SCRUM AGILE Project Need and Execution

The world markets and business changes are getting more and more dynamic every day. This leads to continuous business change and expectation to have change deployed in the shortest and fastest time frame possible with required agility and flexibility of business processes.

Given the speed of change and the part Information and Communication Technology is playing we have seen the need for how IT system changes are dealt with and executed. Business is constantly asking IT to make the IT system changes faster and faster while still ensuring quality, cost and time needs are efficiently managed.

A major part of IT system change execution is related to how its programs and projects are executed. The traditional project management methodologies and IT projects water fall method of executing and delivering project outcomes are not helping. The key reasons for water fall approach not working are,

1. Business changes are dynamic and time to get the change done is shorter means even business doesn’t have the complete idea of every details of the product. Hence requiring faster iteration of part of the product benefits to build on the next set of requirements.
2. The waterfall method of executing IT projects lead to long project execution cycle that relies on 100% clear business change requirements and detailed product requirements. This requires longer time to get things documented, designed, built and then longer testing, fixing and deployment times.
3. With traditional waterfall project execution there is lost opportunity for improving the product as the business gets to see the product only at certain stage of the project by when there is not much room for changes given the need for speed.
4. In traditional waterfall projects the business is unable to make interim decisions stopping the project or changing its path at any stage of the project for better product creation by saving time and cost spending.

The above reasons lead to the need of a new IT projects/programs execution methodology. In 1990s a new methodology emerged called SCRUM which gives the required agility in any IT product delivery. The methodology was more tried and used in early 2000 and last decade by big software development vendors that continuously work on software product development and releases.

SCRUM focuses on products delivery by delivering its prioritised features in smaller (2 to 4 weeks) iterative cycles known as sprint. Each sprint delivers a set of working product features to the product owner for testing and releasing it to production. The whole agile development cycle continues as iterative sprints until the entire product with all its features are delivered to the product owner.

As each sprint (iteration) is of maximum 4 weeks, the product owner at the end of each sprint has authority to approve the next sprint or cancel and stop further product development. The product owner also has authority to change product priorities and add or remove features to the product and hence allowing the agility and flexibility of product development.

There are other positive points of SCRUM (Agile) way of product development. The sprint is delivered by a team working on that sprint. The team has required skilled resources that choose the activities themselves and create a complete sprint plan. The team appoints one of the team members as SCRUM Master who ensures that every single day the team members update each other and SCRUM Master help to remove any roadblocks for a successful produce delivery. The entire team is responsible for product delivery and if a sprint is successful then it’s due to the entire team and when it fails the team notes down the downsides and work on improving it in next sprint.

All in all SCRUM (Agile) way of doing IT projects can be successfully used for all the projects/programs that are planned to deliver products. It’s said that by 2015 at least 80% of IT projects would be using SCRUM (Agile) way of doing projects. So the earlier we start using the better. Even if 70% of IT projects are done in SCRUM (Agile) way then it would do wonders for business change projects.

Convergence from Technology to Life – Part 1

We just completed a decade in the Millennium. In this 21^st century technology is playing key role in changing lifes in every part of environment. I bet you to pick up any sector, any field of expertise, any job everything is touched by the automation and technology. Specially the Information technology is playing the key role in the everyday changes and is also responsible for the speed of change we all are experiencing day in day out.

Let’s talk about a few areas of our daily life and see how technology and especially information technology is enabling the change as well as a little glimpse of where the future is taking us.

Let’s start with communications. In 1990s we started using mobile phones which gave us an ability to be able to reach out to people as and when we need and every individual could hold one or more telephone numbers. Great leap in making communications speed up and ability to reach people much faster. On one side it helped everyone have their own communications device, although initially not everyone could have one but eventually it spread like utility service and became the need for everyone to have one phone at least. The mobile phones then took a leap in early 2000 to become smart phones to be able to do more than phone functions, like playing music, receiving emails, having calculators, calendars, contact books with more detailed information of individuals. This further enhanced with in few years of last decade to become as powerful as a laptop and also it continued to enhance its processing and storage capabilities to the level that its able to run most of the laptop functions. Today it has enhanced to the extent that it can be used like a mini PC/laptop to do automation activities. Its still not over as it continues to converge itself to be able to do even more sophisticated things that we couldn’t even do with our laptops as these services would only make sense on the mobile device, things like GPS navigation, GPS Image location tagging, Picture scan to know where we are and future unveils that soon we would be able to point our mobile device cameras to any location, landmark on the road and it would bring real time information about that location and possible services, promotions, businesses that exists in that location. Gone are the days of needing a yellow page, green pages to browse for business listings, its an online world where we need the information real time and its of value only when its real time available.

