Jumping off the waterfall - watch out for the rocks below! As agile adoption grows, more and more companies are finding themselves trying to transition from a waterfall-based product development approach to a more agile one. Success stories are easy to find from the great companies who get it right first time, but for most us that won't sound like our story. We'll take more than a few stumbles along the path and wonder what it is about us or our specific situation that means we're finding it so hard. Having led this transition within some of Ireland's busiest websites, we did parts of it well, but I'm going to focus more on the stuff we got very wrong - decisions we made that at the time seemed like both the smart and low risk thing to do but ended up being neither! It'll hopefully be a useful guide to potential pitfalls along the route if you're starting out on the same journey. And if you've already been through it, you may recognise more than a few of the rocks we hit along the way! The slides themselves are mainly intended as an aid for when I'm talking and may not work so well for anyone who didn't see the talk! So I've expanded on my notes from the talk at http://www.conroyp.com/2014/10/21/jumping-off-the-waterfall-agile-transition/.

1. Jumping off
the waterfall
Watch out for the
rocks below!

2. Who am I?
Paul Conroy, CTO, Square1.io
Previously Daft.ie Director of
Product & Engineering
Led Waterfall to Agile move

3. So how did that go?
[SPOILER]
[/SPOILER]

4. So how did that go?
[SPOILER]
• More regular releases
• Shorter build cycles
• Improved build quality
• Testing culture
[/SPOILER]

5. So, short talk then?

9. The journey’s the
interesting part…

10. Context

11. Context

12. Context
Team of 7-8 devs

13. Context
Team of 7-8 devs

14. Context
Team of 7-8 devs
Waterfall

15. Context
Team of 7-8 devs
Waterfall

16. Context
Team of 7-8 devs
Waterfall
Siloed teams

17. Context
Team of 7-8 devs
Waterfall
Siloed teams

18. Context
Team of 7-8 devs
Waterfall
Siloed teams
Management
Support,
own client

19. Lots of change
Wary of too much change at once

20. Centre of attention
Ban the boss!

21. Specsavers
“Light-weight” spec very close to “no” spec..

22. Boxing clever
Timebox.
Not just a fancy name
for a clock.

23. EAT S L E E P
SPRINT R E P E AT

24. Don’t look back in anger

25. Weight of the crown(s)
Keeping all the plates spinning

26. Despite it all..
• Regular review & adaptation
• Team encouraged to push
back when it’s not working
• Supportive management team

27. Despite it all..
More regular releases
• Shorter build cycles
• Improved build quality
• Testing culture
• Regular review & adaptation
• Team encouraged to push
back when it’s not working
• Supportive management team

28. Questions?
@conroyp www.square1.io