Sdec10 lean AMS

Lean AMS

Lean/Agile Myth #34

Lean/Agile Myth #34

• Lean and Agile Methodologies are only applicable for

greenfield opportunities

- Not applicable for brownfield

- Not applicable for Package Integration (Thursday @ 9:00 AM)

- Not applicable for Application Maintenance Services

Agenda

• What are Application Maintenance Services?

• Application Maintenance Services Key Components

• Why are Application Maintenance Services an Ideal test

bed for Lean?

• Key Components of Lean AMS Services

• Questions

• What are Application Maintenance Services?

Application Maintenance Services

• Application Maintenance Services are the services that

are used to support the evolution of a system between

the initial development of the system and the de-

commissioning.

• This includes:

- Defect Fixing

- Enhancements

- Release Planning and execution

- Project and Defect Management

• Application Maintenance Services Key Components

Application Maintenance Services

Components

Work Ticket Queue Business Priorization and

Business Value

Support Team Release Planning

Project Management and

Reporting

Work Ticket Queue

• At the heart of Application Maintenance Services is a

queue or list of all the defects and enhancements that

have been reported and requested.

• This list is usually kept in true defect systems but can

also be kept in Sharepoint Lists or Excel Spreadsheets

Business Priorization and Business Value

• Another key component is the active involvement of the

business stakeholders to priorize all of the work tickets

• In addition, the business is also heavily involved in

designing and determining the composition of the

releases

• Usually the priorization is done at the time of reporting of

the defect, and then validated on a recurring basis

• There is also the additional focus on business value for

each and every ticket. There is limited opportunity to

‘gold plate’ solutions.

Release Planning

• Release are planned in Application Maintenance

Services in a very iterative manner

- Items are reviewed with the business to determine the items

which will return the most value

- This is reviewed and a schedule is created based on the

capacity of the support team

- The release size is a negotiation to maximize efficiency and time

to market

- Plan to schedule recurring releases to provide

recurring/predictable business value

Support Team

• Application Maintenance Services as usually supported

by a semi-permanent team

• This team includes resources to resolve work tickets

from start to finish. This includes:

- Project Management

- Analysis

- Development

- Testing

- Implementation

Project Management and Reporting

• Application Maintenance Services Project Management

and Reporting are typically satisfied by the following

processes:

- Textual Status Reporting

- Weekly team meetings

- Work Ticket Reporting


bed for Lean?

Lean Principles Refresher

• Before we review why Application Maintenance Services

are an ideal test bed for Lean, let’s do a Lean Principles

Refresher

Lean Software Development

• Lean Software development is a style of software development that emphasizes customer satisfaction through continuous delivery of functional software. In contrast to traditional software development methods, lean developers liaise continuously with business clients.

• Their objective is to deliver working software as frequently as every two weeks during a project, and welcome changes to the requirements in response to evolving business needs.


• The most crucial aspect of Lean is the execution of the project in iterations and quick feedback loops possible because of these iterations. It is essential to note that these iterations to not just apply to construction, they also apply to the following tasks: - Project Management and Planning

- Analysis

- Technical Design

- Testing

- Deployment


• Iteration planning is ‘the’ key planning initiative

- Iterations need to be planned in conjunction with the client to

accomplish the following:

• Deliver functionality to define the cadence and tempo of the project

• Deliver functionality to deliver real value to the client

• Deliver functionality to reduce and minimize risk for the entire project

• Lessons learned from one iteration must feed into subsequent iterations so

that we don’t execute the project in iterations with similar results, but that we

execute the project in iterations with better results.

- We execute better, smarter, and quicker

Lean Software Development Principles

• Eliminate Waste - The three biggest wastes in software development are:

- Extra Features

- Churn

- Crossing Boundaries

• Build Quality In - If you routinely find defects in your verification process, your process is defective.

- Mistake-Proof Code with Test-Driven Development

- Stop Building Legacy Code

- The Big Bang is Obsolete


• Create Knowledge - Planning is useful. Learning is essential.

- Use the Scientific Method

- Standards Exist to be Challenged and Improved

- Predictable Performance is Driven by Feedback

• Defer Commitment - Abolish the idea that it is a good idea to start development with a complete

specification.

- Break Dependencies

- Maintain Options

- Schedule Irreversible Decisions at the Last Responsible Moment


• Deliver Fast - Lists and queues are buffers between organizations that simply slow things

down.

