Goto night - Agile fix price contracts

Trifork GOTO Night

Agile fix price contracts in software

projects

12. December 2013 / erwin.saegesser@nis.ch

12. December 2013 / erwin.saegesser@nis.ch

Trifork GOTO Night

„I don’t like the term agile fix price

contracts“

12. December 2013 / erwin.saegesser@nis.ch

Trifork GOTO Night

„Agile fix price contracts -

Sometimes it’s better to withdraw

from an opportunity“

12. December 2013 / erwin.saegesser@nis.ch

Trifork GOTO Night

„Agile fix price projects require a

variable scope“

... would you?

... it leads to believe

Better is ...

“… can be made a success, but you

need to know the [rather simple]

tricks of the trade“

Not another miracle

Not another miracle

Discipline.

Transparency.

Honesty.

Trust.

Characteristics of projects

Characteristics of projectsNew.

Complex.

Deliver a piece of software.

Most probably the increments impact

existing processes.

Have more unknowns than knowns.

Why projects fail

Why projects fail

Lack of input.

Incomplete specs.

Changes.

Unrealistic expectations.

Source: Standish Group, 2009

Why projects fail

Sounds like engagement, communication and

process challenges …

Scrum

ScrumEngage with the customer.

Better manage the unknown.

Be transparent [do you want that?] and hence

manage expectations.

Embrace change.

Discover challenges - or better impediments - early

in the project.

But why do Scrum projects fail?

1

A misperception and mostly

a complete lack of rules

With it goes …

… lack of discipline

… lack of communication

… lack of experience

Complete lose of control

Complete lose of TRUST

Causes a fall back into old patterns

[when it is too late]

2

What can we do to ease

the pain?

Write down all missing

pieces in a contract

[guiding principles]

3

Typical project: Fix price contract using

agile methodology. Appendix … see

agilemanifesto.org bla bla bla

Typical project: Fix price contract using

agile methodology. Appendix … see

agilemanifesto.org bla bla bla

Contract: WHAT [you must achieve] in

DETAIL

Project: HOW [the heck are we going to

achieve all this?]

Much better

Contract: WHAT HOW [are we going to work

together] and what is our vision and our

INITIAL scope

Project: HOW WHAT [increments do we

need to build in order to achieve the vision]

4As a non-experienced

contractor

w/o Scrum experience don’t

bid for such a project at all

With a non-

experienced customer

Start small. Exercise

discipline, communication,

reporting and change

management. Exercise around

user stories and acceptance

criteria [!]. Define what a

valuable and verifiable

increment represents

5Define the

communication

Fix bi-weekly meetings.

Wednesday’s is a good choice.

Define a ‘‘jour fix’’.

Build a central glossary.

6Contract ingredients

Agile contracts do not differ

from ‚normal’ contracts but

they emphasize on other

aspects

Instead of requirements and specs: vision

statements and initial scope through a story

map [!]

For estimation [we] use magic estimate.

Cone of uncertainty: Magic estimate for average and

worst case estimate.

Visualize risks on story map [technical and business risk].

Describe roles, artifacts and processes

[rules].

Clarify and exercise them [during a Sprint

Zero project].

Product Owner needs to be in the driver seat.

One Project [Product] – many customers

Stakeholder [A]

50%

Stakeholder B [us]

50%

Product Owner

Engineering

CustomersCustomer

Clarify responsibility about the

implementation: Shall we discuss the HOW?

It’s inevitable and very important to have a

steering committee.

Setup a two level controlling with project team and

steering committee.

The steering committee agrees upon agile artifacts.

Operational levelDaily updates in Jira.

Biweekly sprint demo/planning minutes through

Confluence.

Story map shall be updated after each sprint.

On a more strategic level we report every

three months.

Steering committee: There is only one Preso

Work done since last review.

Results.

Addressed risks and status of risks.

Status with respect to consensus.

Current scope in points [story map].

Scope change.

Cost and remaining budget [cost per point].

Assessment of the situation and recommended next steps.

Clarify Intellectual Property [IP] rights. If ‘‘money for nothing’’ approaches don’t fit you may want

to use the IP for a product.

Describe project durationOrdinary termination.

Early termination.

Contract extension.

and scope of deliveryTargeted delivery: Solution ‘x’ consisting of artifacts from 1-n sprints.

Minimum: All realized sprints to include source code.

Documentation of the requirements in the form of a backlog.

Financial aspects.

Billing - We are consistently invoicing on a

monthly basis [two sprints]. It keeps

everybody engaged ;-)

What can a

contractor do?7

First and foremost ... do your homework!

Be agile yourself

EKZ

BKW

CKW

EBL

EBM

EWA

SAK

EWZ

AEK

IBW

EWS

SES

EUG

AEN

Energie Thun

AKONIS

EW Flims

EWZ-GR

AEW

Swisscom

EN Uster

SES

NIS AG

Founded 1996

30 employees

Software and

Serviceprovider for

Utilities

2 Dev Teams

EKZ

BKW

CKW

EBL

EBM

EWA

SAK

EWZ

AEK

IBW

EWS

SES

EUG

AEN

Energie Thun

AKONIS

EW Flims

EWZ-GR

AEW

Swisscom

EN Uster

SES

Operational excellenceThrough a Continuous Inprovement Process [CIP].

Through external audits.

Through external consulting.

Our performance index: Velocity [points]

A Continuous Integration [CI] framework

A structured allocation of

resources and a process for

pro-actively eliminating

impediments

8

Sprint

Impediments

Knowledgemanagement (every month)

Backlog refinement

Other

Planning Retrospective Demo

Resource

allocation

Wednesday WednesdayWednesday

1 3 4

5 6 7 8

2Rules Trust Change behavior Build trust

Communication Contract Homework Impediments

What’s

nextReview your contracts and projects

Exercise based on an completed project

Measure your own scrum maturity level

[NOKIA test]

Trifork GOTO Night

Agile fix price contracts can be a

success - we all simply need to ‘do

our homework’ ;-)

12. December 2013 / erwin.saegesser@nis.ch

aber unsout me

erwin.saegesser@nis.ch

certified scrum professional

nis ag - Schweiz

Credits and Pictures

agilemanifesto.org

scrum.com

agileproductdesign.com

scrum.jeffsutherland.com

www.wickie-film.de

nasaimages.org

flickr.com

library of congress

erikjohanssonphoto.com

google.com