eliminate bottlenecks in software development & delivery

Eliminate Bottlenecks in Software Development & Delivery

Archie Roboostoff & Mark Kulak, Micro Focus

Agenda & Key Takeaways

Agenda

Archie• Software Development Lifecycle Overview (:02)• Application Delivery & Market Evolution (:05)• Challenges Product Teams are Facing (:03)• Analyst Commentary on the Issue (:03)• Customer Story (:02)

Mark• Trying & Failing to Solve the Problem (:02)• Application Delivery Goal (:03)• Disparate Goals… Agile Friction (:03)• How to Overcome the Bottleneck / Best Practices (:06)• Demonstration of Best Practices (:06)• Closure/Q&A


Agenda

Key Takeaways• Agile is filled with benefits, but has some unintended consequences which “bottleneck” delivery• The market trend has this getting worse – backed by analysts & customers• Take practical steps now to overcome with a few key process improvements to eliminate



Problems and current market issues Steps to correct the problem

Application Delivery Process

Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

Define Design Develop Test Deploy Improve

Application Delivery Process

Improve Design

DevelopDeploy

Test

Define

• Capture customer needs• Align needs across stakeholders• Track progress

• Control changes to code• Make changes visible across tools and groups• Link critical components to code

• Validates business needs are met• Ensure end user experience• Manage complexity across platforms

Poll #1

When it comes to your job function, in relation to the categories just outlined, “Requirements Gathering,” “Development/Engineering,” “Testing/QA/Production Deployment,” where would you most align to?

One Year Release Cycle

Market Dynamics• Time was on the side of delivery teams

– Time to refine/refactor/rework requirements– Time to plan go to market activities– Long transition times from one phase to the next– Time to make “real” roadmaps

1995 1996+

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul

GA Great Product 1.0 Great Product 2.0

Customer/End User Expectations• Expectation was for one, maybe two deliveries a year• Customers/end users were less “demanding”• Platform & device combinations were simple• Limited voice/direct product input

Quarterly Release Cycle

Market Dynamics• A change was required – Agile was that change• Better products through iterations/”MVP” mentality

– No surprises, ability to shift• Much less time to spend on requirements, planning and

stakeholder engagement

Customer/End User Expectations• Expectation was for more frequent incremental updates• Customers/end users growing more savvy• Platform & device combinations increased• Expected more ROI from their input

2008 2009+


GA Great Product 1.0 Great Product 2.0 Great Product 3.0 Great Product 3.1 Great Product 4.0 Great Product 5.0

Poll #2

Describe your organization’s level of Agile adoption

Monthly/Weekly Release Cycle

2016 2017+


GA 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.0 2.1 2.2 3.0 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 6.0 6.1

Market Dynamics• Constant innovation• Technical debt builds from past wins• Micro-services/WebScale create more instant expectations• Almost zero time for formal requirements and go to market

alignment• Roadmap?

Customer/End User Expectations• Constant updates & bug fixes• Customers/end users very demanding• Platform & device combinations exponentially increased• Customer expect direct involvement and input – public

ratings and complaints

Monthly/Weekly Release Cycle

2016 2017+


GA 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.0 2.1 2.2 3.0 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 6.0 6.1

Market Dynamics• Constant innovation• Technical debt builds from past wins• Micro-services/WebScale create more instant expectations• Almost zero time for formal requirements and go to market

alignment• Roadmap?

Customer/End User Dynamics• Constant updates & bug fixes• Customers/end users very demanding• Platform & device combinations exponentially increased• Customer expect direct involvement and input – public

ratings and complaints

Ease of Technology Demanding End Users Complexity/Speed Product Chaos

It’s going to get worse…

Why is there a pinch point??

As delivery teams get more efficient thanks to process changes, devops and agile, the role of the business (PMs & BAs) has gotten more chaotic...Responsibility Old New

Executive Updates

Stakeholder reviews and feedback

Customer input & tracking

Technical Debt Management

Release/Payload Management

Roadmapping

Retrospective/Improvement

Resulting in negative “unintended” consequences- Less productive developers/slower process- Missed market opportunities- Large customer erosion- Brand erosion

Business Perspective

Enable credit & PayPal purchasing- Visa and Master Card

(critical)- American Express

(should)- PayPal (could)

Product Manager

Technical Perspective

• Design credit card processing screens

• Define shared credit processing service

• Design and verify encryption protocol

• Create unit testing framework

• Create credit card consumption UI

Developer

?

