Great approach demonstrated via slides from a recent @archie_borland @MarkKulak webinar for Borland Software.
Key take-aways:
- 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
The frantic pace of change, driven by mobile, cloud and the rise of the consumer, is introducing new levels of complexity to the software industry and forces organizations into more fragmented ways of working. Today's development managers are subjected to constant change that they cannot control, yet must manage, and are responsible for delivering the applications their customers need at an unprecedented scale and pace. To stay relevant and meet customer demand in the face of constant change requires a truly optimized approach.
2. 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
3. Agenda & Key Takeaways
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
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
Problems and current market issues Steps to correct the problem
5. 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
6. 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?
7. 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
8. 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+
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 Great Product 3.0 Great Product 3.1 Great Product 4.0 Great Product 5.0
10. Monthly/Weekly Release Cycle
2016 2017+
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
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
11. Monthly/Weekly Release Cycle
2016 2017+
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
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…
12. 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
13. Challenges in Delivery
Application 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…
14. 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
15. 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
16. 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”
17. 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”
18. Agenda & Key Takeaways
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
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
19. Agile Gaps force “Hidden Process”
Developers / Software /
Project / Customers
20
Business / Management 2
http://www.agilemanifesto.org/
21. 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
22. 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
Gather
Define
Plan
Adapt
24. 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…
25. 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
26. 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…
27. 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…
28. 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…
29. 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 & Delivery
Borland Atlas
30. 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 & Delivery
Borland Atlas
31. Precision. Control. Validation.Precision. Control. Validation.
Borland Atlas
Benefits 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 Results
Global 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.
32. 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.
34. Let’s Keep the Conversation Going!
Visit Borland.com
twitter.com/borlandsoftware
linkedin.com/company/borland blog.borland.com
youtube.com/user/TheBorlandSoftware
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• Over the next 3 months, we are sending tips and tricks under the hashtag
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