When worlds collide: distributed agile in the public sector

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Distributed Agile

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

What’s Happening?• Teams everywhere are becoming distributed– Private sector, public sector, nonprofit

• Teams everywhere want to be more Agile– Small “a” agile or big “A” Agile?

• Traditional Agile thinking doesn’t help– (Go Agile or go distributed, you can’t do both)

• We need to develop new best practices– We need new tools and methods

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Distributed teams in Private Sector

Google is here

Google’s CIO is here

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Because no room is roomy enough

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Distributed Teams in Public Sector• Collaborate across multiple locations– Only the tiniest agencies are collocated

• Develop partnerships– Across agencies, and to outsource civic services

• Support field teams– 75% of WA State Auditor’s Office is not in Olympia

• Supporting Telework– Reducing commutes, better work-life balance

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Distributed Teams in Nonprofit Sector• Nonprofits are a cottage industry– 55,000 nonprofits in Washington State– 80% of them are tiny (assets/income < $100K)

• Nonprofits are service delivery organizations– Contracted to deliver civic services

• Multiple, transient partnerships– How nonprofits get leverage

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Social Collaboration: You Are Here

You are a member of multiple, changing collaboration networks

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Why become Agile?• Deliver Lean Government– Continuous improvement

• Embrace change– Deal with ambiguity

• Deliver more with less– Flat/declining budgets– Increased expectations

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Becoming agile, adopting Agile• Agility comes from many sources– Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, Lean, Kaizen…

• Be pragmatic, not dogmatic– Learn, Adopt, Adapt– Improve– Repeat

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

What really matters?• For Distributed Agile to succeed

– Remove ambiguity– Gain real-time visibility– Empower teams– Integrate electronic conversations– Deal with desktop & online content– Support workflows & best practices– Understand Push vs. Pull– Use Work-In-Progress Limits

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

You need Sticky Notes on Steroids

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Visual Task Management

Cards

Columns

Important stuff is on top

Move cards from left to right

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Examples in Government, today• Distributed Lean– State Auditor’s Office– Office of Financial Management– Governor’s Office

• Distributed Agile– Office of the CIO– Employment Security Department– Thurston County Regional Planning– Department of Revenue– Department of Ecology– Department of Fish & Wildlife

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Demo

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Questions?

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

[email protected]