Build Your Agile Business The Sourcebook

Build Your
Agile Business
The Sourcebook
Agile Teams
At this level, empowered, self-organizing, self-managing teams deliver valuable,
fully tested software increments every two weeks.
The Daily Meeting 4
Iteration Planning 5
Iteration Planning Agenda 6
User Stories 8
Story Sizing 10
20 Ways to Split User Stories 11
Patterns for Splitting User Stories 12
Defining Done 14
3 | BUILD YOUR AGILE BUSINESS ca.com
Agile Lessons Learned
Focus on Value
“The benefits of agile are
multidimensional. But the most
important change is that it focuses the
entire organization on meaningful
delivery to the customer. Instead of
relying on indirect metrics describing
degrees of our software’s quality and
progress ... we ask, ‘What percent of
critical functionality is included in this
release?’ This emphasis on customer-
perceived value impacts our entire
project life cycle pretty significantly.”
Vice President of Infrastructure Management
BMC Software
Agile Teams
The Daily Meeting

The daily standup meeting is for and about the team and its commitments.
In this meeting, the team checks in on how their work is progressing in the
iteration, adjusts plans and gets assistance with removing impediments.
Who? Timing Preparation

• Delivery team Every day, same time, Individuals collect
• Product owner same place, same their achievements
people. This puts a and impediments from
• Scrum Master
regular rhythm and the previous day.
• Stakeholders can
cadence on everyone’s Remember to keep
observe, but are not
calendar. The meeting the burndown chart
allowed to speak.
lasts no more than available for reference.
• This is not a status 15 minutes.
meeting for the
product owner.
Process
Always stand to keep the meeting short. Only the team speaks. Each team
member addresses these questions in a round-robin format:
• What did I do yesterday?

• What am I committing to work on today?
• What is getting in the way of my commitments?
• What new information have I brought since yesterday?
Results
As a result of the daily standup, individuals adjust their daily plans and get help
removing impediments. No problem solving occurs in the daily standup. If
problem solving must occur, the team ends the standup and starts a different
meeting for this work to begin.
Agile Teams
Iteration Planning
The purpose of the iteration planning meeting is for the team to commit to
the completion of a set of the highest-ranked product backlog items. These
commitments define the iteration backlog.
Before we begin Determine capacity

The team has sized items in the The capacity for the team is derived
product backlog and assigned relative from three measures for each
story point values. team member:
The product backlog has been 1. Number of ideal hours in

stack-ranked to reflect the priorities the workday.
of the product owner. 2. Days in the iteration that each
There is a general understanding of person will be available.
the acceptance criteria for these 3. Percentage of time each person
ranked backlog items. will dedicate to this team.
The planning steps

1. The product owner describes the backlog item.
2. The team determines completion tasks for that item.
3. Team members volunteer to own the tasks.
4. Task owners estimate the ideal hours they need to finish their task.
5. Planning continues until the team reaches capacity.
If an individual exceeds their capacity during planning, the

team collaborates to better distribute the load.
Agile Teams
Iteration Planning Agenda
1. Opening Scrum Master
2. Product vision and roadmap Scrum Master
3. Development status, state of our architecture, results of

Product Owner
previous iterations
4. Iteration name and theme Agile Team
5. Velocity in previous iteration(s) Scrum Master
6. Iteration timebox (dates, working days) Scrum Master
7. Team capacity (availability) Scrum Master
8. Issues and concerns Agile Team
9. Review and update definition of done Scrum Master
10. Stories/items from the product backlog to consider Agile Team
11. Tasking out: tasks, estimates, owners Product Owner
12. New issues and concerns Agile Team
13. Dependencies and assumptions Scrum Master
14. Commit Scrum Master
15. Communication/logistics plan Agile Team
16. Parking lot Scrum Master
17. Action items/plan Scrum Master
18. Retrospect the meeting Scrum Master
Close—Celebrate a successful planning meeting Agile Team

Reward Collaboration
“At the most fundamental level, going
to agile is very rewarding to a team
because the collaboration and the work
they do together ultimately creates a
product higher in quality with the
correct functionality.”
Vice President of Development
McKesson
Agile Teams
User Stories
User stories are value-focused units of delivery that are typically used in
agile projects. Written from the customer or stakeholder perspective, user
stories share what is needed and why.
Who? What? Why?

