Agile Practices

PowerPoint Presentation Pearson's Successmaker Putting the Customer First in Transforming Product Development Processes “Customers don’t pay you to create documents; they want you to create a product” -Adams Woodford Agile Techniques & Practices in PM Kavia Venkatesh Version 2 Hi everybody, today we are going to discussing the Pearson case study on transitioning from using an off-shored waterfall software development model to an on-shore Agile model. 1 Version 2 We reworked on this deck after 08/02 The board had concerns about the schedule, cost and resources We have also brought in changes to our approach Sign-Off this time 2 8/3/2016 Agile practices When the vice-president first joined Pearson a year earlier, the Digital Learning unit had spent significant resources developing a major upgrade to one of its educational software products. The first version of this new product was challenged by the disconnect between what the software development group was delivering and what the vice-president's customers desired. He is faced with a decision to continue focusing on the specific methodology they had implemented (Scrum) or move to a new one (Kanban). Additionally, he has to consider expanding his focus to help drive Agile methodologies both with other groups in his business unit and outside his business unit. These decisions must be made at a potentially critical time for his products as his organization deals with the growing pains associated with the shift to Agile. first major upgrade of its SuccessMaker product, changes to the foundational technology of the product — from an older client-server model to a new Internet delivered model . upgrade involved significant unsolicited. He drove cultural and technological transformation and develop customer-focused solution. Transformed existing organization into highly respected teams responsible for all product and technology development, comprised of approximately 100 software developers. Moved organization from an annual release to a continuous release strategy delivering enhanced value to the customer base. Challenges, actually he had two challenge levels, product level challenge and organizational level challenge. Write something like... Product level challenges Increase the number of ancillary products available. Appealing to kids as it is not a kid’s friendly or attractive product now. The product is not interoperable at district level, each product is independent of other, no common grounds. The data is not portable across Pearson’s products. Organizational level challenges Developing a Agile team for the current product , training, and make people understand the value. How successfully transform other functional groups to embrace Agile  How successful other teams are implemented Agile, since Adams is asked to take broader role inside Pearson.  Developing an organizational level Agile process. Making the teams innovate 2 Background The world’s largest publisher and education company Operates in over 80+ countries, 40,000 employees worldwide Product- SuccessMaker SuccessMaker was failing to meet consumer expectations. 3 8/3/2016 Agile practices Pearson Plc is an education company that operates worldwide and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. The vice-president of product management within the Digital Learning division of the North American Education unit based in Chandler, Arizona transformed the product development processes to better meet the needs of his customers in the education market. The product was SuccessMaker, that was designed to help elementary and middle school students to improve their math and reading skills. Under the direction of Greg Adams- Woodford, suffered a major setback when following a letter received from one of its strategic customers , they realized that their product is no longer covered the expectations of its consumers. Many reasons this could have happened. The team was working on a multiyear road map about the product with team sitting in India!!! every change took time passing through all layers. So even after 18 months since start, the team couldn’t provide any valuable product to the clients. 1) Non prioritizing of scope (as they were following waterfall+Contract with teams in india) 2) Scope change was not allowed (as it is finalized at the starting of project itself) 3) Development team runs the show, not the business team. 4) Less communication between customer and development team 5) QA team works last independently, they are not considered as part of whole team+ Not collaborative, but hierarchial, team member depend on someone to assign tasks, less feeling of ownership. 3 The Magician Vice President of Product management (2007) Failed-Upgrade Dissatisfied customers Reengineering of the SuccessMaker product development process Distinctive ability to deploy Agile and Lean frameworks/methodologies 4 8/3/2016 Agile practices When the vice-president first joined Pearson a year earlier, the Digital Learning unit had spent significant resources developing a major upgrade to one of its educational software products. The first version of this new product was challenged by the disconnect between what the software development group was delivering and what the vice-president's customers desired. He is faced with a decision to continue focusing on the specific methodology they had implemented (Scrum) or move to a new one (Kanban). Additionally, he has to consider expanding his focus to help drive Agile methodologies both with other groups in his business unit and outside his business unit. These decisions must be made at a potentially critical time for his products as his organization deals with the growing pains associated with the shift to Agile. first major upgrade of its SuccessMaker product, changes to the foundational technology of the product — from an older client-server model to a new Internet delivered model . upgrade involved significant unsolicited. He drove cultural and technological transformation and develop customer-focused solution. Transformed