Agile 103 - the three big questions

Agile 103 for Project Managers
The BIG THREE Questions about Agile
A presentation for
A presentation for
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Copyright 2012 Square Peg Consultiing, All Rights Reserved
Produced by
Square Peg Consulting, LLC
Orlando, Florida
www.sqpegconsulting.com

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The BIG THREE Questions
What is this thing called Agile?
How do I do “agile in the waterfall”?
How do I get started?

It’s more than old wine in new bottles!
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It’s more than old wine in new bottles!
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YES NO

What is this thing called Agile (project
management)?
1. We manage for quicker results – delivery every few weeks
2. We distribute authority and responsibility differently – more
federalized team ‘rights’; less centralized
3. We prioritize differently – focus on output more so than input
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management)?
4. We address quality differently – fidelity to customer expectation
dominates fidelity to specification
5. We involve the customer/user more intimately – during the whole
project lifecycle
6. We accept that the customer drives the value proposition – even
though the project sponsor provides the resources
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management)?
7. We go for best value scope – the highest
quality and most important possible within the
investment provided.
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8. We honor “other people’s
money” – OPM

What is this thing called Agile (technical
practices)?
1. Some new practices – to get the speed with quality
– Test Driven Development
– Pair Programming
– xUnit Continuous Integration
2. Some familiar practices renovated – different sequence and
staffing, and distributed differently in the project
– Architecture
– Refactoring
– Unit & Integration Tests
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What is this thing called Agile (technical
practices)?
3. Document only that which we are going to faithfully maintain –
more lean on the documentation
– Architecture
– Story cards, Use cases
– Test scripts
4. Emphasize developer discipline – personal commitment and
accountability to get it done.
– Burn down charts; Kanban boards
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Manifesto and Principles
Agile Manifesto and Agile Principles are the operating framework
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Principles
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agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

Best value
The highest quality and most important scope
possible – within the investment provided
Quality representing highest fidelity to customer expectation:
• Functionality, performance
• Importance, urgency, functional sequencing
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Grand Bargain – Project & Sponsor
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Best Value
Agile PM
Manifesto &
Principles
Customer
drivers
GRAND BARGAIN

Grand Bargain
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The grand bargain – with the
project sponsor – is to deliver
"best value" in trade for latitude
to evolve the scope details
• Not to exceed maximum
investment
• Not to overrun ‘critical
milestones’

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The fundamental tension
1. Traditional is “strategically” planned – predictable scope
2. Agile is tactically planned – accommodating scope
3. Management challenge: strategic – tactical scope tension
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Agile generic plan
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Release
Charter
Vision-narrative
Businesscase
Architecture
Agile sprints
embedded in white space (for maneuver)

Traditional generic waterfall
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Predicting and planning – from
the top – your way down this
swim lane is problematic
Say the agilists: “It can’t be
done, except incrementally”

Wrap the plan in a traditional framework
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Traditional wrapper
With swim lanes
Agile sprints
embedded in white space (for maneuver)
Interface (with buffers built in)
Release with Buffers
Charter
Vision-narrative
Businesscase
Architecture

To make it work
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• Architecture
• Interface discipline
• Black-box commitments
• Intra-wrapper coordination

Wave commitments
1. Architecture in waves
2. Tweak interface needs/requirements/demands at each wave
3. Trusted Black Boxes– it all happens at the terminals
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Redistribution of power
1. Federalism allows for ebb and flow of power
2. Some autonomy is surrendered
3. Complexity begets more power in the executive
4. Team to team coordination
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Start initiatives
1. Conceptual arguments – sell success according to customer
acceptance
2. Management arguments – proffer the grand bargain
3. Project practicalities – begin with a pilot project and a team
disposed to ‘early adoption’
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Success mapped to business scorecard
1. Project success maps to business success – customer is the root
of business success
2. Stay close to business metrics that govern input (cost and
resources) – there’s usually no business metric on scope
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Strategy for the Grand Bargain
1. Re-up quarterly (at least)
2. Be prepared to stop! – don’t assume you can run
through the limits
3. Keep the customer on your side – no side channel
complaints
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Pick a workable pilot
1. Follow Mike Cohn’s advice
2. Recruit early adopters and experimenters
3. Think about scale – practice where possible
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Tell’em what you told them
Fidelity to customer need replaces fidelity to specification
Wrap agile with a framework and adhere to interface
discipline
Pick the right pilot

The author of this seminar
John C Goodpasture, PMP
Program manager, author, coach,
and instructor
• PMI eSeminarsWorldsm instructor for Agile
Project Management, and
• Advanced Risk Management, and
• Understanding Organizational Change
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info@sqpegconsulting.com
johngoodpasture.com

Read more …..
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• Jim Highsmith: “Agile Project Management: Creating
innovative products”
• Dean Leffingwell: “Agile Software Requirements: Lean
requirements practices for Teams, Programs, and the
Enterprise”
• Mike Cohn: “Agile Estimating and Planning”
• Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory: “Agile Testing: A practical
guide for Testers and Agile Teams”
• John Goodpasture: “Project Management the Agile Way:
Making it work in the Enterprise”

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All done and ready for questions!

Agile 103 - the three big questions

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