Steering Projects with Agile Project Management

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Steering Projects with Agile ProjectManagement

• Sanjiv AugustineOctober 02, 2003

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About Me

• Director, Technology at CC Pace in Fairfax,
  Virginia, U.S.A.
• Over 6 years of project management experience.
• Over 13 years of experience with IT applications
  ranging from
• microcontroller-based systems to
  enterprise-class business
• applications.
• Managed several Agile projects ranging in size
  from 3 to 120
• people.
• Industry involvement
• Recent speaking engagements
• Agile Development Conference 2002, Australia/NZ
• Software Development Conference 2003,
  Australia/NZ
• Agile Development Conference 2003, Salt Lake City
• Project World 2003, Chicago
• Book in progress Managing Agile Projects
  Prentice Hall 2004

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About CC Pace

• eXtreme Programming (XP) for 28 dog years
• 10 successful XP projects
• Teams ranging from 3-120 people
• Catalyst methodology combines XP software
• development with Agile Project Management
  (APM)
• and Usage-Centered Design practices.
• Our solution to previously intractable problems
  with
• software development in complex and
  unpredictable environments
• Cost-competitive alternative to offshore
  outsourcing

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Agenda

• Background
• XP Overview
• The Need for APM
• What is APM?
• Complexity Theory Distilled
• The Chaordic Project
• APM Practices
• Wrapping XP with APM
• The Big Wrap
• Competition and Collaboration
• Practice 1 Guiding Vision
• Practice 2 Small, Networked Teams
• Emergence and Self-Organization
• Practice 3 Simple Rules
• Practice 4 Open Information
• Practice 5 Light Touch
• Learning and Adaptation
• Practice 6 Adaptive Leadership
• Discussion

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XP Overview

• Raison dEtre
• Reduce the cost of change
• Deliver in complex and unpredictable environments
• Innovate rapidly and reliably
• Practices 100,000 Foot View
• Individual Test-driven Development, Refactoring,
  Pair Programming, Simple Design
• Development Team Continuous integration,
  Collective ownership, Coding standard,
  Sustainable pace, Metaphor
• Organization Planning game, Customer tests,
  Small releases
• Values
• Simplicity, Communication, Courage, Feedback

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The Need for APM

• Role of Project Manager in XP is Unclear
• Not enough design, requirements, architecture?
• Too much freedom, overhead, process?
• Too confusing points, stories?
• Fundamental assumptions of traditional management
  are mismatched with Agile
• Predictability, Stability, Rigidity and
  Information Adequacy
• Current management theory is mismatched with
  Agile
• Asset based Vs People and interaction based
• Project Theory Input-Process-Output
  Transformation view
• Management Theory Predictive planning, job
  dispatching, thermostat model
• Mechanistic management model is mismatched with
  humanistic agile model

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What is APM?

• For whom is it?
• Managers of product development and other
  innovative business solution delivery teams
• What is their need?
• To lead highly skilled individuals in delivering
  business value rapidly and reliably
• What is it?
• APM is a project management paradigm that
  provides core values, principles, practices and
  tools to energize, enable and empower project
  teams that work in close concert with customers
  to meet their business needs.
• Why is it different?
• Unlike traditional mechanistic management
  approaches APMs humanistic approach considers
  all members skilled and valuable stakeholders in
  team management, and hence uses complexity theory
  as a metaphor for embracing change and delivering
  results in extreme environments.

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Complexity Theory Distilled

• Living systems are complex, in that they consist
  of a great many autonomous agents interacting
  with each other in many ways.
• The interaction of individual agents is governed
  by simple, localized rules and characterized by
  constant feedback.
• Collective behavior is characterized by an
  overlaying order, self-organization, and a
  collective intelligence so unified that the group
  cannot be described as merely the sum of its
  parts.
• Complex order, known as emergent order, arises
  from the system itself, rather than from an
  external dominating force.
• These complex, self-organizing Complex Adaptive
  Systems (CAS) are adaptive in that they react
  differently under different circumstances, and
  co-evolve with their environment.

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The Chaordic Project

• A chaordic project harmoniously blends
  characteristics of both chaos and order freedom
  and control, optimization and exploration,
  competition and cooperation
• The Agile project as a chaordic CAS
• Competition and Collaboration
• Agents Individuals
• Mental Models Vision and Alignment
• Groups Project Teams
• Emergence and Self-Organization
• Interactions/Feedback Information exchange and
  relationships among individuals
• Simple Rules XP/SCRUM/FDD Practices
• Learning and Adaptation
• Learning Observation, monitoring, measurement
  and reflection
• Adaptation Process changes, team adjustments
• Environment Project Environment

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APM Practices Actualizing The Chaordic Project
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The Big Wrap
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Competition and Collaboration Practice 1 -
Guiding Vision

• Create a shared mental model for all team
  members
• Create shared expectations
• Clearly delineate scope/objectives
• Create an XP release plan

Done in a RApid Planning (RAP) Session The
Thomsett Company. Used with permission.
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Creating Shared Expectations

• More to success than on-time, within budget
• Understand stakeholders priorities
• Facilitate stakeholder negotiation
• Create a shared understanding/agreement of
  success

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Delineating Scope/Objectives
IS-NOT COULD BE
IS

• Scope is best defined by both what is IN as well
  as what is NOT
• Stakeholders name things inside and outside
  project scope
• Unresolved items go to sponsor for resolution
• Everything outside scope is assigned to a
  stakeholder or other project.

