Context Adaptive Agility Managing Complexity and Uncertainty

1. Context Adaptive AgilityManaging Complexity and Uncertainty Todd Little

2. Are you in the right place? It Depends Enjoy Hopefully the Matrices are funny enough Enjoy the show! Geek Humor Sorry, just content OK. You don’t have to laugh Hate Hate 2x2 Matrices Enjoy

3. We increase return on investment by making continuous flow of value our focus. We deliver reliable results by engaging customers in frequent interactions and shared ownership. We expect uncertainty and manage for it through iterations, anticipation and adaptation. We unleash creativity and innovation by recognizing that individuals are the ultimate source of value, and creating an environment where they can make a difference. We boost performance through group accountability for results and shared responsibility for team effectiveness. We improve effectiveness and reliability through situationally specific strategies, processes and practices. The Agile Project Leadership Network Declaration of Interdependence (www.apln.org) David Anderson, Sanjiv Augustine, Christopher Avery, Alistair Cockburn, Mike Cohn, Doug DeCarlo, Donna Fitzgerald, Jim Highsmith, Ole Jepsen, Lowell Lindstrom, Todd Little, Kent McDonald, Pollyanna Pixton, Preston Smith and Robert Wysocki

4. When in the Course of project events it becomes necessary for Project Teams to dissolve the political bureaucracies which have burdened them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all projects are not created equal, that they are endowed by their creation with uncertain and complex characteristics. That project teams are most effective when they value Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Declaration of Independence from Bureaucratic Project Management

5. Penal Management Institute Now that I am a Penal Management Professional I can show them how to improve these Convicts’ Maturity Model

7. Hurricane Rita

9. Reservoir / Fluid data Seismic data Production data Structural / Stratigraphic data Common Model Representation Common Model Representation Velocity data Well data Landmark sells shrink wrap software for Oil and Gas Exploration and Production • Users are Geoscientists and Engineers • Subsidiary of Halliburton Energy Services • Integrated suite of ~60 Products • ~50 Million lines of code • Some products 20+ years old • 80+% of project team stays on same product Geophysics Engineering Geology

10. Plus Islamabad We have the challenge of integrating software developed in Houston, Austin, Denver and Calgary

11. Maximize our Value Delivery Scaling to project conditions Manage Uncertainty and Complexity Organizational commonality without being overly prescriptive Core processes Adaptive processes What is “barely sufficient?” Our team was tasked with understanding and improving our software development process

12. Highsmith Adaptive Software Development Cockburn Crystal Methods Boehm and Turner Balancing Agility and Discipline Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) We were influenced by a number of Agile prophets

13. We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, Dave Thomas Manifesto for Agile Software Development

14. Project Complexity Team size Mission criticality Team location Team capacity Domain knowledge gaps Dependencies Uncertainty Market Uncertainty Technical Uncertainty Project Duration Dependents We studied our project portfolio and identified several project and team attributes

15. We scored the Complexity Attributes on a scale from 1 to 10

16. And we scored the Uncertainty Attributes

17. We cross plotted the results and divided the chart into four quadrants

18. This looked a lot like the Boston Matrix

19. So we named it the Houston Matrix and gave animal names to the quadrants

20. We looked at an overall process flow and how it would be adaptable. • Iterations Adaptive Activities Inputs Pre-conditions • Outputs • Post-conditions • Released Software CORE Activities Project Sanction RTM

21. Aggregate Product Plan A/B/C List Quality Agreement Continuous Integration Expert User Involvement Project Dashboard We Identified a set of Core Processes for all projects to use

22. The Aggregate Product Plan sets the high level vision and expectations

23. The A/B/C List sets proper expectations Only “A” features may be committed to customers. “A” features must fit in a p90 confidence schedule. No more than 50% of the planned effort can be allocated to “A” items

24. A/B/C List Backlog Plan Typical Delivery C B D 25% C B A A 25% 50% 50% 100%

25. A/B/C List

26. We use a Quality Agreement similar to Thomsett

27. They can be trained to be well behaved. Just the Core practices Laissez Faire…Similar to Crystal Clear Simple, Certain projects are like Dogs

28. Young projects with lots of unfettered energy. Landmark has had success with XP in this quadrant Short iterations Daily stand-up meetings Automated unit tests Simple, Uncertain projects are like Colts

29. Often are corporate “Cash Cows” More rigorous requirements management; i.e. use a requirements tool. Requires the generation of useful documentation for interface definitions Projects broken up into subprojects and coordinated by a team of leaders or a Scrum of Scrums. Project plans with dependency and critical path identification Complex, Certain projects are like Cows

30. Large projects, hard to control. Need agility to steer through the uncertainty, and some rigor to manage the complexity. A careful union of the Colt and the Cow Requires the best Project Managers Warning signs Project Managers sometimes act as clowns to provide diversion. High BS factor Appears that they just want to have their way with the Cows. Complex, Uncertain projects are like Bulls

31. Don’t throw novice project managers at a bull project

32. Brooks’ law in action: throw a developer at a late bull project

33. Complexity is like Amplitude and Uncertainty is like Frequency

34. Product Innovation Flow Hot Items Flexible Scope Backlog Idea Filter Iteration Backlog Newly Discovered Items Product Backlog Project Sanction RTM Sales Services Customer Support B & C Release Backlog Adaptive Activities A Items CORE Activities Most Items for consideration in next release B/C/D Backlog Burnup A

35. Nickoliasen Model for Idea Filter(Executive Summit ADC 2004) High A Focus and Allocate Resources Partner Or convert To Mission Critical Market Differentiating Achieve Parity Who Cares? Low High Low Mission Critical

36. C A B Products Tend to follow a Lifecycle path

37. 2003 2004 An Example Lifecycle path

38. Portfolio Management and Dealing with Darwin High Invent Deploy Market Differentiating Offload Manage Low High Low Mission Critical

39. Portfolio Management and Dealing with Darwin High Create Change Embrace Change Market Differentiating Eliminate Change Control Change Low High Low Mission Critical

40. Portfolio Management and Dealing with Darwin High Ad Hoc Agile Market Differentiating Outsource Structured Low High Low Mission Critical

41. One size doesn’t fit all The assessment tool is a guide Landmark’s portfolio balance 10% Bulls 10% Cows 20% Colts 60% Dogs Project Complexity and Uncertainty influence how to scale our agile process

42. Don’t mistreat your cows

43. Don’t over stereotype:e.g. Not all dogs are the same

44. Agile Steering Each iteration provides new information and takes us closer to the product vision. Uncertainty remains, and the shape of the cone is proportional.