Agile Methods to Develop Tangible Products Quickly
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The document discusses the application of agile methods beyond software development to create tangible products, emphasizing the business value, challenges in adoption, and best practices. It outlines the need for customized approaches, management of change, and the integration of agile with traditional waterfall methods. Key insights highlight the differences between hardware and software development, and case studies illustrate successful implementations of agile practices.
Agile Methods to Develop Tangible Products Quickly
- 1. February 2017 1Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 1 Agile Methods to Develop Tangible Products Quickly John Carter TCGen Inc. October 2, 2017 PMI SV Symposium New Paths to Increasing Business Value
- 2. February 2017 2Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 2 Agenda 1. Positive Business Value Impact: Case Study* 2. Why have tangible products been slow to adopt Agile? 3. Modifying Agile: Areas of biggest gains for tangible products* 4. How to Implement: Nesting Agile within Waterfall 5. Management: The Biggest Impediments to Success 6. Case Studies* *How Project Leadership Translates into Business Value
- 3. February 2017 3Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 3 TCGen: Approach & Background 1. Customized solutions to fit culture 2. “Inch-wide, mile-deep” implementation approach 3. Managing Change by Measuring Behavior John Carter • Board of Directors; Cirrus Logic (CRUS) • CTO of Klipsch Group; Raised Private Equity funding to execute rollup • Chief Engineer of BOSE; holds patent on Noise Cancelling Headphones
- 4. February 2017 4Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 4 Preventing Business Loss via Agile Project Leadership* – A tussle in a traditional Functional Organization – Two weeks to decide a path forward • Sales of $40M / Year • Burn rate of $50K / Day! • 2 weeks spin = $700K LOSS! Loss of REVENUE1 • Salary of $200K (total costs) • Burn Rate of $13.5K / Day! • 2 weeks of spin = $220K EXPENSE! + $920K LOSS* (Avoided with Agile) Increase in COSTS2 1 Example of consumer launch around holidays 2 3 Teams of 9 people each *How Project Leadership Translates into Business Value
- 5. February 2017 5Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 5 Why have tangible products been slow to adopt Agile? • Myths create major barriers to adoption – “Applying Agile is all or nothing” – “You must be able to ship every two weeks” – “Agile and Waterfall/Milestone are mutually exclusive” • There is a lack of prescriptive best practices • Functional managers must simultaneously cede control • Harder to isolate small teams and pilot
- 6. February 2017 6Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 6 Agile Manifesto – Not Just for Software 1. Business people and developers work together daily 2. Projects require motivated individuals, support & trust 3. Face-to-face conversation is most efficient 4. Agile processes promote sustainable development 5. Continuous attention to technical excellence 6. Simplicity is essential 7. The best designs emerge from self-organizing teams 8. At regular intervals, the team reflects 9. Welcome changing requirements 10. Continuous delivery of valuable software 11. Deliver working software frequently 12. Working software is the measure of progress 75% of the Agile Manifesto CAN apply to any type of development Software Specific Universal http://agilemanifesto.org/
- 7. February 2017 7Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 7 Key Insights: What We Learned From Research What are the most impactful elements* of Agile/Scrum applied to SW & HW? Top Agile practices can be applied to tangible products SW HW Burndown Charts a Team Culture Customer Owner Daily Standups Sprints Themselves Simulation/Emulation Local Build Capability More Prototypes * Derived from relative frequency in TCGen’s Study of emerging best practices in Agile for Hardware (2015) a HW SW
- 8. February 2017 8Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 8 Key Insights: Singular Differences – HW vs. SW Development proceeds by designing and prototyping Development is highly non-linear and chunky Features appear much later and in large increments Stories focused on components and interfaces not User Experience Team members often write more Stories than Product Owner Development proceeds by accretion and refactoring
- 9. February 2017 9Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 9 Modifying Agile: Areas of Biggest Gains Benefit *How Project Leadership Translates into Business Value *
- 10. February 2017 10Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 10 How to Implement: Three Components Enabled by Teams Sprint Planning Executing & Measuring Reviewing FOUNDATION: High Performance Teams Plan Execute/Measure Review Plan Execute/Measure Review FRAMEWORK: Sprints for tangible products Plan Execute/Measure Review
- 11. February 2017 11Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 11 Why Should We Nest Sprints Within Milestone Frameworks • To increase speed*, Sprints within a Milestone Framework – Accelerates decisions because Sprints encapsulate work – Increases urgency, because underperformance is visible • The Milestone framework provides needed financial controls unique to tangible products – Tooling and major capital investments (Test Equipment) • Substantial qualification is required (Medical Devices) – Multiple testing phases are required (Hardening Sprints) WATERFALL MILESTONE “N” WATERFALL MILESTONE “N+1” P Execute/Measure R P Execute/Measure RP Execute/Measure RP Execute/Measure RP Execute/Measure R NESTED SPRINTS *How Project Leadership Translates into Business Value
