Practical Approach to Large-Scale Agile Development, A

Today, even the largest development organizations are turning to agile methodologies, seeking major productivity and quality improvements. However, large-scale agile development is difficult, and publicly available case studies have been scarce. Now, three agile pioneers at Hewlett-Packard present a candid, start-to-finish insider's look at how they've succeeded with agile in one of the company's most mission-critical software environments: firmware for HP LaserJet printers. This book tells the story of an extraordinary experiment and journey. Could agile principles be applied to re-architect an enormous legacy code base? Could agile enable both timely delivery and ongoing innovation? Could it really be applied to 400+ developers distributed across four states, three continents, and four business units? Could it go beyond delivering incremental gains, to meet the stretch goal of 10x developer productivity improvements? It could, and it did-but getting there was not easy. Writing for both managers and technologists, the authors candidly discuss both their successes and failures, presenting actionable lessons for other development organizations, as well as approaches that have proven themselves repeatedly in HP's challenging environment. They not only illuminate the potential benefits of agile in large-scale development, they also systematically show how these benefits can actually be achieved. Coverage includes: . Tightly linking agile methods and enterprise architecture with business objectives . Focusing agile practices on your worst development pain points to get the most bang for your buck . Abandoning classic agile methods that don't work at the largest scale . Employing agile methods to establish a new architecture . Using metrics as a "conversation starter" around agile process improvements . Leveraging continuous integration and quality systems to reduce costs, accelerate schedules, and automate the delivery pipeline . Taming the planning beast with "light-touch" agile planning and lightweight long-range forecasting . Implementing effective project management and ensuring accountability in large agile projects . Managing tradeoffs associated with key decisions about organizational structure . Overcoming U.S./India cultural differences that can complicate offshore development . Selecting tools to support quantum leaps in productivity in your organization . Using change management disciplines to support greater enterprise agility

Foreword by Jim Highsmith, ThoughtWorks xiiiPreface xv Chapter 1 Agile Principles versus Practices 1 The Principles of the Agile Manifesto 2 Our Take on Agile/Lean Principles 3 A Quick Tutorial: Agile versus Waterfall 6 Summary 8 Chapter 2 Tuning Agile to Your Business Objectives 9 Background: HP FutureSmart Firmware Case Study 10 Cost and Cycle-Time Drivers Prior to HP FutureSmart Firmware 11 Value Proposition of Re-Architecting the HP FutureSmart Firmware and Processes 13 Establish Development Objectives from the Business Analysis 15 Summary 16 Chapter 3 Aligning Architecture with Business Objectives 17 Challenges with Existing Architecture 18 Architecting for the Business: Dynamic Variability and Forward Compatibility 19 Keeping an Architecture Current and Sustainable 22 Summary 25 Chapter 4 How to Establish a New Architecture Using Agile Concepts 27 Re-Architecting Iteratively 28 Making Progress 28 The Thin-Slice Model 30 Creating Cultural Shifts Through Architectural Demos 31 Summary 33 Chapter 5 The Real Secret to Success in Large-Scale Agile 35 Change for People's Sake 36 Metrics Are a Conversation Starter 38 Iterative Model of Agile Management 39 Mini-Milestone Objectives 40 Cascading Objectives to Track Progress 41 Conversations 42 Learning 43 Agile Adjustments 44 Summary 44 Chapter 6 Continuous Integration and Quality Systems 45 Reducing Build Resources and Build Time: Continuous Integration 46 Achieving High Quality with CI: Automated Multilevel Testing 55 L0 Testing 57 L1 Testing 58 L2 Testing 58 L3 Testing 59 L4 Testing 60 Continuous Improvement of the Deployment Pipeline 60 Productivity Results of Our Automated Delivery Pipeline 61 Special Considerations for Enterprise Software Systems 63 Summary 65 Chapter 7 Taming the Planning Beast 67 Predict by Ballparking and Trend Watching 69 Ballpark Prediction: R&D Early Response to High-Level Initiatives 70 Trend Watching: Quick Response to All Feature Requestors (Where They're Likely to Land) 70 Clear Prioritization 73 Just-in-Time User Story Definition 76 Invest in System Engineering 77 Put Marketing in Charge of a Unified 1-N List 80 Involve the Technology Architects 81 Use Project Managers as "Feature Leads" 81 Reuse Requirements and Test Tags for Scalability 82 Commit by Delivering, Not by Estimating 83 Convincing the Business: Agile Planning Is Okay 86 Summary 88 Chapter 8 Unique Challenges of Estimating Large Innovations 91 Waterfall Approach and Challenges 92 Agile Approach 92 Challenging Situations with the Agile Approach: Large Architectural Efforts 95 Change Management and Integrating with the Business 98 Summary 100 Chapter 9 Our Take on Project Management for Large-Scale Agile 101 Oversight and Priority: Program Managers 102 Accountability: Section Managers 103 Robustness and Scalability: Architects 104 Putting It All Together 104 Summary 105 Chapter 10 Organizational Approach: Managing to Disadvantages 107 Test Ownership Organization 108 Component versus Feature Organization 111 Traditionally Managed Project Teams versus Self-Managed Scrum Teams 114 Summary 116 Chapter 11 Effective Agile Development across U.S. and Indian Cultures 117 Lesson 1: Permission to Ask 118 Lesson 2: Ensure Time to Explore 119 Lesson 3: Have Small Wins First 119 Lesson 4: Exploit the Time Difference 120 Lesson 5: Take Time to Train-Always 121 Lesson 6: Remember a Team Is about People 121 Organizing for the Highest Leverage of Offshore Teams 122 Summary 125 Chapter 12 The Right Tools: Quantum Leaps in Productivity 127 Common Development Environment 128 Simulation and Emulation Environment for Automated Testing 129 Test Architecture for Scalability: Common Test Framework (CTF) 131 The Most Important Part of Test Automation: Virtual Machine Provisioning System (VMPS) 133 Real-Time Metrics and Tracking 136 Integrated Toolset 137 Cool Toys Worth Investing In 138 Summary 139 Chapter 13 Real-World Agile Results: HP FutureSmart Firmware 141 Resources Moved from Overhead to Innovation 142 R&D and Developer Productivity 144 Improvement in Current Product Support 146 Summary 147 Chapter 14 Change Management in Moving Toward Enterprise Agility 149 Impacts on Other R&D Groups and System Qualification 150 Impacts on Product Program Teams 151 Impacts on Non-R&D Product Generation Activities/Teams 154 Where to Draw Boundaries with Coordinating Organizational Agility 155 Change Management of the HP FutureSmart Firmware Transformation 156 Summary 158 Chapter 15 Differences in Our Perspective on Scaling Agile 159 A Difference in Perspective 160 Focusing on Agility Rather Than Team Operations 161 Changing the Deployment Pipeline 162 Embracing the Uncertainty of Agile 163 Enterprisewide Tracking and Incremental Improvements 164 Summary 164 Chapter 16 Taking the First Step 167 Figuring Out First Steps 168 What's Next for FutureSmart? 169 Determining Your First Steps 171 Summary 172 Appendix A Twelve Principles of Agile Software 173Bibliography 175Index 177