If Agile had Oscars, which of its principles would qualify as

“leading” vs “supporting?”

David Greene410-967-1650

d7greene@gmail.com

BEFORE THE TALK: Please review handout with 12 principles and select the

3 you believe to be most important and fundamental.

Contents• Intro slides• Agile in two pictures• 12 principles from 2001 Manifesto

– Top 3– Other 9– Relate to first page of Manifesto– Selected practices behind Top 3 principles

• Learnings from manufacturing/Lean• What to do next

– Assess what you’re already doing (and gaps)– Selecting pilot projects & a flavor of Agile– Think about scaling

Why I’m here today• “never seen a good software spec”

• Elements of an Agile requirements/story workshop from The Agile Samurai :– Get a big open room– Draw lots of pictures– Write lots of stories– Brainstorm everything else– Scrub the list & make it shine

Alexis de Toqueville

What “Best Practice” really means

• Usually good or great

• Possibly fair or even a miserable failure in certain circumstances.

Focus of talk:

fundamental principles, not practices

Agile in two pictures (part 1)

Agile in two pictures (part 2)

Source: http://www.applitude.se

Plan driven

Value driven

Three “leading” Agile principles

#3 Frequent delivery

(working software)

#4 Close

communication

#12 Reflective improvement

Of 12 principles, which 3 “lead”?

Enablers #5 Support & trust, #9 Technical excellence, #10 Simplicity

Results

#1 Valuable SW & satisfied customer

#2 Harness change for competitive advantage

#9 Constant pace

Methods & tools

#6 Face-to-face

#7 Working software as primary measure of progress

#11 Self-organizing teams

Leading principles

#3 Frequent delivery

#4 Close communication

#12 Reflective improvement

End of 1st “iteration”

Frequent delivery

Practices supporting the principle:

• Planning game

• Relative estimation

• Backlog’s prioritized by value

• Limits on WIP

Close communication

Practices supporting the principle:• Co-location & face-to-face meetings (will virtual

communication tools get better?)– Stories– Daily standups – Pair programming

• Big visible info radiators (Kanban board, burndown charts)

• Planning game• Test-driven development

Reflective improvement

Practices supporting the principle:

• Adapt (don’t adopt) an Agile methodology

• Retrospectives – Traditional weakness/problem analysis– Appreciative inquiry

• Traditional quality methods

Learning from Manufacturing/Lean

7 wastes for Manufacturing

Corresponding wastes for Software

1. Overproduction

2. Inventory

3. Extra processing

4. Transportation

5. Motion

6. Waiting

7. Defects

1. ?

2. ?

3. ?

4. ?

5. ?

6. ?

7. ?

Learning from Manufacturing/Lean

7 wastes for Manufacturing

7 corresponding wastes for Software

1. Overproduction

2. Inventory

3. Extra processing

4. Transportation

5. Motion

6. Waiting

7. Defects

1. Extra features

2. Partially done work

3. Relearning

4. Handovers

5. Task switching

6. Delays

7. Defects

Agile trend or fad?

’50 ’60 ’70 ’80 ’90 ’00 ‘10

Waterfall Spiral RAD RUP Agile (Sm) Agile (Lg)

OOP…IDEs …UML…

Deming Toyota Lean

PC Web Web 2.0 Cloud…SO

FT

WA

RE

MF

G

Next: What are you already doing?

#3 Frequent delivery

(working software)

#4 Close

communication

#12 Reflective improvement

Next: Choosing pilot projectsColtSimple, young projects.

Need agility.

Tight teams.

BullAgility to handle uncertainty.

Process definition to

cope with

Complexity.

Laissez

faire.

CowComplex mature

market.

Needs defined

interface.

Source: Todd Little via Israel Gat

Low Complexity High

Low

U

ncer

tain

ty

Hig

h

Sou

rce:

Dea

n Le

ffin

gwel

l

Question time

David Greene

d7greene@gmail.com

410-967-1650