tuesday, june 8 th, 2010 574 agile development-successful delivery & implementing across the...

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

574 Agile Development-Successful Delivery & Implementing Across the Enterprise

Brian MooreSenior Consulting Director

Guidewire Software

Kurt BittnerCTO - AmericasIvar Jacobson Internationalkbittner@ivarjacobson.comwww.ivarjacobson.com

Michael FoerstChief Information OfficerMissouri Employers Mutual Insurance573-499-4161mfoerst@mem-ins.comLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfoerstTwitter: twitter.com/michaelfoerst

Agile is not a

Silver Bullet!

Software is built by people, but it is built well by collaborative teams

Agile Key Principles

Agile is about:• Customer collaboration • Embracing and anticipating

change • Delivering working software

often• Building high performance

teams

Sidebar:

– Different approaches exist for Agile

– Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Lean Development, CORE

– Today’s discussion is focused more on Scrum

Customer Collaboration Work with users and ensure

visibility into the progress being made

Visibility and frequent delivery helps to reduce the impact of major changes• Users can and should

provide regular feedback and be familiar with the system long before anything goes into production

Responding to change

Scrum embraces change and provides reasonable facilities to support the management of business priorities and implementation scope

Working software

With a focus on working software, teams are able to design and build functionality into the system based on priorities

In typical software implementations, more than half of all requirements are not implemented due to project overruns

Individuals and Interactions

People build and implement software systems

Be adaptive and collaborative to find the process that brings the best benefit

Work with the users to understand their requirements

Agile Key Principles Agile is NOT about:

• A design methodology• A project uses design and documentation standards that

the team is comfortable with, communicates effectively and is no more than the task requires

• A set of tools• A project uses tools they are comfortable with; however,

scrum project management tools are available • Avoiding documentation

• A project documents all workshops and other forms of communication to a level needed to define what is to be implemented

Scrum Roles

Product Owner Scrum Master Team

Scrum Roles

Product Owner• Constantly re-prioritizes

project scope• Synthesizes interests of

stakeholders• Negotiates sprint goals and

backlog items with team• Final arbiter of requirements

questions• Accepts or rejects each

product increment

Scrum Roles

Scrum Master• Helps resolve impediments• Facilitates Agile process• Supports Product Owner

with planning and prioritization

• Keeps artifacts visible• Shields team, enforces

time boxes, advocates improvements

Scrum Roles

Team• Cross functional• Autonomous• Self organizing• Responsible for commitments• Co-located• 6-10 team members

Agile Process

An Agile Process Lifecycle

Inception

Project Viability Agreed Business Risk Mitigated

Construction

Useable Solution AvailableConstruction Risk Mitigated

Transition

Release Successfully Deployed Deployment Risk Mitigated

Elaboration

Project Approach ProvenArchitectural Risk Mitigated

ElaborationInception Construction TransitionIteration * Iteration * Iteration * Iteration *

Proposal is approved

as a project

1…………….2…..…..n

GATE A GATE B GATE C GATE D

1…………….2…..…..n 1…………….2…..………..3……….n 1………..n

GATE E

AGILE PROJECTCASE STUDY

Claims System Modernization

Have you ever had a new concept that sounds great in all of the articles and reviews… … only to

have it come crashing down when you put it to the test?

Nature of effort Legacy claims system replacement

• First time the claims system was being replaced• The existing system was highly customized• Not all of the customization was well documented

Project size• At the peak roughly 60 team members, on-shore and off-shore• One of the largest projects ever attempted by the company• 15 months from team formation to implementation

Project plan• First use of Scrum internally • Inception phase• Six development sprints, seven tracks in each sprint• Three integrated testing sprints

Flexible Adaptable

Collaborative Empowered

Trusting

An agile team needs the proper environment to succeed!

Our Keys to Success Business Case Objectives

Governance Model

Dedicated Team

Collocated Team

handful of parameters guiding independent decision making

rules of the road defining decision making expectations

develop confidence in teammates and expectations to deliver

timely responsive

Lessons Learned Educate

• Product owner• ScrumMaster• Team members• Others interacting with the agile team

Communicate, communicate, communicate• Delivery• Daily scrums• Sprint reviews

Incrementally improve• Sprint, assess, sprint again• Improve the process as well as delivery

Empower the team

Lasting effects Scrum is now the default for all strategic projects Claims system maintenance releases follow an agile

approach Adopted for numerous non-project efforts – scrum

meeting format, etc. IT planning follows a conceptual plan with quarterly

reviews for the maintenance of projects in the “product backlog”

More dynamic, more transparent, shorter timeframes and focused on functional

deliverables.