Uploaded byDCG Software Value
How to Rescue a Troubled IT Project with Agile
The document outlines a structured approach to rescuing troubled projects through agile methodologies, emphasizing assessment, planning interventions, and team restructuring. The process involves understanding the project's current state, implementing agile practices, and using coaching to ensure effective transitions. It highlights the importance of team roles, communication, and iterative feedback mechanisms to improve project outcomes.
More Related Content
Similar to How to Rescue a Troubled IT Project with Agile
How to Rescue a Troubled IT Project with Agile
- 1. Measure. Optimize. Deliver. Phone+1.610.644.2856 Rescuing a Troubled Project with Agile Pat Eglin, Agile Coach p.eglin@davidconsultinggroup.com Tom Cagley, CFPS, Agile Practice Lead t.cagley@davidconsultinggroup.com 2013
- 2. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Troubled Projects • Is the project really in trouble? – Tolerances • Budget • Calendar • Quality • Satisfaction • Incompatibilities 1 Ok Disaster
- 3. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Assessing Typical Sources of Problems • Poor Planning – Lack of Correct Resources • Poor Scope Management – Scope Creep – Scope Churn – Building the Wrong Thing • Not Managed Well – Wrong People Doing The Right Things • Poor Communications – Lack of Involvement • Poor Quality – Trade-offs – Defects Dominating 2
- 4. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Turn Around or Reset? • Is there a coherent vision of the project’s goal? – No? Reset. • Does an external estimate to complete indicate humans can actually deliver? – No? Reset. • Can the organization afford what is required to deliver? – No? Reset. 3 Ok Disaster Turn Around
- 5. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Why Agile 4 “Agile projects are successful three times more often than non-Agile projects.” - 2011 CHAOS Manifesto from the Standish Group • Agile enhances the team’s ability to deliver through: – Involving the whole team in planning and meeting the business need – Focuses on defining what is needed then controlling the “backlog” – Utilizing a structure that allows the team to control their process to meet the environment – Short cycles, constant feedback and close engagement with the product owner
- 6. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup The Process 1. Assess The Project – In trouble? – Turn around or restart 2. Plan The Intervention – Prep the teams – Re-organize – Decide who does what 3. JumpStart 4. Coach 5. Celebrate 5
- 7. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Assess: The Project 6 Process: • Satisfaction • Change Management • SDLC Model: • CMMI • IT-CMF • Cobit Quantitative: • Dates • Defects • Cost • Productivity • Effort • Budget Quantitative and Process assessment techniques compared to implicit or explicit tolerances are the most common troubled project assessment techniques.
- 8. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Reorganize / Form Teams: Capability Teams Capability Team Product Owner Scrum Master Business Analyst Tester Tester Developer Developer Developer / Tester Value (Work) Flow 1. Form teams around organizational capabilities 2. Team size of five to nine, including all disciplines needed to deliver 3. Projects become less important than a Flow of Value (Karl Scotland) 7
- 9. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Three “Typical” Agile Team Roles Scrum Master • Coach and facilitator • Impediment remover The Team • Developers, Testers, Business Analysts/SMEs, Architects, Data Analysts, etc. • Frame, design, build and test Product Owner • Provides business acumen and support • Owns and prioritizes backlog, answers questions and makes decisions PO SM 8
- 10. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Roles & Responsibilities – Key Participants Product Owner • Ensures backlog is visible to everyone; • Makes decisions; • Defines the product vision and the features of the product; • Prioritizes user stories according to market value; • Grooms the product backlog every iteration; • Accepts or rejects work results; • Calls for and plans the releases; • Involves customers, users, and other stakeholders; • Prepares for the product launch; • Attends the Scrum meetings; and • Collaborates with the team. Scrum Master • Responsible for ensuring that the Scrum practices and rules are followed; • Teaches the team by coaching and leading; • Helps the team understand and use self- organization and cross functionality; • Removes impediments; • Ensures that the team is functional and productive; • Enables close cooperation across all roles and functions; and • Shields the team from external interferences 9
- 11. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Coach: Attributes and Roles • Role includes helping the team(s) to use Agile techniques via: – Teaching – Demonstrating – Pressure – Observation • Attributes: – High levels of emotional intelligence – Serves in a coaching role only – From outside the organization – Provides objective guidance, without personal or political considerations – Is an Agile expert – Has successfully run Agile projects 10
