John Underhill presents on implementing agile project management processes for heavy engineering design projects at Babcock International Group. He discusses adopting agile techniques like sprints and prioritizing highest risks to better manage uncertainty, scope changes, and measure progress. Key aspects of their approach include identifying risks each sprint to focus resources, maintaining a task list to track progress, and using metrics like a "saw tooth" graph to demonstrate risk reduction over time. Initial results show benefits like empowered teams, informed stakeholders, faster decisions, and assurance of steady design progress.
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Agile project management in heavy engineering design (John Underhill, Babcock)
1. Agile Project Management
in
Heavy Engineering Design
John Underhill
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Babcock International Group
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Project Manager – Product Design,
Weapon Handling and Launch
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2. Agenda
• Context
• What
• Why
• When
• Who
• How
• What are we learning?
Main presentation title
• Questions
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3. Marine and Technology
•
•
•
•
Provide high integrity mechanical & electrical
engineered systems for defence customers
worldwide
Provide solutions to difficult challenges ref
design, analysis & production.
Deliver high-criticality and –integrity systems
& equipment
Core products Include:
– Submarine Weapons Handling & Launch
Systems (WHLS)
– Towed Submarine Communication & Array
Systems
– Surface ship munitions handling equipment
•
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30 years experience as the design authority
for WHLS to the UK MoD
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4. Torpedo Launch
Video to insert here
Source: YouTube
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5. Weapon Handling and Launch
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6. Why do we want to implement agile
processes? that System and Design Definition phases are full of
• We recognised
uncertainty
• We wanted to focus more on the highest risks first
• We needed to better measure our progress within these phases
• We needed to manage scope change (creep)
• We need to forecast our ETC better
• We needed to be able to focus appropriate resources to appropriate tasks,
whether they be in our direct sphere of influence or not
• We needed to convince not only our customers that we were making
progress, but ourselves as well – i.e. provide the assurance
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7. What did we aim to achieve?
At the heart of our aims for the System and Design definition phases is to
develop…
•…a process for tackling the most difficult challenges first
•…a methodology that could better cope with the emergent issues of a
complex hardware design
•…a methodology for measuring and recording progress of an evolving project
•…a process that maintained focus on the ultimate deliverables but also
encouraged creative design
•…a culture that critically reviews, plans and monitors change
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8. Our Agile approach
Our Agile approach is characterised by the following activities in each defined
period cycle, each cycle being termed as a “sprint”:
•Each sprint shall be a 1 month, task orientated design activity that answers
specific questions, queries and/or risks established in the previous sprint
•Reviews and records the design decisions and answers provided by the work
carried out by all appropriate stakeholders
•Identification and Risk categorisation (high, medium or low) of the questions,
queries and risks that have arisen during the sprint phase and how they align
with the overall project risks and requirements
•Agreement from all stakeholders of the next highest priority queries, risks
and/or questions to be answered in the next iterative sprint
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•The number of sprints is determined by the overall project schedule, but the
amount of risk that can be reduced by the end of all sprints remains
indeterminate – however progress to date is very positive.
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9. Our Techniques for our approach
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•
•
The sprints will be built into the Product Teams delivery schedule,
the tasks being recorded within the schedule
All the tasks that are to be done are recorded in the Master Task
List.
Each of the tasks have the following recorded against them
–
–
–
–
•
•
•
An owner
Estimated hours
Technical risk level (1 [low] to 5)
Due date
Task register ranks to the tasks as a function of Technical risk and
the due date – we call it the “Overall Risk Weighting”
As new tasks are added to the list, the total count of tasks will rise;
completed tasks will be marked as such
The resulting metric is the saw tooth graph
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10. Master Task list
ID Task
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
Notes / Comments
Suitability of S80 Rammer for JBIII (2400kg vs 2000Kg, Angles)
Re-use of existing Contract Drawings numbers, or all new?
