Building Agile into your ALM Solution

What is a good application lifecycle management (ALM) solution? I define ALM to be a set of tools and practices that work together across the project lifecycle, from inception into production, to help you deliver an instance of a product (aka, a release). A reasonable ALM product will have a common user interface for utilizing the ALM functionality. It will also include a meta-model and process engine to parse and share information across and amongst the various functions within the ALM framework. IMHO, I believe ALM is still relatively immature and I don’t sense that there are strong business reasons for doing ALM and still lacks the true integration that is needed to make it seamless. So what would a business drive ALM framework look like? This is where Agile comes in.

I believe a key driver to ALM is focusing on customer value from inception to release. This is what an Agile mindset brings to the table. While many ALM frameworks start with planning or requirements, I suggest agile ALM begin as early as inception or during the creation of the business vision for the product or a specific release. This helps provide the context of the customer value that is being built during the project. Agile ALM also should include mechanisms that focus on customer validation along the way and effective product delivery.

What I am advocating is introducing the notion of the value chain. This concept has been around since at least 1980 when Michael Porter established his value chain framework and further explained in his 1985 book, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance but the concepts had been discussed in conferences and companies well before this time. I suggest taking the ALM framework, merging it with a customer value chain framework, all while applying the agile methodology of iterative and incremental approaches ©. This integrated framework emphasizes customer value and validation in an iterative and incremental approach. The primary value of my ideal Agile ALM framework is that it provides the mechanisms that enable continual focus on the value of what we are building for our customer throughout the lifecycle so that we ensure we are delivering of value.

To gain more detail about what I believe to be an ideal yet effective Agile ALM framework that is focused on delivering customer value, consider reading these articles:

• Agile ALM for Delivering Customer Value - Part 1 of 2 - published in the Configuration Management (CM) Journal - January 5, 2012

• Agile ALM for Delivering Customer Value – Part 2 of 2 - published in the Configuration Management (CM) Journal - January 11, 2012

How an Agile Customer Feedback Vision can lead to Product Success!

Gaining periodic customer feedback of working software is an important aspect of agile development, because it ensures that you are constructing a valuable solution for the customer. Without customer feedback, you are not really applying agile; you are just doing a form of iterative development without aligning your work with the customer’s need. While the engineering practices applied within an agile project focus on building the product right, the validation practices focus on building the right product.

The notion of thinking through and establishing a serious feedback approach for the product, which I term the Agile Customer Feedback Vision, is missing from many agile projects—and even missing within the bailiwick of agile practices. This vision is a strategy for identifying the right customers,  applying personas, establishing feedback sessions throughout the project, and then motivating the customers to attend the feedback sessions.

Establish Customer Profiles

Customer profiles are important to a successful implementation of customer validation. A customer profile identifies common traits in your target customers, including demographics, buying patterns, and areas of interest. The goal is to identify and select customers who meet the profile you are looking for and who are willing to provide feedback.

Identify Personas

Personas represent the users of the product that is being developed.  There are often several personas that use a product for various reasons.  An example of 3 personas that may use an on-premise application are: "Regular User", "Power User", and "Administrator".  They all use the product a bit differently and features are built for their needs.  The importance of identifying the personas in regards to customer feedback is that you should invite the customers that represent that persona when those features are being demonstrated.  For example, when you are demonstrating a feature that focuses on administration tasks, then the best feedback comes from having someone from the customer who represents the administrator.

Motivate Customers to Attend

Start by inviting customers to just one end-of-sprint review or demo session and getting their input. Customers who have not experienced something like this before typically are impressed to see working software so early in a release lifecycle. If they like the first validation session, then invite them to the next end-of-sprint review and excite them by highlighting where you’ve incorporated their input. At this point, ask the customers if they want to participate periodically at a per-sprint cadence.

Capture Customer Feedback

Capturing customer feedback is important to ensuring we are "building the right thing".  I have seen feedback languish which defeats the point of gaining the feedback.  It is critical that the feedback gets incorporated into the next Sprint Review.  The feedback that you gain should be linked to the User Story and should also capture the customer by way of Customer Profile that gave the feedback.

