Agile Methodology

1. Managing Agile, Waterfall and
Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Jon Lewis - Director, Ninth Wave

2. 2 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Agenda
Introducing agile management techniques alongside traditional waterfall based
planning is becoming increasingly important for many of our customers.
In this presentation, we’ll describe and explain some of the issues in managing a
mix of waterfall projects, fully Agile projects and projects following a hybrid agile/
waterfall approach, all within the same project portfolio.
We’ll share Ninth Wave’s ideas and experience in this area and show some of
the tools and techniques that we use to support project portfolio management
with these different project approaches.

3. 3 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Project Types
Waterfall:
Agile development:
Plan
Build
Review
Test
Deploy
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Deploy
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4. 4 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Hybrid Project Types
Iterative Waterfall:
Continuous Agile development:
Plan
Build
Review
Test
Deploy
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Review
Test
Deploy
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Deploy
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Deploy
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Deploy
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Deploy
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5. 5 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Waterfall:
o Requirements are known and fixed at the outset
o Changes can be expensive or impossible
o Different skills and resources are needed at different times
o Delays in one area have a knock on effect
o Testing is towards the end of the project
o The end date and cost are not ‘fixed’
o Benefits typically not realised until the end
Plan
Build
Review
Test
Deploy

6. 6 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Agile Development:
o Requirements don’t all have to be fixed at the outset
o Developments are time-boxed
o Focus is on delivering sets of independent features
o Changes can be incorporated at a later stage
o Resources used more efficiently
o Slippage is much more obvious
o Delays in one area not as critical
o The end date can be fixed..
o ..by deployment of what has been signed off at a given time.
Plan
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Review
Test
Deploy
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7. 7 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Iterative Waterfall:
o A larger project broken down into phases
o Only some requirements fixed at the outset
o Changes can be incorporated in a later phase
o Resource use not efficient within the project
o Delays in one area affect deployment of current and later phases
o The end dates can slip and costs can rise
o Benefits can be realised from delivery of phase 1
Plan
Build
Review
Test
Deploy
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Review
Test
Deploy

8. 8 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Continuous Agile Development:
o Requirements don’t have to be fixed at the outset
o Changes can be incorporated at any later stage
o Resources used efficiently
o Nothing is done until it is needed
o Delays in one area not critical
o Multiple small deployments at fixed dates
o Benefits can be realised very quickly (self funding?)
o But this could result in training and change management issues.
Plan
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Review
Test
Deploy
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Deploy
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9. 9 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Tools and techniques available:
Waterfall:
o Estimation tools
o Project planning and tracking
o Financial management and time recording
o Resource management
o Deliverable management and governance
Plan
Build
Review
Test
Deploy

10. 10 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Project Planning/ Gantt:

11. 11 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Project Financials:

12. 12 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Documents and Governance:

13. 13 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Tools and techniques available:
Agile:
o Planning poker
o Sprint and burndown chart
o Scrum/ Kanban board
o Build/ release management
Plan
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Test
Deploy
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14. 14 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Sprint and Burndown Chart:

15. 15 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Planning Poker:

16. 16 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Scrum/ Kanban Board:

17. 17 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Cards based work allocation:

18. 18 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
In-task time recording:

19. 19 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Build/ Release Management:

20. 20 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Managing different project types in the portfolio:
As we’ve just seen, Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects will all need to
be managed in slightly different ways in terms of:
o Project definition and scoping
o Planning and resourcing
o Financial management
o Governance
o Tracking and reporting
Plan
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Review
Test
Deploy
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Deploy
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Deploy
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21. 21 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
The Iron Triangle:
Good project management requires delivery within the triple constraints
of time, cost and scope and to the desired quality:
Good project portfolio management requires delivery across the
portfolio within overall triple constraints of time, cost and scope, whilst
achieving the level of quality required.
Quality
Scope

22. 22 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
The Iron Triangle (II):
Waterfall projects are typically
driven to achieving a fixed scope
and measured on delivery vs. plan
and cost vs. budget:
Quality
FIXED
Scope
Agile projects are typically driven
to meeting specific delivery dates
with given resources and
delivering as much as possible
within those constraints.
Quality
VARIABLE
Scope

23. 23 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Measuring performance across the portfolio:
Report a range of RAGs or statuses - for Delivery, Costs, Benefits and
Risks and Issues to highlight problem areas regardless of the type of
project:

24. 24 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
Ninth Wave and SmartCore
• Ninth Wave is an independent UK-based software and services firm
established in 1995
• Our main software product is SmartCore, a proven web-based
management support tool
• The product has been developed from practical experience of project
and programme management
• SmartCore is unique - it is entirely configurable via the web browser to
meet a wide range of organisational and individual information needs.

25. 25 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
SmartCore - Major Functional Components
Programme & Project
Management
Resource
Management
Strategic
Alignment
Budgets & Financial
Management
Timesheets
Document
Management
Workflow
& Business Rules
Benefits
Management
Portfolio
Management
Dashboards
& Reporting
Governance/
Change Management
Risk & Issue
Management

26. 26 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
SmartCore Customers:

27. 27 Managing Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid projects within the Portfolio
0207 403 4433
jon.lewis@ninthwave.co.uk
www.ninthwave.co.uk
Project Portfolio Management
from Ninth Wave
SmartCore