How One Publisher Changed Its Approach to Online Development in 45 Days ADVENTURES IN AGILITY Larry M. Belmont Manager, Online Development labelmo at aip dot org Society for Scholarly Publishing 30 th Annual Meeting, Boston, MA May 30, 2008

About AIP Founded in 1931 as a service organization … Charter: to diffuse and advance the knowledge of physics and its application to human welfare Service mission: to supply economy-of-scale publishing services to Member Societies Currently has 10 member societies, 23 affiliated societies, and several other organizations under its umbrella (most have a publishing program) A publisher in its own right … 10 journals, conference proceedings, database products Scitation … AIP’s online hosting platform; on the web since 1996 Aggregation of 180 publications for 25 publishing partners

Founded in 1931 as a service organization …

Charter: to diffuse and advance the knowledge of physics and its application to human welfare

Service mission: to supply economy-of-scale publishing services to Member Societies

Currently has 10 member societies, 23 affiliated societies, and several other organizations under its umbrella (most have a publishing program)

A publisher in its own right …

10 journals, conference proceedings, database products

Scitation …

AIP’s online hosting platform; on the web since 1996

Aggregation of 180 publications for 25 publishing partners

About me 27 years in publishing, all at AIP … 9 years in print journal production (most as a technical copy-editor) 3 years in desktop publication production 15 years in electronic/online products (8 as a manager) Currently an online product development manager in a business unit Not a programmer; more of a technical projects manager/product manager

27 years in publishing, all at AIP …

9 years in print journal production (most as a technical copy-editor)

3 years in desktop publication production

15 years in electronic/online products (8 as a manager)

Currently an online product development manager in a business unit

Not a programmer; more of a technical projects manager/product manager

Our goals Increase development speed in order to meet customer and customer constituency demands, as well as our own needs to evolve our services more regularly Position ourselves to innovate or deploy new features quickly in response to unpredictable “market conditions,” major paradigm shifts (like Web 2.0), or good ole competitive one-upsmanship

Increase development speed in order to meet customer and customer constituency demands, as well as our own needs to evolve our services more regularly

Position ourselves to innovate or deploy new features quickly in response to unpredictable “market conditions,” major paradigm shifts (like Web 2.0), or good ole competitive one-upsmanship

The enemy is us Project ( micro )management “ Perfect-plan-ism” Fear of failure (culture of “that won’t work”) Distributed decision-making Monolithic release mentality Design by committee Disconnect from users and customers at all but latest stages Compartmentalization, thick-walled bizunit-bizunit and bizunit-IT silos

Project ( micro )management

“ Perfect-plan-ism”

Fear of failure (culture of “that won’t work”)

Distributed decision-making

Monolithic release mentality

Design by committee

Disconnect from users and customers at all but latest stages

Compartmentalization, thick-walled bizunit-bizunit and bizunit-IT silos

From many schools of agility … Observe – Orient – Decide – Act (Boyd’s “OODA Loop”) Observe – Model – Test – Reflect (Kolb’s “Learning Model”) Plan – Do – Check – Act (Shewhart’s “QC Cycle”)

Observe – Orient – Decide – Act (Boyd’s “OODA Loop”)

Observe – Model – Test – Reflect (Kolb’s “Learning Model”)

Plan – Do – Check – Act (Shewhart’s “QC Cycle”)

… we stewed an “agile approach”

Agility demands the right roles The Agile “X Organization” The Leader, a/k/a “Big X” The Stakeholder The Timekeeper The User Advocate The Visualizer The Architect The Coder The Bulletproofer The Tester The Gatekeeper

The Agile “X Organization”

The Leader, a/k/a “Big X”

The Stakeholder

The Timekeeper

The User Advocate

The Visualizer

The Architect

The Coder

The Bulletproofer

The Tester

The Gatekeeper

What was our “Big X” like? Did not act like a certified project manager; more of an engager-resonator-cultivator-harmonizer Articulated clear intent/goal (co-signed “the contract of leadership” with the team) Asked the team to accomplish the goal, but did not tell them how to do it

Did not act like a certified project manager; more of an engager-resonator-cultivator-harmonizer

Articulated clear intent/goal (co-signed “the contract of leadership” with the team)

Asked the team to accomplish the goal, but did not tell them how to do it

Team attributes Highly motivated, highly skilled Zen-like, intuitive understanding (“feeling it”) Mix of experienced hands, fresh POVs Rank did not dictate leadership role(s) Business-technology blend Self-mobilizing at all levels Cross-pollinating Credibility, mutual respect, passion, trust Subjugation of personal agendas