The who in a user story The what in a user The why in a user story
is typically someone story specifies the specifies the value,
with a particular role need, feature or keeping the needs of
or title, or it could be functionality that is users and customers
from the perspective desired by the who. front and center.
of a persona: This is what the team
a fictitious user’s will build into the
behaviors and needs software or service.
spelled out in detail.
The Template
The user story template is designed to help product owners and others tell
stories with a clear who, what and why:
“As a registered user, I want to reset my password so that I

can get back into the site if I forget my password.”
“As an unregistered user, I can sign up for the site so that

I’m able to have a personalized experience.”
“As Tom, I want to only see updates from close friends so that
I can view relevant updates during my time online.”
Get Coaching
“Make sure you get education. Make
sure you get people to attend training
and get adopted into the agile
environment so that they’re ready to
hit the floor running when they start.”
Agile Coach
Avaya
Agile Teams
Story Sizing
Agile uses points to size stories. These estimates are relative and are
important inputs for good iteration and release planning.
Why size stories? Why use estimates?

Story sizing is a way of gathering Humans are good at comparing size,
team insights about what they but are not very good at estimating
notice about items going into the absolute numbers. Can you tell the
product backlog. difference between a 1 and a 2? How
about between a 33 and a 34?
Story sizes:
• Relative size estimates don’t change
• Inform the owner of the product
backlog how they might move the • Estimating is faster
priority of the item up and down in • Easier to reach accurate consensus

the backlog. on size
• Set teams up for continuous • Basic math still works 3 + 3 = 6

improvement for how they plan and
project what they might be able to
get done in the future.
2 4 8 16
Helpful tip: Estimate by analogy

“Richard’s story is like Anne’s story, so let’s estimate Richard’s story to be the
same size as Anne’s.”
Agile Teams
22 Ways to Split User Stories

by Bill Wake
Easier Harder Why?
The Big Picture

Research Implement What have others done?
Spike Implement Explore a quick solution
Manual Automated Often have to retain manual solution anyway
Buy Build Can go either way: trade cost of customizing...
Build Buy ... versus cost of implementing yourself
Single-User Multi-User Fewer worries about scale, user accounts
API Only Interface Test may function without user interfaces
Character or Script UI GUI Simple interface can prove out ideas
Generic UI Custom UI “Naked Objects” approach can be cheaper
-ilities
Static Dynamic Do once and ignore updates
Ignore Errors Handle Errors Minimize error code (don’t ignore exceptions)
Transient Persistent Focus on behavior over persistence
Low Fidelity High Fidelity Quality of result (e.g., pixel depth)
Unreliable Reliable “Perfect uptime is very expensive.” Wm. Pietri
Small Scale Large Scale Build load capacity over time
Less “ilities” More “ilities” Address non-fictional requirements later
Features
Few Features Many Features Easier to do fewer features
Main Flow Alternative Flows Happy path vs. all possible paths
0 1 Nothing is easier than something
1 Many One is easier than a bunch
One Level All Levels One level is the base case for all levels
Base Case General Case Base case must be done: other needn’t
Courtesy of Bill Wake, “Twenty Ways to Split Stories”

http://xp123.com/xplor/xp0512
Agile Teams
Patterns for Splitting User Stories
Pattern Example
Workflow Steps I can publish a news story
As a content manager, I can publish a … directly to the corporate website.
news story to the corporate website. … with editor review/with legal review.
Business Rule Variations ... as “n days between x and y.”

As a user, I can search for ... as “a weekend in December.”
flights with flexible dates. ... as “± n days of x and y.”
Major Effort
I can pay with
As a user, I can pay for my flight
… one credit card type (VISA, MC, DC, AMEX).
with VISA, MasterCard, Diners Club, or
…all four credit card types (VISA, MC, DC, AMEX).
American Express.
Simple/Complex … specifying a max number of stops.

