Agile Event Presentation - Nov 27th 2013

Agile
– Making it Work


Agenda
Time

Agenda

Speaker

0800

Welcome

Ruaidhri McSharry

0800 – 0815

SureSkills Introduction to Agile

Bill Heffernan,
SureSkills

0815 – 0910

Agile – Making it Work in a Real Environment

Cameron O Connor,
SQS/SureSkills

0910 – 0950

Concepts & Practices behind Agile
Requirements

Colm O'hEocha, Agile
Innovation

0950 – 1020

Real Word Case Study - Rolling Out Agile in
Paddy Power

Paul Hayes, Paddy
Power

1020 – 1030

Q&A & Event Close

Event Panel


Project
Management

Service
Management

Education
Development

Global
Delivery

Program & Project Management Practices
Project office, PMO, Portfolio
Management, Resource Placement:
Program Managers & Project Managers

Gap Analysis – Best practice
frameworks & Standards – ITIL®,
ISO20000
Steering – Continual Service
Improvement Programs

Instructor Led & E-Learning Development
Rapid 2
SureSkills Connect

EMEA
AJP
USA

Business
Analysis

Managed
Services

Business Analysis Operations
Assess & Recommend: Business
processes
Business Process Modelling

Service Desk Outsourcing
Application Management and
Deployment
Vendor SLA Management

Support
Pro-Active Monitoring and Alerting
IT Administration (MAC service)
Remote and On-Site Hands On
Response


Technical
Consulting
Data management solutions
Storage solutions
Virtualisation solutions

LaaS
Social Learning
E-Learning
Virtual Labs Capability

Social
Media
Social Media for Business
Digital Marketing
Search Engine
Optimization

Private Tailored

Public Schedule

Customized Courses
On site/off site
Groups
1-1

Microsoft
VMware
ITIL
PRINCE2
Business Skills
SQL
Business Analysis

Introduction to Agile
Bill Heffernan


Agile Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Origins
What is Agile?
Agile Principles
Agile Approaches
Why Adopt Agile
Challenges
Pitfalls
Myths
Q&A

Acknowledgement:
A significant proportion of content in this presentation is based upon content from the “Agile for
Dummies” e-book publish by IBM.


Origins of Agile
Traditional
“Waterfall”
“Code-and-Fix”







Requirements
Design
Development
Integration
Testing
Deployment

Challenges
 Schedule Risk
 Limited Flexibility
 Reduced
Customer
Involvement


1988

1990’s

“Spiral”

“RAD”

Incremental
Regularly deliver
working code in
small chunks
Iterative
Learn from
feedback on
deliveries and set
aside time to use
this feedback to
improve

(Rapid Application
Development)
SCRUM
XP

2001
“Agile Manifesto”

What is Agile?
Manifesto
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 Manifesto Copyright 2001: Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham,
Martin Fowler, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern,
Brian Marick, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, Dave Thomas. This declaration may be
freely copied in any form, but only in its entirety through this notice.


Agile Principles
1.

2.

3.

4.
5.

6.

The highest priority is to satisfy the
customer through early and
continuous delivery of valuable
software.
Welcome changing requirements,
even late in development. Agile
processes harness change for the
customer’s competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently,
from a couple of weeks to a couple of
months, with a preference to the
shorter timescale.
Business people and developers
must work together daily throughout
the project.
Build projects around motivated
individuals. Give them the
environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method
of conveying information to and within
a development team is face-to-face
conversation.


7.
8.

9.
10.
11.
12.

Working software is the primary
measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable
development. The sponsors,
developers, and users should be able
to maintain a constant pace
indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical
excellence and good design
enhances agility.
Simplicity — the art of maximizing the
amount of work not done — is
essential.
The best architectures, requirements,
and designs emerge from selforganizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects
on how to become more effective
and then tunes and adjusts its
behaviour accordingly.

