involved in Agile Transformations at American Airlines, Southwest

Airlines, Sabre Holdings, The Broadlane Group, AT&T and others.

What we know

As Senior Management you don’t/didn’t pick Agile Development processes

and practices because they were new, different and have cool development

techniques

You have different objectives

• reducing average time-to-market of software development projects

• increasing return on investment (ROI) in information technology

• increasing end-user effectiveness and satisfaction

• lowering costs and risks

• adapting to a changing business landscape

• higher quality software products

• and even a more satisfied work force

But first, how does using Agile…

utilize Schedule

Budget

and

Feature Scope

Traditional Development is Plan Driven

FIXED SCOPE

(features, functionality)

FIXED

TEAM, BUDGET

(costs)

FIXED

SCHEDULE

(time)

With a given team you MUST complete a set amount of Scope by a fixed

deadline. To do this a team executes Big Up Front Analysis & Design (BUF)

Historical consequences

• Inaccurate detailed early estimates & plan leading to IT Death marches at the end

• IT Death marches and meeting a set scope lead to fragile code bases / bad software

• All the above leads to attrition of unhappy valuable people with deep domain knowledge

Agile Development is Value Driven

VARIABLE SCOPE

(features, functionality)

FIXED

TEAM, BUDGET

(costs)

FIXED

SCHEDULE

(time)

A given team uses “just enough, just in time” evolutionary design to deliver

the highest value functionality with the best quality by the set date.

Differences

• The Business (via Product Owner) decides on most valuable features for each Iteration

• The team proceeds at best possible speed given a very high quality bar

• We deliver on time and on budget every time with the most valuable features

“But we must have ALL of our desired features.”

Do we?

What is often heard…

Standish Group Study on Used Features

Features and Functions Used in a Typical System

Maxim: Our customers don’t use everything we put in front of them equally.

If you really want these

features that’s OK,

However they probably don’t

all need to be in Release 1

Greater

Value

Lesser

Value

“When will the product have enough capability to

release it to our customers.”

Instead we wait for implemented scope which increases time-to-market

What is ISN’T often heard IS…

How does using Agile…

reduce Time-to-Market

and

increase Return on Investment

Reducing Time-to-Market and increasing ROI with Agile

Normal Traditional Development

One Release, 9 months of development

12 months

= 9$ or V

Agile DevelopmentRelease 1 3 months -

MVP

= 18$ or V

Release 2 3 months

Release 3 3 months

V

$

V

$

V

$

VVV

$$$

VVV

$$$

VVV

$$$

VV

$$

VV

$$

VV

$$

VVV

$$$

VVV

$$$

VVV

$$$

Same 9 months of development makes 9 more $ or Value units for

the company (and maybe more than that with a better product)

Reduced

Time to

Market

Increased

ROI

Use real customer

feedback from

Release 1

improve Release

2 product.

V = a unit of Value

$ = a financial unit

MVP = Minimum Viable Product

Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 7 Month 8 Month 9 Month 10

Month 11

Month 12

Month 1 Month 2 Month 3

Use real customer

feedback from

Release 2

improves Release

3 product.

Agile Development involves incremental deliveryAgile Development

Release X

Defined

Release

Features

1day

2 weeks

1day

2 weeks

1day

2 weeks

1day

2 weeks

1day

2 weeks

Next

Release

Planning

DEPLOY

Release

Features

Complete

Release

Planning

D

E

M

O

D

E

M

O

D

E

M

O

D

E

M

O

D

E

M

O

Undeveloped

Feature

Developed

Feature

An option could exist allowing you to

go to Production part way through a

Release.

1day

2 weeks

Scrum Methodology Example

2 Week Iterations

with

Short Daily

Planning Meetings

One method using the Standish Group Studies

Features and Funct ions Used in a Typical System

Identify these

as your

Release 1

(True Minimum

Viable Product)

Identify these

as your

Release 2

Identify these

as your

Release 3

An Example

Identify these

as your

Release 4

Comparing the serial and incremental

approaches to development

Comparing the financial

risk of a serial approach to

development with an

incremental approach (the

numbers are relative).

