From Waterfall to Agile - Managing Disruptive Change Without Disrupting the Business

From Waterfall to AgileManaging Disruptive Change Without Disrupting the Business

Odd SandbekkhaugNTPM 2016, April 25-26

© 2016 ADVA Optical Networking. All rights reserved.2

A Little Bit About ADVA Optical Networking

We’re a global telecommunications optical networking equipment provider

which means …

we design and build high-speed networking equipment that reliably

transports the world’s voice, video and internet traffic

800+ engineers 13 R&D sites 8 countries 3 continents


A Little Bit About Our Products

Transmission speeds of 25Tbit/s

Transmission distances of 3,000km

15-20 year product life span

99.999% availability


Our Challenge

• Deliver the same great products faster and with less effort

• The world operates on shorter timescales: lean, agile, lean startup …

• Adapt quickly to our customers’ needs

• Free up resources for next-generation projects


But It’s Not That Easy in a Waterfall World

• Our customers don’t deploy small frequent releases• Their operational model assumes large and infrequent software

upgrades

• Our projects are mixed hardware-software projects• Agile is not yet a trusted methodology for hardware development

• The prevalent operational model in our business is waterfall-based• The way products are developed• The way products are deployed

So let’s go agile …


Yes, Let’s Go Agile!But we have some constraints …


Constraints – Business Continuity

• Don’t force change onto customers

• Maintain the pace of feature introduction

• Support ongoing and future business

• Preserve our quality criteria


Constraints – Internal

• Maintain our overall business process

• Preserve project management interfaces

• Adapt to hardware development cycles

• Manage the amount of change we introduce

We can’t force change everywhere at once. We need to …


PRODUCT LIFECYCLE

MARKET ANDSOLUTION PROPOSAL

REVENUE GENERATION

REALIZATION

KD1 KD5KD4KD2 KD3Market definition

Product proposal

Project definition

Development VerificationKD6

Product ramp-up

Revenue

A Little Agility Goes a Long Way

• Introduce Agile where it can make a difference• In the development phase• Constrained to software development only

WaterfallDevelopment Model

AgileDevelopment Model

Limited Availability

General Availability


Managing the Change


PRODUCT LIFECYCLE


REVENUE GENERATION

REALIZATION


Product proposal

Project definition


Product ramp-up

Revenue

Dealing With Constraints: Insulate the Change

Entry Criteria

Keep development phase entry criteria intact

Exit Criteria

Keep development phase exit criteria intact

Keep the overall lifecycle intact

Agile where it matters most


What’s Your Measuring Stick?

How do you know if you’re getting better or worse?

? ? ? ?


Measuring the Effect of Change

• Quality is a non-negotiable business-critical constraint• We’ll focus on that

• The verification phase becomes our reference baseline• Same or shorter duration• Same or better quality

• Collect performance data before and after introducing the change

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE


REVENUE GENERATION

REALIZATION


Product proposal

Project definition


Product ramp-up

Revenue


PRODUCT LIFECYCLE


REVENUE GENERATION

REALIZATION


Product proposal

Project definition


Product ramp-up

Revenue

Setting the Stage: All Together Now

Entry criteria

Exit criteria

Overall business-impacting life cycle is maintained, satisfies internal and external customers

Baseline of acceptable

performanceInsulated area of change


Enable the TeamsTraining on Agile MethodologyDomain Knowledge Sharing

Team Formation


Agile Methodology Training• Train everybody in the agile teams

• Team members• Product owners• Scrum masters

• Train those not in the agile teams• Project managers• Line management• Other stakeholders

• Document your approach• Serves as internal training material• Alignment and consistency on ADVA’s agile flavor


Scale the Training Without Breaking the Budget

Train the trainer: bootstrap the first program1 dozens=x

Train the trainers: create our own internal training programA dozen =x

Train all teamsClose to 200 people trained on ADVA’s particular brand of Agile across the globe=


Domain Knowledge Sharing

Layer A

Layer D

Layer BLayer C

Partial-stack teams

Cross-Atlantic dependency management


Domain Knowledge Sharing

Layer A

Layer D

Layer BLayer C

Layer BLayer C

Layer A

Layer D

Cross-train each otherFull-stack

teamsDon’t manage dependencies

…break them!


