Strategies for Success: A Singapore Case Study and a look to the future - Jeff De Luca - Agile SG 2013

Presented in Agile Singapore 2013 Conference

Feature Driven Development (FDD) is one the founding Agile methodologies and it came to international recognition from a project right here in Singapore. This project pre-dated the writing of the Agile manifesto and was at the time one of the largest Java projects in the region.

How did the people, process, and technology changes required for such a project get successfully introduced at a major Corporation that was a Mainframe Cobol environment at the time and had not even done client/server or object oriented before?

In this session you will get to listen to the creator of one of the founding Agile methods. Hear him tell the story of this famous Singapore Agile project from the perspective of adoption lessons that can be applied today. That is, how to successfully adopt Agile and the change it requires. Then, hear about the latest thinking on the rise of Social and it's impact on organising structures including Agile projects.

Transcript

1. S T R AT E G I E S F O R
   S U C C E S S
   A S I N G A P O R E C A S E S T U D Y A N D A L O O K T O T H E F U T U R E
   jeffdl@me.com
   

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2. View Slide

3. F E AT U R E D R I V E N D E V E L O P M E N T
   Develop an
   Overall
   Model
   Build a
   Features
   List
   Plan by
   Feature
   Design by
   Feature
   Build by
   Feature
   

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4. A C C U R AT E A N D M E A N I N G F U L
   Prospecting (PR)
   !
   !
   !
   Loan Application (LA)
   !
   !
   !
   Facilities (FA)
   Establish Line of Credit
   !
   Establish Financing Package
   !
   Securities (SC)
   !
   !
   !
   Credit Evaluation (CR)
   !
   !
   !
   Approval (AP)
   This Feature right here is 44% done and is
   currently being coded
   Roll-up for this Activity is 37% complete
   Roll-up for this Subject Area is 59% complete
   Roll-up for the entire Features List is 55% complete
   

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5. Establish Security Committment (SC)
   Business Activities Total Features Not Started In Progress Behind Schedule Completed Inactive % Completed Completion Date
   Associate to Bank 2 0 0 0 2 0 100 Jul 1998
   Associate to FP 6 0 0 0 6 0 100 Jul 1998
   Associate to Line 3 0 0 0 3 0 100 Jul 1998
   Establish Commitment 123 0 0 0 123 7 100 Jul 1998
   New Features 1 0 0 0 1 0 100 Ongoing
   Subject Area Total 135 0 0 0 135 7 100
   Implementation (MD)
   Business Activities Total Features Not Started In Progress Behind Schedule Completed Inactive % Completed Completion Date
   Authorisation 15 0 0 13 2 2 51 Mar 1999
   Change Current Account for OD Line 12 12 0 0 0 0 0 Mar 1999
   Establish Disbursement Details 35 0 0 4 31 1 91 Mar 1999
   Establish Implementation Instruction 27 1 0 12 14 1 70 Mar 1999
   Establish Line Implementation Details 21 0 0 4 17 0 89 Mar 1999
   Establish BlockDiscounting Line Impl. 7 0 0 0 7 0 100 Mar 1999
   Establish NIF RL Disbursement 8 6 0 0 2 1 25 Mar 1999
   Establish Trade/Guarantee Line Impl. 9 0 0 0 9 0 100 Mar 1999
   Establish an FX Line Implementation 5 0 0 0 5 0 100 Mar 1999
   Establish OD Line Implementation 13 0 0 0 13 0 100 Mar 1999
   New Features 3 0 0 0 3 0 100 Ongoing
   Subject Area Total 155 19 0 33 103 5 74
   Progress Summary for Problem Domain
   Total Features Not Started In Progress Behind Schedule Completed Inactive % Completed
   1013 23 0 33 957 100 96
   P R O G R E S S S U M M A RY R E P O R T
   Actual Data
   

