Agile Enterprise Rollout--The Greening of the Software Industry

Jean Tabaka (Rally Software), Ryan Martens (Rally Software)

Tutorials · Enterprise Agile

Thursday, 16:00, 1 hour 30 minutes | Auditorium

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This talk is being offered by Jean Tabaka, Agile Coach at Rally Software Development, and Ryan Martens, CTO and Founder of Rally Software Development. Abstract: During the 20th century, many materials-based industries, such as manufacturing and high technology, relied on a Take-Make-Waste model of product development, delivery and selling. But a 21st century perspective on a growing scarcity of resources and the expense of waste has led such industries to revisit their Take-Make-Waste way of doing business. A “back to the resource-usage drawing board” has led to an emerging trend toward what are known as Green Businesses; that is businesses in which waste is viewed as a drain on the economy and innovation of the business. In contrast, the software industry has considered itself immune to the criticisms of waste associated with the Take-Make-Waste model of product delivery. We are knowledge workers: we apply our knowledge as our resource and create digital output as our product. No “taking” on the front end, and no “waste” on the back end as a result of our “making”. However, a bit of closer scrutiny under this non-waste “sheep skin” reveals some uncomfortable truths. To stem this model of waste and poison for a more sustainable 21st century model, the software industry has an opportunity to lead in the greening of the High Technology industry. But to do so, it must recalibrate its definition of product development, delivery and marketing. Existing patterns of practices established for classic Green Businesses are a useful starting point for such work. For the software industry, this translates to the following three software-based trends of a zero-waste model: deliver Software as a Service (SaaS); apply Agile Software Development for sustainable flow of value; and rely on Social Networks for product uptake. Adopting these new practices of doing software business may prove daunting. Enterprise Adoption of Agile software development provides both the culture of discipline and planned in innovation necessary to transition to this new paradigm for the industry. Our Agile Enterprise Roadmap creates such a path of Agile Software Development adoption. This in turn guides organizations to a successful adoption of the SaaS delivery and social network promotion and support. In this talk, we present our premise around the necessity of the greening of the software industry and the trends such a transition requires: SaaS, Agile Software Development, and Social Networks. We will then define our 3-stage Enterprise Agile Rollout approach for adopting Agile practices that directly attack the Take-Make-Waste model. We refer to our rollout approach as: Flow, Pull, and Innovate. For each of these stages of the rollout, we will provide specific practices; what benefits they bring businesses in the 21st Century, what roadblocks businesses may have to overcome in order to derive these benefits; and, how businesses will know if they have truly adopted the practices. Benefits to this presentation: Ryan Martens founded Rally Software Development based on his convictions around restorative economies and the preservation of natural capital. He passionately believes that software businesses must attack waste, not solely for the wealth the business may enjoy, but also for the global growth such conservationist approaches can promote. This talk is an opportunity to learn about how a passionate view into heatlthy ecomonies guided Ryan and can therefore guide other software organizations. Outline: I. The Argument for the Greening of the Software Industry II. Why SaaS Requires Agile III. The Disciplines of the Ideal Software Development Organization IV. Agile Adoption Patterns that Bring Continuous Flow of Value V. Creating a Discipline of Flow at the Team Level VI. How to Pull Value and Vision from the Business and Market VII. Instilling a Culture of Continuous Innovation Organization-wide

I am an agile coach with Rally Software Development in Boulder CO with almost 30 years of experience in the Software Industry ranging from programmer to project manager to methodologist. I am a Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Trainer, and Certified Scrum Practitioner as well as a Certified Professional Facilitator. I have spoken at numerous conferences about Agile practices, coaching, Lean organizations, collaboration, and Agile quality. As author of the book "Collaboration Explained" I have a passion around how teams work in an Agile self-organizing environment. This has also led to my interest in promoting lean, knowledge-creating software organizations that truly rely on the wisdom of teams, seek to increase resource effectiveness, and work aggressively to minimize all forms of waste in the software process. I hold a master of Arts from Michigan State University and a Masters in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University.

Ryan Martens brings to Rally proven leadership in dynamic, high growth software companies and is an expert in assisting organizations transition from traditional development processes to more Agile techniques. Before founding Rally Software Development - his fourth software start-up - Ryan directed the corporate adoption of Internet technologies within Qwest Communications, and then moved on to co-found Avitek, a Boulder-based custom software development firm where he served as Vice President of Marketing & Business Development. Ryan's successful efforts at Avitek culminated in an acquisition by BEA Systems in 1999. At BEA, Ryan served as Director of Product Management for the eCommerce applications division and he was instrumental in growing that division to more than $50 million in revenue within its first twelve months. Most recently, Ryan was named as a semi-finalist for the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award. Ryan received his Masters in Business Administration and his Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ryan is an alumnus of the Colorado Chapter of Young Entrepreneur's Organization (YEO). Ryan is also involved in a variety of community organizations most notably as a board member for the Colorado Conservation Trust.