Expectations and Challenges from Scaling Agile in Mechatronics-Driven Companies A Comparative Case Study

Transcription

1 Expectations and Challenges from Scaling Agile in Mechatronics-Driven Companies A Comparative Case Study Christian Berger, University of Gothenburg Ulrik Eklund, Malmö University Based on: C. Berger and U. Eklund, "Expecta9ons and Challenges from Scaling Agile in Mechatronics- Driven Companies - A Compara9ve Case Study," in: Proceedings of the 16th Interna9onal Conference on Agile SoIware Development (XP 2015). 1

2 Increasingly Intelligent and Software-Driven Systems Source: Volkswagen. 2

3 Challenges from the Mechatronics Domain Manufacturing and hardware development: Mature domain Long lead-times Stage-gate/ waterfall-ish development Source: U. Eliasson, R. Heldal, J. Lantz, and C. Berger, "Agile Model- Driven Engineering in Mechatronic Systems - An Industrial Case Study," in: Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 17th Interna9onal Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS), 2014, pp

4 Software Center Project Goal: Systematically investigate expectations and challenges from Scaling Agile outside pure software teams. Academic Partners: Malmö University, Sweden University of Gothenburg, Sweden Industrial Partners: Volvo Cars Corporation AB Volvo Grundfos SAAB 4

5 Software Center Project Goal: Systematically investigate expectations and challenges from Scaling Agile outside pure software teams. Research Questions: RQ-1: Which practices from Agile are in use in a mechatronics-driven organization? RQ-2: How is the current implementation of Agile perceived in a mechatronics-driven organization? RQ-3: What are the expectations from scaling Agile within a mechatronics-driven organization? RQ-4: What are the main foreseeable challenges when scaling Agile in mechatronics-driven organizations to achieve the expected benefits? Study Design: Individual and separate on-site workshops at the companies Survey based on online questionnaire Joint workshop with all companies 5

6 Individual On-Site Workshops Topics: 1. What would be the biggest benefits if your company successfully scales Agile? 2. What are the challenges for your organization to achieve these benefits? Design: Participants wrote answers on sticky notes in an individual brainstorming phase (~20 min) Answers were collected by one researcher, presented to the audience, and clustered during a joint discussion Discussion was moderated and recorded by researchers Participants were selected by the company s single point-ofcontact (SPoC) and covered software development, hardware development, and testing Results served as input for the subsequent survey 6

7 Survey Topics: 1. General data about the role of the participant in the company 2. Use of Agile practices in the company 3. Evaluating the use of Agile in the company 4. Expectations from scaling Agile outside the software development teams 5. Expectations about challenges to be solved when scaling Agile Design: Survey was realized as online questionnaire: Individual surveys were used for the respective companies Questionnaire was piloted with the company s point-of-contacts Participants were contacted following snowball sampling by using the respective company s SPoC Results served as input for the joint workshop 7

8 Joint Workshop Goals: 1. Present the findings from the separate workshops and the survey 2. Jointly discuss and complement with missing challenges 3. Identify first steps towards initiating initiatives for scaling Agile outside software development teams. Design: External expert was invited to moderate the discussion Researchers followed the workshop from an observer s perspective Participants were appointed by the respective company s SPoC and covered also departments not focusing on SW development 8

9 Results for RQ-1: Use of Agile Practices Small teams Regular stand up meetings Cross functional team Frequent reprioritization Shared backlog Sprints up to 4 weeks Regular interaction with end user Test driven development 2% 2% 9% 7% 4% 9% 11% 15% 15% Use of Agile Practices 33% 28% 33% 41% 37% 43% 52% Percentage 83% 65% 63% 61% 54% 54% 46% 33% Not applicable No Yes 9

10 Results for RQ-2: Perception of Agile Where does your organization put emphasis on? Flexibility over predefined plan Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Product implementation over product delivery Responding to change over following a plan Teams over overall enterprise Working implementation over comprehensive documentation Product implementation over product integration 28% 17% 35% 26% 39% 50% 48% 43% 67% 61% 52% 52% 41% 37% 35% 30% Percentage

11 Results for RQ-2: Perception of Agile Where does your organization put emphasis on? Flexibility over predefined plan Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Product implementation over product delivery Responding to change over following a plan Teams over overall enterprise Working implementation over comprehensive documentation Product implementation over product integration 28% 17% 35% 26% 39% 50% 48% 43% 67% 61% 52% 52% 41% 37% 35% 30% Percentage Pairwise comparison of responses from the companies: 11

12 Results for RQ-3: Expected Benefits from Scaling Agile Higher quality Expected Benefits from Scaling Agile 13% 46% 41% Percentage Moderately important Important Very important 12

13 Results for RQ-3: Expected Benefits from Scaling Agile Higher quality Expected Benefits from Scaling Agile 13% 46% 41% Expected Percentage Benefits from Scaling Agile Faster time to market 2% Shortening lead times Moderately 2% important Maximize output from existing dev. resources 4% Important Very important Minimize risk to develop wrong things 4% Happier engineers 7% Better predictability 7% Faster validation & verification 7% Easier to change product content 7% Easier adapt to customer reqs 9% Easy change of requirement 9% Minimize resources for development 13% Faster validation with external customers 13% Easier to target market windows 13% More frequent SW releases to production 20% More frequent SW releases in products 22% Percentage 98% 98% 96% 96% 93% 93% 93% 93% 91% 91% 87% 87% 87% 80% 78% Not relevant Unimportant Of little importance Moderately important Important Very important 13

14 Results for RQ-4: Expected Challenges from Scaling Agile Flexibility in testing facilities Efficiently structure the organization Understanding agile along the value chain Frequent releases requires good planning Adaptation to frequent releases Inflexible development process Mindset in the company Plan large scale projects Poor predictability in SW development Overcoming established ways of working Missing specific expertise Long feedback loops Understanding large scale architecture Manual testing Coordinate between different teams Product specific functionality Focus on testing at the end Difficulty to avoid big bang testing Production setup for volume Specific product requirements Sell more with agile capabilities 4% 4% 7% 7% 9% 9% 9% 9% 11% 11% 11% 11% 11% 17% 17% 17% 20% 20% 22% 24% 24% Expected Challenges from Scaling Agile Percentage 96% 96% 93% 93% 91% 91% 91% 91% 89% 89% 89% 89% 89% 83% 83% 83% 80% 80% 78% 76% 76% Not relevant Unimportant Of little importance Moderately Important Important Very Important 14

15 Mechatronics domain is increasingly challenged by growing amount and complexity of software. Successful implementation of Agile at team-level for pure software shall be scaled towards non pure SW level. Expected biggest benefits: Higher quality Faster time-to-market Increasing productivity Conclusion & Outlook Expected biggest challenges/hurdles: Missing flexibility in current test facilities Adopting Agile in an organization s mindset 15

16 Thank you. 16