Agile E Business Valtech Agile Edge London March 2010 Al Goerner
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The document discusses the importance of agile methodologies in modern business environments, highlighting that organizations must embrace agile-lean thinking to thrive amidst rapid changes in requirements. It emphasizes effective communication, collaboration, and shared goals among teams to enhance productivity and client experience. The text also introduces key tenets of an agile-lean manifesto, advocating for flexibility, continuous improvement, and a client-centric approach to managing development processes.
Agile E Business Valtech Agile Edge London March 2010 Al Goerner
- 1. Agile Edge – London2 March 2010Innovation, Responsiveness, & DisciplineAgile Methods in Web-BusinessAl GoernerChief Agile Strategist
- 2. Bottom Line… the last timeAnAgile teamin a non-agileenvironment will not long survive.Development Agility & Business Agility go Hand-in-Hand.2
- 3. Top Line… this timeAnEnterprise that doesn’t embraceAgile-Lean Thinking will not long thrive.Business Agility & Opportunity Agility go Hand-in-Hand.3
- 4. What’s the Hurry?Half-Life of a Requirements Set1980 – 8-12 years2000 – 2-3 years2010 – 6-18 monthsNeed to Respond to Change4t – 6ttHow many of your requirements are obsolete before you even complete the project?How many new requirements do you discoveras you are executing the project?4
- 5. “We have met the Enemy and He is Us.”In 1971, Walt Kelly (cartoonist-author of Pogo) gave us this famous quote in honor of the first Earth Day.It is oddly appropriate to Business at the turn of the 21st century.5
- 6. Portrait of a Dysfunctional Family?Nearly all aspects of a Modern Business are intimately connected to electronic media & means.Yet, we don’t communicate with each other well. We often don’t share …Working vocabularies.Goals.Values.Timeframes.Planning methods.Trust.Who is the Ugly Other? We are.6
- 7. A Question of Cultures & ConcernsExecutive ManagementShareholder ValueMiddle ManagementResource UtilizationMarketingMarketshareSalesQuarterly Sales GrowthGovernanceGlobal Risk ManagementGraphic DesignCompelling ImageryUX DesignEase-of-UseSoftware EngineeringFunction & MaintainabilityQC EngineeringQualityData Center OperationReliability & Cost-of-OperationElegance, n. the property of being gracefully concise and simple;the effective synergy of beauty and utility.7
- 8. Issues of Scale … Anywhere in the Enterprise8PreciserCoordinationConcurrent Devlpmt.Version/Config. Mgmt.Product IntegrationWiderDiversityPeople & CulturesDisciplines & SkillsSites & TimezonesCloserAlignmentTo Business/MarketTo Strategic PlanLargerComplexityArchitectureConfigurations3rd-party SoftwareStds ConformanceQuickerResponsivenessHalf-Life of Reqmts.Time-to-MarketBroaderRisk ProfileRegulatory ComplianceSecurityReliabilityProductPeopleProcessImprovedAccountabilitySatisfaction-of-Need & MaturityTimeliness & HealthQuality & Fitness-for-ReleaseEfficiency & Productivity
- 9. What is E-Business, any way?“Electronic business … may be defined as the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) in support of all the activities of business.” – Wikipedia“e-business” is a term created by IBM marketing, according to Louis Gerstner in his 1996 book Who says Elephants can’t Dance?.Web-Business simply limits the focus to interactive services via Web technology.PortalTransactionB2C (i.e., e-Commerce)B2BB2GB2EPortal,Transaction,Web ServiceWhat is the rate-of-change in these relationships?9
- 10. The Challenge of Web-Business- Searching for an Elegant SolutionHow do we get these 3 parties to talk?Shared Vocabulary & ValuesHow do we get these 3 parties to coordinate & collaborate?Shared Process & Planning MethodsHow do we get the process to flow?Shared Units-of-Work& Work-Streams10
- 11. Effective Solutions are always and only the Result of Active Collaboration among the parties of a Value Streamthat begins and ends with the Customer.The effectiveness of a solution and the efficiency of its development & deployment are directly related to how closely and directly these parties communicate and collaborate. Reducing communication and stepping away from collaboration always produces an inferior solution.Virtue of Feedback:Feedback is Essential to Understanding.Where there is no Feedback, there is no Understanding.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayVirtue of Dialog:Regular conversational dialog about a tangible artifact is the most effective kind of feedback cycle.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayVirtue of Collaboration:Even Better than Talking-together is Working-together, where we share Goals and produce Results jointly.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayClient-Centric:Always seek to improve the client experience.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayAgile-Lean Manifesto (2nd-Gen) (1/4)11
