Adopting Agile methodology to deliver Fixed Price Contracts

Many organisations award work to vendors as Fixed price contracts often based on proposals submitted by vendors in response to client work tenders. In past, vendors have applied waterfall methodologies to freeze work scope & even design specifications with client sign off before they proceed for detailed implementation to avoid project rework & overruns later. However many clients don't have upfront visibility and detail clarity about all projects deliverable thus vendor often experience scope creep, rework during project acceptance phase.

Agile methodologies can help to manage this situation better along with proper project governance and change management processes. While Waterfall methodology is considered to freeze scope/ specs at every phase within contracts work boundaries, Agile also doesn't mean changes can be added in every iteration/ sprint.

 Understanding projects WHY and WHAT is very important before HOW part is discussed with larger teams and stakeholders. Business Case, ROI/ KPI Reporting, Project Charter, Statement of Work, Business Requirements are some arefacts which can help define project landscape. Project managers have used Progressive elaboration technique to manage scope ambiquity to develop dynamic project plans. It allows to build clarity of work which is plan to be scheduled in next few weeks/ months thus minimizing risks of rework. A phased/ iterative execution approach is often used to manage various work streams of a large project.

 Project contracts defines key deliverables & timelines which project manager should translate into required resources & efforts. Building a work break down structure (WBS) of contract scope will help project manager to understand which workstreams have higher level of clarity and which lacks same. This can then help to prioritize WBS items into different iterations. Making customer and key stakeholders part of the project journey is key to running projects using agile methodology. Proper communication plan and periodic information sharing can avoid surprises/ conflicts and rework for project teams.

 All revisions to product backlog (master WBS list) should be reviewed and agreed with designated change control board with project impact assessment details. Work from product backlogs should then move to release back log followed by sprint work plans. Agile approach can help get structure requirements development & execution in a way which can minimize rework and delays later on.

Requirements- What is this all about?

Many of you must have come across challenges across defining and managing project scope specially around requirements which comes in many forms and levels like market requirements, business requirements, user requirements, functional and non-functional requirements and system requirements specifciations. Additionally requirement analysis, development and management words must haven been used very frequently.

Understanding differences among them and Statement of Work is very crutial to manage any project scope. Project SoW is not application requirement document as project will generally have many more deliverables as part of the project/ engagement.

Gold platting and rework due to understanding differences are equally important to avoid scope creep and effort & schedule overruns.

Business Requirements - These should focus on business objective and vision. These set scope of a business problem that needs to be solved.

User Requirements - These describe high level description of a possible solution or provide a basis for analysis.

System Requirements - This is the level to consider functional, non-functional, constraints, interfaces specs of the proposed solution.

Thinking Tribal promotes Employee Engagement and helps to innovate new solutions

Research repeatedly suggests that levels of employee engagement in the workplace are low and worsening. But what really perplexes executives when we talk to them is that their employees are often fully engaged in a host of other activities.

Among the growing perplexed population is Mark Barnes (not his real name), vice president of a marketing company. When we spoke with Mark he was becoming increasingly frustrated at the behavior of Jennifer Moline (also not her real name), his most talented employee. “She is intelligent, great at her job, and highly creative,” said Mark. But he was troubled by the feeling that Jennifer was not 100% engaged and, perhaps more so, by the fact that he didn’t understand why and didn’t know what he could do.

Like any manager keen to maximize the potential of a great employee, Mark went out of his way to learn more about Jennifer. He talked to her and her colleagues. He saw that she and her fellow workers merged their private and professional lives. Jennifer, he learned, was passionate about the role of women in the workplace and was active in one of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean-in circles. If he had taken his research out of the office, Mark would have found that Jennifer felt very strongly about her local identity and bought her vegetables from a local organic cooperative; at the same time, she was concerned about global issues and invested her savings in Indiegogo, a global crowdfunding platform. Mark might also have noticed that Jennifer continuously received messages from numerous global and local LinkedIn groups, was a member of a local choir, and had recently started a book club with like-minded friends.

Mark and Jennifer are not alone. Executives and their employees have raised these issues with us in classes and on consulting assignments throughout the world. We live in tribal times. What matters for people like Jennifer is peer recognition of one’s contribution to a common goal in a small community.

