A short talk using a hypothetical company that enters the IoT, AR/VR & other modern digital technologies. What factors influence the selection of an Agile Method that can work across software development, device development, mass production, and decisions that drive appropriate investments.

1. Saashvata
Agile in the Digital Age
Sriram Sabesan
IASA Global – February 2018 eSummit

2. Saashvata
… it is more than “iterations”
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3. Saashvata
What can you get out of this talk?
• If you are a
• Seasoned Professional…
Understand the nuances in selecting and using one or more of the
Agile Practices
• 5 to 8 years as an Architect or Agile Practitioner…
What it takes to scale your practice to support Digital initiatives
• A beginner…
Springboard to level with seasoned architects and agile practitioners
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4. Saashvata
Floodie Inc
• Floodie is a retail chain that provides over the top services in
telecommunications and electronic goods. It has identified a new
demand in the market
“If-This-Then-That reflects the diversity of specialized services,
yet the customers have to invest time to make them work.
There is a large demography who are not adept or don’t have
time to do this. What if we make devices and solutions that
integrates home automation, entertainment, security &
monitoring, and productivity solutions with our store branded
hardware products”
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5. Saashvata
Agenda
• Sample Organization
• Challenge 1
• Which Agile Model to select for the Digital Age
• Challenge 2
• Impact of Business Models used in the Digital Age
• Challenge 3
• Definition of a “Product”
• When good part of the portfolio is SaaS, how to think about workload?
• The path forward
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6. Saashvata
The Ask
• Recommend a model that drives “Sense-Analyze-Respond”
model from the top to the leaf level knowledge worker
• Factors influencing the decision
• Forces driving changes today and foreseeable future
• Cyber-Physical Convergence
• Multi-Cloud, IoT & Hardware, User Experience Solutions
• Evolving concepts in Agile Practices
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Poll 1a: Level setting…
• % of Attendees of the webinar with experience in:
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Poll 1b: Level setting…
•% of webinar attendees using Agile Practices for
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9. Saashvata
Poll 1c: Level setting…
My organization or my team is developing…
1. IoT Products or Solutions
2. Augmented / Mixed Reality Products or Solutions
3. Software solutions for internal use or third party use
• 1 only
• 2 only
• 3 only
• 1 and 2
• 2 and 3
• 1 and 3
• All of the above
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10. Saashvata
Inference from the Poll
• The participants reflect the current state of the industry
• Many have deep architecture practice experience, but not exposed to mature agile
practices
• Good number of architects are exposed to research methods to prioritize features for
the products and services
• High need for concurrent delivery teams to push out a product or a service to the
users
• Could not run the poll 1c. However, at this point of time, the distribution
would have been lopsided to favor 3 only, followed by 1 and 3.
• Presents an opportunity to define the best Agile Practice for the evolving delivery
model
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11. Saashvata
Towards a new Normal
…Operational Technology (eg.: IoT) and Information Technology (Software)
collide and coexist today
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12. Saashvata
Eclipse Agile IoT Model
Prototype
• Energy
• Hardware
• Code
• Data Flow
• Cloud
• Security
• Legal
• Delivery
• Telemetry / Measurement
Engineer
• Product Backlog
• Makers Backlog
• Technical & Solution
Validation
Workout
• Delivery
• Solution – CI
• Support
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Source: http://www.agileiot.org/en/component/jce/?view=popup&tmpl=component&img=images/duttile/eclipse_duttile_poster_big.png&title=

13. Saashvata
Software Delivery Model
Concept
• Market
Assessment
• Problem
Definition
Inception
• Alignment
• Team and Tools
• Architecture
Runway
• Dependency
Mitigation
• Risk &
Validations
Construction
• Co-ideation
• Build
• Test
• User Feedback /
Learning loop
Transition
• Release
Coordination
• Blue/Green
Production
• Scale Solution
• Operate &
Improve
Retire
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Inspired by: http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/lifecycle/

