Agile Architecture and the Agile Program Manager, what do they do?

1. The Agile Architect and the
Project/Program Manager
Johanna Rothman
New: Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
@johannarothman
www.jrothman.com
jr@jrothman.com
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2. Agile Architect
“Isn’t that an oxymoron?”
We need agile architects on programs
We often need agile architects on projects
We use them differently than on serial lifecycle projects
2 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

3. A Program
Organization and coordination of several projects’ results
into one deliverable. That deliverable has the value to the
organization
3 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

4. Two Architecture Myths
“We can just can churning out features and let the
architecture evolve and never look to the future.”
“We must spend months doing BDUF without proving
any framework with a single feature”
Both lead to architecture debt and technical debt
Both lead to unhappy project and program managers
4 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

5. The Wrong Kind of Architects
5 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

6. Program Management of
Concurrent Projects
6 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

7. What Do you Need on a Feature
Team in a Program?
Enough developers and testers to swarm around a feature
Enough “other” people to finish a feature (writers, BA,
DBA, UX, whatever the product needs)
Architect attention
7 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

8. Just-in-Time Architect Attention
Wayfinding: just what is waiting for us out there, anyway?
Scouting: explore potential paths
Architecture spike to answer architectural questions
Vertical prototype: bigger than an XP design spike
8 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

9. Agile Business Value Triad
9 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

10. Programs Are Riskier Than Projects
You all know that projects don’t scale
The larger and the longer the program, the more risky it is
The more pieces the program has, the more risky it is
Hardware and software
Mechanical and hardware and software
Embedded and hardware and software
Regulated industries
10 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

11. Making Risks Transparent
Many people say, “Just do Scrum-of-Scrums”
Scrum-of-Scrums has its place, and it’s not for everyone
Remember
Scrum is not the only agile framework
A Scrum Master is not a project manager
A Scrum Master does not manage technical risks
A Scrum Master is not an architect
11 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

12. Issues in Program Management
Especially in concurrent projects, how do you manage, what do you
manage when you have 7, 18, 25 teams of people all working on the
same product?
Backlog management
When to make architecture decisions and perform architecture
work
Managing the risks, up, down, sideways
How to understand and explain status
12 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

13. Communication in an Agile Team
Communication Paths=(N*N-N)/2
4 people, (16-4)/2=6
5 people, (25-5)/2=10
6 people, (36-6)/2=15
7 people, (49-7)/2=21
8 people, (56-8)/2=24
9 people, (81-9)/2=36
10 people (100-10)/2=45
13 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

14. Communication Problems on a
Program
14 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

15. Need to Organize as a Program
S-o-S works for small programs, of up to, say, 7 teams. What
about more teams?
There are too many people for a daily standup
Possibly too many risks for the program team to manage
Organize as a program
15 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

16. Programs Have Been Around Forever
Whenever you need to integrate deliverables across the
organization, you use program management approaches
Cross-functional team who commits to their
deliverables on a timely basis
Difference is that architects (and architecture) are built
into the teams, not up front
16 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

17. One Approach to Programs I’ve
Used for Decades (Not Agile)
17 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

18. What Agile Architects Might Do
Create Landing Zone with Architecture investigation
PPO Design spike related task
Prototype Scout (Design by Walking
Wayfind Around)
Roadmap exploration Watch out for debt of all
Architecturally meaty kinds
feature ....
Prototype YMMV
18 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

19. Example: Landing Zone
Specify and update the landing zone as the feature teams
build features
What do we know more about?
What do the tests tell us about technical debt?
How does the landing zone prevent technical debt?
Do our prototypes tell us anything about the features
and the landing zones?
19 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

20. How Do We Manage Architectural
Work?
Add to the Program Backlog
Keep a separate architecture backlog
Have a separate architecture kanban
20 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

21. Backlog and Architecture Kanban:
Realize a Task Needs to Start
21 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

22. Work on a Task in Architectural
Kanban
22 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

23. Architectural Kanban: Finish
23 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

24. Feature-itis
Do You Have Feature-itis? blog entry
Requires project/program managers stand up to PO
PMs need nerves and backbones to do their jobs
And make sure you have the conversation nicely
24 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

25. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
When to make architectural decisions
When is the most responsible moment?
How long can you wait?
How long should you wait?
25 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

26. What do You Think?
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27. Last vs. Most
Responsible Moment
27 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

28. Product Delivery and Architecture
Decisions
Typical Product Delivery Cost of delivery User involvement When to make architecture
Mechanism or update with update decisions
Software as a Service (SaaS) Negligible 0 As late as responsible
Boxed (Shipped) software Minimal Total As late as responsible
Low to Last responsible moment, but not
Firmware upgradeable in the field Minimal
manageable later
As early as responsible because of
Hardware or other difficult-to-
High Significant program risks (development and
upgrade product
delivery)
28 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

29. Agile Architects
Work across the program
With the program manager and the program product owner
In a large enough program, with a team of architects working
with feature teams, throughout the lifetime of the release
Exploring the possibilities just in front of the feature teams
Their work must be visible, whether it’s in a backlog or a
kanban
Make decisions based on risk
29 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

30. References and Reading
Manage It! and Manage Your Project Portfolio have a number of how-to’s on
programs
Tons more on jrothman.com
If you’d like me to stay in touch with you, please sign up for my email
newsletter on http://www.jrothman.com/pragmaticmanager
I appreciate Hayim for organizing this talk on such short notice.
I appreciate Dima and SAP for letting us use this space. Thank you.
I appreciate all of you for being here! I would love to connect with you on
LinkedIn as a token of my appreciation.
30 © 2011 Johanna Rothman