Highly motivated, highly skilled

Zen-like, intuitive understanding (“feeling it”)

Mix of experienced hands, fresh POVs

Rank did not dictate leadership role(s)

Business-technology blend

Self-mobilizing at all levels

Cross-pollinating

Credibility, mutual respect, passion, trust

Subjugation of personal agendas

Team behaviors Highly verbal No blame, no fear No assumptions, projections, conceits Dialogue over monologue Sublimation of egos, but wide berth given to passionate POVs Devil’s advocacy tempers evangelism Belief in user input and test-driven development as primary design driver

Highly verbal

No blame, no fear

No assumptions, projections, conceits

Dialogue over monologue

Sublimation of egos, but wide berth given to passionate POVs

Devil’s advocacy tempers evangelism

Belief in user input and test-driven development as primary design driver

A little inspiration Korean War jet pilot John Boyd believed the perfect fighter plane’s key characteristic was agility – the ability to change its energy state rapidly to move from patrol to attack mode, and for a pilot to do the same mentally to gain advantage once engaged in a dog-fight Pilot advantage hinged on highly intuitive Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) looping The more agile pilot was the one who could change the situation more quickly than his opponent could update his orientation to it (“getting inside” the enemy’s OODA loop) OODA grants us the ability to balance continuity and change (a pretty good definition of agility)

Korean War jet pilot John Boyd believed the perfect fighter plane’s key characteristic was agility – the ability to change its energy state rapidly to move from patrol to attack mode, and for a pilot to do the same mentally to gain advantage once engaged in a dog-fight

Pilot advantage hinged on highly intuitive Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) looping

The more agile pilot was the one who could change the situation more quickly than his opponent could update his orientation to it (“getting inside” the enemy’s OODA loop)

OODA grants us the ability to balance continuity and change (a pretty good definition of agility)

What do aerial warfare and projects have in common? Shared “adversaries” Rapid, unanticipated changes that lead to disorientation An uncertain environment Constant threats to any initiative gained Time itself OODA helps in dog-fights and projects Allows us to control the environment (esp. change) Can help identify threats faster Is iterative by design

Shared “adversaries”

Rapid, unanticipated changes that lead to disorientation

An uncertain environment

Constant threats to any initiative gained

Time itself

OODA helps in dog-fights and projects

Allows us to control the environment (esp. change)

Can help identify threats faster

Is iterative by design

OODA, cheap DC comics version

OODA, expensive O’Reilly book version

Our 1 st OODA loop Installed an agile “framework” (people, process, tools); planned a 1 st iteration and an agile user testing/feedback loop Decide Studied the competition, to see what they had on the abstract page that we didn’t, and what we could add quickly; ID’d customer and user wants and needs; increased Web 2.0 savvy; assigned values to deliverables Orient Noted that 46% of Scitation user sessions started on the abstract view; began cultivating a vision that our platform was made up of 2 million article homepages where the users engaged us and one another, and where we engaged them Observe Implemented the 1 st iteration Act What We Did OODA Component

Thank you, sir, may I have another … 20 business days Plan and implement Version 1.6 8 business days Implement version 1.5 37 business days Assemble the team; retool approach, applications, and presentation framework (GUI) to facilitate “working agile”; plan version 1.5 14 business days Plan and implement Version 1.7 10 business days Plan and implement Version 1.8 12 business days Plan and implement Version 1.9 How Long We Took What We Did

So, where did that speed come from? Practice designer-centered design Practice user-centered design Run the project via meetings, e-mail, and reference a 50-page “plan” and document it on the LAN Run the project on the web and reference a 1-2-page “roadmap” and document it on virtual writeboards Wait until everything is hard-wired together before alpha testing Test end-user functionality modularly as it’s built – and course-correct as we go Slow-cook requirements via multiple meetings, mockup reviews, documentation reviews Quick-cook requirements in social environments (wiki, basecamp) Produce exhaustive Visio wireframes and workflows Prototype on paper (easy to change) Wait until everything is changed and re-wired together before beta testing Engage key internal stakeholders and customers/users at every stage Declare work done and move onto next thing without reassessing value or need to modify/optimize behavior Never consider work really complete; continue evaluating feedback and surveying users to drive followup iterations What We Used to Do What We Do Now

Our obligatory process diagram

Keys to speed: paper Went “retro” for planning, design, and visualization Used index card bleachers to organize the high-level project components User stories were literally story-boarded Used presentation boards and Post-Its in multiple colors like Colorforms to arrange GUI elements – and wire-framed the results Used dozens of 3x5 index cards and Post-Its to map the deeper logic underlying screen flows Captured certain visualizations with a digital camera on the spot and posted them to the project Basecamp as a point of reference for the team

