challenges in agile

1. Welcome to
the PDU session on
“Challenges on Agile projects”
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

2. Objectives
 Differences between traditional methods and Agile
 Challenges on Agile projects
Caused by Agile or Exposed by Agile?
Integration challenges on complex projects
Dealing with technical debt
Blocking issues
Education of stakeholders
Heavy R&D and design requirement
Support distractions
 Summary
 Q&A
Bhawani Nandan Prasa

3. Differences in traditional and Agile methods
 Agile relies on incremental and iterative
development
 A deliverable is produced every few weeks (1-4
weeks) at the end of the iteration
 All the engineering activities need to completed
within the time-box of the iteration
 Code at the end of the each iteration needs to be
“near releasable”
 After certain number of iterations (when
substantial value is created), the release
concludes
Bhawani Nandan Prasa

4. Caused by Agile or Exposed by Agile?
 Ask the question – is this challenge “caused by
Agile” or is it “exposed by Agile”?
 Examples:
Unreliable estimates
Distributed teams
Immature teams
 Agile does not fix all the dysfunction – but it will
expose it sooner!
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

5. Multiple teams; Integration challenges
 What is the challenge?
Dependencies between teams need to be coordinated
Integration between teams as they are in parallel
development
 Caused by:
Agile teams are small
Large products or applications will have multiple teams
working in parallel
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

6. Multiple teams; Integration challenges
 How to address?
Call out dependencies early and plan ahead
Plan for buffers for any hand-offs (“look ahead planning”)
Publish interface definitions and integrate using mock
interfaces
Automated tests to validate integrations frequently
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

7. IC (Iteration Cycle) Topology Discovery
1.4 Features & Dependencies
Product = <name> IC #1 IC #2 IC #3 IC #4 IC #5 IC#6 IC >6
Key Features/
Themes in IC
1.Asset &
Network
Discovery
(without
Topology)
1.Marimba
agent
detection
2.Normalization
/reconciliation
of Windows
data with CD
1.Normalizatio
n of
Windows
and Unix # 1
2.Marimba
agent
detection –
queries and
GUI
configuratio
n
• Normalized
Unix and
Windows
asset
discovery # 2
• GUI-based
Domain
import
• New database
support
(Oracle 10g,
SQL Server
2005)
• GUI wizard
optimization
(grouping
methods)
1.TD model
convergence to
CDM (Classes
and atributes)
2.Unix &
Windows
normalization
3.Map sharing
4.CMDB export
(filtering per
instance via
GUI)
5.Wizard
parameters
ordering
1.GUI features and
model change
finalization
2.Other discoveries
and asset data
normalization
(tokenid generation
and export to CDM)
3.Domain hostname
management (allow
hostname entry)
4.Wizard
paramenters
ordering
1.Bug-fixes
2.Integration with any revised
CMDB drops
3.Documentation
Delivered On:
Best Case Date =
Most Likely Date =
Worst Case Date =
12/20/2006
12/16/2005
12/23/2005
1/17/2006
01/13/2006
01/17/2006
01/21/2006
1/31/2006
01/27/2006
01/31/2006
02/06/2006
02/16/2006
02/10/2006
02/14/2006
02/21/2006
02/21/2006
02/24/2006
02/28/2006
3/1/2006
3/6/2006
3/8/2006
Product dependencies (need) IC #1 IC #2 IC #3 IC #4 IC #5 IC #6
<Project>
(by worst case date)
CMDB 2.0
locked
down
12/9/2005
Marimba CD
drop
1.CMDB drop
early access
(~2 days
prior)
1.CMDB drop
early access
(~2 days prior)
1.CMDB drop
early access (~2
days prior)
CMDB drop early
access (~2 days
prior)
CMDB drop early access (~2
days prior)
<Project>
(by worst case date)
CMDB needs
Asset &
Network
for Recon
<Project>
(by worst case date)

8. Technical debt
 What is the challenge?
Work that needed to be done during the iteration did not
get done
E.g. All tests did not run, defects pending
All the debt accumulates till the end
 Caused by:
Running out of time while trying to complete features
Tendency to claim success even when it is not complete
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

9. Technical debt
 How to address?
Define clear “Done criteria” and adhere to it strictly
Plan for periodic “stabilization” or “hardening” iterations
to remove technical debt
 But resist the temptation to rely too much on “hardening”!
Be transparent about the existence of debt
 Plan for metrics and thresholds
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

10. Iteration “done” criteria (example)
 Software with all features work as defined by the user story
 All QA testing for completed features is done with no
pending defects
Regression tests pass
 All documentation is completed
 Planned stories demonstrated to the Product Owner,
Customer and other stakeholders
Copyright (c) Sandeep
Shouche, PMP, PgMP, PMI-
ACP, CSM

11. Blocking issues
 What is the challenge?
If the team gets blocked by any issue (even for a few
hours), the success of iteration is compromised
 Caused by:
Iterations are very short – not much time to recover
 How to address:
Encourage team to bubble up blockers quickly
Scrum Master/Project Manager needs to be pro-active in
tracking these issues
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

12. Education of stakeholders
 What is the challenge?
The team follows Agile principles, but they are not supported by
other stakeholders; e.g. Unrealistic expectations, top-down
management
 Caused by:
Everybody having different expectations from the methodology
 How to address:
Give quick primer/introductory Agile training for the stakeholders
Do NOT use Agile if customer and management are not on-board
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

13. Requirements intensive on design, R&D
 What is the challenge?
Some requirements are complex and/or require a lot of R&D
It takes a while to design the basic framework for a system
 Caused by:
Iterations may be too short to absorb the R&D and design activity
 How to address:
Spend time on analysis and design but time-box it (write research
or SPIKE requirements)
Get used to “just-enough” and evolving design
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

14. Support workload disrupts development
 What is the challenge?
As the team is working on a new version, they are distracted by
issues and defects from the previous version (support issues)
 Caused by:
Support activity tends to be ad-hoc by nature and can disrupt
iteration schedule
 How to address:
Reserve time for support activities
Form a dedicated “sustaining” team to ring-fence and protect
development activity
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

15. Summary
 When you encounter an issue or challenge while working on
an Agile project, first ask yourself the questions – “Is this
caused by Agile” or “Did Agile expose this”
 There is always a way to tweak the methodology to help
address an issue – process tailoring is required
 Use the methodology as a “starting methodology” and
evolve your own based on what works for you
 But make use of discussion forums and available sources of
guidance before re-inventing the wheel!
Bhawani Nandan Prasad

16. Thank You; Questions?
Bhawani Nandan Prasad