XP at LogicaCMG Mobile Payments

1
XP at LogicaCMG Mobile Payments

• Paul Grew
• LogicaCMG Software Development Manager
• Sean Hanly
• Exoftware Mentor

2
Roadmap to XP

• The why?
• Issues
• Mature product set
• High cost of UK development team
• Complex config management
• Waterfall lifecycle
• Fixed scope, time cost projects
• Long QA test cycles
• No bandwidth for innovation
• The Catalyst
• XP success in other LCMG teams

• The What?
• Offshore mature products
• Ring fence elite staff
• Lavishly train team
• Spread innovation bets
• Invest in technology

3
Challenge No Innovation Bandwidth

• Insight
• Maintaining exisiting product set was using staff
  at 100
• Waterfall did not allow for sufficent innovation
• Long QA Test Cycle
• Solution
• Offshore Maintenance
• Ringfence elite staff
• Introduce XP / Agile process
• Spread Innovtion Bets (MMFS)
• Result
• First new product within 3 months Intelligent
  Charging
• Second new product within 6 weeks later Data
  SCP
• Two bets not one Reduces the risk
• First customer New product set

4
Challenge Long QA Test Cycles

• Insight
• Manual regression testing was time consuming and
  expensive
• Finding defects late in cycle (expensive and
  stressful)
• Solution
• Test First Unit and Acceptance
• Fully automate
• Continuously build and integrate
• Pair Programming
• Result
• Mature Products 50 fewer defects
• Test Cycle From 2 months to zero
• 3,500 Automated Acceptance Tests Intelligent
  Charging
• 1,000 Automated Acceptance Tests Data SCP
• Build quality in, not inspect it in

5
Challenge Predictability

• Insight
• Waterfall did not generate sufficent feedback
• Did not easily allow us embrace change
• Solution
• Iterative Development deliver working software
  every two weeks
• Transparent tracking Big Visible Charts,
  Burndown charts
• Onsite Customer
• Variable Scope
• Smaller work units
• Result
• VATP Delivered to schedule
• New Products Always delivered to schedule

6
Challenge Non Trivial Release

• Insight
• Multiple code streams
• Manual build process
• Manual installation process
• Complex Configuration (overly flexible)
• Solution
• Continuous integration with automated testing
• Single code stream
• Continous deploy and install (runs once an
  hour)
• Taken on support staff as customers
• Result
• Ship at any time (enough business value)
• Always have working deployable software
• Simple Confguration
• Runs out of the Box
• Runs on a Laptop

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Challenge Delivering on the 80/20

• Insight
• Waterfall
• Not enough feedback (especially from Customer)
• Big upfront requirements
• Long delivery cycles
• Solution
• Onsite Product Management
• Continuous Planning and Priortization
• Show and Tell
• Working software early and often
• Result
• Two new MMFS products

8
Issues resolved

• Deployability
• Architecture
• Product development

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How frequently can the software be deployed to a
live system?

• Upgrades require downtime that can be costly
• XP enables us to deploy to a test bed every 2
  weeks.
• Feedback on progress
• Feedback on features
• Confidence in delivery and quality
• The operator can then decide how frequently to
  deploy in the live environment

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XP is percieved as weak on architecture

• No BDUF
• Why were interested in architecture
• Operators are interested in the technical
  architecture of our products and how they fit
  into their networks
• We have longer term architectural goals
• Consistency across products
• What
• Our teams have product architect that feed in
  architectural stories to the proxy customer
• System and data migration
• 3rd party evaluation
• OAM (alarms, logs etc)
• Bid support
• They also pair up!

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How do we ensure we are building a product rather
than a bespoke system?

• The proxy customer is the product manager for
  that product
• Balances
• Bespoke
• Flexible
• Expensive
• Low confidence in market direction
• Product out of the box
• Inflexible
• Lower cost
• Validated by peers

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Misc

• Pair programming
• Not appropriate for everything
• Pair marriage leads to divorce
• Estimates
• Real time leads to consistency
• Small is best
• Appraisals
• How?
• Communication
• Is there ever enough?

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Contact details

• paul.grew_at_logicacmg.com
• shanly_at_exoftware.com