Agile in the waterfall

Agile in the Waterfall
A look at hybrid Agile
1Copyright 2012 Square Peg Consultiing LLC, All Rights Reserved
Produced by
Square Peg Consulting, LLC
Orlando, Florida
www.sqpegconsulting.comPhoto: John Goodpasture
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Here’s our theme:
Agile in the waterfall is about encapsulating
work and synchronizing outcomes, while
respecting architecture and narrative

Iteration 1
First Principles and Requisite
Conditions

Here’s our operating principle:
Agile projects are simultaneously:
Strategically stationary ….
Tactically iterative and emergent

Strategically stationary
Whenever and wherever you look, the project has the same
strategic intent and predictable business outlook
• Strategic intent – opportunity, vision
• Strategically predictable – mission satisfaction
Business Case
Business
scorecard
Project Charter
Project
scorecard

Mapping strategically
Mission
Opportunity
Vision
Narrative
Drivers
Milestones
Architecture
Functionality
Optimism Confidence
Envisioning, Vision Delivering, Throughput
Risk
Mapping

Risk response: Be emergent and iterative
Photo: US Navy
Tactically agile

Tactically agile environment
 Small teams
 Redundancy
 Local management
Photo: US Navy
 Instinctive action
 Proven protocols
and practices
 Frictionless
Confident

Overlay strategy with tactics
 Tactically responsive to
circumstances
 Emergent plan as
conditions develop
 Tactically respectful of
strategy as an overlay
Tack to strategic objective

Iteration 1 Reflection
Opposite ideas coexist – stationary, and emergent
Stationary: strategic predictability, a traditional quality
Emergent: reactive to circumstances and conditions, an Agile
quality
The tactical overlays the strategic
Local, instinctive, redundant, frictionless
Respectful of strategy

Iteration 2
The Black Box, Interfaces, and
Connectivity
11
Copyright 2012 Square Peg Consultiing LLC, All Rights Reserved

Strategic architecture; strategic functionality
12
Your scope
Navigation and
location
My scope
Auto-pilot
Vision and narrative mapped to architecture and functionality
Architecture and functionality allocated to work streams
Work streams WIP according to methodology

Encapsulated scope: Yours, mine
13
Stationary,
open
Interfaces Your black box
Your methodology
My black box
My methodology
Encapsulation enables co-existent methodologies
Encapsulation enables synchronized scheduling
My piece of the architecture

Yours, mine with transparency to me
14
Scope agile and changeable
Transparent only to me
My white box Your black box
Your scope: your choice

Yours, mine, ours
15
Open network, stationary protocols, and responsive connectivity
Stationary &
open
Your black boxMy black box

Refactor internally
16
Internals encapsulated from meInternally agile
Refactor
Respect functionality at the interface

Work streams
17
Your traditional
work streamMy Agile work stream
Network: Planning, physical, virtual (sneaker net)
or combinations

Portfolio agreements
18
Your traditional
projectMy Agile project
Network: Planning, physical, virtual (sneaker net)
or combinations

Vision and narrative map strategically to architecture and
functionality
Architecture and functionality allocated to work streams
Work streams WIP according to methodology
Encapsulation enables co-existence of methodologies
Encapsulation extends to project and program management

Iteration 3
Governing
20

Governance is the elephant in the room
Traditional:
• Confidently predict input and outcomes
– Proven process between them
– Controlled input: predicted outcome
• Overbalanced toward input
– Cost, schedule, scope dominate
• Faith in planning as the answer to risk
– Structured analysis; requirements traceability
21

Shifting allegiance
Agile: shift of allegiance
• FROM: Faithful adherence to a plan
– Planning is good; plans do not survive
• TO: Faithful response to customer need
– If customers are not more successful because of the
project, what’s the point of the project?
22

Shifting dominance
Agile: shift of dominance
• FROM: dominated by consumption
according to plan (Input, business)
• TO: dominated by value-added throughput
(output, customer)
How is the PMO measured?
• Cost, schedule, scope (input, consumption)
• Customer satisfaction (outcome)
23

The shifting thing—four conditions
1. Works only if strategic intent is held stationary
2. Works only if scope can be tactically emergent
3. Works only if quality of outcomes is deemed more
important than control of inputs
4. Works only if Agile and traditional work streams can be
synchronized at milestones
24

Three planning elements dominate
Chart: US NOAA
1. Stationary
milestones
2. Change?
3. Are we DONE?
Where are we going?
When will we get there?
How will we know when we’re there?

Milestone planning dominates
Slack or
buffer to
the
milestone
Interfaces
commitments:
• Work as agreed
• Available at the
milestone
Traditional
Agile
Time boxes or WIP
or releases
synchronized to the
milestone

Everything can change? Not exactly
Change? It depends …
• Architectural changes (Stationary; PMO controlled)
• Customer-facing changes (Tactically emergent; delegated)
• Construction changes (Non-functional; interior structure)
– Policy and regulatory management
– Refactoring change

Are we DONE?
Why is DONE in play? Tactically emergent scope
Are we DONE when
• The money runs out?
• Some milestone is reached?
• The customer is satisfied?
• Some predictable outcome is achieved?
• We finished the backlog
– Ooops! We never finish; imagination is boundaryless

We are DONE when …
When BEST VALUE is delivered
The most, and the most valuable scope
deliverable within the available resources
And without compromises of quality as judged
by the customer

Governance buy-in is the key to everything
• Allegiance and dominance shift
– From traditional input dominance to agile output
dominance
• Synchronized milestones
– Slack, buffers, etc guard milestone commitments
– Traditional work streams and Agile work streams work to
the same milestones
• Commitment to best value
– Get the most of the most important for the available
resources, without compromise of quality

All done and ready for questions!

Read more…
Large scale projects
in large scale
organizations
Photo: J. Ross Publishing

Learn more…
PMI® eSeminarsWorldsm
instructor
• Agile Project Management
• Advanced Risk Management
and
• Understanding Organizational
Change
33
Copyright 2012 Square Peg Consultiing LLC, All Rights
Reserved

Agile in the waterfall

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