AgileIntro

Copyright 2007-2016 Peter M. Allen
An Agile Primer
What is Business Agility?
The speed at which we can
observe, orient, decide, and act.

Waterfall vs. Agile
(Design, Build, Test)
Waterfall = Big Hand-Off Relay
Agile = Iterative, Collaborative
time

Iterative Releases vs Big Bang
(Agile vs Waterfall)
Co$t
Time
M
M’
Market
$
Market: Which approach can learn and pivot to meet shifting customer
needs? Cost: Which cash flow, revenue, and risk profile would
companies prefer?

Introducing Agile Concepts
 Agile is a set of principles and practices.
No single Agile method applies everywhere.
 Agile development gets tailored to your
culture, customer’s needs, and product risk profile.
 Agile responds to and exploits change by
focusing on the highest business value in iterations.
 Iterations encourage more collaboration,
completion, feedback, and transparency.
Ask not “Are we Agile?” but rather “To what degree are we Agile?”

The Agile Manifesto
February 2001 Principles
Working software
over comprehensive documentation
Individuals and interactions
over processes and tools
Responding to change
over following a plan
Customer collaboration
over contract negotiation
Note: These principles are preferences rather than mandates.

Some Possible Agile Practices
• Scrum – Iterations with roles & rituals
• Kanban or Lean (Flow, WIP, “Waste Not”)
• XP – Extreme Programming
• TDD – Test Driven Development
• CI – Continuous Integration
• CD – Continuous Delivery
• DevOps (systemic culture of Trust & Discipline)

Teams: Waterfall vs. Agile
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
D
e
v
U
X
Q
A
R
e
l
e
a
s
e
Waterfall has silos of teams. Agile has cross functional teams.

Agile Product Management
FutureToday Near Term
Product requirements iterate – quantity and quality. They become
more refined approaching the present and fuzzier into the future.
The higher the business priority the clearer the ‘story’ will become.

Agile Development
Prototype UsableUseful
ReleaseConcept
When may or should work begin?
When is each story complete or done?
Each iteration delivers an increasingly refined product.
Research

• Agile means no plan
Planning is continuous due to feedback and new information.
• Agile has no discipline
Agile requires a lot of discipline to collaborate and stay focused.
• Agile makes no commitments
Commitments are made just in time for iterations and releases.
• Agile has no documentation
Documentation should be a profuse artifact of agile processes with
greater transparency, shared understanding, and less waste.
• Agile is the latest silver bullet
It’s mature but won’t overcome poor practices or incompetence.
Agile Myths

Agile: Iterations and Scrum

An Agile Weekend
(Is this familiar?)
This Weekend
(Iteration)
You
‘Bugs’
Spouse
Kids
New Info
Meals
(Backlog)
Honey
Do Jar
Example 1: An Agile Process/Pattern

Product
Backlog
Iteration
Stories
Eng
&QA
Staging &
Production
Bugs
Sales
Ops
Eng
Any New
Information
or
Stakeholder

Monthly board meetings check on a startup’s progress
and determine further funding (or not!) and pivots.
Venture Capital Tranche Funding
Funding
Backlog
$? $?
A Lean Startup

Iteration Basics
Iteration
or
Sprint
ProductBacklog
Done
Iteration Time Box
Sprint Backlog

Key Iteration Words
• Iteration – a time boxed work cycle
• Backlog – a prioritized list of work (stories)
• Epic – a deployable parent story >1 iteration
• Story – a short description of work <= 1 iteration
• Task – a short checklist of work within a story
• Points – a relative estimation of effort (1,2,3,5,8,13)
• Story and Task States (basic):
– Defined or ‘Ready’ (written and in the backlog)
– In Progress (work in progress)
– Complete (work is Ready to Accept)
• Accepted (this story is Done!)
– Blocked (something is preventing progress)

Basic Iteration Logistics
Defined
(Ready)
In
Progress
Complete Accepted Blocked
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Story 5
Story 6
 !

Iteration Tracking
• Iterations can be run F2F or online.
• Stories can live on cards, Post-Its, or online in an Agile wiki.
• Use colors to call out a common characteristic such as:
priority, effort, shared Epic, or a stakeholder.

