From Fragile to Agile
DSDM Member Day March 13th 2014
David Blamire-Brown
“Oh what a tangled web we weave.When first we practice to deceive.”
Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808)
By mate2code (Own work) (CC-BY-3.0) via Wikimedia Commons
Outline
• Project Background• Where we are now• 10 Lessons• Summary
Project Background
By Department for Communities and Local Government(CC BY-ND-2.0) via Flickr
Where we are now
By Peter aka anemoneprojectors (CC BY-SA-2.0) via Flickr
10 Lessons
“Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe. If you believe, clap your hands!”
James M. Barrie (Peter Pan, 1904)
Lesson #1 Agile is not Magic Pixie Dust.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Lau Tzu (604 BC - 531 BC)
Lesson #2 Invest time in team building at project start-up
“When eating an elephant take one bite at a time.”
Creighton Abrams (1914 - 1974)
Lesson #3 You can (and should) treat requirements & designs as products of iterations
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,The courage to change the things I can,And wisdom to know the difference.”
Reinhold Niebuhr attrib. (The Serenity Prayer, 1943)
Lesson #4 Do not try to force a project to follow “unnatural” plans
“Principle 4 - Never compromise quality”
DSDM Atern Manual
Lesson #5 Invest time in building regression test packs as you go along and never under-estimate data migration
“If everybody looked the same, we’d get tired of looking at each other.”
Groove Armada, 1999
Lesson #6 Do not adopt a one-size-fits all approach within the project
“Computers are like bikinis. They save people a lot of guesswork.”
Sam Ewing (1920 – 2001)
Lesson #7 Online tools really do work for collaboration
“One can never know with perfect accuracy both of those two important factors which determine the movement of one of the smallest particles - its position and its velocity. It is impossible to determine accurately both the position and the direction and speed of a particle at the same instant.”
Werner Heisenberg (Die Physik der Atomkerne, 1952)
Lesson #8 Agile communication helps to reduce the impact of problems
“If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him.”
Paulo Coelho (By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, 1994)
Lesson #9Aim for the smallest possible lead time between capturing requirements and sizing the work
“Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts.”
Jim Morrison (1943 - 1971)
Lesson #10Retrospectives & learning are vital to improve chances of success
Summary
• Agile is not Magic Pixie Dust• Invest time in team building at project
start-up• You can (and should) treat
requirements & designs as products of iterations
• Do not try to force a project to follow “unnatural” plans
• Invest time in building regression test packs as you go along and never under-estimate data migration
Summary
• Do not adopt a one-size-fits all approach within the project
• Newer tools really do work for collaboration
• Agile communication helps to reduce the impact of problems
• Aim for the smallest possible lead time between capturing requirements and sizing the work
• Retrospectives & learning are vital to improve chances of success
“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.”
Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 1979)
Don’t let your questions hang