Software Ownership Transfer: Evolving Knowledge Transfer for the Agile World

About

Features

• The first agile guide to knowledge transfer, the most important overlooked issue in the software development project lifecycle
• Plain-English guidance on successfully transitioning ownership of any system or project to new teams or service providers
• Demonstrates techniques and takeaways through a start-to-finish case study
• Explodes myths and challenges conventional approaches to knowledge transfer

Description

Organizations invest immense amounts of time, resources, and attention in their software projects. But all too often, when it's time to transfer the finished project to new "owners," they settle for the most superficial classroom training, documentation, and code walkthroughs. These conventional approaches to knowledge transfer often fail, dramatically reducing the value of new systems in production. You can do much better - and Software Ownership Transfer will show you how.

This is the first practical, hands-on guide to knowledge transfer in today's agile environments. Using a realistic, large-scale case study, ThoughtWorks expert Vinod Sankaranarayanan shows how to elevate knowledge transfer from "necessary evil" to an activity full of agility and innovation, and bring together multiple organizations and cultures to make ownership transfer work.

Sankaranarayanan explains why mere documentation of error reports and processes isn't enough, and shows how to successfully craft a knowledge transfer program that's more substantive and effective. Along the way, he offers guidance on overcoming the commercial compromises and personal tensions often associated with transferring systems to new ownership; and on transforming mere "knowledge transfer" into something much better: "taking ownership."

Sample Content

Online Sample Chapter

The Challenge with Knowledge Transfers

Sample Pages

Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 1 and Index)

Table of Contents

Preface     xxiii
Introduction     1
Chapter 1: The Challenge with Knowledge Transfers     5
Post Takeover     7
   Contracting     8
   Timing     9
   Scope     9
True Cost of Transfer     10
Practical World     12
   Competing Priorities     12
   Rebadging     12
   The Evolving Nature of the Program     15
   Politics     15
Things to Know and Do     17
Chapter 2: Ownership Transfer: Bringing Home a Child     19
Ownership Is More than Experience and Expertise     20
   Investment     20
   Empowerment     21
Building Ownership Takes Time     21
   Action     21
How Do You Recognize Ownership?     22
Things to Know and Do     25
Chapter 3: The Approach     27
Visualize the To-Be State     27
Things to Know and Do     29
Chapter 4: The Program     31
Purpose of the Program     31
Orbits of Influence     32
Cost of the Program     34
The Scope     35
Timeline     36
Program Structure and Governance     36
Risks     37
   An Imperfect World     38
   Team Retention     39
   Effectiveness and Assimilation     39
   Management and Measurement     39
   Motivation     40
   Production Issues     40
   Miscellaneous     41
Things to Know and Do     42
Chapter 5: Being Agile    43
Pairing Interaction and Collaboration     43
Tools     44
Be Agile and Build Ownership     45
Code Comfort: Working Code over Documentation     46
The Product Principle     48
On Change     49
Things to Know and Do     50
Chapter 6: Culture     53
Power Distance     54
Cross-Organizational Cultures     54
Team Culture and Process     56
Retrospective Culture     58
Iteration Planning Culture     59
How Distance Impacts Culture     59
Capacity and Culture     60
Culture and Ownership     61
The Politics of Culture     62
“Not Invented Here” Syndrome     64
Culture in the Trenches—Pairing     66
Culture of Toil     67
Culture of Documentation     68
Ownership Is Taken     68
Pulling Them Together 71
Things to Know and Do 72
Chapter 7: Engineering     75
Transforming the Factory 76
Automating Quality 76
Versioning 77
Transformation through Ownership Transfer 78
Things to Know and Do     81
Chapter 8: Infrastructure     83
Ship the Shop     83
There Is Software in Infrastructure, Too     83
Engineering and Infrastructure     84
Distributed Hardware     85
The Infrastructure Team     86
Things to Know and Do     88
Chapter 9: Continuous Business     89
The Float     89
Releases     91
   Releases Are Must-Haves     92
Business Value     93
   What Not to Transfer     93
   Business Stakeholder Management     94
   Comfort through Continuous Business     95
Business Continuity     95
   Production Support     96
   Team Ramp-Downs     96
Ownership Transfer Must End as a Non-Event     97
Things to Know and Do     99
Chapter 10: Executing Ownership Transfer    101
The Process of Transfer     102
Pairing     103
Tracking Ownership Transfer     104
Teaming     104
Remote Pairing Checklist     105
Retrospectives     107
Ownership Transfer of BAs and QAs     112
Transferring Hardware     113
Colocation     114
Changing Equations     115
A Layered Experience     118
Things to Know and Do     119
Chapter 11: Process     123
Team Interdependencies     123
Team Structure Changes     124
Inceptions and Project Ownership     126
Skill Sets     127
Showcases     128
Project Execution     128
Defects     129
Release Process     130
Team Size Changes     131
Conway’s Law     132
The Definition of Done     133
Production Support     134
DevOps Communication     136
Costing     136
Governance     137
Things to Know and Do     138
Chapter 12: Measuring Ownership Transfer     139
Purpose of the Transfer     140
Releases     140
Functional Projects     140
Incumbent Team Ramp-Down     141
Things to Know and Do     141
Chapter 13: The Three Bridges     143
Duration of Ownership Transfer     143
Functionality     144
   Domain Appreciation     144
   Cross-Domain Experience     145
   Being a User     146
Skill     147
   Contextual Ambidexterity     147
   Quality Analysis Skills     148
   Skill for the Future     148
Agile Fluency     148
   Teams Operating at Different Levels     149
Things to Know and Do     151
Chapter 14: Putting It Together     153
Change Management     154
Individual     154
   Reskilling     154
   Recalibrating Expectations     155
   Team Interactions     155
Team     155
   Resistance to Change     156
   Team Restructure     156
Organization     156
   Wide Impact     157
   Outsourcing     157
Global Village     157
   National Culture     158
Things to Know and Do     159
Chapter 15: Conclusion     161
The Lean Agile March     161
Incentives     163
Start Early     164
Sign-Off     164
Things to Know and Do     165
Chapter 16: Epilogue     167
Bibliography     171
Glossary     173
Index     177

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