This document discusses how the agile approach is better suited than traditional project management for "knowledge worker projects" where requirements are rapidly changing and intangible. It outlines key agile principles like valuing individuals and interactions over processes, working software over documentation, and responding to change over following a plan. The document also describes agile practices for planning value, delivering value, confirming value, and tracking/reporting value such as timeboxing, task boards, limiting work in progress, and using burn down charts.

1. Feb 16, 2015
Ram Awadh Prasad
Value Driven Development with
Agile

2. Objective
• What are knowledge worker projects
• Why traditional approach does not work on
Knowledge Worker Projects
• How Agile approach is different from traditional
approach
• How agile practices deliver value and deliver
projects successfully

3. Knowledge Worker Projects
• We are going through information revolution.
• The key lies in Ownership of knowledge and
ability to use it to create goods and services.
• On Knowledge Worker projects work is
intangible
• Requirements are rapidly changing
• Decisions are more important than structure
• Continuous innovation, focus on quality and
adaptability are the keys to success.

4. What is a Knowledge Worker?
•Knowledge workers are People with
subject matter expertise
•Communicate their knowledge and
take part in analysis and
development
•People in IT industry, doctors,
engineers, teachers, scientists and
more
•Information revolution relies on
Knowledge Workers

5. Traditional Project Management
Approach
Feasibility
Plan
Build
Test
Production
Design
Support

6. 2
Traditional Project Management
Approach
• Plan centric and plan driven
• Focus of processes, tools and extensive
documentation
• Command and control style leadership
• Prescriptive - or “Push approach” - for
managing projects
• Resistant to change – elaborate change
management process
• Tracking through complex reports and
metrics

7. Agile Manifesto – the agile values
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others
do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

8. Agile Approach
Envision
High Level
Plan
Release

9. 2
Agile Approach
• Value driven - early and continuous delivery of value
• Focus on people and interactions
• Cross functional Self organizing teams
• Agility is everyone’s Responsibility
• Embrace changes even late in development
• Working software as the primary measure of progress

10. Planning Value

11. Planning Value – Six Levels of Planning
Organization focus
• Strategy: Business goals and roadmaps agreed by
the Executive Leadership
• Portfolio: Selection of the products that will best
implement the vision
• Product: Looking and planning for the evolution
of released system
Team focus
• Release: Features of each release that support
the Product plan
• Iteration: Tasks needed to transform a feature
request into working, tested software
• Daily: Daily Scrum and work activities

12. 2
Planning Value – Product Backlog, Release, Sprint
Product Road Map
• Visual overview of product’s releases and its main components
• Provides a quick view of primary release points and intended functionality
Product Backlog
• Contains all user stories, themes, and epics.
• Product owner prioritizes features, epics and stories on their value
• If something is not in the product backlog, it is not in the product
Release
• Releases are used to support product roadmaps
• Product owner selects the items from the backlog that meet the goals of a
release.

13. 2
Planning Value – Value Based Prioritization
• Valued based prioritization is the one of the core practices in agile planning
• Features are prioritized on the basis of business value, risk and dependencies.
• Some of the prioritization techniques used:
• MoSCoW prioritization: Requirements are prioritized based on Must,
Should, Could, and Won’t.
• Kano Analysis: Threshold, Linear, Exciters/Delighters, Indifferent
• Relative prioritization: Each feature is prioritized based on its relative
weighting for Benefits, Penalties, Costs, and Risk
• Minimal Marketable Features: Smallest set of functionality that provides
value to the market

14. Planning Value – User Stories
•A lightweight mechanism to quickly capture requirements
•3 Cs: Card, Conversation and Confirmation
•Acts as an agreement between customers and development team
•Every requirement is a user story
•Every story, including technical stories, has a value
•Common structure of a user story
•Multiple levels - Features, Epics & Stories
As a <user type>
I <want to/need, etc> goal
So that <value>

15. Planning Value – Managing Risks
Identify Risks
Quantitative
Risk Analysis
Qualitative
Risk Analysis
Plan Risk
Responses
Monitor and
Control Risks
Traditional Risk Management Approach
•Risk identification, analysis and planning is largely done at the during planning
•Responsibility of risk responses may lie on different individuals
•One responses are planned implementation is more often than not forgotten

16. Planning Value – Managing Risks
Agile Risk Management Approach
Review
(@ Retrospective)
Identify
(@ Daily Scrum; Retrospective;
Requirement Workshop; Sprint
Planning; Sprint Review)
Assess
(Likelihood, impact, Response)
Respond
(Avoid, Mitigate, Transfer,
Accept)

17. Planning Value – Managing Risks
• In Agile, risks are considered as anti value
• The risk management process is repeated every iteration
• The four steps in risk management cycle are:
– Risk Identification
– Risk Assessment
– Risk Response
– Risk Review
• The product backlog is continually reviewed and adjusted
for the risks
• Risk based spikes are planned for high value risks

18. Delivering Value

19. Delivering Value - Timeboxing
• Student syndrome: a person will only start to apply themselves to an assignment
at the last possible moment before its deadline
• Parkinson’s law: work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion
• Timeboxing is setting a fixed time limit to activities
• If something cannot be accomplished in a timeboxed period, it is deferred to the
next period
• Allows velocity to be determined between iterations and sprints
• Applies everything: Scrums, Sprint planning, Sprints and iterations, risk spikes

20. Delivering Value - Task Board
• An "information radiator" -
ensures efficient diffusion of
information
• Can be drawn on a whiteboard
or even a section of wall
• Makes iteration backlog visible
• Serves as a focal point for the
daily meeting
• Story cards can be quickly and
easily moved to update status

21. Delivering Value - Limit WIP
• WIP (work in progress) also known as “work in
process”
• Includes work that has been started but not
completed yet
• Represents money spent with no return
• Hides process bottlenecks that slow the
processes
• Represents risk in form of potential risk
• Agile processes aim to Limit and optimize WIP
• Optimal WIP makes processes effecient

22. Delivering Value - Quality
• Agile embeds quality throughout the project
lifecycle
• Quality is “built in” in agile approach
• Pair programming
• Test Driven Development / Test-First
Development
• Acceptance Test Driven Development
• Collaborative definition of done
• Continuous integration

23. Delivering Value – Continuous
Improvement
• Daily standup
• Sprint demos
• Retrospectives
• Highest value on quality
• Continuous Integration
• Process Improvement

24. Confirming Value

25. Confirming Value - Communication

26. Confirming Value - Communication
• Face to face communication
• Information Radiators (vs Information
Refrigerators)
• Osmotic communication
• Collocated Teams
• Commons and Caves

27. Agile Communication - Information Radiators

28. Confirming Value
• Customer-valued prioritization
• Feedback
– Prototypes
– Simulation
– Demonstration
– Evaluation

29. Tracking and Reporting
Value

30. Tracking and reporting
• Task or Kanban boards
• Burn down, Burn down Charts
• Cumulative flow diagrams (CFDs)
• Team velocity measurement
• Risk management and Risk burn down graphs
• Earned value management for agile projects

31. Tracking Value– Reporting Progress
Burndown Chart
Cumulative Flow Diagram

32. Tracking Value– Reporting Risks

33. Summary

34. Summary
• Agile focuses on delivering Value on Projects with
rapidly changing and intangible requirements
• Lays more value people and interactions
• Uses light weight practices and artifacts to reduce
waste
• Self organizing team of motivated individuals
• Focus on face to face and direct communication
• Continuous collaboration between business and
development