- 12. February 2017 12Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 12 Sprint Planning Attributes of a successful sprint plan • A consistent template maximizes efficiency • Short, sweet, and simple • Note that a key aspect of Agile/Scrum (estimation of Story Points) is optional! Clear definition of success important • A clear Goal is needed if Story Points not used Plan Execute/Measure Review
- 13. February 2017 13Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 13 Executing/Measuring • “Daily” Standup Meetings – Determined by team capability & velocity – Always BRIEF (LESS THAN 30 MIN) • Latency issues are magnified with sprints – One reason why Agile increases speed – excuses are spotlighted • Abandon the habit of serial prototype builds* Plan Execute/Measure Review *Project Leadership Translates into Business Value (50% shorter phase in med dev) Proto 1 Proto 2 Proto 3 Proto 4 4x cycles of learning in the time of 2.5x
- 14. February 2017 14Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 14 How Predictive Metrics Replace Burndown Charts • Though not required, the best sprint plans include predictive metrics • Predictive metrics* to measure progress of early sprints • % Suppliers to have been qualified of total • % Tasks completed out of total planned for this Sprint • % Product requirements/stories completed of total Not this This – NOTE TARGET CURVE Plan Execute/Measure Review *Predictive Metrics • Simple • Responsive • Indicative • Objective
- 15. February 2017 15Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 15 Review and Reflection: Rapid Learning & Feedback • Review the execution of the PROJECT – Did we accomplish our goals? – Do we have the right resources? – What will we do differently for the next sprint? • Review execution of the PROCESS – How effective was our Sprint Plan? Are we consistently falling short? Are we including the right Methods? – How well did our metrics work? Meaningful? Correlate with true progress? – What will we do differently for the next sprint? Plan Execute/Measure Review
- 16. February 2017 16Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 16 Review and Reflection Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Action Plan
- 17. February 2017 17Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 17 Management: The Biggest Challenge Biggest challenges •Agile requires stronger team skills than Waterfall •Functional Management; seldom a supporter can lacks skills •There is a transfer of power to teams This transformation impacts the deepest Levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Why its hard • Monsters under the bed – Fear of lost Product & Domain Knowledge • Functional Management often lacks trust • Other issues: Lost Power? Career Path? Performance Reviews?
- 18. February 2017 18Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 18 Change Roles: Recipe for the Agile Transformation 1. How do we address Functional Manager’s loss of power? – Role is changed, not diminished; change incentives to support new behaviors 2. What is the new role for Functional Managers? – Removes roadblocks, leads Platform & Architecture development 3. Who makes decisions on what? – Product/Project decisions are made lower (Team Level) – Functional Managers decide on staffing, architecture, competency You won’t be successful unless you address organizational issues FIRST.
- 19. February 2017 19Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 19 Instructor Biographies • The approach – Focus on “Show & Tell” @ end of Sprints (UX, SW, SI) – NO burndown charts, NO sprint estimates • The Costs – More prototypes & more effort in stories • The Benefits – Breaks the work down into 3 week sprints, forcing decisions and schedule adherence* – Accuracy of the overall project is much higher and the developers are much more engaged* Medical Devices Case Study: How They Disrupted Waterfall Development *How Project Leadership Translates into Business Value
- 20. February 2017 20Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 20 Instructor Biographies • The Approach – Demo to management at the end of the Sprints – Planning: focus Sprint Goals, Acceptance Criteria, Metrics – Heavy facilitation nearly full time for the first set of Sprints • The Costs – Process highlighted lack of Functional Management Support – Exposed the organization to the need for reskilling team • The Benefits – The rapid cadence of Sprints resulted in increased team interaction, faster decisions and schedule accountability* Consumer Electronics Case Study: A Step at a Time *How Project Leadership Translates into Business Value
- 21. February 2017 21Agile Beyond SoftwareTCGen, Inc. Menlo Park, CAAgile Beyond Software 21 In Summary… 1. AGILE methods CAN ACCELERATE product development 2. The business value of Agile is BIG and is QUANTIFIED by TIME 3. Not WATERFALL OR AGILE, but WATERFALL AND AGILE 4. FUNCTIONAL MANAGERS are likely the biggest barrier 5. The Case Studies show how focused adoption leads to success