Offshore et pratiques agiles Stuart Adlis et Bernard Voituron

1. Mardi 17 Novembre 2009
Paris, la Défense
Comment intégrer les options off-shore et les pratiques
Agiles dans les choix stratégiques d’une DSI ?
Henri Petitet,
Managing Director
Valtech Technology
henri.Petitet@valtech.fr
Stuart Alldis
Head of eCommerce
Rail Europe
salldis@raileurope.co.uk

2. Mardi 17 Novembre 2009
Paris, la Défense
Part I :
Are Offshore and Agile compatible?
Henri Petitet,
Managing Director
Valtech Technology
henri.Petitet@valtech.fr

3. The Problem of the CIO
Doing more with a smaller budget
• More application development
• More responsiveness to business demand
• Reduce maintenance costs
• Reduce infrastructure costs
• Establish an organization
which emphasizes business innovation
• Position his organization as the center of value
rather than the center of cost
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4. Proposed solutions - chronologically
● Selected list of vendors
• in order to benefit from the rate effect on the volumes
● Generalization of subcontracting and fixed-bid projects
● Appearance of development centers in regions (near shore)
● Widespread use of open source
● Offshore Strategy Development
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5. First Offshore Observations
● Uneven quality of deliverables
that impact compliance with the time to market
● Tunnel effect accentuated by the distance
● Problem of understanding the requirement
● Improbable responsiveness
to business demands and functional changes
● Lack of transparency
● Less benefit on small project teams
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6. Agility helps offset these side effects
In fact, agility provides:
• Greater predictability
• Better responsiveness
because the IT and Business teams are integrated
• Self-organizing teams
• Transparency, feedback,
visual management, communication
• Time to market
• Reduced maintenance costs
thanks to better quality
• Adapted for small teams
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7. Are Agility and offshore compatible?
At Valtech we firmly believe that
agility and offshore are not only compatible
but that the combination of both is a key factor of success.
Agility naturally erases the distance through
• Periodic and frequent mandatory ceremonies
• Collaborative tools (wiki, code repository, instant msg.…)
• Permanent monitoring of progress (daily scrum, demos, Cont.Int.)
• Transparency of KPIs shared in real time: velocity, quality
Agility adapts to offshore:
• Adapt the documentation to facilitate mutual understanding
• Put in place powerful means of video-conferencing
• Plan to travel and do workshops
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8. Conclusion
Agility is consistent with Offshoring
and many of our customers like Rail Europe
have understood, adopted and generalized it.
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9. Mardi 17 Novembre 2009
Paris, la Défense
Part II :
Offshore Development The Inside Track
Prénom NOM,
Fonction
Stuart Alldis
SOCIETE
Heademail@valtech.fr
of eCommerce
salldis@raileurope.co.uk
Prénom NOM,
Fonction
SOCIETE
email@valtech.fr

10. Contents
• Rail Europe
• Development - Internal vs Offshore
• External Tender Process
• Agile In Practice
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11. Rail Europe
About Us
• Subsidiary of the French railway operator SNCF
• Responsible for distribution of European rail to the UK market
• Various distribution channels for both B2C to B2B
• Retail Outlet
• Call Centre
• Web
• Largest European rail supplier in the UK
• Sister company with Eurostar
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12. Rail Europe
Projects developed with Valtech India
• 3 Web applications – B2B & B2C web sites
• Website represent 70% of turnover
• Switched booking engine from legacy system to web services
• Increase customer offering
• Shift from paper tickets to e-tickets
• Ability to up-sell ancillary products
• Improved user navigation and simplified booking process
• Enhanced web site content
• Integrated Content Management System
• Reduced distribution costs
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13. Rail Europe
Benefits Of Working In Off Shore Agile Enviroment
• Increase in sales
• Reduction in distrubution costs
• Increased Return On Investment
• IT not a barrier to market
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14. Development – Internal or External?
Internal
• Disadvantages • Advantages
– lack of resources – more control
– recruitment drive – easier communication
– expensive – less security risks
– slower timescales – requirements easier to explain
– hardware set up
– high staffing costs
– Software licenses
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15. Development – Internal or External?
Offshore
• Disadvantages • Advantages
– requirement understanding – Costs
– communication – help develop internal staff
– control – on tap resources
– security – quicker development
– Can't understand foreign accents – agreed standards of delivery
– Slow response time – Concentrate on core competencies
– Increase productivity
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16. External Tender Process – Who?
• 4 companies tendered: • Each company was graded on:
• One company Based in UK • Communication
• One company Based in France • Quality of work
• One company Based in Belgium • Customer base
• Valtech (Worldwide, Indian Development) • Size
• Brief understanding
• Can do attitude
• Companies presented to: • Price
• Myself
• Project Stake holders
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17. External Tender Process – Who?
• Voting Results
(Radar View):
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18. External Tender Process – Who?
• Voting Results
(Functional Coverage):
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19. Agile In Practice
Requirements vs Development – The Agile Methodology
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20. Agile In Practice
Iteration 1
Iteration Planning
Example Of Iteration Planning For
Iteration 2 & 3
Iteration 2
Iteration 2 (August)
Date Time Activities Participants
31-Aug Full day Iteration 1 demo, Retrospective meeting Product Owner and Offshore team
03-Sep First half day Iteration 2 planning Product Owner and Offshore team
03-Sep Second half day Requirement workshop Product Owner and Offshore team
04-Sep First half day Estimation Workshop Offshore team *
04-Sep Second half day Modelling Workshop Offshore team *
Iteration 3 (September)
28-Sep Full day Iteration 2 demo, Retrospective meeting Product Owner and Offshore team
01-Oct First half day Iteration 3 planning Product Owner and Offshore team
01-Oct Second half day Requirement workshop Product Owner and Offshore team
03-Oct First half day Estimation Workshop Offshore team *
03-Oct Second half day Modelling Workshop Offshore team *
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21. Agile In Practice
For a successful project you need:
• Communication
• Understanding
• Product Knowledge
• Customer Services With 3rd parties
• Plan Do Check Act (PDCA)
• Extended Team
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22. Agile In Practice
Chain Of Command
1. Product Owner
2. Client Project Manager
3. Off Shore Delivery Manager
4. Off Shore Project Manger
5. Internal and Off Shored Development & Testing Team
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23. Agile In Practice
Communication – The Key
• Before The Project Starts You Will Need:
• Face to face meeting and introduction among the project stake holders
• Introductions between client team and offshore team
• Video / conference call / picture exchange between the teams
• Provide the software company with key contacts such as product owner
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25. #17

