Using Agile Methodology to Deliver Projects that Transform Customers from Doubters into

Raving Fans

Michael Harris VP of Information Technology, Ecommerce Inc.

Goals

• Demonstrate How Agile Can Help to Transform Customer Perception

• Share Insight Into The Ecommerce Agile Approach

• Provide You With a Set of Practices That Can Be Deployed on Your Own Agile Teams

Who is the Customer?From Dictionary.com

1. a person who purchases goods or services from another;buyer; patron.

2. Informal . a person one has to deal with: a tough customer;a cool customer.

For the purpose of this talk a customer can be any internal or external project sponsor or decision maker.

What Do Customers Expect?

• To Get What They Asked or Paid For

• To Have Predictable Costs

• To Get Timely Results

• To Be Kept in the Loop (i.e. No Surprises)

• To Focus On The Business While We Deliver the Technology

What Do Customers Often Get?

• Experience Tells Them... IT Project = Confusion + Frustration (#FAIL)

• From Their Perspective We...

- Have a Poor Project Delivery Track Record

- Fail to Hold Our Commitments

- Have Fluid, Out of Control Costs

- Misinterpret/Misunderstand What They Want

Why Do We Need Change?

• Because We Do In Fact Have a Poor Project Delivery Track Record

• As an Industry IT Misses Approximately 7 Out of 10 Times (Cost, Features, Time)

- Standish Group - Chaos Summary 2009

- University of Missouri, St. Louis (December 2003)

• This is Performance Only a Baseball Player Could Appreciate

How Do We Improve Our Batting Average and Get More Fans?

• Hold Our Commitments

• Build Confidence Through Transparency & Shared Success

• Actively Engage the Customer

• Communicate & Adjust

Agile Can Help!

So What is Agile?

• Agile Provides a Set of Practices and Processes Based on Iterative and Incremental Development With a Focus on Collaboration and Feedback

• Agile Manifesto (http://agilemanifesto.org/)

- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

- Working software over comprehensive documentation

- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

- Responding to change over following a plan

Agile Won’t Prevent Baldness!

Agile Won’t Help You Lose Weight!

Agile Won’t Predict The Market!

But Agile Will...

• Enable Us To (Grow Fans):

1. Hold Our Commitments

2. Build Confidence

3. Engage The Customer

4. Communicate and Adjust

How Does Agile Helps Us ToHold Our Commitments?

• We Break Down Work Into Manageable Chunks Called Stories

• We Employ “Manage a Day” Theory

• We Plan for Change and Change the Plan

• We Use Fact Based, Collaborative Planning

How Does Agile Help Us To Build Confidence?

• Demonstrate Working Code Early and Often

• Do the Most Valuable and/or Hardest Things First

• Maintain a “Change” Buffer in the Plan

• When We Don’t Know... We Prototype

How Does Agile Helps Us ToEngage The Customer?

• Customers Actively Participate in Story Building

• Customers Define Success & Failure Criteria

• Customers Help to Plan Iterations

• Customers Provide Feedback on Working Code

How Does Agile Helps Us To Communicate and Adjust?

• Agile is All About Communication and Feedback

• Continuous Improvement is Built Into the Process via Retrospectives

• “Do More of What Works and Less of What Doesn’t”

• We Clearly Define Done

Next Lets Examine Our Approach to Solving this Challenge at Ecommerce

How We Practice Agile

• We Will Cover

- Planning

- Managing

- Delivery

- Team Makeup

Agile Planning

• Key Practices

- Story Building (Requirements Gathering)

- Planning Poker (Estimation)

- Iteration Planning (Slotting and Prioritization)

Agile Story Building

Anatomy of a Story

As a <actor/role> I want to <action> so that <reason>.

Acceptance Criteria

• What does success look like?

Failure Conditions

• What exceptions do we handle and how?

Example Story

As a presenter, I want to determine the background of the audience so I can cater the presentation to their needs.

Success

• The majority of the audience self identifies as (customer or IT) and as (agile novice or agile expert)

Failure Conditions

• If no one raises their hands make sure you are in the right room!

• If less than the majority raise their hand then keep trying until you get a majority

Another Example

As a presenter, I want to teach the audience how to use agile to win over customers so that they can be more successful with their future projects.

Success

• Members of the audience learn about important aspects of agile

• Members of the audience leverage agile on their future projects

• The audience applauds at the end of the presentation

Failure Conditions

• If the audience is bored tell a joke

• If the audience glassy eyed then re-query background information

• If the audience fails to applaud at the end apologize and hand out candy

Planning Poker

• We Estimate Each Story Using Story Points

• Members Use Playing Cards To Cast Their Vote

• Capture Tasks

Story Point Scale

- 0 is <= 2 hours

- 1 is <= 8 hours

- 2 is <= 16 hours

- 3 is <= 40 hours

- 5 is > 40 hours

* Stories scored a 5 need to be broken down

Iteration Planning

• An Iteration Contains 2 Weeks Worth of Stories Minus a 20% Change Buffer (Plan for Change)

• Collaborative Effort Between Development and the Customer

• We Package 2-3 Iterations in Advance

033

Backlog

3 1 01

Iteration

Velocity

Stories

Prioritize

ChangeBuffer

Agile Planning Toolbox

• Tools We Use

- Pivotal Tracker for managing backlog, iteration planning and work tracking. www.pivotaltracker.com

- www.planningpoker.com for story estimation.

