These are the supporting slides for a case study. The presentation shares 10 lessons from a current project. The project started with a loose adoption of Agile. After initial problems, DSDM principles have been applied to gradually improve the project outcomes.

1. From Fragile to Agile
DSDM Member Day
March 13th 2014
David Blamire-Brown

2. “Oh what a tangled web we weave.
When first we practice to
deceive.”
Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808)
By mate2code (Own work) (CC-BY-3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

3. Outline
• Project Background
• Where we are now
• 10 Lessons
• Summary

4. Project Background
By Department for Communities and Local Government(CC BY-ND-2.0) via Flickr

5. Where we are now
By Peter aka anemoneprojectors (CC BY-SA-2.0) via Flickr

6. 10 Lessons

7. “Do you believe in fairies? Say
quick that you believe. If you
believe, clap your hands!”
James M. Barrie (Peter Pan, 1904)

8. Lesson #1
Agile is not Magic Pixie
Dust.

9. “A journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step.”
Lau Tzu (604 BC - 531 BC)

10. Lesson #2
Invest time in team
building at project start-up

11. “When eating an elephant take
one bite at a time.”
Creighton Abrams (1914 - 1974)

12. Lesson #3
You can (and should) treat
requirements & designs as
products of iterations

13. “God, grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things
I can,
And wisdom to know the
difference.”
Reinhold Niebuhr attrib. (The Serenity
Prayer, 1943)

14. Lesson #4
Do not try to force a
project to follow
“unnatural” plans

15. “Principle 4 - Never compromise
quality”
DSDM Atern Manual

16. Lesson #5
Invest time in building
regression test packs as
you go along and never
under-estimate data
migration

17. “If everybody looked the same,
we’d get tired of looking at each
other.”
Groove Armada, 1999

18. Lesson #6
Do not adopt a one-size-
fits all approach within the
project

19. “Computers are like bikinis. They
save people a lot of guesswork.”
Sam Ewing (1920 – 2001)

20. Lesson #7
Online tools really do work
for collaboration

21. “One can never know with perfect
accuracy both of those two important
factors which determine the movement
of one of the smallest particles - its
position and its velocity. It is impossible
to determine accurately both the
position and the direction and speed of a
particle at the same instant.”
Werner Heisenberg (Die Physik der Atomkerne, 1952)

22. Lesson #8
Agile communication helps
to reduce the impact of
problems

23. “If pain must come, may it come
quickly. Because I have a life to live,
and I need to live it in the best way
possible. If he has to make a choice, may
he make it now. Then I will either wait
for him or forget him.”
Paulo Coelho (By the River Piedra I Sat Down and
Wept, 1994)

24. Lesson #9
Aim for the smallest
possible lead time between
capturing requirements and
sizing the work

25. “Some of the worst mistakes of
my life have been haircuts.”
Jim Morrison (1943 - 1971)

26. Lesson #10
Retrospectives & learning
are vital to improve
chances of success

27. Summary
• Agile is not Magic Pixie Dust
• Invest time in team building at project
start-up
• You can (and should) treat
requirements & designs as products of
iterations
• Do not try to force a project to follow
“unnatural” plans
• Invest time in building regression test
packs as you go along and never
under-estimate data migration

28. Summary
• Do not adopt a one-size-fits all
approach within the project
• Newer tools really do work for
collaboration
• Agile communication helps to reduce
the impact of problems
• Aim for the smallest possible lead time
between capturing requirements and
sizing the work
• Retrospectives & learning are vital to
improve chances of success

29. “The ships hung in the sky in
much the same way that bricks
don't.”
Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide
to the Galaxy, 1979)
Don’t let your questions hang

30. The End
David Blamire-Brown
SCISYS UK Ltd
@DBB_pro
david.blamirebrown@scisys.co.uk
01249 466496