Agile Approaches
SCRUM
 Adjustments made on experience not theory
 Product backlog, sprint backlog, burn down charts, shippable functionality

XP
 Deliver requirements when as requested by customer

Lean Programming
 The lean software development principles are eliminate waste, build in quality, create
knowledge, defer commitment, deliver quickly, respect people, and optimize the whole.

Kanban
 Visualise the workflow and limit work in progress

Agile Modeling
 Values, principles, and practices for modeling software that can be applied on a software
development project in an effective and lightweight manner.
 Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD) approach - do just enough high-level modeling at
the beginning to understand the scope and potential architecture. During construction
iterations do modeling as part of iteration planning activities, then take a JIT model storming
approach where you model

Unified Process
 Iterative and incremental approaches within a set life cycle. Focuses on collaborative nature
of software development and works with tools in a low-ceremony way.

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) – Agile Framework


Why Adopt Agile?
Faster time to market

Early ROI

Culture & morale

Efficiency

Feedback from real customers

Customer satisfaction

Build the right product

Alignment / Integrated Teams

Early risk reduction

Better Quality


Emergent Outcomes

Predictability

Challenges
Large Teams

Enterprise
Discipline

Distributed
Teams

Scale
Organization
Distribution
& Complexity

Compliance
Domain
Complexity &
Technical
Complexity


Pitfalls


Some (of many) Myths

Is not
disciplined

A team can be
agile

We don’t know
what will be
delivered

Do not plan

Myths
Doesn’t scale


Unsuitable for
regulated
environments

No
Documentation

Q&A


Agile – Making it Work in a Real
Environment
Cameron O’Connor


…or is it?

In the beginning there was Change


Traditionally we used this


To do this….


However, these days, this is important….


and so is this…


and especially this …


We have redesigned our workspace


And how we meet


We call this the Agile Approach


Top 9 Reasons to go Agile
(VERSIONONE Annual State of Agile Report 2013)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Manage Changing Requirements
Productivity
Project Visibility
Team Morale
Quality
Faster Time to Market
Better alignment between IT & Business
Objectives
8. Simplify Development Process


Agile Methods & Practices

% of Agile methodologies being used
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%


What Agile techniques are being used on projects?

% of Agile techniques employed
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%


% of Agile techniques
employed

Leading causes of failed Agile projects









Company philosophy at odds with core Agile values
Pressure to follow traditional Waterfall processes
General organisational communications problems
Lack of experience with Agile methods
Unwillingness of team to follow Agile
Lack of Management support
Insufficient training


Top 5 ‘Must Haves’ to adopting and scaling Agile

1.Executive Support
2.Training Program
3.Implementation of a common tool
4.Internal support group
5.Reference books/ guides


Top 10 Agile Tools

1. Excel
2. MS Project
3. Version One
4. Jira/ Greenhooper
5. HP Quality Centre
6. MS TFS
7. Bugzilla
8. Homegrown
9. Google Docs
10. Vendor Y
11. IBM Clearcase
12. Rational


Agile is a mind set


Adoption of Agile ideas depends on organizational
cultural


Don’t worry, we were all born Agile!


Concepts & Practices behind
Agile Requirements
Colm O'hEocha


What’s Wrong with ‘Requirement Specifications’?
38

– ‘Requirements’ -> Mandatory, Fixed
• Ignore ‘Emergent Learning’, Hard to Change
– ‘Specifications’ -> Feature Centric rather than
Value Centric
– Reflect Problem Space, not Solution Space
– Inhibit Collaboration/Innovation
– Low fidelity, low richness, expensive


What are ‘User Stories’
39

A brief statement of intent that describes something
the system needs to do for the user

• User Centric – what’s important to your customer
• Story – The Power of Narrative
– We pay much more attention to stories than facts
– Stories drives generation of tacit, contextual knowledge
– “A story paints a picture, and a picture tells a thousand
words”

• User Stories Define

• What its not:

– The Actor/Persona/Role (Who)
– The Action/Functionality (What)
– The Result/Benefit/Goal (Why)

– A Use Case
– Requirements
Document
– Feature Specification

Copyright © 2012 AgileInnovation

Two way conversation is the best way to
reduce ambiguity and mis-understanding…
A wife asks her husband, a software engineer; "Could you please
go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk, and if they have
eggs, get six!" A short time later the husband comes back with six
cartons of milk. The wife asks him, "Why the hell did you buy six
cartons of milk?" He replied, "They had eggs."
“Entrée comes with choice of soup or salad
and bread.”
Say again?

