how to convice management & clients to go agile

Why Agile?Creating Awareness & Desire

Persuading Clients and Management to adopt Agile Practices

PMI CH Chapter, 28th August 2013

Matthew Caine & Klaus Bucka-LassenCo-Founders, The Swiss Agile Leaders Circle

Agile

some people call it amethodology or an approach

yet it is about

People and Results.

Agenda

1. Let's face the “Facts”

2. The Management Team’sConcerns & Questions

3. Solving Complicated andComplex problems

Klaus Bucka-Lassen is the CEO and founder of aragost Trifork ag.

Since graduating in 1996 with a Masters in Computer Science Klaus has worked as a software developer and architect, project leader, entre-preneur, speaker, trainer and coach for organisations in CH, DK, DE, CA and Australia.

In his free time he flies, skis, drives motor bikes - sadly his formula 3 licence expired.klaus.bucka-lassen@swissagileleaders.com

Matthew Caine is the CEO and founder of M.C. Partners & Associates.

Since graduating in 1992 in Computer Science Matthew has worked as a Software developer, project leader, people manager, consultant, entrepreneur, speaker and coach for organisations in CH, UK, DE, US and Poland.

When he cannot be found, he will be in remote Northwest Scotland fishing in the sea.matthew.caine@swissagileleaders.com

Other Co-Founders

Rainer GrauZühlke Engineering

Mischa RamseyerPragmatic Solutions

Line C.A. SorensenTrifork

Fredi SchmidliPragmatic Solutions

http://www.swissagileleaders.com

Assumptions

● You have heard of “Agile”

● You are not looking for tips on Standups

● You are looking for persuasive ideas

● You want immediate take-aways

The bigger the harder

McKinsey & Company October 2012 | by Michael Bloch, Sven Blumberg, and Jürgen Laartzhttp://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/delivering_large-scale_it_projects_on_time_on_budget_and_on_value

Huge overruns

The Project Management Hut, Nov 2012http://www.pmhut.com/53-of-projects-cost-189-more-than-estimated

And there is more ...● “Agile projects have a three time higher success rate”

[Standish Group, 2012]● “Water-Scrum-Fall … fails to realize Agile’s business

benefits, such as faster time-to-market, increased business value, and improved flexibility and responsiveness” [Forrester, 2011]

● “Say Goodbye to Waterfall” [Gartner, 2012]

Source: www.infoq.com (26.12.2012)

Recruitment Trends

Source: www.pmi.org (28.2.2012)Source: www.pmi.org (9.7.2012)

Must-Have Skill: AgileMore Organizations

Seek Agile Skills

Demand For Agile Skills Outstripping Supply

● What is asuccessful project?

● How do youmeasure value?

● Representative surveys?

However, evidence is overwhelming, that there are better ways of doing things ...

“Facts”

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please

There are lies, damned lies and statistics

Convincing the Management TeamThe Drowning CEO

The Bouncy COO

The mad CFO

Deadlines, Pah!

Goto Conference 2013:“That Gantt chart, the greatest lie of the last 20 years… it is immediately out of date”

For a Swiss Medtech, 6m CHF

Swiss Alternative Investment Firm

Each time the software vendor was 1 day late…

● 2 man years of UAT re-planned● External resources re-secured● Internal “business” expectations dashed● Reputation loss for vendor and client

Put a figure on it...

With Agile you will have Something!

No more MS-Project licences to pay :-)

What Would You Prefer to Pay For?

$ $ $ $ $

or Software?

$ $ $ $ $

Documents

Time

Does Your Organisation Learn?

Of course!

After each project we write a debrief report

but

● Is one really written?● Are the right people still available to write it?● Is it ever read?● What about during the work?

Plan Do Check Act Cycle

Learn as we go, not afterwards: Continuous Improvement

Institutionalise:

● Retrospectives & Reviews● Impediments Management● Managers that “clearing the way” for the teams.

e.g. Product (Scrum) Development

Retrospect every Sprint!

e.g. Agile (DSDM) Project

R R R R R R

What about Priorities?

Everything in every project is a must-have!

Maybe, but in Agile we have to Prioritise…!

Unlike traditional where developers decide based on a 100+ page document…

The business decides (highest value item first) and re-evaluates constantly!

Remote Teams

To save costs we have near-shored to Krakow, Poland.Agile only works with Co-Located teams!