- 12. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Outside Support Roles • Business – Provide subject matter expertise – Support Product Owner • IT Leads – Provide standards – Provide technical expertise • Program Management – Big picture coordination – Remove external impediments Frequent support and encouragement 11
- 13. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Final Notes On The Team . . . 12 Saving a problem project cannot be a hobby! • Cross functional • Shares the knowledge • Generally full-time members • Membership only changes between iterations • Self organizing – No titles – Everyone will wear multiple hats (developers test) – Roll-up your sleeves – see something that needs to be done? Do it. – Agree to disagree – everyone's commitment to team decision is important
- 14. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Why Agile JumpStart? • The goal of the JumpStart Process in restarting or turning around a project is to radically rearrange how a project is run through an accelerated Agile adoption. It provides an environment where individual teams can quickly learn and apply Agile methods to transform their projects. In other words: – One-on-one external coaching – Show how by doing then transferring knowledge – Immediate process feedback – Just-in-time training – Coach withdraws as team gains confidence 13
- 15. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Sample Iteration Zero Agenda – Restart 9. Release Planning 11. Iteration Planning Estimate User Story Backlog & Assign Value Develop Release Plan Develop Iteration Plan Monday 4 hours Tuesday 4-8 hours Wednesday 8 hours Thursday 4 hours Friday 4 hours Create User Story Backlog 10. Demos and Retrospectives 8. Story Points & Estimating Create Project Vision & Team Charter 6. User Story Value 5. Writing User Stories 4. Building the Product Backlog 3. Agile Roles 2. Project Vision & Charter 1. Agile Values & Principles & Scrum 7. Test-driven Development 14
- 16. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Introduce Test-driven Development During Rescue Coding and Testing With TDD: Starting with a test means that you have to describe what the story wants to achieve before considering “how.” This focus helps to maintain the right level of abstraction. To ensure that you say what you mean: 1. Start with an English description 2. Write the code from the description 3. Translate the code back to English 4. Compare 3 to1 15 Pair Testers or BAs with Developers when writing tests! TDD helps insure that as stories are written and accepted into the sprint, they are understood (reducing defects and rework).
- 17. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup TDD: Simple Process Steps: 1. Design: Figure out what you want to do 2. Test: Write a test to express the design – It should FAIL 3. Implement: Write the code 4. Test again – It should PASS – Repeat writing code until the test passes 16
- 18. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup TDD: Limit Scope Keep tests understandable and maintainable by limiting their scope. Tests that are dozens of lines long mean the component being tested is too large and needs to be broken up into smaller components. • Every function should have: – A single specific purpose – If possible, a generally useful purpose – A meaningful name – A structure that is simple to understand – An interface that is simple yet general enough 17
- 19. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Iteration Zero – Expectations and Deliverables • Expectations – Time boxed – Resources dedicated to Agile transformation during time allocated • Deliverables – Concise project vision – Point-specific training – User Story backlog; estimated and prioritized – Initial release plan created – Team charter 18
- 20. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Agile Processes At A Glance 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 Days Burn-up Chart Example Done 24 Hours 1-2 Weeks Daily Standup Iteration Backlog Product Backlog Continuous Reporting Demo Iteration Planning Potentially Shippable Retrospective 19
- 21. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Maximum 90 Minutes Getting Started Prior to the Agile JumpStart process: • Confirm and get commitments on availability of key participants for Iteration Zero and subsequent sprints – Product Owner (PO) – Scrum Master – Team – Coach • Coach: Meet with POs and Scrum Master(s) – Set expectations – Review Agile overview, JumpStart, and role training – Assess team dynamics – Establish trust relationship – Schedule JumpStart 20
