The problems projects create, why we should dispense with projects and some ideas on what to do instead

1. The End of Projects…
and what happens next
(Aka Beyond Projects)
Allan Kelly
allan@softwarestrategy.co.uk
http://www.softwarestrategy.co.uk
Twitter: @allankelly.net
BCS PROMS-G, London, February 2014

2. Allan Kelly…
 Consulting on software
development & strategy
 Training for Agile
Author
– Changing Software Development: Learning to be
Agile (2008, Wiley)
– Business Patterns for Software Developers
(2012, Wiley - ISBN: 978-1119999249)
– Xanpan: Reflections on agile (work in progress)
https://leanpub.com/xanpan
Chapters in…
• Business Analysis and Leadership, Pullan & Archer 2013
• 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know, Henney, 2010
• Context Encapsulation in Pattern Languages of Program
Design, vol #5, 2006

3. Audience participation
How many of you …
• Adequately identify & quantify project
benefits?
• Know someone who overstates the
benefits of a project to obtain
funding?
• Think project review & evaluation is
adequate?

4. • 70% believe they are failing to identify and
quantify the benefits adequately
• 38% openly admit they overstate the benefits in
order to obtain funding
• 80% report that the review and evaluation of
completed projects is also inadequate
• due to the focus on whether the project achieved
cost, time and quality objectives and not on whether
the intended benefits were realized.
Survey of 100 IT/IS &
Business managers in UK
and Benelux, 2006
Delivering value from IS and IT investments, John Ward,
Cranfield School of Management, 2006
http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/dinamiccontent/research/documents/deliveringvaluereport.pdf

5. Successful software doesn’t stop
• Successful software continues to change
• Only dead software has an end-date

6. Successful software?
Moodle
1) If they use
it, it will change
Weekly downloads: 23,239
Last update: 3 days (16 Jan)
Web Torrent
Weekly downloads: 0
Last update: 17 April 2013
2) Only Dead
Software Stops
changing
PerlLORD
Weekly downloads: 0
Last update: 25 May 2013
Data from SourceForge search
for “WebBrowser” 19 Jan 2014

7. A Project is…
“A temporary organization that is needed to
produce a unique and predefined outcome
or result at a pre-specified time using
predetermined resources.”
PRINCE2 definition
of project

8. Temporary Organization?
•
•
•
•
•
Storming
Norming
Forming
Performing
Destroying
}
Takes time &
money!
Yes!
Why destroy performing teams?
Why spend that money?
Why loose knowledge?

9. Corporate Psychopathy
Process by which corporations
disband performing teams and
release staff
•
•
•
•
Stop killing performing teams
Keep the team together
Flow the work to the team
The Team is the Capability

11. Pre-determined resources?
• In the ideal world…
– You get the resources you ask for?
– They are dedicated to your project? And stay?
• Back in the real world…
– Resourcing allocation is politics
‘Nuff said

12. Pre-defined outcome?
• Requirements change
• The world changes
The observed rate of change
in the US is about 2% per
calendar month
Capers Jones, 2008
Compound to
~27% per annum

13. Pre-specified time?
• Pre-specified time is
not chosen rationally
• When does it start?
• When does it end?
– Last bug fixed?
– Last CR done?
– Thrown over last wall?
Capers Jones, 2008
In the US more than half of
the large projects …
predetermined end date is
selected, and it is forced on
the project by arbitrary
decree.
Among the most difficult
… measurement of
project & task schedules.
The initial difficulty… is…
identifying the start point
of any given project!

14. End Date considered harmful
• Late requirements considered inferior
• Quality cut to meet date
When will it be
– Harder to maintain
– Harder to fix bugs
– Harder to enhance
– Harder to live
• Goal deferment
– The End
done?

