Recipes For Agile Governance In The Enterprise (RAGE)

Recipes for Agile Governancein the Enterprise (RAGE)The Enterprise WebCopyright cPrime 2013 All Rights reserved-1

AbstractThe term governance refers to a formalized set of meetings and practices whose purpose is to ensurethat the right decisions are made about what deliverables to produce, and how to produce themeffectively. Governance becomes complicated for large enterprises, which may contain multipleBusiness Units and multiple development processes. Thus, we will look at how governance can beconducted effectively for Agile and hybrid processes in a large company that develops softwareapplications. We synthesize a case study of a company that implements governance in a variety ofeffective and explicitly “Agile” ways. We divide levels of governance into Portfolio, Program, andProject levels, and review practices appropriate for each. The key insight is that the bulk ofgovernance can be accomplished by defining and using standard Roles, Ceremonies, Artifacts, Trackingand Metrics, and Governance Points at different levels. Finally, we identify numerous practical recipesfor governance, and the principles that apply across them. These principles provide guidance for howto construct new governance recipes for scenarios not addressed here.Copyright cPrime 2013 All Rights reserved-2

Contents1INTRODUCTION . Error! Bookmark not defined.2GOVERNANCE . Error! Bookmark not defined.3THE MEANING OF AGILE .104THREE LEVELS OF GOVERNANCE .105THE COMPANY. Error! Bookmark not defined.6REPRESENTATIVE BUSINESS UNITS . Error! Bookmark not defined.6.1The Training Business Unit .146.2The Web Store Business Unit .156.3Common Reporting and Collaboration Structures . 167APPLICATION QUALITY, DEVELOPMENT PROCESS, AND INTEGRATION TESTING. 178GOVERNANCE AT THE PORTFOLIO LEVEL . 208.1Portfolio Governance Process . 208.1.1Roles . 208.1.2Ceremonies .218.1.2.1Portfolio Grooming Meeting . 228.1.2.2Portfolio Planning Meeting. 228.1.3Artifacts . 238.1.3.18.2Business Case . 238.1.3.1.1Effort Estimates . 248.1.3.1.2Revenue Estimates . 248.1.3.1.3Other Value-Related Factors . 258.1.3.2Agile Charter . 258.1.3.3Decision Matrix. 258.1.3.4Portfolio Backlog. 268.1.4Tracking and Metrics . 268.1.5Governance Points . 27The Training Business Unit . 278.2.1Funding Decisions . 278.2.2Monitoring . 28Copyright cPrime 2013 All Rights reserved-3

8.39The Web Store Business Unit . 298.3.1Funding Decisions . 298.3.2Monitoring . 30GOVERNANCE AT THE PROGRAM LEVEL . 319.1Governance for Development: In the Business Units . 329.1.1Roles . 339.1.2Ceremonies . 339.1.2.1Release Planning Meeting . 349.1.2.2Scrum-of-Scrums Meeting . 359.1.2.3Release Review . 359.1.2.4Summary of Ceremonies . 369.1.3Artifacts . 369.1.3.1Definition of Done for the Release . 369.1.3.2Release Plan . 369.1.4Tracking and Metrics . 379.1.5Governance Points . 399.2Governance for Deployment: Across the Business Units . 409.2.1The Waterfall Process Flow . 409.2.2The Scrum Process Flow .419.2.3Integrated Release-Management Process. 429.2.4How Handoffs are Accomplished . 449.2.4.1Documentation . 449.2.4.2Discussion. 449.2.4.3Collaboration. 459.2.5Roles . 459.2.6Ceremonies . 469.2.6.1Release Handoff Process . 469.2.6.2Staging Readiness Review Meeting . 469.2.6.3Production Readiness Review Meeting . 479.2.6.4Production Stand-Up Meeting . 489.2.6.5Production Deployment Validation . 489.2.6.6Summary of Ceremonies . 49Copyright cPrime 2013 All Rights reserved-4

109.2.7Tracking and Metrics . 499.2.8Governance Points . 50GOVERNANCE AT THE PROJECT LEVEL .5110.1Process Definitions . 5210.1.1The Scrum Process . 5210.1.1.1Roles . 5210.1.1.2Ceremonies . 5310.1.1.3Artifacts . 5510.1.1.3.1Definition of Done . 5510.1.1.3.2Stories and Epics . 5610.1.1.3.3Product Backlog . 5710.1.1.3.4Sprint Backlog . 5710.1.1.4Tracking and Metrics . 5710.1.1.5Governance Points . 5910.1.210.1.2.1Roles . 6210.1.2.2Ceremonies . 6310.1.2.3Artifacts . 6410.1.2.4Tracking and Metrics . 6410.1.2.5Governance Points . 6710.2The Training Business Unit . 6810.2.1Role Adaptations for Distributed Teams . 7010.2.2Conduct of Team Meetings . 7010.2.3Conduct of Day-to-Day Work . 7310.3The Web Store Business Unit . 7410.3.1Role Adaptations for Distributed Teams . 7510.3.2Conduct of Team Meetings . 7510.3.3Conduct of Day-to-Day Work . 7610.411The Kanban Process . 60The WebPortal Organization . 7610.4.1Conduct of Team Meetings .7710.4.2Conduct of Day-to-Day Work . 78DISCOVERIES. 78Copyright cPrime 2013 All Rights reserved-5

11.111.1.1The Standardization of Recipe Elements . 7911.1.2Common Role Types . 8011.1.3Categories of Governance Points . 8111.1.4“Good Enough” is Good Enough. 8211.1.5Granularity. 8311.1.6The Definition of Done . 8411.1.7Handoffs . 8511.212Principles of Agile Governance . 79Anti-Patterns . 8511.2.1Making Big Things, instead of Little Things . 8511.2.2Driving Resource Decisions by Projects, instead of Teams. 8511.2.3Separating Estimators from Implementers . 8611.2.4Demanding Accuracy of Effort and Schedule Estimates . 8611.2.5Demanding Scope on Time. 8611.2.6Governance by Committee . 8611.2.7Handoff by Form . 8711.2.8Parallelizing Initiatives and Projects . 8711.2.9Measuring Progress by Proxy . 8711.2.10Failure to Finish . 88CONCLUSION . 88Copyright cPrime 2013 All Rights reserved-6

List of FiguresFigure 1 Reporting and Collaboration Structures with Independent Project Management. 17Figure 2 Reporting and Collaboration Structures with Project Management inside Engineering Department. 17Figure 3 Development and QA Environments for Integration Testing during Development . 19Figure 4 Sample Decision Matrix for Portfolio Planning . 26Figure 5 Release Plan . 37Figure 6 Typical Burn-Up Chart . 38Figure 7 A Typical Waterfall Process for a Telcorp BU .41Figure 8 Scrum Process Flow for Releases Involving Multiple Business Units . 42Figure 9 Hybrid Release Management for S

Agile governance, like Agile processes in general, focuses much more on collaboration than on documentation, and is effective precisely because it involves the spirit of collaboration, not just the form. The term Agile governance refers to an Agile style of governance, not specifically to the governance of projects that use Agile processes.