- 12. Agile-Lean Manifesto (2nd-Gen) (2/4)A Working Solution is the objective of any project, not its Documentation.Documentation may have value to manage certain kinds of risks, but it does not, in itself, solve the problem addressed by the project. Documentation is, ultimately, not the primary Deliverable of the project.12Dialog with Validation:The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to, and within, a development team is in face-to-face dialog, where critical aspects of the conversation are thereafter restated and confirmed in another media.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayAnalysis, not Contract-Drafting:Prefer Exploration over Specification.Our job in analysis is not to write binding contracts. Such contracts are a legacy of distrust.It is, instead, to manage the key analysis risks: (1) How much work are we not aware of?(2) What do we not understand about the problem domain and the needed solution?(3) How good is good-enough?─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayEvolving Requirements:Produce Nothing which is Not Consumed by Someone making a Decision.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech Way
- 13. Agile-Lean Manifesto (2nd-Gen) (3/4)Work Process is essentially about Effective Cooperative Work and Risk Management.Work together, enforcing just enough process to coordinate your efforts and manage your project’s risks – and no more.A process that inhibits cooperation and introduces risk is a bad process.13Paraphrasing Eisenhower:The Plan is Worthless, but the Planning is Priceless.We engage in (continuous) Agile Planning,But we don’t have a (fixed) Plan.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayResults breed Trust:Seeing a Process work and deliver Value, even if just a little at a time, is the surest way of building Trust.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayLean – Decision-making:Make Decisions at the Last Responsible Moment, such that the decision closes depreciated real options and opens higher-valued ones. Implement these Decisions Quickly.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayNecessity & Sufficiency:We always do what is Necessary to Mitigate Risk,But We only do what is Sufficient to Mitigate Risk.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech Way
- 14. Agile-Lean Manifesto (2nd-Gen) (4/4)Change is a force of Nature.Change can, and should, be Managed. It cannot be Controlled.Lest we deliver yesterday’s solution to tomorrow’s problem,we must allow Change to occur, adapting our projects to Change,rather than trying to ban Change from our projects.14Lean – Strive for Excellence:At regular intervals, a team should reflect on how it can become more effective, and then it should adjust and tune its behavior accordingly.Continuous process improvement is an Agile-Lean value.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayPacing the Market:Our solution development process must match the pace of the Market,because surely the Market will not slow down to match the pace of our process.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech WayEvolving Requirements:The only thing that you guarantee when you freeze requirements is that you will deliver the wrong thing.─ 50 Tenets of the Valtech Way
- 15. Agile-Lean Ecosystem15Different Techniques;Same Process Framework.
- 16. Coordinating WorkstreamsThe only really unique aspect of multidisciplinary Agile-Lean process is …Synchronization Stories & Synchronization SprintsSynchronize SchedulesExchange of Information and ArtifactsIntegration BuildsJoint TestingWorking as a Single Team from a Common Backlog is preferableprovided that the Natural Rhythms of the two disciplines are identical.16
- 17. Thank you for attending!Questions???17
Editor's Notes
- #12: Don’t Call Us. We’ll Call You … if We are Desperate and need a Scapegoat.
- #13: What do I Do? My Job is to produce Documentation … Painstakingly Thorough Documentation which No one Ever Reads.
- #14: Things didn’t do quite smoothly last time. So, let’s add a couple more reviews, get 3 more people to sign off on it, and institute a formal hand-off to those people over there who are causing all the trouble.
- #15: After we get this thing signed off, we’re gonna freeze it. … Then, you’ll take what we give you and like it.