Agile Program Management
Best Practices
Pete Behrens
Agile Organization & Process Coach
© 2009 Trail Ridge Consulting, LLC pete@trailridgeconsulting.com 303.819.1809

Pete Behrens
Agile Organization & Process Coach
 Certified Scrum Trainer
 Certified Scrum Coach
 Guide enterprise organizations in transitioning to an agile
organization implementing agile methods
 Services for agile assessment, alignment, training and coaching
Previous Experience
 Led development of the requirements management solution
RequisitePro – a core product in the IBM Rational product line – using
the Rational Unified Process (RUP)
 Consulted with EDS leading development of large data warehouse
solutions using Rapid Application Development (RAD)
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Program Management
Program Management is the
process of managing several
related projects or a portfolio of
products
Organization Process Product
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Executive Summary
Effective Agile Program
Management
has less to do with Process
than it does the Organization
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Executive Summary
Organizati ove Proces
r
on s
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
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Executive Summary
Organizati ove Proces
r
on s
Individuals and Process
over
Interactions and Tools
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
www.agilemanifesto.org - 2001
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Executive Summary
To effectively scale agility to a
large complex programs - the
organization is the key
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When an organization is small...
focus communication transparency
...are free.
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Can’t we just scale it through
Program Management?
Program
Manager
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In large organizations...
CIO, CTO,
VP Engineering
Product Line Product Line Product Line
Manager Manager Manager
Functional Functional Functional Usability
Manager Manager Manager Engineering
DBA
PMO
Infrastructure
...focus is challenged. Quality
Assurance
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In large organizations...
2000
Communication Paths
1500
1000
500
0
2 6 8 10 30 50
Number of People
...communication breaks down.
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In large organizations...
...transparency becomes opaque.
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Organization Problems lead to
Program Problems
 Lack of Focus
 Lost Communication
 Little Transparency
Leads to...
 Lack of Predictability
 Too many Dependencies
 Unknown Risks
 Low Quality
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Conway’s Law
Organizations which
design systems are
constrained to produce
designs which are copies
of the communication
Organization structures of these
organizations.
Architecture
http://www.melconway.com/law
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Organizational Flexibility is Key
Organization communication
complexities are manifested in
solution design
Larger organizations are more
rigid
Organizational flexibility is the key
to building effective design
solutions http://www.melconway.com/law
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Agile Context
Lean and Agile
Principles
Scrum Project & Product
Leadership & Team
Practices
XP Development & Test
Practices
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Why was Scrum Created?
TEAMS solve problems
better than individuals
Teams solve problems
better incrementally in
short TIMEBOXES
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Why was Scrum Created?
TEAM
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TIMEBOX 17

Why was Scrum Created?
TEAM
focus communication transparency
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TIMEBOX 18

Team members get direction
from multiple sources
Work
Products
s
act tice
ice
s Prac
Product B est
Owner
Work
Architect UI Designer
Products
Scrum
Master Work
Products
Technical
Writer Developer Best
Prac
es tices
actic
Pr Tester
Work
Products
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Architect
Multiple Scrum Teams
Technical
Writer
Developer
Scrum Tester
Master
r Product
Owner Tester Developer
Architect
eveloper
UI Designer
Tester
Tester Scrum
Master Developer
Archite
Developer Developer
oduct Technical
wner Writer
Developer
Tester
Developer
Scrum Tester
Master
Architect
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Team Work
Products
Focus
Single
Backlog
Pipeline
Product
Owner
Team
Architect UI Designer
Characteristics
Best Practices
Scrum • Small
Master
• Dedicated
Technical • Cross-functional
Developer
Writer • Co-located
• Shared Focus
Tester
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Communication
Fewer
Roles
Increases
Communication
Source: 2004 Patterns of Effective Organizations by Neil Harrison
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Communication
Fewer
Roles
Increases
Communication
Source: 2004 Patterns of Effective Organizations by Neil Harrison
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Communication
Sharing Work
across Roles
Increases
Communication
Source: 2004 Patterns of Effective Organizations by Neil Harrison
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Communication
Sharing Work
across Roles
Increases
Communication
Source: 2004 Patterns of Effective Organizations by Neil Harrison
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Transparency
Product & Release Cycle
Drives
Release
Vision
Release Sprint & Daily Cycle
Release Scope
Planning
And Boundaries
Sprint
Review
Planning
&
Adapt
Feedback Develop
& Test
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Transparency
✓ Define a Quarterly release plan
✓ Align team sprint cycles within that plan
✓ Share team sprint reviews monthly
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Shared Sprint Review
Every team in the program presents its sprint results and release update
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APM Case Study Companies
R&D Organization with over 500 people developing
a suite of retail applications installed in most of the
largest retail chains across the globe.
IT Organization with over 300 people developing
applications to support their B2B office product
distribution and warehouse.
R&D Organization with over 250 people developing
a SaaS CRM platform and suite of applications
supporting many Fortune 1000.
R&D Organization with over 125 people developing
a suite of applications for elementary education
assessment through PDA devices.
IT Organization with over 40 people developing
applications to support their corporate and personal
relocation business
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What do we need to do?
focus
✓ Solidify and focus teams
✓ Funnel projects and work items to teams
✓ Limit work to available teams
communication
✓ Reduce the number of roles in the organization
✓ Share work across all roles more evenly
transparency
✓ Create quarterly release plans
✓ Align team sprint cycles with a shared review
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Executive Summary
APM is taking the high-
performing team environment
found in a single team/product
environment and scaling it across
a larger organization and product
portfolio without the loss of
productivity, predictability or
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quality. 29

Summary
 Effective Agile Program Management
requires...
 Focus - Teams that are more stable in
structure but more flexible in the work
products they produce
 Communication - An organization with fewer
roles and more distributed responsibility
 Transparency - A shared sprint cycle with a
regular shared release planning and tracking
review
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