Agile Flight Crew Team based execution for high quality and consistent delivery

Intuit Agile Conference Series Ian Maple, Agile Transformation Leader

AgileCamp2015 Dallas October 19th, 2015 @goagilecamp

About Intuit

Intuit Inc. creates business and financial management solutions that simplify the business of life for small businesses, consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services include QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax®, which make it easier to manage small businesses and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. Mint.com provides a fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to manage their money, while Demandforce® offers marketing and communication tools for small businesses. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. Founded in 1983, Intuit had revenue of $4.2 billion in its fiscal year 2015. The company has approximately 7,700 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

The Intuit Agile program delivers a consistent yet highly flexible approach to hundreds of Agile teams. The program offerings are delivered to empowered teams using a playbook model where individual business units or teams select Agile configurations that make sense for their operating needs. Components of the Agile at Intuit program include; consulting, career, coaching, training and supporting and are supported by comprehensive content, a vibrant Agile community and key external partners.

Ian Maple is an experienced global technology leader having led and worked with software development teams and organizations in 18 countries around the world and numerous US states. He is also rumored to have written some software himself back in the day. Ian is currently the Agile Transformation Leader for Intuit Inc., a California based business and financial solutions company with 7,700 employees in offices in the United States, Canada, India, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Brazil and Israel. He is responsible for building and driving the enterprise ’Intuit Agile' program which delivers a consistent yet highly flexible Agile approach to hundreds of teams across Intuit as they advance to the next level of Agility. If you think he talks funny, it’s because he is from New Zealand, most recently from Auckland. He moved to the US with his family in 2001 and is currently a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area in California.

About Ian

• Doing Agile?

• Organization Size

• Roles

• Being Agile?

Hands Up!

Deliver world class agility through enterprise-wide adoption of

Agile principles

• Working software is the primary measure of progress. 7 • Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. 8

• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. 9

• Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential. 10

• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. 11

• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. 12

12 Agile Principles • Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. 1

• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. 2

• Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. 3

• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. 4

• Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. 5

• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. 6

• Working software is the primary measure of progress. 7 • Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. 8

• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. 9

• Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential. 10

• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. 11

• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. 12

Agile Principles for Today • Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. 1

• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. 2

• Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. 3

• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. 4

• Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. 5

• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. 6

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11

12

Agile Principles

Create an environment where the world’s top talent can do the best work of their lives

Delight customers more than rivals in ways that matter most

Inspire confidence in our long term growth, leading to a higher stock price

Employee Customer Shareholder

True North Goals

Delight partners who add value to the ecosystem

Partners

Time to Market

Customer Satisfaction

Employee Satisfaction Quality Predictability Agile

Outcomes

Our Philosophy •  Agile is a team sport !

•  Do the minimum responsible amount of work

•  At the last responsible moment

•  With the smallest responsible number of people

•  It’s about delivering value, not stories.

• Our team has poor predictability

• Our team struggles with defect escapes

•  There are ‘over the wall’ handoffs within the team

•  There is an ‘us vs them’ feeling within the team or with the product owner

• Our team is multiple individuals rather than a single value delivery unit

• Our team is ‘doing’ Agile but not yet ‘being’ Agile.

Agile flight crew may be for you if…

•  “High quality, consistent outcomes are more than just desired”

•  Flights: •  Have a size

•  Tasks to be executed

•  Flexibility is necessary

•  Complexity is all around

• A skilled flight crew with clear responsibilities, and teamwork is critical

Why a Flight?

The Agile Flight Crew The team members responsible for the safe delivery of

only this story across the story board

The Pilot •  Self selected and any team member can be a pilot

•  Primary responsibility for safety and delivery

•  Will work on story tasks.

Other members of the flight crew

•  Any team members needed for successful completion of story

•  Share responsibility for delivery

•  Are not just observers.

Air Traffic Controller •  Usually Product Owner •  Owns requirements and prioritization •  Provides clearance to land i.e. ‘signs off’ •  In regular communication with the pilot/crew during flight.

1.  Flight planning 2.  Pre-flight Briefing 3.  Takeoff 4.  En-Route 5.  Landing 6.  Post-Flight

Flight Phases

= Story Creation

= Story Huddle

= Move Story to In Progress

= Story Execution

= Move Story to Done

= Completed

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• An ‘INVEST’ story is written • Team estimates size

• Story is prioritized and placed in backlog

1. Flight Planning – Story Creation

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Attributes of a good story - INVEST

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimable

Small

Testable

Can this story fly alone?

We need to avoid that weather, don’t be overly specific up front

Does this story articulate the value and for who?

Just enough detail to estimate?

Smaller stories have less steps that can cause delays

Do we have acceptance criteria?

• Story is next for departure - top of backlog

• An available pilot selects this story

• Pilot gathers the flight crew and ATC

• Review and update the story

•  Identify tasks

2. Pre-flight Briefing – Story Huddle

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•  Are we ready for takeoff? –  Story reviewed and updated?

–  Tasks documented and agreed?

–  Takeoff checklist completed?

•  Story is now ready for takeoff –  Move story to In-Progress

–  Flight time / cycle time starts

3. Takeoff Checklist

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•  Constant communication amongst the flight crew, verbal not email

•  Story Flight crew works together to execute all the tasks

–  Helps each other wherever possible/practical

•  Lots of conversations with the Air Traffic Controller.

4. En Route – Flight execution

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Task

Story Flight Crew

Team

Build

Release Train

Production

Agile Priorities

Production

Release Train

Build

Team

Story Flight Crew

Task

• Story driven standups

• Any member of flight crew represents story

• What will happen on this story today?

• What help does my story flight crew need from the wider team?

• Don’t forget to celebrate flights completed

4. En Route – Daily Standup

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•  Monitor amount of time since takeoff = the accumulated cycle time

•  Blocked or delayed stories may need additional support –  Additional resources/crew or leadership escalation

4. En Route – Flight delays

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• WIP - How many stories our team has in the air

• How many stories can ATC handle?

• Do we have enough pilots?

• Are flight crews sharing members?

• Context switching is a key cause of delays

4. En Route - Be careful about WIP

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• Complete the landing checklist

• Air Traffic Controller gives final sign off to land

• Story lands, moves to Done

• Flight duration / cycle time stops

5. Landing - Checklist

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• Review cycle times, look for outliers

• Review escaped defects

•  Look for recurring themes

• Do we need to add to our checklists?

–  Blocked in flight? – add to takeoff checklist

–  Defect post flight? – add to landing checklist

6. Post Flight – Continuous Improvement Size Points Cycle Times Average

XS 1 2,1,2,3,1,2,3 2 S 2 4,5,12,5,5,6 5

M 3 7,9,2,10 8.5

L 5 14 14

• With high quality INVEST stories and clear acceptance criteria… •  Teams can provide high quality estimates • Checklists can reduce delays and defect escapes • Story flight crews get teams working together

• And through this we get… • Consistent cycle times and consistent velocity • Consistent velocity = predictability and sustainable pace

The ‘Cone of Trust'

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• You are building trust with your leaders through your high quality, sustainable and predictable team performance

Congratulations!

Where to from here…

linkedin.com/in/ianmaple

Thank You!

bit.do/IntuitAgileMaturityTool