26. Agile In Practice
Communication – The Key
• During The Project You Will Need:
• Daily scrum meeting between client and development team
• Can last from 5 minutes to 1 hour depending on issue level
• All participants must commit to these daily meetings
• Questions & answers
• Clarification
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27. Agile In Practice
Communication – The Key
• During The Project You Will Need:
• An instant messaging system for all involved staff. Such as
• Skype
• MSN Messenger
• ICQ
• A common communication and document repository such as Confluence Wiki
Page for information sharing of the project
• Share each others contact details (mobile, landline, email, skype etc)
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28. Agile In Practice
Product Knowledge
• To sell anything you need to understand what you are selling.
Software development is the same:
• Spend time the with your off-shored team to explain what your business does
• Provide product training to key personal within the testing and development
team
• Give them a point of contact for future reference and help for your products
and services
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29. Agile In Practice
Product Knowledge
• To sell anything you need to understand what you are selling.
Software development is the same:
• Spend time the with your off-shored team to explain what your business does
• Provide product training to key personal within the testing and development
team
• Adopt interactive and informal training rather than text book style training
• Do not give them a product guide document and expect them to understand
what your business does and why
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30. Agile In Practice
Customer Service
• Many projects involve a client 3rd party. Make sure you:
• Communicate all key information to all parties
• Have frequent scrum meetings between all parties
• Share your project plan and road map between everyone
• Be transparent between all parties
• Involve your 3rd party for key decisions
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31. Agile In Practice
Managing The Project - Plan Do Check Act (PDCA)
• Using an Agile methodology for development you will need to:
• Participate in each iteration meeting
• Take the lead in the requirement workshops with all developers and testers
• Constantly monitor the project progress using tools such as a burn down chart
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32. Agile In Practice
Managing The Project - Plan Do Check Act (PDCA)
• Using an Agile methodology for development you will need to:
• Provide quick decisions for road blocks faced by the team
• Give feedback on the each iteration demo
• Participate in the iteration retrospective meetings with the team
• Implement action points raised from the retrospective meetings in the
upcoming iteration
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33. Agile In Practice
Extended Team
• Once the commercials have been agreed
as product owner you need to:
• Treat your off shored team as your own
• Share with them the highs and lows
• Integrate your team with their team
• Provide branding merchandise to motivate them
• Synchronise their team environment the same as yours with posters,
stationary, mouse mats etc
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34. Agile In Practice
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35. Agile In Practice
Extended Team
• Once the commercials have been agreed
as product owner you need to:
• Get to know your off shored team
• Socialise with them - Lunch / Dinner / Drinks
• Gift them with country specific presents
• Sit with the team rather than a separate isolated office
• Be flexible in working hours to synchronise time zone differences
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36. Agile In Practice
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37. Agile In Practice
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38. Agile In Practice
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39. Agile In Practice
My Average Month In The Project Cycle
A normal month equals one development and release iteration.
• Week 1
• Deploy code from the last iteration release in our environment
• Start the user acceptance testing (UAT)
• Log defects and change request
• Lead the next iteration requirements workshop and planning meeting
• Attend the daily scrum meeting
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40. Agile In Practice
My Average Month In The Project Cycle
A normal month equals one development and release iteration.
• Week 2 & 3
• Provide responses to clarifications
• Find solutions for potential road blocks
• Track the UAT status
• Monitor the progress of the iteration
• Draft the business requirements and test cases for the next iteration
• Attend the daily scrum meeting
• Keep everyone motivated
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41. Agile In Practice
My Average Month In The Project Cycle
A normal month equals one development and release iteration.
• Week 4
• Publish final requirement documents for the next iteration
• Publish final acceptance testing documents for the next iteration
• Attend the daily scrum meeting
• Iteration demo and retrospective meeting
• Plan to implement the action points for the next iteration that resulted from the
current iteration retrospective meeting
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42. Thanks for listening
Any Questions?
Stuart Alldis
Head of eCommerce
Rail Europe
34 Tower View, West Malling
Kent, ME19 4ED, England
+44 (0)1732 526 727
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