Let’s look at another example and this time focus on entertainment, let’s take TVs for example which are converged from small size CRT displays to large size plasmas to long lasting LCDs and now even more slimmer LED TVs. The core function of the TV has also enhanced itself from playing TV stations, to movies, to games, to photos, to music and now comes the time to bring the TVs to be Online connected to internet. The new ranges of TVs come with internet connection and possibilities to use them for internet browsing, live videos and movies streaming from internet. On one end the current LED TVs are bringing a very high end rich experience of HD images and 3D viewing right at your home then on the other end the convergence and disruptive innovation continues to evolve. The TVs are destined to converge fully using the latest lighting solutions, the Laser rays and Projection devices. The TVs as big size display device in a home will converge to a small size palm device projecting an High Definition Light Displays.

Application Convergence – What, Why, Who and How?

More then ever the businesses are getting automated and enabled using IT solutions. Every part of the organisation are dependent on one of more IT solutions, some in house and some bought from the market. The IT solutions are made with the need for enabling the business and often leaving the useful ones rest are forgotten and left as legacy/archives to be referred only when needed.

With fast changing business needs applications are created, used and left even faster then we all could think about. Day in and day out business creates document libraries, project team rooms, intranets and a lot more. Over years this turns out to be a huge mess and close to unmanageable. The result is higher maintenance and infrastructure costs. Legacy / archive appls, as they are hardly used result in Loss of knowledge.

In the era of acquisitions and disentanglements to speed up innovation and change business directions, its even more essential to ensure companies have defined and controlled solution catalogue which is well managed and serviced.

For MNCs this is extremely essential as MNCs have multiple office locations, the applications appear like mushrooms in those locations and then grow into a huge architectural and landscape mess to manage and maintain. The issue starts with slight differences in global and local process and document needs. Ones allowed localize the changes continue one after another leading into a fully customized monster application and that too not just in one location but many. The result is enormous costs to maintain, control and change business applications and processes.

Application convergence can be addressed by addressing the following in order mentioned,

Bottom Up Dos

1. Ensure the As is application portfolio is clearly documented with ownership from IT and business
2. Collect relevant solution changes and yearly maintenance costs to ensure full visibility
3. Get the collected data well categorized by business process, functions, platforms, location etc.
4. Create some data analysis and reports showing number of applications in different dimensions of the categories to be able to see the duplicates, expenditure and other information useful to make decisions.
5. Ensure the 1st hand bottom up approach analysis and output is shared with the top management and local businesses alike in condensed and relevant manner.
6. Identify the champions that helped in bottom up approach and they should be used for the application convergence activities going forwards.
7. Identify the road blockers and how they can be kept in control or convinced that application convergence is good for the whole organisation
8. Ensure during the whole process that current business and activities are not affected as they will create –ve publicity and barriers for progress

Top Down Dos

1. At the company level define the Application convergence initiative ensuring full business buy in and management support throughout the organisation
2. Adapt an Enterprise wide architecture framework (like TOGAF, Zachman, DoDAF etc.)
3. Start with the Business process layer to define the core business processes. Ensure core functions, business processes are well documented and have clear global ownership.
4. Short list and select the required architecture and portfolio management tooling as these would be needed for ongoing use, structure, control and management.
5. Business process by business process start harmonizing the processes and select the best solutions from existing ones or new ones (from the market or built in house)
6. Focus on quick wins by choosing the valuable but easy transitioned business processes and start filling up the solution catalogue with global solutions. This also means start closing down by transitioning old solution towards new ones and launching them as one global solution
7. Focus on clean ups that can aid to reduce the infrastructure and maintenance costs and hence result in better use of resources across organization
8. All new business demands should fit in to new way of working with only one solution at company level.