Team Formation – Agile Team• Developers and testers together

• Long-lived, permanent team membership• Autonomy and delegated authority• Full-stack capability• Faster feedback loops and adaptability • Team-level planning and commitment• PM works through product owner

• Line managers as scrum masters• Line managers as product owners

• Works much better!• First-line managers lead through delegation and coaching – a mindset

change!


The system is more than the sum of its parts

• Introduce the “system team”• System-wide continuous regression testing• Detect integration-type side effects• Keep the system alive and sane• Small team, but BIG job• Automated testing supported by Dev team

• Keep existing practices• Weekly core team meetings• System integration planning/tracking

• Project Manager• Maintains end-to-end view of release project• Assisted by team product owners and “über-scrum master”

Independent teams potential loss of a holistic system view


Engage!• Frequent workshops with the teams

• Figure out what “Agile” means for your company• The people working here are the best ones to

improve the process

• Continuous selling and coaching• We had a LOT of resistance to change. You will too.• Changing management is a never-ending sales and

coaching job• You’re a sales person … even if you don’t know it


Our Results … So Far


Productivity

0 1 2-1 3-2-3Year

Waterfall Agile

Metric: Object

model size

Big waterfall projects

Agile kick-off

Team size reduced by 30% after Agile kick-off

(moved to next-gen)

Actual productivity

Expected productivity


Development Quality - Releases

0 1 2-1 3-2-3

Metric: Verification defects per

release

Year

Agile kick-off

Waterfall Agile


Development Quality - Program

Agile kick-off

0 1 2-1 3-2Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Year

P1

P2

Metric: Verification defects per

quarter


Takeaways


Yes, it can work here

Agile is fully compatible with ISO certification. We have gone through three annual audits with encouraging comments from auditors.

Open and transparent reporting coupled with great results

Agile can definitely work in a mixed HW/SW environment, but don’t force Agile where it is not welcome. Encourage and sell, then let it spread organically.

Then sell some more

You can introduce Agile change without impacting the business. Start small, build on small successes, and be willing to adapt when things go wrong.

Be pragmatic and listen to your internal customers


Not Just Process but People Too

Team colocation matters. The more colocation you can achieve, the better team performance will be.

Continent time zone site room

Line management buy-in is critical. They will need to enable most of the changes and must be on board and driving.

Engage and include those who can make things happen

Project managers can block or enable change. Did the traditional waterfall approach really work that well? … Or is it just more familair?

Project managers need to be part of the change, even if the line management drives


Focus on Your Approach

Results take time. Mindsets change slowly and reluctantly. You don’t control results, but you can influence what people do.

Trust that you are doing the right thing and reward behavior, not results

It’s fully possible to change an existing waterfall program into an Agile program while running. It’s also fully possible to start a new Agile program from scratch.

It doesn’t matter so much what you build. What matters is the mindset

Tools are an issue, but not THE issue. Get the methodology and mindset right first, then consider how tools can support the process.

A fool with a tool is still a fool


Where to Next?

Enterprise-level AgileDevOps

Continue to evolve and practice Lean/Agile methods

Expand into the verification phase (downstream)

Expand into requirements development (upstream)

IMPORTANT NOTICEThe content of this presentation is strictly confidential. ADVA Optical Networking is the exclusive owner or licensee of the content, material, and information in this presentation. Any reproduction, publication or reprint, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.

The information in this presentation may not be accurate, complete or up to date, and is provided without warranties or representations of any kind, either express or implied. ADVA Optical Networking shall not be responsible for and disclaims any liability for any loss or damages, including without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental, consequential and special damages, alleged to have been caused by or in connection with using and/or relying on the information contained in this presentation.

Copyright © for the entire content of this presentation: ADVA Optical Networking.

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From Waterfall to Agile - Managing Disruptive Change Without Disrupting the Business

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