Selling Agile

Selling Agile

Michele Sliger [email protected]

Michele Sliger Sliger Consulting, Inc. www.sligerconsulting.com

  Over 20 years of software development experience, with the last 8 in Agile   Certified Scrum Trainer   BS-MIS, MBA, PMP   Co-author along with Stacia Broderick of:

Preview chapters from The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility at:

www.informit.com/title/0321502752

www.amazon.com

2 © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.

© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 3

What We’ll Cover •  What do we mean by “selling agile”? •  To pitch or not to pitch •  Selling agile to management •  Selling agile to the business •  Selling agile to the team •  Selling by not selling: alternative techniques •  Time for your questions – let’s play Stump the

Presenter!

Let’s Define “Selling”

•  First answering “why agile?” •  Learning what people are interested in •  Exploring alternatives to a current problem

or issue •  Ultimately answering the question “what’s

in it for me?”


VersionOne’s 2008 Survey Agile development is delivering meaningful and measurable business results. Respondents reporting specific improvements greater than 10% include:

* Increased Productivity – 89% of respondents

* Reduced Software Defects – 84% of respondents

* Accelerated Time-to-Market – 83% of respondents

* Reduced Cost – 65% of respondents


Amazing Results!


Industry Average Folle2 (using XP) ∆

Project Cost 3.5 million 2.2 million ‐1.3 million

Schedule 12.6 months 7.8 months ‐4.8 months

Cumula?ve Defects 2890 1450 ‐50%

Staffing 35 35 (co‐located) n/a

Industry Average BMC (using Scrum) ∆

Project Cost 5.5 million 5.2 million ‐.3 million

Schedule 15 months 6.3 months ‐8.7 months

Defects During QA 713 635 ‐11%

Staffing 40 93 (distributed) +52

BMC: a larger than average team with faster than average builds and average bug rates.

Studies show an increase in bugs when using offshore development: there is a 280% increase from Industry Average to Offshore Average in a standard waterfall environment. Therefore BMC’s success and average bug count while using offshore teams is quite remarkable.

Source: Michael Mah for the Cutter Consortium and QMS Case Study: The Impact of Agile on Productivity at Five Companies (webinar)

11 – Mgmt support 33 – Developers 37 – QA 2 – Integration 3 – I18N 2 – Build team 5 – Other

18 – Engineers 6 – Testers 1 – Writer 2 – Program Leads 1 – Customer Proxy 7 – added later in the project




in it for me?”


“Selling”? “Are we selling or building trust?” – Hubert

Smits

“I really don't "sell" anything, and don't even think that I can do so very well. What I can do, on my best days, is to listen to what someone wants, what they are having trouble with, and suggest a specific thing to do to make that part of their life better.” – Ron Jeffries





in it for me?”


Do we really want to make a sales pitch?



Hurdling Resistance •  From Management:

–  Avoid it - fly under the radar –  Advocate using their language –  Share success stories

•  From the Business: –  Get them involved early! –  Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back –  Got proxy? –  Start with the technical practices

•  From the team: –  Get the right people on the bus (Jim Collins “Good to Great”)

AND the wrong people off the bus –  Empower them and give them a guide

Selling to Management

“Things are fine, why do we need to change?”


•  Maybe everything really is fine

•  What’s the real problem?

•  Can you help?

“Our situation is just too complicated for agile!”


•  FDA? - check •  DOD? - check •  SOX? - check •  Banking? - check •  CMM? - check •  Google “companies using

scrum” •  Ask/search online forums

“Agile doesn’t allow for long-term planning—how are we supposed to

determine budgets?”


Daily Plan

Iteration Plan

Product Roadmap

ReleasePlan

Product Vision *Annually by the Product Owner

*Twice yearly by the Product Owner

*Quarterly by the Product Owner and Teams

Bi-weekly by the Teams

Daily by the Team Members

*These timeframes are guidelines, not rules

Mike Cohn’s “Planning Onion”


And there are more onions…

Portfolio Planning

Corporate Strategic Objectives

Budgets are built top-down

•  By time: – Number of iterations times the loaded salaries

of the team members, plus other expenses •  By feature set:

– Estimate the backlog using points – Determine dollar amount per point using

average team velocity and loaded salaries



“Where’s my WBS?” Release Plan Iteration Plan

“Where’s my Gantt chart?”


