In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, organisations are increasingly turning to Agile methodologies to enhance their project delivery capabilities. Agile offers flexibility, adaptability, and customer-centricity, but ensuring the successful delivery of Agile projects requires a unique set of strategies and practices. This session will uncover what is unique about assurance of Agile Delivery, and come find out why to assure, what to assure, when and how. Trust us, Agile delivery needs assurance, too! This was presented by Marisa Silva, Senior Consultant from Wellingtone at FuturePMO, on the 26th of October. FuturePMO is a 1-day PMO event for practitioners at all levels. The conference brings extraordinary speakers from across industries to challenge your PMO and PPM thinking, helping you work smarter. The next one takes place on the 3rd of October 2024 in London. To learn more and book on to the next conference, visit www.FuturePMO.com LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/11120292 Twitter - https://twitter.com/FuturePMO Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/futurepmoevent/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHi8w5ACqsloXxBEA9t9pfA

1. Assurance of Agile
Delivery

2. We are a Project, Portfolio and Work
Management consulting and training
company with offices in Windsor (UK), Dublin
and Madrid.
We at Wellingtone enable our clients to make
a step change in their Project, Portfolio and
Work Management maturity. We achieve this
working with our clients as their trusted
partner.
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Wellingtone

3. Agenda
Why
Assurance
matters in
Agile
What’s
different
about Agile
Assurance
WHY
What to
Assure
Assuring the
Business Case
WHAT Assurance &
the Gateway
Review
framework
WHEN
Assurance
Metrics
Frameworks
for reviewing
Agile delivery
HOW
Are you a CAT PERSON or a DOG PERSON?

5. Why Assurance matters in Agile
Quality Assurance Customer Satisfaction Risk Mitigation Transparency and
Visibility
Continuous
Improvement
Compliance and
Governance
Predictability
Cross-Functional
Collaboration

6. What’s different about Agile Assurance?
The outcomes for Agile assurance are no different to those for
traditional assurance approaches
However, Agile is more self-assuring than linear or sequential approaches:
➢ assurance is part of the delivery process
➢ risk management embedded into day-to-day operations and
governance arrangements

7. What’s different about Agile Assurance?
immersed more deeply in project activities
to enable the agile team to present outputs and demonstrate maximum value
to observe the project’s and the organisation’s behaviours.
independent and objective

8. What to assure?
Agile is the right
approach for this project
Agile is done right in
this project:
Roles & Behaviours
Ceremonies
Artefacts
Value
is delivered

9. Assurance checklist: Is Agile right for this project?
▪ Do we have flexibility on the deliverables or is the
scope unknown?
▪ Are we driven more by time or cost limitations than
delivering a specific scope?
▪ Does this way of working fit with the organisation’s
control mechanisms?
▪ Are stakeholders bought into this way of working?
If the answer is
NO, then Agile
might not be
right for this
project!

10. Assurance checklist: Is Agile done right?
Are roles clearly defined and does the team show Agile
behaviours?
Can you see evidence of ceremonies being performed (correctly)?
✓ Backlog grooming
✓ Sprint planning
✓ Daily stand-ups
✓ Sprint reviews
✓ Sprint retrospectives
Can you see evidence of artefacts?
✓ Backlog with user stories (and it is continuously refined)
✓ Sprint board/ Kanban board
✓ Progress tracking approach/ tool (such as Burndown chart)
✓ Outputs in increments
If you cannot see
evidence of roles,
ceremonies and
artefacts, that should
be a cause for
concern that the
project is not
managed well!

11. Assurance checklist: Is value being delivered?
time
value
delivered
Predictive/Linear
time
value
delivered
Adaptive/Agile

12. The Agile business case can and must: The Agile business case cannot:
Justify the project
Justify the use of Agile to deliver the project
Indicate costs and timelines
▪ Provide detail about the specifics of the
solution
▪ Specify or fix scope
• What will we get (benefits)?
• Why is this worth doing?
• How does this tie to strategy?
The Business Case for a project with Agile delivery
• Why can we not define scope?
• How can Agile help deliver value?
• Clarify what is value

13. ▪ Focus on objectives and benefits – not features or deliverables
▪ See the business case as a living document; use it to approve just the work you have
certainty over (this might be aligned to the level of investment the organisation is
comfortable with)
▪ Use the business case to justify why Agile is the best approach for this project
You will need to make a judgement call about how ready your organisation is for Agile. If they
cannot approve projects without a fixed scope, then Agile is not right for you!
The Business Case for a project with Agile delivery

14. Assurance & the Gateway Review framework
Strategic Assessment (Gateway 0): Before a project even starts, a Strategic Assessment is conducted to
evaluate the project's alignment with strategic priorities and its feasibility.
Business Justification (Gateway 1): At this stage, the project's business case, scope, and Agile approach
are reviewed to ensure they are robust and well-defined.
Delivery Strategy (Gateway 2): The Agile delivery approach, including the team structure, development
methods, and risk management strategies, is reviewed here.
Implementation Readiness (Gateway 3): This review assesses the project's readiness to move into the
implementation phase. For Agile projects, this might involve evaluating the progress made in sprints, the
quality of the deliverables, and the team's ability to adapt to changing requirements.
Benefits Realisation (Gateway 4): Post-implementation, the focus shifts to evaluating whether the intended
benefits are being realised. In Agile, this might involve assessing the delivered features and their impact on
end-users.

15. Assurance Metrics
Metric Purpose
Velocity
Measures the amount of work a team can complete in a sprint or iteration, providing insights into the team's
productivity and capacity.
Burndown and Burnup
Charts
Visualize the progress of work items (e.g., user stories or tasks) over time, helping teams track their progress
and predict completion dates.
Defect Density
Calculates the number of defects or issues per unit of code, highlighting code quality and identifying areas
requiring improvement.
Test Coverage
Measures the percentage of code or requirements covered by automated tests, ensuring comprehensive test
coverage.
Code Churn Tracks the frequency of code changes or churn, helping identify potential sources of instability and issues.
Cycle Time / Epic
Cadence
Measures the time it takes for a user story or task to move from initiation to completion, providing insights into
process efficiency.
Lead Time
Measures the time from the request of a feature or user story to its delivery, helping to manage customer
expectations and improve delivery times.
Customer Satisfaction
(Net Promoter Score,
Customer Feedback)
Gathers feedback from customers and stakeholders to assess their satisfaction and gather insights for
improvements.
Escaped Defects
Tracks defects or issues that are discovered by customers after release, helping to identify gaps in testing and
quality assurance.
Code Review Metrics
Metrics related to code reviews, such as review coverage, time to review, and number of comments, help
assess code quality and the effectiveness of code reviews.

16. Frameworks for reviewing Agile delivery
Assurance and approvals for agile
delivery of digital services (IPA)

17. Frameworks for reviewing Agile delivery
Use of Agile in large-scale
digital change programmes
(NAO)

18. Frameworks for reviewing Agile delivery
A Guide to Assurance of Agile Delivery (APM):
Approaching reviews checklist
Environments checklist
Governance checklist
Agile risk checklist

19. Remember: it’s all about value.

20. You can love them both.

21. ▪ Marisa.Silva@wellingtone.co.uk ▪ St Stephens House, Arthur
Road, Windsor, SL4 1RY
▪ www.wellingtone.co.uk
▪ T: +44 1753 621200
linkedin.com/in/TheLuckyPM
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