1. Agile in Short Projects:
A One Team Experience
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2. How do we define short projects?
1 week to 2 months 1 or 2 person teams
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3. What’s it like in the short duration, small
projects world today?
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4. Agenda
Background
2010 “A Pivotal Year”
Our macro group backlog
Inspecting and Adapting
Key takeaways
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5. When we
began…
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6. What the team looked like before…
RAD Global Coordinators
US Coordinators Europe Coordinators
Onsite Technical Onsite Technical
PM (Europe) PM (India)
Developer Developer Developer Developer
Developer Developer Developer Developer
Developer Developer Developer Developer
Developer Developer Developer Developer
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7. Challenges
Developers lacked understanding
of big picture
Requirements would be lost by the time
they reached developers
Quality issues
Support done by developers
Changes in requirements, priorities &
timelines
Lack of a uniform way to communicate
with stakeholders
No cross sharing of knowledge within
teams in different locations
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8. Agenda
Background
2010 “A Pivotal Year”
Our macro group backlog
Inspecting and Adapting
Key takeaways
7

9. Reorganizing
the team
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10. Brain-
storming
a vision
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11. Our longer term vision
We deliver best in class service and
high quality solutions to our end users
The project
experience will feel as
‘one team’
We provide a Our quality
consistent experience improves and
when delivering sponsors
our projects are delighted!
Adapt relevant We build an
agile practices that exceptional pool of
improve upon service talent to draw upon
delivery model
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12. Let’s use a
group backlog!
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13. Agenda
Background
2010 “A Pivotal Year”
Our macro group backlog
Inspecting and Adapting
Key takeaways
12

14. A “macro” group backlog
As a user, I want to
adopt relevant agile
As a user, practices that make
As a user, I As a user, I want to
communicated with I want to define sense to improve upon
want to how projects are
define team our end users our service delivery
prioritized model
roles consistently
As a user, I want
to define criteria
for SIA
development
As a user, I want
to define a
support process
As a user, I want to
setup a process to
gather stakeholder's
feedback on projects
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15. The fruits of our
backlog approach
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16. What do team roles look like today?
SM/portfolio
PO Architect Dev
PO
Architect
Dev
Extended pool
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17. PO – Developer pairing:
requirements
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18. Our projects are more
focused… what do we
take on?
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19. Support is a separate entity
The development teams are
now dedicated and can finish
their commitments on time!!!
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20. hen …
w ag e
cy ss
en me
st r
si u
on g o
c n
re eri
o v
M li
de
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21. Mini release plan
Story Headline
Sprint 1 GUI for filtering the reports
Tables with the same structures as current Access prototype
(Nov 1) Data loads from existing Access db to local MS SQL tables
SQL server environment setup
Sprint 2 SQL stored procedures to return data for 6 reports
Logic for query to retrieve the data for 6 reports
(Nov 8) UI ready for multiple reports in Excel (6 reports)
Aggregation level logic for reports (6 reports)
Script with all table structures (initial data load)
Performance testing of complex queries
Sprint 3 SQL stored procedures to return data for 5 reports
Logic for query to retrieve the data for 5 reports
(Nov 15) UI ready for multiple reports in Excel (5 reports)
Aggregation level logic for reports (5 reports)
Scripts to load the Gross members data
Data load from Access to the Medical and Demographic Lookup tables
Performance testing of complex queries
Sprint 4 End to end integration testing
Mechanism for client to update state scenarios post initial load
(Nov 21) Documentation for front end
Documentation for data model and data load scripts
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22. Mini product backlog
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23. Retro output
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24. Agenda
Background
2010 “A Pivotal Year”
Our macro group backlog
Inspecting and Adapting
Key takeaways
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25. What is working?
More transparency,
cross sharing and Clear roles
empowered Direct contact with
teams… stakeholders
More consistency
working with end users
Group & project sprint
reviews
PO “Scrum of scrums”
Regular pipeline
discussions
Group & project
retrospectives
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26. What can we improve?
Bring more consistency across all projects
Continue to focus on quality
Continue to bring transparency
Bring innovation to the way we work
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27. Agenda
Background
2010 “A Pivotal Year”
Our macro group backlog
Inspecting and Adapting
Key takeaways
26

28. In summary Today…
Before… Flat structure
Hierarchical structure Entire team is empowered
PMs empowered Developers understand &
Developers lacked contribute to vision
understanding of BIG picture Higher quality apps
Many quality issues
Support separate entity
Dev teams not dedicated to ‘just’
development Projects are time-boxed
Changes in priorities, timelines More uniform experience with
& requirements clients
The experience from the client More cross sharing of
changed depending who they knowledge
work with
Lack of a uniform way to
communicate with stakeholders
No cross sharing of knowledge
within teams
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29. Key takeaways…
Our macro backlog is a way to ensure we
make baby steps towards our grand vision
Focus on starting small and try ideas out with
a few projects (hence why the stories in our
macro backlog are helpful)
Experiment, be patient, be open to change and
expect things won’t work and you have to
move on to the next thing
Ensure the team believes!
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30. Q&A
Yvannova_Montalvo@mckinsey.com
Jyoti_Prakash_Datta@mckinsey.com
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31. References
prince2-small-projects.jpg. Sep 23, 2007. Prince 2 Training Website. Web. 16 Jan 2012.
Retrieved from http://www.prince2training-uk.org/using-prince2-in-small-projects
istock_puzzle-businessman.jpg. Apr 1, 2008. Sherman Capital Advisors. Web. 16 Jan
2012. Retrieved from url http://shermancapitaladvisors.com
Vision.jpg. The Attraction Institute. Web. 16 Jan 2012. Retrieved from url
http://attractioninstitute.org
lightbulb-idea-124411-05112010-124411-05112010.jpg. Business Opportunities Weblog
Network. Web. 16 Jan 2012. Retrieved from url http://www.business-
opportunities.biz/2010/05/11/is-my-business-idea-a-good-one/
Focus_Group.jpg. Web. 16 Jan 2012. Retrieved from url http://getpaidcentral.com
CLIPART_OF_15195_SM_2.jpg. Adoptive Families Associations of BC. Web. 16 Jan
2012. Retrieved from url http:// adoptionsupportinterior.blogspot.com
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