Seeking Certainty: Agile Development Methods in Software Projects

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Seeking CertaintyAgile Development Methods in
Software Projects

• Roy Morien
• Research Fellow
• DEBII, Curtin Business School
• Curtin University, Perth, Australia
• Visiting IS Specialist
• Naresuan University
• Phitsanulok, Thailand

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Agile Development Lessons from Successful
Enterprises

• I want now to look elsewhere in what might be
  called process improvement endeavours of highly
  successful enterprises and projects.
• Process improvement has been, in my view
  (arguable, I will admit) based primarily on the
  publication of process auditing requirements.
  Proof of process adherence in the way of reports,
  documentation and verification of conformity to
  an adopted process is the hallmark of process
  improvement.
• Argue with me if you will but later ?
• Process improvement stipulations must encompass
  the social and behavioural aspects of human
  activity systems, and view processes as learning
  activities, and knowledge sharing.

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Toyota The Lean Manufacturing Company

• Why talk about a motor vehicle manufacturing
  company? And why talk about this one?
• Toyota is the largest motor vehicle manufacturing
  company in the world, by market capitalisation.
• In its 2002-2003 financial year, Toyota made a
  profit of US8.5 billion larger than the
  combined profit of Ford and GM the biggest
  annual profit of any vehicle manufacturer in the
  last decade.
• Net profit margins are 8.3 times higher than the
  industry average.

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Toyota The Lean Manufacturing Company

• Toyotas stock price rose 24 in 2002 market
  capitalization was higher than the combined
  market capitalization of Ford, GM and Chrysler
• Return on assets is 8 times higher than industry
  average.
• Has made a profit every year for the last 25
  years.
• By 2005, Toyota was outselling every other car
  manufacturer in the world.
• Toyota opened new manufacturing plants in the US
  when all the US manufacturers were closing plants
  and going off-shore.
• Likert, Jeffrey K., THE TOYOTA WAY 14 Management
  Principles from the worlds greatest
  manufacturer, McGraw-Hill, 2004

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Toyota The Lean Manufacturing Company

• Toyota is renowned as the company that created
  Lean Manufacturing.
• Toyota is managed according to 14 basic
  management principles that can be summarised as
• Fostering an atmosphere of continuous learning
  and improvement
• Satisfying customers (and eliminating waste)
• Quality first and consistently
• Grooming leaders from within the organisation
• Teaching employees to become problem solvers
• Growing together with suppliers and partners for
  mutual benefit.

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Team New Zealand

• In 1995, a team from New Zealand won the famous
  and prestigious yacht trophy, called the Americas
  Cup. This was only the 2nd time in 146 years
  that a non-US syndicate had won the trophy
  Australia had won it once before.
• The amazing thing was that the NZ yacht won 41 of
  the 42 races that they competed in over the 6
  months competitive campaign. What was even more
  amazing was that the NZ syndicate had a very
  limited budget, and a limited amount of time to
  develop their record-winning boat.
• Maani, Kambiz E. Robert Y. Cavana, Systems
  Thinking, Systems Dynamics Managing Change and
  Complexity, Pearson Education NZ, 2007

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Team New Zealand

• How did they do it? There are some valuable
  lessons here in this experience and success that
  are very applicable to software development.
• The success has been attributed to
• The inspirational leadership of the syndicate
  Leader
• The strong sense of community within the
  syndicate team
• The openness of communication between team
  members
• Customer- led development the sailors!!!
• The sustained rate of continual improvement (of
  the boat speed)
• The level of commitment and purpose by all
  participants
• This syndicate exhibited many of the valuable
  traits of a learning organisation

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The Success Factors

• TOYOTA
• Fostering an atmosphere of continuous learning
  and improvement
• Satisfying customers (and eliminating waste)
• Quality first and consistently
• Grooming leaders from within the organisation
• Teaching employees to become problem solvers
• Growing together with suppliers and partners for
  mutual benefit.

