Dates & Location:
 February 26-27, 2008 / Orlando, FL

Course Outline

1. Understanding Flexibility

2. Customers and Product Requirements

3. Modular Product Architecture

4. Experimentation

5. Set-Based Design

6. Development Teams and People Factors

7. Decision-Making

8. Project Management

9. Product Development Processes

10. Implementing Flexibility

I. Understanding Flexibility

• Dealing with Change

• How much flexibility?

  • Benefits of flexibility

  • The Cost of Change

  • Managing the Convergence of Flexibility

  • The Downsides of Flexibility

• The Roots: Agile Software Development

  • Extreme Programming

  • XP Practices

  • How Did XP Arise?

  • XP Values

  • Does XP Work?

• Moving from Software to Other Products

• A Note of Caution

• The Project Analyzer

• Summary

II. Customers and Product Requirements

• The Fallacy of Frozen Requirements

  • Requirements Evolution vs Scope Creep

• The Value of Customer Feedback

  • The MacCormack and Boehm Studies

  • The Overspecification Trap

  • The Principles of Iteration and Customer Feedback

  • Lowering the Cost of Iteration

• Specify at a Higher Level

  • Product Vision

  • Personas

  • Use Cases

  • User Stories

• Anticipate Customer Needs

  • Get into the Customer Experience

  • Lead Users

• The Pitfalls of Customer Feedback

  • Expert Customers

  • Customer Desires and Customer Needs

  • Internal Customers

• Summary

III.  Modular Product Architectures

• Modular vs Integral Architectures

  • Advantages and disadvantages of modularity

  • Modularity Objectives

• Examples of Architectural Choices

  • Automobile Design

  • Cordless Screwdriver

  • CD-ROM Drive

• Architectural Approaches

  • Reduce Coupling

  • Isolate Volatility

  • Provide for Growth

  • Align with Organizational Boundaries

• Four Steps in Designing an Architecture

• Architectural Decisions

  • Placement of Functions

  • Interfaces

  • Providing for Growth

• Architecture at the Design Level

• Shifting the Hardware-Software Boundary

• Summary

IV. Experimentation

• Kinds of Experiments

• The Value of Failure

• Exploration as Experimentation

  • Planning Step

  • Construction Step

  • The Run Step

  • Assessment Step

• Front-Loaded Prototyping

  • Traditional vs. Front-Loaded Strategies

  • Enabling Technologies

  • The Front-Loaded Style

  • Front-Loading Considerations

• Testing

• Summary

V. Set-Based Design

• What is "Set-Based Design"?

  • A Focus on Constraints

  • Supporting Technical Reports

• Benefits of Set-Based Design

• Managing Set-Based Design

• Delaying Decisions

  • Progressive Decisions

• The Difficulties

• Summary

VI. Development Teams and People Factors

• Teams and Flexibility

• Having the "Right" People

  • Useful Experience

  • Mastery Levels

  • Great Teams from Average Individuals

• Desirable People Qualities

  • Skills

  • Dedication

  • Commitment

  • Generalists

• Team Qualities

  • Self-Organizing

  • Cross-Functional

  • Adequate Authority

  • Co-Located

  • Partially Co-Located

  • Electronic Communication

• Summary

VII. Decision-Making

• Improving Decision-Making Flexibility

  • The Last Responsible Moment

  • Applying the Last Responsible Moment Responsibly

• People and Decisions

  • Reaching Consensus

• Uncertainty and Decisions

  • Reducing Uncertainty

• Decision Trees

  • The Value of Perfect Information

  • Decision Trees in Practice

• Real Options Thinking

• Summary

VIII. Project Management

• Flexibile vs Mainstream Project Management

  • The Project Plan Is Not the Guide

  • Redefining Project Completion

  • Reorienting Quality

  • Individuals Over Processes

  • The Role of Tacit Knowledge

• The Role of a Flexible Project Manager

  • Out in the Team Space

  • Supporting and Protecting the Troops

  • Clarifying and Enforcing the Product Vision

• Project Planning

  • Planning versus Anticipation

  • Rolling-Wave Planning

  • Loose-Tight Planning

• Timeboxing

  • Expectations Management

• Project Risk Management

  • Integrated versus Intrinsic Risk Management

  • Risk Management and Iterative Development

  • Managing Unknown Risks

• Project Metrics

  • Strategic versus Tactical Metrics

  • A Flexibility Index

  • Burndown Chart

  • Team Mood

  • Sharing and Acting on Metrics

• Project Retrospectives

• Summary

IX. Product Development Processes

• Emergent Processes

  • Standardize in the Lower Layers

  • Build, Do Not Scale Down, Processes

• The Essentials of Flexible Processes

  • Iterative and Incremental Innovation

  • Balancing Anticipation and Adaptation

  • Tacit Knowledge

• Balancing Structure with Flexibility

  • Balancing Opposing Risks

  • Shifting the Balance

• Bottlenecks and Queues

  • The Myth of Capacity

• Useful Concepts from Agile Software Development

  • Refactoring and Technical Debt

  • You Aren't Going to Need It

• Summary

X. Implementing Flexibility

• Five Paradoxes

  • Top-Down or Bottom-Up?

  • Start Small or Start Big?

  • Start with a Piece or with the Whole Package?

  • Gradual or Ambitious?

  • Exposed or Sheltered Project?

• Transitions are the Crux

• Top-Down Change

• Bottom-Up Change

• Summary and Closing