AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

CREATING OUTCOMES FROM

UNCERTAINTY
Alex Cowan

2015 COWAN+
ABOUT ME

Entrepreneur (5x)
Intrapreneur (1x)

2015 COWAN+
ABOUT ME

alexandercowan.com
2015 COWAN+
BUILDING A SOFTWARE PRODUCT/VENTURE GETTING CHEAPER
COST TO LAUNCH A TECH STARTUP (~ NEW PRODUCT)

$5,000,000 Open source and

Cloud and AWS
horizontal scaling

$500,000 $50,000 $5,000

2000 2005 2009 2011

Source: CB Insights 2015 COWAN+

BUT ITS TOUGHER THAN EVER TO CREATE VALUE

64% of Features Rarely or Never Used

50-70% of IT Projects Fail
90% of New Products Fail

Sources: see bit.ly/sw-class 2015 COWAN+

WHY DO PROJECTS FAIL?

Failures during Planning

Issues with Execution

Sources: Yael Grushka-Cockayne @grushkay 2015 COWAN+

THE MANIFESTO WAS SIMPLE

INDIVIDUALS PROCESSES
INTERACTIONS TOOLS

WORKING COMPREHENSIVE
SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION
CUSTOMER CONTRACT
COLLABORATION NEGOTIATION

RESPONDING TO FOLLOWING
CHANGE A PLAN

2015 COWAN+
THE BLUE BUTTON MOMENT- NOT AGILE

2015 COWAN+
THE BLUE BUTTON MOMENT- NOT AGILE

Too much emphasis

on output vs.
outcomes.
2015 COWAN+
THE BLUE BUTTON MOMENT- NOT AGILE

Too much emphasis

on output vs. (sad ending)
outcomes.
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THE BLUE BUTTON MOMENT- AGILE

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THE BLUE BUTTON MOMENT- AGILE

Easy, ready narrative

collaboration.
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THE BLUE BUTTON MOMENT- AGILE

Easy, ready narrative (happy ending)

collaboration.
2015 COWAN+
THE BUSINESS OF CREATING SOFTWARE

2015 COWAN+
THE JOB OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Learning
Collaborate on Product Design
Acceptance, Usability Testing
Building
Code Creation & Maintenance
Version Control & Integration
Maintain Best Practices Architectures
& Conventions
Functional Testing
Deciding
Prioritize & Batch Tasks
Share Out Responsibilities & Tasks
Manage Work in Progress
Define & Communicate Release Content
Managing
Team Management
Interface to General Management
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MAJOR AGILE METHODOLOGIES

Scrum XP

Kanban

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THE IMPORTANCE OF FORM & NOTATION

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(THE WHOLE) AGILE USER STORY
Epic Stories
Stories
Test Cases

As a [persona],
I want to [do something]
so that I can [realize a reward]

2015 COWAN+
(THE WHOLE) AGILE USER STORY
Epic Stories
Stories Who is this user?
Test Cases What makes them tick?
Whos an example of such a person?
As a [persona],
I want to [do something]
so that I can [realize a reward]

2015 COWAN+
(THE WHOLE) AGILE USER STORY
Epic Stories
Stories Who is this user?
Test Cases What makes them tick?
Whos an example of such a person?
As a [persona],
I want to [do something]
so that I can [realize a reward]
Why do they want to do this?
What's the benefit/reward?
How will we know of its
working?

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SCRUM!

SCRUM!
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ROLES

Scrum Master

Product Owner

Development Team

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SPRINT PLANNING
PRODUCT DRAFT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT
BACKLOG BACKLOG GOAL BACKLOG TASKS

UNPLANNED PLANNED
SPRINT SPRINT

Discuss Update,
Estimate
Backlog Finalize

Plan Work Demo Retro

2015 COWAN+
SPRINT EXECUTION

YES

NO
TIME
UP?
PLANNED COMPLETED
SPRINT NO OR SPRINT
SMALL

BIG
Daily Daily BACKLOG Stop
Scrum Work ISSUE? Sprint

Plan Work Demo Retro

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DAILY STANDUP

What did I accomplish yesterday?

What will I accomplish today?

What obstacles are impeding my progress?

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SPRINT DEMO

Plan Work Demo Retro

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SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE

UNEXAMINED EXAMINED
SPRINT SPRINT

What went What could What change?

well? be better?

Plan Work Demo Retro

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BURNDOWN
Actual
Story Points

Ideal

(sprint start) Time (By Day) (sprint end)

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BURNDOWN- EXAMPLE

Source: I8abug 2015 COWAN+

SALESFORCE CASE FROM CRGP

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SALESFORCE CASE FROM CRGP
Should they finish the sprint on time, and deploy what was done and releasable, or
should they ask Parker Harris and the executive team for a delay?

But where should they go from here?

How should they identify the priorities for each successive sprint? For example, should
they focus on bringing the most resistant, poor-performing groups up to speed, or start
with the ones that were doing somewhat better and eager to learn more?

Would it be better to have most groups performing adequately, or should they work on
creating a few stars to serve as examples for the rest of the organization?

And would Salesforce.com be able to keep adapting ADM to meet the needs of the
organization as it continued to grow?

2015 COWAN+
THE MANIFESTO WAS SIMPLE

INDIVIDUALS PROCESSES
INTERACTIONS TOOLS

WORKING COMPREHENSIVE
SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION
CUSTOMER CONTRACT
COLLABORATION NEGOTIATION

RESPONDING TO FOLLOWING
CHANGE A PLAN

2015 COWAN+
THE VENTURE DESIGN PROCESS
How did the customer CUSTOMER Was the implemented
/user react? DISCOVERY & story relevant to the
EXPERIMENTS proposition?
?

E
M

WH
W

AT
S HO
PRODUCT &

IF
PROMOTION

?
VALUE
Did the PROPOSITIONS &
USER STORIES implementation ASSUMPTIONS
& PROTOTYPES deliver on
the story?

E?
AL
PIVOT?

SC
Do we understand
this person? What ?
AT
makes them tick? WH
Is the problem
PROBLEM relevant? Is the
PERSONAS WHO? SCENARIOS & proposition better
ALTERNATIVES
vs alternatives?

2015 COWAN+
WHAT ANGLE ARE WE WORKING?

Motivation

Action : )

Action Line

Inaction : (

Ability (Usability)

source: adapted from BJ Foggs Behavioral Model 2015 COWAN+

THE DESIGN SPRINT

WHAT DO HERES
WE DO NEXT WHAT
WEEK?

NO NO NO NO
PERSONAS NEED NEED NEED NEED
MOTIVATIONS? USABILITY? ARCHITECTURE? BUILD STUFF!
& PROBLEMS?

NEED NEED NEED NEED

PROBLEM
MOTIVATION USABILITY ARCHITECTURE
SCENARIO
SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT
SPRINT

2015 COWAN+
THE CONTINUOUS DELIVERY PIPELINE

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DOES AGILE APPLY OUTSIDE SOFTWARE?

2015 COWAN+
FINI
Slides bit.ly/alex-at-lbs

Venture Design bit.ly/vdesign

Coursera Class:
bit.ly/uva-projects
Project Management

Coursera Class: bit.ly/hiagile

Agile Development

cowana@darden.virginia.edu
Get in touch!
@cowanSF

2015 COWAN+