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6. Establish Application (AR)
   Create
   Application
   (14)
   May 1998
   100%
   SP
   Validate
   AFL
   (7)
   May 1998
   100%
   SP
   Search
   for AFL
   (3)
   May 1998
   100%
   SP
   Register
   Application
   (14)
   May 1998
   100%
   SP
   Abort
   Application
   (3)
   May 1998
   SP
   100%
   Establish Facility (FA)
   May 1998
   Establish
   FP
   (5)
   100%
   TSB
   Establish
   Line
   (34)
   May 1998
   100%
   TSB
   Comply
   with MAS
   (5)
   Aug 1998
   SP
   100%
   Establish Security Commitment (SC)
   Establish
   Commitment
   (123)
   Jul 1998
   100%
   PS
   Associate
   to Bank
   (2)
   Jul 1998
   PS
   100%
   Associate
   to FP
   (6)
   Jul 1998
   PS
   100%
   Associate
   to Line
   (3)
   Jul 1998
   PS
   100%
   Establish Credit Evaluation (CR)
   Establish Rel
   with Other Bank
   (5)
   Jul 1998
   PS
   100%
   100%
   Establish
   Debt/Equity
   (5)
   May 1998
   PS
   Establish
   Financial Stmts
   (90)
   Nov 1998
   PS
   100%
   Establish Funds
   Flow Stmts
   (11)
   Aug 1998
   PS
   100%
   Generate
   Documents
   Feb 1999
   65%
   TSB SP
   Terms and
   Conditions
   100%
   ToDoList
   100%
   NSC
   Outsource
   Establish
   Comments and
   Recommend
   (130)
   Nov 1998
   PS
   100%
   Request
   Waiver
   (6)
   Oct 1998
   Waivers (WR)
   Establish Party (RM)
   Establish
   Details
   (61)
   Jun 1998
   100%
   PR
   Establish
   Relationships
   (39)
   Aug 1998
   100%
   PR
   Establish
   Financials
   (46)
   Sep 1998
   100%
   PR
   Establish Approval (AA)
   Establish
   CLS User
   (13)
   May 1998
   100%
   SP
   Generate
   CAS
   (85)
   Oct 1998
   PR
   100%
   Routing for
   Approval
   (18)
   Sep 1998
   PR
   100%
   Comply with
   Credit Policy
   (19)
   Oct 1998
   PS
   100%
   Comply with
   MAS HLD
   (10)
   Oct 1998
   PS
   100%
   Comply with
   MAS S757
   (4)
   Oct 1998
   PS
   100%
   Approving
   an AFL
   (22)
   Oct 1998
   PR
   100%
   Comply
   with MAS S29
   (33)
   Oct 1998
   PS
   100%
   Comply with
   MAS S34
   (3)
   Oct 1998
   PS
   100%
   Implementation (MD)
   Authorisation
   (15)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   Establish
   NIF RL
   Disbursement
   (8)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   Change Current
   Account for
   OD Line
   (12)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   Establish
   Block Discounting
   Line Impl.
   (7)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   Establish
   Disbursement
   Details
   (35)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   77%
   Establish
   Implementation
   Instruction
   (27)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   69%
   Establish Line
   Implementation
   Details
   (21)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   89%
   Establish
   Trade/Gtuarantee
   Line Impl.
   (9)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   100%
   Establish
   FX Line
   Implementation
   (5)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   100%
   Establish
   OD Line
   Implementation
   (13)
   Mar 1999
   SP
   100%
   100% 17%
   Sep 1998 Sep 1998
   Actual Data
   

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7. – C H R I S S M Y T H
   “But to sweeten the deal I introduced a ‘parking
   lot cake’ with a feature set for each team member.
   Where the pink came from, I don't know, but the
   cake went down well…”
   

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8. – M E L I S S A R O S S
   “You know me – if delivering coffee moves things
   forward -- I would do that too…”
   

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9. UI PD SI
   

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10. “ T H E M A J O R P R O B L E M S
    O F O U R W O R K A R E N O T
    S O M U C H
    T E C H N O L O G I C A L A S
    S O C I O L O G I C A L I N
    N AT U R E ”
    F I R S T P U B L I S H E D 1 9 8 7
    