Eats, shoots, and leaves.
Eats shoots and leaves.
40
27th

November, 2013 Copyright © SureSkills

Specification
41


User Story
As a Home Owner, I want to regularly trim my lawn so its neat and tidy.


User Stories & Innovation

As a <role>

Problem
Space

Innovation
Space

Solution
Space

Customers
End Users
Domain Experts

Uncertainty
Ambiguity
Conversation
Social Objects

Developers
Architects
UI/UX Designers

so that <benefit>


I want to <action>

User Stories & Late Elaboration
Lean Thinking
Defer Decisions

Need to Make
Project
Commitments

Project
Start

Buy Information Early

PlanDriven
Approach:
Plan the
Work,
Work the
Plan

Lean/Agile
Approach:
Make
Better
Decisions,
Later

Late Elaboration, Keep Options
Open

Plan More Thoroughly, Earlier
Time


Most
Information
Available to
Make Good
Decisions

Project
End

User Stories & Incremental Value


CCC
As a <role>
I need <functionality>
so that <benefit>
OR
In order to <benefit>
As a <role>
I want to <functionality>

Card
As a customer I search for
users so that I can view their
details
Value: Med
Risk: Low

Estimate: 3 pts

OR

Given <context>
when <event>
then <result>


Confirmation
•Works where first or
last name is blank
•Returns registered and
guest users
•I can view a list of all
matching users
•….

Conversation

User Story – Sample
Email Attachments.
As a premium user I want emails
with attachments to go faster so I
can get on with my work

Confirmation:
• Premium users notice
emails with attachments
don’t slow down the
application
• Works with attachments
up to 10MB
• Works with up to 100
attachments


CONVERSATION:
• Is the speed of
sending/receiving the
problem, or just that it
delays your getting on
with other work?
• Are we talking about
only sending, or
receiving attachments
also?
• What is an acceptable
delay?
• Will you want to store
received attachments?
• Would up to 100
attachments be
enough?
• What about regular
users?

Using User Stories
49

• Describes Scope, but not Specification
– Used for Planning, not Building
• Uses Language Common to Business & IT
• Facilitates Prioritisation & De-Scoping

• Input to Analysis/Specification, NOT the Output
• Drives Definition of Acceptance Criteria
– These represent the ‘Requirements’

• Supports ‘pull’ of information as its needed


Some Bad Stories
50

1. ‘As a developer I want to call the
cfg_adm API so that I can get/set
compression cfg values’
2. ‘As an architect I want to refactor the
iOS client APIs so they provide a
cleaner interface’
3. ‘As a stock controller I want to
control the stock so that the stock is
controlled’

Story Taxonomy
NFR

Product Backlog
Item (PBI)

Constrained By
1
0..*

Implemented By
1

1..*

Tasks

Is One of

User Story

1
Done when Passes
0..*

1
1..*

Acceptance
Tests
1..*

Key and
edge
Examples

Other Work
Item

Unit Tests

Is One or More of
0..*

Other
Criteria
51

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November, 2013 Copyright © SureSkills

Real Word Case Study - Rolling
Out Agile in Paddy Power
Paul Hayes


Rolling out Agile
in Paddy Power

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55

Paddy Power
What you might already know

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56

Paddy Power
What you might not know
•
•
•
•

Formed in 1988
Over 3500 employees worldwide
2012 Turnover €5.7 billion
2012 Operating Profit €136 million
– UK €81.7 million
– Australia €30.8 million
– Ireland & R.O.W. €23.5 million

