AGILE IN

BUILDINGS
HIPPO DIGITAL CASE
STUDY
Presentation by Ollio Consultancy
to Bricks
28 January 2021
th
 Agile
- adjective

“able to move quickly and easily”

“relating to or denoting a method of

project management”

DEFINITION
 AGILE METHODS –
WHERE IT STARTED
Jeff Anderson
And
Ken Schwaber
invented SCRUM which was branded by the US FBI as

“an agile methodology”

 2001 – Scene of
a critical
intelligence
failure by both
FBI and CIA
Various people knew about
activities of Al Qaeda but the
information systems did not pull it
all together in time.
Project Sentinel was FBI’s
state of the art data
systems to ensure that
this kind of lapse never
FBI PROJECT SENTINEL happened again.
 2005: $451M and take 4 years to
complete.

In 2010: $405M and

only completed half
of the project.
Independent analysis reported it
would need another

8 years and
extra 305$ to
complete.
WHY?

FBI PROJECT SENTINEL

SENTINEL
Someone somewhere decided the best way to work
out how long would be to develop a Gantt Chart
with costs and times on it.

• This had never been done before.

• No one knew how long it would take.
• So no one knew its cost.
• Gantt charts and Taylorism was never intended to be used on complex
problems with so many unknowns
• Yet here we are in 2021, we still use them in an infinitely faster, more
rapidly changing world.

•In most modern situations a

Gantt Chart is fiction….
•At worst it’s a LIE made to fit
what clients want to here.
SENTINEL
Using what Jeff called Scrum but FBI
called Agile Methods

Sentinel took just 18

months to get to full
working product and
another 6 months to
deploy it.
It worked first time with only minor issues.

Cost to complete:
$20 million . (5% of the
cost and half the time of the original proposal)
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
THE PROBLEM Hidden cost of Gantt and
Scientific Management
20% effort contributes to the job
being DONE
80% is waste
A B
Performance
Gap
C

Wasted Time and Money

• “Two decades ago, I
was desperate… I
needed a new way of
thinking about work.
And though a ton of
research I realised we
needed a new way of
doing things done.”
Jeff Sutherland – Co-author Agile Scrum
 Start with the customer –
BIRTH OF SCRUM the features required
Break the product up into small bite size increments (product backlog).

• Define value (use customers/users

to do this)
• Invite change
A •
•
Build Rapid Prototype –
Test them with the customer
B
• Refine
• Release each element early – BILL JOB DONE
• Value is released, we get paid
• Customer has earlier use. Can begin their value realisation

Repeat until all the customers critical

features are included
 "Knowledge has to be
improved, challenged, and
increased constantly, or it
vanishes.” “Management is
doing things right; leadership
is doing the right things.”
“The best way to predict your
future is to create it” “If you
want something new, you
have to stop doing
something old”
Dr. Peter Drucker- Workplace Academic
 "Profit in business comes
from repeat customers,
customers that boast about
your project or service, and
that bring friends with them."

Dr. Willian Edwards Deming - Workplace Academic

 “Poor quality has a
cost…without change, there
will be a constant waste."

Dr. Joseph Juran- Workplace Academic

“Put the customer first.
Invent. And be patient.”

Jeff Bezos - Amazon

Tomorrow, when you come to
work, if it doesn’t make the
customer happy,– don’t do it.

Reed Hastings – CEO Netflix

“You’ve got to start with the
customer experience and work
back to the technology, not start
with the technology and figure out
a way to sell it.”

Steve Jobs - Apple

 “We must learn what
customers really want, not
what they say they want or
what they think they
should want”

Eric Reis – The Lean Start Up

For better customer architect, constructor outcomes

18
Help them understand that their building is part of the
business or organisation’s growth stack.

Growth Stack - The essential set of tools that facilitates business knowledge
management and communication to
• create new products
• improve existing ones
• market,
• sell
• communicate with customers.

