20140404 How Lean and Agile are You? _Orla O'Dwyer Lero

Lero© 2013 THE IRISH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTRE

How Lean and Agile Are You?

Kieran Conboy, Deirdre Giblin, Orla O’Dwyer

National College of Ireland

4th April 2014

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ISIN/Lero/NUI Galway Event


• Dr. Kieran Conboy is the Dean of the College of Business Public Policy and Law and is leading a Science Foundation Ireland funded project with the Lero research centre in this area. He has worked with many companies on their agile initiatives including Atlassian, Accenture, Fidelity Investments and Suncorp.

• Deirdre Giblin is a manager with Ericsson with over 9 years’ experience in both project and line management. She has led teams of varying size and complex programs of work, delivering projects to multiple stakeholders and large Telecom operators. Her current roles involves the line management of 8 software development teams working in an agile environment delivering multiple features for Ericsson Network Management System.

• Dr. Orla O’Dwyer is a post-doctoral researcher with the Lero software

engineering research center and Whitaker Institute at NUI Galway, Ireland. Her research focuses on various aspects of project portfolio management including the challenges organisations face when managing IS project portfolios.

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About the Presenters


Research Study on Software Project Portfolio Management:

Challenges and Solutions

Orla O’Dwyer, Roger Sweetman Kieran Conboy

April 4th, 2014

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Portfolio is a collection of programs and projects

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Portfolio, program and projects

Program is a group of related projects

Project is a temporary body of work to create a new product or service

Portfolio

Program 1

Project 1 Project 2

Program 2

Project 1 Project 2 Project 3

Project management is “doing things right”; Portfolio management is “doing the right things”


Project Portfolio

Mgt (PPM)

Alignment of portfolio to

organisational strategy

Portfolio Balancing

Resource Management

Pipeline Management

Risk Management

Financial Management

Change Management

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Project Portfolio Management (PPM) involves:


Organisation Regulatory Bodies e.g.

ISO

Customers

Strategic Partners

Competitors Sales

Marketing

Finance

Employees

Sponsors

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Stakeholders

External Stakeholders

Internal Stakeholders

Lero© 2013 THE IRISH SOFTWARE ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTRE 7

Participating organisations


To: (a) identify challenges organisations face when managing

portfolios of software projects and to (b) establish solutions to those challenges

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Objective of the study


• The unique features and constraints of PPM in a software development context are not fully understood

• Many organisations have clear plans in place to manage project portfolios – In others PPM is informal, ad-hoc and sometimes

completely absent

• How effective PPM is achieved is not entirely clear

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Reasons for this study


• Ensures projects are aligned to strategic objectives • Focus on the most important projects for the

organisation • Maximises delivery of value • Allocates resources to the most important projects • Central oversight of budget and projects • Balance of risk across all projects

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Why is PPM important?


Why practice PPM?

“A portfolio should be a true measure of an organization’s intent, direction and progress.” (PMI, 2012)


• Participating organisations – Different industries – Different sizes – Differing levels of maturity – Geography (co-located vs. distributed) – Differing levels of PPM process – Customer (internal, external)

• Interviews included – Senior management, managers, portfolio managers,

program managers, product managers

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Data Collection


Case Profiles

Organisation Range From Range To

No. of employees (local site)

45 4,500

No. of employees (globally)

230 114,000

Portfolio budget €50k €20 million

No. of projects in portfolio

1 47

Project duration 6 weeks 3 years

Interviewee Min Max

No. of years experience 8 years 30 years

No. of years in role 6 months 11 years


PPM Challenges

PPM Challenges

1. Prioritisation and selection of the right projects

2. Project inter-dependencies

3. Resource allocation

4. Release Management

5. Metrics

6. Communication 7. Alignment of project portfolio with strategic objectives

8. Centralised view of the project portfolio

9. Balancing the project portfolio

10. Frequency of portfolio reviews

11. Forward Planning

12. Risk analysis

13. Lack of PPM process

14. Terminology 15. Political environment

16. Organisational culture


PPM Challenges

PPM Challenges

1. Prioritisation and selection of the right projects

2. Project inter-dependencies

3. Resource allocation


5. Metrics 6. Communication 7. Alignment of project portfolio with strategic objectives

8. Centralised view of the project portfolio

9. Balancing the project portfolio

10. Frequency of portfolio reviews

11. Forward Planning

12. Risk analysis

13. Lack of PPM process

14. Terminology 15. Political environment

16. Organisational culture


Challenges

• Insufficient due diligence selecting projects • Lack of alignment to strategy • Regular switching of priorities • External influences re-prioritising projects

o Competitors o Customers o Release of new operating system o Accreditation bodies

• Pet Projects

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1. Prioritisation and Selection Process

Impact

• Demoralisation and employee turnover

• Low quality • Employees working on the

‘wrong’ projects

Solutions

• Introduce a scoring/ranking system - Rank projects by value and benefits (business case) o Develop and weight value and risk criteria

• Ensure projects selected are aligned to organisational strategy • Balance benefits (long-term, short-term) and risks (high/low) across markets, technologies,

products • Challenge peers/senior management to see why projects are selected.

o Credibility factor – are you credible to challenge?