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Hardware or Maker’s Deliver Model
Design /
Schematic
• Conceptualization
• Technology/Stack
selection
• Tentative
Schematic
Prototype /
Simulation
• Schema
Simulation
• Assembly
• Programming
• Field Testing
• Recycle /
Sustainability
Design
Redesign
• Tooling Design
• Ergonomic /
Aesthetic Design
• Layout finalization
• BOM finalization
Manufacture
• Assembly
sequencing
• Automation
• Software Injection
• Testing
Fulfill
• Packaging Design
• Logistics
• Deliver
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15. Saashvata
Not one Silver Bullet
• Each of these models have their own limitations – mostly based on
their genesis or capability focus.
• Some assume problem definition research happens somewhere
• Some assume capacity and investment problems are handled elsewhere
• Some assume concurrency happens automatically
• There are good ideas and concepts to borrow
• Milestones
• Phases
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Business Model
A Conceptual Analysis
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Digital Delivery Organizations (3E model)
• “Enablers”
• Organizations develop and implement the underlying technology including the
hardware
• “Engagers”
• Organizations that design, create, integrate, and deliver services to customers
• “Enhancers”
• Organizations that devise their own value-added services, on top of the
services provided by Engagers, that are unique to the underlying technologies
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Source: Excerpt from Frank Burkitt’s article in Strategy & Business, November 2015 titled “A Strategist’s Guide to the Internet of Things”

18. Saashvata
Typical Organizations
• Most businesses today perform at least two of the three
functions (Enabler, Engager, Enhancer).
• Challenge amplified by new entrants without the baggage of
transition from earlier version(s) of same technology
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19. Saashvata 19
Foresight Planning
Sustainability Planning
Strategic Planning
Annual Planning
Quarterly Planning
Product
Delivery
Planning
Sprint
Planning
20+ year outlook
Focus:
Business Purpose, Infrastructure,
Geopolitical acceptance, etc.,
10+ year outlook
Focus:
Research & Innovation, Technological
Evolution, Moonshots, etc.,
3 - 5 year outlook
Focus:
Operational Scaling & Efficiency,
Product & Market Innovation,
Tooling, etc.,
1 year outlook
Focus:
Go-To Market / Delivery, Stability &
Revenue, etc.,
Focus:
Operational Controls, Product-Market
Fit, Customer Success, etc.,
Focus:
Problem-Solution fit, Feature
Stickiness, Issue Resolution, etc.,
Agile Delivery
Focus:
Feature Completion, Delivery
Stability, Velocity, etc.,

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Mindset shift: From Time to Market To
Scale Solution
• Go To Market
• Focus is on products and features are delivered as soon as possible
• Process, techniques and documents are secondary
• Need to generate revenue
• Stabilize
• Enable the company to integrate the “new” product with rest of the company
• Build deliberate documentations to help more people understand the products and features
• Scale
• Focus is on repetitiveness and cost control
• Ability to outsource
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21. Saashvata
Model Selection Considerations
• Point of time in the life of delivering the product or service
impacts choice of model
• Waste vs Impacting time to value
• Market-fit vs Production efficiency
• Mixed model (3Es) drive a need for bridging hardware
development cycle, software development lifecycle and go-to-
market considerations
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22. Saashvata
Different Methodologies in
Agile
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Agile Methods & Their Tenets (alphabetic order)
Method Name Tenets they Champion
Pre-Agile Manifesto
Adaptive software development (ASD) Timeboxed, Iterative, High Risk first
Continuous Integration (CI) Timeboxed, Quality Driven
Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) Iterative, Quality, Need-Driven
Feature Driven Development (FDD) Iterative, Incremental, Outcome driven
Rapid Application Development (RAD) Timeboxed, Iterative, User Preference driven
Scrum Timeboxed, Iterative
Post-Agile Manifesto
Agile Unified Process (AUP) Iterative, Incremental
Disciplined Agile - formerly Disciplined Agile Delivery (DA) Responsive, Incremental, Cycle of Iterative cycles
Lean Eliminate Waste, Amplify Learning, Responsive
Kanban Minimize Work In Progress
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Iterative, Concurrent, Well-Architected
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https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/practices-timeline/

24. Saashvata
Common and Open Items from existing
Agile Methods
• Other common concepts are:
• Product
• Feature
• Retrospective
• Direct interaction with user
• Open items:
• Origin of Backlog or the Problem identification
• Financial Planning
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25. Saashvata
Poll 2a:
Can these be treated as “Products” in Agile Sense?
• Tools Used for CI/CD Pipeline
• User Identity & Access Management
• Productivity Solution
• Business Process and Business Intelligence Tools
• Mobile App to Manage home HVAC system
Majority of the participants agreed that these are all “products”
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Poll 2b:
Can these be treated as “Products” in Agile Sense?
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Inference
• It is easy to identify what one can touch, feel, interact with as a product.
In such scenarios we are focusing on what is being built for the consumer
• Processes and advisory artifact development are hard to be justified as a
product. If the document provides support for decision or the process
improves the time to value or time to market, development of the process
or the artifact should be treated as a “product” in agile sense
• This poll response is reflective of normal thinking by architects, and in
many cases, the agile practitioner too. It is time to shift that thinking.
• But, how?
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Enterprise Functions &
Definition of a “Product”
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Typical Operations of an Enterprise
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Platforms
Product A Product B Product .. Product n
Service 1 Service 2 Service y
Service z
Enterprise
Tools
Enterprise
Processes

