Agile Project Delivery: A Practical Approach PDF

1 Agile’s Lean Foundations CHAPTER OVERVIEW In this chapter we review the history of Agile, which takes us back more than...

1 Agile’s Lean Foundations CHAPTER OVERVIEW In this chapter we review the history of Agile, which takes us back more than 60 years to the North American auto sector and its mass production assembly lines. This is where a Japanese engineer developed Lean for the Toyota Motor Corporation. The goal of this chapter is for readers to become familiar with the history of Lean, its principles, and how it was applied to mass-­production organizations. Readers will also learn how the Agile Manifesto was created, what its values and principles are, as well as the shared history the Agile Alliance has with the Project Management Institute. By the end of the chapter, readers should be able to identify and define key terms associated with Lean and how they are applied to Agile and manufacturing organizations. WHAT IS A PROJECT? Because this text focuses on using Agile to complete project work, it is important to ensure readers have some context about projects in general. Projects refer to temporary work that has a beginning and an end. Projects are created to produce Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. a unique product or service. Because the goal of projects is to produce a unique outcome, all projects inherently have risk. People are needed to complete project work and often represent the majority of a project cost and composition. Often, people who work on projects are assigned temporarily. They may be hired to work specifically on a project or taken from an operational role to fulfill a project re- source need. Projects have a certain value that they fulfill. They are investments by organi- zations. As a result, projects are constrained by time and budget to produce their outcome. For all projects, there may come a point where the cost outweighs the Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  4   AGILE PROJECT DELIVERY value or the project output is not timely enough for the organization to reap the full benefits. Agile is one approach to organizing and completing project work. This text will focus on various Agile framework techniques to complete project work and will contrast it with other project approaches. Project concepts will be elaborated on throughout the text. LEAN OVERVIEW Before discussing using Agile approaches to complete project work, we must first review Lean. Lean is a continuous improvement framework that has been im- plemented globally across numerous sectors. Continuous improvement refers to an organization’s ongoing effort to improve products, services, and/or processes. Continuous improvement can refer to incremental improvement over time as well as breakthrough improvement all at once. Continuous improvement seeks to im- prove efficiency and save organizational time and cost by eliminating waste and wasteful activities. Lean was developed by Taiichi Ohno for Toyota in the 1950s. Lean was de- veloped in response to Japan’s unique consumer demands compared to those of the United States. Instead of attempting to emulate the mass-­production processes of Henry Ford, Ohno developed Lean to be focused on customer value and eliminat- ing waste by minimizing excess inventory.1 Mass production relies on a push methodology. The producer projects the amount of product they can sell and then produces it for sale to the market. To create consumer awareness, marketing and advertising budgets are used to reach and entice potential consumers. In contrast to mass production, Lean uses a pull approach: build based on customer demand and build what the customer has requested, and nothing more. Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Case Study 1.1 Dell’s Built-­to-­Order Model2 The pull method of production should be familiar to many computer consumers. To illustrate, Dell Technologies enables consumers to customize their computer via its e-­commerce website. The computer is then built to the customer’s specification and shipped within days. Dell maintains partial inventory but does not pre-­build all its devices and ship or push its products to retail outlets for sale. Dell relies on the Lean pull methodology and builds based on a customer request. Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  Chapter 1 Agile’s Lean Foundations   5 A number of principles evolved to support Ohno’s pull methodology: Maintain an unrelenting focus on providing customer value. Adopt a philosophy of continuous incremental improvement. Provide exactly what is needed at the right time, based on customer demand. Keep things moving—­in a value-­added and effective manner. Use techniques for reducing variation and eliminating waste. Value and respect people. Take the long-­term view.3 As we progress through this text, we will revisit Lean principles and how they have influenced Agile methodologies. Principles on their own do not enable an organization such as Toyota to pro- duce vehicles. Practices are required to enable the work to be performed. To sup- port the principle of keeping things moving, Ohno developed a practice known as Kanban. Kanban is a Japanese word for “card you can see.” A Kanban board is a visual management tool that helps improve process flow and continuous im- provement. Kanban boards are used to represent a process. People who support the process are represented on the Kanban board, where any activity or work item they perform can be made visible. For complex supply chains, this can result in a large and complex map that identifies a significant number of people and work items Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Figure 1.1 Kanban Board Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  6   AGILE PROJECT DELIVERY that traverse numerous work stations. Agile frameworks that utilize Kanban often have a much more simplified view of a Kanban board. The goal of the Kanban board is to minimize in-­progress items. Visual man- agement techniques are important in Lean methodologies. Both Kanban and vi- sual management have