Lessons for Large Scale Lean and Agile Product Management

Atlassian Summit 2012

Lessons for Large Scale Lean and
Agile Product Management

Dave Thomas
www.davethomas.net

Bedarra Research Labs, YOW and GOTO
Conferences Queensland University of Technology
and Carleton University

©2011 Bedarra Research Labs. All rights reserved.

Agenda
Ten Point Plan for Transitioning to Agile
Embracing Change
People over Process
Sustainable Pace
Improving Backlogs Through Envisioning
Estimates in The Large
Coordinating Feature and Component Teams


Top 10 List for a Large Transition
1. Do Lean Assessment to establish a baseline
2. Establish Realistic Expectations for Capacity, Predictability,
Quality and Productivity
3. Plan for Systemic Change over 12 -18+ months; Establish a
Change Management Plan – Governance, Careers,
Communications, Facilities, Transition Team ...
4. Streamline Portfolio Backlogs through Envisioning
5. Implement CI and Automated Measurement Infrastructure;
Invest in an inventory of automated tests
6. Implement Lean Organization with a strong Technical Ladder
7. Provide everyone appropriate Training/Mentoring and Tooling
8. Focus on Tangible Acceptance Criteria, Business Value and
Estimates
9. Align and resource Feature and Component Teams
10. Learn and adapt from experience, both yours and coaches


Embrace Change
Change is easy if you are not doing it!
Change is hard if you want to, impossible if you don’t!

A Natural-Born ‘Leader’
Emerges... apparently self Change Model
It Works!
organization needed his
leadership Will be great
I’m not sure aha

This sucks?

Agile Commitments
Successful development requires trust and transparency
between customer/management and supplier/development
Need to foster a “works with” instead of “works for”
relationship

Relationship between Development Team and Management

Management Development
Vision Predictability
Communication Working With Quality
Coordination Visibility
Coaching Discipline
Managing Scope


Key Changes in a Typical Transition

1. Accept that there is a “software physics”
 Finite capacity …
 You can’t build what you don’t understand or can’t test
 You can’t do new design/feature in a release time box
 You can’t build components and dependent applications in the
same time box
 The only hard decision is what you are NOT going to do
 Done means acceptance tested!
 …



2. Directing and Managing => Leadership and Coaching
 Work With versus Work For – Coaching versus Directing
 Increased self discipline for teams and individuals who own
deliverables, quality and schedule
 Increased individual ownership with associated responsibility
and accountability
 Leadership owns and manages risk
 Executive and Management Coaching



3. My Way => The Best Same Wrong Way
 Common vocabulary, practices applied sensibly and metrics
aligned with practices
 Make sure everyone knows one way before fixing it
 Improve process each release of the company i.e. triage
process/practice/tools defects like other defects
 Encourage teams to have their way which is still consistent with
the best wrong way selected


People over Process
It is About Values!

Drive: The Surprising Truth About
What Motivates Us

by Daniel Pink

Purpose
Autonomy
Mastery


Leadership Matters...
Has integrity and stands by values
Has the wisdom of experience
Articulates the vision (metaphor)
Executes with transparency
Leads by example
Delegates authority
Coaches versus directs
Makes timely consistent decisions
Has a good sense of humour
Says when they are wrong
Positively motivates and educates
Judges fairly, promotes trust
Promotes constructive diversity
Always tries to find the best wrong answer

“Agile Leadership is Fragile” Nigel Dalton LP


Lean Software Organization
Technical Ladders, Playing Coaches and Communities

Management Ladder
Learning COIs
Executive Technical Ladder

Distinguished Management
Customer
Technical Director Engineer Architects
Product
Leads
Mgr
Principal Tools
Individual Release Products Process
Team Leader Engineer
Contributor… Deployment Infrastructure
Support Platforms
Test
Individual Outstanding Coaches
Driven
Contributors… Contributor Development

Align Compensation with Work Products and Goals


Sustainable Pace
It is all about Flow and What Constrains It

 Use Common Language
 Use a Common Tool Chain
 Leverage Whole Teams
 Ensure Transparency
 Ensure Tangibility
 Manage to your Capacity
 Identify and Remove Waste
 Automate and Measure Everything
 Decide Fast and Consistently
 Design for Change, Build to Last


Visualize Flow – Put It On The Wall
You Can Only Improve what You Can Measure

Artifact
Status Reporting
Status of artifacts such as
personas, problems, use
scenarios, stories
Cumulative Flow

CI Environment
Reporting
Status of stories written, Query &
stories completed, tests Reporting
written, tests passed and
tests failed Unit and Story Tests

Subjective
Reporting
Qualitative data entered by
teams at retrospectives

Retrospective Reports


Effective Metrics Need to be Visible to the Enterprise

Respect the Organization API

• Portfolio Process
• Program/Project Process
• Financial Reporting
• HR Processes
• Infrastructure and Deployment Process
• LDAP...