Well, what if I told you most teams are not co-located, traditional or Agile… Remote means:

● on another continent● in another country● in another company● in another building● on another floor● in another room● more than 25m away…● … outside of passive hearing.

Remote Teams & “Community Decay”

Agile keeps decay away

But traditional promotes decay

Yes co-location is ideal for all types of project, but Agile is better when the team is remote

Collaboration & Contracting

My client wants Fixed-Price We only do Time & Materials…

also heard of this thing called “Money for Nothing, Change for Free”...

But we don’t trust!

Prefer Partnership to Contracts!

Clients want FP. Suppliers want T&M.

The partnership is tested early rather than at the end:

○ Frequent delivery (of software!)○ Greater transparency

We prefer a mix, based on partnership e.g.:

○ FP for each Sprint○ T&M until the client says enough (making it cheaper anyway)

Legally, put into a “Framework” Contract (Rahmenvertrag)

Financial Accounting

How can I book/cost the efforts if requirements, design, code and testing are all in one short period of time?

● Actually Agile is great if you want to write off the investment over a number of years (CapEx).

● With limited OpEx, the ability to capitalize software development costs can make the difference between starting a project and having it rejected due to budgetary reasons.

● Partnering with an Agile firm can give you the flexibility to capitalize more of your software development costs. i.e. start projects now!

e.g. Tier 1 bank chose an Agile supplier for 9000 days CapEx’d over 5 years… worth 13m CHF.

An Agile Attitude, If not STOP!

We are flexible…we are thus Agile...

No… what matters is this:

● The work is aligned to the company’s strategy● You are comfortable with uncertainty● You and your team accept that change is inevitable● That the project does not have to be 100% completed● You do not need to have everything planned in detail and

thus known in advance

Scaling

We like silos… we have clear hand-overs and we can scale…

Matrix is the answer!

But…

● Aren’t the co-ordination efforts high?

● Don’t things fall through the gaps?

● Isn’t there a “Them and us” blame game?

● How about the Project Manager, with all the responsibility and accountability but no executive power?

To Scale we need to “Split Cells”

Matrix - Focus on Function (Skill)

“Value” is at 90 Degrees!What “Value” do they bring?

Real “

Value”

is here

!

Rotate 90 Degrees & We Can ScaleG

uild

s / S

peci

al In

tere

st G

roup

s

Product (Scrum) Development

Use the Scaled Agile Framework (http://scaledagileframework.com)

Project (DSDM) Environment

Raise Motivation?

Denning discovered 1 in 5 were motivated.

One exception: A certain set of people.

So to raise motivation 100%, you only need to have 2 in 5 motivated!

Think about it… what would this means to your revenue!

Agile motivates because of: Autonomy, Purpose & Mastery (Dan Pink, “Drive”)

Of course all our people are Motivated! I am!They work for me, we pay them, they get 20 days holiday and coffee is cheap...

What Projects Suite Agile?

Sorry, wrong answer

Our projects are large and very complex … Agile will not work!

Complex vs. Complicated

Is this the shortest route from A to B?

Is it the fastest then?

Cynefin

© Dave Snowden

IntuitionRepeatable

& predictable

Deterministic& predictable

Fail safedesign

Fail early,fail cheap

BDUFAgile Inspect & Adapt

Interconnected parts

influencing each other

=> unpredictable

De-centralizedAutonomyCentralized

Command

& Control

The Human Knot

Changing the nature of the problem

● Can we reduce complexity○ Typically not○ Complexity will continue to increase

● Trying to reduce complexity leads to○ Organizational silos○ Working in big batches

Our projects are large and very complex …

We Need Agility for Complexity

● Agreed, the world gets more and more complex (globalization, social networks, communication,information flood, etc.)

● In IT we have○ Many stakeholders with different needs that change

frequently and are difficult to articulate○ Context changes rapidly, e.g. competitors, law &

compliance, economy, globalization, public opinion○ Near infinite number of approaches, technologies

and tools to help achieve the goal○ Individuals with different skills, adaptiveness,

opinions, interests; Teams with trust, antipathies, ambition, language, culture, etc.

Our projects are large and very complex … THEREFORE we need to be Agile!

Wrap Up!

● The Facts are there!

● The Management Team’s concerns and questions have been answered (and more!)

● Agile is the most appropriate approach for large complex projects

● You have a set of persuasive arguments and take-aways

Questions