Agile software development for startups

Building Enterprise Class Software
A Guide to Early Stage Technology Companies

March 2013

www.synerzip.com

Topics for Discussion
1. Lifecycle of a software start-up
2. Realities of software development
3. Key decision points
4. Summary

Confidential www.synerzip.com

Lifecycle of Software Startup

Company
Maturity (HC,
Rev, etc.)

Idea Incubation
Time in Years

> 1 yr.

Bootstrap, Seed A-Round B-Round
Angel Round ~$4M ~$4M
~$200K ~$0.5M


Topics for Discussion
1. Lifecycle of a technology start-up
2. Realities of software development
3. Key decision points
4. Summary


Building Software is Complex

• Unlike other engineering
Evolving/Changing Inherent R&D Nature of disciplines (e.g. manuf, bldg
Business Requirements Software Development const), building software is
• Multiple, inconsistent inputs • Software performance issues harder and more complex
• Change is usually good though • Changing/New technologies
• If not managed properly, a
lot can go wrong!
• Needs to be properly
managed – with appropriate
level of process discipline
• Agile approach works very
Technology Environment
Distributed Teams well in most cases
with Many Moving Parts
Needing to Collaborate
• Dependence on external
• Team communications
technology components –HW/SW
• Need for complementary skills
• Constantly changing environment


What is Agile?
Agile approach accounts for unique nature of software
development. It is a…
•software project management approach that encourages
delivering in short cycles, with frequent inspection, feedback,
and adaptation
•leadership philosophy that encourages team-work, self
organization, and accountability at team level
•disciplined engineering approach to software
development that results in rapid delivery of high quality
software
•business approach that focuses on delivery real business
value (=customer needs) above all.

Various flavors are practiced – SCRUM, XP, Kanban etc.


Agile Manifesto - 2001
“We 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 tools
– Working software over comprehensive documentation
– Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
– Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value
the items on the left more.”

Kent Beck Mike Beedle Arie van Bennekum
Alistair Cockburn Ward Cunningham Martin Fowler
James Grenning Jim Highsmith Andrew Hunt
Ron Jeffries Jon Kern Brian Marick
Robert C. Martin Steve Mellor Ken Schwaber
Jeff Sutherland Dave Thomas

Waterfall Approach

• 6+ month
• Too linear, with no learning/feedback cycle
• Expects all requirements upfront
• No value based prioritization of features
• Often results in over engineering
• Often testing/quality compromised


Agile Approach

• First working software in 4 weeks or less
• Emphasis on learning/feedback
• Embraces changing/evolving requirements
• Consistent focus on high-value features
• “Just-enough” engineering, with emphasis
on frequent refactoring
• Focus on repeated testing/quality


SW Triad – Conventional vs. Agile
Conventional Iron triad of Scope x Cost x Schedule should be replaced by
Value x Quality x Constraints

SCOPE VALUE

COST SCHEDULE QUALITY CONSTRAINTS
• Cost
• Schedule


Agile Development Cycles


But, Agile is Not a Panacea
• Following Agile approach greatly helps but is not a panacea
• “Lip Service Agile” can be worse – more chaos, no net business value!
• All involved (business, dev, etc) need to understand the nature of
software development and have realistic expectations
• Ensure proper team composition
– Same person can play multiple roles
– But, all roles need to be covered
– Be realistic about skill fit of the person playing a role


Agile Myths

• Agile = No documentation
• Agile = No planning
• Agile = No commitment on scope of work to be delivered
• Agile = No need for upfront requirements gathering
• Agile = No software discipline/rigor
• Agile = No budget
• Agile = A rigorous process defined in a set of 3-ring binders


When You Can Do Without Agile
• When you know (for sure) all the
requirements upfront
– and, for some reason (e.g. regulatory
constraints), they can’t change/evolve
• No technology risk at all
• But, still there is benefit of building software
in short cycles


Team Structure For Success
Needs to • Idea owner, drives long-term product
be close to roadmap
customers VISIONARY • Passionate, evangelizes the idea
• But, can’t “write” detailed reqs
• May not understand software dev
process and get easily frustrated

PRODUCT MGR DEV MGR SW ARCHITECT

PRODUCT OWNER DEVELOPER ARCHITECT
Can be
Offshore/
Remote
QA DEVELOPER ARCHITECT

• Understands the vision, and writes • Seasoned development manager • Seasoned software technologist –
requirements – owns delivery plan – resource, makes effective design trade-offs,
time, scope, risk lays technical foundation
• Understands domain, specific
customers/users, competitors, etc • Pushes back on Prod Mgr to • Works with dev team on design
manage scope
• Detail oriented, analytical • Owns short-term and long-term
• Great people manager technology roadmap
• Defines scope of each
iteration/release, owns QA