More time and effort put into developing the operational

strategy for how life will be in the new building will pay
dividends…literally

HELP CUSTOMERS TO CHANGE THE MINDSET

 1
2
LEARN FROM PRODUCT idea

DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRIES
Change from Industrial age to
digital age product management
processes.
Customer
4
1 feedback build 2
4
Involve customers to
Mock-up or
benchmark quality sample

and desirability. 3

Release the power launch

of great design. Expensive/Uncertainty/Risk

3
5
 DEPLOY AGILE METHOLOGY
The Agile Manifesto

Put Users Concerns over Technical

Concerns
How things Work over How things can be
Designed
Manage Interfaces over Avoid Interfaces

Invite user change early over Avoiding

user change late
21
ANATOMY OF AGILE
METHODOLOGY

USER PRODUCT SCRUM CLIENT

STORIES BACKLOG PROTOTYPE ONCE PROBLEM
SOLVED SHIP IT FOR
Summaries the user stories into 4 or 5 big ticket Use fully immersive VR to
Gets everyone involved from top to bottom of the DETAIL DESIGN.
Users
project requirements (breaking the problem down and designers workallow users
together totosolve
“testthe
“ and
big
organisation. Gets the big day to day operational BIM ENABLED BRIEF TO
into bite size chunks) ticket problems through workplace
validate design
the co-designs
issues out on the table STAGE 3 DESIGN

STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4

RIBA STAGE 0 RIBA STAGE 1 and 2

Agile in Buildings
22
We trialled Agile in Buildings in 3 proof of concept
case studies over a 6 month period.

• Cemetery Road Baptist Church

• Kollider – Castle House
• Hippo Digital

We wanted to find out

• Would users embrace the methodology

• Could we develop prototypes quickly enough
• Would users be comfortable with the VR
technology as a prototyping tool
• Where there any hardware issues to be resolved

AUDIENCE OF THE FUTURE DESIGN FOUNDATIONS

TEAM Lead Scrum Masters

Lead Designer
Team Leader

Lead VR Technologist
Lead VR Experience Advisor
CASE STUDY : HIPPO DIGITAL
Two earlier alternative schemes
HIPPO DIGITAL -
THE BRIEF
• Needed to accommodate 75 staff

• Near to Leeds Station

• Near to major client NHS

• Have lots of wall space for

workshops with clients

• Attract in NHS clients to come

and work in the office
INTERIOR DESIGN
Went out for 3 interior
design quotes
 PROPOSAL 1
Looked great.

Everyone was happy with it.

Ticked all of elements of the brief

 Large Office Area

FLOOR PLANS
Collaboration/ Admin sandwiched between
Workshop

Workshop Space

Main Entrance

Office/Admin

Admin and Accounts

Kitchen/Lounge

Kitchen/Lounge Key Plan

Looked great.

PROPOSAL 2
Not felt to be as good as Proposal 1 in
meeting the brief.
Went with Proposal 1
18 months later there were problems
 HIPPODIGITAL AGILE IN BUILDINGS TIMELINE
TEST WITH 3 core USERS
SHIPPABLE
SCRUM 1
PRODUCT BACKLOG PRODUCTs
“BIG PROBLEMS” TO
All our Ideas DETAIL
USER DESIGN
SCRUM 2
IDEAS
Form Staff
“LIKES”
User Group

STEP 0 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4

19-28. May w/c 29 May 05. June 07- Jun-5 July - 28 Jun 4 July
Conduct user Final Paper to HD
charrette. board. Outlines
Summarise
findings with short Agile Methodology findings and
includes co-
interim paper to authored
HD board prototypes
developed by
design team and
SUG
STEP 0: ALL OUR IDEAS SURVEY
Use Google/Princeton
University research
algorithm to rank ideas
from respondents.

It’s a way to get users

to generate ideas
about what they would
like to see.

Then rank them in

order of strength of
feeling about them.
ALL OUR IDEAS TOP 5
• Booths for phone calls
• Confidential meeting space
• More meeting rooms
• Quiet working space
• Power on top of desks
 Exercise 1: Persona

Question to participants:

Think about the types

of people who use
office? Who are they?
Why do they go there?
What do they expect
from the experience of
STEP 1: USER STORIES visiting the HD offices?

CHARRETTE
STEP 1: USER STORIES - PERSONAS “Grinders” People who are embedded in

“Minders”
People who are involved in
Staff DfE Staff
Remote Delivery
Teams
client teams, returning to base
where base provided a better
setting to get things done’.

important back of house Tend to members

be office based.

Project Product Owners

Admin/Accounts UX Researchers
Employees
NHS Staff

Exec Team,
support staff

Clients and
other Visitors
“Finders”
Matrixed
user groups Wheelchair users Assisted hearing Dogs

New Visitors Visually impaired Minor

 STEP 1:AGILE USER
STORIES CHARRETTE
Exercise 2: User Story Completion
Question to participants: Thinking of the types of people from exercise 1, what things would you as users
(or as a persona) want to be able to do in a re-envisioned new HD office? Complete as many as you can.

