Going Agile

Transitioning of a program

to an Agile Release Train (ART)

What we want to change and why!

What we need: Your buy-in!

Link

How to use

Bible

Framework

What is agile?

The ability to quickly change direction while traveling at a high speed.

Agile Software development

... is a group of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development ,

in which requirements and solutions

evolve through collaboration between

self-organizing, cross-functional teams.

It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development and delivery, a time-boxed iterative approach, and encourages rapid and flexible response to change.

Why does agile exist?

And who came up with it?

what's wrong with  PM/WF?

not very successful: Standish Groups's CHAOS report

its scope fixed and at the predictive end

responsibility is wrong

its build on illusions:

capability to plan long-term

management of uncertainty

steering by costs

(not business value)

Daniel Kahneman

The manifesto (2001)

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

12 principles

1. Customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of useful software
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development
3. Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
4. Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers
5. Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
6. Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
7. Working software is the principal measure of progress
8. Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
10. Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential
11. Self-organizing teams
12. Regular adaptation to changing circumstances

Why is this relevant for ing?

Trends in the financial industry:

• we entered a low margin era
  
• banks are disintermediated
  
• less attractive for investors; high risk / low return
  
• banking is becoming more digital => we get competition from high tech companies

IT is at the heart of our business, but we need to bring our cost income ratio to sustainable levels by reducing costs.

Market pressure

The promise of agile

The new mainstream

Since 25yrs this is happening in the technology industry:

Let's scrum!

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

in a nutshell

Product owner

Dev team

Scrum master

Product backlog

is a list of User Stories (and Epics) which are

• prioritized relative to each other
• estimated relative to each other
• owned by the product owner
• single source of work  request
  

A User story is

5 ceremonies

1. Backlog refinement
2. Sprint planning
3. Daily Scrum
4. Review
5. Retrospective
   

Backlog refinement

get stories Ready

(to be pulled into the sprint backlog)

definition of ready

to get× Stories ready to be pulled into a sprint, there has to be sufficient collective understanding on what has to be delivered

Sample definition:

• is prioritized
• is estimated
• size: doable in 1/2 sprint
• is testable
• dependencies are resolved

team has to set aside time (~15%) to get Stories ready

important to create flow

Sprint planning

Daily Scrum

15 min stand-up                                         in front of the Sprint board

Review

demonstrate (Done) Stories to the

product owner and stakeholders

opportunity to give feedback to the team

get final acceptance from the product owner

definition of done

Sample definition of Done:

• successfully acceptance tested (functional, performance, deployment, etc.)
• support documentation accepted
• code re-factored
• regression test updated
  

Retrospective

time of reflection

what went well and what can be improved

process and social dynamics

organizational impediments

Metrics and reports

Story points

Burn down chart

Velocity chart

Epic (Feature) report

Version (PSI/Release) report

Cumulative flow diagram

Burndown chart

velocity chart

Epic report

Version report

cumulative flow diagram

Distributed Scrum

with an external not co-located vendor

focus on:

buy-in

communication and collaboration

align goals (contractually)

meet f-2-f on a regular basis

What actually will change?

roles

responsibility

planning

delivery

collaboration 

control

visibility

management style

focus

contracting

funding model

Roles

Responsibilities

and commitment

Planning

No 'detailed' upfront delivery plan

but

rolling wave planning

Delivery, collaboration & control

Management style

Tao Te Ching (6th century BC):

The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware. Next comes one whom they love and praise. Next comes one whom they fear. Next comes one whom they despise and defy.

Robert K. Greenleaf (1970):

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

declaration of independence (2005)

for modern management

"We ...

• increase return on investment by making continuous flow of value our focus.
• deliver reliable results by engaging customers in frequent interactions and shared ownership.
• expect uncertainty and manage for it through iterations, anticipation and adaptation.
• unleash creativity and innovation by recognizing that individuals are the ultimate source of value and creating an environment where they can make a difference.
• boost performance through group accountability for results and shared responsibility for team effectiveness.
• improve effectiveness and reliability through situationally specific strategies, processes and practices."

Focus

organizational level

Technology and Engineering

Craftsmanship and Innovation

Partnership (internal & external, responsibility)

Continuous flow model (small batches,

short feedback loop)

Reduce waste

Focus

team level

ATDD

Test Automation

Deployment Automation

Continuous Delivery

DevOps

Scaling to the next level

scale the following principles to the program level

• one backlog with one owner
• dedicated stable team (where we can)
  
• fixed cadence and continuous flow
  
• creation of business value (measure of progress)
• self-organization

The Agile release train (ART)

Donald Reinertsen:

scaled Roles

Scrum teams

Program backlog - IPA

Program backlog - MV

Scaled Ceremonies

ART backlog refinement

product manager, product owners, blue print expert and architect; chaired by IT integrator

- break epics into features -

- estimate T-shirt size -

- estimate business value -

get product owners commitment to break features

into stories  with her/his scrum team

Scrum of Scrums

IT integrator meets with scrum masters

agree on integration & how to handle dependencies

- resolution of impediments -

forum to discuss feedback from the Scrum teams

Release planning

the entire ART team

plans the PSI/Release

focus on integration & dependencies

high level delivery road map

goal setting

buy-in

System dem0

Scrum teams demo the

integrated solution

Feedback from product manager, blue print expert

and architect to the teams

final PSI/Release acceptance

before HIP sprint

Retrospective

(I&A)

after PSI/Release come together with all Scrum teams

and identify what worked well and what should be improved

Agree on top three improvement items

to be action by the IT integrator

Feedback loops

Scrum teams

ART

Refinement
Features > Stories

Scrum

Refinement
Epics > Features

Scrum of Scrums

Scaled metrics

T-shirt size and

business value points

ranking = sequencing = WSJF

business value burn up

Business value & RANKING

ranking = relative business value / relative size

relative business value = relative user value

+ relative time criticality

+ relative RR/OE

relative business value = rel. benefits + rel. penalties

WSJF = CoD / duration

product manager ultimately decides on the ranking