Secrets of theAgile

Organization

ASQ/SPIN April 25, 2002: Waltham, Mass.

Copyright © 2002 by Tom DeMarco: The Atlantic Systems Guild

WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT TODAY?WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT TODAY?WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT TODAY?WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT TODAY?WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT TODAY?

Faster! Faster! Faster

Harder! Harder! Harder!

Quality matters more (less) than ever.

The demographics are killing us.

FASTER . . .FASTER . . .FASTER . . .FASTER . . .FASTER . . .

Want to be faster? That will require change.

Excuse me for asking, but can you change at all?

Characteristics of companies that can’t change:

over-optimized

fearful

extremely busy

Slack

Slack is the degree of freedom (in time and budgetand manpower and space, etc.) necessary to makechange possible.

this is yourslack

The Agility Principle

Business is not the sameas busy-ness.

Slack: getting pastburnout, busywork,and the myth oftotal efficiency by Tom DeMarco

Random House: April 10, 2001

Prioritization

The most common approach:

Each project is given a prioity: (High, Medium,or Low)

All projects are immediately assigned apriority of High (since only High projects everget done)

New projects are added without adding newresources

Prio Diagram

time

Staf

f

Project 5

Prio Diagram

For information about SystemPrio, see:http://www.access.ch/imczuerich/systemprio.html

time

MaximumBudgetedStaff

Project 5P1

P2

P3P4 P6

P7 P8P9St

aff

time

MaximumBudgetedStaff

Project 5P1

P2

P3P4 P6

P7 P8P9

Management would reallylike to add . . .. . . this project:

to the current portfolio:

Staf

f

The effect of adding “justone more”:

time

MaximumBudgetedStaff

Project 5P1

P2

P3

P4 P6

P7 P8P9

Staff

Extra

Note that all delivery dates move out to the right.

Priority discipline

rank order priorities

staff each project optimally

put projects on hold when their prioritydoesn’t justify doing them yet

(Obviously this is a drastic departure from the waythat project initiation usually works.)

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM TIM LISTER:WORDS OF WISDOM FROM TIM LISTER:WORDS OF WISDOM FROM TIM LISTER:WORDS OF WISDOM FROM TIM LISTER:WORDS OF WISDOM FROM TIM LISTER:

“Whenever I hear people talking about process Ithink they’ve got it all wrong. What we need isnot so much a process for doing projects as athoughtful and well-designed process fordeciding which ones to do at all.”

WHILE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT PROCESS . . .WHILE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT PROCESS . . .WHILE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT PROCESS . . .WHILE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT PROCESS . . .WHILE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT PROCESS . . .

“Thin is in. Heavy is out.”

– Jim Highsmith*

Candidate light processes:

XP (eXtreme Programming)

Crystal Methods

S.C.R.U.M.

Dynamic System Development Methodology

*J.Highsmith: “Lightweight Methodologies,” Cutter Consortium Council Opinion, June, 2000

Relative advantage

Knights inarmor

GenghisKahn

MaginotLine

Inventionof the tank

Mob

ility

Arm

or

Beck, K. eXtreme Programming explained, Boston:Addison-Wesley, 2000.

EXAMPLE OFEXAMPLE OFEXAMPLE OFEXAMPLE OFEXAMPLE OFLIGHT PROCESS:LIGHT PROCESS:LIGHT PROCESS:LIGHT PROCESS:LIGHT PROCESS:

HARDER . . .HARDER . . .HARDER . . .HARDER . . .HARDER . . .

more stakeholders

more conflict

shorter schedules

tighter budgets

more visibility

more risk

The systems we tend to build today are charaterized by:

Most of all, modern day systems are harder because we built all theeasy ones years ago.

Three new sources of supply of IT workers:

The baby boom

Introduction of women into the workforce

Increasing educational levels of the post-war generation

THE DEMOGRAPHICS . . .THE DEMOGRAPHICS . . .THE DEMOGRAPHICS . . .THE DEMOGRAPHICS . . .THE DEMOGRAPHICS . . .

“We may never have enoughknowledge workers again.”

— Bruce Taylor, Publisher of KM World

QUALITY . . .QUALITY . . .QUALITY . . .QUALITY . . .QUALITY . . .

. . . matters more than ever.

Doesn’t it? Huh? Huh?

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP:ADOBE PHOTOSHOP:ADOBE PHOTOSHOP:ADOBE PHOTOSHOP:ADOBE PHOTOSHOP:

PRESCRIPTION FOR A NEW ERA:PRESCRIPTION FOR A NEW ERA:PRESCRIPTION FOR A NEW ERA:PRESCRIPTION FOR A NEW ERA:PRESCRIPTION FOR A NEW ERA:

Become less efficient

Lighten process (strive for light process

and heavy skills)

Learn to Prioritize

Choose your projects very wisely; what

you decide not to build is more importantthan how you build

Invest in human capital

Dark Harbor Houseby

Tom DeMarcoDown East Books, 2001