significant influence on Agile, which will be covered at greater length throughout the text. The practice of Kanban helps support another important Lean concept, which is the elimination of muda, a Japanese word for waste. Waste takes many forms, some more obvious than others. Excess inventory is an obvious form of waste. Defects that take additional time to fix or result in disposal of raw materials are also obvious forms of waste. But some forms of waste are less obvious. In the mass-­production model, the process of shipping to retail outlets, return of unsold inventory, marketing, and advertising could be considered waste. This is because they do not directly contribute to customer value. Case Study 1.2 Dell’s Direct-­Sales Model4 To contrast the pull methodology with the push method of mass production, we return to Dell and its use of a direct-­sales model. As mentioned previously, the company leverages a build-­on-­demand production approach through its e-­ commerce presence. As a result, Dell does not have to maintain retail outlets and does not have to ship inventory to be housed in these outlets. It only requires pro- duction facilities that ship directly to customers who have purchased its product. In addition, Dell does not have to reduce its profit margins through offering sales and customer incentives to reduce inventory because the company does not build unless a customer has ordered. Therefore, the only inventory Dell maintains are the parts necessary to build computers, not computers themselves. Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. However, it is also important to consider the waste Dell has eliminated for its customers. Customers do not need to travel to a store, compare configurations, or wait for sales. Customers can shop from the convenience of their home and, as a result, save travel time and costs. Because Dell has eliminated financial waste as- sociated with mass production, it can also offer its customers competitive pricing. Lean principles are at the heart of Dell’s business model: achieve customer value through the elimination of waste and provide exactly what the customer wants, when the customer wants it, and nothing more. Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  Chapter 1 Agile’s Lean Foundations   7 Figures 1.2 and 1.3 illustrate the flow of product from a mass-­production or- ganization versus a direct-­sales organization. Note where the customer is in each figure. In addition, note the different quantity of nodes and the potential differ- ences in operating expenses as a result. Lean has been utilized for more than 50 years and is implemented globally within some of the largest firms. Agile is often associated with a smaller scale. As this text is focused on the application of Agile in corporate settings, it will be neces- sary to draw on Lean concepts since many are at the core of the Agile frameworks. A SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF AGILE It is important to clarify that Agile is not a single methodology. Agile emerged in 2001 as a result of a collection of software developers recognizing an opportunity to deliver software projects more effectively. The group developed the “Manifesto Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Figure 1.2 Mass-­Production Supply Chain Overview Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  8   AGILE PROJECT DELIVERY Figure 1.3 Direct-­Sales Model Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. for Agile Software Development,” or the Agile Manifesto, which can be accessed freely from agilemanifesto.org. Their shared goal was to improve how software is developed, based on the following four values: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan5 Note: Although the Agile Manifesto places importance on the italicized items, it recognizes that the items following the italicized text are important and necessary. This means that documentation, processes and tools, negotiations, and plans are still valued by Agile. However, the italicized text should drive the work. Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  Chapter 1 Agile’s Lean Foundations   9 THE BIRTH OF THE AGILE MANIFESTO Case Study 1.3 Building Consensus for Consistency6 One weekend in February 2001, a group of 17 software developers gathered at a Utah ski resort to discuss their ever-­changing and evolving industry. The software development industry was growing exponentially as technology became more accessible to the consumer. Telecom providers were provisioning high-­ speed internet capability to homes and businesses. This convergence of technology, ca- pability, and access saw numerous industries looking to develop products through software development. The result was a fragmented approach and inconsistent model of delivery. Of the 17 developers, representatives from Extreme Programming, Scrum, Dynamic Systems Development Method, Adaptive Software Development, Crys- tal, Feature-­Driven Development, and Pragmatic Programming, along with other experts, shared their challenges with the waterfall-­based software development lifecycle. The outcome of the gathering was the Agile Alliance, which produced the Ag- ile Manifesto. What made the Agile Manifesto so powerful is that it was achieved through co-­design. Common themes were found, and a shared goal of improve- ment enabled a diverse group of experts to find a unified voice that would grow along with their industry over the next decade. The history of the Agile Alliance provides important context. Agile is not the product of a single person who devised a comprehensive approach to solve a busi- ness problem, like Taiichi Ohno. Rather it is a collection of methodologies. The Agile Alliance is the result of experts collaborating and co-­designing a solution to a Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. problem that was affecting both outcomes and productivity in their field. Figure 1.4 helps illustrate the family of processes associated with Agile. Throughout the text, different methodologies’ contributions to Agile will be referenced. The Agile Manifesto subscribes to 12 principles, which expand on the four values:7 1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continu- ous delivery of valuable software. 