Insight IndigoBlue Governance Framework

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IndigoBlue’s governance framework was created in response to the lack of an adequate set of governance processes for Agile projects and programmes. The absence of good governance is particularly apparent on larger programmes or within organisations running a number of Agile projects.

The framework provides a set of artefacts and processes that help with the effective control and reporting of any change initiative, but also include a number of additional features to deal with Agile processes. These include effective management and reporting of scope via the creation of an incremental strategy and uncertainty management to make areas of uncertainty and the plan for resolving uncertainty explicit, rather than relying on the traditional assumptions.

What is the Framework?

The IndigoBlue governance framework is a comprehensive framework and toolkit that enables effective governance of incremental, Agile projects. Developed over 10 years, it encapsulates many man-years practical experience of enterprise-scale Agile project delivery and of working with organisations to develop sustainable capability in delivering incremental change.

The latest version of the Framework comprises of a set of complementary processes, techniques, templates, role definitions and training material that address the challenges of planning, managing and governing successful change, as well as the particular challenges that come with Agile. The product has been proven and matured with practical application over many projects and is the governance standard in a number of Blue Chip organisations.

The Framework recognises and complements standard Agile processes such as Scrum and XP and does not seek to replace them, it does however wrap them into a complete set of processes that not only addresses the technical (XP) and team centric (Scrum) views of a project but also addresses the need for management and governance.

Why Do We Need Another Process?

The implementation of default Agile governance has had very limited success, this is evidenced by:

• The number of organisations who use Agile but explicitly do not use it for large or critical projects
• The number of organisations engaging external agencies to provide insight into their Agile projects
• Unexpected problems occurring towards the end of “successful” projects

In many organisations that have “embraced” Agile IndigoBlue has observed a number of misunderstandings and misconceptions that have led to failed governance:

Agile provides different metrics that need to be understood

There is a common belief that Agile governance is not successful because the Steering Role does not understand Agile. The implication is that an understanding of the day-to-day activities of Agile is required to effect governance. This should not be the case. Governance is concerned with the aggregate view and the Steering Role should not be required to review or understand the detail.

The governance framework therefore needs to address the aspects of Agile that need to be understood by both parties at the governance boundary. Equally it needs to deliver with confidence the standard governance requirements of: what are we trying to do; what do we need; how long will it take; how much will it cost; and what risks exist?

Governance is concerned with team behaviours

Agile processes provide significantly increased and improved opportunities to engage with the delivery team, and to directly observe the state of the project. In many cases the onus is on the Steering Role to take advantage of this opportunity.

Improved engagement is one of the benefits of Agile, and it will help to supplement governance confidence. However, it is unrealistic to expect the Steering Role to interpret actions and outputs from ad-hoc observations. The responsibility for making valid observations regarding the change and providing interpretation should lie within the delivery team. Not doing so is an abdication of responsibility, and also risks generating erroneous interpretations.

In fact, the onus is on the delivery team to proactively provide appropriate, meaningful information and to create confidence within the Steering Role.

Governance at Steering level is not required

Perhaps the most prevalent and most dangerous misconception within Agile is that because the Product Owner is involved in the project on a day-to-day basis and is steering the project, the project must be well governed.

This incorrectly assumes that the boundary of governance is between the delivery team (supplier) and the customer or users, and conveniently ignores the wider governance requirement.

There are situations where the Product Owner has total ownership, but more generally the Product Owner has delegated authority and should therefore be considered part of the delivery team, not part of the Steering Role.

Key Features

The Framework addresses the challenges inherent in Agile and recognises that although the governance boundary between the users and the suppliers changes significantly (it is now collaborative and incremental), the governance requirements of the Steering Role do not differ significantly from those in more traditional approaches.

A typical project governance model consists of a Project Sponsor chairing a Board of Stakeholders, with delegated authority for delivery vested in a Project Manager who reports to the Stakeholder Board and is accountable for day-to-day delivery.

Governance is effected against a commitment that defines the baseline for what, when, why, how, who and how much, and reporting for governance should provide the view of risk against this. However, it is also important that this view is provided at an aggregate level (not the detail of the delivery) and in Agile this requires an appropriate structure rather than relying on the “natural” outputs of standard processes such as Scrum.

In addition to the standard measures of output (velocity and tangible deliverables), sustainability and quality, The Framework includes a framework for measurement and control of two additional, critical areas: scope and uncertainty.

Scope Management

IndigoBlue's approach ensures that the strategy sits at the heart of the programme, ensuring visibility of real progress and maximum ROI.

With business objectives as its foundation, the Incremental Strategy guides stakeholders through the identification and segmentation of value and reconciles this against low-value, but must-have requirements.

A key element of Agile governance, the Incremental Strategy is critical to successful planning, tracking and management of scope. It provides a baseline against which real progress can be measured throughout implementation without constraining the agility of the team. In the absence of a formal Incremental Strategy the plan of work (the backlog) is simply a list against which governance can only occur at a detailed level.

The Incremental Strategy also becomes the key communication device between the stakeholders and project team, enabling effective prioritisation decisions and optimised return on investment.

Uncertainty Management

Uncertainty management is critical to effective governance. The Framework brings a proven approach to the proactive management of uncertainty in change programmes enabling the full business benefits of the Agile incremental approach within a rigorously risk-managed environment.

Uncertainties exist in all change programmes. These can range from business uncertainties (what are our competitors doing) through to technical challenges (will the solution scale), and from market uncertainties (what is the latent demand) to functional (how much change do we need to deliver to succeed).

Traditional projects typically aim to remove all uncertainties at the outset. Though uncertainties imply risk, removing them too early in the process can add risk and lead to sub-optimal outcomes. Agile techniques offer the potential for uncertainties to be managed more flexibly. However, the standard agile approach offers little by way of structured uncertainty management and risks can escalate to become programme threats.

The Framework provides a framework in which to clearly identify the material uncertainties at the outset of the programme. The potential impact of each uncertainty is evaluated and a baseline approach for resolution is established in the context of the incremental delivery plan. The resulting incremental plans can take many forms (business, marketing, design and many others) and tracking against them forms part of the rigorous governance approach.

This proactive and on-going approach to uncertainty management enables optimal and reliable resolution of uncertainty in complex change programmes – maximizing the business benefit of the incremental approach within a framework of well-managed risk.

Components of The Framework

The key artefacts in The Framework are as follows:

Project Initiation Framework

The Project Initiation Framework defines the process and techniques for setting up a project for success, along with templates and a tool for managing scope. It addresses the issues associated with balancing the need to start development early and the need for a sufficient level of confidence in the project baseline.

This framework covers the following essential topics:

• Initiation Process Template with guidance and techniques covering:
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Developing the Incremental Strategy
  • Developing the Product Backlog
  • Estimating
  • Uncertainty Management
  • Developing the delivery team
  • Establishing Project Governance

• Deliverables:
  • Project Initiation Document
  • Strategy Documents e.g. Test
  • Design Plan and Design Models
  • Product Backlog
  • Overarching Project Plan

• Checklists for validating the quality of Initiation and residual risk.
• Project Role Profiles and role oriented training material to fast track team building.

Development and Delivery Framework

The Development and Delivery Framework defines the process and techniques for successful incremental development and delivery, along with templates for tracking and reporting.

This framework covers the following essential topics:

• Development and delivery process with guidance and techniques covering:
• Uncertainty Management
• Effective Sprint Cycles
• The Release Process
• Quality Assurance
• Change Management
• Dependency Management

Deliverables:

• Sprint Report
• Exception based Management Report
• Checklists for Project Assurance

Assurance Framework

• Project diagnostic
• Sprint diagnostic