We are in the age where lot of traditional business are building software that are truly disruptive and they have started to embrace agile. Many fail to realise the importance of scaling their analysis practices, to successfully plan and shape their portfolio. Previously working as an Agile Transformation Consultant, and taking part in delivery of products for large enterprises, this talk is about practical techniques that enterprises can take away to increase their organization agilty

1. SCALING AGILE ANALYSIS

2. QUICK INTRO
2
Adarsh Sridhar
Consultant | Agile Coach | Business Analyst | ThoughtWorker

3. WE WILL TALK ABOUT
•Analysis in agile
•Scaling in agile
•Impact of scale on analysis
•Scaling agile analysis - practical guide
•Q&A
3

4. 4
ANALYSIS in Agileagile ANALYSIS

5. AGILE PRINCIPLES
•Welcome change
•Evolutionary Design
•Frequent releases
•Sustainable pace
•Self-organizing teams
•Face-to-face communication
5

6. 6
“ AN ANALYST IS SOMEONE WHO STUDIES HOW PEOPLE INTERACT
WITH SYSTEMS, HOW SYSTEM INTACT WITH SYSTEMS AND TRIES TO
MAKE THEIR LIFE BETTER”
agile Analysis

7. AGILE ANALYSIS
7
ANALYSIS
PRACTISE
PROJECT
MGMT
PRACTISE
TECHNICAL
SKILLS
Analytics
Prototyping/wireframes
Continuous integration
Research
Story map
Value stream
mapping
Iterative
Release plan
Velocity tracking
Adaptive planning
BMC/LC
User Stories
Story Maps
Jobs to be done
Product roadmap
User Journey
Outcomes
Information Radiators
Data flow diagrams
Define API/Contract
Context diagrams
Data synthesis
Limit WIP

8. 8
Scale in AgileSCALING in Agile
https://www.flickr.com/photos/argonavigo/5320119828

9. DEFINING SCALE
•Lots of functionality in a short timeline
•Multiple stakeholders
•Multiple delivery teams
•Many integration points
•Distributed teams
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10. 10
Whats happens to Agility when we scale?
Can we make this elephant dance?

11. 11
•Team organization
•Unmanageable team size
•Ad-hoc overlap of responsibilities
•Loss of ownership
•Continuous Integration
•Components Dependency issues
•Deployment Overheads
•Maintenance of different product versions
AGILITY AND SCALE

12. 12
•Planning
• Aggregation of work across streams
• Depth of knowledge & Involvement in dev process
• Scope creep &/ system gaps
•Communication
•During release initiation meetings, virtual conferencing leads to
inefficiencies
•Frequent face-to-face communication adds to project expenses
AGILITY AND SCALE

13. SCALING WITHOUT ADAPTING
13
Continuous Integration
Code Repository Cruise Installables
Story Lists

14. 14
SCALING WITHOUT ADAPTING

15. SCALING
analysis
SCALING ANALYSIS

16. HOW DOES SCALE IMPACT ANALYSIS?
16
Planning Execution Sustaining
Conflicting stakeholder requirements
Prioritizing what to build
Inter-dependency across teams and
features
Maintaining a common pipeline for
distributed teams
BA team to have a shared vision on
the product
Planning and scheduling stories
Knowledge silos
Managing scope-creep
Embracing Ad-hoc requests
Handling critical, time sensitive
requests

17. SCALING ANALYSIS - PLANNING
17
Concept Triage Pipeline Team

18. CONCEPT TRIAGE
What ?
Product Sponsor/Owner is responsible for creating a business case that
demonstrates why we should do a project and where the business value is
derived from
18
How?
PO/Business presents the case to a larger delivery team. Like pitching a new Idea
to a bunch of VC’s. Typically once a week.
•Product Owner
•Developer - Lead
•QA
•Marketing
•Compliance
•Legal
•IT Ops
•UX
Who?

