Explores the agile software delivery practices for the Ugandan context - the principles and how to leverage them locally

1. AGILE SOFTWARE DELIVERY IN THE
UGANDAN CONTEXT
Stephen Senkomago Musoke
Software Engineer
@ssmusoke

2. WHY ME?
 Self taughtsoftware tinkerer
 Love the craft & growing techies (to replaceme)
 ~2 decades offailed,successful,mind blowingand soulhauntingprojectsacross
finance, education,agriculture, health, genealogy, HR, ERP (time management)
 Served clients inUG,UK, US, Australia,Europe,SA
 12 years experience starting,setting up, growing & running a Ugandancustom
software development shop
 Experiencebothsides – funder, productowner, consultant,clientconsultant,
customer, sales, technology service provider, architect,tech lead, developer, tester
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3. CONTEXT SETTING
 What issoftware delivery
 The process of getting a softwareproductto market
 Ideation Requirements  Design  Implementation Deployment 
Support& Maintenance  Evolution
 Includingend user training,productionmonitoring, SecurityManagement, end-user
Security Management, end-user devices, performance management, change
management, change management
 Don’tforget the importantstuff– contracts,pricing/funding, sales/marketing,
pricing/funding,sales/marketing, stakeholder needs, competition,regulatory
competition,regulatory compliance
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4. SAMPLE
PROJECTS
 Employee Management solution
 Started 2004 as timesheet
 Added recruitment & employee
onboarding, invoicing & billing, data
exports to external systems, calculators
 2011 – no more changes could be made
 PHP 3  4  5, MySQL 3  4  5
 eHealth Solution – UgandaEMR
 2015 – inherited 350 sites at 1.6.x, 2 forms
 2016 – first upgrades to 1.9.x with 4 forms
 2017/8 – Migrations to 2.0, 8 forms, 20
reports ~850 sites
 2019/20 – 3.0, 10 forms, 30 reports, ~1000
4
If your dreams
do not scare you,
they are too
small
~Richard
Branson
Aim for the stars,
and you will
probably reach
the sky

5. WHY DO WE
HAVE TO BE
AGILE?
 Increased executive expectations for
impact of technology projects
 Shorter delivery timelines
 Project scope/features are getting more
complex due to integration & need to
respond to more knowledgeable
customers
 Cross cutting stakeholders – no longer
confined to a single department/sector
 Relevant technology skillsets are in
short supply
 Customer behavior is changing at a very
fast rate
5
ag·ile
“abletomovequickly
andeasily”..
”abletothink and
understandquickly”

6. UGANDA SPECIFIC CHALLENGES?
 Not special but some areas are
compounded
 Convincing stakeholders of your project relevance
 Power & Internet
 Low appreciation of impact of technology
 Internal staff challenges
 Culture – we always have to be right
 Difficult to make pragmatic technology choices that
meet client project needs 6

7. PROJECT WON! CONTRACT SIGNED
7

8. YOUR TYPICAL PROJECT
 After a long protracted negotiation
 Fixed cost
 Fixed timeline
 Defined scope
 What happens along the way
 Requirements keep changing along the way
 Stakeholder influencing on scope – we did not think about
that
 Timelines are too short
 No single product owner
 Changing Technology platforms & choices
 Changing business environment and problem 8

9. HOW DID WE GET HERE
 Waterfall– rigidprocess Requirements  Design  Development  QA 
Production
 RationalUnified Process – Waterfallin the large & small
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10. AGILEMANIFESTO
Uncoveringbetterwaysofdeveloping
softwarebydoingitandhelpingothersdoit
2001
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11. 11

12. AGILE VALUES Individualsand interactionsoverprocessesandtools
Working software overcomprehensivedocumentation
Customercollaborationovercontractnegotiation
Respondingto changeoverfollowingaplan
12
“Whilethereisvaluein
theitems on
theright,theitems on
theleftarevalued
more…” So how do I apply these
values?

13. LET US APPLY SOME
AGILE SAUCE
13

14. INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS OVER PROCESS AND
TOOLS
• Define what successlooks like
• Find your enduser &
determinehow your solution
helpsthem
• Find outwhy management
needsthis solution
o Use processand tools for
recordingyour results
o Engage the stakeholderswhile
keepingout oftheirway
o How doesyour team work
togetherinternally?
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15. 15

16. WORKING SOFTWARE OVER COMPREHENSIVE
DOCUMENTATION
• Giveme something to play
with NOW!
• Show stakeholdershow you
aretackling theirchallenges
• Demonstratefuture state
• SHOW PROGRESS!!!
o Documentrequirements
o Documentfeedback
o Documentyour progress,
status updateand future plans
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Documentation isaloveletterthatyouwritetoyourfutureself
-DamianConway