Strategy, markets, features

Epics, stories,

tasks

Challenges in DeliveryApplication Development and Delivery Problems Persist

*Source: Standish Group, Chaos Manifesto Report 2012 **Source: Borland/Vanson Bourne Survey of 590 CIOs. October 2013

Which leads to unsatisfactory tradeoffs…

Cost

Quality

Time

Scope

• Poor understanding of customer needs• Poor communication & collaboration• Weak governance

• Re-work• Delivery constraints• Inability to adapt

Project Issues* Project Failure* No Confidence

Improvement Design

DevelopDeployment

Quality Assurance

Define

Which leads to undesired results

Disconnected Stakeholders, Processes and Systems…

Resulting in poor execution…

Analyst Commentary – Gartner™

Summary• Enterprise agile delivery is a fundamentally different way of undertaking

business by delivering demonstrable business outcomes frequently and in a flexible manner.

Key Challenges• Organizations are struggling to take their initial agile success and move it to the enterprise level while

expanding the agile principles to other functions.• CIOs report that traceability and alignment to business outcomes is not always clear, raising concerns about

planning, funding, change management and resource utilization.• The startup approach of using agile software development and DevOps is not enough by itself. It needs

lightweight governance and adaptive strategy.Recommendations• Align agile products or projects to business capabilities with clear business outcomes.• Have a clear understanding of all aspects of the product, not just the software.• Use empirical-based, continuous governance based on a bidirectional flow of information from top to bottom

and bottom to top of the enterprise pyramid.

Source: How to Create an Agile Pyramid to Achieve Enterprise Agile Delivery of Business Capabilities• Report Date: 29 May 2015 Report ID: G00271168

Analyst Commentary – Forrester™

• Agile transparency results in lack of business alignment and coordination delays• The best approach is to have the agile teams use an agile approach in a way that aligns

– Business initiatives– Customer outcomes– Market imperatives

Source: Overcoming The Predictability-Agility Paradox In Software Delivery Webinar – Micro Focus & Forrester. Webinar Date: 11 March 2015

Real World Customer Story

• Global Retail Organization

• Four business units all with specific market focus

• Multiple shared development teams across the world

• Pressure to react faster to market demands and customer needs

• Invested in leading Agile tools

The Customer

Business & Product

Managers

Customer SDLC Process

Proposal & Final Review

Project Handover

Development & QA Teams

• Work with key customers to document high level goals• Deliver a preliminary MRD for official design & architectural review• Series of various meetings to gain consensus and tailor needs

• Once agreed, an official PRD with high level goals is created• Final review sent to exec teams for official sign-off• Project is “locked down” and prepped for handover

• Project managers are allocated• Product Owners/Managers meet weekly

• Backlog created• Iterative development &

adjustments weekly

• Document based – difficult to manage various input points• Multiple revisions – almost impossible to stay up to date• SharePoint – good attempt to “collaborate”

• PRD process requires many meetings and updates to the “original doc”

• Signoff via email attachment has issues

• High level backlog creation happens in isolation across development teams and POs

• Rally and VersionOne backlog breakdowns continue evolving “requirements”

Real World Customer Story

• Losing market positions to competitors

• Customer demands were accelerating

• Commercial agile tool investment wasn’t paying off

• Silos were being created

• No ability to react mid-flight

• Not Agile but “Fragile”

Challenges

Business & Product

Managers

Customer SDLC Process

Proposal & Final Review

Project Handover

Development & QA Teams

• Work with key customers to document high level goals• Deliver a preliminary MRD for official design & architectural review• Series of various meetings to gain consensus and tailor needs

• Once agreed, an official PRD with high level goals is created• Final review sent to exec teams for official sign-off• Project is “locked down” and prepped for handover

• Project managers are allocated• Product Owners/Managers meet weekly

• Backlog created• Iterative development &

adjustments weekly

• Document based – difficult to manage various input points• Multiple revisions – almost impossible to stay up to date• SharePoint – good attempt to “collaborate”

• PRD process requires many meetings and updates to the “original doc”

• Signoff via email attachment has issues

• High level backlog creation happens in isolation across development teams and POs

• Rally and VersionOne backlog breakdowns continue evolving “requirements”


Agenda

Key Takeaways• Agile is filled with benefits, but has some unintended consequences which “bottleneck” delivery• The market trend has this getting worse – backed by analysts & customers• Take practical steps now to overcome with a few key process improvements to eliminate

– Effectively gather and manage business needs and expectations – Express and communicate ideas and concepts to other stakeholders – Align business needs with agile delivery – Quickly understand the impact of the change required by shifts in business priorities – Focus on roadmaps and strategy, not backlogs and stories



Agile Gaps force “Hidden Process”

Developers / Software / Project / Customers 20

Business / Management 2

http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

Many are Trying to Fill the Gap

Traditional Business Involvement

• Gather Business Needs• Set Business Expectations• Express & communicate ideas

and concepts to other stakeholders

• Understand the impact of the change required by shifts in business priorities

• Confirm Delivery of Business Needs

Agile Business Involvement

• Gather & Refine Business Needs• Set & Adjust Business Expectations• Express & communicate ideas and concepts to other stakeholders • Understand the impact of the change required by shifts in business priorities • Confirm Delivery of Business Needs