Tube loading loads
Alignment of CLL
Alignment of the system to the Boat and to Discharge equipment
Jacking System
Establish Stack Height Layout
Establish Fore/Aft layout (Required for SDR)
WSE SDR
Familiarisation with Project (AJV, ANP)
Loadlines Cradles for loading or Trolleys
Review Risk Registers
Machining Limitation for Structure
Tube Loading Return Track Route
Confirm mount arrangement with Sociotec
Lower Tier Modular Build - improve on S80
Interlock Map - has this been produced?
Agree Sub system Specs
WSE DDR - Customer Draft Submittal
WSE Internal DDR
CLL DDR
Embarkation DDR
WSE DM6 deliverables
WSE DM7 deliverables
WSE Structure Internal DDR
WSE Traversing Internal DDR
WSE Loading Internal DDR
WSE Loose Item Stowages Internal DDR
WSE Jacking Internal DDR
WSH1D016587, …16589, …16588
Can we machine a structure that big?
1 week allocated
Input into WSE
Owner Technical Risk Est. hours Project
(1 (low) to 5
milestone
(high))
date
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
HYD
WSE
WSE
WSE
CLL
WES
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
WSE
4
3
4
5
4
5
4
4
3
5
3
5
3
3
4
2
4
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
80
24
80
30
120
120
40
40
40
60
80
20
10
30
16
40
30
24
40
40
40
40
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
Project
Milestone
description
Required
By…
Hours to Estimated Del'v'y risk
"Required latest start weighting,
by" date
date
0 = lowest
Overall
Risk
Weighting
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
442413.39
159.92
148.41
148.41
592.61
1202604.28
0.00
0.00
115.89
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
104.57
104.93
0.00
0.00
114.29
105.99
105.64
105.39
106.16
105.42
111.59
55
20
55
148
24154953
23734
8103
8103
11903
178482301
20
148
2328
20
55
7
55
55
284
285
3
3
311
288
287
286
289
287
303
27/05/2013
16/07/2013
20/05/2013
20/05/2013
01/06/2013
14/05/2013
30
296
-7
-7
59
-52
02/05/2013
21/06/2013
10/05/2013
10/05/2013
24/05/2013
01/05/2013
20/09/2013
651
18/09/2013
18/07/2014 Draft Submittal 18/07/2014
18/06/2014
2242
2079
10/07/2014
10/06/2014
17/10/2013 Draft Submittal
18/04/2014 Draft Submittal
Internal DDR
Internal DDR
Internal DDR
Internal DDR
Internal DDR
792
1761
1865
1946
1717
1939
955
02/10/2013
03/04/2014
23/04/2014
09/05/2014
26/03/2014
07/05/2014
01/11/2013
17/10/2013
18/04/2014
08/05/2014
24/05/2014
10/04/2014
22/05/2014
18/11/2013
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11. The Priority Pivot Table
Owner
WSE
Row Labels
Familiarisation with Project (AJV, ANP)
Alignment of the system to the Boat and to Discharge equipment
Jacking System
Delivery of SDR
Establish Stack Height Layout
Establish Fore/Aft layout (Required for SDR)
Machining Limitation for Structure
WSE DM6 deliverables
WSE Jacking Internal DDR
WSE Loading Internal DDR
WSE DM7 deliverables
WSE Structure Internal DDR
WSE Loose Item Stowages Internal DDR
WSE Traversing Internal DDR
WSE Internal DDR
WSE DDR - Customer Draft Submittal
Alignment of CLL
Review Risk Registers
Confirm mount arrangement with Sociotec
Suitability of S80 Rammer for JBIII (2400kg vs 2000Kg, Angles)
Tube loading loads
Agree Sub system Specs
Tube Loading Return Track Route
Loadlines Cradles for loading or Trolleys
Re-use of existing Contract Drawings numbers, or all new?
