Agile is the New Black

Copyright © 2013 by Fred George. All rights reserved.

Agile is the New BlackFred [email protected]@fgeorge52

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mailto:[email protected]



“...grey is the new black”Los Angeles Times quoting Gianfranco Ferre1984

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✦ Originally attributed to the fashion industry✦ Designates a versatile staple... ✦ Generally unobjectionable✦ So overused as to become trivial✦ Now on Banned Words List

X is the new Y

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“Agile is agile... or should be”

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✦ Changes over time (even within same project)✦ Different project to project (at the same time)


Agile Smells *

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* From “code smells” concept by Kent BeckPublished in Refactoring by Martin Fowler


Agile Score Card... for You!

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Agile is not Waterfall

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ManufacturingEngineering

Work In ProgressGantt

FinishingStarting


Iteration Length

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1999

1999 2005 2009

3 Weeks

2 Weeks

1 Week

1 Day*

*

*OriginalXP

*

Copyright © 2013 by Fred George. All rights reserved. 9

Roles in Agile Teams

AgileRoles

developmentbusiness

management

customerBA QA

project manager

iteration manager

developer

+ SCRUMmaster+ Agile

coach

+ dev/ops

+ IBM Certified Solution Designer (Rational Unified

Process 7.0)


Tools...

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Tool: Story Cards

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Copyright © 2013 by Fred George. All rights reserved. 13

Tools: Card Wall (Bangalore)


Rational Method Composer

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Agile Process Guide

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Bug Tracking

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Permissions to Ship

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Process Experiments

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✦ What project starts with the right staffing?✦ What project doesn’t change during its life?

✦ Example (2003-4 project of 8 months)✦ 10 staff changes in first 6 weeks✦ Dismissed a client programmer✦ Eliminated BA

Staff Changes in a Project

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Requirements Hierarchy

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Tasks

Stories

Features

Projects

Initiatives

Credit: Greg Reiser, ThoughtWorks, 2005


Agile Score Card... for You!

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?


Agile circa 1999: XP

✦ Iteration-based✦ 2-3 weeks

✦ Defined roles:✦ Customer, developer, business analyst, tester, clerk

✦ Prescriptive process (and that was good!)✦ Focus: Shippable at each iteration

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Agile circa 2006: XP

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✦ Iterations disappeared (or daily via Standup)✦ Defined roles:

✦ Customer, developer, business analyst, tester✦ Project manager, iteration manager

✦ Acceptance testing nearly gone (smoke tests)✦ Focus: Potentially shippable anytime


Agile circa 2011: Anarchy

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✦ Stand ups✦ Story narratives✦ Retrospectives✦ Estimates✦ Iterations✦ Mandatory pairing

✦ Unit tests✦ Acceptance tests✦ Refactoring✦ Patterns✦ Continuous integration


Agile 2013: Implementing Anarchy

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✦ Online version of Daily Mail✦ Company established in late 1800’s✦ MailOnline largest online newspaper in world✦ Challenge: Introduce Anarchy to an established IT


Transformation Summary

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Was 2013✦ Project focus

✦ 3-6 month✦ BAU for smaller

✦ Specialists✦ Front-end✦ Back-end✦ Design✦ Test✦ Deployment

✦ SCRUM✦ Story & task

focus

✦ Feature focus✦ 1 month or less✦ Longer for new

platforms✦ Poly-skilled

✦ Broadly-skilled developers == Experts

✦ Experts float amongst efforts

✦ Aggressive Agile✦ Table-based

teams of 5-8✦ Rotation to

balance & broaden


People Focus

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Master

Journeyman

Apprentice

Key Business Tech

PlatformiOS

AndroidDatabasesBig Data

LanguagesHTML/CSS/JS

JavaRuby

Server-side JS

Software DeliveryAgile managementOOD / Architecture

Testing


Matching HR Focus

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Graduate Dev

Developer

Senior Dev Systems Dev

Master Dev

Dual career path for Developers


Flexible Project Approach

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Developers

time

“Tables”

A

B

C

D

E

F

G H


Agile 2014 @ MailOnline

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Was 2013 Next✦ Project focus

✦ 3-6 month✦ BAU for smaller

✦ Specialists✦ Front-end✦ Back-end✦ Design✦ Test✦ Deployment

✦ SCRUM✦ Story & task focus

✦ Feature focus✦ 1 month or less✦ Longer for new

platforms✦ Poly-skilled

✦ Broadly-skilled developers == Experts

✦ Experts float amongst efforts

✦ Aggressive Agile✦ Table-based teams

of 5-8✦ Rotation to

balance & broaden

✦ Feature focus continues✦ 1 week or less✦ Team delivers on

all platforms✦ Poly-skilled

✦ More self-governance

✦ Communities of expertise

✦ Career guidance, not appraisals

✦ Anarchy +✦ Hiring, training by

developers✦ Team size to 2


Restarting Your Agile...

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✦ Start process experiments✦ Discard those Agile Process Guides✦ Drop bug tracking for immediate bug fixing✦ Change metrics to focus only on finished efforts✦ Fire any Agile Coaches✦ Hire poly-skilled✦ Talk to your HR department on changing roles


More?

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✦ It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, No It’s Superman✦ 10:15 Thursday - People over Process or Tools

✦ Micro-Service Architecture✦ 3:15 Friday - Architecture to enable Anarchy

✦ The Secret Assumption of Agile✦ 4:30 Saturday - Training for Growth & Anarchy


Agile is the New BlackFred [email protected]@fgeorge52

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Agile is the New Black

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