Another important point to keep in mind is Application convergence in MNCs could take from up to 1 to 5 years although a lot will be achieved in 2 years while the complex applications convergence would require a lot of time and efforts and proper strategic planning to make it happen with business change.

If the above is done in write order with proper management support and control then it ideally should lead to globalised solutions which if made with agile and service oriented architecture would result in agility to cope with business process and tools changes done fast enough and efficiently across the organisation. On the other hand running application convergence will lead to whole IT landscape clean up and steam lining ideally resulting in savings.

Importance of Business Process Management

In the era of fast changing world where there is hardly time to catch up breath, we still must care about the core and that is business process management. Business process management is used around identifying and documenting core business processes within the organisation. It also focuses on everything around core business process like roles, responsibilities, time taken from A to B, inputs required and outputs expected.

Although a lot has been done by companies to manage business processes effectively, identify core ones to keep in house and noncore to outsourced to manage through the vendors. With all the more fast changing needs and directions of business is making companies to increase their focus on business process management.

Business process management is important and seen useful because of following,

Good business process management ensures,

1. Great returns in terms of process automation and use of technology to enable & enrich the business user’s experience
2. Agility to be able to identify and change as per changing business needs
3. Ability to create one understanding of the business process flow across the organisation
4. Ability to identify and outsource or buy business as a service for non core business processes
5. Ability to better control and comply with audits and regulatory needs

Bad business process management leads to,

1. Poor response to changing business needs requiring business process change
2. Agility to adapt only for local situation leading to duplicity and unmanageable change
3. Duplicate business processes and their automation for various locations due to slightly different adaptation in different places
4. Increased business process management, trainings and IT costs
5. Unclear understanding of business processes would lead to control, compliance and regulatory issues

No matter how fast the change becomes, its still very essential to have full ownership and effective business process management in place. The value of the same is long lasting and could be the make or break of the success of the company.

SCRUM – Agile Why now ?

We are in a decade where changes of all types and shapes appear from various angles. We all are demanded to adapt as well as deliver successfully on all our activities and task to eventually ensuring the business change request delivered. In the years to come we will continue to face more and more changes and with all these changes comes, risks and delays if not handled promptly and properly.

Amongst all these changes and need to faster, the word Agile and Nimble are heard very often these days. Being Agile and Nimble is all about being lean but at the same time able to handle and adapt to change, growth and even discarding the change when necessary.

For the business change/growth the competitive advantage and window opportunity to be ahead of the competition is getting smaller and smaller. This means if we are delayed for the window then somebody else will take the opportunity and this will result in loss of market share and business growth. This is the key driver for the need of speed in doing so its also key to be able to change path and decide on different routes of changes as they come.

The traditional way of managing changing over years is becoming obsolete given the Gen-X, Gen-Y and later in the decade Millennial coming work. The use of internet for real time collaboration, communication and ideas build up as well as taking advantage and launching new growth options is becoming the name of the game.

The unpredictability of whether, natural disasters and economical changes are putting all business on their toes to react to changes even more faster and to deal with them effectively. Failure to do so have shown business going bankrupt or being taken over by others with in no time.

Even Mergers, Acquisitions and Disentanglements are taking speed where these are more and more asked for be dealt with fully in 3 to 9 months.

All of the above asks us to find out methods and possible ways to handle changes differently then we are use to.

Going towards Agile way of doing things allows us to bring more ownership of actions towards the group of people who need to do it as well as ensure that every sprint the team improves as well as delivers part of the business change requested. Agile is sure shot way of ensuring we are more adaptable to changing routes/options of business, while its not a one size fits all method. This means it needs to be applied and used selectively as it does require efforts and time for an organisation to get used to it and to keep doing it the right way.

Every day Stand Up, Share and Get Going Meetings

In today’s fast paced world with series of parallel changes demanding speed and agility to get things done as a team and individuals. Its essential to develop techniques that allow us to better collaborate with less time and more productivity.

