Hijack your project gating process:
User Centered Agile in a highly regulated corporation
June 2015
Presented by Paul Smith and Mark Ferencik
Double Your IT dollar
Cut stakeholder features that your customers don't need
Mark [email protected]
Paul M Smith [email protected]
Why Blended Agile?
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•50% of software features are never used
•We will show how to use metrics to focus only on what is needed
•Agile helps projects be successful but it is not enough
Building the right thingRefining the Agile process
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Graphic courtesy of Cary Milsap, “My Case for Agile”
A pure Agile technique speeds up development … but … 3x quicker code can still miss the true need
This is about building the right thing
Waiter or Doctor?
Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
Waiter or Doctor?
Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
Success Rates of Software projectsDoes agile adoption increase software project success?
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The success and failure rates of software projects according to The Standish Group’s industry survey (1994; 2012)
– Successful projects – delivered on-time, on-budget, and with the planned features.
– Challenged projects – either: over time, over budget, or lacking features.
– Failed projects – the project was abandoned.
1994
Challenged 53%
Failed 31%
Success 16%
2012 Waterfall
Challenged 57%
Failed 29%
Success 14%
2012 Agile
Challenged 49%
Failed 9%
Success 42%
Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
Is Agile created software more useful?Use of Features & Functions
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Standish Group Chaos Report: Study of 2000 projects at 1000 companies. 2002Standish Group Chaos Manifesto 2014
Features & functions actually used went down!
2002
Never Used, 45%
Rarely, 19%
Sometimes, 16%
Often, 13%
Always, 7%
2014
Hardly Ever, 50%
Rarely, 30%
Infrequently 20%
Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
Are you listening to the right people?
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That’s all well and good, but here’s what the users
really want …
Have you spoken to your actual customers?
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I did exactly what they told me to do!Is this a successful project?
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From CakeWrecks.com
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Blended Agile
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Just enough detail to avoid refactoring
Development model that plans for change
User StoriesEpics
+/- 50% +/-10%
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Gemba – Go to the real work
– What do they really do?– What are the impacts of their environment?– Build a connection with them so you understand them and they trust you.
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Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
Gather information from actual users:The Task Directed Protocol
Task Directed Protocol
What do you think is working well?
What are the most important things to change about the current process/tool?
Are there any key things you think we should keep in mind as we move forward?
Would you be willing to participate in the future
Thank you for your time
Task Descrip
tion
Who’s it for?
What business
need does it solve?
How often
do you do
this?
How importan
t is it? (1-
5)
Create a contract propo
Contract review team
Let’s the company evaluate the best
weekly
5
Update the prop
Contract review team
Records the contract
weekly
5
Task Directed Protocol“Tell me what you do. Pretend I’m your neighbor
Don’t assume they are using a term the way you
How many others do what you do?
Any other high level questions you need to know
Task Directed Protocola) “Tell me what you do. Pretend I’m your
neighbor who does not understand the jargon.”
Task Directed Protocola) “Tell me what you do. Pretend I’m your
neighbor who does not understand the jargon.”
Task Directed ProtocolTask Details and follow up questonsFollow up question 1Follow up question 2Follow up question 3
Interview questions Task List Task Details Wrap up
- Introduction- Frame the discussion - What is your job (pretend I’m a neighbor who doesn’t know the jargon)- How many others?
- Gather list of the tasks they do in the frames topic- Measure frequency and importance- Who is it for?- What business need is accomplished?
- One per task (stack at your disposal)- Capture the path- Decisions along the way- Critical data used for completing the task.
- Open questions to gather any broad feedback.- What works well?- What doesn’t?- Ask for their involvement on future steps.- Capture benefits
Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
How many people is enough to usability test a design? Five (but it depends on how frequently the problem occurs)
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• Percentage of usability problems discovered while testing on an individual basis• Nielsen advocates that 5 is enough • Jeff Sauro explains it depends on the frequency that the problem occurs.
Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
Structure of a taskmap
Account Manager
Develop account strategy
User group 2 User group 3 User group 4
Need Need Need
Task 1 to meet the need
Task 1 to meet the need
Task 1 to meet the need
Task 2 to meet the need
Task 2 to meet the need
Task 2 to meet the need
Task 3 to meet the need
Need
Task 1 to meet the need
Task 2 to meet the need
Agile User Story format: As a [user] I need to [task] so that I can [need].
Taskmapping breaks apart the stories to understand the flows and relationships.
Need
Task 1 to meet the need
Task 2 to meet the need
Need
Task 1 to meet the need
Task 2 to meet the need
Task 3 to meet the need
Order of needs
Identify goals of the account from account’s perspective
Identify key people to achieve goal of opportunity
Tactics of actions to achieve the goals over next 12 months
Order of tasks per need
Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
Sketchboarding
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Test a mockup with real users as early as possible
– Users are 5x more likely to fail a task if they don’t find the right path the first time.
– Most significant usability problems are connected to the navigation structure which a quick mockup will flush out.
http://www.measuringu.com/blog/first-choice.php
Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
Intuitive solutions increase use over time and decrease long term costs of replacing solutions
We gladly use this
We avoid this
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The high cost of refactoring
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Taskmap Notes
Sketching
Mockup
Code
8x 8x 8x
$1 $8 $64 $512
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Val
ue
Time
Scrum
Ideal
Blended Agile
Working with an ideal goal in mind
Whole picture design gains
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We Can Change The BalanceMaximum Use of Features & Functions
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Standish Group Chaos Report findings 2014 Agile Manifesto 2001
"Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of
work not done–is essential."
The Goal
Rarely, 25%
Used 75%
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2014
Hardly Ever, 50%
Rarely, 30%
Infrequently 20%
Thank you for your time today!
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Copyright Mark Ferencik and Paul M. Smith 2015
How did we get a large risk averse IT organization to move to Agile principles?
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600+ pages
Over 5 lbs!
The Steps Can be Broken Into A Backlog
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Maximize your impact, not code produced
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