2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile pro- cesses harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage. Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  10   AGILE PROJECT DELIVERY 3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. 4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. 5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. 6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-­to-­face conversation. 7. Working software is the primary measure of progress. 8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, develop- ers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. 9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. 10. Simplicity—­the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—­is essential. 11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-­ organizing teams. 12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly. Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Figure 1.4 Agile and Its Family of Methodologies Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  Chapter 1 Agile’s Lean Foundations   11 When looking at the Agile principles, it is easy to see where the Lean concepts overlap: both value the customer, people, and continuous improvement. Figure 1.5 overlays Lean and Agile principles using a Venn diagram. The desire to achieve project consistency is not unique to Agile. Even though Agile and the Project Management Institute’s (PMI’s) waterfall approach to the software development lifecycle (SDLC) are often considered distinct and sepa- rate, they share a very similar history. THE SIMILAR BEGINNINGS OF AGILE AND THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE Case Study 1.4 The Dinner That Created an Institution8 PMI, often associated with waterfall project delivery models, shares a similar his- tory with the Agile Alliance. In the 1960s, project management began to prolif- erate in industries such as aerospace, construction, defence, and manufacturing. A collection of experts met at the Georgia Institute of Technology over dinner to discuss the growth of their discipline and the need to ensure credibility through consistency. As a result of the gathering, Ned Engman, James Snyder, and Susan Gallagher founded PMI as a non-­profit organization in 1969. PMI was incorporated in that same year. In 1975, PMI described its objectives as to “foster recognition of the need for professionalism in project management; provide a forum for the free exchange of project management problems, solutions and applications; coordinate industrial and academic research efforts; develop common terminology and techniques to improve communications; provide interface between users and suppliers of hard- ware and software systems; and to provide guidelines for instruction and career development in the field of project management.” Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Both the Agile Alliance and the Project Management Institute recognized a need to improve project consistency and delivery. The Agile Alliance emerged as soft- ware development grew as an industry, while PMI emerged as physical engineer- ing industries grew. The evolutions of project process improvement can be linked to evolutions of industries. Figure 1.6 illustrates how significant process improvements have Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Agile Agile Shared Lean Shared Lean Welcome changing Our highest priority is to satisfy the Maintain an unrelenting Take the long-term requirements, even customer through early and focus on providing customer view. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48. late in development. continuous delivery of valuable software. value. Agile processes Deliver working software frequently, Adopt a philosophy of continuous harness change from a couple of weeks to a couple of incremental improvement. for the customer’s months, with a preference to the competitive advantage Provide exactly what is needed shorter timescale. 12   AGILE PROJECT DELIVERY at the right time, based on Business people and developers must work customer demand. together daily throughout the project. Keep things moving—in a value added Build projects around motivated individuals. and effective manner. Give them the environment and support they Value and respect people. need, and trust them to get the job done. Use techniques for reducing variation The most efficient and effective method of and eliminating waste. conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. Working software is the primary measure of progress. 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Continuous attention to technical excellence Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, and good design enhances agility. Figure 1.5 Agile/Lean Venn Diagram  Chapter 1 Agile’s Lean Foundations   13 Machine Age Information Age Rapid Application Agile Assembly Line PMI Development Manifesto 1901 1969 1980s 2001 Lean Adaptive Software Scrum, DSDM, 1953 Development Crystal, FDD, 1974 Pragmatic, XP 1990s Atomic Age Figure 1.6 Agile Evolution Timeline accompanied eras that have seen significant changes to technology. Each era can be correlated to significant innovation: The machine age and the advent of the assembly line, telecommunica- tions, and mass transportation The atomic age and the emergence of nuclear energy production and use of computer systems The information age and the emergence of the internet, software automa- tion, and personal computing devices The Agile Alliance and the Project Management Institute’s desire for consis- tency reflects another Lean concept, the desire to eliminate mura or waste due to unevenness or variation. Both the PMI and the Agile Alliance saw that there was risk to their profession due to rapid growth and a lack of consistent approaches across industries. Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. WHEN IS AGILE USED? Agile is an adaptive approach to project management. Adaptive project manage- ment refers to using iterations to incrementally progress toward a project outcome. It is best applied when requirements are unclear. Therefore, the need for prototyp- ing and building upon experience is important. This will be explored at greater length in the next chapter. Waterfall project management is a predictive approach to project management. Predictive project management collects information, builds a plan based on known requirements and designs, and then aims to deliver Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  14   AGILE PROJECT DELIVERY the project outcome based on a pre-­defined scope, schedule, and budget created by the project team. Predictive project management works best for projects that are repeatable and well defined. Both Agile and traditional project management follow a similar cycle. Both methodologies initiate, plan, execute, and close. Figure 1.7 illustrates the traditional project management approach: a single progression from initiate to close to deliver a project outcome. Agile follows the same progression; however, the cycles are completed in short intervals or iterations. This supports the continuous improvement philosophy of failing fast and adjusting based on learnings. Figure 1.7 Traditional Project Management Cycle Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Figure 1.8 Adaptive Project Approach Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  Chapter 1 Agile’s Lean Foundations   15 SUMMARY Taiichi Ohno developed the Lean continuous improvement framework to meet the needs of Toyota’s consumer market. Unlike mass-­production models, Lean is a customer-­focused “pull model,” which only builds what is needed, in order to minimize waste, or muda. The Agile methodology is based on the Lean continuous improvement framework. Agile and Lean share principles. When summarized, the methodologies’ shared goal is to have a continuous flow of work that focuses on achieving value through the elimination of waste by empowering employees. The Agile methodology was created by a collection of developers who wanted to improve the consistency of software delivery projects. The Project Management Institute was created by a small group of subject-­ matter experts who wanted to improve the consistency of engineering projects. Waste due to unevenness or inconsistency is referred to as mura in the Lean framework. KEY TERMS adaptive project management: refers to using iterations to incrementally progress toward a project outcome Agile Manifesto: a document created by 17 developers in 2001 that forms the basis of the Agile methodology values and principles continuous improvement: an organization’s ongoing effort to improve products, services, and/or processes. Continuous improvement can refer to incremental improvement over time as well as breakthrough improvement all at once. Kanban: developed by Taiichi Ohno, Kanban is a Japanese term that means signal or “card you can see.” Kanban is a visual management technique used to im- prove the flow of work and minimize work in progress. Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Lean: a continuous improvement framework developed by Taiichi Ohno for the Toyota motor company muda: a Japanese term for waste. This form of waste refers to activities that do not directly contribute to customer value. mura: a Japanese term for waste. This form of waste refers to unevenness or incon- sistency in outcome or result. PMI: an acronym for the Project Management Institute predictive project management: the process of collecting information and build- ing a plan, budget, and schedule based on known requirements and designs Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.  16   AGILE PROJECT DELIVERY Project Management Institute: a non-­profit organization that oversees a creden- tialling process for project management and publishes A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). It was established in the late 1960s to help improve project delivery consistency in physical engineering sectors. SDLC: an acronym for the software development lifecycle software development lifecycle: a project management approach to deliver soft- ware projects. This process was commonly used prior to the Agile methodol- ogy and is still in use today. The software development lifecycle uses a waterfall approach. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What is a framework? How is it different than a process? 2. How do values and principles influence the structure of work? 3. What does Lean’s principle valuing people mean to you? How should it be incorporated into day-­to-­day work activities? 4. Why are frameworks needed? Why can’t the work just get done? 5. What is the purpose of a visual management tool like Kanban? How does it enable work to be completed? NOTES 1. C. Protzman, F. Whiton, and D. Protzman, Implementing Lean (Productivity Press, 2018). 2. D. Blanchard, “Commitment and Training Are Essential for a Lean Supply Chain: Manufacturers Are Now Looking beyond Their Four Walls for Opportunities to Drive Out Waste,” Industry Week 4 (2012): 45. 3. Protzman et al., Implementing Lean. 4. S. Kumar and S. Craig, “Dell, Inc.’s Closed Loop Supply Chain for Computer Assembly Plants,” Information Knowledge Systems Management 6, no. 3 (2007): 197–­214. 5. K. Beck, M. Beedle, A. van Bennekum, A. Cockburn, W. Cunningham, M. Fowler, Copyright © 2020. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. J. Grenning, J. Highsmith, A. Hunt, R. Jeffries, J. Kern, B. Marick, R. C. Martin, S. Mellor, K. Schwaber, J. Sutherland, and D. Thomas, Manifesto for Agile Software Development (2001), agilemanifesto.org. 6. Ibid. 7. Ibid. 8. S. Lenfle and C. Loch, “Lost Roots: How Project Management Came to Emphasize Control over Flexibility and Novelty,” California Management Review 53, no. 1 (2010): 32–­55. Blair, Aaron A.. Agile Project Delivery : A Practical Approach for Corporate Environments Beyond Software Development, Canadian Scholars, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/conestogac/detail.action?docID=6425728. Created from conestogac on 2024-10-21 10:49:48.