• TEAM NEW ZEALAND
• The strong sense of community within the
  syndicate team
• The openness of communication between team
  members
• Customer- led development the sailors!!!
• The sustained rate of continual improvement (of
  the boat speed)
• The inspirational leadership of the syndicate
  Leader
• The level of commitment and purpose by all
  participants

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The Learning Organisation

• The function of the society of post-capitalist
  organisations is to put knowledge to work it
  must be organised for constant change
• Peter F. Drucker
• The Core Capabilities of a Learning
  Organisation
• Creative orientation
• Generative discussion
• Systems perspective
• (Maani Cavana, p138.)

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The Learning Organisation

• Creative orientation
• The source of a genuine desire to excel. .. The
  source of an intrinsic motivation and drive to
  achieve favours the common good over personal
  gains.
• Generative discussion
• A deep and meaningful dialogue to create unity
  of thought and action
• Systems perspective
• The ability to see things holistically by
  understanding the connectedness between parts.

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The Learning Organisation

• The 5 Core Disciplines of a Learning
  Organisation
• Personal Mastery
• Shared Vision
• Mental Models
• Team Learning and Dialogue
• Systems Thinking

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The Learning Organisation

• The 5 Core Disciplines of a Learning
  Organisation
• Personal Mastery
• Instills a genuine desire to do well focus on
  the desired result, not the process itself
  requires a commitment to truth continually
  challenge current practices and norms (if not,
  can distort reality and prevent knowing where
  they really stand.
• Shared Vision
• Shared vision aligns diverse views and feelings
  into a unified focus management cannot impose a
  shared vision a sense of community and shared
  vision is essential for long-term survival.

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The Learning Organisation

• The 5 Core Disciplines of a Learning
  Organisation
• Mental Models
• The first step in any change process is to
  unfreeze the preent patterns of behaviour and
  thinking as a way of managing resistance to
  change. The leader has a pivotal role in
  dismantling negative mental models and shaping
  new ones.
• Team Learning and Dialogue
• Dialogue is an essential requirement for
  organisational learning constructive feedback
  mutual encouragement among group members is
  essential a knowledge sharing environment a
  learning environment ideas are important, not
  the people who suggest the ideas egoless
  behaviour.

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Toyota Production System

• We place the highest value on ACTUAL
  IMPLEMENTATION and taking action. (Fujio Cho,
  President, Toyota, 2002)
• All we are doing is looking at the time line
  from the moment the customer gives us an order to
  the point when we collect the cash. And we are
  reducing that time line by removing the
  non-value-added wastes (Ohno, 1988).
• The need is for fast, flexible processes that
  give customers what they want, when they want it,
  at the highest quality and affordable cost.

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Applying TPS to Software Development

• The 12 principles of Lean Software Development
  are
• Satisfying the Customer is the Highest Priority.
  Customer requirements and priorities are
  determined and their responses are important
  factors (What? When?).
• Always Provide the Best Value for Money. Software
  developed should meet customers (current)
  requirements and at a reasonable price.
• Success Depends on Active Customer Participation.
  Customers participation is essential to
  requirement changes and on the spot trade-off
  decisions.
• Lean Development is a Team Effort. Collaboration
  of the various teams based on their diversity is
  the key to innovative and fast-cycles in
  development.

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Lean Software Development Principles

• Everything is changeable. The development team
  must be ready to adapt to changes due to a shift
  of requirements and must have plans to
  accommodate these changes when they occur.
• Domain, not Point Solutions. Software that is
  useable in multiple domains help spread the cost
  and contributes to the value equation.
• Complete dont Construct. Whenever possible buy
  rather than build is a viable strategy for most
  application development groups. (But Build and
  Deliver, Not Document and Delay).
• An 80 Solution Today Instead of 100 tomorrow.
  This statement holds true as markets are
  advancing at such a rapid pace to provide a
  hundred percent solution. Studies have been
  conducted shows that most of the times 45 percent
  of the functions created in the applications are
  not used.

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Lean Software Development Principles

• Minimalism is Essential. Wastage is kept to a
  minimal by controlling the level of paperwork,
  team sizes and having a tight focus on the
  product scope.
• Needs determine Technology. The objectives of the
  development should be first identified and then
  the technology to support it. It is easier to
  change technology than it is to deliver the
  business applications.
• Product Growth is Feature Growth, not Size
  Growth. Products should have change-tolerant
  features. When new features are explored, the
  impact on business practices should be considered.