The choice for people like Mark is simple: think about tribes in your organization to engage your employees and maximize their potential – or risk losing your best talent as they continue to engage elsewhere.

How we identify with others

Tribes are defined as a group of people who feel emotionally connected, share a mutual interest, and organize different aspects of their personal and professional lives jointly, with the goal of fulfilling a common objective that is good for the community. Tribes used to be formed on sameness, whereas today’s tribes are more often based on common interest or a shared purpose. New tribes do not provide us a permanent shelter to guarantee our survival, only a temporary space in which to act with other individuals who share a common goal. Thanks to technology, people can now belong simultaneously to multiple tribes. The high interconnectivity makes it difficult to identify who belongs to what group, but it makes collaboration between tribes a more likely strategy than competition.

Adherence to tribes is highly individualized. Some strongly associate with their identities of origin, those given at birth – for example, being a woman or a Latino. Others feel weak ties to their identities of origin, but have very strong identities that can be labeled aspirational – being ecological activists, for example. Some, like Jennifer, feel equally strong ties to their identities of origin and those of aspiration – she feels very happy working in a women’s group as well as contributing to a new global community of LinkedIn. And while Jennifer would be pleased with any women’s initiative her company organizes, some of her female colleagues may not be as engaged, or might even reject them.

Faced with such challenges, what can companies do to tap into employees’ tribal senses of identity? And how can they use that to improve engagement? In the work on diversity and innovation we have conducted over recent years, we came to understand some of the keys of tribal thinking, and how some companies are successfully leveraging it.

Tribal thinking inside an organization

Thinking tribal means embracing community without renouncing universality. For executives like Mark Barnes and their organizations, successful engagement of employees in this new tribal reality will be defined by their capacity to understand the tribes emerging inside and outside their organizations. It will mean offering a flexible structure and blurring the line between the two – in other words, allowing employees to bring the external tribes, which they’re engaged in, into the company. Giving employees this freedom to explore and apply their multiple identities and interests at work can result in innovative ideas and profitable new initiatives or business opportunities. Our research suggests there are critical elements of the new tribal paradigm that organizations need to understand: primarily, allowing employee tribes to come together and accommodating a multiplicity of them within your company.

Allowing tribes to form and act on a shared purpose

An interesting example of a tribe coming together and demonstrating high engagement is the case of Dana, the women’s division of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank in the United Arab Emirates. Its female employees shared a purpose – wanting to help others. They became aware of a specific need among their clients, and it brought them together to build a product that could be used for their community – Banun. These women employees realized the need of their divorced clients to open accounts in the name of their children without the signature of their husbands as required by the law. Once the need was detected, the managers consulted with the Shari‘a division that also asked for advice to Shari‘a Board, and after some discussions, they agreed to create the Banun account.

The core elements in the cases of Dana are straightforward – being Muslim and women. However, core elements around a tribe are not always equally explicit. Sometimes the common thread is a passion. In these cases of “identities of aspiration,” companies can create the context of possibility, within which tribes can emerge, and then monitor the emergent tribes and react quickly to their needs.

Accommodating a multiplicity of tribes and their ideas

If organizations want to use the tribal force, new forms of management styles are required as the example of Everis illustrates. Everis, a multinational consultant company that offers consulting, IT, and professional services, shows how companies can use employee engagement as a constant fuel for company innovation. In the tribal era, employees’ ideas represent their passions, needs, desires, and even their identities. The company’s “Everis Initiatives,” lets employees come together to develop business ideas without having to leave the organization.

First, an initiative is presented to a team, consisting of 8 partners and 8 managers, for evaluation. If the idea is approved, the group behind it will be granted the necessary time to develop their business plan. The company will  offer coaching sessions to help them in the development process and facilitate the capital needed to launch the project and sustain its financial needs for a period of five years.

In 2010, Everis Initiatives received the seventh annual Expansion and Employment Award for Innovation in Human Resources. Eight of its ideas have become stand-alone companies – among them Exerelia, a company specialized in the design, implementation, and management of integral and technological solutions in the field of energy efficiency.