• Over 75% of profits from Online
• Market leader in mobile
– First betting app in Appstore (2010)
– Over 30% of online revenues
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57

Paddy Power
Product Development

58

Paddy Power
Development
Teams

Product
Vendors

Development
Partners

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•Web Development
•Mobile Development
•Java Development
•Scripting
•Reporting

• Betting Platform
• Games Developers
• Casino, Poker, Bingo software

• Outsourced Development
• Outsourced Testing services

Why move to agile?
Scaling organisation

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59

Why move to agile?
Scaling organisation

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60

Why move to agile?

• Long delivery times for new projects
• Difficult to adapt to UX research findings
• Difficult interaction between BA & IT teams
– Long, detailed specs
– Lengthy review & estimation process
– High cost of change

• Communications overhead
– Escalation meetings

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61

Preparing for agile
Approach
•
•
•
•
•
•

Stakeholder engagement
Agreeing roles & responsibilities
Agile framework selection
Define training needs
Agree cross-functional teams
Proof – of – concept :
– 2 teams
– Q4 2012

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62

Preparing for agile
Guiding principles

63

• Have the people in the team that you need to produce
releasable software
• Release at the end of sprints
• Flexibility – inspect & adapt
• Improve visibility

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Preparing for agile
Initial training

• 1 day workshop for whole team
• Engaged with external coach
• “Training from the back of the room” –
discussions & exercises e.g. ‘best project’,
‘previous agile experiences’
• User story focus
• Happiness door

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64

Executing the transition
Kick-off and planning

• Teams agreed on 3 week sprints
• Unanimous adoption of Story Points &
Planning Poker
• Used Kanban to ‘protect’ sprints

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65

Changing other work practices

•
•
•
•
•
•

66

User stories / Spec by Example
Test automation
Continuous delivery
Co-located teams
Continuous improvement led by teams
CSM & CPO training for people in those roles

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Phased transition

2013 Jan
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
T6
10/10/201
3

Feb

67

Mar

Apr

May

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Recruit

Recruit

InTeam

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum
x2

Scrum
x2

Scrum
x2

Recruit

Recruit

InTeam

InTeam

InTeam

Scrum

Scrum

Scrum

Inflight

Inflight

Inflight

InTeam

InTeam

InTeam

Scrum

Scrum

Recruit

Inflight

Inflight

Inflight

Inflight

InTeam

InTeam

Scrum

External teams

68

• Same transition planning steps as with internal teams
• Principles
– Releasable code at end of sprints
– Open communications & transparency
– Fixed length sprints
– Shared commitment to continuous improvement
– One team
• Mixed teams
– PP : Product Owner role. BA & QA within teams
– External: Scrummaster role. Dev & QA within teams
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Agile – the story so far
Results
•
•
•
•
•
•

10 cross-functional agile teams up and running
Improved morale of teams
Better interaction between business & IT teams
Shortened delivery times??
Reduces delivery risk
Facilitates small changes

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What we have learned
•
•
•
•
•

70

Preparing the organisation is key
Outside coach is a great help
Important that whole team & stakeholders train together
Agree the principles, don’t dictate the details
Teams all adopted story points & converged on 3 week
sprints

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Still working on…
•
•
•
•

71

Interaction with UX & Design teams
Integrating Infrastructure / devops
Alignment with budgets / annual plans
Building guilds, tribes & continuing the evolution along
with other PP development areas

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Keep in touch

• paul.hayes@paddypower.com

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72

@paulmhayes

Join The Debate on LinkedIn

SureSkills Service Management & Project Management Group


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Belfast: Callender House, 58-60 Upper Arthur Street, Belfast BT1 4GJ, Northern Ireland
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Phone: +353-1-240-2222 Email: info@sureskills.com


Agile Event Presentation - Nov 27th 2013

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Agile Event Presentation - Nov 27th 2013