In this article let’s focus on how we can make our progress tracking more effective by doing it in a simple yet effective manner every day/every week. This is also called as Stand Up Meetings. The name stand up is to ensure that people know it’s a short meeting and they need be upto the point, specific and relevant to the group they are talking to.

This has been a very effective method of running progress checks as well as “depending on each other” to keep making the progress we intend to achieve our targets.

The meeting should be arranged everyday/every week at a specific time. As a stand up meeting the overall meeting should be of 15-20 minutes at max. Here is the Agenda of the meeting and Do’s/Don’ts..

Agenda

Each individual member of the meeting has to focus on talking only about following,

1. What have you done yesterday/last week
2. What will you be working on today/this week
3. What roadblocks/issues you see affecting your progress

Do’s and Don’ts

1. The chair person of the meeting should not be the hierarchical authority. It should be one of the project team member with whom people are very comfortable working
2. The meeting team should comprise of 2-4 people to be more effective and brief
3. Every member must prepare what needs to shared and it has to be at max 3 to 5 minutes per person. This also means share things that are relevant for the group and be specific.
4. The chair person/delegate should record the minutes specially the problems/issues and pass it to the appropriate action driver to ensure those actions are acted on with priority
5. Focus on ensuring that this does not become a blame meetings(pin pointing) and Ensure it does not move towards highly operations/technical details discussion

Benefits

1. You will see that all will get use to a very effective and upto point meetings
2. If done every day there will be only few actions to note and work on
3. Communication would be crystal clear amongst the team
4. Team work (depend on each other) will become much more stronger ensuring high level of collaboration
5. Being short and effective meeting would lead to member’s eagerness to join the meeting

Go ahead and use it. I am sure you will find it very effective too.

What does it mean to be moving towards cloud computing…

Cloud computing has started in the decade of 2000 and has been becoming a future of Data Centre Hosting. It is closely linked to the term “Platform as a Service” for infrastructure hosting related solutions. It aims to make the business Asset Free and move them towards Pay as you Go model. Given the dynamic economic situations, growth in number of internet sites and growing number of individuals becoming self made entrepreneurs is igniting the need for Cloud Computing and Cloud Hosting solutions.

Cloud computing is the buzz word and real good thing for individuals, small and medium enterprises. The need for individuals, small and medium enterprises is driven by low cost, pay as you go strategy while they don’t have to take care of assets, facility and services. They simply buy the so called Utility services from existing cloud solution providers and start using the hosting almost instantly. The challenge still remains on ensuring the effective use of cloud solutions in the right manner. Like all technology changes the cloud solutions are also evolving and it will take some more time for people & businesses to get use to the Cloud solutions effective use for their needs.

For the multinationals (MNCs), cloud computing and hosting are still seen as risky as well as time consuming in terms of transformation from existing asset based data centre hosting to cloud hosting solutions. The MNCs are moving towards private cloud solutions that enable their businesses with high secure cloud solutions based on their needs. For MNCs the other challenges are,

1. Multiple locations with all sizes of office, small, medium, big, requiring different scale of solutions and accessibility needs
2. Latency issues due to remote users, remote sites, 3^rd party access
3. Multiple vendors involved in IT end to end service delivery chain
4. Every changing speed of acquisition and disentanglements due to dynamic economic situations and drive for growth
5. Wide variety of application platforms resulting in complex hosting needs and making upgrades even more difficult
6. Multiple new and change projects in IT service delivery chain
7. Scattered or Consolidated but too big, multiple billing within IT service delivery chain from various vendors
8. Loss of touch and feel (Control) over assets and their management
9. Multi company shared datacenters can pose security and control risks if not managed properly

Like all new innovations Clould Computing/Hosting is also a good thing from future perspective and is evolving. Companies are preparing to be ready for the next versions of cloud computing/hosting solutions. In few years from now the real view and use of cloud computing will come to light as more and more businesses/individuals start to use it and demand/suggest/ask for improvements in services.