As a user, I can search for flights … including nearby airports.
between two destinations. … using flexible dates.
Variations in Data … in English.

As a content manager, … in Japanese.
I can create news stories. … in Arabic.
Data Entry Methods

As a user, I can search for flights ... using simple date input.
between two destinations. ... with a fancy calendar UI.
Defer Performance …slow ( just get it done, show a

As a user, I can search for flights “searching” animation).
between two destinations. … in under 5 seconds.
Operations (e.g. CRUD) … sign up or cancel my account.

As a user, I can manage my account. … edit my account settings.
Break Out a Spike … investigate credit card processing.

As a user, I can pay by credit card. …implement credit card processing
(as one or more stories).
Courtesy of Richard Lawrence, “Patterns for Splitting User Stories”

http://agileforall.com/resources/how-to-split-a-user-story/
Product Out the Door

“We always had a working product
running, and that saved us a great
deal of time. When time started
getting close, we could just add onto
that to deliver other features as they
were needed.”
Project Manager
United States Census
Agile Teams
Defining Done
Agile teams make an agreement about what constitutes potentially
shippable software, called the definition of done. It serves as a contract the
delivery team writes with its stakeholders, as well as the team’s standard
of excellence.
How to create a definition of done

1. Write down all of the work necessary for a release. Write each item on a
separate Post-it note.
2. Draw three areas on your whiteboard to represent done for a user story,
done for an iteration and done for a release.
3. For each item of work, place it in the appropriate section by considering if
the team can deliver the work within the boundary.
Work that can’t be completed with the story

4. Discuss what obstacles prevent the team from delivering the work with
the story.
5. Think creatively about how you might incrementally address impediments.
6. If the obstacle cannot be removed or incrementally addressed, capture it
as part of a prioritized backlog of impediments.
Commit and post

7. Call for a fist of five.
8. Prominently post the definition of done to serve as a reminder of the team’s
commitments to each other.
9. Continue to revisit the definition of done, practicing Kaizen (improvement)
and continuously improving your team’s operational excellence by moving
work away from release boundaries.
Share Knowledge
“A culture shift was necessary to our
survival. Sure, it takes time. But, if you
invest a couple of sprints into a team
and get them up to speed on a product
area, they can forever share that
knowledge and work on that product.”
Chief Agile Methodologist
GXS
Agile Programs
At this level, self-organizing, self-managing teams of agile teams commit to
continuous value delivery. They organize around enterprise value streams and
align to a common mission.
Scaled Agile Framework® 17
Program Level Definitions 18
Agile Release Train 19
Multiteam Release Planning Agenda 20
Program Level Roles 22

Agile Programs
About the Scaled Agile Framework

The Scaled Agile Framework is a proven knowledge base for
implementing agile practices at enterprise scale. Its
primary user interface is a big-picture graphic, which
highlights the individual roles, teams, activities and
artifacts necessary to scale agile from the team, to teams
of teams, to the enterprise level.
For more information, please visit scaledagileframework.com
Source: Scaled Agile Framework®, scaledagileframework.com

Agile Programs
Program Level Definitions
Value Stream
A sequence of activities intended to produce a consistent set of deliverables
of value to customers. This strategy creates the greatest economic benefit
to customers.
Feature
At a level higher than stories, Features are services provided by the system that
fulfill one or more stakeholder needs. They are maintained in the program
backlog and are sized to fit in PSI/releases.
Program Backlog
The single, definitive repository for all of the upcoming work anticipated
to advance the Agile Release Train solution. It contains all of the work
under consideration.
Potentially Shippable Increment (PSI)

A PSI reflects a milestone, including integration and testing of software assets,
across all teams in a Program. It represents a development timebox that
facilitates planning, portfolio-level consideration and roadmapping.
PSI/Release
Release whenever you like. Organizations can decide to release more or less
frequently than every PSI, or simply release at designated PSI boundaries.
Architectural Runway
Architectural runway exists when the enterprise’s platforms have sufficient
technological infrastructure to support the implementation of the highest
priority business epics in the portfolio backlog without excessive,
delay-inducing redesign.