- Rapid Delivery, High Quality, and Low Cost are Fully Compatible

- Queuing Theory Applies to Development, not Just Servers

- Limit Work to Capacity

• Respect People - Engaged, thinking people provide the most sustainable competitive advantage.

- Teams Thrive on Pride, Commitment, Trust, and Applause

- Provide Effective Leadership

- Respect Partners

• Optimize the Whole - Brilliant products emerge from a unique combination of opportunity and

technology.

- Focus on the Entire Value Stream

- Deliver a Complete Product

- Measure UP

Lean Mandatory Requirements

• Iteration length - Maximum Iteration length of 1 month

• Day 1 planning

• No changes after Day 1

• Day 30 – Demo and installation

• Vision must be created before iterations start - Technical (proof of concepts, architecture and vision)

- Business (storyboard, requirements document at least 20% complete)

- Delay decisions as long as possible. But make architectural or other decisions

early if they are required.

• Daily progress meetings (15 minutes maximum) - 3 questions

- What have you worked on since last meeting

- What are you planning to work on next?

- Do you have any issues you require assistance on?


• Test driven development - Function specification/test case combined if it makes sense.

- Developer also writes the test cases.

- Test driven development where it makes sense. This approach may apply more

to client functionality than batch or nightly processes.

• Requires full access to business users or stakeholders.

(Preferably on site)


• Frequent Builds - Build at least weekly internally

- Build at least monthly for customer deployment

- It is acceptable that the first deployment to the client may not occur until

Iteration2.

• Sub-deliverables/task size about 1 week maximum (if

possible)

• Visual Project Management - This is done with a combination of providing the project plan and tasks on

SharePoint or other visual means


bed for Lean?

Lean Application Maintenance Services

Components

Work Ticket Queue

• Backlog

Business Priorization

• Frequent Stakeholder Involvement

• Limited ‘Gold Plating’

Support Team

• Velocity

Release Planning

• Deliver in Iterations

• Deliver continuous value

Project Management and

Reporting

Project Management and Reporting

• But where does that leave us with Project Management

and Reporting

• This is one of the large areas that sometimes is not done

in a Lean Fashion

• There are several simple enhancements that can be

made to manage AMS in a Lean Fashion

• One of the biggest issues in AMS Project Management is

providing the visibility into the progress and status.

Daily Standups

• Implement daily 15 minute stand-ups

- What did you do yesterday

- What are you planning to do today

- Do you have any issues?

Visual Project Management

• Visual Status Reporting

- Graphical Status Reporting

- Ticket Board – Literally

- Service Level Dashboard

- Service Level Trend Dashboard

Graphical Status Reporting

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4 5 6

Number of Tickets resolved last week

Number of New Tickets since the laststatus report

Number of Tickets scheduled to beresolved last week that were not resolved

Number of Tickets scheduled to be workedon this week

Number of Tickets scheduled to beresolved this week

Number of Tickets not yet started

Ticket Board

Work Ticket Status Board

Resource Triaged Backlog Analysis Construction Testing Complete Issue

Manager

System

User

Analyst

Java

Developer

Business

Analyst

2

Business

Analyst

1

Vendor

Service Level Dashboard

Severity Response Workaround Final Resolution

Severity 1: Critical ● ■ ● Severity 2: High ■ ■ ♦ Severity 3: Moderate ■ ■ ■ Severity 4: Low ♦ ♦ ●

Service Level Trend Dashboard

severity 1

severity 2

severity 3

severity 4

SLA

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

januaryfebruary

marchapril

mayjune

july

severity 1

severity 2

severity 3

severity 4

SLA

Conclusion

• Application Maintenance Services are an ideal area to

try Agile or Lean processes to see how they will work in

your corporation

• The components of AMS lend themselves easily to

iterative development with high stakeholder involvement

• The semi-permanent nature of the team also allows for

the establishment of team ‘velocity’

• The work ticket queue is the product backlog we hear

discussed frequently in Agile circles

Background

• The information for this presentation has been based on

Application Maintenance Services that Protegra has

delivered for:

- Multiple Government departments

- Multiple Financial institutions

- Multiple Insurance companies

• Protegra currently provides AMS services for 7

corporations.

Questions?

Sdec10 lean AMS

Technology

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