Dana and Everis, represent very different cases of tribal understanding that can provide some useful insights for Mark Barnes in the initial example. First of all, we recommend Mark should see in Jennifer the potential of her individuality but also of her multiple identities. Mark should talk with her to learn about her multiple identities. Then he can explore how her multiple groups can be brought inside the company, or how the company can collaborate with some of her outside affiliations. These could take many forms. He could ask her womens groups how the company’s services can be more adapted to women’s needs. Perhaps he could have her local ecological groups collaborate in some aspects of the company’s services. Through an open continuous dialogue, Jennifer would be more inclined to bring her rich outside world into her work – and this would keep her engaged in the office.

An employee who feels engaged and integrated in a company is not only a brain; she or he represents multiple groups that can help design new products and services, distribute them, and consume them at the end of the day. Moreover, some of the employees’ tribes can collaborate in different aspects of the business and offer ways for the company to collaborate in other businesses. In the emerging collaborative economy, thinking tribal is mandatory.

Celia de Anca

Celia de Anca, Ph.D.is currently the Director of the Centre for Diversity in Global Management at IE Business School.She was previously the Director of Corporate Programmes at the Euro-Arab Management School (EAMS), Granada. She is the author of Beyond Tribalism (Palgrave McMillan 2012) and co-author of Managing Diversity in the Global Organization (Macmillan 2007).

How to train your elephant to dance - Implementing Agile & Beyond

Large organizations which have grown over last few decades & holding leading market positions have now realized that business models, management structures, systems and processes which worked for them earlier are no longer relevant in today’s business environment. Now change in consumer expectations is happening at an astonishing pace. Consumers are getting exposed to new ways of engagement, new products & services, convenient delivery & payment methods and satisfying after sale services response.

Business have also realized that customer loyalty span is shortening day by day and they need to respond to this situation by offering new product and services using new engagement models to hold their positions in existing market as well as kick off their journey in blue oceans.

Typically these large organizations have thousands of employees across multiple geographies in many silos business units with some shared services departments. They take 1-3 years from concept to market launch of new products and services while aligning complete life cycle support of new products into their existing organization structures and processes. Their size itself has become obstacle in responding to market changes faster.

New smaller organizations are able to conceptualize, design and launch their products in 3-6 months thus tapping on first mover advantage in certain market segments and setting min. expectations threshold for followers.

How can these large organizations be nimble and embrace agility like new players while still leveraging their experience & wisdom to offer superior quality & competitive priced services in time.

Getting something done within these large organizations may take weeks to months due to their silo working structures and perceived notion of someone else taking credit of their efforts.

To train these elephants (large organizations) to dance, it would require a top down mind shift along with significant changes in how success and failures are acknowledged and rewarded within organisation. Do organizations value Heros or recognize Team achievements will drive much needed change in organization culture to foster agility.

There is no silver bullet or magic wand which can infuse agility in an organization in few days or weeks. It’s a journey which needs to be taken to become fit for future. One may learn recipe of Agile home remedies from others but this needs to be prepared organically by everyone themselves for an effective and lasting impact.

 Which agile methodology or tools are best suited needs to be evaluated considering your own organization culture, business context and objectives.

On Agile journey, one need to be ready to accept failures as certain ideas may not give desired results. One should improvise their agile methodologies using their own learnings and build an eco-system which can allow teams to fail fast and fail in smart way (promoting experimenting model & learning from each to build on to next one).

Apart from organizations structures & processes changes, People need to come along to form teams and work with “one team, one goal” mindset. A constant reflection on organic growth of team experience is essential for Agile maturity in organizations.

Elephants can dance and it is an amazing experience to see them dance.

In search of business value - moving from Waterfall to Agile

By now Software wide-spread presence across all walks of life is being felt by all specially with emergence of social media & mobile devices recently. Pace at which software need to be delivered to market to meet users’ needs was never so fast.

In this dynamic world, sticking to traditional software development methodologies is highly risky as it may fail to meet target users expectations in desired time.