Treat them as customer requirements and ensure
the work to support them is visible


We love Agile Development BUT ...
There are really just a couple of problems
Productivity
Quality
Predictability/Estimates
Management of Expectations
Product Owners Availability
Reduce Owner Burnout
Requirements Churn
Portfolio Management
Reduce Rework
Reduce Integration Costs
Not Collocated
....


It’s All in Backlogs! Evidence for Action
Lumpy Stories – sizes, estimates, clarity
Story Rework Due To Changing Requirements
Uncompleted Stories
Story Rework Due to Integration Problems
Missing Important Functionality
Done but not usable, poor performance
Done doesn’t mean acceptance tested?
More stories keep getting added to the backlog
Lack of business Value/Tangibility
Blocked on Another Team
Blocked waiting on Product Owner
All resources 100% + allocated


Large-Scale AIL Development Activities At-A-Glance

Lean and Agile Values and Principles

Product Owner Team Common Work Practices

Envisioning Definition Development Release
Engineering
Team… Team… Team…
Team…
CI&T
Prototypes/Models Architecture

Requirements Product Backlog Team Sprint Shippable
Backlog Release Release Code CI&T
Backlog Backlogs Increments

Risk Backlog
Team… Potentially
Shippable
Product

Release Backlogs
Team…
GUI Guidelines

©2006-2007 Bedarra Research Labs and Object Mentor

Envisioning
Envisioning develops a clear product vision /roadmap to deliver the right
product to the right market using the right technology through consultation with
users and choosers.

10% of overall effort Prototypes
& Models
Market & Product Requirements
Technology AnalysisBrainstorming Backlog
Evaluations & Visioning Deliverables
Prototyping
Competitive Delta Risk
Analysis Acceptance
Criteria Backlog
Customer Field
QFD Studies & Interviews
House of Quality GUI
Guidelines

Practices Deliverables
 Brainstorming & visioning  Competitive  Requirements backlog  Risk
analysis (SWOT)  Delta analysis  QFD backlog  Analysis & Verification
 Customer studies  Hardware, platform & Reports  Prototypes/Models
component evals  Prototyping/modeling
 Look-and-Feel Guidelines

AIL Portfolio (Backlogs)
Program Feature Team Company Backlog
P1 F1 Blue
Program Backlogs
F2 Blue
F3 Red Team Backlogs
F4 Red
F5 Red
F6 Red Program Medical Imaging
P2 F7 Yellow
F8 Green Feature MRI Mechanical Control
F9 Green
F10 Purple Epic Table Movement
F11 Purple
P3 F12 White Story Horizontal Movement
F13 White
F14 White Task Position w/ Joy Sticks
F15 White
Component F16 Orange
F17 Orange
F18 Orange

Estimates – Do Them Fast and Often

Collectively Owned By Team
 2 or 3 point estimates to include
uncertainty 3 point

 All items in backlog 2 point
 AIL uses Ideal Days 1 Point
 Planning Poker (wide band
delphi)
Low, Relati Ideal
Medium,
ve Days
High Point
s

Program and Feature Estimation Planning

Feature and Program Estimation Dev Estimation, Negotiation, and Commitment

Feature Team Features are The scrum team refines Based on discussion,
builds backlog allocated to the features into work work items may be
containing list a specific items called stories, moved from one sprint
of feature with release. A divides the stories into to another sprint,
a first release is a 3-6 sprints, and prepares a moved from one team
estimate. sprint time second estimate. The to another, deferred to
box. estimates are compared another release.
and consensus is
reached thru discussion.

Product Scrum 1
Product Sprint 1
Release Release
Backlog Backlog
Backlog Backlog

Product Scrum 2 Sprint 2
Release
Backlog

Scrum 3 Sprint 3

Activity Based Estimates – Managing Risk for Large
Projects
Activity Examples Worst Best Expected Likely
Java Code (classes, methods)
Interface
Pricing Table (table size)
Process (steps)
Product/Data Definition (Tables/Fields)
Rules (Decision Table (conditions/rules)
Forms (screens, widgets)
Printed Forms (page types, widgets)

Story
Estimate Risk
Window

Activity Estimate

Feature and Component Teams Coordination
.
Feature Epic
Component Component Component
A B C

Component Epics

Component 1 Component 2 Component 3

Feature A Priority 1 Feature A Work Feature A&B Work Feature A Work

Feature B Priority 2 Feature B Work

Feature C Priority 3 Feature C Work Feature C Work

Successful Software Development is
about a Winning Culture
Software is a team sport, and like all team sports practice,
constructive peer feedback, and coaching are essential.
Winning teams need to implicitly know the moves of each
player, as well as the movements of the team as whole.
The ultimate expression of process is a culture where building
software is more like playing jazz. People Just Do It!

Thanks!

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