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Integrating Agile Practices With a Global Delivery Model |
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Written by Madu Ratnayake and Valarmathy Rangasamy
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Sunday, 05 October 2008 |
 Agile
development is getting increased attention from IT professionals all over the
world. Agile practices help to overcome many of the challenges in traditional
approaches with its emphasis on lightweight processes, flexibility to deal with
changing business priorities, short delivery cycles, higher team collaboration,
and a host of other benefits. Agile offers a fresh approach to businesses
seeking greater agility in their software projects.
At the same
time, global delivery with offshoring has become a very cost effective approach
for many companies to develop software. Enterprises today seek to derive the dual
benefit of cost effectiveness of offshoring and high responsiveness of Agile
practices at the same time. This requires the offshore services companies to
revisit their development approach and integrate some of the Agile approaches
to be competitive.
However,
while Agile practices deliver significant advantages when applied in the right
context, they also add significant risks and challenges when the practices are
applied in the wrong context. According to a Gartner's research[1],
applying Agile to unsuitable projects has been one of the key reasons for Agile
project failures!
So, the key
question is, will Agile work in a global delivery model? In this article we share
our experience in implementing Agile in a global delivery context for a wide
range of engagements.
If the
question is "can Agile be applied in an
offshore model", the answer is a definite YES! Agile is a concept bound by
set of values and principles (Agile Manifesto). Provided you have a suitable environment, Agile practices can
be applied irrespective of the location constraints. Offshore is no exception
to this.
Integration
of best practices requires a business-driven approach including multiple
stakeholders.
We adopted
a three step approach:
1. Identifying Agile practices
that are aligned to business priorities.
2. Analyzing the business context
of our organization.
3. Identifying challenges based
on the business context and customizing Agile practices to address those
challenges.
Identifying Agile practices that are aligned to business
priorities
Identifying
the engineering and business challenges and building a common agreement among
the key stakeholders will assist in prioritizing which Agile practices would
result in the highest benefits to the organization. For example, if there are
challenges around product integration and quality, daily build and automated
testing practices will result in better benefits compared to practices around
requirements management.
Once the
business priorities are defined, choose the Agile practices that are aligned to
the priorities. Select few key practices to rollout in phases.
Analyzing business context of our organization
Most of the
Agile methodologies like Scrum, XP etc. were born in a context of co-located
teams with high degree of business availability, predominantly comprising of internal
teams (not contractors), highly experienced and competent domain experts. In
direct contrast, the context for a global delivery model has distributed teams
with limited business availability and predominantly comprising of contractors.
We analyzed
the context differences and derived a best-of-breed methodology instead of
adopting an existing methodology or practices as-is. Let's look at each of the
context differences and the probable solution for overcoming those. A base
framework was defined based on the possible solutions taking corresponding
assumptions into consideration.
Distributed
vs. co-located teams
The team distribution can have a
significant influence on the methodology used for the development. Not having
co-located development and business teams is a challenge for any development
methodology, but it is crucial for Agile since Agile practices focus more on
people than process.
Distributed teams have a direct
impact on the communication and collaboration. Practices like daily stand-up,
release planning, iteration planning need special adaptation when used in the
global delivery context. For example, for daily stand-ups, the teams can have a
single stand-up over teleconference at a time that is convenient for all. If
there are larger teams distributed, the scope can be logically split for the
teams to work independently and a representative from each location can have a
daily sync-up (scrum of scrums).
Limited business availability vs. high
business availability
Availability of business stakeholders
or the product owner as part of the engineering team is one other key
assumption in Agile. In an offshore context, this is not possible even if the business
is ready to be available 100% primarily due to the time zone differences. Also
it becomes difficult for enterprises to dedicate 100% of Business time for a
single project. This would mean requirement elaboration cannot be done as and
when required and requirement clarifications would require some lead time.
One possible solution is to have a
dedicated Business Analyst (BA) located at the client's site playing the role
of a client-proxy. The BA will be in regular sync up with the business and act
as the client for the development team. This person can also work in a
different shift to have more time overlap with the development teams.
