Agile masterclass - The Most Important Agile Concepts to Know and the Critical Mistakes Most Teams Make

Agile Masterclass & Coach Q&A
Agile Masterclass
The Most Important Agile Concepts To Know
& The Common Mistakes To Avoid

Engage and interactive using chat
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Have you tried Agile...and failed?
Remove distractions (phone, email
etc). To get the most out of the
session:
Before
We Begin

What to expect (agenda?)
About me
Why Agile works (the epiphany)
Quick Agile overview
Agile Frameworks and choosing the right one
Planning & estimating Agile projects
Reporting, tracking & forecasting
The easiest continuous improvement process
Governance and Agile (what the?)
Want more?
Questions & Answers

About Your Coach
➢ Certified Agile Master
➢ Certified Scrum Master
➢ Certified Practicing Project Director (CPPD) (RegPM)
➢ Prince2 Practitioner
➢ Certified Gateway(r) Assessor
➢ Advance Diploma Project Management
➢ Guest Lecturer, Author & AIPM chapter Councillor
Chris O'Halloran is recognised as one of Australia's leading project management experts and the Author of "Done
Better Faster - The Manager Guide To Agile". He is the Head Agile Coach & founder of Agile Sumo, an Agile project
management consultancy with offices across Australia and Asia which focuses on pragmatic Agile coaching, training,
project management contracting, advice and tools that actually work.
Chris has over 15 years project management experience work with some of the world’s leading brands and
governments.

Why Agile Works
★ No plan survives first contact with the customer/stakeholder
★ Estimates are always wrong
★ Provides a framework for rolling wave planning
★ Avoids the planning fallacy
★ Law of deadlines - our effectiveness improves with encroaching deadlines
★ No one will read your 100 pager
★ Communication is king
★ Tricks us humans into being more effective
★ Value can be delivered quickly and cheaply
★ Focus is on value not red tape

Benefits of Agile
✓ Focus on shared understanding of the problem
✓ Uses visual control tools for enhanced communication and transparency
✓ Focus on communication over documentation
✓ Focus on performance cadence and velocity
✓ Self adjusts for continued improvement and maximum value
✓ Delivers maximum value for minimum effort
✓ Experience bring predictability
Agile is a way of working in a manner that delivers value quickly

Often Done Wrong

Agile Overview

Traditional Project Management Model
Agile Overview

Waterfall is best when there is well
documented scope that is not likely
to change or project is sensitive to
change
Agile is best when scope is not well
defined scope is likely to change or
project is sensitive to completion dates
and/or budget
Agile Overview

Agile Frameworks

Agile Frameworks
20 mins
max

Agile Frameworks
20 mis
max
Time
Performance

Lean Kanban
Agile Frameworks

Row by Row - Run
1. Complete 1 row at a time for each column
2. Complete each column at a time
A-J Black 1 - 10 Blue I - X Red
A 1 I
B 2 II
... ... ...

• Task time is typically 10% of total process time (lead time).
• Less than 30% of the tasks in a process add value from the customer’s perspective
Agile Frameworks
Value
Added
Value
Added

Planning & Estimating

Waterfall tries to predict the time,
cost & scope of known and
variable data
Agile tries to predict scope, given time &
cost constraints

✓ Well defined objective & goals
✓ Identified Minimum Valuable Product (MVP)
✓ Availability of team for estimating
✓ Prioritised backlog
✓ Idea of key milestones/releases and completion dates
✓ Known team velocity (ideal)
Tips for success

Backlog will contain varying sizes of work - this is natural

✓ Analogous estimating - find specific components of known past project and estimate based
off those, eg similar project last year had $65,000 of hardware servers
✓ Parametric estimating - based on quantifiable data, eg carpet cost $60 pm2, 1000 m2 of
carpet = $60,000
✓ Expert judgment - experts in their field provide estimates from their past experience
PMBoK recommends these estimating techniques

The Diminishing Returns of Estimating
How do we estimate efficiently with enough accuracy?
Use DELPHI

DELPHI In Agile Projects
Relies on team of experts, not individuals for estimation
Avoid of expert bias (“anchoring” deferring judgment to
perceived expert)
Group consensus are more accurate
Multiple lenses and experiences (different experiences,
backgrounds, knowledge areas, etc)
Quick!

Agile Estimating Process
1) Facilitator or product owner reads item to be estimated. If required, team asks clarification
questions of.
2) Each person places an “Estimating Poker” card face down
3) Facilitator calls for a show, team members turn over cards at the same time
4) If all cards agree, value is recorded as the estimate
5) Otherwise, Highest and Lowest estimator explain their reasoning over a brief discussion
6) Repeat steps 2-5 until estimates converge
Tips
➢ Don’t try to convert points into days, hours, weeks etc
➢ Use points to estimate items relative to the others
➢ Only estimate out 3 sprints worth of detailed tasks

Reporting Tracking & Forecasting

Reporting & Forecasting
Daily Stand-up - 15mins max

Reporting & Forecasting

Continuous Improvement
Retrospectives
4 key questions:
1. What worked well
2. What didn’t work well
3. What puzzles me or is
interesting
4. What we’re going to
change
Pick only 1 and DO it before the
next Retro

Governance in Agile
★ Manage risk
★ Separation of business & project governance
★ Separation of stakeholders & decision making
★ Continued Business Case justification
★ Formal decision points or gates
★ Alignment to strategic pillars
★ Document & agree changes
★ Agree governance points
○ Monthly, each release (3 sprints etc)
★ Agile reporting tool as input
★ Re-baseline on agreed changes

Want More?
Online Agile Course: knowledge transfer course & certified courses 40% discount
➢ Master Agile $397 $238
➢ Certified Agile $699 $419
dojo.agilesumo.com & enter coupon: 40-OFF-PRE-LAUNCH for discount
Coaching & Group Training: work with me one on one, face to face or virtually
➢ Schedule a complimentary 45 minute call to determine suitability
agilesumo.com/chris

Questions

Notes
✓ Planning fallacy - we naturally under estimate
✓ Law of deadlines works - but not too much
✓ Half Agile = Tragile
✓ Agile is a mindset - a way or working the frameworks
help you DO Agile
✓ Learning Agile concepts is easy, living them is hard
✓ Governance still exists in Agile - just align it so there
is no duplication
✓ Sprint deadlines are real and must be firm
✓ Measure & track your team’s velocity

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