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Agile vs Agile (vs Agile) The fall of“scientific” management
Dr Laurie Young
Head of Opera+ons -‐ New Bamboo !
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Tech Culture Crea+ve Photography Compe++ve Dancing
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Why should you listen to me?
When you understand the mindset shift you will be able to:
• Communicate easier with each other
• Explicitly choose which mindset you want your company to have
• Build companies that adapt to unpredictable events
• Test new ideas and new opportunities quickly
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2 Mindsets
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2 Mindsets
(well, 3 actually)
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Everyone just does “work”
“There’s no point paying attention to the way things get done”
“We are wasting too much time on this ‘process’ crap”
“Stop talking about how I work and let me do some work”
Chaos
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It just doesn’t work
Chaos
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Let’s forget about this one!
Chaos
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Scientific Management
Three basic principles
1. Get better results by thinking about how work is done: The “work practices”
2. Managers should control the employees’ work practices
3. Managers should empirically analyse and optimise work practices
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Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915)
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Employees: Do Work
Managers: Tell employees how to do work
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Manager
Employees
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Pro: It works!
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GD
P (in
M 1
960
USD
)
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
Year
1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1913 1925 1938
Russia Germany
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Cons: Many!
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IT SUCKS!
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NO ONE IS HAVING FUN!
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It’s slow to respond
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Data is gathered here
It’s slow to respond
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It’s slow to respond
But needs to get here so decisions can be made
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It's not accurate: People talk to each other
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Complex Systems
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Complex Systems
Complex systems reconfigure themselves, adapting to constraints. This means they display emergent behaviour and are rarely stable
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Complex Systems
Complex systems have the following properties
1. They adapt to their constraints
2. They rapidly reconfigure to adapt to any changes
3. Behaviour is emergent - meaning it’s unpredictable
4. Behaviour is constantly adapting so is rarely stable
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Complex Systems
For example:
1. Ant colonies
2. Human brain
3. Stock market
4. A team of people
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AKA “Empowered Teams”
1. Get better results by thinking about how work is done: The “work practices”
2. Teams of people should be empowered to control their own work practices
3. Teams should analyse and improve their own work practices
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Running a company ? ?
Developing a business model
? ?
Projects ? ?
Production ? ?
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Chaos
? ? ?
? ? ?
? ? ?
? ? ?
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Running a company ? ?
Developing a business model
? ?
Projects ? ?
Production ? ?
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Enough Theory!
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Real examples
Let’s look at four things a typical company does
• Running a company
• Developing a Business Model
• Projects
• Production
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Project
“A collaborative enterprise, carefully planned to achieve a particular aim”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project
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Running a company ? ?
Developing a business model
? ?
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
?
Production ? ?
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Running a company ? ?
Developing a business model
? ?
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Production ? ?
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Production
“The production of large amounts of standardised products, including and especially on assembly lines.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_production
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Running a company ? ?
Developing a business model
? ?
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Production Fordism ?
@wildfalcon
Running a company ? ?
Developing a business model
? ?
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Production Fordism
Lean: Kanban
Toyota Production System JIT Manufacturing
@wildfalcon
Developing a Business Model
“The rationale of how an organisation creates, delivers, and captures value"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_model
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Running a company ? ?
Developing a business model
Business Plan: Write a business plan then implement it
exactly?
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Production Fordism
Lean: Kanban
Toyota Production System JIT Manufacturing
@wildfalcon
Running a company ? ?
Developing a business model
Business Plan: Write a business plan then implement it
exactly
Lean Startup: Team builds business plan by experiment
MVP
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Production Fordism
Lean: Kanban
Toyota Production System JIT Manufacturing
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Running a company
“The system by which corporations are directed and controlled.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Governance
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Running a companyCorporate Governance
eg: Multinations, Governments, Most Enterprises
?
Developing a business model
Business Plan:: Write a business plan then implement it
exactly
Lean Startup: Team builds business plan by experiment
MVP
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Production Fordism
Lean: Kanban
Toyota Production System JIT Manufacturing
@wildfalcon
Running a companyCorporate Governance
eg: Multinations, Governments, Most Enterprises
No Name: eg: 37 Signals, Github
Developing a business model
Business Plan:: Write a business plan then implement it
exactly
Lean Startup: Team builds business plan by experiment
MVP
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Production Fordism
Lean: Kanban
Toyota Production System JIT Manufacturing
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3 Common uses of the word “Agile”
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Running a companyCorporate Governance
eg: Vodafone, Governments, Most Enterprises
No Name: eg: 37 Signals, Github
StartupsNo Name:
Write a business plan then implement it exactly
Lean Startup: Everyone builds a business plan though
experiment MVP
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Production Fordism
Lean: Kanban
Toyota Production System JIT Manufacturing
Agile is a way of building projects with empowered teams
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Running a companyCorporate Governance
eg: Vodafone, Governments, Most Enterprises
No Name: eg: 37 Signals, Github
StartupsNo Name:
Write a business plan then implement it exactly
Lean Startup: Everyone builds a business plan though
experiment MVP
Projects
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Production Fordism
Lean: Kanban
Toyota Production System JIT Manufacturing
Agile is any way of working with empowered teams
@wildfalcon
Chaos
ChaosNo Name
eg: Vodafone, Governments, Most Enterprises
No Name: eg: 37 Signals, Github
ChaosNo Name:
Write a business plan then implement it exactly
Lean Startup: Everyone builds a business plan though
experiment MVP
Chaos
Project Management: Gantt Charts
Prince2 Waterfall
Pert Analysis
Agile: Scrum
XP
Chaos Fordism
Lean: Kanban
Toyota Production System JIT Manufacturing
Agile is ANY way of working that doesn’t use
managers & hierarchy
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Summary
Three things you should remember
• 2 (or 3) Mindsets about how a company can work
• How these apply to 4 types of work that a company can do
• The phrase “Agile” can be used to mean different things
!
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LearningsTwo key ideas
• Over the past 130 years there has been a continual change:Chaos -> Scientific Management -> Complex Systems
• We are learning how create empowered teams that are more fun to work in and generate better results
!
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Further Reading
• The Last Re-Org You’ll Ever Dohttps://medium.com/p/f19160f61500
• Inside GitHub's Super-Lean Management Strategyhttp://www.fastcolabs.com/3020181/open-company/inside-githubs-super-lean-management-strategy-and-how-it-drives-innovation
• Scaling Agile @ Spotifyhttp://ucvox.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/113617905-scaling-agile-spotify-11.pdf
• The Marshall Model of Organisational Evolutionhttp://fallingblossoms.com/opinion/content?id=1006
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Follow me on Twitter for more
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