MANAGING IT IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Christoph Mueller-Bloch

Classic and Agile IS Project Management I

L’esprit pionnier
COURSE CONTENT—TOPIC AREAS AND SESSIONS

Part Topic

1 Introduction & Digital Transformation

1 Managing IT in the Digital Age 2 Managing the Digital Transformation: IS
2 strategy and the Digital Matrix
3 Managing IT Vendors: IS Sourcing,
Cloud Computing, and Sourcing
Governance
3 4 5 6 7 4 Managing IT projects: Classic and
agile IS project management I
8 5 Managing IT projects: Classic and agile
Managing Managing
IS project management II
of IS through IS 6 Managing through Enterprise IS
7 Managing through Analytics: Utopian
promises vs dystopian surveillance
8 Managing platforms and ecosystems I +
Exam prep
10
9 Managing platforms and ecosystems II
(+buffer)
10 Final exam

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“Software is eating the world”
Marc Lowell Andreessen
Apollo 11 (1969) Windows 3.1 (1993) Average car (2016)

145,000 ~4 million ~100 million

lines of code lines of code lines of code

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/million-lines-of-code/
GOALS OF TODAY’S SESSION

After this session you should be able to…

• Understand the increasing importance of IS project
management approaches
• Explain the difference between traditional “waterfall” and
agile approaches
• Explain the key characteristics of the agile method Scrum
• Formulate user stories and enrich them with non-functional
requirements (NFR)
• Understand the effect of agile development practices on
performance outcomes

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HOW THIS SESSION WILL HELP YOU SUCCEED IN YOUR CAREER

• IT project management
=essential skill for digital
transformation (State of the CIO 2019, McKinsey article)

• 97 % of organizations are now

practicing agile development
methods (State of Agile 2019)

• 2/3 of those companies use Scrum

(State of Agile 2019)

• Agile principles increasingly applied

outside IT projects (Embracing Agile, Rigby, Sutherland, Takeuchi,
Harvard Business Review 2016)

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 What is
Classic IS Project
Agile/DevOps?
Management
WATERFALL SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

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The Contender: Agile IS project
management
AGILE PRINCIPLES—AGILE MANIFESTO

…we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

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AGILE PRINCIPLES, METHODS, AND PRACTICES

formulating user stories,

frequent meetings, rapid
Agile prototyping
practices

Agile methods Scrum, DevOps, XP,

Scrumban, etc.

Four principles in the

Agile principles
agile manifesto

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"Successful agile teams are producing higher-quality software that better
meets user needs more quickly and at lower cost than are traditional
teams." (Mike Cohen)

"While it is often said that Scrum is not a silver bullet, Scrum can be like a
heat-seeking missile when pointed in the right direction. It’s inspect and
adapt approach to continuous quality improvement can do serious
damage to outmoded business practices." (Jeff Sutherland)

 Agile Softwareentwicklung, die Lösung aller Probleme?

Requirements Engineering > Modul 08 > Einleitung 27

 THE FAN CAMP

"Successful agile teams are producing higher-quality software that better

meets user needs more quickly and at lower cost than are traditional
teams.“
(Mike Cohen)

"While it is often said that Scrum is not a silver bullet, Scrum can be like a
heat-seeking missile when pointed in the right direction. It’s inspect and
adapt approach to continuous quality improvement can do serious
damage to outmoded business practices.“
(Jeff Sutherland)

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29
 THE HATERS CAMP

"I’m sick of it. I can’t wait for the day when everyone realises how much
of a fad-diet, religious-cult-inspired, money-making exercise it is for a
group of consultants. I can’t wait for people to wake up to the fact that
the only good parts of Agile are just basic common sense and don’t need
a «manifesto» or evangelists to support them.“
(Luke Halliwell)

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Waterfall vs. Agile—what’s the
difference?
WATERFALL VS AGILE—TOP-DOWN VS. ITERATIVE

Classic Waterfall vs. Agile

Requirements Requirements Requirements

Capture Capture Capture

Analysis Analysis Analysis

Design Design Design

..... .....
. .

Coding Coding Coding

Testing Testing Testing

Quelle: Wang(2007) 33
Agile Methods—Scrum
1. The Scrum Process
AGILE METHODS—SCRUM

38
SCRUM ARTIFACTS—PRODUCT BACKLOG

- Contains all known requirements (formulated as user stories)

that need to be delivered to reach the project goals

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SCRUM ARTIFACTS—PRODUCT BACKLOG

- Contains all requirements selected for a sprint and a plan for

the successful completion of the product increment
- Often visualized on a task board

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SCRUM ARTIFACTS—PRODUCT BACKLOG

- Sum of all product backlogs of the current and previous

sprints
- At the end of each sprint, the product increment has to be a
working piece of software

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PRODUCT/SPRINT BACKLOG—USER STORIES (1/2)

• Informal, natural language description of one or more

features of a software system
• Often written from the perspective of an end user of a
system
• Often recorded on post-it notes
Example:
“As a user, I want to be able to indicate folders not to backup so
that my backup drive isn't filled up with things I don't need
saved.”