To automate loan underwriting process
To develop new process
To provide credit rating
To obtain credit rating from Agency 1
To provide insurance rating
To obtain insurance rating from Agency 2
UNRESOLVED
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Creating a Release Plan

• Identify major milestones
• Estimate initial team velocity (Points per
  iteration) based on resources
• Place user stories into iterations based on
  teams estimated velocity
• Pick release dates
• Prioritize stories to maximize value for each
  Release
• Link stories to business needs to ensure
  alignment with strategic plan

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Competition and Collaboration Practice 2 -
Small, Networked Teams

• Enable interactions and adaptation through close
  relationships on small, networked teams
• Keep interaction penalty low with 7 or- 2 people
  to a team
• Implement Collective Ownership so that you can
  move people around
• Implement Pair Programming to improve
  interaction, while also improving your bus
  factor
• Reorganize team to tackle new functionality
• Ensure a diversity of skills on team

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Emergence and Self-Organization Practice 3 -
Simple Rules

• Implement iterative, incremental delivery
• Schedule small releases (1 2 months) with
  fixed-length iterations (1, 2 or 3 weeks in
  duration)
• Iteration Planning
• Design and Development
• Acceptance Testing
• Implement XP Development Practices. Provide
  Training and Mentoring.
• Manifest XP Values. Empower the Process Coach to
  Continuously Reinforce XP Values.
• Simplicity
• Communication
• Feedback
• Courage

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Emergence and Self-Organization Practice 4 -
Open Information

• Provide free and open Access to Information
• Hold daily standup meetings
• Practice whole team
• Facilitate co-location with caves and commons
• Implement on-site customer
• Install information radiators
• Whiteboards
• Posters
• Bulletin Boards

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Emergence and Self-Organization Practice 5 -
Light Touch

• Practice intelligent control
• Understand the difference between control and
  order
• Manage the project context, not the content
• Lighten up!
• Practice accepted responsibility to reduce
  command-control
• Maintain sustainable pace for a productive team
• Encourage collective problem solving for
  self-organization
• Encourage questioning, analysis and feedback to
  nurture autonomy

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Learning and Adaptation Practice 6 - Adaptive
Leadership

• Tune to the edge of chaos
• Track and report iteration status 2-3 times an
  iteration
• Track and manage risks
• Conduct periodic process reflections to adapt
  your approach
• Use scenario planning to prepare for different
  outcomes

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Learning and Adaptation Practice 6 - Adaptive
Leadership

• Track and Report Iteration Status
• Developers estimate points for each story (1
  Point 1 Ideal Engineering Day)
• Team Velocity is number of points/iteration
• Yesterdays Weather dictates that next
  iterations estimated velocity is the same as
  that completed in last
• Map stories back to Release Plan

Iteration 5 Status
Submit Request
Loan Summary
Print Summary
Import Overwrite
Number Validation
Process Response
Complete
Remaining
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Learning and Adaptation Practice 6 - Adaptive
Leadership

• Track and manage risks
• List risks by impact (High/Medium/Low) and
  probability (High/Medium/Low)
• Provide a mitigation plan with clear
  responsibility

Risk
Impact
Probability
Mitigation Plan
Key employee dependency
HIGH
MEDIUM

• Process Implementation
• Pair Programming
• (Jones)
• Rotation (Augustine)

Agency dependencies
HIGH
HIGH

• Agency Liaisons
• Agency 1 Smith
• Agency 2 Patel

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Learning and Adaptation Practice 6 - Adaptive
Leadership

• Process reflection
• Granular (In Iteration, Short) AND Coarse (Every
  Few Iterations, Longer)
• Whats Working ()
• Whats Not ( )

XP
Refactoring
Simple design
Communication
Acceptance testing
Unit testing
Other
Hardware procurement
Software procurement
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Learning and Adaptation Practice 6 - Adaptive
Leadership

• Scenario Planning
• Memory of the future
• Dont try to predict outcome
• Instead, prepare the team for different possible
  outcomes

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Discussion
Contact Information sanjiv.augustine_at_ccpace.com h
ttp//www.ccpace.com 1 [phone]
Intelligent control appears as uncontrol or
freedom.And for that reason it is genuinely
intelligent control. Unintelligent control
appears as external domination.And for that
reason it is really unintelligent
control. Intelligent control exerts influence
without appearing to do so. Unintelligent control
tries to influence by making a show of
force. -- Lao Tzu, Book of Ethics