Agile 101 : An Introduction to Managing IT Projects with Agility

1. Agile 101 : An Introduction to Managing IT Projects with Agility Syed H. Rayhan Principal: Code71, Inc. Profile:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/syedrayhan www.code71.com

2. Agenda Why Agile? What is Agile? Agile\Scrum Should you use it? Q&A

3. Agenda Why Agile? What is Agile? Agile\Scrum Should you use it? Q&A

4. According to the Standish group, only 34% IT projects are successful IT projects are considered failure because either the project is over budget, cannot be delivered on time or it did not meet the requirements. TOP Reasons for Failure TOP Reasons for Success Clear business objectives Budget management Scope management User involvement Stakeholder support Agile process . Unrealistic or unarticulated project goals Inaccurate estimates Badly defined system requirements Poor communication among customers, developers, and users Stakeholder politics Poor software development process and practices

5. Birth of Agile Software Development In 2001, a group of thought leaders in the software industry defined “Agile Manifesto” "Agile Software Development" is an umbrella term Any process that incorporates the Agile Manifesto is called Agile process Scrum XP DSDM FDD Agile RUP Each of these processes have its unique approach to implement the common agile vision and core values There has to be a better way to reduce the failure rate…..

6. Survey Results from “State of Agile Development” • Survey conducted in June 2007, 1700 individuals from 71 countries participated • Metric >=10% >=25% • Increased productivity 90% 55% • Cost reduction 66% 28% • Reduced software defects 85% 54% • Quicker implementation 83% 54% • Most popular Agile Methodology • Scrum 37% • Scrum/XP Hybrid 23% • XP 12% • DSDM 5% • Source:http://www.versionone.com/pdf/StateOfAgileDevelopmet2_FullDataReport.pdf

7. Agenda Why Agile? What is Agile? Agile\Scrum Should you use it? Q&A

8. Agile Manifesto • Individuals and interactions • Working software • Customer collaboration • Responding to change • Processes and tools • Comprehensive documentation • Contract negotiation • Following a plan Over That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

9. Traditional vs. Agile Project Management • Empirical – Start with Goal(s) but during the process anything can change and hence adopt to the changes by applying appropriate control mechanism. It is an incremental iterative way of development. • People are the key to the success of a project. If people leaves or joins in the middle of project, project suffers. • Software development is a controlled chaos like weather forecasting and hence we need to be adaptable • Self management • Estimation accuracy is only important to understand a goal can be met or not • Collocated team with open workspace contributes to creating an efficient and tight-knit team environment • Predictive – Start with plan and all requirements and end with all requirements completed • People are replaceable as long as comprehensive documentation is done. • Software development is a defined, repeatable process like building a house. • Command and control structure • Estimation precision is expected • Project team is scattered and isolated; a barrier to efficient communication and building team ambiance Vs.

10. Agenda Why Agile? What is Agile? Agile\Scrum Should you use it? Q&A

11. Scrum Process • An iterative, incremental process for developing software • Scrum consists of a series of sprints (a.k.a. iteration) • Each sprint is no longer than 30 days (1-4 weeks long) • Each sprint produces a working increment of software • Between sprints, all interested parties evaluate progress • Between sprints, all interested parties reevaluate technical and business requirements • Work is reestablished and the team enters into another sprint

12. Scrum Framework Tools Roles and Responsibilities Rituals • Product Owner • Developer • Scrum Master • Product Backlog • Sprint Backlog • Burndown Chart • Sprint Planning • Sprint Review • Daily Scrum • Sprint Retrospect

13. Scrum Processes Each sprint is 1-4 weeks in duration Daily Scrum Stories broken down into tasks

14. Roles and Responsibilities Product Owner • Manages product backlog in priority order • Represents all stakeholders’ needs Symbiotic Relationship through cooperation yet keeps each other focused Development Team Scrum Master • Removes impediments to allow the team to make progress at constant/desired pace • Facilitates communication/interaction among all parties • Performs the actual development work • Decides on how works get done • Responsible for managing the sprint backlog and meeting the self-defined target

15. Key Elements / Concepts • Sprint or iteration • Self managing team • Inspect and adapt cycle • Between sprints, all interested parties evaluate progress using demo • Between sprints, all interested parties reevaluate technical and business requirements • Between sprints, all interested parties evaluate process effectiveness using retrospective • Non-hierarchical structure that uses triangular check and balance mechanism- • product owner, scrum master, and development team • Prioritized list of backlogs- product backlog and sprint backlog • Empirical process control mechanism • Daily scrum meeting focusing on three key questions- • What did I do yesterday? • What will I do today? • Is there any impediment in achieving my goal? • Burndown chart (daily time tracking) • how many hours spent so far on a task • how long will it take to finish • Impediment tracking resolution

16. Managing Requirements • Product Backlog • A prioritized list of features represented as stories • Managed by Product Owner • Priorities are driven by business value measured in terms of ROI • cost of implementation • revenue impact • business risks • technical dependencies • Represented as stories • A story is the smallest unit of functionality that an user can benefit from • Some stories maybe technical in nature (infrastructure type) • Sprint Backlog • A prioritized list of stories taken from the top of the product backlog based on the team’s estimate of how much it can handle in an iteration • Managed by Development Team • Created at the start of an iteration/sprint • Stories can be re-scoped during iteration • split into more narrowly focused stories • A story can be de-scoped (move back to product backlog) • New stories should not be add

17. Agenda Why Agile? What is Agile? Agile\Scrum Should You Use It? Q&A

18. Diverse projects, organizations are using Scrum • Nielsen Media • First American Real Estate • BMC Software • John Deere • Lexis Nexis • Sabre • Salesforce.com • Time Warner • Turner Broadcasting • Microsoft • Yahoo • Google • Electronic Arts • High Moon Studios • Lockheed Martin • Philips • Siemens • Nokia • Capital One • BBC • Intuit Scrum has been used for projects of all shapes and sizes.

19. Why should Non-profits use Scrum? Challenges of Non-profits Benefits of Agile/Scrum • Stakeholders are diverse and loosely associated and have competing priorities • Fixed budget (projects are funded by grant money) • Non-profits cannot afford to have projects failed • It’s difficult to gather all the database/software requirements upfront • Do not need to commit fund for the whole project • Make go/no-go decisions every 1-4 weeks • Allows you to adjust direction of projects every 1-4 weeks • Allows end-users to start using the database sooner than later • Accommodate changing funding situation

20. Case Study#1- A non-profit organization Project • A mid-sized non-profit corporation in the student loan guarantor industry • To support the re-engineering of mission-critical loan management applications Challenges • Tension over project scopewith its business partners • Accommodate the end user's need for on-going scope changes Result • 20,000 hours of functional enhancements were developed in 18 ‘time-boxed' monthly iterations • The end user-IT working relationship is fundamentally changed by Agile development, for the better

21. Case Study#2- A government agency Project • A sate agency is replacing a legacy database that is used by multiple agencies • The project is funded by federal grant Challenges • Diverse user base- multiple agencies • New technology • Dependencies on multiple on-going projects across multiple agencies • Fixed budget Result • First phase delivered with 2.4% above budget, 2-weeks delay • Customer was able to adjust the scope of phase#1 as late as a month before the release • Customers are extremely happy because they participated throughout the process

22. Agenda Why Agile? What is Agile? Agile\Scrum Should You Use It? Q&A

23. Q&A Contact Info: Syed H. Rayhan srayhan@code71.com www.code71.com www.scrumpad.com