agile pushback

Agile PushbackChange is hard. Changing to Agile is harder

Katy SaulpaughKaty.Saulpaugh@Excella.com

Learn what resistance to Agile looks like

Understand how people and organizations adapt to change

Apply the “4C”s to encourage Agile in your organization

Overview

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage

–Agile Manifesto

Symptoms of Agile pushback

What does resistance to Agile look like in your organization?

Why is change so hard?

How do we adopt change?A

do

pti

on

Time

How do we adopt Agile?A

do

pti

on

Time

“I know Agile is coming to our organization”

“It makes sense why we are going Agile”

“I embrace Agile and will promote it”

“Agile is part of everything I do”

Is organizational change harder?

There’s no magic pill for organizational change

What is change management?

Adoption

Transparency

Communication

Acceptance

Productivity

Engagement

Resistance

Misinformation

Confusion

Errors/Ramp up time

Frustration

Incr

ea

sed

...

De

creased

...

Excella’s model for Agile change

Change.

Coaching

Commitment

Culture

Communications

Culture

Culture

• Measuring culture• Red flags for Agile• Toolbox:

stakeholder analysis or environmental scan

Commitment

Commitment

• Considerations with sponsorship

• Champion network• Toolbox: change

readiness assessment or resistance management plan

Coaching

Coaching

• Instruction design• Agile

ambassadorship• Toolbox: train the

trainer, brown bags, mentorship

Communications

Communications

• Messaging on business value

• WIIFM• Design: who, what

and how• Toolbox: online, in

person, feedback loops

Agile change case studies

Case study #1Problem: Customers of an Agile web development team at a Federal client were confused about who to talk to about getting new features built on the organization’s website. Developers were directly contacted by the customer and agreed upon work without telling other members of the team, including Product Owner and leadership. Occasionally, this interfered with committed work.

Result: consensus on priority created transparency between client and development team

Change.

Coaching

Commitment

Culture

Communications

Case study #2Problem: Commercial client’s development team was putting out “buggy” code that wasn’t passing QA tests. The client introduced an automated testing tool, but the developers were employing workarounds and not really using the tool. The developers reported that the tool was difficult to use and the sponsor wasn’t directly involved with the implementation.

Result: improved skills and increased sponsor understanding to improve code quality

Change.

Coaching

Commitment

Culture

Communications

Change is hard… but it is essential for Agile Understand resistors and how people adapt

to change Encourage Agile in your organization by

using the “4C”s – Culture, Commitment, Coaching and Communications

Key Takeaways

Final Thought

Drop me a line: katy.saulpaugh@excella.com or @katysouthpaw