Agile Portfolio Planning

Copyright © 2014 SolutionsIQ Inc. All rights reserved.

6801 185th Ave NE, Suite 200Redmond, WA 98052solutionsiq.com1.800.235.4091

Agile Portfolio Planning

PREPARED BYSanjay GuptaSolutionsIQ

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 2

Enterprise Agility

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 3

Organizational Agility (Scaling)

Portfolio

Program

Team

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 4

Portfolio Planning

Purpose - Maximize

Shareholder Value

Interfaces Business / Organizational Agility

Portfolio Management •Planning•Execution•Governance

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 5

How is planning currently going?

» How are you all involved in planning?

» How is planning currently done and what are some of the pain points?

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 6

Traditional Portfolio Planning - Attributes

Demand Vs CapacityTop Down, Centralized Annual BudgetFocuses on Compliance, Control, AuditDetailed Upfront PlanningComplex Analysis Tools, We Love Excel SheetsFixed Cost, Fixed ScheduleFocuses on Resource Allocation - Full utilizationProject Based - Teams created for projectsGenerally Run by PMO focussing on budgeting, Auditing, resource allocationSuccess Means Adherence to Plan (Within B,C,S..Q?)

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 7

Is It Agile?

Agile is mindset

• Being Agile / Doing Agile• To be is to do• How To Check Agile Mind-set

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 8

Framing the discussion: “Desire vs Capacity” or “Desire Based on Capacity”

Alignment?» Alignment?

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 9

Active Planning for Maximizing Value

1. Supply: “what we can do”

2. Demand: “what we want”

3. Active planning

4. Continuous optimization

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 10

Active Planning for Maximizing Value

1. Supply: “what we can do”

2. Demand: “what we want”

3. Active Planning

4. Continuous optimization

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 11

Supply: “what we can do”

» Unique portfolio for each discrete non-fungible delivery capability

» Production Unit = One Team Iteration

» Story = Unit of Measurement

» Iteration Capacity = Average stories per team X total teams

» All work is visible

» Team Exercise: Calculating Capacity

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 12

Team Exercise: Calculating Capacity

» Two platforms (three team members)

- Orange and Yellow

» Orange teams

- Build a unit (as described)

- Hearts and Diamonds = 1 story

- Track clubs and spades

» Yellow teams

- Build a unit as described

- All cards but aces = 1 story

- Track aces

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 13

Active Planning for Maximizing Value

1. Supply: “what we can do”

2. Demand: “what we want”

3. Active Planning

4. Continuous optimization

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 14

Demand: “what we want”

» One funnel or input per portfolio

» All work must be prioritized

- Match effort to benefit

» All work is visible

» Team Exercise: quick prioritization

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 15

Team Exercise II: Quick Prioritization

» Teams of 5 or 6

» One Chief Product Owner

» 100 points

» Assign points to items

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 16

Assigning Points

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 17

Active Planning for Maximizing Value

1. Supply: “what we can do”

2. Demand: “what we want”

3. Active planning

4. Continuous optimization

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 18

Active Planning

» Capacity is “fixed”

» Three quarter planning horizon

» Optimize for Return on Team (or the highest value per iteration)

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 19

“People to Projects” or “Work to Teams”

Team momentum maintained

Project start

Team start

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 20

Exercise III: group planning

» Knowns

- 10 teams all on technology stack

- Averaging 3.5 stories per iteration

- There are 6 iterations per quarter

» What is my total quarterly capacity?

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 21

Exercise III: group planning

» Situation

- Teams 1-4 are dedicated to strategic initiative that will last for another 12 months

- Tech debt has historically represented 25% of total capacity

- Production support has historically represented 15% of total capacity

- Teams 9 &10 are working on finishing up a release that will take two more iterations

» What is my available story capacity in the upcoming quarter?

» What is capacity in two quarters?

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 22

Active Planning for Maximizing Value

1. Supply: “what we can do”

2. Demand: “what we want”

3. Active planning

4. Continuous optimization

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 23

Approach to Portfolio Optimization

» Review Portfolio @ regular cadence

» Prioritize / Re-prioritize to Maximize Value Delivery

Active Portfolio Management, John Rudd, SolutionsIQ 24

Thank You!