PNSQC 2020 Live Blog: Capacity To Execute with John Cvetko

The first talk of the afternoon is being given by John Cvetko. The main point of John's talk is to look at the desire of an organization to change from a Waterfall development methodology to an Agile development methodology. for many of us, it may seem slightly odd that there are still Waterfall SDLC's out there but rest assured there certainly are, lots more than we might like to think. John focused on the considerations needed to make the changes necessary to make the move from Waterfall to agile.

The example organization had multiple release trains (36 release trains in total) and part of the initial process was to create a hybrid release train. They didn't go all in or replace every single release train. Rather, they took on the Agile transformation within a few release trains. They took an isolated and low risk approach so that no more than 20% of the projects would be affected. the Agile transition even with this focus and need was still going to be a challenge and that the implementation of Agile was going to require an entirely different way of thinking.   




This gets us to the title of the talk. The “capacity to execute” is the most important aspect, in short,"Plan your work and work your plan". More to the point, there's more need for planning to make a transition effect. Whether the approach is to make a huge sea change, or smaller waves or bubble up changes, there has to be the ability to plan and execute effectively. 

There are a variety of metrics that are looked at (an example is ISO 25010 Software Quality Standard) and which quality characteristics were chosen to determine the level of focus of the transition. 

By focusing on Scope, Schedule, Budget, and Quality, we as an organization can make a real determination as to what the transition will be able to focus on and to what extent. Just because we want to make the change doesn't mean we will be able to automatically get there just because we want to. Often the business context, the company culture, and the revenue and cash on hand will help influence those paths. 

There is often a Culture Clash that may occur when each team works to try to make these transitions. thus the intentions and plans to execute are doubly important at this time. 

Make no mistake, these are tricky and challenging transitions. It may very well prove to be worth it but it just as likely will not be easy.