Graphic © Mountain Goat Software, All rights reserved


Burndown Charts

Iteration/Time

Estimated�Scope


Alternatives to Gantt


Dashboard widgets


A Virtual Task Board

“We need to matrix our resources to get maximum efficiency”


Source:

Gerald Weinberg

Quality Software Management Volume 1: Systems Thinking

Graphic courtesy of Agile Evolution, Inc.

“Our people can’t be trusted to self-organize”


•  This is a bigger issue than simply choosing a new way to develop software

•  Flee!

Selling to the Business

“We don’t have time to work with the teams every single day”

•  Remember: they’re time-sliced too •  If you don’t have the time, then who does? •  What is the cost of NOT working with the team? •  Explore alternatives like “office hours”


“I can’t wait an entire iteration for that feature!” or “I can’t wait an entire iteration

before I get to change my mind!”

•  Why not? •  You don’t have to •  Is the iteration too

long?


“I have to talk to the engineers? I don’t know how to talk to

engineers!”


•  Help with introductions

•  Eat and drink together

“But we want a fixed price contract”

Try asking these questions: •  Do you often find that your requirements change mid-stream, even

after everything has been captured and analyzed? •  Would you like to be able to change your mind every two weeks

about the features you’ve requested? •  Would you be willing to spend some time with us to help us better

understand what your vision is for the implementation of these new features?

•  How often have you seen working software in the past, and how often would you like to see working software on this project? Would you like us to show you what we’ve accomplished by demo’ing the product to you every two weeks?



•  How should we mitigate against time constraints? Or against potentially building the wrong thing? –Do you have a prioritized list of work that could help us with this?

•  People typically role on and off projects, which can cause delays as information needs to be transferred and absorbed (and can sometimes be lost). How would you like us to handle this?

•  Would you like the right to close or cancel the project at any time with only 30 days’ notice?

And if all that doesn’t work, then try: •  Let’s spend $5k and build a backlog of work that we can estimate,

and confirm if we can do it based on a fixed price




•  Check out Jeff Sutherland’s “Money for Nothing and Change for Free” http://agile2008toronto.pbwiki.com/Agile2008+Sessions –  Start with a fixed price and include T&M for changes –  Insert a “Change for Free” option: working with the team every

iteration allows the customer to make changes for “free” –  Insert a “Money for Nothing” option: Customer may terminate

contract early if value has been satisfied for 20% of remaining unbilled contract value

Selling to the Team

“There are too many meetings!” •  In your current process, how do you know what to

work on? –  And how is that working out for you and your

customers? •  How much time would you normally spend on

planning a quarterly release? –  4 hours x 6 two-week sprints = 24 hours

•  How much time would you normally spend on your weekly status meetings? –  4 days x 15 minutes = 60 minutes

•  What are these other meetings you’re going to and what do you get out of them?


“If we don’t do any detailed planning, our architecture will fail!”

•  Do prepare a high-level architectural vision/plan –  Don’t load it up with detail –  Don’t try to implement it all at once

•  Build an architecture runway –  This is part of the cake slice; just build out 1-2

iterations ahead •  60% of software features are rarely or never used

–  Don’t build something to support a 60%-er


“We aren’t co-located so we can’t be agile”

•  It will be more work to ensure that communications are working properly, but it can be done

•  “the most efficient and effective means of communication is via face-to-face”… true enough, so we’ll be a bit less efficient, and sometimes less effective

•  You’ll need tools, lots and lots of tools •  You’ll need more documentation •  You’ll need to be watchful of how easy it is to slip

back into old waterfall-type habits


The Unspoken Reasons •  I’m afraid of change •  I’m afraid I will have nothing to do •  I’m afraid I will lose my job •  I’m afraid people will see how little I actually do •  I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up •  I’m afraid I won’t be able to learn the new software •  I’m afraid this will mean hard work •  I’m afraid I’ll be fired if the decisions we make don’t work out •  I’m afraid I won’t get raises or promotions anymore •  I’m afraid of conflict and trying to reach consensus •  Nuts! there go my 3-hour lunches •  Nuts! that means I can’t mosey in at 10:30 anymore •  Nuts! that means I’ll have to really think now •  Nuts! that means I’ll actually have to talk to people now •  It’s just so much easier and safer when someone else tells me exactly what to do •  It’s just so much easier and safer when I can tell them exactly what I want them to do



“How do we work with non-agile parts of the organization?”

