AgileCamp Silicon Valley 2015: The Funny Thing About Not Being Agile

The funny thing about not being AgileSteve Sanoff

Senior Principal Agile Coach, Western Digital

Founder, Expert Agile Training (expertagiletraining.com)

@goagilecamp @goexpertagile

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

PR

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Vis

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Agile:Collaborate, discuss early, document decisions, improve documentation incrementally

PRD Wireframes Visual Design Eng Design

Waterfall:Aim for perfection with formal handover of documentation between phases

Time

Val

ue

Example:80% of the value of the documentation in 40% of the time (often less than 40%)

Time Saved

Documentation

Responding to change over following a plan

Lack of trust andopenness

Agile processes promote sustainable development... developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Being Agile versusDoing Agile

Kaize-no

Product Owner

Team B QATeam A Dev

Team A QA Team B Dev

Collocatio-no

Command and control

Exercise

Pair up – one person will be a manager, the other “the worker”

The objective is to take 60 steps in 2 minutes (make sure you count them)

Round 1 – Manager “command and control style”

As a manager, your job is to direct the worker

Valid commands: Go, Stop, Left, Right, Faster, Slower

As the worker, you must only do what you are told to do

Round 2 – Manager “servant leader style”

As a manager, your job is to move obstacles out of the way of your worker

Valid commands: Not applicable!

As the worker, you must decide how best to achieve your goal of 60 steps in 2 minutes

It will only take 30 minutes…

High performance teams

Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential.

Demos and retrospectives

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

Planning, milestones and slack

Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months

Dedicated Scrum Masters

Quality

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the… support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

Motivation

Agile Coaching as a career

References

Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition

by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

You Already Know How to Be Great: A Simple Way to Remove Interference and Unlock Your Greatest Potential

by Alan Fine and Rebecca R. Merrill

Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency

by Tom DeMarco