On the Animal Planet TV series Whale Wars, a fleet of boats off the coast of Japan ambush migrating dolphins at sea and drive them into a cove, where they’re captured for the theme park industry or killed for food. Their story is featured in the Oscar-winning documentary, The Cove. Having traveled with Sea Shepherd, a marine wildlife conservation organization fighting against this practice, Michael Mah says that agile teams can learn a lot from the passion and self-organizing attributes of environmental activists/eco-pirates. He explores how wildlife conservation teams channel a powerful sense of purpose, practice leadership, use social media, create transparency, build trust, and use metrics and data to command the world’s attention. Hear Michael’s take on what passionate teams muster to move the needle toward a tipping point, and lessons that your software teams can learn from activist teams in the global environmental conservation movement.

1. BW1
Concurrent Session
11/11/15 11:30am
“Passion: What Software Teams and Executives
Can Learn from Eco-Pirates”
Presented by:
Michael Mah
QSM Associates, Inc.
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888-268-8770 · 904-278-0524 · info@techwell.com · www.techwell.com

2. Michael Mah
QSM Associates, Inc.
With twenty-five years of industry experience Michael Mah teaches, writes, and consults for
QSM Associates to tech companies on measuring and estimating software projects for offshore,
waterfall, and agile. Michael and his QSM partners have researched thousands of projects
worldwide. His work examines time-pressure dynamics of teams and their contribution to project
success and failure. Michael’s clients include Boeing, Progressive, Verizon Wireless,
Nationwide, JPMorgan Chase, and other Fortune 100 companies. He is the director of the
Benchmarking Practice at the Cutter Consortium in the United States. A private pilot, Michael
lives in the mountains of western Massachusetts. Reach Michael at qsma.com.

3. Michael Mah
Managing Partner
QSM Associates, Inc.
413-499-0988
e-mail: michael.mah@qsma.com
Twitter: @michaelcmah
Website: www.qsma.com
Passion: What Software Teams and Executive
Leadership Might Learn from Eco-pirates
"The thought of the human species being wiped out, it's all consuming"
- Elon Musk

6. Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians

8. Remarkable Team Attributes
A Powerful Sense of Purpose
Leaders and Backup Leaders
Team Communication
Transparency’s Secret Weapon – the Camera
Bonds of Trust – Sea Shepherd Family
Celebrity Power
Power of Social Media
Metrics and Messaging

26. Capt Paul Watson,
Sea Shepherd Conservation

27. A Powerful Sense of Purpose
Leaders and Backups

28. Team Communication - Daily Standups
Transparency Secret Weapon – the Camera

29. Transparency Secret Weapon – the Camera
Transparency Secret Weapon – the Camera

30. Bonds of Trust – Sea Shepherd Family
Bonds of Trust – Sea Shepherd Family

31. Bonds of Trust – Sea Shepherd Family
Celebrity Power

32. Celebrity Power
The Power of Social Media

33. Metrics and Messaging
The Columbus Agile Benchmark Study
(Columbus vs the World)

34. Industry
Average
Schedules*
Industry
Average
Defects*
AGILE 30%
Quicker
Schedules
AGILE 75%
Fewer
Defects
0 20 40 60 80 100
Comparing Columbus AGILE projects vs. Industry
Averages*
-- 75% Fewer Defects, 30% Quicker Schedules --
*Industry Averages for Defects & Schedules come from the QSM, Inc.
database of several thousand Business type applications.
The Munich Agile Benchmark Study
(Munich vs the World)

35. Munich vs. Columbus
7/24/2009 footer
SLIM-
Estimate:
Size, Schedule,
Cost & Quality
Estimating
SLIM-DataManager
Software Project Metrics Repository
SLIM-Control:
Variance
Analysis
&
Adaptive
Forecasting SLIM-Metrics:
Industry
Benchmarking &
Process
Improvement
SLIM-
MasterPlan:
Incremental
Development &
Project
Aggregation
Industry Research Data
Right On the Desktop

37. Agile Captures the Right Metrics for SLIM
Velocity/Burndown
Headcount
Stories and Point
Sizing
Bugs

38. Speed - Columbus
Time-to-Market
1 10 100 1,000
New + Modified Size (thousands)
1
10
100
Months
United States QSM Business Avg. Line Style 1 Sigma Line Style
Faster SchedulesFaster Schedules
Time-to-Market
1 10 100 1,000
New + Modified Size (thousands)
1
10
100
Months
United States QSM Business Avg. Line Style 1 Sigma Line Style
Faster Schedules
Speed - Columbus

39. Bugs - Columbus
Defects
1 10 100 1,000
New + Modified Size (thousands)
1
10
100
1,000
10,000
Defects
United States QSM Business Avg. Line Style 1 Sigma Line Style
Fewer Bugs

40. Bugs - Columbus
Defects
1 10 100 1,000
New + Modified Size (thousands)
1
10
100
1,000
10,000
Defects
United States QSM Business Avg. Line Style 1 Sigma Line Style
Fewer Bugs

42. Trendline Assessment – Defects/Quality
Defects During Test
100 1,000
Effective SLOC (thousands)
10
100
1,000
10,000
Errors(SysInt-Del)
Rel 5.0
Rel 6.0
Rel 6.5
Rel 7.5
Rel 7.0
Rel 8.0
Rel 5.0
Rel 6.0
Rel 6.5
Rel 7.5
Rel 7.0
Rel 8.0
Business Sy stems Av ionic Sy stems Command & Control Microcode Sy stems Process Control QSM 2005 Business
Av g. Line Sty le 1 Sigma Line Sty le
Far Fewer Defects: 50% - 66% Below Industry

43. Trendline Assessment – Build Phase Schedule
Main Build Phase Duration vs Size
100 1,000
Effective SLOC (thousands)
1
10
100
Time(Months)
Rel 5.0
Rel 6.0
Rel 6.5
Rel 7.5
Rel 7.0
Rel 8.0
Rel 5.0
Rel 6.0
Rel 6.5
Rel 7.5
Rel 7.0
Rel 8.0
Business Sy stems Av ionic Sy stems Command & Control Microcode Sy stems Process Control QSM 2005 Business
Av g. Line Sty le 1 Sigma Line Sty le
Schedules are Half Industry
Industry
Average
Current
Performance
Delta
Project Cost $3.5 Million $2.2 Million -$1.3M
Schedule 12.6 months 7.8 months -4.8 mos
QA Defects 242 121 -50%
Staffing 35 35 n/a
Follett vs. Industry Average

44. What’s Your Passion?

47. For Additional Information
Michael Mah
Managing Partner
QSM Associates, Inc.
email: michael.mah@qsma.com
website: www.qsma.com
twitter: @michaelcmah
tel: 1 413-499-0988