existing organization into highly respected teams responsible for all product and technology development, comprised of approximately 100 software developers. Moved organization from an annual release to a continuous release strategy delivering enhanced value to the customer base. Challenges, actually he had two challenge levels, product level challenge and organizational level challenge. Write something like... Product level challenges Increase the number of ancillary products available. Appealing to kids as it is not a kid’s friendly or attractive product now. The product is not interoperable at district level, each product is independent of other, no common grounds. The data is not portable across Pearson’s products. Organizational level challenges Developing a Agile team for the current product , training, and make people understand the value. How successfully transform other functional groups to embrace Agile  How successful other teams are implemented Agile, since Adams is asked to take broader role inside Pearson.  Developing an organizational level Agile process. Making the teams innovate 4 1. What challenges does Adams-Woodford face as he develops his five-year product roadmap? Unclear Path Change the structure and culture Transition of teams Skeptical team Change in mindset Scrummerfall and Waterations Lack of Real Commitment  Self organization 5 8/3/2016 Agile practices What challenges does Adams-Woodford face as he develops his five-year product roadmap? Unclear path- Scrum should be abandoned in favor of a Kanban system. Kanban was developed in the manufacturing industry and was more focused on individual task management whereas Scrum focused short development cycles called sprints that included a whole set of tasks (see Exhibit 3). These trusted team members felt the Scrum methodology did not fit with the current lifecycle phase of the product. with the software development team, including the developers, quality assurance (QA) engineers and product managers. The overall product development team was composed of a diverse group of individuals with expertise in different areas inside Pearson — product managers, software developers, QA experts, business analysts, curriculum/content experts, instructional designers, animators and artists. by hiring several new software developers in Arizona, better communication. Even then teams first transition to Agile there often still handoffs from BA –> UI –> Dev –> QA. As you can see this is still waterfall only faster i.e. waterfall in two weeks. While this is an improvement the real wins in Agile come when work in parallel and blur role boundaries. an Agile transition is hard work and requires time. There will be some bumpy moments during this time. Full commitment (not just $$$) is required from Management who have to demonstrate they support the change and will help to remove impediments. Mindset change – when you catch yourself in the trap of saying “this is just like what we’re already doing except…” you’ve missed the key point. Agile Software development requires a complete mindset change. While some of the events (i.e. Daily Scrum) may be superficially similar the mindset is different. Self Organization – self organization is messy and takes time to achieve yet its at the heart of a high performing Scrum team. So its sad to see Scrum Master, an Architect or other team member with a leadership position taking control. This problem can be obvious or subtle but either way they’re not giving the team room to grow. 5 2. How do products and software development methodologies influence a firm’s ability to respond to market demands? Communication-oriented Flexible (ready to adapt to expected change at any time) Speedy (encourage rapid and iterative development of the product in small releases) Lean (focuses on shortening timeframe and cost and on improved quality) Responsive (reacts appropriately to expected and unexpected changes) Learning (focuses on improvement during and after product development) Response to the drastic degree of change in the modern business and IT environments.   6 8/3/2016 Agile practices Agile method is a software development method that is people-focused commications-oriented, flexible (ready to adapt to expected change at any time), speedy (encourage rapid and iterative development of the product in small releases), lean (focuses on shortening timeframe and cost and on improved quality), responsive (reacts appropriately to expected and unexpected changes), and learning (focuses on improvement during and after product development)  Agile methods are a response to the drastic degree of change in the modern business and IT environments. There highly dynamic environments demand software development teams that can respond to change and continuously deliver business value.  Agile methods generally promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. 6 3A. What benefits did Pearson realize in making the shift from a waterfall process to an Agile one? Clients loved the new features The code base cut by half Number of features increased by up to 75% The development team size shrunk by 1/3 Helped over come risks associated with Waterfall Development 7 8/3/2016 Agile practices A. What benefits did Pearson realize in making the shift from a waterfall process to an Agile one? What downsides might be associated with this shift? What firm or market circumstances are more likely to benefit from a Waterfall or Agile methodology? • Many software projects do not meet customer needs • Over 60% of project requirements change during execution • 80% of the value is in 20% of the features Source: Agile Principles and values by Jeff Sutherland, 2010 7 3B.What downsides might be associated with this shift? Drop in performance Unable to estimate accurately how many story points they can develop in a planning period. Switching within the same development iteration 8 8/3/2016 Agile practices Dentures –braces- laughs There was a resistence in the team accepting or going through the change. Few left the