Also the requirement elaboration
for a particular sprint can be done ahead of the sprint by the BA with inputs
from Business. The more clarity of the requirement before the sprint begins,
the more effective and productive the team can be.
Since the BA might need some lead
time to clarify and confirm certain issues with the business, task allocation
are done in such a way that each team member has at least 2-3 features to work
on. While they wait on one, they can work on others.
Client and contracts-driven vs.
associates and trust-driven[2]
Most of the offshore based
projects are contract driven since it is usually executed with external
vendors. This results in having equal emphasis on contract negotiation as much
as customer collaboration. When
contracts are signed for fixed-price fixed-scope development, some of the
benefits of Agile cannot be reaped. Agile is most effective when the project
run with a fixed price and a variable scope. Also since there could be a low
level of trust by the clients of vendors, flexible planning may not be
possible.
Probable solution for fixed-scope,
fixed-price projects is to do traditional planning and execute the project
using Agile practices and validate against the original plan. Actions can be
taken for any deviations. Scope creep can be negotiated with the client to see
if any scope of equal size can be removed from the original scope.
Skills pyramid-based team vs.
all-experienced, competent team members
Offshore teams are usually
structured based on teams comprising of varied range of experience and skills
with a defined hierarchy. This has an impact on the assumption that team
members can work independently and be responsible for their deliverable. The
teams cannot anticipate and work due to their level of experience. The teams
are usually structured in a hierarchical fashion with 3 - 6 developers
reporting to a lead. Every feature is owned by one or a few developers along
with the lead. Typically, the leads spend most of their time guiding the
developers and sometimes work on the critical features. So, in order to
minimize the time spent with developers, the leads will have to ensure the
requirements and design are detailed enough for the developers to work as
independently as possible. The requirements will have to be very specific and
detailed. Also the overhead of reviews cannot be exempted in an offshore
scenario.
Probable solution is as mentioned
earlier is to have the requirements elaborated in detail ahead of the sprint so
that the team is very clear about the scope of work in a sprint. Also the
architecture and high-level design with common components need to be developed
upfront at the beginning of the project to eliminate ambiguities. Planning
should take into consideration the overhead of reviews, independent testing
etc. Also detailed progressive documentation of work to be done is necessary to
provide the right guidance to the team.
Domain generalists vs. deep domain
experts
Typically the offshore development teams are domain generalists who
learn just enough domain information required for the project. This would prevent them from working based on
anticipation. The client will have to do the due diligence and provide enough
information upfront on the overall requirement. Also the requirements will have
to be very specific and detailed with assumptions stated explicitly.
Probable solution is same as overcoming the earlier stated challenges
like detailed requirements elaboration ahead of the sprint and progressive
documentation for the work being done.
The above list is an indicative
list of areas. Based on specific organization there may be other context
concerns and differences that need to be addressed for successful adoption of
Agile practices.
Define
an Agile suitability assessment approach
The best of breed Agile approach defined after identifying and analyzing
the context differences and arriving at a solution for each of the challenges
posed will be a more suitable approach for a given environment than applying a
methodology available as-is.
Once a base Agile approach for the organization is developed, it is
important to define a way to assess suitability of project context for Agile adoption.
The suitability assessment approach is primarily required for assessing if a
project satisfies the prerequisite assumptions made for the base Agile approach.
The suitability assessment can be done for each of the business context
dimensions identified. For example, level of business stakeholder availability,
level of distribution of the team etc. A risk/benefit based ranking of each of
the dimensions will help decide whether Agile practices would results in
benefits or additional risks.
Develop
an Agile implementation strategy
Defining a structured Agile implementation approach plays a significant
role in Agile success as much as identifying and defining the right Agile
practices. We believe that Agile adoption success depends 60% having
the right mindset and 40% on actual technicalities of Agile practices. For successful adoption, the organization must embrace
an Agile mindset. For example, think of the vendor as a partner not a
downstream contractor. It takes both parties to have a mature approach for Agile
benefits to be realized.
Since Agile success depends on
certain ground conditions and also requires the right mindset in people, a
structured approach to Agile adoption along with suitability assessment is
required to ensure success!