Consider Various Types of Customer Feedback Loops

While there is significant benefit to the end-of-sprint review or demo, the customer is, in most cases, only viewing the working software at that point. Let us review the potential types of customer validation sessions and their attributes in more detail.

• Sprint Review/Demo—This is a type of feedback that demonstrates the working software completed during the sprint, shown to customers in order to both highlight progress and gain the all-important customer feedback.

• Hands-on Experience—This is a type of feedback where customers will exercise the software in a hands-on manner in a simulated or pilot working environment.  This could be in the form of alphas or betas.

• On-premise Installation Feedback—this is a type of validation where customers physically install the working software into their environment.

Once you have established the Agile Customer Feedback Vision, it is important to share it with the team so that everyone is aware of the vision and the importance of the validation activities.

To learn more about Personas, go to: http://cmforagile.blogspot.com/2013/12/personas-do-you-really-know-your-users.html.

To read the full article, go to: http://www.agilejournal.com/articles/columns/column-articles/6310-agile-customer-validation-vision.

Sunny with a Chance of Agility

What is your Agile weather report?  Some have sunny Agile efforts ahead. Some are looking to get introduced to agility and others are considering strategies for Agile deployments.  As we gaze in the horizon, what do we think will be hot in the Agile landscape and improve our working lives? What might be some of the latest shifts in the Agile industry in the upcoming year?

The theme of my Agile weather report for 2011 focuses on:

• Job security with Agile credentials
• More structure with Agile deployments
• Agile Tooling goes ALM

Prediction #1:  Job security with Agile credentials

I predict that we will see a significant growth in software engineering jobs that include an Agile element to them.  In general, we are seeing a growth in the use of Agile methodologies and practices in the software industry.   Many of the new positions are now mentioning Agile as one of the job requirements.  The implication is that they are looking for people who have worked within an Agile context so that when they join the new company, they bring Agile experience. 

Prediction #2:  More structure with Agile deployments

As product teams become more mature so do their Agile practices.  While Agile has been utilized in projects for several years now, it is still new to many.  With that in mind, I expect to see more formality in deploying Agile.  This is especially true since Agile is no longer a budding trend but maturing where patterns are emerging that lead to more successful Agile deployments.  While some would like to say, “Let’s just get started doing Agile”, it may be better to consider a methodical or strategic approach to the deployment of Agile.  With that in mind, here are some Agile adoption approaches that may be considered:

• Agile Adoption Roadmap by Mario Moreira
• Shock Therapy by Jeff Sutherland, et al.
• Agile Scaling Model by Scott Ambler

Prediction #3: Agile Tooling goes ALM

As we look into 2011 and the future, we will see more focus on providing comprehensive Agile tooling capabilities within an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) framework.  The value of having an ALM framework is that it allows a product team to manage customer needs from business case development to delivery.  When tools support this framework, it can help streamline and reduce the effort in supporting the process.  Some examples of tooling that provides an Agile focus in an ALM context include:

• CA Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Agile Solution
• IBM Rational Team Concert
• HP Quality Center Agile Accelerator

Summary
As we look into 2011, conditions could be quite sunny for those companies looking for the Agile edge.  What this may mean to those with Agile credentials is that you will gain job security.  Since Agile is becoming more mature, continues to prove itself, and can scale to larger product teams and their projects, there will be a need to have more consistent approaches to deploying Agile.   There are patterns for success deployments which new teams can take advantage of.  And as Agile tooling makes its way into more of an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) framework, it can provide a more end-to-end view of how business and user needs make their way to delivery.  Whether your forecast is sunny or cloudy (or a little bit of both), consider agility in driving your business!  Have a productive 2011!

Note: if you want to read the full article from the Agile Journal, go to: http://www.agilejournal.com/articles/columns/column-articles/3529-sunny-with-a-chance-of-agility-agile-predictions-for-2011