Strive For Stable Teams
• As far as possible, keep your software team
stable
• Don’t stop and start teams
– High churn has huge negative impact
– It is better to have a smaller team, but stable
– Real IP is in the heads of team members, no
amount of documentation can replace it


Bug Free Software?
• There is no such thing as “bug free”
software?
• Plan for proper test/QA process and
capacity
– In very early stages, market feedback is more
important than software quality
– In later stages, software quality is far more
important than pace of new features
• Plan for automated QA


Software is Never “Done”
• If you have users, software will keep evolving
• Bugs will keep showing up
• Current customers will keep asking for new
features
• New customers will demand new features
• Performance will need to be enhanced
• Technology will keep evolving, requiring you to
keep up
• You should actively refactor code, improve
usability on a regular basis
• So, plan for an on-going, stable engineering team

Key Decisions
Start
Start
Is software a NO Consider
Consider
significant outsourcing
outsourcing
Is software NO value?
the core
value prop? YES
Can find &
Build small local NO
YES Build small local attract talent
team
team locally?
Have CTO Consider
Consider
YES YES
as co- Build initial
Build initial offshore/
offshore/
founder? software version
software version outsourcing
outsourcing
Have
NO sufficient
Acquire initial
Acquire initial NO
capital?
customers
customers
Find one
Find one
YES

Need to YES
expand Expand locally
Expand locally
team?
NO

Continue customer
Continue customer
acquisition
acquisition

Why Outsource?
1. You need software development and
delivery skills (process or specific
technologies), that you don’t have in-house
2. Required talent difficult to hire (locally)
3. Peaks and valleys in your need, e.g.
QA/Testing
4. Capital constraints


When Outsourcing…
• Look for a “partner”, rather than a “vendor”
– Trust based, collaborative partnership
– Specific skills, good software development process
– Longer term relationship
– Stable teams
• Be very careful of paying dev partner with equity
– Raise capital from professional investors, e.g. VCs
– For software development, engage with a professional
software dev company
• Maintain ownership of your IP


Summary
1. Building enterprise software is complex
undertaking, plan appropriately
2. When outsourcing, still maintain leadership
in-house
– Product vision and roadmap
– Software architecture/engineering leadership
1. In almost all cases, Agile is the way to go
2. Software is actually never “Done” – plan for
ongoing burn rate in your financials


Appendix


Basic Hygiene For SW Dev
1. Requirements need to be written.
2. Each requirement should be accompanied by an
acceptance test case. In fact, acceptance test
case is more important than English prose
format of requirements.
3. Use ONE issue tracking system. Everybody
looks at the same system. No spreadsheets.
4. Source code control system – needs to be ONE.


Tools and Processes
• Requirement Analysis
– User Story Detailing
– Effort Estimation and Commitment
– Requirement/Functionality validation: POCs

• Development
– Processes: Code Reviews, Frequent Check-ins; Code Branching and
Merge synchronized with sprint demos
• Source Code Control and Build Tools Used: CVS, SVN, GIT
• Other Tools used: Jprofiler, JMeter
– Continuous Build Automation: Daily Builds and periodic
automated deployment
• Tools Used: Ant, Maven, Cruise Control, Hudson, LuntBuild
– Coding efficiency: Predictability based on sprint commitments using
team velocity established over first 2-3 sprints


Tools and Processes
• Development (contd.)
– Unit Testing: sprint deliverables are Unit Tested
• Tools: Junit

• Testing
– Process: Work in-step with developers and create test cases
– Regression Testing: incremental development of the suite,
executing towards end of each sprint
– Bug tracking tools: Bugzilla, JIRA
– Test Case Management Tools: TestLink, Test Director
– Test Automation: we recommend adding a small team of automation
engineers to automate the regression test suite.


Tools and Processes
• Deployment
– UAT: maintain UAT environment; Define and develop UAT test suite by
identifying specific end to end tests
– UAT deployment: planned and periodic
– Bug Scrubs: Regular bug review and re-prioritization
• Progress Tracking:
– Tracking: Daily Updates to Issue tracker, Weekly Status Reports
– Issue tracking tools: JIRA(with grasshopper plug-in), Rally
• Communication:
– Conference calls: at the frequency required (daily…weekly)
– Wiki: Maintaining a document repository


Contact Us – Austin, Dallas, San Jose
• Hemant Elhence (Dallas, TX)
– hemant@synerzip.com
– Office: 469.322.0349
– Mobile: 214.762.4873
• Subu Sankara (San Jose, CA)
– subu@synerzip.com
– Mobile: 510.579.9673
• www.synerzip.com
• Development center in Pune, India


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