We follow a structured
approach to Agile development in projects using our "Conceive - Transform -
Optimize" model. The following chart
depicts our six-step methodology for Agile development, including how Agile Suitability Assessment fits into
the approach:
We help our clients Conceive the best use of Agile concepts
by:
1. Leadership Alignment
- Our approach embodies fundamentally different software development methods
and also requires the right mindset. Agile means may things to many people, and
requires standardization across all stakeholders. Executive understating of Agile
concepts is the key for successful organization-wide adoption of Agile
practices. This workshop helps in building a common understanding of Agile
development among the management team
2. Suitability Assessment - The Agile Suitability
Assessment framework is a systematic approach to understanding the "ground"
conditions of a project, and to decide whether Agile development is the right
approach to use. The tool assesses the risk associated with specific problems
on the ground, and identifies ways to tailor Agile processes to address them.
But, if the ground conditions are unfavorable, the use of Agile practices can
harm both the players and the chances for a successful project. You cannot play
ice hockey with bumpy ice!
We help the teams Transform their development processes
into Agile ones by:
3. Team training
- To successfully adopt Agile practices in an engagement, all key stakeholders
(users, developers and business sponsors) must have a sound understanding of Agile
practices and principles. The Agile Workshop provides an in-depth understanding
of Agile practices and principals to build common ground within an engagement
team.
4. Process Tailoring
- This is one of the most important steps. The base framework is tailored to
the project needs based on the team's inputs and the risks identified by the
suitability assessment. The team commits to the agreed process approach and
agrees to refine it based on retrospective findings.
During project execution,
we Optimize the Agile approach by:
5. Continuous Coaching
- Providing continuous coaching, since practicing Agile techniques requires a
major change in team member mindset. During the initial iterations of a new Agile
project, teams typically face many challenges adjusting to the new way of
working. The support of a hands-on coach is vital to smooth transition to an Agile
approach, especially in a distributed team environment. We provide hands-on
support and guidance for teams to quickly overcome hurdles and grow competence
in Agile practices.
6. Implementation Review
- A timely review of how the methodology and practices are helping the project
is vital for the success of Agile adoption. We continuously evaluate and refine
the approach based on project performance and feedback from the team and client.
Conclusion
While Agile practices
deliver significant advantages in the right context, they also contribute to
project failure when the practices are applied in the wrong context. Successful
adoption of Agile practices depends on many factors. Large numbers of these
factors are related to the ‘mind set' than specific process. We believe Agile
adoption success depends 60% having the right supporting mindset and 40% on
actual technicalities of Agile practices. Agile is a not a panacea for all
challenges related to modern software delivery.
An organization which is
looking to adopt Agile practices in a global delivery model must seriously
consider a structured approach to define the Agile framework and adoption along
with suitability assessment, which will assist in understanding risks and
benefits of adopting Agile practices.
About the Authors
Madu Ratnayake heads Software Engineering
Process Quality for Virtusa worldwide, and Virtusa's Advance
Technology Center
in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Madu has over 14 years
of experience in global IT service delivery, quality processes and operations
management. He has been a member of Virtusa's management team from its
inception.
Madu holds a Bachelors Degree in Software Engineering from City University,
London, and a Masters in Business Administration
from the Post Graduate Institute of Management in Sri Lanka. While at City University
he received the Addison-Wesley Prize in Computer Science in 1996, the Scott
Prize in 1993 and the 1992 Robert Kitchin Award for performance. He is also a
gold medalist in Management Research from the Post Graduate Institute of
Management, Sri Lanka.
Valarmathy Rangasamy is
the Lead Agile Champion for Virtusa, and leads the Virtusa Agile practice
globally. She has over 11 years experience in the software development
industry as a software engineer, analyst and project manager with a broad range
of assignments for leading global clients.
Valar has a passion for Agile practices, and her interest lies
in consulting for global engagement teams in leveraging Agile practices to
improve quality, productivity and collaboration in distributed development
settings. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering from Madras University, India.
She is a Certified Scrum Master and a Certified Project Management Professional
(PMP).
[1]
Agile Success
Factors, Gartner Research, May 2007
[2]
When associates/employees build the software, the level of trust business has
of them them is very high when compared to the same of contractors.
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