Agile shortcuts conf

THE SHORTCUTS TO SCALING AGILITY…(That won’t get you there)

Agile? this way please

Ram Ramalingam

My father’s name is Ramalingam Sumaithangi Sivarama Iyer

Ram Ramalingam

In the next 40 mins…

1.The shortcuts2.How not to be led into one3.Joseph Henrich - The twist in the tale4.Some tools to manage the twist – understanding culture

Disclaimer5.This is an exploratory talk6.Not a completely researched field7.There might be more questions than answers8. Bit of a roller-coaster ride9. A lot of terms I use may have a XP-tone when I talk Agile –

but, really, isnt XP the real agile ?10.“All models are wrong. Some models are useful” – GEP

Box.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…

Quick, RewardingFamiliar

Tough,BoringCounter-intuitive

Some cognitive science

Loss aversion Prospect theory Endowment effect

Attribute substitution Hindsight bias / availability

heuristic Framing

Loss aversion

You are offered a gamble on the toss of a coin

If the coin shows Tails you lose Rs. 100

If the coin shows Heads you gain $150

Would you take the bet?

Source: Daniel Kahneman

Most people don’t – people are more aversive to A Loss than a gain by the same amount

Loss aversion

Being too invested in the work already done At regular intervals, the team reflects on

how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Value is often perceived as what’s available in house than what customer really needs Our highest priority is to satisfy the

customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Throwaway code is anathema Welcome changing requirements, even late

in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

Working software is the primary measure of progress Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not

done--is essential

Attribute substitution

Subjects asked two questions among many others:

"How happy are you with your life in general?”

"How many dates did you have last month?"

In this order, the correlation between the two questions was negligible. If the dating question was asked first, however, the correlation was .66

Attribute substitution - Framing

Framing

Treatment A Treatment B

Positive "Saves 200 lives”

"A 33% chance of saving all 600 people, 66% possibility of saving no one.”

Negative

"400 people will die”

"A 33% chance that no people will die, 66% probability that all 600 will die.”

Attribute substitution

Assuming that past experience is superior to

end-user empathy Business people and developers must work together

daily throughout the project.

Reliance on experts and specialization over

cross-functional teams Build projects around motivated individuals. Give

them the environment and support they need, and

trust them to get the job done.

The best architectures, requirements, and designs

emerge from self-organizing teams.

Comprehensive documentation leads to less

errors The most efficient and effective method of conveying

information to and within a development team is

face-to-face conversation.

Some typical anti-paths / anti-patterns

• It says working product. Mine does!

Management

• Selfish-organization

Philosophy• Freeze! I am Ma

Baker..

Practices

It says working product. Mine does !

Anti-path: I am happy to accept change. But we will need a

fool-proof change control board and the customer has to pay for it

The customer doesn’t understand how good this feature/product is

Agile Path take you must… Welcome changing requirements, even late in

development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage

Play games, visualize future etc. and help the team have a good dialogue/vision to negotiate better

Loss aversio

n

Management

Freeze, I am Ma Baker…

Anti-path:

But then I am delivering data to a system But then my team doesn’t have a product owner But we need some architecture, surely?

Agile Path take you must… Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer

through early and continuous delivery of valuable software (Valuable to users!)

Keep goals visible – product mapping - etc

As an MISI want data from the old sourceTo continue to reach me when am retiredSo that I can rest in peace?

Attribute

substitutio

n

Philosophy

Self-organizationish

Agile Path The best architectures, requirements, and designs

emerge from self-organizing teams

Anti-path As a PM, I want productivity metrics, so that I can be

sure the team is not slacking away We are completely self-organized within the Testing,

DB, Dev and UI teams

Attribute

substi

tutio

n

Practices

Two roads again diverged in a yellow wood…

Quick, RewardingFamiliar

Tough,BoringCounter-intuitive

The culture thing

“You like potato and I like potahto

You like tomato and I like tomahto

Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto.