Agile Programs
The Agile Release Train

Develop on cadence, deliver on demand.
The Agile Release Train provides a continuing series of incremental releases of

value in a value stream—a flow of value in which optimized development and
delivery strategy create the greatest economic benefit.
Dates are fixed.

Quality is fixed.
Scope is variable.
Agile Release Train Principles

1. The train departs the station and
arrives at the next destination on a Train size: Best with
reliable schedule. 50–100 people
2. It delivers its cargo to customers
(Release) or is used for internal Backlog: Includes features
evaluation and proof of incremen- and nonfunctional
tal system robustness and quality requirements
(PSI/Release).
Timebox: Scaling up to an
3. If an Agile Team wants its cargo
8–10 week timeframe
(code, documentation, etc.) to go,
it has to put it there on time. The Team: Includes new roles
train will not come to them nor (see Program Roles page)
wait to get their content.

Agile Programs
Multiteam Release Planning Agenda

Successful delivery includes:
†† A set of “SMART” objectives for each individual team.

†† A PSI Plan, which highlights the new features, anticipated delivery dates and
any other relevant milestones.
†† A vote of confidence/commitment from the entire program to these objectives.
Agenda: Day 1
8:00–9:00 Business context Senior executive(s)
9:00–10:30 Product/solution vision Product manager(s)
Architecture vision and CTO, enterprise architect or

10:30–11:30
development practices systems architect
11:30–1:00 Planning context and lunch Release Train Engineer
1:00–4:00 Team breakouts Teams
4:00–5:00 Draft plan review Teams, business owners, stakeholders
Management review and

5:00–6:00 Management
problem solving
Agenda: Day 2
8:00–9:00 Planning adjustments Management team
9:00–11:00 Team breakouts Teams
11:00–1:00 Final plan review and lunch Teams
1:00–2:00 Program risks Teams
2:00–2:15 PSI confidence vote Teams
2:15–? Plan rework? Teams
Planning retrospective and

close Release Train Facilitator/facilitator
moving forward
Source: Scaled Agile Framework®, http://www.scaledagileframework.com

Pick the Right Projects

“A large project carries a certain level of
risk, but in turn also encourages inputs
from the right people to expose how
agile is needed across the rest of the
organization. We really wanted a
project that people would care about.
We needed that level of interest and
company investment. Scrum exposes
problems that exist in the organization,
so we wanted to have all eyes on
where we could improve.”
Director, Special Plans and Projects
ChoiceHotels.com
Agile Programs
Program Level Roles

Product manager Release train engineer
Has content authority for the release Acts as the Uber Scrum Master at the
train and is responsible for defining and program level. Runs the Scrum of
prioritizing the program backlog. Works Scrums meetings. Coordinates all of the
with product owners to optimize train activities, facilitates program level
feature delivery to customers. processes and program execution.
System architect System team

Has design authority for technological Responsible for providing assistance
decisions. Understands stakeholder in building and using the development
needs and helps teams define and environment infrastructure as well as
implement a technological solution integrating code from agile teams.
suitable for hosting current and
upcoming features. Release management
Cross-functional team responsible for
UX designer scheduling, managing and governing
Responsible for implementing a synchronized releases (PSIs) across
consistent user experience across the programs or product lines.
teams. Works at the program level to Coordinates the delivery of software
provide cross-component and by its associated Agile Release Train.
cross-program design guidance.
The Portfolio
At this level, business strategy and development teams align. They collaborate
to build realistic roadmaps and prioritize work according to its value and
support of the strategic vision.
Strategic Portfolio Planning 25
Portfolio Management 27
Designing a Portfoilo Kanban 29

Become a Trusted Partner

“We now look at how we can better
partner with our customers and make
them more successful with our
solutions. When we partner, we’re
better able to understand our
customers’ interests, and ultimately,
build long-term relationships.”
DevOps Scrum Master
GE Healthcare
The Portfolio
Strategic Portfolio Planning for

