Value-Driven-Delivery

Feb 16, 2015

Ram Awadh Prasad

Value Driven Development with

Agile

Objective

• What are knowledge worker projects

• Why traditional approach does not work on Knowledge Worker Projects

• How Agile approach is different from traditional approach

• How agile practices deliver value and deliver projects successfully

Knowledge Worker Projects

• We are going through information revolution.

• The key lies in Ownership of knowledge and ability to use it to create goods and services.

• On Knowledge Worker projects work is intangible

• Requirements are rapidly changing

• Decisions are more important than structure

• Continuous innovation, focus on quality and adaptability are the keys to success.

What is a Knowledge Worker?

•Knowledge workers are People with subject matter expertise

•Communicate their knowledge and take part in analysis and development•People in IT industry, doctors, engineers, teachers, scientists and more•Information revolution relies on Knowledge Workers

Traditional Project Management

Approach

Feasibility

Plan

Build

Test

Production

Design

Support

2

Traditional Project Management

Approach

• Plan centric and plan driven

• Focus of processes, tools and extensive documentation

• Command and control style leadership

• Prescriptive - or “Push approach” - for managing projects

• Resistant to change – elaborate change management process

• Tracking through complex reports and metrics

Agile Manifesto – the agile values

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Agile Approach

Envision

High Level Plan

Release

2

Agile Approach

• Value driven - early and continuous delivery of value

• Focus on people and interactions

• Cross functional Self organizing teams

• Agility is everyone’s Responsibility

• Embrace changes even late in development

• Working software as the primary measure of progress

Planning Value

Planning Value – Six Levels of Planning

Organization focus

• Strategy: Business goals and roadmaps agreed by the Executive Leadership

• Portfolio: Selection of the products that will best implement the vision

• Product: Looking and planning for the evolution of released system

Team focus

• Release: Features of each release that support the Product plan

• Iteration: Tasks needed to transform a feature request into working, tested software

• Daily: Daily Scrum and work activities

2

Planning Value – Product Backlog, Release, Sprint

Product Road Map• Visual overview of product’s releases and its main components• Provides a quick view of primary release points and intended functionality

Product Backlog• Contains all user stories, themes, and epics. • Product owner prioritizes features, epics and stories on their value• If something is not in the product backlog, it is not in the product

Release• Releases are used to support product roadmaps • Product owner selects the items from the backlog that meet the goals of a

release.

2

Planning Value – Value Based Prioritization

• Valued based prioritization is the one of the core practices in agile planning

• Features are prioritized on the basis of business value, risk and dependencies.

• Some of the prioritization techniques used:

• MoSCoW prioritization: Requirements are prioritized based on Must, Should, Could, and Won’t.

• Kano Analysis: Threshold, Linear, Exciters/Delighters, Indifferent

• Relative prioritization: Each feature is prioritized based on its relative weighting for Benefits, Penalties, Costs, and Risk

• Minimal Marketable Features: Smallest set of functionality that provides value to the market

Planning Value – User Stories

•A lightweight mechanism to quickly capture requirements

•3 Cs: Card, Conversation and Confirmation

•Acts as an agreement between customers and development team

•Every requirement is a user story

•Every story, including technical stories, has a value

•Common structure of a user story

•Multiple levels - Features, Epics & Stories

As a <user type>I <want to/need, etc> goal

So that <value>

Planning Value – Managing Risks

Identify RisksQuantitative

Risk Analysis

Qualitative

Risk Analysis

Plan Risk

Responses

Monitor and

Control Risks

Traditional Risk Management Approach

•Risk identification, analysis and planning is largely done at the during planning•Responsibility of risk responses may lie on different individuals •One responses are planned implementation is more often than not forgotten

Planning Value – Managing Risks

Agile Risk Management Approach

Review

(@ Retrospective)

Identify (@ Daily Scrum; Retrospective; Requirement Workshop; Sprint

Planning; Sprint Review)

Assess

(Likelihood, impact, Response)

Respond(Avoid, Mitigate, Transfer,

Accept)

Planning Value – Managing Risks

• In Agile, risks are considered as anti value

• The risk management process is repeated every iteration

• The four steps in risk management cycle are:

– Risk Identification

– Risk Assessment

– Risk Response

– Risk Review

• The product backlog is continually reviewed and adjusted for the risks

• Risk based spikes are planned for high value risks

Delivering Value

Delivering Value - Timeboxing

• Student syndrome: a person will only start to apply themselves to an assignment at the last possible moment before its deadline

• Parkinson’s law: work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion• Timeboxing is setting a fixed time limit to activities • If something cannot be accomplished in a timeboxed period, it is deferred to the

next period • Allows velocity to be determined between iterations and sprints• Applies everything: Scrums, Sprint planning, Sprints and iterations, risk spikes

Delivering Value - Task Board

• An "information radiator" -ensures efficient diffusion of information

• Can be drawn on a whiteboard or even a section of wall

• Makes iteration backlog visible

• Serves as a focal point for the daily meeting

• Story cards can be quickly and easily moved to update status

Delivering Value - Limit WIP

• WIP (work in progress) also known as “work in process”

• Includes work that has been started but not completed yet

• Represents money spent with no return• Hides process bottlenecks that slow the

processes• Represents risk in form of potential risk• Agile processes aim to Limit and optimize WIP• Optimal WIP makes processes effecient

Delivering Value - Quality

• Agile embeds quality throughout the project lifecycle

• Quality is “built in” in agile approach

• Pair programming

• Test Driven Development / Test-First Development

• Acceptance Test Driven Development

• Collaborative definition of done

• Continuous integration

Delivering Value – Continuous

Improvement

• Daily standup

• Sprint demos

• Retrospectives

• Highest value on quality

• Continuous Integration

• Process Improvement

Confirming Value

Confirming Value - Communication

Confirming Value - Communication

• Face to face communication

• Information Radiators (vs Information Refrigerators)

• Osmotic communication

• Collocated Teams

• Commons and Caves

Agile Communication - Information Radiators

Confirming Value

• Customer-valued prioritization

• Feedback

– Prototypes

– Simulation

– Demonstration

– Evaluation

Tracking and ReportingValue

Tracking and reporting

• Task or Kanban boards

• Burn down, Burn down Charts

• Cumulative flow diagrams (CFDs)

• Team velocity measurement

• Risk management and Risk burn down graphs

• Earned value management for agile projects

Tracking Value– Reporting Progress

Burndown ChartCumulative Flow Diagram

Tracking Value– Reporting Risks

Summary

Summary

• Agile focuses on delivering Value on Projects with rapidly changing and intangible requirements

• Lays more value people and interactions

• Uses light weight practices and artifacts to reduce waste

• Self organizing team of motivated individuals

• Focus on face to face and direct communication

• Continuous collaboration between business and development