- Redmine for project documentation www.redmine.org.

Agile Management

• Key Practices

- Daily Stand Ups

- Iteration Retrospectives

- Workload Management

- Demonstrations

Daily Stand Ups

• Must Be Prepared To Answer The Following:

- Yesterday I Committed To And Completed... (verify)

- Today I Commit To Completing... (commit)

- My Roadblocks Are... (escalate)

• And Yes We Stand The Entire Time :)

Retrospectives

• Requires “Brutal Honesty”

• Answers Two Simple Questions

- What Worked

- What Did Not Work

• Turn the WDNW’s Into Stories or Chores and Incorporate Into Future Iterations

Not Honest!

Workload Management

Demonstrations

• Gives Customer a Chance to Interact With Working Code

• Demos Verify Customer Acceptance of Stories

• Demos Should Be Engaging

• Capture Failures as Bug Stories

Agile Delivery

• Key Practices

- Clear Definition Of Done

- Automated Testing Is Critical To Success

- Continuous Integration

- Agile Coaching

Definition Of Done

• Working, Demonstratable Code

• All Tests Pass

- Tests Prove Acceptance Criteria & Failure Handling

• Story Accepted By Customer

Automated Testing

• Test First, Test After... Just Test!

• Tests are as Much for the Developer as the Customer

• Regression Testing Prevents Indirect Feature Breakage

• Integration Testing Ensures That Units Function Correctly Together

Continuous Integration

• Instant Feedback For Build & Test Validity Upon Code Check In

• Broken Build = Fire Alarm

• Provides Metrics for Code Coverage

• We Use Hudson (hudson-ci.org) But There Are Many Good Ones Available

Agile Coaching

• Continuous Coaching is Critical for New Agile Teams

• Developers Pair as Needed

• Peer Code Reviews Required

- Ensures Consistency

- Spreads Knowledge

• Team is Self Organizing

Building an Agile Team

• A Typical Project Will Have

- 1 Project Manager

- 1 Business Analyst

- 3-6 Developers

- 1-2 Designers/Web Developers

- 1-2 QA

• We Use a 1-3-1 Ratio for Designers to Developers to QA

Our Agile Team• Customer/Sponsor/

SME’s

• Business Analyst

• PM/Dev Manager (Scrum Master)

• Designers/UX

• Developers

• QA

• Communicate Project Goals/Background

• Write Stories

• Write Success/Failure Criteria

• Provide Reference Information

• Help Plan/Prioritize Iterations

• Provide Feedback in Demos

• Participate in Daily Stand Up (Optional)

Our Agile Team• Customer/Sponsor/

SME’s

• Business Analyst

• PM/Dev Manager (Scrum Master)

• Designers/UX

• Developers

• QA

• Facilitate Story Building

• Challenge Customer to Dig Deeper & Work Through Scenarios

• Story Clarification

• Participate in Planning Poker

• Liaison Between IT & Customer

• Demo Presenter

• Participate in Daily Standup

• Participate in Retrospectives

Our Agile Team• Customer/Sponsor/

SME’s

• Business Analyst

• PM/Dev Manager (Scrum Master)

• Designers/UX

• Developers

• QA

• Lead Iteration Planning

• Lead Planning Poker

• Lead Daily Stand Up

• Lead Retrospectives

• Assign Work

• Eliminate Roadblocks

• Review Code

• Lead Release Planning

Our Agile Team• Customer/Sponsor/

SME’s

• Business Analyst

• PM/Dev Manager (Scrum Master)

• Designers/UX

• Developers

• QA

• Create Wireframes

• Create Screen Mocks

• Define Interaction Characteristics

• Define Application Graphic Standards

• Demo Designs

• Participate in Daily Stand Up

• Participate in Retrospectives

Our Agile Team• Customer/Sponsor/

SME’s

• Business Analyst

• PM/Dev Manager (Scrum Master)

• Designers/UX

• Developers

• QA

• Break Stories into Tasks

• Deliver Stories (Code & Unit Test)

• Pair & Mentor

• Participate in Planning Poker

• Participate in Demos

• Manage Continuous Integration Server

• Participate in Daily Stand Up

• Participate in Retrospectives

Our Agile Team• Customer/Sponsor/

SME’s

• Business Analyst

• PM/Dev Manager (Scrum Master)

• Designers/UX

• Developers

• QA

• Participate in Story Building

• Develop Integration Test Plans

• Execute Integration Tests

• Record/Prioritize Defects

• Certify Release for Production

• Participate in Demos

• Participate in Daily Stand Up

• Participate in Retrospectives

In Summary

• To Win Fans

- Do What We Say and Say What We Do

- Customers Want To Be Heard

- Demonstrate Consistency and Transparency Using Agile

• Like Anything Else, Agile Takes Practice and Coaching But Everyone Can Do IT

Questions

Thank YouMy Contact Info

@mikeharris22

mharris22

michael.harris@ecommerce.com