I’m trying to figure out how to solve some challenges that my team is facing while attempting to apply agile. The one that is causing the biggest headache at the moment is due to the dual role nature of projects that come into the business.
Basically, we have a number of software that we produce and deploy for various markets. This software is planned and scoped in quarterly release cycles. At the same time we have large contracts come through that take anywhere from 1-3 months to complete. The problem comes from the fact that management wants to work on the incoming contracts first and foremost and all normally scheduled release work is brushed aside to get the next contract out the door.
We’re trying to scope the releases to shorter than 3 months so that a contract would have to wait that long for work to begin.
Has anyone dealt with a scenario like this while trying to apply agile? What are some ideas/approaches to working on release scoped/planned work and keeping management happy that high priority contracts are being delivered in a timely manner?
Instead of looking at your situation as multiple shorter projects that are interleaved into one longer project, you might instead think of it as a single larger project. The small projects then become interrupts or the equivalent of scope changes, which are things that all large projects need learn to manage anyway.
As with interrupts and scope changes, you will need to address schedule impacts, the effect of “context switching” overhead on your staff, etc — and possibly consider dropping features or cutting back in other ways in order to make your next scheduled delivery date.
If management wants the new work to be done first, while the mainline project is put on hold, then it seems to me that’s what you should give them. Why drag your feet for 30 or 45 days before starting the new project? From the perspective of a single larger project, that’s certainly not very agile. You could instead get a faster start, and then communicate the resulting impact.
Over the long term, you may find certain staff members are slowed down more by periodic course changes than others. In those cases, you might consider making semi-permanent assignments, so they can continue what they were working on, even in the event of interrupts. Similar arrangements are typical in larger, interrupt-driven shops.