Innovation: Six Key Questions
1. Portfolio planning 4. Value management
Where do you want to be in three What value do you expect to get
to five years? Balancing a portfolio from your investments? When
begins with a vision. In today’s world, conditions change, do you re-evaluate
a vision points the way and focuses the expected return on your
efforts toward value. Determining investment? A clear understanding of
acceptable investment risks for desired outcomes puts you in the
innovation is a fundamental first driver’s seat. Will you speed up, slow
step, but many companies lack the down or hit the brakes?
visibility they need—across their
entire portfolio—to correctly analyze 5. Work management
risk, return and value. What work do you currently have
in flight? Understanding what work
2. Financial management is in progress and when you
Which investments are you choosing anticipate completing it will guide
to fund now? Given a three-to-five-year the sequence of future work to
strategy, which investments should you minimize wasteful context-switching
make this year that will incrementally and frustrating disruption.
deliver toward your strategy? Carefully
selecting where to invest—and 6. Portfolio performance
especially where not to invest—is Does past performance inform your
challenging but critical to having portfolio plans? The empirical
enough funding left for innovation. knowledge of past work represents
the best predictability indicator for
3. Capacity management future work in similar conditions.
Do you have the resources you need Understanding your organizational
for these investments? Do you have throughput increases the likelihood to
the people, the technical expertise create realistic portfolio plans.
and the tools you need to execute on
your investments? If not, what’s your
plan to get them?
Make Work Visible

“It is critical to make our release
forecast visible to the product owner,
so when we add functionality to a
release, we understand what we have
to do to add this, or what we’ll have to
give up to include that functionality.
Those decisions are critical to our
business, and most importantly, are
now determined by a group discussion
earlier in the process.”
Project Manager
Market Force
The Portfolio
Transform Portfolio Management

With Lean Thinking
The old way The new way
Value management Value management

• Traditional financial models • Economic value models
inhibit innovation support innovation
• Big budgets create risk-averse behavior • Taking more, smaller risks increases
• Delayed benefits realization value creation
• Subjective, emotional prioritization • Faster, incremental benefits realization
• Objective, explicit prioritization
Capacity management Capacity management

• Assign specialized FTEs to projects to • Flow work through cross-functional
maximize resource utilization teams to maximize value delivery

• Lost knowledge with constantly reformed • Retain knowledge with
project teams persistent teams

• “Precisely wrong” capacity planning with • “Roughly right” capacity planning
FTE hourly availability with cross-functional teams
Financial management Financial management

• Fixed scope, schedule and budget • “Highest value scope first” informs accurate
inhibits innovative thinking cost and schedule projections

• Long funding cycles • Incremental funding cycles
• Cost overruns • Cost controlled with “just enough” scope
Work management Work management

• Large requirements documents • Just enough features, just in time
• Risky big-bang releases • Minimal viable products (MVP)
• Work breakdown structure (WBS) • Validated learning
• Diverging from changes to strategy • Aligned to evolving strategy
Portfolio planning Portfolio planning

• Big-batch approval processes • Smaller batch continuous flow
• Ad-hoc investment funding • Investment funding matches strategy
• Siloed and infrequent planning cycles • Collaborative and iterative prioritization
Portfolio performance Portfolio performance

• On-time and on-budget metrics • Customer value metrics
• Late delivery discovered late • Fact-based information from real time
• Subjective progress status work progress

• Infrequent and subjective reviews • Demonstrable status of high-quality
increments of value
• Frequent and objective feedback
Be Flexible
“Drop what you are doing, make
time and be prepared to be
impressed with the results delivered
by an expert team of professionals as
they conduct their planning session.
Plan on leaving energized and filled
with ideas and enthusiasm to take
back to your organization.”
Director of Project Management
Leica
The Portfolio
How to Design a Portfolio Kanban

Agile organizations can use Kanban systems at many different levels. For
example, an initiative Kanban can feed a feature Kanban, feeding a team’s
story-level Kanban.
Here are a few options:
INITIATIVE KANBAN A Kanban of initiatives or projects.