Software products/ applications need to be developed in an iterative way building features by features. Edward Deming’s PDCA (plan-do-check-act) is an iterative four-step management method used in business for the control and continuous improvement of processes and products. It is the foundation for lean thinking. This is great if you are in an established market. Colonel John Boyd, a military strategist and fighter pilot, developed a similar concept known as the OODA (observe, orient, decide, and act) loop. This is very good if you are in a highly volatile marketplace.

In past, Organisation have used waterfall SDLC model in iterative way to reduce risks and to speed up deliveries however they are now adopting to Agile SDLC methodologies to deliver  business value to project sponsors.

in 2010, Gartner’s analysts (Thomas Murphy and David Norton) predict that by 2012 “agile development methods will be utilized in 80% of all software development projects”. The authors explain that although Scrum will continue gaining in popularity over the coming years, organizations will not be successful in their transition unless they move toward a team-focused culture.

Agile projects are successful three times more often than non-agile projects, according to the 2011 CHAOS Manifesto from the Standish Group.

Agile Manifesto emphasize on following four core values

 •             Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

•             Working software over comprehensive documentation.

•             Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.

•             Responding to change over following a plan.

While Agile project management methodologies delivers value, one should perform organisations agile readiness assessment before adopting agile practices to better identify opportunities which can be best served using Agile Practices.

3 main pillars of Agile Assessment are People, Process (incl. Organisation Structures) and Technology.

- People

It assesses things like the current people capability, the perceived capacity for change, the staff demographics (PM, BA, QA) by roles and the organisational recruitment plans. It’s important to get early line of sight in these areas as it’s important to develop plans to improve skills and change the ratio of roles early.

- Process

It measures the current process capability prior to introducing any change. Value-Stream Mapping technique helps us to get a good understanding of the current process efficiency and helps to identify good places to start our improvement activities.. portfolio: the blend of projects, size, cost and other similar information. This helps us to identify good pilot projects and identify any challenges that we are likely to face integrating our new processes at a portfolio management level

- Technology

Assessments in this space are best focused around reviewing the architecture strategy and standards to identify potential pain points.

I think all organisations in the business of software applications development should perform agile readiness assessment to find out where do they stand and what all they need to address to start this change to deliver business value to its stakeholders.

How can one avoid illusions about Project Plans

People need Project Plans/ Project schedule to showcase how a particular work execution can be completed in given time and to highlight associated assumptions/ risks.

Different PMs/ Organisation uses different scheduling software tools like MS Excel, MS Visio, MS Project, Primavera, Open Work Bench, Soho Project, Attack, Bright Work, Hyper Office and many others however due to lack of trained project managers these tools often end up showing some schedule which is more of illusion of reality rather a dynamic execution model to guide the project team.

Understanding of key scheduling concepts and knowledge of applying them using some scheduling software can provide really very effective results.

Often people making project schedules, do not know enough about given project context and unable to model that project information into a project schedule which can show how entire project journey can be completed.

All schedules are based on some key assumptions and risk mitigation plans, often this information is not captured and shared with key stakeholders for their agreement and as a result this project schedule becomes irrelevant very soon.

They merely serve as PM support tool to manage some project reporting/ briefing obligation rather than a project execution guiding model.

Project schedules need to evolve as we gather more and more details about execution of work packages/ risks and should have enough clear tasks for team for next 1-2 months.

Project Schedule should be capable of predicting delays impact on project finish dates so take appropriate control action immediately.

Pl. does share if in your organisation, project execution is driven by project plan or project plan is driven by project execution as it happens.

How to identify inbuilt flaws responsible for project failures early

Many projects life cycle can be classified into just two phases -
Too Early to Tell where they are heading and Too Late to Stop failures.

We all know that most of the projects over run agreed baselined budgets, timelines and some even compromise with minimum acceptable quality levels of project deliverables.

No project fails in a day, failure is built brick by brick over many weeks and months by overlooking many poor project health symptoms. As success doesn't come all of a sudden so does failures. Many times projects have flaws from project definition stage itself - it could be around unrealistic goals, timelines or dependence on some yet to be proven cutting edge technology.