17. CUSTOMER COLLABORATION OVER CONTRACT
NEGOTIATION
• Identify what valueis tothe
customer
• Be creativewithin your
constraints
(time/scope/budget)
• Define& work with SMART
deliverables
• Be Realistic
o Makesure your contractis
airtight
o Keepyour contract
deliverablesin sight –
documentany changes
o Pareto80/20 rule
o Searchfor win-win-win
outcome
17

18. RESPONDING TO CHANGE OVER FOLLOWING A PLAN
• Adaptand validateyour plan as
you learnmoreand move
forward
• The morethings changethe
more they remainthe same
o Havea plan
o A planis a guide,framework
o Keepthe lighthouse (goal)in
sight as youchange
o If you failto plan, plan tofail
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Theonlyconstantthingischange

19. IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT MOUSE
19

20. CEREMONIES AND TOOLS
 Standup– dailycheckin keep collaboratingeven after standup
 Retrospective – if you do not know where you have come from, you willnot
understandwhere you are and where you have to go
 Show case – release early, release often, statuscheck
 Sprintplanning
 Green build– code buildsand runs
 QA – does it do what the customer expects?
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21. AIDS TO SUCCESSFUL AGILE – NON TECH
Use Prototypingtoolsto give your users a sense of what thefinalsolutionwillfeel
like and work
Spendtime collaboratingwithyour clients ina manner and languagethat they
understand– remember they have other full-time jobsnotjust your project
Discipline– keep time, promises, manage expectations,pay attention
Document, document,document –in a way thatmakes meaning toyour end-users
21
Ontimeislate!!!

22. Good developers write excellent code
Great developers write no code
Zen developers delete code
22

23. AIDS TO SUCCESSFUL AGILE – TECH
Automate & simplify deployment – to dev, staging and
demo sites
Fanatical, Meticulous version control – use GitFlow/Trunk
based development
Testing – unit, integration, stress, load, Travis CI
Security – the price is too high at the end
Document, document, document for your development
team?
Use/Leverage prebuilt frameworks, and libraries
Use an IDE – Jetbrains, VS Code, Sublime
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Every problem is a special case of a more general
problem and you are not the first one to solve it

24. AIDS TO SUCCESSFUL AGILE - TECH
 Grit, persistence, perseverance, focus
 The best tool for the job is the one you know how touse
 Stick to the fundamental principles,experiment with implementation– where
necessary & possible
 Frugalinnovation– stay hungry, keep lean
 Kaizen~ SolomonKing – search for improvements, never stay stillwith the status
quo
 Contribute back to #OpenSource – give back to the community you work in
 Look after your health– what you eat, exercise
 Connect withothers outsidetech – perspective
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25. AIDS TO SUCCESSFUL AGILE – TECH - PRINCIPLES
 Architecture:
 Use the simplestarchitecturepossible
 12 FactorApp
 OWASP Security Considerations
 API First Development – everything is a client
 PhoenixServers
 Schema.org for datadesigns
 Open Source - give back
 Don’t hesitate tospendmoney on a tool that willsave you time
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26. CHALLENGES
Draft fatigue– toomany back and forthcycles
As requirements change, then goalsand deliverablesare forgotten
Team dynamics– changing requirements are stressful
Technology tools & choices – do not try to re-invent the wheel as much as you can,
solve the problem at hand+ know how to use your tools
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IfIamgiven4hourstocutdownatree,Iwillspend3hourssharpening
myaxe
~AbrahamLincoln

27. 27

28. READING LIST – BUSINESS & TECH
 MartinFowler – Refactoring, Patterns ofEnterpriseArchitecture &
http://martinfowler.com
 Andy Hunt/Dave Thomas – The Pragmatic Programmer
 Basecamp ShapeUp - https://basecamp.com/shapeup
 Blue Ocean Strategy
 Clean Code
 Imposters Handbookby Rob Conery (I am somewhere)
 It does not have to be crazy at work
 Blogs/Articles inwhatever languageor problem domainyou are working in
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29. PARTING QUESTIONS
 Is HighQualitySoftwareWorth the Cost by MartinFowler?
https://martinfowler.com/articles/is-quality-worth-cost.html
 Yes it is, but ensure thatthis cost can be linkedto businessgoals& value such
higher revenue, market share growth/maintenance, new market entry etc
 What aboutScrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc etc
 The best tool for the job is the one you know how touse andwhichhas quick
support
 Remember the prinicples
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30. IN CLOSING
DONOTBETOOBUSY
Enjoyyourproject
Keeplearning
Read,Read,Read
StandontheshouldersofGiants
Shareyourstories/experiences withothers
Discipline,Discipline,Discipline
ANDMOSTOFALL
Deliverandsatisfyyourclients
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31. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
For questions or suggestions
@ssmusoke
http://ssmusoke.com