organization bcause of the change. No clear understanding about individual roles, and responsibilities. Relationship between developers and QA affected. There was a tendency to go back to the familiar and comfortable earlier waterfall. Despite these improvements, the first few sprints of Release 3 showed significant performance degradation in the velocity of the developers. Velocity was calculated by converting each user story into a standard measure of effort as story points and determining how many points were completed in each sprint. Adams-Woodford did not think it was a coincidence when the velocity began to slow as the teams began regressing into their previous waterfall processes. This development prompted Adams-Woodford’s key developers to suggest a change from Scrum to Kanban in order to jumpstart the team’s overall velocity. . This resulted in reduced velocity since the developers had to review and familiarize themselves with technical aspects of the system components each time they switched from one feature to another. 8 3C. What firm or market circumstances are more likely to benefit from a Waterfall or Agile methodology? Waterfall suitable when environment is stable with no room for changes. When frequent interactions with ends users and other stakeholders are not possible. When there is a risk of key developers quitting the project midway. Agile lightweight method, smaller work areas, overhead becomes less, and the project costs considerably less than when using the Waterfall method. When customer requirements are hazy, or the business environment is uncertain. Agile methods that allow making frequent changes, and testing during the construction stage remains the best choice. Highly skilled and competent developers. With the scope to accommodate changes, an Agile project can easily lose its way. 9 8/3/2016 Agile practices Running race Both the Waterfall method and the Agile method of software development have their uses. Although Agile arose as a reaction to the limitations imposed by the Waterfall method, Waterfall still retains its relevance as a better method when the environment is stable with no room for changes, when frequent interactions with ends users and other stakeholders are not possible, or when there is a risk of key developers quitting the project midway. Agile is a lightweight method. As software developers focus on smaller work areas, overhead becomes less, and the project costs considerably less than when using the Waterfall method. When customer requirements are hazy, or the business environment is uncertain, Agile methods that allow making frequent changes, and testing during the construction stage remains the best choice. Successful execution of Agile projects nevertheless requires highly skilled and competent developers, and stakeholders who know what they want. With the scope to accommodate changes, an Agile project can easily lose its way. 9 4. A. What are some of the things Greg should consider as he evaluate whether to continue to focus on the Success Maker product versus becoming involved in a company-wide Agile initiative? 10 8/3/2016 Agile practices Adopt a product-oriented organizational structure Improve Team interaction Redefine roles and relationships Change planning approach  agile throughout the enterprise can successfully extend the benefits of local agile on a much bigger scale—and help drive significant competitive advantage. Adopt a product-oriented organizational structure transfer of knowledge among team members, promote coordination between teams and functions, and become the catalyst for continuous performance improvement. Improve Team interaction On shore--- offshore Redefine roles and relationships The boundaries are clearly defined; team members are empowered enough to be accountable but not so much that they could create major risks with rogue or carte-blanche actions. Change planning approach Typically there is less waste and more transparency among portfolio and product managers, and it becomes easier for the company to scrap low-potential projects early. 10 4B. Which approach should Greg pursue? 11 8/3/2016 Agile practices Initially develop a self sustaining Agile Team, with a clear vision. Later, move into companywide initiative Company-wide Agile Which approach should Greg pursue? How might he optimize this approach? http://www.scaledagileframework.com/value-streams/ 11 4C. How might he optimize this approach? A retrospect… Where the organization is on its journey to Agile. Just starting out? Some progress but now stalled or backsliding? Running Water-Scrum-Fall projects? The organization's ability to manage effective change. Is change embraced? Do people understand transition management? Are people more adept at resisting change than implementing it? Does the form support its customers? Meaningful change is likely to involve the broader business, not just a department or IS 8/3/2016 Agile practices 12 5A. Within the Success Maker team, how should Greg agree to follow the recommendations from his developers to move from Scrum to Kanban? Scrum to Kanban------SCRUM Reasons being, Greg understands Scrum, he is a strong guiding light to the Team. The needs motivation, that will be available to them with a strong leader Kanban is new, new to everyone, this would mean the team will be become a bunch of headless chickens As a team, we can embrace retrospectives and have them in every sprint without fail.  