While project issues & risks are to be managed well to mitigate their impact on project, it is equally important to review basis of project sizing, key assumptions & techniques used to arrive at feasible timelines (e.g. are you using single point duration estimates for R&D type of project tasks?), WBS and tasks dependencies validation by experts/ sr. members, resources & vendors skills & competency levels and 3rd parties work products integration commitments.

Often, many of these aspects are over looked which then add up to the problems in later phases of project. They were never a surprise in the first place. A periodic project review of actions taken to manage project issues and actions done for mitigating project risks can also reveal some of these underlying problems which were present right from project foundation stage.

Some time lack of a competent project manager is also a major reasons why projects move on failure paths. Project manager soft & technical skills with reasonable domain understanding plays a critical role in uncovering issues early followed by proper action plan to manage them.

Project audit by PMO or some independent consultant is often a good way to unearth project grey areas which may turn into big issues later.

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How to Win People's Cooperation

Influence is the art of winning people's cooperation when you do not have, or do not want to use, the authority to make them do what you want them to do. It involves shaping the way people feel and think.

"Power lasts ten years. Influence not more than a hundred." Korean Proverb

Make people feel understood.

Spend less time trying to make people understand what you want, and more time making them feel understood. In an ideal world people might make decisions, commitments, and judgments based on logic and sound reasoning. But in this world people act in response to their preferences, feelings, and social influences they're not even aware of. If they trust you and feel that you care about them, they are much more likely to cooperate with you.

Find common ground.

Show people how their needs, values, and dreams mesh with yours. To do so, you have to understand their values and concerns. See things from their point of view. Be sympathetic with their feelings. Then show them how cooperating with you can help them achieve what they want.

Listen.

Listening is the best way to make people feel understood and, at the same time, to find common ground. Ask open-ended questions, the kind that invite people's careful consideration and honesty. Try to understand what people mean, without getting hung up on the literal meaning of their words. And acknowledge their thoughts and feelings (which isn't the same thing as agreeing with them).

Don't argue.

In business (and at home, too) the person you defeat in an argument today may be the person whose cooperation you need tomorrow. Arguments make people stake out positions and defend them. And the more you try to prove them wrong, the harder they will resist you. People may feel overwhelmed and stop arguing with you. But that doesn't mean you've won them over. Most of the time, when you win an argument, you lose an ally.

Care about the people you want to influence.

If you are concerned about the people you're trying to win over, if you value their needs and dreams, they'll know it. And they'll reciprocate. They'll communicate more freely, speaking their mind more openly and listening more attentively. They'll give you the benefit of the doubt. And they'll want to cooperate.

Help people believe change is possible.

People often know, although they won't often admit, that they need to change. They feel a vague uneasiness, sensing that things won't pan out the way they want. But they persist in doing what they've always done, thinking they're doing the best they can. Show them a better way, but more importantly, convince them that it's possible. Don't just give them a solution. Offer them hope.

Time your request well.

There's a time and a season for everything, especially for asking for support. When people are feeling stressed out, anxious, angry, resentful, or threatened, they're not really receptive. Do what you can to reassure them and to make them feel safe, and you increase your chances of winning their support. Look for "moments of influence," times when they feel capable and confident, and make your best case then.

Source: a page from Witt Communications. 

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Turnkey IT Projects

Many customers invite tender for fixed price turnkey IT projects and many IT vendors bid for them, few not even fully understanding expectations around an turnkey project.

A turnkey project provides a fully tested and ready to use deliverable to customer. Often this deliverable is a new system sometimes replacing existing legacy systems.

This can be a tremedeous advantage to the customer since entire program & project management is done by the vendor which may involve data center setup, network lines leasing, other hardware or software system integrations (3rd parties interfaces/ online/ web services and products), application development & maintenance, legacy data cleansing & migration, data center system support and helpdesk services etc.

Failure to do proper expectations analysis and scope documentation may lead to delays in intangible and tangible losses to client and executing organisation.

Technology maturity assessment is equally important when integrating cutting edge technology for building a new system which may be public facing or expected to be used thousands of users across globe. This leads to capturing pros and cons of such solutions and getting client agreement on same with proper risks mitigation actions planned.

