Iterative Project Management Lifecycle Planning Chapter 5 – A Layered Approach to Planning and Managing Iterative Projects Modified considerably by your Instructor

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 22 Iterative Project Management / 03 - Lifecycle Planning Objectives Understand why iterative planning is different Understand how iterations and the unified process phases fit in with lifecycle and external release planning Understand how iteration plans integrate with business plans

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 3 Two major ‘thrusts’ here: –Management and then –Planning.

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 4 Layered Approach to Planning and Managing Iterative Projects. Plans need to be simple. Pure fact! A more detailed plan becomes less accurate Certainly a very detailed plan will be more likely to require changing as time advances. –As plans ‘slip’ the slippage dominos down the line invalidating so very much carefully-undertaken planning. Bear in mind that Waterfall and other heavy-weight processes are said to be: “plan driven.” –Mathematically it can be readily shown that as the number of tasks in a plan increases, the probability of it remaining accurate becomes increasingly unlikely. –Even if the probability is.995 for the first tasks, when you start to multiply these out over many tasks, the probabilities dramatically decrease for successfully completing ‘later’ planned activities. 4 Iterative Project Management / 03 - Lifecycle Planning

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 5 For that matter: Why plan at all? 1. Planning forces considerations of possible outcomes and responses to those outcomes 2. Planning is particularly necessary to coordinate the work of independent resources. 3.We need key evaluation points in order to ensure project is going well and also to align work efforts. 1.This is the familiar, “HowGoesIt?” review. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will get you there!”

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 6 Solution to Detailed Planning is ‘Layering.’ Seems like a successive hierarchical layering refines plans to more detailed levels. And, layering also limits the extent to which change can ripple through the best made plans since each layer exists at different levels of abstraction… Nice thing about a layered approach to planning is that at any level of abstraction, –if we need more detail, go down one level. –But the plan at any one level is complete and appropriate for the ‘concerns’ at that level. Will now look at management layers that support and enable successful iterative projects, 6 Iterative Project Management / 03 - Lifecycle Planning

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 7 The Management Layers Management Layers are not imposed bureaucracy. Rather, they are “separation of concerns.” The ‘concerns’ at one layer should not be the concerns of another layer, although layers certainly influence other layers. Management Layers: –Organizational-Program Management (note: ‘Program’) Deals with business strategy and vision. Sets business context for one or more projects. May well not be restricted to computer-based planning!!! –Overall Project Management – (note ‘Project’) –Here, this layer is concerned with directing and managing a specific project – overall planning, monitoring, and control of the project; coordinates development and delivery of one or more products. –Day to day Development Management – (note ‘Development’) –deals with the overseeing of delivery of development work and ensuring the quality of products released. 7 Iterative Project Management / 03 - Lifecycle Planning

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 8 Higher versus Lower Levels of Management Higher levels control lower levels –Provide funding and support –Develop project ‘charters’, etc. Lower level outputs provide inputs to higher levels – very necessary for these management levels to properly function. –But, Lower levels absolutely must provide evidence to program management that all is on track and that the project is delivering value. 8 Iterative Project Management / 03 - Lifecycle Planning

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 99 Iterative Project Management / 03 - Lifecycle Planning Planning at Multiple Levels Program Management (Benefits Realization) Overall Project Management (Benefits) Adapted from Implementing RUP Within a PRINCE2 Environment: Laurence Archer, Oak IT, 2001 Software Development (External Releases) It 1 It 2It 3It 4It N-1It N …… The program management layer is present in a lot of modern businesses. This may be termed the organization’s ‘Strategic Management.” Notion of a Program Management Level is common (PMO) An iterative development practices layer is shown because iterations are used to evolve the products to be delivered by the development layer. Typically these layers are run concurrently too.

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 10 Let’s look at these layers of management: Let’s look at these Management layers

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 11 Program Management Layer Emphasis: the Organization. –Please ‘to note’ the emphasis on ‘program.’ –Provides oversight to ensure constituent projects provide value to the organization and are aligned with business needs. –In this layer, concerns do not center on a specific project; rather the overall value of all ‘solutions’ to the organization. –This layer is concerned with investment expenditures, ROI, expected values, delivery schedule, market share, and any interfacing / coordination with other projects. 11 Iterative Project Management / 03 - Lifecycle Planning

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 12 Overall Project Management Layer Emphasis: the Project! –Here we emphasize the project – a specific time to deliver (end of project) given resources –The overall project management plan is a high-level design and does not legislate ‘how’ the details are carried out. –Project manager is responsible for: using resources to deliver desired business benefit. Is responsible for effective utilization of resources needed to deliver desired business value within a time frame. overall project risks and benefits, and resources. –Does not deal with the day-to-day details of the project –Ensures project is on track and will achieve desired results.

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 13 Development Layer Emphasis: the focus on Major Releases. (end of Transition) Focus on definition, evolution, and delivery of major releases of the products required by the overall project. –Note: we are saying ‘major releases’ not major milestones… Layer coordinates resources – across deliveries with –overall project oversight and funding in mind. Focus is internally directed on delivering deployable releases of software products. Focus of overall plan was externally directed with its emphasis on delivering business value back to the business and the program layer.

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 14 Iteration Layer Emphasis: Focus is on the single Iteration Ensure overall evolution is undertaken incrementally in a controlled and managed fashion to reduce risk facing project. Real work gets done here Each iteration focus: incrementally evolve software product. A series of iterations is required to develop a major release that can be successfully deployed. Since iterations focus on resolving specific risks, this periodic approach helps to prevent risks from causing instability and by ensuring risk is addressed in an appropriate order – with the high-impact risks being addressed first.

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 15 Role of Layers Top three - present in all organizations developing software. The fourth layer is added for teams using iterative approach. Warning: there’s a natural tendency to merge development layer with overall layer. –But this implies a single major release, (evolution) This rarely happens as there is almost always at least one follow-on major release evolution. –  It is strongly recommended to keep overall project management away from the developing management. Well, at least a little bit… (see ahead)

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 16 We’ve talked about the layers. Now let’s talk about the plans….

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 17 These layers… The layers themselves operate at –different level of abstraction (level of detail) –with a different time horizon (time to get the job done) And this is good! –Lower the layer, shorter the time horizon and more detail, accuracy, and precise their plans need to be. –A ‘program plan’ may extend for years and be quite abstract whereas an iteration plan is highly focused, very precise, and short term. –These represent two ends of the spectrum of plans. Iterative project management normally focuses on lower two: –the development plan (an evolution) and –the iteration plan. – the details of an evolution.

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 18 Issues with Iterative Management and Senior Managers Senior managers need to be on board with iterative approach. –Here are the financial controls and oversight! –Many managers are not ‘sold’ on the virtues of iterative development. –Too often, iterative project management fails to convince senior managers. Senior managers cringe at what they perceive to be –loss of management control typified by agile processes Senior managers often view these approaches as rebukes to management and Senior management may view these as being in opposition to the visibility, etc. that they feel they need. – We absolutely need their support.

© 2005 Ivar Jacobson International 19 Senior Managers – Very Difficult Conversion to Many: To reduce risk / get better results, overall project managers –need to delegate responsibilities and –allow detail to be pushed down through the development layer and into the iteration layers where agile approaches are best implemented. PMgmt is steeped in traditional approaches where they use detailed planning as primary mechanism for risk reduction Senior management needs to feel comfortable with the nature of the feedback coming to them from all levels. Fact is planning, monitoring, and control undertaken for an iterative project is quite different from that undertaken for a traditional project.