distributed agile in a multicultural world

Distributed Agile In AMulticultural World

Robert Dempseyadsdevshop.com

Thank You!

Welcome!

Robert Dempsey

CEO & Founder

LinkedIn: robertwdempsey

Twitter: @rdempsey

http://scrumd.com

Agenda

• Culture

• Agile and Culture

• The Role of the Modern Product Manager

• Window Into Cultures

• Tools

• Lessons Learned

• Questions and Answers

Poll

What is Culture?

Practices

Goals

Beliefs

Attitudes

Layering of Cultures

Country

Business

Team

Business Culture

Meanings

Traditions

Customs

Values

The New Team

The Extended Team

The Challenge

The Missing Piece

Major Agile Ideas

• Individuals and Interactions

• Working Software

• Customer Collaboration

• Responding to Change

12 Principles, Or 7

• Delivery

• Embrace Change

• Collaborate

• Support The Team

• Use Correct Metrics

• Technical Excellence

• Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)

Build Around Agile

Cultural Roadblocks

Additional Roadblocks

Role Of The Modern PM

United States

United States

• Equal respect

• Individual involvement

• Heavy focus on time and schedules (donʼt miss deadlines)

• Employees speak directly up the chain

• Team play

• Straight-forward communication

• Friendly, and get down to business

• Single-minded; focused on a single goal

South America

Brazil

• Build a relationship, possibly via a third-party

• Everyone in the company has their role

• Very creative and work well in teams

• Failures can lead to a loss of self-confidence

• Timescales and deadlines are somewhat fluid

• Be very careful with criticism

India

India

• Strong hierarchical structure

• Failure can lead to a loss of face *

• Relationships are important

• Reinforce the agreed-to deadlines

• Management makes the decisions *

• Be careful to not shame anyone *

• Non-confrontational (the “yes man”)

Philippines

Philippines

• Hierarchical

• Relationship-driven culture

• Managers look out for their teams *

• Indirect communication style *

• Timescales and deadlines are somewhat fluid *

• Innovative when asked to be *

• Clarification might not be requested (loss of face) *

• Public praise is good; public criticism is not

Western Europe

Switzerland

• Be direct

• Be on-time

• Build a relationship over time

• Management provides direction and materials to the team

• Title are important

• Focus on the group

• Adherence to protocol

• Like to be prepared

Eastern Europe

Poland

• Rules and regulations *

• Eager for a challenge

• Innovative *

• Great in teams

• Decisions are made at a team level *

• Detail-oriented

• Straightforward and frank

Commonalities

• People want to do good work

• They want to be respected

• They want to be praised when they succeed

• They donʼt want to be publicly humiliated

• They want to be understood

Tools

Project Tools

• Project Management

• Code Repository

• Continuous Integration (CI)

Communication Tools

• Instant Messaging (IM)

• Skype

• Web-based Collaboration

• Mockups

Mockup

Lessons Learned

• Choose the best fitting Agile method *

• Make expectations known

• Map Agile principles to your situation

• Make communication a big deal

• Increased documentation is not the answer

• No big-bang implementation of Agile

• Visit the people you will be working with, or vice versa

Questions And Answers

Thank You!

Robert Dempsey

CEO & Founder

LinkedIn: robertwdempsey

Twitter: @rdempsey

Atlantic Dominion Solutions 321-274-4684http://www.adsdevshop.com