Iteration 1

Release

Iteration 3 Iteration 2 Iteration 4 Backlog •  Project Approval •  Feature 1 •  Feature 2 •  Arch. Approval •  Feature 3…

•  Project Approval •  Feature 1

•  Feature 2 •  Arch. Approval

•  Feature 3 •  Feature 4 •  Feature 5

•  Feature 6 •  Feature 7

Project Approval Process To

Customer

Using “Barely Sufficient” Guidelines

Provisional Approval

Beyond the sales pitch….

•  Be an example •  Socialize, don’t evangelize •  Host brown-bag lunches •  Invite others to join you at local chapter

meetings •  Get an outside consultant to do the job



Additional Resources

•  www.apln.org •  www.agilealliance.org •  www.scrumalliance.org

•  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrumdevelopment/ •  http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/

agileprojectmanagement/


Additional Resources •  “Stretching Agile to Fit CMMI Level 3,” an experience report by David J.

Anderson: http://www.agilemanagement.net/Articles/Papers/StretchingAgiletoFitCMMIL.html

•  “5 Levels of Agile Planning: From Enterprise Product Vision to Team Stand-up,” a white paper by Hubert Smits: http://library.theserverside.com/detail/RES/1169212374_955.html

Books: •  Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones •  Scaling Software Agility by Dean Leffingwell •  Agile Estimating and Planning and User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn

Sites and Search terms: •  InfoQ •  STSC Crosstalk •  Jeff Sutherland •  Israel Gat •  Mary Poppendieck

Let’s play Stump the Presenter!

Thank you! www.sligerconsulting.com

[email protected]

You may claim 1 PDU under “Category 4 – Other Providers”

www.pmi.org

Agile Adoption Statistics


More Statistics


CNN cites Agile as #18 in people, products, trends and ideas that are transforming the world of business. CNN, The 50 Who Matter Now money.cnn.com Davidfrico.com

Amazing Results!


Industry Average Folle2 (using XP) ∆

Project Cost 3.5 million 2.2 million ‐1.3 million

Schedule 12.6 months 7.8 months ‐4.8 months

Cumula?ve Defects 2890 1450 ‐50%

Staffing 35 35 (co‐located) n/a

Industry Average BMC (using Scrum) ∆

Project Cost 5.5 million 5.2 million ‐.3 million

Schedule 15 months 6.3 months ‐8.7 months

Defects During QA 713 635 ‐11%

Staffing 40 93 (distributed) +52

BMC: a larger than average team with faster than average builds and average bug rates.

Studies show an increase in bugs when using offshore development: there is a 280% increase from Industry Average to Offshore Average in a standard waterfall environment. Therefore BMC’s success and average bug count while using offshore teams is quite remarkable.

Source: Michael Mah for the Cutter Consortium and QMS Case Study: The Impact of Agile on Productivity at Five Companies (webinar)

11 – Mgmt support 33 – Developers 37 – QA 2 – Integration 3 – I18N 2 – Build team 5 – Other

18 – Engineers 6 – Testers 1 – Writer 2 – Program Leads 1 – Customer Proxy 7 – added later in the project

VersionOne’s 2008 Survey Agile development is delivering meaningful and measurable business results. Respondents reporting specific improvements greater than 10% include:

* Increased Productivity – 89% of respondents

* Reduced Software Defects – 84% of respondents

* Accelerated Time-to-Market – 83% of respondents

* Reduced Cost – 65% of respondents


VersionOne’s 2008 Survey


Selling Agile

Technology

Transcript of Selling Agile