“Not enough due diligence done to ensure the right projects are selected…. It

used to be who could go in and argue the best”


Challenges

• Multiple dependencies between projects in relation to delivery dates

• Technical dependency on core or other teams, which is not delivered

• Individuals part of a centre of excellence and assigned to a team (not a member)

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2. Project Inter-Dependencies

Impact

• Missing a date can have huge financial implications for the business

• Option to work around, delay, or build it • Core code developed by multiple teams • Causes frustration amongst teams

Solutions

• Define inter-dependencies up-front • Signed agreement between teams to deliver where there are dependencies

o Renegotiation takes place at very senior level • Sometimes teams need to work it out amongst themselves • Team who write the code give it to the CORE team • Putting relevant skills on each team e.g. instead of database team, include a database

resource on each team

“Another team may down-prioritise a feature

because it is not important for them, but we were

depending on them delivering”


Challenges

• Competition for resources all the time within sites/across sites

• Too many projects for resourcing available • Politics involved in allocating resources

o Lots of negotiation o Often based on numbers rather than skill

set/expertise of employees o At lower level managers fight over skills

• Flexible resource model vs. dedicated resources

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3. Resource Allocation

Impact

• Resources must be requested from central teams/other teams (negotiation process)

• Right resources may not be allocated to projects

• Resources may be allocated to multiple projects

• Teams may move on an ad-hoc basis

Solutions

• No easy solution o Larger organisations tend to dedicate a person/headcount board to manage

resource allocations o Tools are used in some cases to ensure resources are allocated and utilised o Conduct regular meetings in relation to resources and project priorities

o Resources are moved accordingly

“we need to be flexible and nimble as we can have developers working on

three different projects in any one week”


Challenges

• Lack of release plan o Different sites move at different pace o Desire to include too many features in a release o Teams working on features that are not a real

priority (decreasing priority on the backlog) • Lack of buy-in to planning releases • Aligning releases with timing of the product suite

o Aligning each individual module/feature of a product with the release date for the overall product suite

o Inter-related projects delivering together

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Impact

• Delayed delivery of features • Lack of forward planning • Developing features that are

no longer a priority • Increased cost and overheads

Solutions

• Aim to release regularly with agreed achievable functionality • Focus on the top priorities all the time • Some organisations have created a release management function responsible for

software delivery, packaging etc. • Need to plan well ahead of time to avoid a bottleneck with resources e.g. service packs,

beta release

“We have the concept or are at least trying to get

to the concept of quarterly releases”


Challenges

• Difficult to determine business value o No process to evaluate if ROI was achieved o Sales staff sell a product and give your

module/feature for free to make the sale o How is value determined? Who obtains the

sale? • Lack of involvement of finance personnel • Senior management need other metrics since

transitioning to agile • Strict quality metrics

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5. Metrics

Impact

• No closing of the loop in relation to ROI/business case

• Lack of clarity on revenue • Lack of transparency/visibility

on progress • Team is accountable as

opposed to individuals • Increased cost if quality targets

are not met

Solutions

• Introducing new templates for senior management to detail progress of agile projects • Involve finance/accountants in the process • Define and implement metrics appropriate for your organisation

o E.g. Financial metrics to support business case (NPV, ROI), Stage gates/milestones, time, budget, quality, revenue, number features delivered, no. of o/s defects, no. sales, profit margin

“Our product may have been written off because

sales staff are trying to secure a wider deal (of

multiple products)”


• For effective project portfolio management – Prioritisation and selection of the right projects is critical

• Have a strong process in place – Build a portfolio road map that is updated regularly

• 6, 12, 18, 24+ months ahead – Good supports must exist

• e.g. tools, templates, accurate reporting, frequent reviews to ensure investments deliver business strategy

– Provide transparency and visibility across the organisation to all relevant stakeholders

– Communication is important, especially in relation to the strategic direction of the organisation

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Conclusion


Thank you

Thank you

Questions?

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20140404 How Lean and Agile are You? _Orla O'Dwyer Lero

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