Recommended for teams new to portfolio Kanban.
An initiative is a set of work with clear success
criteria that one or more teams can complete in
a few months.
FEATURE KANBAN A Kanban of features

or enhancements.
Recommended if you’re releasing frequently.
This gives you an additional level of Kanban below
the initiative.
TEAM (STORY) KANBAN A Kanban of implementation, content

or professional services projects.
Recommended to help you accelerate the speed at
which content or studies are completed and reduce
coordination overhead.
Get more guidance for building your

agile business at ca.com/agile
Connect with CA Technologies at ca.com
CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) creates software that fuels transformation

for companies and enables them to seize the opportunities of the
application economy. Software is at the heart of every business, in every
industry. From planning to development to management and security, CA
is working with companies worldwide to change the way we live, transact
and communicate—across mobile, private and public cloud, distributed
and mainframe environments. Learn more at ca.com.
1 Bill Wake, “Twenty Ways to Split Stories,” http://xp123.com/xplor/xp0512

2 Richard Lawrence, “Patterns for Splitting User Stories,” http://agileforall.com/resources/how-to-split-a-user-story/
3 Scaled Agile Framework®, http://www.scaledagileframework.com/
Copyright © 2017 CA. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks
and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. CS200-246613_0117

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The Daily Meeting 4

Iteration Planning Agenda 6

20 Ways to Split User Stories 11

Patterns for Splitting User Stories 12

Agile Lessons Learned

The Daily Meeting

Who? Timing Preparation

• What did I do yesterday?

Before we begin Determine capacity

The product backlog has been 1. Number of ideal hours in

The planning steps

If an individual exceeds their capacity during planning, the

Iteration Planning Agenda

1. Opening Scrum Master

2. Product vision and roadmap Scrum Master

3. Development status, state of our architecture, results of

4. Iteration name and theme Agile Team

5. Velocity in previous iteration(s) Scrum Master

6. Iteration timebox (dates, working days) Scrum Master

7. Team capacity (availability) Scrum Master

8. Issues and concerns Agile Team

9. Review and update definition of done Scrum Master

10. Stories/items from the product backlog to consider Agile Team

11. Tasking out: tasks, estimates, owners Product Owner

12. New issues and concerns Agile Team

13. Dependencies and assumptions Scrum Master

14. Commit Scrum Master

15. Communication/logistics plan Agile Team

16. Parking lot Scrum Master

17. Action items/plan Scrum Master

18. Retrospect the meeting Scrum Master

Close—Celebrate a successful planning meeting Agile Team

Agile Lessons Learned

Who? What? Why?

“As a registered user, I want to reset my password so that I

“As an unregistered user, I can sign up for the site so that

Agile Lessons Learned

Why size stories? Why use estimates?

priority of the item up and down in • Easier to reach accurate consensus

• Set teams up for continuous • Basic math still works 3 + 3 = 6

Helpful tip: Estimate by analogy

22 Ways to Split User Stories

Easier Harder Why?

The Big Picture

Courtesy of Bill Wake, “Twenty Ways to Split Stories”

Patterns for Splitting User Stories

Business Rule Variations ... as “n days between x and y.”

Simple/Complex … specifying a max number of stops.

Variations in Data … in English.

Data Entry Methods

Defer Performance …slow ( just get it done, show a

Operations (e.g. CRUD) … sign up or cancel my account.

Break Out a Spike … investigate credit card processing.

Courtesy of Richard Lawrence, “Patterns for Splitting User Stories”

Agile Lessons Learned

Product Out the Door

How to create a definition of done

Work that can’t be completed with the story

The Daily Meeting 4

Iteration Planning Agenda 6

20 Ways to Split User Stories 11

Patterns for Splitting User Stories 12

Defer Performance …slow ( just get it done, show a

Scaled Agile Framework® 17

Program Level Definitions 18

Agile Release Train 19

Multiteam Release Planning Agenda 20

Program Level Roles 22

Strategic Portfolio Planning 25

Designing a Portfoilo Kanban 29