- 22. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Coach Transformation Coaching Coach as leader transitions to Scrum Master and Product Owner as Leaders Attributes of JumpStart Coach: • Aggressive Facilitator • Leader • High-Touch People Person • 110% Self Starter Attributes of Scrum Master: • Aggressive Facilitator • Owns the Scrum Process • Leader • High-Touch People Person • 110% Self Starter Transition Zone Begins Iteration 0 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Attributes of Product Owner: • Understands the Business • Owns the Product Backlog • Leader • High-Touch People Person • 110% Self Starter Scrum Master Product Owner Relative Levels of Effort 21
- 23. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Case - Restarting Large Alternate Asset Management Company with a multiple vendor, technology and project environment Large critical project, six project teams, four delivery dates missed, 80% complete for six months, reporting green status One Program Manager and six Project Managers assigned, little business involvement Significant requirements were still being discovered leading to four hour change management “debates” Experienced-based estimation based on bottom-up task planning with large MS Project schedule 22
- 24. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Case One Large software development firm, hierarchical culture, and one very large project and many smaller Mixed Scrum/XP (recent addition) and Plan-based project environment Strenuous budgeting process with tax accruals Significant discovery was required to define, design and develop the large project Experienced-based estimation based on bottom-up task planning – questionable on the large project! 23
- 25. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup The Process 1. Assess The Project – In trouble? – Turn around or restart 2. Plan The Intervention – Prep the teams – Re-organize – Decide who does what 3. JumpStart 4. Coach 5. Celebrate 24
- 26. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup The Answer, Part 1 25 Assessment • Teams were too large • Vendors were leading teams • Project was not 80% done • Functionality marked complete had not been tested Impact • Project managers were dismissed • Teams were consolidated to 7 members each, with an internal Scrum master, business product owner and a coach • Teams were co-located (3 geo-locations) • All teams were tasked with rebuilding their backlogs • A one week sprint zero was decided upon
- 27. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup The Answer, Part 2 26 JumpStart • All teams went through a standard JumpStart • Decided on team norms and completed Agile Chartering • Introduced Test-driven Development (Light) • Each team built an initial backlog • Program Manager facilitated developing an initial release plan • Each team planned and estimated their first iteration and publicly committed to the plan (as a team) • Completed team building Coaching • External coach facilitated each team • Hands-on training for product owners and Scrum masters • Facilitated Scrum of Scrum and external weekly status meeting • Evangelized and trained external stakeholders
- 28. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Agile JumpStart Process Summary • Agile JumpStart is designed to quickly and efficiently start the Agile transformation with coaching and just-in-time training and workshops. • Agile JumpStart intercepts a project as requirements or user stories are being framed and coaches the team in how to use specific techniques as closely as possible to the time the team needs to use the technique. • An individual coach assigned to the project travels with the team through the first few iterations until the team has learned to run. • The process will begin with a ½ day session in which the basic principles and techniques are reviewed and all participants agree upon their roles and responsibilities. • The “Agile JumpStart” projects will feed the process personnel in the standard transformation path, specific process requirements and change management data. • Intimate, hands-on coaching will be required for three to four sprints before entering a standard coaching stream. 27
- 29. ©2013 David ConsultingGroup Contact Us Pat Eglin: p.eglin@davidconsultinggroup.com; (484) 889-9474 Tom Cagley: t.cagley@davidconsultinggroup.com; (440) 668-5717 http://www.davidconsultinggroup.com 28 @DavidConsultGrp /DavidConsultGrp /company/David-Consulting-Group Measure. Optimize. Deliver. Phone +1.610.644.2856
Editor's Notes
- #3Â Creative Commons TCagley
- #4Â Creative Commons: m.gifford
- #5Â Creative Commons: wwward0
- #8 Form teams around organizational capabilities – things which will enable the business to make an impact. Small pieces of valuable work which enhance this capability can then be individually pulled by these teams, creating flow. This is called Capability Team.Projects become less important than a Flow of Value through Capability teams who are able to “do the right thing right”. These teams can stay together for as long as the capability is important, building knowledge about all aspects of what they are building, and how they build it..