The document discusses context-driven leadership and managing projects based on their level of uncertainty and complexity. It describes a model where projects are categorized as sheepdogs, cows, bulls, or colts based on having low or high levels of uncertainty and complexity. The appropriate leadership approach depends on the project type - sheepdog projects need agility, cow projects need defined interfaces, bull projects need both agility and process, and colt projects are laissez faire. Reducing uncertainty or complexity can involve changing attributes like team size or location. Leadership requires a balance of developing processes, people, technology, and business skills to match the project context.

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Todd Little
Sr. Development Manager
Landmark Graphics
Context Driven
Agile Leadership
One Size Doesn’t Fit All

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The Problem:
Software Delivery
Challenged
46%
Failed
19%Succesful
35%
Standish Group 2006, reported by CEO Jim Johnson, CIO.com, ‘How to Spot a Failing Project’

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Why is Software Late?
Genuchten 1991 IEEE
General
Manager
Project
Manager Item
H H Customer/management changes
L H Overall complexity
H H Unrealistic project plan
M H Staffing problems
H L Insufficient front end planning

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Hurricane Rita

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It Depends
 Uncertainty: We expect
uncertainty and manage
for it through iterations,
anticipation, and
adaptation.
 Context: We improve
effectiveness and
reliability through
situationally specific
strategies, processes and
practices.

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Hurricane Context
 Where is it?
 Where is it going?
 How fast are the winds?
 How big is it?
 How large are the swells?

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Project Context

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Uncertainty
 Uncertainty: We expect uncertainty and manage
for it through iterations, anticipation, and
adaptation.

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Context Leadership Model
Project Complexity
Uncertainty
Low
Low
High
High

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Uncertainty and Complexity
Uncertainty Complexity
Attribute Range Attribute Range
Market Mature or New Team Size <5 to > 100
Technical Proven or New Mission
Critical
Speculative or
Business Critical
# Customers 1 or many Team Location Local or
Distributed
Duration 3 months or
2 years
Team Maturity New or
Experienced
Change Change control or
Embrace change
Domain Gaps Gaps or Team of
domain experts
Dependencies None or Several

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Context Leadership Model
Project Complexity
Uncertainty
SheepDogs
Cows
BullsColts
Low
Low
High
High

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Context Leadership Model
Project Complexity
Uncertainty
Simple, young projects.
Need agility
Tight Teams
SheepDogs Complex, mature market
Need defined interfaces
Cows
Bulls
Agility to handle uncertainty
Process definition to cope
with complexity
laissez faire
Colts
Low
Low
High
High

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Reduce Uncertainty or
Complexity
Uncertainty Complexity
Opportunities to Reduce Uncertainty:
 Use proven technologies
 Reduce project duration
Opportunities to Reduce Complexity:
 Collocate the team
 Break project into sub-projects
Attribute Score
Market ███
Technical ███
# Customers █████████
Duration █████████
Change ███
Attribute Score
Team Size █████████
Mission Critical █████████
Team Location █████████
Team Maturity ███
Domain Gaps ███
Dependencies █████████

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Swiss Stock Exchange
Project Complexity
Uncertainty
User Interface
SheepDogs Backend
Cows
Bulls
The Complete Release
Legacy Products
Colts
Low
Low
High
High

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Partitioning
SheepDog
Project
Cow
Project
Colt
Project
Bull
Program
Remember: Loose Coupling and Strong Cohesion

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First Integration Release
Project Complexity
Uncertainty
New acquisitions
SheepDogs Integration data model
Cows
Bulls
The Integration Release
Existing Products
Colts
Low
Low
High
High

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Integrating Software by
Integrating People
Developers’
Conference Yearly
PMM Quarterly
Friday@4 Weekly
Creating the Future

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Products Lifecycle Paths
Uncertainty
Complexity
Product Lifecycle
Low
High
Dog
Cows
Low High
Bulls
Skunks
Colts
A
B
C

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Project Leadership Guide
Market
Differentiating
High
Low
Mission CriticalLow High
Invent
ManageOffload
Create
Change
Embrace
Change
Eliminate
Change
Control
Change
Ad Hoc Agile
Outsource Structured
Deploy

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A Tale of 4 Projects
Project Complexity
Uncertainty
New Product
Weekly Iterations
Collocated team
Very active Product Owner
SheepDogs
Relatively Mature Product
1 dominant customer
20 member distributed team
3 week Iterations
Significant automation testing
Cows
Bulls
The Complete Release
Paired Project Management
Frequent Integration
Relatively Mature Product
Small collocated team
Same team for many releases
Developers are domain experts
Iterationless
Colts
Low
Low
High
High

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A Tale of 4 Projects
A Cow A Colt A Dog A Bull
Team Size
25
(4 teams)
8 5
38
(6 teams)
Distributed Global (3 sites) Local Local Global (3 sites)
Scrums MWF and T-Th Daily MWF As needed
Iteration
Length
3 weeks 1 week Iterationless Iterationless
Testing
Multi-level
regression tests
Automated
Smoke Test
Unit tests
Product Owner
very involved
Unit tests, limited
automation tests
Automated
Smoke Test and
regression tests

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Leadership Development
Process
People
Technology
Business

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Leadership Development
Project Complexity
Uncertainty
SheepDogs
Cows
BullsColts
Low
Low
High
High
Business
& Technology
People
& Process

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Portfolio Management
RAPID Quadrant Assessment
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
Project Complexity
Uncertainty
Project Complexity
Uncertainty
SheepDogs
Cows
BullsColts

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 Create a place where people want to be
not have to be
 Make sure everyone has what they need
to succeed.
Great Leadership

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Contact
Todd Little
tlittle@lgc.com
www.toddlittleweb.com
www.accelinnova.com

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Questions?
www.synerzip.com
Hemant Elhence
hemant@synerzip.com
469.322.0349

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Synerzip in a Nut-shell
1. Software product development partner for small/mid-sized
technology companies
• Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies
• By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clients
• Deep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment
• Technology and industry domain agnostic
2. Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals
• Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparency
• NOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support
3. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery
• Experienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering discipline
• Practices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined
4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage
5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking
offshore team captive – aka “BOT” option

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Our Clients

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Call Us for a Free Consultation!
www.synerzip.com
Hemant Elhence
hemant@synerzip.com
469.322.0349
Thanks!

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Your Questions?
Stand Back and Deliver