Context Adaptive Agility Managing Complexity and Uncertainty Todd Little

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

3 The Agile Project Leadership Network Declaration of Interdependence (  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. 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 Declaration of Independence from Bureaucratic Project Management 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.

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

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7 Hurricane Rita

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9 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 Common Model Representation Well data Production data Seismic data Velocity data Reservoir / Fluid data Structural / Stratigraphic data Common Model Representation

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

11 Our team was tasked with understanding and improving our software development process  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?”

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

13 Manifesto for Agile Software Development 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

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

15 We scored the Complexity Attributes on a scale from 1 to 10 Attribute110 Team Size1100 Mission CriticalSpeculative Safety Critical with significant exposure Team LocationSame RoomMulti-site, World Wide Team CapacityEstablished Team of experts New team of mostly novices Domain knowledge gaps Developers know the domain as well as expert users Developers have no idea about the domain DependenciesNo dependencies Tight Integration with several projects

16 And we scored the Uncertainty Attributes Attribute110 Market Uncertainty Known deliverable, possibly defined contractual obligation New market that is unknown and untested Technical Uncertainty Enhancements to existing architecture New technology, new architecture. May be some "R" Project Duration1-4 week24 months Dependents/ Scope Flexibility Well defined contractual obligations or Infrastructure Independent

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. Adaptive Activities Inputs Pre- conditions Project Sanction RTM Outputs Post- conditions Released Software CORE Activities Iterations

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

22 The Aggregate Product Plan sets the high level vision and expectations Project: OpenWells DavenportProject Code: Product: OpenWells Target Date: 3/30/2004 Version: Release Date: 3/31/2004 Product Manager: Marcus RidgwaySDD: David Field Vision: Version 2.0 of the new Well Operations reporting and data analysis application. Will bring powerful new query, graphing and reporting capabilities. Comprehensive D&WS input data and output reports will be supported including integration to Production suite. Platforms: Windows 2000 /Oracle Windows XP / Oracle 9i Windows 2000 & XP /MSDE Features: 18 additional reports Addtnl apps - Data Anlyzr, NG Profile, Autoprint Extended Rig Equipment support Knowledge Management - Technical limit drilling, lessons learned, non-productive time, and equipment failures Application enhancements (spreadsheet support and tailored well services tab and others) Strategic Fit: Integration Workflow ( Prototype, plan, actual) Top quartile technology Target Markets: Existing DIMS customers US Independents NOCs Government and regulatory organizations Companies requiring integrated offering w/decent wellbore schematic requirements Service companies

23 The A/B/C List sets proper expectations AMUST be completed in order to ship the product. BSHOULD be completed in order to ship the product. CMAY be completed prior to shipping the product if time allows. 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 A/B/C List B C A B C D 50% 100% Backlog PlanTypical Delivery 50% 25%

25 A/B/C List

26 We use a Quality Agreement similar to Thomsett Attribute “A” Very Important “B” Important “C” Not Very Important Completeness of Functionality X Completeness of Testing X Reliability X Performance X Installation X Usability X Integration X On Line Help X Training X

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

28 Simple, Uncertain projects are like Colts  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

29 Complex, Certain projects are like Cows  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

30 Complex, Uncertain projects are like Bulls  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.

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

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

36 Products Tend to follow a Lifecycle path A B C

37 An Example Lifecycle path

38 Portfolio Management and Dealing with Darwin Market Differentiating High Low Mission Critical Low High InventDeploy OffloadManage

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

40 Portfolio Management and Dealing with Darwin Market Differentiating High Low Mission Critical Low High Ad HocAgile OutsourceStructured

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

42 Don’t mistreat your cows 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.