Practical Approach to Large-Scale Agile Development, A: How HP Transformed LaserJet FutureSmart Firmware, Rough Cuts

Description

• Copyright 2013
• Dimensions: 7" x 9"
• Edition: 1st

• Rough Cuts
• ISBN-10: 0-13-298099-1
• ISBN-13: 978-0-13-298099-9

This is the Rough Cut version of the printed book.

Today, even the largest development organizations are turning to agile methodologies, seeking major productivity and quality improvements. However, large-scale agile development is difficult, and publicly available case studies have been scarce. Now, three agile pioneers at Hewlett-Packard present a candid, start-to-finish insider’s look at how they’ve succeeded with agile in one of the company’s most mission-critical software environments: firmware for HP LaserJet printers.

This book tells the story of an extraordinary experiment and journey. Could agile principles be applied to re-architect an enormous legacy code base? Could agile enable both timely delivery and ongoing innovation? Could it really be applied to 400+ developers distributed across four states, three continents, and four business units? Could it go beyond delivering incremental gains, to meet the stretch goal of 10x developer productivity improvements?

It could, and it did—but getting there was not easy.

Writing for both managers and technologists, the authors candidly discuss both their successes and failures, presenting actionable lessons for other development organizations, as well as approaches that have proven themselves repeatedly in HP’s challenging environment. They not only illuminate the potential benefits of agile in large-scale development, they also systematically show how these benefits can actually be achieved.

Coverage includes:
• Tightly linking agile methods and enterprise architecture with business objectives
• Focusing agile practices on your worst development pain points to get the most bang for your buck
• Abandoning classic agile methods that don’t work at the largest scale
• Employing agile methods to establish a new architecture
• Using metrics as a “conversation starter” around agile process improvements
• Leveraging continuous integration and quality systems to reduce costs, accelerate schedules, and automate the delivery pipeline
• Taming the planning beast with “light-touch” agile planning and lightweight long-range forecasting
• Implementing effective project management and ensuring accountability in large agile projects
• Managing tradeoffs associated with key decisions about organizational structure
• Overcoming U.S./India cultural differences that can complicate offshore development
• Selecting tools to support quantum leaps in productivity in your organization
• Using change management disciplines to support greater enterprise agility

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Sample Content

Table of Contents

Foreword by Jim Highsmith, ThoughtWorks     xiii
Preface     xv
Chapter 1  Agile Principles versus Practices     1
The Principles of the Agile Manifesto     2
Our Take on Agile/Lean Principles     3
A Quick Tutorial: Agile versus Waterfall     6
Summary     8
Chapter 2  Tuning Agile to Your Business Objectives     9
Background: HP FutureSmart Firmware Case Study     10
Cost and Cycle-Time Drivers Prior to HP FutureSmart Firmware     11
Value Proposition of Re-Architecting the HP FutureSmart Firmware and Processes     13
Establish Development Objectives from the Business Analysis     15
Summary     16
Chapter 3  Aligning Architecture with Business Objectives     17
Challenges with Existing Architecture     18
Architecting for the Business: Dynamic Variability and Forward Compatibility     19
Keeping an Architecture Current and Sustainable     22
Summary     25
Chapter 4  How to Establish a New Architecture Using Agile Concepts     27
Re-Architecting Iteratively     28
Making Progress     28
The Thin-Slice Model     30
Creating Cultural Shifts Through Architectural Demos     31
Summary     33
Chapter 5  The Real Secret to Success in Large-Scale Agile     35
Change for People’s Sake     36
Metrics Are a Conversation Starter     38
Iterative Model of Agile Management     39
   Mini-Milestone Objectives     40
   Cascading Objectives to Track Progress     41
   Conversations     42
   Learning     43
   Agile Adjustments     44
Summary     44
Chapter 6  Continuous Integration and Quality Systems     45
Reducing Build Resources and Build Time: Continuous Integration     46
Achieving High Quality with CI: Automated Multilevel Testing     55
   L0 Testing     57
   L1 Testing     58
   L2 Testing     58
   L3 Testing     59
   L4 Testing     60
   Continuous Improvement of the Deployment Pipeline     60
Productivity Results of Our Automated Delivery Pipeline     61
Special Considerations for Enterprise Software Systems     63
Summary     65
Chapter 7  Taming the Planning Beast     67
Predict by Ballparking and Trend Watching     69
   Ballpark Prediction: R&D Early Response to High-Level Initiatives     70
   Trend Watching: Quick Response to All Feature Requestors (Where They’re Likely to Land)     70
Clear Prioritization     73
Just-in-Time User Story Definition     76
   Invest in System Engineering     77
   Put Marketing in Charge of a Unified 1-N List     80
   Involve the Technology Architects     81
   Use Project

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