Scott Amblerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ambler

http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/examiningBRUF.htm

How does Agile use this to…

increase end user effectiveness

and

satisfaction

Lightweight planning

allows the team and

stakeholders to start seeing

working software sooner

and improvements are

made based on this data.

Short feedback loops like

this allow the team to

improve software quicker.

Business and IT work together

throughout the project.

Changes are proposed based on visible

working software that benefit a specific

end user.

The project flexes to accommodate the

changes based on prioritization of the

Business (Product Owner) ensuring

development principles are not

sacrificed.

Quick Feedback Loops, periodic

Demonstrations as well as Team

Retrospectives allow improvements

to be made to the product and

process during development.

Feedback comes from…

The Product Owner

The Delivery Team

Product Stakeholders

Real Users/Customers

Usability studies

Allowing flexibility and changes to

the functionality under construction

allows the team to improve the

experience of the end user which

increases their effectiveness and

their satisfaction.

1) In Release Planning they fill the Release

with what they think can be accomplished.

2) Throughout the Release changes are

proposed to and by the Business Product

Owner.

3) It is the Product Owner’s responsibility to

weigh the changes and if they are

important enough they add it to the

Release while they take out (or lower the

priority of) something of equal size.

How are changes incorporated

How does using Agile…

lower costs

and

risks

Saving costs by not implementing what won’t be used

Features and Functions Used in a Typical System

You probably don’t need

these features.

Face-to-face collaboration

and close cross team

communication reduce

risks of miscommunication.

Where co-located face-to-face collaboration is not possible,

as in distributed environments, teams use other practices to

overcome this obstacle.

Early focus on risky areas of the

Product (functional and technical)

enable the team to mitigate these

risks early instead of late in product

development which could jeopardize

production implementations dates.

Also, frequent demonstrations of

working software exposes risks forcing

them to be handled.

An underpinning of Agile is

transparency. Incremental

progress is highly visible by

everyone through

demonstrations of the growing

software as well as charts and

metrics thus allows better project

governance.

The Defect Cost Curve shows agile techniques

are less costly than traditional techniques

Mapping the potential costs of

addressing defects found by

various detection techniques

(the agile techniques are in

green, the traditional

techniques are in red).

Scott Amblerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ambler

http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/examiningBRUF.htm

How does Agile…

create high quality software products

Agile IT Teams define what the delivery of

Quality means before beginning a project

and call themselves out if this level is not

maintained. The teams deliver software

that this pace can support.

All features are developed to this Quality

definition (usually called a Definition of Done).

Example:

All code is checked in and code reviewed.

Code will be covered by 70% automated unit tests.

All Test Cases pass (automated where possible).

All Performance Tests pass.

All Acceptance Criteria are met.

All code meets Coding Standards & Conventions.

No Critical, High or Medium Defects exist.

Functional Test Cases are fully tested by QA (automated).

How does Agile allow business to…

adapt to a changing business landscape

Your competitors don’t just sit there waiting for

you to deploy new software. You have to

have to ability to quickly adapt to a changing

marketplace.

Create the Product your customers need, not

just the one that was planned at the beginning

As you see the software being created you

should be able to change your plan so that a

better product is created. The lighter the

planning method and processes the quicker

changes can be made and waste is reduced.

With IT Teams focused on delivering

software to a defined high quality bar,

the business has the flexibility to

change future high-level requirements

to meet the needs of a changing

business climate.

Change the future plan as needed

Allowing changes to the Backlog of functionality

Agile Development

Release X

Defined

Release

Features

1day

2 weeks

1day

2 weeks

1day

2 weeks

1day

2 weeks

1day

2 weeks

Next

Release

Planning

DEPLOY

Release

Features

Complete

Release

Planning

D

E

M

O

D

E

M

O

D

E

M

O

D

E

M

O

D

E

M

O

Undeveloped

Feature

Developed

Feature

1day

2 weeks

2 Week Iterations

with

Short Daily

Planning Meetings

Can change

future Stories

in the Backlog

Change

Backlog

as

needed

Change

Backlog

as

neededChange

Backlog

as

needed

Change

Backlog

as

needed

Agile Lean Kanbanhttp://www.AgileLeanKanban.com

http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/daveupdike

Twitter: @updikedave