Business challenge
Implementing organizational change with lasting benefit is a major task for any organization. In software development, that change often involves establishing an agile approach that provides the tangible advantages of fast and efficient software production. Ivar Jacobson International has proven its ability to help larger companies implement agility organization-wide.
Solution
We concentrate on working with the people involved in software development, not just with process. Drawing on our foundational practices for guidance, we keep documentation to a minimum and instead focus on maximizing smart communication throughout the organization.
Iteration
It is vitally important that all stakeholders participate in every stage of development. An iterative approach helps foster that participation: regular drops of executable code encourage discussion among stakeholders and help them embrace change.
Communication
Regular communication either through a scrum or iteration assessment improves consistency, collaboration and the quality of the deliverable. Ideally, good communication techniques will be spread to other projects throughout the organization as they are implemented: success breeds success.
Training
In adopting agility, people may need to change the ways they work. We support that change through on-the-job coaching and mentoring, building your internal capacity to scale the adoption of agility throughout your organization. We have a program for training individuals to become Agility Coaches, and for supporting them as they train others. Our mentors become the catalysts for change.
Collaboration overview
Typically, our consultants take a parallel approach to rolling out agility within your organization. First we join one of your teams and start to demonstrate relevant techniques that will quickly reveal value. We then lead a workshop to help define the Team Charter. This outlines how to communicate with stakeholders—both on the IT and the business sides. We discuss and agree on a minimal set of documentation to be used within the project, always falling back on the saying that “If you never refer to the document, why write it?”
Implementing an approach that supports regular communication and releases of executable code, and managing a controlled change process, are central to a good agile approach. Implementing our Iterative Practice demonstrates considerable value very quickly.
In parallel to working with an individual project or program we train a number of Agility Coaches who can then take the approach out to a much wider community within your organization.
How this benefits you
Our approach ensures maximum benefit to all stakeholders involved in software development by providing for:
- A flexible, smart, skilled and highly efficient team
- High visibility of progress and deliverables
- Stakeholder involvement promoting close collaboration that in turn helps deliver success
- Change early in the project lifecycle, promoting delivery of what is actually needed when it is needed
Sample implementation
Everyone wants to be quick, nimble and able to react to events in a timely fashion. But speed on its own can produce chaos; an appropriate level of control is needed. Iterations provide this control.
Working with an Ivar Jacobson International mentor, the team on this specific project was able to produce short and clear iteration plans that got everyone on the same page—literally. These brief and ‘to-the-point’ plans showed the relationship between risks, objectives, priorities and the criteria by which they will be evaluated.
Clear short-term plans helped the team and stakeholders agree up front. Stuck on the wall (physically and virtually), the plans were a constant presence—annotated with real-time progress updates as a good ‘point of truth’. Such visible updates show when objectives are met and not just when tasks that may or may not meet the real objective are completed. The developers were also given context so they knew why they were performing certain tasks.
Effort used: Two days’ mentoring a week for a year.
What we left behind:
- A set of IJI practices, associated templates and guidelines
- An organization that is more agile, communicative and positive
- A responsive IT division that delivers rapid and successful systems
- IJI-certified Agility Coaches