Unlocking Agile''s Missed Potential - Unleash Its Potential

UNLOCKING AGILE'S MISSED POTENTIAL
 
Agile has not delivered on its promises. The business side expected faster time to market, but they still experience the long delays of bloated releases. Engineers thought they would be given time to build the product right the first time, but they are rushed under pressure to deliver new features within impossible schedules. What went wrong?
 
The culprit is feature-based waterfall release planning perpetuated in a vain attempt to achieve business predictability. Agile didn't address the business need for multi-year financial predictability. The Agile community's answer was the naïve response, "The business needs to be more Agile." Waterfall release planning with fixed schedules undercuts a basic tenet of Agile development - the need to adjust content delivered within a timebox to account for evolving requirements and incorporation of feedback. Agile without flexible content is not Agile.
 
This book introduces a novel solution that enables product teams to deliver higher value within shorter cycle times while meeting the predictability needs of the business. Organizations today want product teams that break down walls between product management and engineering to achieve schedule and financial objectives. Until now they haven't had a way to implement product teams within the rigid constraints of traditional organizational structures.
 
The Investment planning approach described in this book supports small development increments planned and developed by product teams aligned by common schedule and financial goals. It uses Cost of Delay principles to prioritize work with the highest value and shortest cycle times. Investments provide a vehicle for collaboration and innovation and fulfill the promise of highly motivated self-directed Agile development teams.
 
This book is for engineers, product managers and project managers who want to finally do Agile the way it was envisioned. This book is also for leaders who want to build high-performance teams around the inherent motivational environment of Agile when done right.
 
Foreword by Steve McConnell, author of More Effective Agile: A Roadmap for Software Leaders (Construx Press, 2019).

List of contents

Foreword 11
 
Preface 13
 
Introduction 16
 
The Lost Potential of Agile Development 16
 
Missed Business Expectations 18
 
A New Approach to Agile Planning 19
 
Addressing Traditional Software Development Challenges 21
 
Motivation and Innovation 22
 
Your Organization 22
 
Chapter 1: The Persistence of Waterfall Planning 23
 
Introduction to AccuWiz 23
 
The New COO 24
 
Product Management 24
 
PMO 25
 
Engineering 25
 
Customer Perspective 26
 
Synopsis 26
 
Summary 27
 
Chapter 2 - Why Agile has Struggled 29
 
Agile Development Fundamentals 30
 
The Agile Revolution 30
 
Scrum 31
 
Kanban 34
 
Barriers to Real Agile 35
 
Schedule Pressure 35
 
The "Motivation" Factor 37
 
The Mythical Product Owner 39
 
Feature Planning 40
 
Agile Scaling Frameworks 41
 
Summary 42
 
Chapter 3: Embracing Software Development Variance 43
 
The Cone of Uncertainty 43
 
Software Development Estimation Variance Explained 44
 
Making and Meeting Feature Commitments 45
 
How Other Departments Meet Commitments 47
 
Agile Development Implications 48
 
Summary 48
 
Chapter 4: Cost of Delay 49
 
Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) 50
 
Cost of Delay Basics 50
 
Example 52
 
WSJF Proof 54
 
CoD and Net Present Value (NPV) Prioritization Methods 56
 
Non-linear Income Profiles 57
 
CoD for Non-Linear Cumulative Income Profiles 58
 
Payback Period CoD Method 58
 
Third-year Income Slope CoD Method 58
 
CoD NPV Method 63
 
CoD Computation Method 64
 
WSJF and Traditional Finance 66
 
ROI 66
 
Investment Rate of Return (IRR) 67
 
WSJF versus ROI Prioritization 67
 
Summary 69
 
Chapter 5: Investment Fundamentals 70
 
Investments, Initiatives and Programs 70
 
Investment Hierarchy 71
 
AccuWiz Investment Examples 74
 
Portfolio Allocation 75
 
Investment Forecasts 76
 
Development Effort and Cost 76
 
Investment Income Forecasts 78
 
Investment Backlogs 81
 
Investment WIP 82
 
Investment Backlog WIP 82
 
Investment WIP 83
 
Technical Debt Investments 84
 
Summary 86
 
Chapter 6: Maximizing Investment Value 87
 
Great Products 87
 
Business Model Value Considerations 89
 
Stakeholder Value Analysis 90
 
Gilb Stakeholder Definition 90
 
Ford's Big Mistake 92
 
Trucking Fleet Management Example 93
 
Five Whys 95
 
User Scenarios 96
 
Summary 97
 
Chapter 7: Planning High-Value Investment Features 99
 
Avoiding the Feature Pit 99
 
Feature ROI 100
 
Summary 104
 
Chapter 8: Releasing Investments 105
 
Release Opportunity Cost 105
 
Investment Release Bundling 108
 
Investment Pricing 108
 
Lack of Customer Acceptance 110
 
Release Overhead Costs 111
 
Overcoming Modular Release Challenges 113
 
Architecture for Modular Deployment 113
 
Configuration Management 113
 
Release Investment Prioritization 114
 
Reducing Software Inventory Costs 115
 
Summary 118
 
Chapter 9: Meeting Investment Targets 120
 
Meeting Commitments 120
 
Investment Teams 120
 
Managing Investment Scope 123
 
Managing Sales Reques

About the author

ROBERT WEBBER'S executive experience as VPs of engineering and product management and as a CEO, combined with years of consulting with Fortune 500 companies, provide the broad perspective to create a win-win solution for business and product development that finally achieves the promises of Agile development. Organizations can increase R&D ROI by over 25% using existing Agile development capabilities. Break the chains of waterfall planning!

Summary

UNLOCKING AGILE'S MISSED POTENTIAL

Agile has not delivered on its promises. The business side expected faster time to market, but they still experience the long delays of bloated releases. Engineers thought they would be given time to build the product right the first time, but they are rushed under pressure to deliver new features within impossible schedules. What went wrong?

The culprit is feature-based waterfall release planning perpetuated in a vain attempt to achieve business predictability. Agile didn't address the business need for multi-year financial predictability. The Agile community's answer was the naïve response, "The business needs to be more Agile." Waterfall release planning with fixed schedules undercuts a basic tenet of Agile development - the need to adjust content delivered within a timebox to account for evolving requirements and incorporation of feedback. Agile without flexible content is not Agile.

This book introduces a novel solution that enables product teams to deliver higher value within shorter cycle times while meeting the predictability needs of the business. Organizations today want product teams that break down walls between product management and engineering to achieve schedule and financial objectives. Until now they haven't had a way to implement product teams within the rigid constraints of traditional organizational structures.

The Investment planning approach described in this book supports small development increments planned and developed by product teams aligned by common schedule and financial goals. It uses Cost of Delay principles to prioritize work with the highest value and shortest cycle times. Investments provide a vehicle for collaboration and innovation and fulfill the promise of highly motivated self-directed Agile development teams.

This book is for engineers, product managers and project managers who want to finally do Agile the way it was envisioned. This book is also for leaders who want to build high-performance teams around the inherent motivational environment of Agile when done right.

Foreword by Steve McConnell, author of More Effective Agile: A Roadmap for Software Leaders (Construx Press, 2019).

Product details

• Authors: Webber, R Webber, Robert Webber, Webber Robert
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2022
• EAN: 9781119849087
• ISBN: 978-1-119-84908-7
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Guides; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Technology > Electronics, electrical engineering, communications engineering; Management, Informatik, Software Engineering, Agile Softwareentwicklung, computer science, Software-Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Elektrotechnik u. Elektronik, Management im Ingenieurwesen, Engineering Management