Agile In a Nutshell

Jonathan Rasmusson

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 What we’re going to cover
• How agile works
• What to expect
• What agile is
• Agile myths
• Review most popular methods
• Three steps towards agility
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Too much to do, not enough time

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geneoh/

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 You make a list
What do I need to do
to get ready for this date?
ToDo List

Clean house
Do dishes
Get wine
Vacuum
Write poem
Get handsome
Wash car
Get flowers
Iron shirt
Work out

This alone makes you feel good

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 You size things up
Should take more than
a couple of hours!
ToDo for date

1 hr Clean house
½ hr Do dishes
2 hr Get wine
½ hr Vacuum
½ hr Write poem
1 hr Get handsome
1 hr Wash car
½ hr Get flowers
½ hr Iron shirt
½ hr Work out
~ 8 hrs

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Most
You set some priorities
important

Dang! Too much to do.

ToDo for date

1 hr Clean house
½ hr Do dishes
2 hr Get wine
½ hr Vacuum
½ hr Write poem
1 hr Get handsome
1 hr Wash car
½ hr Get flowers

½ hr Iron shirt
½ hr Work out

Least important Out of scope

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Start executing
Ah! Didn’t really need
that shirt anyways.
ToDo for date

1 hr Clean house
½ hr
2 hr Do dishes

½ hr Get wine
 Vacuum
½ hr Write poem
1 hr Get handsome
1 hr Wash car
½ hr Get flowers

 ½ hr Iron shirt
 ½ hr Work out

This is what most people do ...

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 A little secret
Pssssssst... We do the same thing
in agile.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Only instead of ... We use fancy names

ToDo lists Master story lists

Tasks User stories

Guesses Estimates

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Estimates

Master story
Agile planning
1 day Create invoice
3 days Add user
5 days Print report
3 days Basic search
1 day Update trade
... ...

160 days

Prioritized 1 2 3 n

User stories Iterations

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Master story
‘The Plan’
1 day Create invoice
3 days Add user Velo
5 days Print report c ity
3 days Basic search
1 day Update trade
... ...

160 days

1 2 3 n

Iterations

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 What we’re going to cover
• How it works
• What to expect
• What agile is
• Agile myths
• Review most popular methods
• Three steps towards agility
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 We flex on scope

Time Budget Quality Scope

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 We have the same definition of ‘done’

A plan?

A design?

A report?

Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/422930

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Working software
is the primary measure of success

Project plans
Test plans
Requirements docs
Architectural diagrams
Analysis models
Security reports
Deployment plans

… are of no value
to the customer.

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris-hunt/3248785666/

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 That means …

Add user  Analysis

 Testing
Print itinerary
 Design

Book reservation  Coding

 Everything else
Add user

1 -2 wks

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Analysis, design, testing, and coding are
continuous activities
Agile
Waterfall
Analysis
Test

VS Analysis Design Code Test

Code
Design

stage gated / big bang / all at once

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 And we have to work as one team

VS
BA Dev QA

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 April 27,
More overlap between roles
2011

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 What we’re going to cover
• How it works
• What to expect
• What agile is
• Agile myths
• Review most popular methods
• Three steps towards agility
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Iterative

© Copyright 2009, Rasmusson Software Consulting

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Iterative

© Copyright 2009, Rasmusson Software Consulting

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Adaptive

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Adaptive

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Adaptive

customer discovers what

lost lead they really wanted
New Star Trek
developer movie

Price of oil
new boss
hard to change drops 50%

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Self directed
Empowered

Flat hierarchy

Self-organizing
Adaptive
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Smart,
Talented,
Motivated People
Like working this way.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Agile is

A common sense way

of building software ...

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 That reminds us that ...

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 software is about people.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 It’s messy.
It isn’t perfect.
It doesn’t follow a Gantt chart.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 It accepts the inherent complexity
and uncertainty that comes with
software delivery.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 This isn’t ditch digging!