Applications to Mobile Applications World …

IT continues its drive to add value by enabling the businesses and co creating business. It is one of the important enablers of competitive strategy for businesses. The traditional application development and lifecycle management still continues amidst approx 10 to 20% applications are taken and used standard out of the box. There are around 1 to 3% applications moving in direction of “Software as a Service”, pay for use.

While all of the above is evolving we have seen that our so called Smart Phones are becoming more and more powerful with ability to run most of the internet browsing capabilities as well as mobile platform for application development.

With iOS and Android’s ease of use to create mobile applications, we have seen a very high rise in individual mobile applications enabling us in all areas of life. Apple has millions of these appls sold and these come for as low as 1USD per user. Android based applications are increasing as well and used on various mobile platforms.

This is the start of applications becoming commodity / utility and it means that for all day 2 day applications as well as collaboration applications will move towards mobile platform and available on internet round the clock at very low cost and used in very high volumes.

On the other hand the business specific applications are moving towards pay for use “Software as  a Service” model. A few examples of the same are, Concur for expense management, Salesforce.com for order management. SAP, Microsoft and Google are also working on creating Pay for use applications which are low cost, transaction driven applications. In conjunction providers are also working on leveraging Cloud Computing and Service Oriented Architecture for creating mobile applications.

Google has launched Google Appls Store which is not just for mobile appls but appls that can be accessed and used using browser online. Microsoft is in process of launching Office 365 online for working virtually from anywhere.

All of the above are showing the signs that we are on the journey towards creating and using Pay for use as well as mobile applications more and more. In coming years this would lead to a utility model of using applications based on the needs and opening a new way of using applications from an appstore provider instead of making a new one ourselves every year.

On one side this will give more agility to the business to choose the solutions off the shelf while on the other end it will create more flexibility and control issues to ensure we choose the right appls throughout the company for effective use. This is more important for MNCs adapting the out of box applications then for individuals/small/medium enterprises.

The Future of Applications

IT is increasingly seen as an essential business enabler as well as value creator + competitive advantage creator. In doing so one of the most important service blocks of IT is applications life cycle management. Within application life cycle management the IT divisions generally use various frameworks and technology platforms to achieve the desired results. The well known ones are,

1. Rational Unified Process (RUP) for requirements management
2. PRINCE2 / PM BOK for project management
3. ITIL for service management
4. Waterfall method for application SDLC
5. Agile development for agile way of applications management
6. SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) for modular/component development and making them available as loosely coupled to be used as service

In the area of technology platform there is a vast list. Some of the heavily used ones are,

1. Microsoft .Net
2. Android
3. Apple iOS
4. Java/J2EE
5. MS SQL/MY SQL
6. Oracle
7. Many more…

On the other side we have seen the increase is standard out of box applications that we use day in and day out to get our daily activities done. A few examples of the same are,

1. Microsoft Office Suite
2. SAP (with needed customizations)
3. Microsoft Sharepoint
4. CA Clarity Tool
5. HP Open View Service Desk Tool
6. Many more…

The latest trend shows a start in applications turning more and more out of the box for day 2 day activities and collaboration needs. More and more business starting with individuals, small & medium enterprises are going towards using standard out of the box applications to keep their appls maintenance and development costs under control. The MNCs (Multi Nationals) have started moving towards the same for the so called Utility applications.

The advantages seen in using standard out of the box applications are,

1. No internal development and maintenance team required
2. The standard functionality ensures easy upgrades and updates
3. Market standards are adhered to much easily
4. License costs benefits due to volume
5. Easier user training with standard vendor provided training materials
6. Easier acquisition on boarding to One company standard appls

The disadvantages to be handled are,

1. The standard appls vendor’s existence in market. If the vendor is small can be easily take over/go bankrupt
2. No control over how fast the issues & changes reported will be resolved and in which release
3. Very tight control on changes/customizations, all has to be within the boundary of what the standard appls environment allows
4. License costs year over year can increase/ License model can change for major releases
5. Data migration from other systems to standard systems could be very time consuming, complex and costly

The applications future continues to evolve and we already see many businesses moving in the standard out of the box applications for their day to day activities and collaboration needs. It is slowly moving towards adaptation of “Software as a Service”, pay for use model.