Let's call the whole thing off.”

- Louis Armstrong

Joseph Henrich

WEIRD studies Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic

Culture-Gene co-evolution

Ultimatum game & Dictator game Altruistic punishment vs Anti-social punishment Framing - Mueller - Lyer illusion

Ultimatum game & Dictator game

UG: Give a pair of subjects a sum of real money for a one-shot interaction Player 1 (proposer) offers a sum

to Player 2 Player 2 can agree/disagree

Dictator Game Player 1 (proposer) offers a sum

to Player 2 Player 2 has no choice

It was observed

UG: Measure of self-interest and

tolerance to unfairness

DG Undiluted measure of fairness

Observations WEIRD consistently extreme Surprisingly some cultures rejected

offers that were not only too low, but too high

Ultimatum game & Dictator game

Joseph Henrich

- Fairness and Cooperation in Economic Decision Making

Altruistic punishments the norm?

Altruistic Punishment in Humans - Fehr and Gächter (2002)

Herrmann, Thoni and Gächter (2008)

> Strange behavior of anti-social punishments

Framing: Mueller-Lyer ilusion

Joseph Henrich

So what do we do?

1. Read minds2. Use available tools responsibly

Cultural nuances

Source: http://geert-hofstede.com/

Power Distance Index

The degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally - http://geert-hofstede.com/


Power Distance Index


Ideally

Low?

Individualism

Vs. Collectivism The degree to which individuals are integrated into groups” In individualistic

societies, the stress is put on personal achievements and individual rights


Individualism

Vs. Collectivism

Ideally Mid-

High?


Uncertainty Avoidance

Society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity”

Extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty


Uncertainty Avoidance

Ideally

High?


Masculinity

The distribution of emotional roles between the genders

Masculine cultures' values are competitiveness, assertiveness, materialism, ambition and power

Whereas feminine cultures place more value on relationships and quality of life.


Masculinity

Ideally Mid-

High?


Pragmatism (vs. Normative)

How people relate to the fact that so much that happens around us cannot be explained

In societies with a normative orientation most people have a strong desire to explain as much as possible

With a pragmatic orientation, most people don’t have a need to explain everything, as they believe that it is impossible to understand fully the complexity of life


Pragmatism

India Bel China Germany Greece NorwayPhilippines Poland Russia Sweden UK0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

PRA

PRA

Ideally Mid-

High?


Indulgence vs Restraint (IVR)

Indulgence stands for a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun. Societies with a low score in this

dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism

Restraint stands for a society that suppresses gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms.


Indulgence vs. Restraint (IVR)

Indi

aBel

China

Germ

any

Greec

e

Norway

Phili

ppin

es

Pola

nd

Russia

Swed

en UK

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

IVR

IVR

Ideally Mid-

High?


Are we ready for it?

PDI

IDV

UAI

MAS

PRA

IVR

0%

50%

100%

IdealIndia


Self-organizationish

Agile Path The best architectures, requirements, and designs

emerge from self-organizing teams

Anti-path As a PM, I want productivity metrics, so that I can be

sure the team is not slacking away We are completely self-organized within the Testing,

DB, Dev and UI teams

Attribute

substi

tutio

n

Practices

It says working product. Mine does !

Anti-path: I am happy to accept change. But we will need a

fool-proof change control board and the customer has to pay for it

The customer doesn’t understand how good this feature/product is

Agile Path take you must… Welcome changing requirements, even late in

development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage

Play games, visualize future etc.

Loss aversio

n

Management

Agile value embrace you must

WVS - distribution

There is still hope World values survey

Source: Worldvaluessurvey.org

WVS – relation to economy

Source: Worldvaluessurvey.org

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference

- Robert Frost

Agile shortcuts conf

Technology

rewarding familiar tough

yellow wood quick

organizing teams anti

organizationish agile path

customer doesnt understand

productivity metrics

working product

boring counter