Every retrospective improves something, even if slight. The team has been successful in Scrum, a little few tuning can make it even better We also, want to suggest a pilot Kanban group, which could be useful in understanding how we react to Scrum-ban (But we are going to now consider scrum for all our analysis) Also, another suggestion is to add another into the Agile band wagon 13 8/3/2016 Agile practices 13 5B. Should he also push to move all the remaining teams (content/curriculum) to Scrum or Kanban? We need to Master SCRUM Greg should focus on scrum, just to push the team to motivational space Other teams, should be introduced slowly in a step by step fashion This will give us a better view of how the teams are really doing Also, gives us a chance to make modifications, retrospect. Most, importantly- slow and steady wins the race 14 8/3/2016 Agile practices Should he also push to move all the remaining teams (content/curriculum) to Scrum or Kanban? Especially if he wants to scale it into other departments. Forecasting based on historical data and simulations: Scrum teams use Planning Poker and Velocity to make predictions about the amount of work they will be able to do in a sprint. When sprint cadence is let go this will become more difficult. Practices in the Kanban Method tell us that by using historical data in simulations, the same and probably more predictability can be achieved. Policies for prioritizing, WIP monitoring and handover criteria: Kanban demands a very high amount of discipline from all participants. Policies will help here. In the case of this team, it would have benefited greatly from having clear defined policies about priorities and prioritization. For instance: Who can (and is allowed to) prioritize? How can the team see what has most priority? Are there different classes of service we can identify? And how do we treat those? The same holds for WIP-limits and handover criteria. We always use a Definition of Ready and Definition of Done in Scrum teams. Keeping these in a Kanban team is a very good practice. A feedback cycle to review data and process on a regular basis: Where Scrum demands a retrospective after every sprint, Kanban does not explicitly define such a thing. Kanban only dictates that you should implement feedback loops. When an organization starts implementing Kanban it is key that they do review the implementation, data and process at a regular basis. This is crucial during the first weeks: all participants will have to get used to the new way of working. Policies should be reviewed as well, as they might need adjustments to facilitate the team in having an optimized workflow. 14 8/3/2016 Agile practices 15 5C.What metric should he use to evaluate his decisions? 16 8/3/2016 Agile practices Say Bye-Bye to, Gantt Charts WBS And Hello to, Burndown charts Daily meetings Iteration delta tables Release and iteration burn-down charts Progress reports Running tested features (RTFs) Earned value management (EVM) Product:D Say Bye-Bye to, Gantt Charts WBS As they are no more long multi month plans And Hello to, Burndown charts- By keeping the burn-down chart current, project managers can offer their customers a quick, visual representation of the functionality that has been delivered and is left to be delivered, as well as provide clues regarding the team’s productivity. Daily meetings Iteration delta tables Release and iteration burn-down charts Progress reports Running tested features (RTFs) Earned value management (EVM) Designed to communicate the changes from one iteration to the next, this chart helps stakeholders see what the original plan for the current and next iterations looked like a couple of weeks ago and how they look today. Features that are new, have been deleted and/or moved from one iteration to another, are all clearly indicated. 16 Metric Agile Waterfall Planning Scale Short Long Customer-Developer interaction Short Long Time- Specification and implementation Short Long Time to discover problems Short Long Schedule Risk Low High Quick response High Low Agile Versus Waterfall 17 8/3/2016 Agile practices Resource Requirement-Propose 3 models 8/3/2016 Agile practices 18 18 Rollout schedule 8/3/2016 Agile practices 19 11 Where do we want to go? How do we get there? Obtain a functioning program level Introduction to AGILE for all teams (4 trains) Started a number of community of practices with focus on practices and quality Obtain a functioning portfolio level Defined intake processes Road-mapping through agile estimates and planning Regular Meetings to celebrate success and progress Holistic view from the start and buy in from upper management Brought in consultants Started an agile release train for teams with Scrum experience Training for ALL in the new train Lean & Agile training for teams without Scrum experience Q1-KickOff Q2-Get it running Q3-Accelerate 19 Rollout Plan 8/3/2016 Agile practices 20 Use our present Scrum Team-As guiding light (INITIAL TEAM) Our New Team members are going to be new resources we invest in. High Level roadmap-1Year 8/3/2016 Agile practices 21 10 Scrum for 3-5 distributed teams Scaling up Scrum from 3 to 9 teams Introduce more Scrum teams All teams January ….. March August December A fully Agile Organization Highly effective and efficient team 21 The PITCH Estimated costs, Our Recommendation, Invest on model 2, bring in a team that could train our team and give our team the guidance, so Greg can concentrate on bringing in the company into the AGILE MODE 8/3/2016 Agile practices 22 Hire Agile Consultants Agile Team support-Passive Train all our employees $2Million Dollars $800,000 $300,000 We need to do this…. 8/3/2016 Agile practices 23 Expected sales from the new methodology implementation We believe this investment will improve our business by 70% Q&A THANK YOU 24 8/3/2016 Agile practices References http://blog.xebia.com/how-to-improve-scrum-team-performance-with-kanban/ https://www.pwc.com/us/en/increasing-it-effectiveness/publications/assets/scale-agile-throughout-the-enterprise.pdf http://www.netobjectives.com/blogs/should-you-scale-agile-first-what-do-you-mean http://www.scaledagileframework.com/metrics/ http://apiumtech.com/blog/agile-methodology-is-not-only-for-software-development/ https://kellycrew.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/top-10-issues-implementing-agile-okay-14/ http://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/3129/10-Tips-for-Creating-an-Agile-Product-Roadmap.aspx http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/customer-collaboration/unified-contact-center-enterprise/agile_product_development.pdf 25 8/3/2016 Agile practices