It accepts the inherent complexity

and uncertainty that comes with
software delivery.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 12 Principles
Face-to-face Continuous delivery
Working together
Simplicity
Self organization
Working software
Sustainable pace
Motivated individuals
Welcoming change
Technical excellence
Frequent delivery
Continuous improvement
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Agile myths

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Agile is a silver bullet
• You can fail just as spectacularly on an
agile project as any other.
• You just might do it sooner.

Here ... instead of here

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Agile teams don’t
do documentation
• More accurate to say agile teams don’t
write any ‘unnecessary documentation’.
• Treat documentation like any other
deliverable:
• Estimated and prioritized.

• Prefer face-to-face communication.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Agile is anti-planning
• Agile teams plan extensively
– Every quarter (release)
– Every couple weeks (iterations)
– Every day (daily stand-ups)
• Uses different tools
– Burn downs vs Gantt charts
• Planning is very visible
– Stakeholders know early if there is a problem

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Agile is undisciplined

• Truth is agile is very disciplined

• You have to test.
• You have to get feedback.
• You have to regularly ship.
• You have to update the plan.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Agile is anti-architecture
Don’t build this ... if all you need is this.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Agile doesn’t scale

• Agile scales like any other software

process
- Not that great -

• Instead of looking at how to scale up, try

to imagine ways you could scale down.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 What we’re going to cover
• How it works
• What to expect
• What agile is
• Agile myths
• Review most popular methods
• Three steps towards agility
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Agile comes in many flavours
Scrum
Crystal

Lean DSDM

FDD

Extreme Programming (XP)

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Lean Toyota’s ultra-lean manufacturing process.

I would like to buy a Toyota

Camry please.

Eliminating waste
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Lean

• Very good high-level • Not IT specific

principles and practices
• Can be harder to
• Addresses system and implement
organizational
inefficiencies

Lean has a lot to offer. Very worth studying!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Scrum

• A project management wrapper for

incremental delivery of projects,
independent of technology or business
vertical.
• Can be used in non-IT projects.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Scrum

• Easy to understand /pickup • Silent on engineering

• Low barrier of entry • Easy to do the easy stuff
while skipping on the
• Speaks well to project managers
hard
• Non-threatening
• Very popular

Easy to adapt - most non-threatening.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Extreme Programming

• Popularized software engineering

practices necessary for agile development
• Emphasizes
– upfront testing
– automation User story
– evolutionary design
– continuous integration

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Extreme Programming

• Sound engineering practices • Very developer focused

• Strong in development • Hard for other disciplines
community relate
• First real popular agile method • Sometimes characterized
by zealots

Essential engineering practices

- unit testing - refactoring - continuous integration - test-Driven Design (TDD)

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Options for adopting
XP
full on

Scrum + XP
engineering practices

Scrum + XP +
engineering practices
Lean
spirit

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 What I recommend

Start here XP
engineering practices

Choose
Scrum or XP
language

Study Lean

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 There is no one way
Extreme Programming (XP)

Your own! Scrum

DSDM
Lean

FDD

Do what ever works for you

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 What we’re going to cover
• How it works
• What to expect
• What agile is
• Agile myths
• Review most popular methods
• Three steps towards agility
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
 Step 1: Deliver something of value
every week

week week week

1. Big problems down into smaller ones.

2. Important stuff first.
3. Forces you to test.
4. You’ll want feedback.
5. Change course when necessary.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Step 2: Start doing these 4 software
engineering practices today!

1. Unit testing
2. Refactoring
3. Test Driven-Development
4. Continuous Integration

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Accept
three simple truths
1. It is impossible to gather all the
requirements at the beginning
of a project.

2. Whatever requirements you

do gather are guaranteed to
change.

3. There will always be more to do

than time and money will allow.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Final words

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Do I think everyone will
one day be doing agile?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 No
For the same reason people
don’t eat right and exercise.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Agile is hard
It’s tough!
Requires a lot of discipline
And thinking

Not everyone’s into this kind of stuff.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 But it is a very natural way to work
A lot of people enjoy it

It is
a lot of
fun

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

 Learn more
• Blog
– agilewarrior.wordpress.com
• Twitter
– @jrasmusson
• Email
– [email protected]

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Code: AGILEWEEK

Tuesday, August 9, 2011