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PRODUCT/SPRINT BACKLOG—USER STORIES (2/2)

General form:
• "As a <role>, I want <goal/desire> so that <benefit>"
• + (optional) acceptance criteria:
• = a formalized list of requirements specifying conditions under
which a user story is fulfilled.
Example
• User story:
“As a user, I want to be able to indicate folders not to backup so that
my backup drive isn't filled up with things I don't need saved.”
• Optional acceptance criteria
• user can specifically assign folders not to backup
• user can specifically assign folders to backup

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AGILE METHODS—SCRUM

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MANAGEMENT OF USER STORIES

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MANAGEMENT OF USER STORIES

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2. Scrum Roles
SCRUM ROLES

SCRUM TEAM

Scrum Master

Product Stakeholders
Owner

Development Team

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SCRUM ROLES—PRODUCT OWNER

• Knows the needs of all involved parties (stakeholders, Scrum

team) and communicates a clear vision
• Formulates requirements in the product backlog (e.g., as
user stories) and defines priorities
• Participates in sprint planning and makes decisions
• Specifies and verifies acceptance criteria
• Is responsible for the end product

University of Bern 2017

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SCRUM ROLES—DEVELOPMENT TEAM

• Typically consists of a maximum number of 10 developers

• Is cross-functional; has all the skills needed to complete
development tasks (analysis, design, development, testing,
etc.)
• Is autonomous; iterative planning process (daily Scrum) to
find the best way to get the work done
• At the end of the sprint, the development team delivers a
potentially usable product increment

University of Bern 2017

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SCRUM ROLES—SCRUM MASTER

• Is responsible for the Scrum process and helps the team to

understand the methods and rules of Scrum (working as a
coach)
• Helps to solve problems and to make progress
• Balances requirements of product owner and capabilities of
development team
• Effort decreases with increasing maturity of development
team
• Works with the product owner to manage
backlog items and to ensure value creation

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3. Scrum Meetings
 SCRUM MEETINGS

Sprint review
meeting
Spring planning Daily Scrum
meeting meetings Retrospective
meeting

University of Bern 2017

Sprint: 2 or 4 weeks

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SCRUM MEETINGS—SPRINT PLANNING MEETING

• Participants: Development team, product owner, Scrum

master
• Duration: ca. 4-8 hours
• Product owner presents those items from the backlog which
have priority for the next sprint
• Product owner and development jointly define the goal for
the next sprint
• Requirements are split into tasks by the development team
• Output: Sprint backlog (i.e., prioritized, effort-estimated,
well-understood user stories)

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SCRUM MEETINGS—DAILY SCRUM MEETINGS

• Participants: Development team, product owner, Scrum

master
• Duration: ca. 15 min
• Development teams answers the following question:
• What has been done?
• What will be done?
• What impediments exist?
• Scrum master moderates, intervenes if necessary, and takes
notes of impediments
• Product owner takes the role of an observer and answers
questions

University of Bern 2017

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SCRUM MEETINGS—SPRINT REVIEW MEETING

• Participants: Development team, product owner, Scrum

master, stakeholders
• Duration: ca. 4 hours
• Development team presents results (with prototype) of the
sprint
• If needed, the product backlog is adjusted
• Output: Feedback of product owner and other stakeholders
(e.g., client, users), validated and non-validated requirements

University of Bern 2017

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SCRUM MEETING—RETROSPECTIVE MEETING

• Participants: Development team, product owner, Scrum

master
• Duration: ca. 30 minutes – 2 hours
• Reflection on the last sprint facilitated by the Scrum master
• Identification and agreement on continuous process
improvement actions
• Main questions to be asked: What went well during the
sprint? What could be improved in the next sprint?

University of Bern 2017

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IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT:
Agile Documentation - User
Stories and Non-Functional
Requirements
So what now? Is Agile a Silver
Bullet?
THE IMPACT OF AGILE METHODOLOGY USE ON SOFTWARE QUALITY

Requirements
Volatility

Agile Methodology Software quality

Use

Outcome control / Self

control

Quelle: Maruping et al. (2009)

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THE IMPACT OF AGILE METHODOLOGY USE ON SOFTWARE QUALITY

(+) More agile methodology use increases

software quality (confirmed).
Requirements
Volatility

Agile Methodology Software quality

Use

Outcome control / Self

control

Quelle: Maruping et al. (2009)

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THE IMPACT OF AGILE METHODOLOGY USE ON SOFTWARE QUALITY

(+) Under high volatility, the positive

impact of agile methodology use is
stronger the more outcome control
is exercised (confirmed)
Requirements
Volatility

Agile Methodology Software quality

Use

Outcome control / Self

control

Quelle: Maruping et al. (2009)

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THE IMPACT OF AGILE METHODOLOGY USE ON SOFTWARE QUALITY

(-) Under high volatility, the positive

impact of agile methodology use is
weaker the more self control is
exercised (confirmed)
Requirements
Volatility

Agile Methodology Software quality

Use

Outcome control / Self

control

Quelle: Maruping et al. (2009)

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Conclusion
 CONCLUSION

• Agile IS project management is an alternative to classic IS project

management (distinct methodologies and practices)
• Formulate user stories following the template and select the right
way of documenting NFRs
• Agile IS project management addresses a number of issues
experienced under the waterfall regime but it is not a «silver
bullet»:
• Yes, agile IS project management has positive impact on desirable
goals (such as software quality—but also for on-time completion and
effective collaboration)
• However: Whether or not the positive impacts outweigh potential
downsides hinges on the situation (e.g., type of control, requirements
volatility, perspective)

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