Develop

GatherDefine

Plan

Adapt

Disparate Goals… Agile Friction

Business Needs

Delivery Needs

Gather and Manage Business Needs and Expectations

• Define inclusive process for gathering business needs efficiently

• Socialize with stakeholders early and often

• Keep track of changes by tracking feedback and evolving versions

• Relate ideas / concepts to defined requirements and delivery

• Provide visibility to idea / feedback evolution and delivery

Ideas come from anywhere in any form…

Communicate Ideas and Concepts to Other Stakeholders

• Individual needs must be described with appropriate detail, both functional and non-functional

• Clearly define dependencies and constraints• Establish success criteria up front, acceptance

and testing• Socialization should continue during refinement

and detail definition

• Keep track of changes by tracking feedback and evolving versions, this will be important to understand plan evolution and change impact

Socialize, and it needs to be more than just a story…

http://www.scaledagileframework.com/nonfunctional-requirements/

Types of Nonfunctional Requirements

http://www.scaledagileframework.com/nonfunctional-requirements/

Understand the Impact of Shift in Business Priority

• Defining priorities at individual item level enables quick change

• Tracking dependencies and constraints is an investment… that enables impact tracking

• Clearly understanding related delivery status enables informed adjustments

• Socialize adjustments and impacts before shifting directions

• Track history and impacts of change to answer “how did we get here from there”?

Priorities change, be prepared to adjust…

Roadmap and Strategy Over Backlogs and Stories

• Planning is done using high level business needs

• High level plans are socialized, adjusted and continually tracked to down stream progress

• Incremental delivery is in support of defined plans, not in place of them

• Spend more time here by getting the other things right

The business defines success…

Align Business Needs with Agile Delivery

• Two lifecycles, Business Definition and Agile Delivery, working as one

• Provide status in business terms, not sprint or story context

• Agile Delivery derives authorization for work from Business Needs

• Actively evaluate the backlog and output of each sprint

• Minimally expose the internals of agile process with focus on business impact

Making Delivery Status Visible in Business Context…

Precision. Control. Validation.Precision. Control. Validation.

WHAT: Atlas is an agile requirements and delivery platform

HOW: That helps organizations of all sizes define, build, and bring complex products to market

WHY: So these organizations can fully realize the benefits of agile, work more collaboratively, and deliver products that are consistently tied to overall business objectives

GOAL: Atlas delivers:- Better products- Team work through collaboration- Increased value on existing agile tools- Visibility across multiple teams- More predictability across all delivery projects

Agile Requirements & DeliveryBorland Atlas

Precision. Control. Validation.Precision. Control. Validation.

Borland AtlasBenefits You’ll Achieve and Who’s Already Benefiting

Borland Atlas Benefits

• Efficient development processes• Governance and control across

distributed teams and projects• Accelerated time to market• Realized value of existing agile tools• Reduced development costs• A lowered requirements bell curve• Improved product feedback and

collaboration with stakeholders including sales, marketing & executive teams

Company Challenge ResultsGlobal consumer beverage company

Existing agile tools and business teams were out of sync. Company invested in agile tools & processes but was still executing slowly.

Faster product approval cycles, manual processes eliminated, agile teams delivering products in line with customer demands.

Global logistics provider

Existing requirements tools were working for some teams but most deemed it “too heavy” and slow for today’s fast paced environment.

Integrated usage between existing requirements and agile tools allows the company to use Atlas to scale agile with confidence while ensuring strong ties to regulations and requirements.

Global retail infrastructure provider

As the company adopted agile, the manual document requirement processes in place were slowing down the overall SDLC.

Atlas was able to import their documents to maintain links to downstream versioned stories and tasks. Company is now moving away from documents to a more fluid requirements process within Atlas. Company increased the value of their Rally infrastructure by implementing Atlas.

Ability to execute

Borland, as part of the Micro Focus company, has a truly enterprise customer support service, with multiple global centres serving over 18,000 customers and over 2 million licensed users.

The Borland testing products which Gartner rates as market leaders in its most recent MQ report, are part of a

rich and broad product portfolio, including requirements, process and

change management.

With over 25 years of experience in the software development marketplace, Borland has a history of innovation and invention that puts them in a prime position to support the ever-changing market.

Borland, as part of the Micro Focus company, has a stable and strong business, with good investor advocacy and shareholder returns, trading as one of the LSE’s FTSE 250 companies.

As a major player in the $6bn software testing

market, Borland demonstrates again that

it has an proven track record, supplying and

deploying enterprise grade solutions to its thousands of clients.

Sample Customers

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