Story Writing: Template
Describe ‘what’, not ‘how’.
• Part I: A Story <=1 iteration effort
– So that ____________ <benefit>
– As a __________ <stakeholder>
– I wish to _________ <goal>
• Part II: Acceptance Criteria
– Given <this setup>
– When <this occurs>
– Then <this should happen>

User Story – an Example
• Story Title: Claim Search
• Story Phrase: So that I may reference my claim, as a
member, I wish to search and locate my claims.
• Screenshot: <wireframes and short explanation>
Information here can contribute to Acceptance Criteria.
• Acceptance Criteria:
1. Given: As a customer, I am on the xxx page
When: Enter a search string that has a special character
Then: I get an error message as shown in screenshot #1
2. Given: As a customer, I am on the xxx page
When: Enter a normal search string and click on Search
Then: I get a list of all relevant search results
• Implementation Details (Comments):
<Brief relevant technical information, data sources,
dependencies or tasks that could otherwise be forgotten.>

When is a Story ‘Ready’?
The INVEST principle
 Independent: Not dependent upon another story
Negotiable: Stories are a reminder, not a contract
Valuable: Story must have value to the end user
Estimable: Sufficient to estimate effort
Small: Must be able to complete in 1 iteration
Testable: Clear acceptance criteria
Vital question: Given this story, can I write a test ?

Agile Effort Estimation
• Acceptance Criteria guides estimates.
• Points – team may decide the basis
– Reference size story of 3 points
– Fibonacci series (1,2,3,5,8,13 …)
– Or estimated hours /x (training wheels)
• Iteration Planning
– Team converges on a best total estimate.
– Tasking out helps refine understanding.

Determining ‘Done’
• Iterations refine ‘Done’ at each stage.
Proof of Concept, MVP, Useful, Usable, etc. Demo the work!
• Story writer defines Acceptance Criteria.
What is sufficient to make appropriate progress today?
• Difference: Completed vs. Accepted
Work completed needs stakeholder acceptance.
• Done means Accepted in this iteration.
New information may reveal enhancements for later.
• Does the code have a passing test?
Automation provides feedback, assurance, and captures story
intent and behavior in a scalable test that lives in version control.

Iterations and Scrum
Iteration
or
Sprint
Daily
Scrums
Review/Demo
Planning
ProductBacklog
Done
Retrospective
Scrum adds specific rituals and roles to iteration practices.
Grooming Sprint Backlog

Scrum Team Roles
• Product Owner – a Business leader
– Gathers proper stories from all stakeholders
– Prioritizes stories in the backlog and for each iteration
– Negotiates Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for releases
– Clarifies ‘done’ as needed and Accepts demo’d stories
• Scrum Master - a “Servant Leader”
– Facilitates the four Scrum rituals (Planning, Scrum, Demo, Retro)
– Enables the team: Removes blocks, shields from distraction,
facilitates communications, and gardens backlogs
• Team – 3 to 9 full time cross functional members
– Negotiate backlog and iteration story points
– Collaborate to complete stories
– Self organized (all ‘us’ - no ‘them’, optimized, easy enter/exit)
– QA members can Accept work as ‘done’ if so delegated by PO

Scrum – Key Ritual Questions
Planning:
• What can deliver the highest business value?
• Are we sizing iterations to team capacity?
• Agree on “Done” for each story.
Daily Scrums:
• What did I accomplish?
• What do I intend to do?
• Where am I blocked?
Retrospective:
• What is working well?
• How can we improve?

Metrics – a Dashboard Example
• Feedback is imperative!
• What measurements are useful?
• How often should they be updated?
• Should there be hi/low warnings?
• What data gets kept for records or analysis?

Agile – ‘New’ Metrics
• Points & Team Velocity: Value Delivered
• Backlog dynamics
Size, health, story cycle time
• Iteration Progress (‘Burn Down’)
• Iteration Unplanned work
• Test Coverage & Bug dynamics
• Subjective Feedback (Retrospective)
• Ritual Checks: Planning, Scrums, Demo, Retro,
Training, Sprint duration, Team stability
Observe
Orient
Adjust
Do

Learning Agile
Book knowledge can help.
With practice you will go faster.
Training and coaching helps too.
Expect to make mistakes (learn)!

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