Format of written cards:

As a (type of persona):

I would like to be able to…

in order to …
SPACE AND SPACES
As a Researcher As a Director
As a Researcher As a Research
I would like securely I would like not have
I would like to find a I would like participate
store my belongings visitors pass thru admin
desk and set up quickly in “back to base days”
areas of the office
So as: not have to carry
So as: Not lose time, So as: to touch base with
my [work] materials So as: to protect office
Start work quickly colleagues
away from the office privacy
CONFIDENTIALITY
As a Admin As a Director As a Researcher
As a Research
I would like be able to I would like have a I would like not have
I would like have adhoc
have confidential formal board meeting in hold confidential client
private calls
meetings a private room interviews
So as: not worry about
So as: carry out So as: discuss business So as: to protect client
who is listening in.
confidential work strategy with directors privacy
BETTER INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

As a Researcher As a Director As a Researcher

I would like quickly I would like better video I would like hold
access wi-fi and sockets conferencing facilities meetings on laptops
and rooms
So as: to get to work So as: to have online
without fuss So as: appear more meetings and share
professional to clients documents
 Space and spaces –Better layout to the whole of the
STEP 2:PRODUCT demise to create more space and more order to the desk take
up and management process. With confidential provision

BACKLOG Desks Furniture– Improve desks, improve availability,

reduce set up time.

First Impression– Improve the visitor/client journey, use

the building to communicate a good impression

Good Technology – Improve the technology to help

with efficient working, team and client connectivity. Without
compromising security.

Health and Wellbeing – Plants, daylighting, desk

ergonomics, healthy food.

Ease of Access – Having 24/7 access to the building,

also improving the first impression to clients and first-time
visitors.
 Acoustics – Part of the
confidentiality issue
External Spaces – Part of
the first impression issue
Car Parking – Visitors/Last
Out, part of first impression
Dogs – Having dedicated
facilities for them
Disabled Access – Equal
opportunity employment

MISSING ITEMS? Anything else?

 Heartspace – Place where
everyone comes together.

Culture– Helps to define your

culture as a community

Location – Biggest reason for

why this building? Maximise this
advantage

Character – Building has a lot

of charm. Opportunity to explore its
history

NHS – Next to NHS. How could

you make more of that as an
opportunity

Anything else?

OTHER THINGS TO TEST?

 Space and spaces –

Desks Furniture–

First Impression–

Good Technology

Health and Wellbeing

Ease of Access –

STEP3: SCRUM TEAMS

STEP 3: SCRUM TEAM Space and spaces –

Desks Furniture–

Client | project owner First Impression–

– to make sure project stays within Exec Board
Good Technology
constraints
Health and Wellbeing
Users/customer Ease of Access –
– to provide bottom up intelligence, validate
quality

Scrum Master
– to facilitate the Agile process

Designers
– to catch ideas and develop them.
 2. Compromised Confidentiality
1. No Sense of Arrival – Properly check people in
FLOOR PLANS 3. Kitchen/Chill remote from Workshop

Collaboration/
Workshop Office/Admin Kitchen/Lounge
Meeting/Touch
down
Main Entrance
Guest Traffic

Old Key Plan 4. Meeting/Touchdown remote from

main space
Kitchen/Lounge
 Space and spaces –

Desks Furniture–

First Impression–
Workshop
Views to River Aire Good Technology

Health and Wellbeing

Ease of Access –

AGILE METHODS CASE STUDY

SCRUM TEAM SOLUTION Touchdown Kitchen

Staff Flow

Guest Flow

Admin Meeting Reception

Develop co-designed ideas sketches into 3D
SCRUM TEAM SOLUTION

Confidential
Area
STEP4: PROTOTYPING THE SPACES
 Validation of Design Flows
in real time
Adding only what is necessary not more/ not less

Users work within the rules of the Scrum (Time/cost/feasibility)

End result is a Digital Brief that

is fully understood by all
A brief that is sharable and testable right across the business

Quality and Value for the customer

are locked in

PURPOSEFUL INCISIVE
Constructors know what to build and can just get on with it.

Option to continue with Scrum into the process

FEEDBACK
CURRENT UK THINKING
CURRENT UK THINKING
CURRENT UK THINKING
COVID
Provides clients with the opportunity to explore deeper questions
of how can we get consensus from our people on how to

Align People process

and place in a post
COVID-19 world
END RESULT PROTOTYPE
STEP 4: SHARABLE VR VIEWS

Take out your phone QR App and take a

look around each of the views
QUESTIONS?

Edward Murphy
Edward.murphy@ollioconsult.com

Twitter @ollioconsult