Agile, DevOps and Lean are common approaches to modern software delivery. But how are they actually being used in large enterprise? What do you need to consider to make your transformation successful? Visit www.tasktop.com for more information.

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A Quick Intro to Agile, DevOps & Lean
Development in the Enterprise

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Agile, DevOps and Lean are common approaches
to modern software delivery. But how are they
actually being used in large enterprise? What do
you need to consider to make your
transformation successful?

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THE BASICS

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Waterfall is a development process that is characterized by moving through a series of
phases in a strict, sequential order. All requirements are established and agreed upon at the
inception of the project, creating an environment that is largely resistant to change and
inflexible.
WATERFALL

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Agile is an alternative to Waterfall processes that support the team’s ability to regularly
deliver software to their customers, while continually improving business value. Agile
methods focus on self-organizing, empowered, cross-functional teams that are able to
respond quickly to changing environments. Timeboxed iterations allow for evolving
requirements and facilitate faster releases. Feedback loops help ensure that better products
are developed.
AGILE

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Lean software development is a mindset, rather than a methodology. “Lean thinking” in
software is patterned after lean manufacturing principles and emphasizes finding and
eliminating activities that don’t add value. Bottlenecks are identified and removed. The end-
to-end process, or “value stream,” is optimized. Both Agile and Lean place a lot of emphasis
on adaptive planning, empowered teams, continuous learning and delivering value to the
customer.
LEAN

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Most people agree that the goal of DevOps is enhanced communication and collaboration
between the development (“Dev”) and operations (“Ops”) teams. However, interpretations
of this vary. Some organizations hire “DevOps Engineers” who bridge the gap between the
development and operations teams, and help automate the delivery of software and
infrastructure. Others believe that this is too narrow a view, and DevOps is a more holistic
culture of change and cooperation that cuts across all phases of software development and
delivery.
DEVOPS

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“The biggest cause of failure in software-intensive systems
is not technical failure; it’s building the wrong thing.”
Mary Poppendieck, Leading Lean Software Development: Results Are not the Point

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COMBINED APPROACHES

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Old habits die hard. And for large enterprises there can be a lot of old habits that need to be
broken in order for full adoption of Agile, DevOps or Lean to work. Combining these new
approaches with each other, and with older waterfall practices, is often seen as a more
practical approach, that can still improve the quality and speed of software delivery.
NO ONE-SIZE FITS ALL

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The most widely used of the Agile methods, scrum is defined by key roles (Product Owner,
Scrum Master, Team Member), a “backlog” of work that must be prioritized and executed in
timeboxed iterations called ”sprints.” Coordination among team members is performed
using quick daily meetings called “scrums.”
SCRUM

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Kanban is a method used by teams with a Lean mindset. It focuses on managing the flow
and amount of work though the lifecycle by visually monitoring the WIP (Work In Process).
Useful in maintenance situations where teams have a high volume of bug fixes and small
changes. Mixing scrum and kanban can help increase status transparency and help manage
capacity.
SCRUMBAN

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Like scrum, Extreme Programming is a variation on Agile principles. It’s typified by a drive to
simplicity, pair programming, creating the unit test before writing the code and weaving a
“theme” through the stories in order to keep the team focused on the big picture of what
they are trying to accomplish. Like all Agile methods, development work is timeboxed,
though XP suggests using weekly development cycles and quarterly cycles for planning.
XP

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“Sixty-five percent of Agile expert
firms mix ad hoc Agile practices,
while only 42% of neophytes do.”
The 2015 State of Agile Development: Learn From Agile Expert
Firms, Forrester Research Inc., August, 2015

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WATER-AGILE-FALL
While many large enterprises are adopting agile, the reality is that many are not able to
completely switch to this approach. A long history of waterfall processes, annual corporate
planning and budget activities, and Operations teams that cannot deploy software more
frequently than quarterly, make it difficult to adopt agile practices in full. Many adopt
Water-Agile-Fall which splits software delivery into three phrases:
1. High-level planning and budgeting
2. Agile development in two week sprints
3. Monthly or quarterly software deployment

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MAKING IT WORK IN THE ENTERPRISE

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Breaking up silos and implementing cross-functional teams can be a big cultural change in
large enterprise. Successful implementation requires careful management and senior
leaders to embrace the cultural shift, as well as finding people with the right skills. Leaders
must embrace change.
EMBRACE CULTURAL CHANGE

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As illustrated in this guide, there are a number of different approaches that you could take
when implementing Agile. Pick one that best suits your organization and train a core team
of developers and testers on that approach. Once you’ve achieved success with one team,
implement your new techniques in more core teams. Once you’ve achieved success on
several projects, “scale” your agile practices to incorporate other disciplines within software
delivery.
START SMALL, THEN SCALE

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”Operations has too many manual processes, and the
cost of the errors these manual processes cause comes
out in the dollars lost for the business.”
Gene Kim, author of The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, And Helping Your Business Win

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Software development and delivery is an inherently scientific and creative process that
requires highly skilled professionals. However, some aspects can be automated to reduce
wasted time and errors caused by manual processes. IT automation to trigger builds and
tests, automated tests for repetitive testing and the integration of the tools practitioners use
to manage and execute their work, can all increase the effectiveness of teams.
AUTOMATE WHAT YOU CAN

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Reduced batch size, more frequent delivery, and a focus on enabling collaboration means
that you have to communicate much more, and much more frequently. Unless everyone is
working in the same tool and with the same process, this can quickly become
overwhelming. Automating the integration of tools allows information to flow, and increases
visibility, traceability and productivity.
INTEGRATE YOUR AGILE TOOLS

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Start by integrating your development and test tools.
Aligning development and testing teams is difficult when they are using different tools.
Syncing defects between the tools means that everyone can continue to work in their tool
of choice, while still getting all the information they need to deliver software faster.
GETTING STARTED TIP

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“Measuring and diagnosing delivery pipeline delays
gives organizations the insight they need to improve
their practices.”
Boost Application Delivery Speed and Quality With Agile DevOps Practices, Forrester Research Inc., March
2016

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Aggregating data across teams, projects, domains and tools is essential. This will help
answer questions that can improve the delivery process such as:
• What teams are producing the most severe defects?
• Why are those defects happening?
• How quickly are they fixed?
• Are teams getting project requirements on time?
• Which teams need more resources to meet their deadlines?
• What type of features results in the most customer complaints?
METRICS FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

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Tasktop enables organizations to benefit from a connected, end-to-end software delivery
lifecycle – starting from the needs of your business through software production. We look
forward to discussing how your organization can scale Agile, Lean and DevOps initiatives
through an integrated software lifecycle.
www.tasktop.com
info@tasktop.com