how to convice management & clients to go agile
DESCRIPTION
How to convince Clients and Management on AGILE As a Project Manager you want to run your projects in an Agile way - Great! However, the reality is that the journey is not as easy as it first appears, for two key reasons: a) Your clients have never worked in an Agile way, b) Your senior management and executives who, for nothing other than historical and familiarity reasons, are fixed on traditional project approaches. You know that without their backing, you have no chance. So, how and where do you start to address this? This session will focus on building awareness and then aim to create desire to adopt Agile practices. We will be looking at the view point of a CEO, COO and CFO. We will then illustrate why complex problems are best resolved by self organising teams and finally we will address the concern of remote and distributed team work.TRANSCRIPT
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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