Agile Management for Software Engineering: Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 10
Foreword......Page 22
Introduction......Page 26
Acknowledgements......Page 36
SECTION 1 Agile Management......Page 38
  The Theory of Constraints......Page 40
  Just-in-Time Inventory......Page 41
  Lean Production......Page 42
  Comparison of Theories......Page 43
  Empirical Versus Defined Processes......Page 46
  Chaos Theory and Uncertainty......Page 47
  Emergence......Page 48
  Summary......Page 49
  A General System......Page 50
  Throughput Accounting for General Systems......Page 52
  A System of Software Development......Page 54
  A More Complex Software Development System......Page 55
  The System Goal......Page 57
  Financial Metrics for General Business Systems......Page 58
  Financial Metrics for Software Development Systems......Page 59
  Predicting the Future......Page 60
  Framing the Problem......Page 61
  Throughput Accounting Versus Cost Accounting......Page 62
  Summary......Page 65
  Identify and Exploit Constraints......Page 66
  Idleness Might Breed Contempt......Page 69
  Elevating a Constraint......Page 70
  Is the 8-Hour Day the Best Choice of System Constraint?......Page 71
  Summary......Page 72
  The Five Constraints of Software Development......Page 74
  Aggregation Reduces Uncertainty......Page 83
  Summary......Page 84
  Agile Software Production Metrics......Page 86
  Traditional Software Production Metrics......Page 87
  Measuring Inventory in the Software Production System......Page 88
  Measuring Production Quantity......Page 89
  Lead Time......Page 90
  Summary......Page 91
  Traditional Versus RAD Model for Project Management......Page 92
  Task Planning and Effort Tracking......Page 93
  The Project Manager’s New Work......Page 96
  Summary......Page 97
  Logical Collections of Inventory......Page 100
  The Critical Path and Parallel Paths......Page 101
  Late Start......Page 102
  Buffer Usage......Page 103
  Agile Project Tracking Metrics......Page 104
  Resource Constraints......Page 105
  Critical Chain Versus Critical Path......Page 107
  Summary......Page 108
  Development Manager Role......Page 110
  Product Manager Role......Page 111
  Project Manager Role......Page 112
  Roles Versus Positions......Page 113
  Identifying Flow......Page 114
  Identifying a Bottleneck......Page 116
  The True Cost of a Bottleneck......Page 117
  The True Cost of Poor Quality......Page 118
  Regression Effects......Page 122
  Improve Quality in Front of a Bottleneck......Page 123
  How Batch Sizes Affect Flow......Page 125
  Monitoring Cumulative Flow......Page 127
  Visual Control......Page 130
  Summary......Page 131
  Drum Beat......Page 132
  Planning Release of Requirements into the System......Page 133
  Summary......Page 140
  A New Maturity Model......Page 142
  Summary......Page 144
  Reinertsen’s Three Tiers of Control......Page 146
  The Process Improvement Problem......Page 147
  Governing Rules as Maturity Increases......Page 148
  Governing Rules for Managers......Page 149
  Team Measurements......Page 152
  Turnover......Page 154
  Loss of Throughput on a Constraint......Page 155
  Understanding the System Constraint is Essential......Page 156
  Outsource Decisions......Page 157
  Attendees......Page 160
  Information Rather Than Data......Page 161
  Summary......Page 165
  Corporate IT’s Value-Added Contribution......Page 168
  Learning from Financial Metrics......Page 170
  A More Profitable Corporate IT Department......Page 171
  Summary......Page 173
  Sales and Throughput......Page 174
  Management Accounting for Product Development......Page 175
  Throughput Accounting for Software Product Development......Page 176
  Appropriateness of the Time-Based Throughput Model......Page 177
  Throughput Versus Cost Models......Page 178
  Product Mix......Page 179
  Managing the Scope Constraint......Page 180
  Product Mix When Revenue Is the Goal......Page 181
  Product Mix, Risk, and Delay and the Effect on Operating Expense......Page 183
  Summary......Page 185
  Defining a Software Service......Page 186
  Determining Throughput for Software Services......Page 187
