The Journey to Agile - Case Study on a Waterfall to Agile Transformation Project

@shabbirnaqvi14
How many of you can relate to this?

@shabbirnaqvi14
The Journey to Agile
Shabbir Naqvi
Programme Delivery Lead at YNAP

@shabbirnaqvi14
What I’ll talk about
● Effectiveness of smaller continuous change
● Using change from your team(s) to drive bigger change
● What I have learnt on this journey

@shabbirnaqvi14
What I’ll NOT talk about
● Why you should ‘go/do Agile’
● Pros and cons of Agile
● Specific methodologies of Agile

@shabbirnaqvi14
Image credit:
http://www.techdaring.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/OLD-COMPUTER.jpg
Going to use a real company as a case study
They had very legacy systems, ~15-20 years old
Many stakeholders across the world, serving >50 brands
They could only release monthly
Waterfall development practices
Separate development and tester teams

@shabbirnaqvi14
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ExODBlM2ZkLTNkMWEtNGQ0Mi1iNzMyLTk2ZWU0ZWU5NzJjOQ.jpg
Main problem was releasing things slowly, or projects considered to take too long
Business needed things quicker

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Image credit:
https://www.iag.biz/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/387-Agile-Business-Analysis-Trainin
g.jpg
Senior management decided to adopt Agile
Hired a consultant to give a 2 day Agile training course to the whole development
team
Started doing sprints, had burndown charts in place, etc.
Somewhat re-structured teams, apart from embedding testers and aiming for
cross-functional teams

@shabbirnaqvi14
Image credit: https://cdn.meme.am/instances/60746446.jpg
Didn’t actually change anything
Business were not engaged, separate Project Management team with their own
Business Analysts
No Product Owner

@shabbirnaqvi14
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2-aeef-7e2811b27c68-728.jpg.jpg
Decided to start small:
- Work with the team to figure out the main challenges they’re facing
- Perfect venue: retrospectives

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Image credit: https://blog.engineyard.com/images/blog-images/actually-mvp.png
First challenge: MVPs
Got the BA somewhat embedded into the team to work with the developers

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Image credit: https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/uploads/blog/planningpoker.jpg
Next challenge: Estimations were new to the team
Cautiously did our sprint commitment and tweaked it every couple of weeks

@shabbirnaqvi14
Real example of estimations by the team
Unfortunately these stats are from the very beginning where they was a lot of
fluctuation
However this demonstrates convergence in commitment and delivery by the end of
the project

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Image credit: http://media2.govtech.com/images/770*1000/shutterstock_iterate.jpg
Next challenge: Skillset gap
Testers embedded into the teams properly
Team commitment meant everyone helps each other
Devs did testing, testers helped with BDDs sitting with devs
Continued tweaking, assessing, iterating
Small changes led to greater effects

@shabbirnaqvi14
Managed to make changes to a single team, but how can we make a bigger impact?
How can we push these changes to other teams, department wide?

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Make things visible -> happy stakeholders & customers
Senior management often wants to just see results
Demo’ed MVPs to them & customers

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Get better at forecasting -> happy stakeholders
Despite being able to release monthly due to the legacy systems, we could show
them for certain what we were going to release

@shabbirnaqvi14
Used to take the remaining story points on the backlog, divide it by the average
velocity (usually over the last 5 sprints) and add a leeway value on to it
This was used to forecast delivery of the project and reported to senior management
and stakeholders

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Utilise the feedback loop -> happy customers
This meant we could release the best value to the customer every month thanks to
the slightly shorter feedback loop

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Emphasise ways of working as a key factor of success

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Senior management noticed and started to like this Agile thing!
Where did we get to?
- 3-4 development teams with Scrum
- Support team with Kanban
- Started major refactoring work, signed off by senior management

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Lessons Learnt

@shabbirnaqvi14
1.
Image credit: http://leissonlife.com/files/2016/02/babysteps.jpg
Take small baby steps to change
Concentrate on a single thing at a time
Too much change all in one go causes confusion, unsettles people
Take everyone through those baby steps

@shabbirnaqvi14
Go Agile
In an Agile way

@shabbirnaqvi14
http://www.wcpm.co.uk/epmbook/orgchange.htm
Managing change is crucial
As can be seen, change can have serious negative impacts on people

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2.
Image credit: https://www.cmscritic.com/site/assets/files/2177/webchanges.jpg
Change is neverending
Technology always changing, so expect change in the future
Be prepared for change, embrace it

@shabbirnaqvi14
So much coming up in tech...
● ‘Exponential’ tech - robotics, VR & AR, 3D printing
● Artificial Intelligence
● Cognitive Technologies
● Blockchain
● IoT
● ‘Anything as a Service’
● Cybersecurity
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/technolo
gy-industry-outlook.html
Or Google ‘Deloitte Technology Industry Outlook 2017’
Some examples of change in technology coming up in 2017

@shabbirnaqvi14
3.
Image credit:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4zWztThK1n8/T9UcTNov_gI/AAAAAAAAAoc/lLI8jL4uucM/s
1600/133+on+jounrey+together.png
Take the team through this journey together
The best teams I’ve worked with have always been the ones who have shared the
journey
They know why they use certain processes, because they’ve seen what happens
when they don’t
They respect each other’s opinions
They understand each other’s ways of working
Good example:
- Worked with a team for <12 months
- Tweaked processes continuously
- Tried formal Scrum, tried Kanban
- Changed all sorts of things, timings of meetings, sprint cycles, etc.
- Team experienced this together, hence they understand why they work the
way they do
- And of course, team has bonded very well during the journey

@shabbirnaqvi14
shabbirnaqvi@outlook.com
Thanks for
listening!
Questions?
@shabbirnaqvi14
shabbirnaqvi.com

The Journey to Agile - Case Study on a Waterfall to Agile Transformation Project

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