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Typical Operations of an Enterprise
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Enterprise Tools Enterprise Processes
Platforms
Product A Product B Product .. Product n
Service 1 Service 2 Service y
Service z
The enterprise tools and enterprise
processes provide the amplification
or reduce the frictions to develop the
requisite platforms. The platforms
reduce the effort required to
integrate with suppliers and
partners, as well as develop products
and services. These platforms also
improve the ability to gain insights
into user and machine behavior. All
are key concepts proposed by Whole
System Design thinking models.
Start treating the work being done
on enterprise tools and processes as
“Products” and deliver continuous
and incremental value.

31. Saashvata
SaaS Integration
• Remember, the SaaS provider delivers to their sprint & release
plan – not to your plan
• SaaS products are designed to address functional needs (most
of the time) – not your audit & compliance needs
• Integrating SaaS demand focus on information integrity,
eliminating swivel chair effect
• It is not about ease of use, but about building an ecosystem &
betting on the right stack – a management function & not a
delivery team function
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32. Saashvata
Putting it all together…
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Phases and Durations (not exhaustive)
Nature of Work Typical / Suggested Duration / Sprint
Architecture / Management Guidance 6 to 8 weeks
Discovery / Problem Definition Research 3 weeks
Ergonomics / Hardware Research 4 to 8 weeks
Co-creation or Ideations 1 to 2 weeks
Dependency Decoupling 2 to 4 weeks
Infrastructure / Architecture Runway Development 4 to 6 weeks
Product Development DevTest 2 to 4 weeks
SaaS Integration Function of API maturity & Stability
Platform Development DevTest 3 to 6 weeks
Training / Go To Market Readiness 3 to 4 weeks
Analytics / Market Validation 2 to 4 weeks 33
Based on practical experience working with Fortune 100 organizations, across geographies

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Phases and Agile Methods (not exhaustive)
Nature of Work Number of Weeks / Sprint
Architecture / Management Guidance Kanban
Discovery / Problem Definition Research Lean
Ergonomics / Hardware Research Kanban / RAD
Co-creation or Ideations Lean / DA?
Dependency Decoupling Scrum / SAFe / DA
Infrastructure / Architecture Runway Development Scrum / SAFe / DA
Product Development DevTest TDD / Scrum / DA
SaaS Integration Kanban
Platform Development DevTest Scrum / SAFe / DA
Training / Go To Market Readiness Lean / Kanban
Analytics / Market Validation Lean / Scrum / AUP
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35. Saashvata
Milestones
• These are typically points of convergence to
• Validate alignment across device, cloud, and solution
• Validate alignment on experience, problem-solution fit
• Validate during manufacturing & post manufacturing integration
• Validate timeline to release
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36. Saashvata
Milestones
• There are 7 typical milestones
• Problem Statement framing
• Prototyping & Specification Development
• Tooling Finalization
• IoT Software Injection
• Post-Manufacturing Integration
• Experience based validation
• Ease of Use & Billing
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37. Saashvata
Architecting to suit an Agile Method
• Stabilize… Tools (EVP)
• Be aware of the development model to front load architecture
(or do just in time architecture)
• In-house
• Co-Creation
• Outsourced
• Be aware of your workstreams that builds your IoT or VR
devices.
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38. Saashvata
The Takeaways are…
• There is not one Agile Method to be used… so focus on milestones and activities
• Within a Product or Service Delivery line
• Across the Enterprise
• Architect and be agile for
• the purpose or the product you are creating
• the age of the product (initial, stabilize, scale)
• Be clear about the “Definition of Done”
• Tooling
• End User
• Partner Product / Service Integration
• Ignore the need to select an Agile method or a sprint duration. Focus on outcome required and the purpose for which
we need an Agile Practice
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39. Saashvata
Thank you!
Q & A
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