ACS Presentation : How to teach your team Agile in 3 months

PowerPoint Presentation

Mia HorriganDirector Strategy and Advisory ServicesZen Ex Machina

@miahorri

zenexmachina.wordpress.com

How to teach your team Scrum in 3 monthsHow do we learn a new skill?How the human mind works on collecting information and then applying it ? and then applying it ?Having an understanding of how you learn is incredibly useful.Once you know how it all works, you can apply the same principles to new skills

Learning to Drive

Needs to adapt to new way of thinkingGradual process that requires cognitive processing to work with our abilities to perform Brain has to process infoRelative speed to other carsRoad Signs and signalsWhat to focus onApply that thinking to your behaviour

Its the same when learning any new skills

Saw an opportunityManager saw an opportunity to give Team a new skill and a unified process The transparency and collaboration he saw emerging out of the intranet project was very appealing to himTend to think about Agile as a software development approachDecided it might be adaptable to Business as usual (BAU) to improve business processes and gain efficiencies

Experiencing PainBusiness unhappy at lack of progress (backlog of work and new work coming in) Team working hard, long hours but not delivering (starting a bit of everything)Waterfall not allowing them to adapt to changesNo collective process to process new requestsTeam not sure which work was importantGeographically dispersedAsked ZXM to help them implement Scrum

What is the Biggest Reason Why People Dont Get Good at a New Skill?

Lack of resultsDemotivates them, they quitEspecially if they dont have support through the processNeeded the team to trust in the process of learning and stay motivated even when initially it may seem chaotic

What is the best way to learn a new skill?We can read a bookWe can observe others We use a coach to facilitate learning and behavioural change

Aim was to teach team Scrum in 3 monthsUnconscious IncompetenceYou dont know that you dont know somethingConscious IncompetenceYou know that you dont know something and it bothers youConscious CompetenceYou know that you do know something but it takes effortUnconscious CompetenceYou know how to do something and it is second nature to you

Month 0Month 3By using psychology based approach to implementing Scrum we were able to guide them through the learning processUnconscious incompetenceMonth 0

Learning to Drive a CarUnconscious Competence

http://canime.busybuild.co.uk/Mario-Kart.php

Kevin has grown up seen me drive a car. Hes clocked numerous hours of go-karting and Mario Carts so he think driving is easy (unconscious incompetence) So I let him drive my car into the driveway.

12Started with a Workshop - Scrum 101Taught them the rules

Scenario based approach to learning Established these rules of scrum, its roles, its controls, its processes by:Showing how Scrum worksGiving team a practical lesson (lego) Ensured everyone was speaking the same language, terminologySet expectations of using Scrum

Inspect and Adapt processzenexmachina.wordpress.comCreating the Product Backlog 3 streams BUT one product backlogThrown straight into developing user storiesEstimating stories Ranking of stories

Visualised the products in flow Developed Kanban board

Kinaesthetic learning

Conscious incompetenceMonth 1

Learning to Drive a CarConscious Incompetence

http://lolsnaps.com/news/51946/0/He quickly learned of his lack of knowledge and incompetence in this area, so he wanted to learn about cars and how to operate them

19Always chasing our tails.PMs assigning products to the TeamFelt rushed and busyStill not completely moved away from their old ways of workingChaos UncertaintyThey were now conscious of their incompetence

There is a Learning Curve

Always chasing our tails.Still not completely moved away from their old ways of workingStill working on project issues from before the sprint to 'please everyone and keep them happy' "But we're part of a bigger team" "We don't have the luxury of working on just these projects" "We have to keep everything running"

What we did in reaction to this as their CoachChanged 2 week sprints to 4 week sprints 2 weeks too hectic 4 weeks 'felt right', but would be tested and examined in retrospectivesPressed the PMs to act as Product Owners to clearly define products and dedicate time to the backlog

Concentrated on refining our estimationsTook on too many stories Pressed the Team to move everything not yet complete into the product backlogConcentrated on better estimations (relative measures, Fibonacci scale

Moved the Kanban board to Jira

Solved non-collocation issuesShared desktop to help drive the stand-ups, planning and review sessionsLost the high visual representationEmerging issuesStories not being Done because they were contingent on actions from outside the teamTeam not coming to ceremonies preparedPO still not having sufficient DoD and writing them in the planning meeting PO chairing and controlling the meetingsalmost like status reports to the managersprint review had replaced their traditional team meetingthis meant the old behaviours just moved to the ceremony This was an issue for strong resolution for us as coach

Conscious Competence Month 2

Learning to Drive a CarConscious Competence

http://www.proudinteractive.com/defensive-driving-courses-make-safe-drivers-on-the-road/

http://mylicence.sa.gov.au/road-rules/the-drivers-handbook/drivers-licensingHe did a defensive driving course, got an instructor. Learned how to operate a car, what handles do what and actively learned. He had to focus a lot on the task or else he made mistakes. Hes still clocking his 100 hrs