Another key aspects is that vendor should have access to domain knowledge of new system or have some good business analyst on board since project kick off.

One need to plan customer involvement from early stages and keep them engaged in entire solution definition and validation so that they can plan system change management at their end.

Due to involvement of multiple 3rd parties, delays are anticipated so a proper governance and escalation structure should be in place in addition to change control board having senior members from client & vendors.

A program manager should be deployed to ensure successful delivery of multi-year long turnkey project.

Do you have requried skills to be a Project Manager?

Most of the times speacially in IT industry, we have seen that people promoted to project management role after working for 6-7 years in development or product implementation projects. However this new role require very diverse set of skills to be sucessful in their new assignment.

Here is a list of skills which are required to be an effective project manager.

An effective project manager should understand and use knowledge and skills from at least five areas of expertise

 Project management life cycle & knowledge Areas

 Application area knowledge, standards, and regulations

 Understanding the project environment

 General management knowledge and skills Interpersonal skills

Project Management Knowledge Areas

 Project Integration Management

 Project Scope Management

 Project Time Management

 Project Cost Management

 Project Quality Management

 Project Human Resource Management

 Project Communications Management

 Project Risk Management

 Project Procurement Management

Application area knowledge, Standards and Regulations Application areas are categories of projects that have common elements significant in such projects, but are not needed or present in all project.

 Application areas are usually defined in terms of:

 Functional departments and supporting disciplines, such as legal, production and inventory management, marketing, logistics, and personnel

 Technical elements, such as software development or engineering, construction engineering etc.

 Management specializations, such as government contracting, community development, and new product development

 Industry groups, such as automotive, chemical, agriculture, and financial services
• The ISO differentiates between standards and regulations as follows

 Standard

 Document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.

 E.g. Computer disk sizes.

 Nut and Bolt sizes etc.

 Regulation

 Government imposed requirement, which specifies product, process or service characteristics, including the applicable administrative provisions, with which compliance is mandatory.

 E.g: Building codes

 Government imposed regulations

Understanding the Project Environment

The Project Manager should consider

 Cultural and social environmento Economic, demographic, educational, ethical, ethnic, religious and other characteristics

 International and political environmento International, national, regional, and local laws Physical environmento Local ecology, and physical geography

General management knowledge and skills

General management encompasses planning, organizing, staffing, executing, and controlling the operations of an ongoing enterprise. It includes supporting disciplines such as:

 Financial management and accounting

 Purchasing and procurement

 Sales and marketing

 Contracts and commercial law

 Manufacturing and distribution

 Logistics and supply chain

 Strategic planning, tactical planning, and operational planning

 Organizational structures, organizational behavior, personnel administration, compensation, benefits and carrier paths

 Health and safety practices

 Information technology

General management provides the foundation for building project management skills and is often essential for the project manager.
 Interpersonal skills
The management of interpersonal relationships includes:

 Effective communication - The exchange of information

 Influencing the Organizationo - The ability to “get the things done”

 Leadershipo Developing a vision and strategy, and motivating people to achieve that vision and strategy.

 Motivationo Energizing people to achieve high levels of performance and to overcome barriers to change

 Negotiation and conflict management- Conferring with others to come to terms with them or to reach an agreement

 Problem solving - The combination of problem definition, alternatives identification and analysis, and decision-making

What it requires to be a Project Manager

Project Manager acts as guardian of Project on behalf of executive management of the organisation. He is expected to take decisions which are most favorable to project objectives.

An effective & efficient Project Manager should have following skills

1. Knowledge of Project management concepts, tools & techniques

2. Good Inter-personnel skills and ability to influence stakeholders

3. Problem solving & conflict resolutions skills

4. Excellent communication skills to convey thoughts clearly via meetings, emails & presentations

5. Project Domain Subject Knowledge

6. Fair operational hold on Productivity enhancement tools such as estimation, schedulling & costing, risk management, communication tools/ systems

7. Overall most improtantly 10 years+ industry experience working with people of varied skill sets, exerience level, different cultures and countries.

8. Ability to manage stakeholders expectations, identify project objectives & constraints priorities/ project pulling forces strength level