574 Agile Development-Successful
Delivery & Implementing Across
the Enterprise
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Brian Moore
Senior Consulting Director
Guidewire Software
Kurt Bittner
CTO - Americas
Ivar Jacobson International
kbittner@ivarjacobson.com
www.ivarjacobson.com
Michael Foerst
Chief Information Officer
Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance
573-499-4161
mfoerst@mem-ins.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfoerst
Twitter: twitter.com/michaelfoerst
Agile is not a
Silver Bullet!
Software is built by people, but it
is built well by collaborative teams
Agile Key Principles
 Agile is about:
• Customer collaboration
• Embracing and anticipating
change
• Delivering working software
often
• Building high performance
teams

Sidebar:
– Different approaches
exist for Agile
– Extreme Programming
(XP), Scrum, Lean
Development, CORE
– Today’s discussion is
focused more on Scrum
Customer Collaboration
 Work with users and ensure
visibility into the progress
being made
 Visibility and frequent delivery
helps to reduce the impact of
major changes
• Users can and should
provide regular feedback and
be familiar with the system
long before anything goes
into production
Responding to change
 Scrum embraces
change and provides
reasonable facilities to
support the
management of
business priorities
and implementation
scope
Working software
 With a focus on working
software, teams are able to
design and build functionality
into the system based on
priorities
 In typical software
implementations, more than
half of all requirements are
not implemented due to
project overruns
Individuals and Interactions
 People build and implement
software systems
 Be adaptive and collaborative
to find the process that brings
the best benefit
 Work with the users to
understand their
requirements
Agile Key Principles
 Agile is NOT about:
• A design methodology
• A project uses design and documentation standards that
the team is comfortable with, communicates effectively
and is no more than the task requires
• A set of tools
• A project uses tools they are comfortable with; however,
scrum project management tools are available
• Avoiding documentation
• A project documents all workshops and other forms of
communication to a level needed to define what is to be
implemented
Scrum Roles
 Product Owner
 Scrum Master
 Team
Scrum Roles
 Product Owner
• Constantly re-prioritizes
project scope
• Synthesizes interests of
stakeholders
• Negotiates sprint goals and
backlog items with team
• Final arbiter of requirements
questions
• Accepts or rejects each
product increment
Scrum Roles
 Scrum Master
• Helps resolve impediments
• Facilitates Agile process
• Supports Product Owner
with planning and
prioritization
• Keeps artifacts visible
• Shields team, enforces
time boxes, advocates
improvements
Scrum Roles
 Team
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cross functional
Autonomous
Self organizing
Responsible for commitments
Co-located
6-10 team members
Agile Process
An Agile Process Lifecycle
Inception
Elaboration
Iteration *
Iteration *
1…………….2…..…..n
1…………….2…..…..n
Construction
Iteration *
Transition
Iteration *
1…………….2…..………..3……….n
1………..n
Proposal is
approved
as a project
GATE A
GATE B
GATE C
GATE D
GATE E
Inception
Elaboration
Construction
Transition
Project Viability Agreed
Business Risk Mitigated
Project Approach Proven
Architectural Risk Mitigated
Useable Solution Available
Construction Risk Mitigated
Release Successfully Deployed
Deployment Risk Mitigated
AGILE PROJECT
CASE STUDY
Claims System Modernization
Have you ever had a
new concept that
sounds great in all of
the articles and
reviews…
… only to
have it
come
crashing
down
when you
put it to
the test?
Nature of effort
 Legacy claims system replacement
• First time the claims system was being replaced
• The existing system was highly customized
• Not all of the customization was well documented
 Project size
• At the peak roughly 60 team members, on-shore and off-shore
• One of the largest projects ever attempted by the company
• 15 months from team formation to implementation
 Project plan
•
•
•
•
First use of Scrum internally
Inception phase
Six development sprints, seven tracks in each sprint
Three integrated testing sprints
An agile team needs the proper
environment to succeed!
 Flexible
 Adaptable
 Collaborative
 Empowered
 Trusting
Our Keys to Success
 Business Case Objectives
 Governance Model
 Dedicated Team
 Collocated Team
 handful of parameters
guiding independent
decision making
 rules of the road defining
decision making
expectations
 develop confidence in
teammates and
expectations to deliver
 timely responsive
Lessons Learned
 Educate
•
•
•
•
Product owner
ScrumMaster
Team members
Others interacting with the agile team
 Communicate, communicate, communicate
• Delivery
• Daily scrums
• Sprint reviews
 Incrementally improve
• Sprint, assess, sprint again
• Improve the process as well as delivery
 Empower the team
Lasting effects
 Scrum is now the default for all strategic projects
 Claims system maintenance releases follow an agile
approach
 Adopted for numerous non-project efforts – scrum
meeting format, etc.
 IT planning follows a conceptual plan with quarterly
reviews for the maintenance of projects in the “product
backlog”
More dynamic, more transparent, shorter
timeframes and focused on functional
deliverables.