28Starting to understand what needed to be done to get betterProjects that had been sitting around for ages were actually getting done!Streams starting to talk about value in discussions with businessPassing on new requests to the product owner for ordering of product value they LIKED this :) first sense of empowerment and self-managementMood of the teamImprovedStarting to understand the process and getting good momentum Keen to keep going with the process as it was workingRecognised need to break stories down furtherCoached them through breaking down storiesStories too complex and not being completed within the SprintLooked at ways to break down the stories:WorkflowBusiness rulesNon functional requirements UI complexityCore first then add valueStory hierarchyThe product backlog was built up using a hierarchy of themes, epics, stories and tasksTraceability from the lowest to the highest level helped team members understand where their work fits into the bigger picture

Defining the Product BacklogBusiness IntelligenceCommunity Broadcasting Section want new reports to be developed, because they value meeting their KPIsConsult with business to determine complexity of reportsSend final cost estimate to businessOrganised Product backlog Anyone can add stories Team can move stories to Proposed priorities Product owner can move stories to Known priorities Team add stories they believe should be actioned next If accepted, product owner moves to Known Priorities Medium grain user stories (weeks of work) Product owner adds stories and writes Definition of Done Team review stories & estimate effort as part of grooming Fine grain user stories (3-4 days of work) During sprint planning, Known Priorities are accepted by team based on capacity for delivery Team work to achieve Definition of Done for each storyDo in Future sprints 60%Do Next sprint 20%Do Now 20%What we did as their Coach to highlight the CCKept stories and DOD to things the Team could commit to deliver in a single SprintTeam gained an understanding of capacity of the team and individuals - helped with sprint planning and commitmentSM not PO Moved chairing ceremonies Tracked BAU time vs project time (30%)

Succession planningWe put in behaviours so that ceremonies could continue even if people weren't presentStarted putting in succession planning - people had to arrange for another team member to act on their behalf for demo/retro/sprint planning

Combined StandupsStarted to combine standups when there were only a few team members available first opportunities to hear about other stream work-in-progress first opportunity to identify areas for cross-collaboration across their old silos for work-in-progress first heads up of product backlog pipeline and transparency of work in other silosUnconscious CompetenceMonth 3

Learning to Drive a CarUnconscious Competence

http://www.whatpoll.com/best-driver

May years into the future when he gets his drivers license and has been driving for a while, he will find driving is easy. He wont need to concentrate as hard, it will be second nature

39Issues at the beginning of the monthNew way of working not in sync with other processes Utilisation Billable vs non billable work

Left over story points (eg stories 'rolled over' to the next sprint to account for effort)

What to do when a User Story is Undone?Put it back into the Product Backlog?Partial credit or dont reap the Story Points for this Sprint?Re-estimate the remainder of the complexity of the User StoryEnsures that the Teams velocity isnt skewed by the inflation of effort already spent

Re-estimate the remainder of the complexity of the User StoryWhy the User Story was left undoneThe new things theyve learned about the User StoryThe new tasks and/or requirements of the User StoryThe remaining complexity, not the whole story including what was Done

41Action and SuccessesAs a result of the single stand-ups in month 3 we achieved radical visibility Opportunities to be involved across silos Emerging of pairing across silos on workPO was getting more input into products & DODFinally getting into formalised backlog groomingTeam scheduling time to break down the product backlog with the POScrum well known and working for them

Team behaviour by month 3Knew what's coming up from conversations in standupsKnew to groom the backlog with the PO in order to establish the DOD, estimations and tasksAsked to be involved in work across old silosPO comfortable to move to only stating the WHAT and not nominally delegate it to team members or prescribing HOW it should be done

Outcome at end of month 3Better understanding of commitment to take on a product/story in a SprintGreater visibility of BAU capacityCollaboration and pairing across old silos occurred to complete tasks Not silos of 3 streams -- a single team with a single, shared vision of how to get their work done

So we gave them the keys to the car

Checked back at end of the 3 monthsRotating the SM roleOne teamKeeping to their rule of 3Seen as achieving outcomespeople noticed that they get stuff done enhanced reputation amongst their business usersincreased trust in the teamincreased transparency amongst the business of how the team workRotating the SM roleOne teamKeeping to their rule of 3Seen as achieving outcomespeople noticed that they get stuff done enhanced reputation amongst their business usersincreased trust in the teamincreased transparency amongst the business of how the team work

46Why a behavioural learning based approach?Demonstrates how to retrospectively assess story complexity to improve capacity planning of teamsA framework for coaching agile teams based on observing their behaviour to identify their of learning It is the behaviour that needs to change to ensure the agile approach is successful

Why was it sucessful/?Helpful in getting agile teams to understand where they are at in their knowledge and skill level and what they need to learn to improve performance and achieve process improvement

Happy travelling - Fin

Contact Details@miahorri

zenexmachina.wordpress.comMia Horrigan

Mia Horriganhttp://www.slideshare.net/miahorri

[email protected]