Developing an agile

mind-set
TSO HR Feed Your Mind Session

Mark Anning
22 February 2018

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Your host

http://snip.bt.com/Mark-Anning http://snip.bt.com/Agile-Subject-Site
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…Together we’ll explore..

 What agile feels like

 What agile is all about
 Where agile works best
 The agile mind-set
 My experiences

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What agile feels like

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What it feels like to be agile

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How did that feel for you?

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What agile is all about

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What is agile

Flow Practices

Value Principles

Quality Values

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What makes agile different

There are four key elements to a project - time,

cost, quality, scope.

Any project that fixes all four elements is doomed

to failure. A traditional project fixes the scope in
the functional specification that is signed off and
the project manager often manipulates time, cost
and quality.

The variable in an agile project is scope. To flex the

scope across the delivery timescale we prioritise
the stories (requirements) that define the scope.
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Where agile works best

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Delivering in a changing environment

For simple projects a traditional waterfall may be

appropriate as it unlikely to be a volatile
environment.

For complicated and complex projects the

environment is likely to be highly volatile.

Agile is designed for highly volatile environments as

it expects and can manage change effectively.

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Let’s discuss!

…Are the projects and programmes you work within..

 Simple
 Complicated
 Complex
 Chaotic

Why?
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The agile mind-set

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Let’s discuss!

 Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

 Working deliverables over comprehensive documentation
 Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
 Responding to change over following a plan
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The agile manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

http://agilemanifesto.org/

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My experiences (just a couple!)

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UK IP Virtual Private Network (UK-IPVPN) platform - vendor conformance testing

BT network Vendor BT network Operational In

design conformanc integration support life
activities e testing testing systems support

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UK IP Virtual Private Network (UK-IPVPN) platform - vendor conformance testing

BT network Vendor
design conformanc
activities e testing

BT network Operational In
integration support life
testing systems support

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Group Customer Experience Dashboard - greenfield software project
What went well?
• Myself and the whole team underwent •
a tremendous learning curve and came
out of it successfully.
• Efficiency, reliability, test errors,
duration all within the industry wide top
decile.
What did I learn?
• How to implement agile within a • How to implement genuine agile
greenfield software engineering
environment.
• The importance on embedding the agile •
mind-set above simply wrote learning
agile practices.
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What would I do differently?
Ensure the team and customers all have
a base level of common agile
understanding.
• Ensure agile engineering practices are
embedded alongside the collaborative
and planning practices.
What still puzzles me?
enterprise wide deliveries, through the
entire concept to cash value stream.
How to implement agile contracts,
beyond the ‘win-win’ / ‘mutual benefit’
theory.
Group Customer Experience Dashboard - greenfield software project

Minimum Maximum Median

Top quartile Top decile BT

Efficiency

Unit cost Staffing

Budget conformance Productivity

Plan conformance Duration

Reliability Test errors

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Questions

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How to find out more

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Useful resource links

• BT agile specialist subject site - https://myprofile.bt.com/academy/subject/agiledel/Pages/SubjectSpecialists.aspx

• Agile manifesto - http://agilemanifesto.org/
• Agile principles - http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
• Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell - https://youtu.be/502ILHjX9EE

• 4 agile practices podcasts –

• Agile planning - https://vimeo.com/2918289
• User stories - https://vimeo.com/2918381
• Stand ups - https://vimeo.com/2918370
• Retrospectives - https://vimeo.com/2918354

• Practicing Agility in Human Resources – https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/experience-reports/practicing-agility-

in-human-resources/

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