Agile Industry Watch: Update on Industry Trends and Impact on SDLC Management

Thursday, June 11, 2009

David ManticaNoon Eastern Time

11am Central Time

10am Mountain Time

9am Pacific Time

Agenda

• Agile: What is it?• Agile: As a position or a skill• Agile: Changes in management & leadership• Agile impact on SDLC “waterfall” management• Keys to Agile success• Trends related to Agile flavors• Future prospects

Agile ManifestoWe are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping

others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and toolsWorking software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiationResponding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items onthe right, we value the items on the left more.

It is a push for people over process & systems It means major change for attitude and prospective in Software Dev

Behaviors and Actions must change

http://agilemanifesto.org

Agile: What is it?

• At its core it is a Management Theory, but around that it has specific practitioner guidelines– The art of the theory with the science of specific practice

guidelines

Can be used as:– Marketing management method

– Sales management method

– Project management method

– Software development method

Does Anyone Own Agile?

• Agile can be seen as an open source solution comparable to Linux

• Idea of Linux and initial build was by one person – But that one person doesn’t own Linux

– Same with Agile, but instead of one person multiple people have contributed

• Most specific SDLC methods are developed as off-shoots of a tool– RUP was developed as a practice around and for the rational suite of

products

• Just like with Linux, Agile versions have been productized– Scrum

– Extreme Programming

Where is the Red Hat of Agile?

• Red Hat productized Linux and provided the following– Certification, Training, Support and Features

• The Agile world has been productized – More generic from the Agile Alliance, http://www.agilealliance.org/

– Provides information, training and community

– More specific from the Scrum Alliance http://www.scrumalliance.org/

– Provides a specific form of Agile with specific practices, training, certification, research, information and community

Recession Impact on Agile

• Significant– Executives want to save money or make money

and want to see impact with one degree of separation

• Agile is about quality and speed to market– It shows profit and cost savings with about two to three degrees of

separation. Also you have to spend money to go forward– Agile lacks metrics to measure and monitor value

• We’ve seen upwards of a 30% decrease year over year in Agile certification and training interest

Agile Job titles

• In process of Agile and BA salary surveys– Over 2000 BA’s participated, but it was difficult getting 1000

agile professional to participate. WHY?

– Agile is not yet seen as a job title, but is seen as a skill

• Current specific Agile job titles are:– Scrum Master, Product Owner, Agile Project Manager, Extreme

Programmer

• Still most SDLC professionals see themselves as:– A consultant who knows Agile; A Project Manager who knows

Agile; a Business Analyst who knows Agile; A Programmer who knows Agile

Critical Skills for Agile Success

• Coaching – everyone things they can coach; very few people can

• Disciple and Belief –Agile doesn’t work with disciple and you must believe in the process or it will not work

• Interpersonal skills / emotional Intelligence –Agile is all about people over process, you better be able to handle people

• Self Team Management –Can you understand this concept, accept it and participate in it

• Practice specifics –You must understand the rules of engagement and practice it continually

Acting Like and Treating Everyone like an Adult

• Define Adult? • Is it even possible in business• Major point of emphasis from Ken Schwaber

– Why ?

– Morale and quality of work: It makes the self-managed team work

• In SDLC Waterfall – the process doesn’t treat the workers like

adults

Agile and Traditional Project Management

• PMI is reaching out to Scrum Alliance– http://agile-pm.pbworks.com/ Agile PMI Community (SIGs are gone)

– If requirements are now in PMBOK 4.0 will Agile be a part of PMBO 5.0

– PMI sees itself about the practice of Project Management and the PM position. It sees Agile as one of many different method of working within projects

• Traditional project management has a long way to go to really begin to embrace Agile methods

– Coaching over Autocratic control

– Working with people over the process and the plan

– Transparency and visibility over stove piped function

• If PMI embraces Agile it will be a significant change to both the profile of a PM and how they conduct business

– Processes will not change, it is who does the work and how they do it

Impact on SDLC Management

• Requirements definition process • Length and objectives of projects• Embracing change instead of locking down the project and controlling

change• Engage the sponsors a little bit over the entire project instead of a lot

at the beginning and end• Breaking the stove pipes of functional units down• Team managing themselves in cross functional groups

– Can management “trust” this model

• PM as coach not overlord– Break the omniscient overseer model, put control in the teams not the

management

Agile Success: Cultural Shifts

• Key to success or failure in Agile– Agile is a seismic cultural shift, one that most organizations are

not ready for

– Works best when doers want it, easier to start in middle and go up and down through the organization

• Doers showing interest says they are culturally ready for Agile

• Top down doesn’t take into consideration if current worker population is culturally ready for the change. Don’t assume everyone wants to be empowered

– With middle up and down will still need to get PMO and Executive buy in

– Be prepared to rehire as you go deeper into your roll out

Agile Success: Pilot Program

• Biggest key to Agile success

• Must find a team that is interested– Belief is a big part of success in Agile

• Team must be trained on specific practices (assuming since you picked the team based on belief they understand the cultural aspects)

• Don’t make the project mission critical and don’t gauge velocity based on initial iteration

• Team should be able to work on three to four iterations associated with no-mission critical project

Agile Success: Pure Play or Agile But

• Since Agile is like open source you can make adjustments to the specifics but you can’t forget the core.– Do you want to use a tool in the process– Do your iterations go eight weeks– Do you want to continue to do traditional requirements gathering

and than break those requirements out – Will your product owners come from within the development

group an interface with sponsors

• Key is taking a pragmatic approach to what will work within your culture, especially if you can’t change the culture overnight

Agile Success: Practice, Practice, Practice

• Very easy to get hooked into a consultant coming in and doing all the work for you. – Consultant should teach and coach…not do– Agile is something that must be practiced and done; it isn’t

something you can learn from a book and do

• Initially train your core set of Scrum Masters– Let the Scrum Masters see and learn from coach– Initial pilot team has coach and Scrum Masters working together– Scrum Masters go off and start to multiply the process with teams

of their own

• Remember this is multiplication of the practice skills not the culture, cultural assimilation is assumed

Industry Issue

•Cult like … very focused on empowerment

•Can be seen as a immature industry and movement

•Ground swell of support has come from the middle management level (why?)

•Executives are “worried” about Agile

•Programmers are concerned about Agile

•Tools debate

•Dominated by independent consultants

Copyright 2008 DavisBase LLC

Update on Agile “flavors”

• Scrum: Hottest flavor– CSM – Approximately 50K + certified

– CSPO – slow going, not taking off

– CSP – definitely growing

– CST – growing and lots of interest, but growth is control

– CSD (Certified Scrum Developer) new certification still in development

• Extreme Programming: tied more and more to Scrum

• Lean: Seen in manufacturing not growing significantly

Thoughts on the Future of Agile

• Recession is slowing down adoption– One degree of cost saving or revenue increase isn’t being shown

– Critical need for metrics to show management why Agile

• Scrum Alliance has done a powerful job of marketing Scrum to the industry doers – Scrum is de facto flavor

– Work need to be done to market Agile to employers

• Cultural Shift is significant and can’t be under estimated

• If PMI gets involved , Agile/Scrum will become more of a practice not a management method, it will get watered down

• Pilot practice is key to success in rolling out Agile

Thank you for your time and interest.

We will begin the Q&A momentarily