15. Work with no end
• Work to short term goal & deadline
– Human’s are good with deadlines
– (Very bad with estimation)
• Work to deliver value
• Work as if this is your last goal
– But: Work to be ready for another round
• Do work you will be proud of

16. Focus on Value not The End
Ask not, “When will the
software be done?”
But ask: “When will the
software deliver value next?”
Think: Stream of Value
(which might stop one day)
Not: An end date

17. The End of Projects
• Projects are accounting codes
• Finished Software is Dead Software
– Living software changes
– Living software doesn’t end
• Project thinking kills software

18. What next?
• Putting the jigsaw together

19. Software development…
• Does NOT have economies of Scale
• Development has DISECONOMIES of scale
Therefore
• Stop thinking BIG
• Start thinking SMALL

20. Batch Size
Wait
Build this!
Wait
Deliver this!
Make lots of this!

21. Ask not, “What is the end
date?”
But ask: “When is the next
delivery?”

22. Waterfall 2.0 Continuous Flow
Jonathon’s Run Fall, Pennsylvania by Hubert Stoffels (http://flickr.com/photos/22195940@N00)
Creative Commons License

23. Continuous flow
• Work in the small
• Get good at doing small things
– Deliver small increments of value
– And evaluate results
• Go fast
• Don’t stop
• Value seeking

24. What to do about it…
•
•
•
•
•
Keep teams together
Flow work to the teams
Work in the small
Work continually
Demonstrate value

25. Think Product
• Products go on
– and on
– and on
• Think multiple releases
• Think continuity

26. Constraints
Resources
(People)
Features
Cost =
Resources x Time
Quality = free
Fixed over
short run
(Brooks Law)
Time
All the action
Time boxed
28

27. Functionality, the only flex
• Negotiate features
– Deliver, Evaluate
– Repeat (every 2 weeks or less)
• Keep quality high
– Cutting quality slows work
– Cutting quality increase cost
– Cutting quality upsets
customers
Time fixed

28. Change Governance
• Base Governance on actual
delivered benefits
– Not milestones completed
– Not documents
– Not budgets
• Align work with strategy
Picture from Picasa - Creative Commons License
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:House_of_Parliment_6_201
2-07-08.jpg
What have
you delivered
for me lately?

29. Change the Start
• Start small
• Overlap discovery & development
– From Day-1
• Fail fast, Fail cheap
• Grow the successful

30. Active Portfolio Management
•
•
•
•
Start, Stop, Shrink, Grow work teams/streams
Balance risk/reward
Sustaining/Innovative
CLOSE UNDER PERFORMING WORK

31. The End of Project Management?
• Projects are for accountants
• Organize work by
– Work streams and/or
– Products
– Manage queues
• Aim for stable teams, continuity
– Occasional personnel changes
– Living, changing code bases

32. Management work to do
•
•
•
•
“Manager” -> More authority to fix
Dealing with fuzzy world
Keep team runing effectively
Supplier / Client relationships
– Contracts to discuss & police
– Role shoot out
• Stuff
“they have an B
manager so we need
an B manager”
– Admin, reporting, Line Management

33. John Smith
Project Manager (Aries Project)
Payments Manager
Big Corporation
John.smith@bigcorp.com
Tel: +123 456 7890
• “Project Manager” becomes:
– First Line Manager, Junior Manager, Development
Manager, Team Manager, Team Leader, or or or
• You have continuity
– Projects end; Products don’t

34. How do you manage work?
People…
Theory X
• Inherently dislike work
• Must be controlled and
directed
• Shun responsibility
• Have little ambition
• Want security
People…
Theory Y
• Work leads to
satisfaction
• Can exercise selfdirection
• Committed to
objectives when
rewards are valued
• Seek responsibility
From McGregor, D. 1960. The human side of enterprise

35. Remember
• It ain’t ever over
• BAU is not a dirty work
allan kelly
www.softwarestrategy.co.uk
www.allankelly.net
allan@allankelly.net
Twitter: @allankellynet
http://leanpub.com/xanpan
(c) Allan Kelly
http://www.softwarestrategy.co.uk
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