Agile Systems Engineering Planning Using Six Thinking Hats

Presenters

• Phyllis R. Marbach

• Laurie Buss

Systems Engineering for Software Intensive Projects Using Agile Methods presented at INCOSE International 2014

Introduction

• Scrum is an iterative, incremental methodology for project management often seen in agile software developement, a type of software engineering

• Agile Includes:

  • Scrum: Iterative, incremental methodoogy for project management

  • Lean: reduce waste, reduce work in process; have what you need to start, once an item is started, finish it before starting the next item

  • eXtreme Programming: pair programming, continuous integration, automated testing, test first development

  • Crystal Methods: frequient delivery, reflective improvement

• "Ceremonies" of Agile

  • Vision of the system must be well-defined

  • Create a product backlog: list of stuff to accomplish

    • Prioritize the list of stuff by the highest priority at the top

    • list of stuff usually comes from a group of stakeholders

  • Commit to a small set of goals - the Iteration Backlog

    • Identify the smallest capability that canb e created; some call this a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

  • Iteration Planning

    • Product owner identifies the highest priority items and the environmental constraints

    • Architect or SE defines architectural requirements

    • Team looks at the highest priority items on the product backlog and plans what they can do in the 2 to 4 week iteration

      • Team defines which of the high priority items they can do in the iteration being planned

    • Team identifies any dependencies between the backlog items

    • Agreement is that no stakeholders can add to or change the planned work during the iteration

      • Job of the scrum master to protect the team from the stakeholders adding or changing the planned work during the iteration

  • Daily stand-up where team reports to each other

    • This is what I just finished

    • This is what I plan to do next

    • Also report any impediments that might be slowing you down or in the way of finish something

  • Iteration Demonstration

    • Team presents what has been finished during the iteration in a "Show and Tell"

    • Stakeholders and Product Owner provide feedback on what is demonstrated

    • This inspects and improves the product

  • Retrospective

    • Faciliated by the scrum master

    • Usually soon after the demonstration, attended by team members only (not customers)

    • Each team member identifies:

      • What worked well

      • What did ot work well

      • What could/should be improved

    • Agreements on what will be changed to improve how everyone is working together

      • Pick the highest value prospect to address

    • This inspects and improves the process

• Team Roles

  • Product Owner

    • Responsible for the product backlog

    • Removes impediments

    • Represents the customer and works closely with the customer

  • Scrum Master

    • Facilitates the team meetings

    • Removes impediments

  • Team Members

    • Plan the iterations

    • Estimate the amount of backlog that canb e completed each teration

    • Demonstrate the capabilties at the end of each iteration

  • Teams ideally are 5 to 9 members of developers, testers, and other members

• Agile Summary

  • Roles

    • Team Member

    • Scrum Master

    • Product Owner

  • Artifacts

    • Product backlog

    • Iteration backlog

    • Working demonstrate-able increment of capability

  • Communication and Planning

    • Pre-product backlop

      • Vision/Roadmap

    • Pre-iteration backlog

      • Iteration planning

    • During iteration

      • Daily stand-up

    • Pre-working increment of a capability

      • Iteration demonstration

    • Post-demonstration

      • Retrospection

• Systems Engineering

  • Stakeholder requiements defintion

  • Requirements analaysis

  • Architectural design

  • Implementation

  • Integration

  • Verification

• Impact of Agile on Systems Engineering

  • SE Architect Role

    • SE identify and analyze architecture dependencies

    • Create and continuously update an architecture description

    • Participate with the SE Team

    • Partication on one or more implementation teams

    • Work one iteration ahead of the developers

  • SE Process

    • SE and software development work together to

      • Define capabilities

      • Implement capabilities

      • Test capabilities

      • Inspect the results

      • Adapt capabitlies as needed

      • Maintian system integrity

    • Larger programs with several teams working in parallel need SE engaged

    • Each aspect of development (requirements, design, implementaiton, test, verifcation) is continually revisited through the devleopment lifecycle

• Agile SE Framework Conclusion

  • SE and software development work toegether to develop and evolve the work products iteratively

  • Define "just enough" architecture and requirements prior to the beginning of implementation

  • Release planning and iteration planning are essential to detail the work and coordinate the teams

  • Release products frequently

  • Absorb changes to mission requirements

  • Include requirements, architecture, system design and validation by SE on large scale agile projects

• Will iterative and incremental development work for you?

  • Is the system complex?

  • Do you epect to have discoveries during the development that will cause changes?

  • Is there an involved and commiteed customer or product owner that can help prioritize the prodcut backlog and define the requirements