Bridging the Gap Between WaterfaIl and Agile

1. The Fountain Project
Model
Rikupekka Oksanen
rioksane@jyu.fi

2. ● One easy to understand method
● One that actually enables projects to
succeed.
The Fountain Project Model
Bridging the gap between
WaterfaIl and Agile

3. They tend to be hard
The thing about IT projects

4. One in a million?
Successful IT-project

5. ● How to get funding
● How to keep every stakeholder happy
● How to actually succeed
Many aspects in IT projects

6. ● The end user
● The manager
● The project team
The Three Stooges

7. We have widespread use of Agile project
management methods
In 2013

8. ● Is iterative
● Brings value early on
● Makes developers talk with the customer
● Shows problems and actual needs early
● ... so you can react to them
Agile

9. helps projects to succeed
Which makes customers happy
While making the developers look good
Most importantly Agile

10. Not every project uses agile...
One downside there is

11. The managers with the money.
And it is because of these
guys/gals

12. Because they don't get Agile
"I don't get it?
Where's the
planning
stage?"

13. 1. Define
2. Plan
3. Develop
4. Test
5. Deploy
6. Use happily ever after
They have milestones and easy to
understand Gantt-charts
But they DO understand Waterfall
1. Define
2. Plan
3. Develop
4. Test
5. FINISH

14. Only gives money to projects he can
understand.
Ok. So you have to choose Waterfall.
You get the funding and start doing your
project using Waterfall...
The person with the money

15. There is one downside...

16. Waterfall fails

17. Every time

19. God didn't use Waterfall when He
created Earth

20. didn't define and plan for 5 billion years.
...
He

21. Started by deploying a planet to our solar
system in the first day of his project.
THEN he filled it with content.
He

22. But then again, He is God.
He did all this in 6 days

23. ● Had to wipe out all mankind. They were
behaving bad.
● And dinosaurs too.
● (All the furry animals were saved though)
First version wasn’t all good

24. Small success is better than epic fail
-> Dinosaurs and evil men roaming the
Earth at the same time?
The point is

25. That would be cool…
Carry on.

26. ● http://pascal.gugenberger.net/thoughts
/waterfall-accident.html
● http://www.onedesk.com/2013/01/wat
erfall-vs-agile/
Read more about WaterfaIl

27. ● "Agile success stories": 4 400 000
● "Waterfall success stories": 368 000
o -> Mostly starting by phrases like:
"Report says Agile is more successful"...
"Where is Waterfall failing us"...
Google it

28. 1.Is easy to understand and
sell to the managers
2.Actually enables the
project to succeed
So we need a project model that

29. Combining in the easy understandability of
Waterfall and the power of Agile methods.
The Fountain Project Model

30. -> 1st step is Deployment
Wow, isn't that kind of hard?
Empowered by the Talaskivi
method

31. -> Planet Earth on the first day
So...
A puny working software on the second day
Should be doable.
Remember God

32. ● Apply Fountain Project Model to web-
projects where you as a developer
already know on which technology would
suffice.
● Select the technology stack which is the
most familiar to the developers/your
organization
Lets set some boundaries

33. People have bended different systems to
do something that the system really wasn't
meant to do...
You can do anything with
everything in IT-world

34. You must do different things with
different people
● The end user: provide working software
● The manager with the money: provide
easy-to-understand checkpoints
● The develoment team: get out of their
way
As a project manager...

35. 1.Deployment
2. Customer/end user figures out the next 3
most important features
3. Develop (BDD, TDD, whatever suits you)
and deploy again to the preview-site
4. Talk to the customer again, 3 next most
important features
5. Develop until customer is happy enough
The stages of springing a
Fountain

36. You can make it look like this for
the Managers
1. Stage ONE
date xx.yy.zzzz
2. Stage TWO.
date xx.yy.zzzz
3. Stage THREE
date xx.yy.zzzz
4. Stage FOUR
date xx.yy.zzzz
5. FINISH
date xx.yy.zzzz

37. ● You can show him a "Gantt-chart" of
different phases of the Project
● He can feel pleased with himself as he
"gets it"
● If some dates are off, its okay -
remember - IT-projects tend to fail.
They’ll understand
● But eventually this project actually
succeeds and the Manager gets more
money
Benefits for the Manager

38. And this is how it actually looks
for the Customer
1. Deployment
date xx.yy.zzzz
2. Development A.
3. Release A
4. Development B.
5. Release B.
Start getting profit
for the first set of
features!
See the first version
of the service and
define 3 next most
important things
See the changes
in the demo site
as things evolve
Customer is already getting value from the product

39. ● On the second day of the project, the
customer gets a working site.
● It's easier for the customer to see what's
missing than to explicitly define what
should be added
● The customer can then point and
comment on things
● In the end (or beginning!) the customer
gets a working system!
Benefits for the Customer

40. And this is how it looks like for
the developers

41. ● Developers get the funding!
● Developers can easily discuss with the
customer using the demo site
● Developers can focus on only 3 things at
a time.
● Don't have to develop features that
nobody uses at the end
● Satisfied customer, satisfied CEO
-> a bonus?
Benefits for the Developer

42. ...if not a bonus, at least the feeling that
you have done well.
Well...

43. When the Fountain is so big it makes a
rainbow with the Sun shining behind it.
When is the project ready?

45. DO not apply in Russia. They don’t like
rainbows.
Warning.

46. ● Talk to the end users - show and tell,
and let them tell you
● Use Agile methods in the actual
development
● ...and disguise them when talking to
managers.
Remember

47. rioksane@jyu.fi
Twitter: rikupekka
#fountainprojectmodel
Thank you!