  Operating Expense for Services......Page 188
  Attributing a Value to a Release......Page 189
  Profit and ROI by Service Release......Page 190
  Dealing with Uncertainty......Page 191
  The Principles of Agile Methods......Page 192
  Making Profitable Development Happen......Page 195
SECTION 2 A Survey of Methods......Page 198
  SDLC......Page 200
  Unified Development Process......Page 208
  Investment......Page 214
  Operating Expense......Page 215
  Return on Investment in Structured Methods......Page 216
  Accounting for Change......Page 217
  Overview of Feature Driven Development (FDD)......Page 218
  Feature Definition......Page 221
  Process Steps and FDD......Page 222
  Level of Effort Estimation in FDD......Page 223
  Formulae for Success......Page 225
  Build Batches......Page 228
  User Interface Feature Sets......Page 229
  Process Control in FDD......Page 230
  Estimates Versus Agreed Function......Page 231
  Scheduling Subject Areas and Feature Sets......Page 232
  FDD Workflow......Page 234
  FDD Knowledge Management System and Visual Control......Page 236
  Executive Management Metrics in FDD......Page 237
  Exploiting Engineering Resources......Page 238
  The Developer Resource Constraint—Feature Teams and the Surgical Team......Page 239
  The Setup Time Constraint—Chief Programmer Work Packages......Page 240
  The Scope Constraint—Prioritized Feature Lists......Page 241
  The Time Constraint and Buffers......Page 244
  The Budget Constraint—Inventory Cap and Buffer......Page 246
  The Test Bottleneck......Page 247
  Advanced Modeling Techniques......Page 248
  Inventory Management in FDD......Page 249
  Morning Roll Call......Page 250
  How FDD Improves the S-Curve Effect......Page 252
  The Time Constraint Revisited......Page 253
  Exploiting Heroic Effort......Page 256
  Investment in FDD......Page 258
  Operating Expense in FDD......Page 259
  Value-Added in FDD......Page 260
  Avoid Double-Counting......Page 261
  Inventory......Page 262
  Tasks......Page 263
  Inventory Tracking......Page 264
  Process Step Time......Page 265
  Pipelining......Page 266
  Metrics for Up-Management in XP......Page 267
  Assessing User Stories......Page 270
  The Planning Game......Page 271
  Integration Testing......Page 272
  Pair Programming......Page 273
  Unit Testing......Page 275
  Refactoring......Page 276
  Generalists......Page 277
  Elimination Versus Protection, Subordination, and Elevation......Page 278
  Investment in XP......Page 280
  Net Profit in XP......Page 281
  Accounting for Rework......Page 282
  The Cost of Change Curve......Page 283
  Background......Page 288
  Inventory......Page 289
  Production Rate......Page 290
  Lead Time......Page 291
  Investment......Page 292
  Pipelining......Page 293
  Metrics for Up-Management in Scrum......Page 294
  The Product Backlog......Page 296
  Release......Page 297
  Team Size......Page 298
  Working Environment......Page 299
  Engineering Practices......Page 300
  Inventory Cap......Page 302
  Limits of RAD Methods......Page 303
SECTION 3 Comparison of Methods......Page 306
  Traditional Metrics Versus Agile Principles......Page 308
  Specialists Versus Generalists......Page 309
  Adding More People Makes Projects Later......Page 311
 Chapter 32 States of Control and Reducing Variation......Page 314
  The Threshold State......Page 316
  Comprehending the Known Universe......Page 317
  Improving Analysis and Modeling Maturity......Page 318
  Improving the Process Maturity......Page 319
  FDD Focuses on Variance as Well as Quality and Inventory......Page 320
  XP Focuses on Quality and Short Lead Times......Page 321
  Seek Process Maturity......Page 322
  FDD......Page 324
  Scrum......Page 325
  Traditional Methods—UDP......Page 326
  Summary......Page 327
  Dividing up the Process Space......Page 328
  What is Agility?......Page 330
  Scale Versus Ability to Expedite......Page 331
  Statistical Process Control and Agile Methods......Page 332
  Transferable Quality Improvement......Page 334
  Summary......Page 337
 C......Page 342
 E......Page 343
 F......Page 344
 J......Page 345
 P......Page 346
 R......Page 347
 S......Page 348
 T......Page 349
 Y......Page 350