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11. 1 9 9 7
    P N G
    

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12. 
    1 9 9 7
    

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13. – T R A D I T I O N A L D E C I S I O N M A K E R A X I O M
    “Nobody ever got fired for…”
    

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14. • Contract Executive
    • Backing
    • Dual-managers
    • Appraisals
    • Hiring
    • Transfer the system for
    building systems
    EVP I.T.
    Chairman
    

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15. T H E S I N G A P O R E L E N D I N G P R O J E C T
    Chapter 20: Feature-Driven
    Development
    “We think most process initiatives are silly. Well-intentioned managers and teams get so
    wrapped up in executing processes that they forget that they are being paid for results,
    not process execution.” –Peter Coad, Eric Lefebvre, Jeff De Luca 1
    For those who wonder if Agile approaches scale, Jeff De Luca, project director of Nebulon, a
    Melbourne, Australia IT consulting firm, offers a couple of Feature-Driven Development (FDD)
    project success examples. The first, a complex commercial lending application for a large
    Singapore bank, utilized 50 people for 15 months (after an initialization period). The second
    project, for another large bank, employed 250 people over an 18 month period. “But I’d never do
    one of these [the 250 person project] again,” Jeff quipped. “It was way too big. A very large bank
    was trying to completely re-engineer its technology platform.”
    !
    FDD arose, in name at least, in the 1997-98 timeframe during the Singapore project. Jeff had
    been using a streamlined, light process framework for many years. Peter Coad, brought in to
    develop the object model for the project, had been advocating very granular feature oriented
    development, but hadn’t embedded it in any particular process model. These two threads—one
    from Jeff and the other from Peter—came together on this project to fashion what was dubbed
    Feature-Driven Development. “Peter had been talking about features of years, but didn’t have a
    process,” says Jeff. “I adapted my process, which had evolved over 20 years, with Peter’s ideas
    about features. Mine wasn’t as granular.”
    !
    Jeff, who seems more interested in managing projects than writing about methodology, was
    urged to write about FDD at a lunch with John Gage from Sun Microsystems. Intrigued with the
    project, John wanted to know who the project “anthropologist” was—someone to write down the
    experience. Egged on, Jeff wrote the FDD Chapter (Chapter 6) in the Java Modeling In Color book.
    Peter Coad’s company, TogetherSoft, specializes in software development tools that integrate
    

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16. A G I L E
    • Iterative and Incremental

    • Making people first-class
    

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18. – A G I L E M A N I F E S T O
    “Individuals and Interactions over Process and
    Tools”
    

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19. – J O H N B O R D E A U X
    “Why do we work in organisations where natural
    interactions and instincts are discouraged?”
    

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21. S O C I A L A N D T E C H N I C A L
    A R C H I T E C T U R E
    O R G A N I S A T I O N A L B A C K P L A N E
    UI PD SI
    Public discussions - no email
    Working session topics and outcomes
    KMS
    CPs Brain time vs body time
    Domain modeling Automation
    Inspections
    T R A C K I N G
    A N D
    R E P O RT I N G
    Norms
    Team Development Cycle
    Plus/Deltas
    Fine-grained features
    Features List
    Domain functional decomposition
    Month-Year Activity dates
    Feature milestones and percentages
    Weekly summary and trend reports
    Parking Lot charts
    Weekly snapshot and publish
    Straight talk
    Predictive builds - SCM
    Standards
    

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22. F D D ➤ S O C I A L S O F T WA R E
    D E V E L O P M E N T
    • Structures and processes defer to natural systems of
    human interaction
    • Conversational technologies that allow for low-effort
    and low-latency flow of information
    • Flattened decision cycles, real-time situational
    awareness, creativity, and a capacity for adaptive
    responses to changes in its environment
    

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23. – J O H N B O R D E A U X
    “Technology should enable serendipity.”
    

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25. • Talent
    • Backing
    • One company, two systems
    • Enough to eat
    • Human activities
    

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26. – I S TA N D O N T H E S H O U L D E R S O F O T H E R S
    John Bordeaux, Peter Coad, Timothy Lister, Tom
    DeMarco, Gerald Weinberg
    jeffdl@me.com
    

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