Agile international organisations

www.p-a-m.org

Agile International Organizations

Topics

What are agile methods?

Where may agile methods, principles and values be of use to International Organizations?

Thomas Spielhofer has been using agile methods since 2001. has facilitated the introduction of Scrum as

responsible manager in different organizations and is now supporting others in doing so as a consultant.

has 17 years of IT experience leading large and complex international projects based on IPMA and CMMI as well as lean product development initiatives based on XP and Scrum.

is co-editor of PAM - Platform for Agile Management Contact: [email protected]

PAM – platform for agile management www.p-a-m.org

An open and interdisciplinary online platform to share experiences and lessons learned and discuss tools and research on agile methods. Co-editors are Siegfried Kaltenecker and Thomas Spielhofer.

An overview of agile

Values

Methods

Manifesto

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

CommitmentRespectOpennessFocusCourage

CommitmentRespectOpennessFocusCourage

Specific methods for software projects: XP, Scrum,...

Specific methods for software projects: XP, Scrum,...

What does that mean for a real-life Scrum project?

Iterative construction:– Previously (waterfall approach): deliver once, e.g. 18 months

after project start– Agile approach: break down the work in small pieces and

present working results to your customer e.g. every 3 weeks

Close customer collaboration:– Continuos communication to understand requirements– Continous feedback loops

Empowered team:– Build a collocated team with all resources and skills to deliver– Empower the team to do their worked in a self-organized

manner

Where may agileAgile at International Organisations

References1.) Scrum "full-fledged" as methodology for software development/customisation/integration at International Organisations

-> references: standard Scrum literature, e.g. by Ken Schwaber, Mike Cohn

2.) Agile as project methodology also for non-IT projects: e.g. iterative approach: do small chunks and re-iterate based on stakeholder feedback, instead of doing large chunks of work.

-> project methodology: a lot of material throughout the IT community, e.g. "Implementing Lean Software Development" by Mary and Tom Poppendieck (easy to digest also for non-IT experts), "Agile Project Management" by Jim Highsmith, also interesting in this context: "the mythical man-month" by frederick p. brooks

3.) Agile as new paradigm for collaboration e.g. relationship between (internal) customer and (Internal) supplier

references:

-> agile manifesto (http://agilemanifesto.org/): "customer collaboration over contract negotiation", "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools"

4.) Agile as method to build high-performing teams

references:

-> excerpt on research on high performing teams can be found on the platform for agile management (PAM), at "http://p-a-m.org/2011/12/the-legend-of-hyper-performing-teams/"

-> a model created by a team of managers can be found at PAM: http://p-a-m.org/2011/09/high-performing-teams/

5.) Agile as leadership paradigm: e.g. facilitate performing teams and good stakeholder alignment rather than focus on hierarchical leadership

references:

-> "The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership", Jeffrey Liker

-> "Radical Management", Stephen Denning

-> "Study on Successful agile Leadership", platform for agile management, http://p-a-m.org/2011/06/exec-summary-of-the-study-on-successful-agile-leadership/