Lower Tier Modular Build - improve on S80
Grand Total
Max of Required By… Sum of Est. hours Sum of Overall Risk Weighting
14 May 13
60
178,482,301
27 May 13
120
24,154,953
16 Jul 13
120
23,734
01 Jun 13
40
11,903
20 May 13
40
8,103
20 May 13
40
8,103
20 Sep 13
10
2,328
17 Oct 13
80
311
18 Nov 13
80
303
10 Apr 14
80
289
18 Apr 14
80
288
08 May 14
80
287
22 May 14
80
287
24 May 14
80
286
18 Jun 14
40
285
18 Jul 14
40
284
30
148
20
148
16
55
80
55
80
55
24
55
30
20
80
20
24
20
40
7
18 Jul 14
1494
202,694,627
Refresh Pivot Table
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12. The Saw Tooth Metric
Hard milestone!
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13. What are we learning
• The “macro” risks to the project are consistent, it is the perceived “micro”
risks that evolve rapidly
• Focusing engineering effort at the micro level (sprints) leads to solving the
macro level issues
• The Agile approach highlights constraints (distractions) that very often the
Project Manager can control/manage (away)
• The engineering teams are/feel empowered and are delivering to schedule
• The Chief Engineering team are/feel informed at regular intervals – there are
no Technical surprises – issues raised and dealt with as they occur
• Our customers (internal and external) can have regular status updates of the
design, and understand their inputs and when they are required
• Drumbeat reviews makes for faster decision making
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• The saw tooth has become blunt very fast!
• The process is providing assurance
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Context – Who and what does Babcock do, what I mean by Heavy engineering
What – What design work are we talking about
Why – Learning from previous contracts and the desire to do it better
When – a brief description of where we are with ou
Who – the stakeholders in this new approach
How – some of the techniques we have applied to implement our agile approach
What are we learning – a summary of the things we have discovered to date
Approximate length of the stowage – 10 metres, 3 metres wide per stowage
So taking the “why” we boiled this down into some specific aims.
Point 1 – self explanatory
Point 2 – It was perceived that there where lots of emergent issues that needed to be dealt with
Point 3 – Previous experience had shown that some form of tighter control was required in the System Design and Design Definition Phases
Point 4 – It was felt form the Project Mgmt community that the engineers had been distracted from delivering the benefits of the projects, often by hearsay or potential changes
Point 5 – The previous point leads into the next. The critically review part of this headline is very about the Project Mgmt community reviewing any changes before it reaches the engineering teams at the coalface. This prevents that perceived distraction. But for those changes that are to be realised, they must be properly recorded, planned and monitored
First point out that I am not a Agile expert or Scrum master. Our approach is based on the reading around the subject and applying some of those techniques, not necessarily in the “text book” manner.
Sprint period of 1 month – decided in agreement with the engineering teams
Records of the sprint reviews are kept
Identification and risk category applied by the engineering teams themselves so they are bought into the decision. It is the project mgmt teams role to bring the understanding of the overall delivery plan and schedule to “keep the engineering teams honest”
By setting the sprints at 1 month intervals, there are only a finite number of sprint phases we can go through before DDR. It therefore gives the project management team the understanding of how progress is being made relative to the time remaining.
The amount of risk exposure remains indeterminate – however, as the DDR deadline approaches we can clearly identify those outstanding issues that can be dealt with. Not all issues have to be dealt with; with the agreement of the Chief Engineers agreement some issues can be dealt with during normal business as part of the Production definition phase. This is fundamental to the control of scope gong into the DDR – it also means that there are no technical surprises for the technical council during the design review.
So how did we implement the vision and what tools did we use…
These are the headline topics and the following slides will show the practical examples.
This is a list of all tasks across all sub systems. The tasks are not sorted into any kind of order at this point, this is the data gathering point.
So we have the Tasks title…named by the engineering teams.
Things to note –
The prioritisation table shown is for one team. There are 5 teams within our direct sphere of influence. But there are also priority lists for the other stakeholders. That can include our customers (Project Teams), Analysis teams, Test teams etc.