Turning Projects into Products (and Back Again) Adam Light - PDF document

10/17/2013 Turning Projects into Products (and Back Again) Adam Light Principal, SoTech Advisors Imagine a flight from New York to London… First class of course! 1

10/17/2013 London radios to report congestion.... The plane could ‘circle’ over London… EXPENSIVE! 2

10/17/2013 The plane could slow down en route… …Or the plane could remain in New York 3

10/17/2013 Differential Cost of Delay Overview 1. Agile methods focus on the product 2. You still need project management 3. Air Traffic Control 4. Combining Product-centric & Project-based 5. Explaining all this to your boss 4

10/17/2013 Definition of a Project: A project is a temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or result. http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/About-Us-What-is-Project-Management.aspx Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. …Agile Methods are Product-Centric http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html 5

10/17/2013 Agile Process Framework Scrum Team Product Owner Working software Product Backlog You (May) Still Need Projects 1. Relationships between companies are formed around projects. 2. Project-based concepts often deeply embedded in organizational systems for selecting, funding, and monitoring work. 3. You work with project managers. 6

10/17/2013 Air Traffic Control Center Departure Ground Approach Ground Local Local Air Traffic Control • Crews in flight are self-directed, Center Controllers communicate. • Ground, Local, and Departure Controllers direct. • Planning and producing profitable flights remains complex! 7

10/17/2013 Defining the boundary between Project… …and P roduct 8

10/17/2013 Project-based Product-centric • Start and finish • Deliver continuously • Fix scope • Vary scope • Cross-departmental • Team based The focus of Project Management skills and techniques moves from here… 9

10/17/2013 …and here To here… Leadership Required • Establish process vision… • Build coalitions… • Define roles… 10

10/17/2013 …Redeploy resources Form the Agile “Core” 11

10/17/2013 Define and Manage a Pipeline A Single Set of Decision Makers 12

10/17/2013 Define and Manage a Pipeline Define and Manage a Pipeline 13

10/17/2013 Explicit Processes at Interfaces Project Management Specialization… • Release Manager • Release Train Engineer • Value Stream Manager 14

10/17/2013 Standardize & Automate …Moving Upstream Guidelines Summary • Begin with a “core” of cross-functional teams • Define a process pipeline through the core • Decide (at least) as quickly as you deliver • Flow work in flight through a single set of decision-makers • Define explicit roles at take-off and landing • Specialize, standardize, and automate project activities 15

10/17/2013 Mapping to Popular Frameworks • Scrum – “Core” Agile Work System • Kanban – Explicit Pipeline (Value Stream) • Scaled Agile Framework – Project Managers as Specialists Explaining this to your boss… 1. Project-based approaches fix and control scope, product-centric methods vary scope. 2. Agile frameworks typically don’t define a project management role, yet your organization has project managers… 3. Creating the container or framework for self- organization requires leadership. 16

10/17/2013 • Air-traffic control • Product-centric vs. Project-based • Integration Guidelines • Framework Mapping • Leadership Needed! Thank You! adam@sotechadvisors.com www.sotechadvisors.com 17