The quest for the minimum viable step to agility

The quest for the

Minimum Viable Step

to Agility

A Toolkit for Cultural Hackers v. 2013-oct-17 23:00

@agustinvillena

Licencing

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• This work is published under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share

Alike 2.0 Creative Commons Chile. To view a copy of this license,

visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/cl/

Agustín Villena

• Entrepreneur since 1998

• Applying Agility since 2002 in – Software Development

– Creativity Industry

– Public Sector

– Civil Society

– Academy

@agustinvillena

And my family

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• Moving from here .... • To here

Challenge ...

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• Moving from here .... • To here

Challenge ...

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• Moving from here .... • To here

Challenge ...

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"Agile teams produce a

continuous stream of value,

at a sustainable pace, while

adapting to the changing

needs of the business." Elisabeth Hendrickson

http://testobsessed.com/blog/2010/12/14/the-

agile-acid-test/

“We evaluate business

agility by how frequently can

we make decisions and how

quickly can we turn that

decision into reality" David J. Anderson

http://www.djaa.com/kanban-alternative-

path-agility

Agility as a skill

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Oops!

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Natural born

agilist

Disruptive changes in the process

(Kaikaku)

Val

ue

Time

Status quo

Political Cost Rate Parity point

New Status Quo

@agustinvillena Source: @rodrigoy @djaa_dja

Evolutionary changes in the process

(Kaizen)

Valu

e

Time

Status quo

Political Costs

Bounded Change

New Status Quo

Early delivery of value

@agustinvillena Source: @rodrigoy @djaa_dja

• Agile Clinic

– Coaching for software team leaders in 8 weeks.

– I expect that they transfer what they learned their teams

• Initial Strategy

– Collaborative retrospectives

– Common Problems are attacked using Agile

My discovery process

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Who is it aimed?

CHANGE AGENTS

•Aware of the problem

•Empowered

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Babel

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SourceJeff Patton

http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf

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SourceJeff Patton

http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf

@agustinvillena

SourceJeff Patton

http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf

@agustinvillena

SourceJeff Patton

http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf

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Overload

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How do you decide commitments?

• Like that?

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«Available

time"

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We try to do many things at once

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Oh, oh ...

• Filling your schedule this way will cause…

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Work Items

Traditional Management

Push Scheduling

Source:

Lean & Kanban 101

http://availagility.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/zurich-lean-agile-scrum-slides/

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage n

Ready In

Process Ready In

Process Ready In

Process

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How do we solve this problem?

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OPTIMIZING THE FLOW

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Source:

Alan Shalloway Agile2011

Pull

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Pull Scheduling Stop Starting ... Start finishing!

• We're doing the right task at the right time when we are able

Workitems

Source:

Lean & Kanban 101

http://availagility.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/zurich-lean-agile-scrum-slides/

...

... Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage n

Ready In

Process Ready In

Process Ready In

Process

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Silos

People isolated from Purpose

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If we do not understand the

whole

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Modern Times

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The result ...

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TASKS

Business Layer

Technical Layer

Problem

(Need)

Business language

Technical Language

Lang

uage

Com

mon

Bas

e Features

(Solutions)

Quality

Value

Management

Scope

Goal (Purpose)

What (Product)

How (Task,

activity)

Changing the perspective

Use workitems with

clear definition of «done»

• Minimun goals - or solutions - that deliver value or

learning

– Never «tasks» or «activities»

• E.g. "Send an email" ...

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Look at the baton,

not the runners

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Why are you

wasting your time?

Traditional Manager

Leaders 'versus' employees

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Those who know, know ...

And those who don´t

are the boss ...

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You have to

build this

(And how % $ @

we will do it?)

...

Yes, boss

Employee motivation Kit

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What science says?

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How do ants organize to find food?

• Like that?

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How do ants organize to find food

• Two simple rules

– Leading the way

• Outward

• Back

– Follow the road more brands

• Simple rules that induce self-organized behavior

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How do ants organize to find food

Applying to software development

• Two simple rules

– Document learnings

– Vote for the best solutions

and follow them

• Hint

– Use a system like Stack Overflow

• For agility in Spanish http://failfast.chileagil.cl

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A tale

• Someone asked a woman cleaning what her work

at NASA was about, she said:

– «To help mankind go to the moon"

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And what about those employees that

sabotage teamwork?

Trash accumulates at abandoned

sites

• In isolated cubicles freeriders

thrive

Make the work transparent to

everyone

• Freeriders will be discovered by their own pals

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The illusion of control

The hardest obstacle

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How do we understand a project?

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Input Black box Output

How do we understand a project?

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Input

Output

Deterministic

process

(Algorithmic)

Quality

understood as

compliance with the process

Ej:ISO, CMMI

How do we understand a project?

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Project Manager «Resources» Plan

Quality

understood as

meet the Plan

How do we understand a project?

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Conductor Score

Quality

understood as

correct execution of the

score

• Let's hire the best!

Project:

New Hymn of Agile

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Famous Composer National Orchestra

Famous Rock Group

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Consider .....

The Score

Does not exists!

This project has no

deterministic process!

Waterfall model

Fixed Understanding

What about now?

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• We've been trained to believe that exists a unique

solution

– Ken Robinson: Changing Paradigms

How have we been educated?

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0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

5 8 a 10 13 a 15 18

Divergent Thinkig by age

Genio enPensamientoDivergente

Freedom from the

Unique Solution

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Apparent

Solution

Real Need

Alternative

Solution 1

Alternative

Solution n

“We've always

done it that way” (Cargo Cult)

Divergent Thinking

Discover root

conditions

An exercise to restore creativity in teams

What explains that we still use

those failling paradigms?

Paradigms

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Ford • First model of constant production flow

• Dramatic fall in production times

• Imposes 40 hours a week

• Better wages for workers

• Industrial process designed - Industrial Engineering - by Frederick

Taylor (called scientific management)

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B Side

• “Any customer can have a car painted any color

that he wants so long as it is black”

• "Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, they

come with a brain attached?"

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Tips for Cultural Hackers

• How to start a movement

(Derek Sivers)

• Evangelization Strategy

«Do not believe me,

believe to them"

– Experiments

– Success Cases

– TED Videos

Our superhero

• Archivald Harry

renegade air conditioning specialist

Brazil, The Movie

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What comes next?

• With your new super powers, can jump farther

– Practices from

Scrum,

XP,

Lean Startup,

LeanUX

etc.

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Summary

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Stone Problem Countermeasure

Babel Ill understood

Loooong Meetings

Visual Thinking

Overload Stress

No time!

• to learn,

• to innovate

PULL Strategy

Focus

Silos • "Running in circles»

• "Syndrome of the 3 Stooges'

• Cargo Cult :

"It has always been like that '

Definition of «Done "

Focus on the result, not the

players

Leaders vs

Employees

Discouragement

Unhappyness

Intelligence wasted

Autonomy, mastery, Purpose

Transparency

Ilussion of

Control

• Stumbling again with the same stone

• Epic Failures

Experiments Exploration

(eg:Marshmallow Challenge)

Others?

October 28

@chileagil

failfast.chileagil.cl

See you!

@agustinvillena