Jun 29, 2016 - (SaaS). â Software development analytics ... [Application Development Trends, May 2006] ... Lean-Agile
It Is Not a Tsunami Israel Gat | June 29, 2016
Israel Gat • Areas of research & consulting: – – –
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Agile/Lean methods • Devops Software as a Service (SaaS) Software development analytics Software governance Technical debt & technical due diligence
• Major products delivered: – –
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• Books: The Concise Executive Guide to
BMC Performance Manager/PATROL Microsoft Operations Manager Tivoli Smart Handheld Device Manager EMC Cellera Digital’s NetView Nixdorf 8890
Agile
Sample accolades: –
Winner, 2006 Innovator Award [Application Development Trends, May 2006]
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“Nearly three times faster time to market than industry average… … one quarter the expected number of defects based on team sizes and schedules.” [QSM Study, August 2007]
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“The change you bought to BMC with Agile is the single largest change to the development model that I have ever witnessed in my almost 20 years at BMC.” [Director, BMC Software]
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"When I deal with technical debt issues, I refer to Israel Gat regularly. His approach is the only one I've found that actually works…” [Director, Verisk Health] 2
The Premises of This Webinar • View your Lean- Agile transformation as a complex change:
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– Must plan, invest and execute accordingly
• Success depends on: – Five critical aspects that need to be synergistically executed – Appropriateness of the transformation for the company’s business design
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Audience 1 2 3
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You are in charge of or planning a major LeanAgile transformation You are deeply involved in such a transformation You are struggling big time with such a transformation Previous Lean-Agile transformations in your company failed
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Agenda 1 2
What We Witness in Our Engagements Managing Complex Change 1 2 3 4 5
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Vision Incentive Skills Resources Action Plan
Parting Thoughts: appropriateness
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What We Witness in Our Engagements
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Net Objectives Lean for Executives Product Portfolio Management Business Product Owner Product Owner
Team Process ATDD / TDD / Design Patterns
Onsite SPC Leading SAFe SAFe Architecture PM/PO
Lean Management Project Management
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Three Kinds of Engagements • Numerous Agile transitions in which a single methodical aspect is somewhat improved • Numerous attempts to attain ambitious transformations that result in a fair amount of operational chaos
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– Unfortunately, Under such circumstances, we often get exposed to an immense amount of bickering along the lines “my method is better than yours…. “
• Precious few Agile transformations in scale in which numerous methodical aspects add up synergistically to create a sudden jump in productivity, quality, responsiveness, customer satisfaction, and/or combination thereof 8
Managing Complex Change
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The Five Ingredients .
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Vision • Your vision for software must affect your business design, i.e. “the totality of: – How a company selects its customers – Defines and differentiates its offerings – Defines the tasks it will perform itself and those it will outsource – Configures its resources – Goes to market – Creates utility for customers – Captures profit” [Source: Slywotzky, “Value Migration”]
• Absent a cohesive vision, the inevitable result is confusion 11
Case Study: Transformative Vision • Leading provider of IT products and services for the global marketplace • The GM we worked with realized his business is subject to three overarching trends: – Software is becoming a bigger and bigger component of sophisticated hardware – Solution sales will trump product sales – Major customers are demanding custom-tailored solutions over standard solutions
• Lean-Agile was primarily chosen by this company as a way to reduce cycle time • ATDD was primarily chosen to enable the business to interact in a precise specifications language with the development and test teams • Outcome: flexibility and velocity
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Incentive • Extrinsic factors, like money in the pocket, are of course, nice to have • But, human motivation is essentially intrinsic • It is fundamentally driven by: – Autonomy – Mastery – Purpose [Source: Pink, “Drive”]
• Absent incentive, the inevitable result is resistance
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Case Study: Insufficient Incentives • The IT department of the largest industrial employer in a major US state • Biz/IT alignment was so problematic that developers were not allowed to meet with stakeholders unless a PMO representative was present • The Lean-Agile transformation we implemented required the PMO to go down and dirty in terms of: – – – –
Planning Estimating Tracking Governing
• Very unfortunately, incentives for so doing were not strong enough to overcome innate resistance to change • Outcome: chasm between projects and portfolio
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Skills • It is easy to get rusty in software • It is even easier to get rusty if your job is removed one, two or three steps from the actual production of software • The classical phenomenon we encounter time and time again: – The team usually ‘gets it’ as it is doing Lean-Agile day in day out – The administrative and supervisory levels lag behind as they are removed from the actual doing
• Absent a mechanism to develop the required skills, the inevitable result is anxiety at multiple levels
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Case Study: IBM’s Implementation
[Source: McKinney; “The Dancing Agile Elephant”]
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Resources • No doubt, resources are always limited: – Very few companies in the world can afford to invest the kind of resources that Google invests in developing and managing its 2B line of code
• However, the business design of most companies in the world does not require Google-like software • Adequacy to purpose is the yardstick: – For example, you might not be able to train & coach all your teams in a certain year – However, you can make certain that those that get coaching and training get sufficient quantity and quality – The rest of your teams could wait for next year
• Absent resources, the inevitable result of poorly resourced target is frustration 17
Case Study – BMC’s Academy • There was no training to be had for love or money in BMC circa 2004 – the company was hard pressed financially • We organized a “software academy” based on the meagre resources the business unit had: – Some senior architects – Some highly-experienced developers – Mostly group self-study/book clubs
• The “Software Academy” proved highly successful in three major ways: 1. 2. 3.
Actual know-how “Can do!” attitude Values: investment in human resources no matter what 18
Action Plan • Two kinds of action plan: – How shall we roll out Lean-Agile? – What are the deeper changes that must accompany the Lean-Agile transformation?
• The first kind is about the “arc of knowledge” – the curriculum various constituencies need to master in actionable terms • The second kind is about the very nature of your company – how do we “like” to do things around here? • Absent action plan(s), the inevitable result is false starts – Your Lean-Agile initiative might get traction in a few teams, but it is not likely to be sustainable across the board unless you bring all constituencies to your tent
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Case Study I: Does the Travel Policy Dictate Your Strategy? • A division of a F500 IT company spread over 13 sites in 4 continents • High-level, whole-team training was successfully accomplished by flying team members to major sites where the whole team could be trained together • Everyday, practice-oriented coaching was not really effective as a typical team was dispersed over 3-4 sites with 6-12 hours time zone difference between them • Outcome: We did not manage to attain the common experiences and common language that are critical for end-to-end precision in implementing requirements 20
Case Study II: No Need to Overdo It • Technical due diligence on a startup a VC client considered investing in • The startup, as part of negotiating with the VC was considering building a team to get into Agile software in one fashion or another • Turned out the CTO was a genius, single-handedly carrying out both the CTO and the CIO roles without any employees whatsoever reporting to him • Our recommendation to both the VC and the startup: – Hire a strong #2 in case the CTO gets hit by a bus – Postpone forming conventional Agile team until the CTO runs out of capacity as an enormous producer 21
Parting Thoughts
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Parting Thoughts: Appropriateness • None of the five “ingredients” is extravagantly expensive: – – – – –
Vision Incentive Skills Resources Action Plan
• However, you must implement all five in a manner that is appropriate for your company/situation – Go for a total Google type transformation only if your business needs and resources are similar to Google’s – Go for a large-scale transformation only if you managed to secure fully-fledged support in your company – Restrict yourself to a thorough selective transition in a few teams if your budget is limited 23
Thank you!
email:
[email protected] twitter: @agile_exec web: www.netobjectives.com 24