19. 19
Key Inputs
•Problem/Opportunity Statement
•Financial (Business Case & Business Value)
•Key Drivers
•Benefit Analysis
•Success Criteria
Key Deliverable
•Size of Business value
•High level effort
•Inception/Discovery
•Key Drivers
•Benefit Analysis
T-Shirt Cost (Lower) Iterations Cost (Upper) Iterations Band Size
XS £25,000 0.5 £50,000 1 £25,000
S £50,000 1 £100,000 2 £50,000
M £100,000 2 £250,000 5 £150,000
L £250,000 5 £500,000 10 £250,000
XL £500,000 10 £1,000,000 20 £500,000
E > £2,000,000 40
CONCEPT TRIAGE

20. PIPELINE TEAM
What ?
A team formed to do initial requirement analysis directly working with Portfolio
manager. (Roles are rotated periodically)
20
How?
Team along with key sponsor run short workshops, time boxed experiments,
validate concept and do just enough analysis
•Product Owner/BA
•Developer - pair
•Business sponsor
• UX
Who?

21. 21
Key Inputs
•Problem/Opportunity Statement
•Market research
•Business drivers
•Success Criteria
Key Deliverables
•Initial story list
•High level scope and core processes
•Risks, constrains
•Teams to be involved
•Rough size
PIPELINE TEAM

22. PLANNING - RECAP
22
Concept Triage Pipeline Team
What? Forum to curate and share ideas Dedicated team from delivery
How? Give a pitch to an extended team Workshops, experiments
Ideas gets questioned & sized
high level solution and size, risks &
constrains identified
Too much focus on cost. Good ideas may get
discarded
Pre-solved features to the dev teams

23. SCALING ANALYSIS - EXECUTION
23
BA Stand-ups Release/Feature Kickoffs BA Showcase

24. 24
BA Stand Up’s
Bi-weekly stand ups to ensure the whole BA community is aware about the
changes in the system
Bring out issues/blockers
Share Techniques/Process
Release Kick off /Feature Kick offs
Have a release kick off with the whole development team
Share Big wins and losses of Previous release
Share Features getting developed in current release
BA Showcase
Every feature owner presents the feature/solution to BA community
Other BA’s act as devil’s advocate to break the solution – thereby
ensuring that the right solution is implemented
SCALING ANALYSIS - EXECUTION

25. SCALING ANALYSIS - SUSTAINING
25
Express bucket SWAT Teams Information radiators

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Express check out
Reserved capacity in each team to take on ad-hoc requests
Gold card - Team can decide to exercise to fix things annoying them
Small items/Quick Wins - Miscellaneous small requests which can be played
independently
SWAT Teams
Compliance that needs to be fixed
Very critical, time sensitive, requires cross cutting team involvement
To resolve Performance, security related issues impacting production
Information radiators
Product road map
Feature wall
Portfolio value map
SCALING ANALYSIS - SUSTAINING

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SUSTAINING - INFORMATION RADIATORS

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SUSTAINING - INFORMATION RADIATORS

29. 29
SUSTAINING - INFORMATION RADIATORS

30. HOW DOES SCALE IMPACT ANALYSIS? -
30
Planning Execution Sustaining
Conflicting stakeholder requirements
Prioritizing what to build
Inter-dependency across teams and
features
Maintaining a common pipeline for
distributed teams
BA team to have a shared vision on
the product
Planning and scheduling stories
Knowledge silos
Managing scope-creep
Embracing Ad-hoc requests
Handling critical, time sensitive
requests
RECAP

31. SCALING ANALYSIS - RECAP
31
Planning Execution Sustaining
BA team to have a shared vision on
the product
Planning and scheduling stories
Knowledge silos
Managing scope-creep
Embracing Ad-hoc requests
Handling critical, time sensitive
requests
Concept Triage
Pipeline Team

32. 32
Planning Execution Sustaining
Managing scope-creep
Embracing Ad-hoc requests
Handling critical, time sensitive
requests
Concept Triage
Pipeline Team
BA Stand ups
Release Kickoffs
BA Showcase
SCALING ANALYSIS - RECAP

33. 33
Planning Execution Sustaining
Concept Triage
Pipeline Team
BA Stand ups
Release Kickoffs
BA Showcase
Express Bucket
SWAT Teams
Information Radiators
SCALING ANALYSIS - RECAP

34. CẢM ƠN BẠN
AADARSH@THOUGHTWORKS.COM
@aadarsh__
adarsh.sridhar