At one company, we were asked to re-architect our business and operations support system to invoice clients “in advance” instead of “in the arrears” – and we succeed in doing that – despite the complexity of the business – in less than four weeks. At another software company, we were able to reduce the product release cycle from 2 years down to 4 weeks. In this talk, I will share the “tricks” and techniques we used to create an agile environment – people, process and systems – to deliver high quality products in 4 week cycles

1. How to reduce product release cycles
down to 4 weeks
October 2015
Yousif Asfour, PhD
American University of Beirut
Chief Information Officer

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4. Managed Services Company:
Re-implemented system end-to-end
to change invoicing process
In less than 4 weeks

5. Software Company:
We reduced the product release cycle
from 2 years down to 4 weeks
in 6 months

6. We started with basic questions …
• Relevance
• Quality
• Team
• Practices
• Platform

7. We focused the relevance …
… and reduced supported platforms

8. We insisted on quality …
… by cleaning up bugs first

9. …and setting QA as gate to release …
• QA sole decision maker for release
• Source code management
• Bug fixing is a priority
• Insisted on user acceptance testing
• Strict release management process

10. But we balanced quality …
… against customer needs
• No priority 1 bugs
• Fewer new bugs

11. • Hired for attitude and not skills
• Helped build working relationships
• Got rid of bad apples quickly
We also focused on team dynamics

12. We also instituted “practices” …
… to make the team more efficient
• Open office space
• If you feel the urge to email – don’t!
• Established common office time
• Set up a war-room
• Convened daily standup meetings

13. • Set up committees to involve all stakeholders
• Chaired the committee to drive decision
• Kept friends close, but enemies closer
• Walked around and drank a lot of coffee!
We got buy in from everyone

14. … and time boxed deliverables …
… in order to fix release cycles

15. We built a “resource based” plan …
… and played “Tetris” to manage change
Wk1 Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 Wk5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8
Ali
Bassam
Christine

16. ... and we managed it daily

17. We took risks in decision making …
… to avoid analysis paralysis

18. …and used the “10 minute” rule ..
…to get unstuck!

19. • Teamed up developers with business owners
• Used workshops to develop code
• Put prototypes in hands of users early
• Trained. Trained. Trained.
We created a “hands on” environment

20. • Pick a standard – any standard!
• Focus on integration and not creation
• Buy when you can, build when you have to
• Buy only when can’t use what you have
• Only buy systems that are easy to modify
• Remove redundancies
• Ensure single point of data entry
… and we built modular systems …

21. by starting with the output first
… and design backwards

22. We measured everything …

23. … including team values
… to hold each other accountable
Team Health Dec Jan Feb March April May Jun Jul
Accountability 4.2 3.9 4.2 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.3
Integrity 4.0 4.0 4.4 4.2 4.3 4.3 4.4 4.3
Transperancy 3.9 3.8 3.8 3.9 4.2 4.0 4.3 4.3
Excellence 3.8 3.9 4.1 4.2 4.0 4.2 4.3 4.3
Teamwork 4.0 4.0 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.3 4.3 4.4
Learning & Innovation 3.6 3.8 3.5 3.9 4.0 4.0 3.9 4.1
Balance 3.3 3.6 4.0 4.0 3.6 3.8 3.8 4.3
Average 3.8 3.9 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3

24. It is about focusing on the basics …
• Delivering small value fast
• Avoiding re-work
• Developing a collegial team
• Instituting best-fit practices
• Building a flexible platform

25. … and solving the right problem

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