Went “retro” for planning, design, and visualization

Used index card bleachers to organize the high-level project components

User stories were literally story-boarded

Used presentation boards and Post-Its in multiple colors like Colorforms to arrange GUI elements – and wire-framed the results

Used dozens of 3x5 index cards and Post-Its to map the deeper logic underlying screen flows

Captured certain visualizations with a digital camera on the spot and posted them to the project Basecamp as a point of reference for the team

Keys to speed: new “environments” Ergonomics, creature comforts Dual monitors Development framework AJAX Apache Tiles Spry XML Management framework (still playing with these) Basecamp, JIRA (web-based project collaboration) Jabber (IM-like messaging and conferencing) Pbwiki, Confluence, Drupal (online documentation) surveymonkey (online user feedback collector-analyzer)

Ergonomics, creature comforts

Dual monitors

Development framework

AJAX

Apache Tiles

Spry

XML

Management framework (still playing with these)

Basecamp, JIRA (web-based project collaboration)

Jabber (IM-like messaging and conferencing)

Pbwiki, Confluence, Drupal (online documentation)

surveymonkey (online user feedback collector-analyzer)

Keys to speed: the “war room” Leveraged the social-ness inherent in teams Provides an extremely high signal-to-noise ratio

Leveraged the social-ness inherent in teams

Provides an extremely high signal-to-noise ratio

Keys to speed: optimized meetings Daily meetings of the action team (team leaders, developers, designers) 15 minutes or less Twice-weekly meetings of the entire team . 30 minutes or less All other communication handled on the teamlet level, via short-burst online chat/IM or face-to-face

Daily meetings of the action team (team leaders, developers, designers)

15 minutes or less

Twice-weekly meetings of the entire team .

30 minutes or less

All other communication handled on the teamlet level, via short-burst online chat/IM or face-to-face

Keys to speed: “eating the elephant” To build is human; to iterate, divine Build first out of necessity, and then iterate aggressively to grant user flexibility, comfort, and – if desired – luxury: Dirt track  single-lane cobblestone road  two-lane asphalt road  Autobahn Start with one “story,” and then … Rewrite it Rewrite it again (embrace “change”) And (possibly) again

To build is human; to iterate, divine

Build first out of necessity, and then iterate aggressively to grant user flexibility, comfort, and – if desired – luxury:

Dirt track  single-lane cobblestone road  two-lane asphalt road  Autobahn

Start with one “story,” and then …

Rewrite it

Rewrite it again (embrace “change”)

And (possibly) again

Our agile “mythology” scorecard Agility requires no discipline “ Fail fast” or “fail early and often” is a speed-enhancing attribute; “gotta build it to break it” (best to break it sooner) Agility is a silver bullet OODA worked (though no one explictly knew it was OODA) Agility is just for programmers People first, then methodology, then tools – the best route from fragile to agile for us Agility means “perpetual beta” User stories and personae were critical to getting at REAL functionality with VALUE “ Agile Myths” We Debunked “ Agile Myths” We Confirmed

How we plan to stay agile “ A good plan … executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”

“ A good plan … executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”

It’s alive! Project your agility – allow the public/users/potential partners to look behind the curtain at select products way before even “soft” launches: Allow them into your “Labs”/“Skunkworks” – virtual sandboxes for new, experimental, or evolving features Introduce the proposed alongside the old, and let the users compare

Project your agility – allow the public/users/potential partners to look behind the curtain at select products way before even “soft” launches:

Allow them into your “Labs”/“Skunkworks” – virtual sandboxes for new, experimental, or evolving features

Introduce the proposed alongside the old, and let the users compare

Thanks! AIP Agility in Practice Learn more at http://www.aip.org The director’s cut of this presentation is available at http://www.slideshare.net/secret/1hFBfq9FGEZEAj CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE Redrawn version of John Boyd's OODA Loop by Patrick E. Moran. Agile Lifecycle and other diagrams, courtesy Scott W. Ambler, Javapolis. A lifetime of project-management inspiration via http://www.lessons-from-history.com/ Other images and sound bytes from the Great Internet Hard Drive.

AIP

Agility in Practice

Learn more at http://www.aip.org

The director’s cut of this presentation is available

at http://www.slideshare.net/secret/1hFBfq9FGEZEAj

CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE

Redrawn version of John Boyd's OODA Loop by Patrick E. Moran.

Agile Lifecycle and other diagrams, courtesy Scott W. Ambler, Javapolis.

A lifetime of project-management inspiration via http://www.lessons-from-history.com/

Other images and sound bytes from the Great Internet Hard Drive.