keys to crafting an effective agile culture (svcc, 10.15)

Keys to Crafting an Effective

Agile Development CultureRon Lichty, Ron Lichty Consulting

www.ronlichty.com

Keys to Crafting an Effective

Agile Development Culture

Ron Lichty, Ron Lichty Consultingwww.ronlichty.com

Ron Lichty, Managing Software People & Teams

SOFTWEST

Coauthor, Study of Product Team Performance

http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html

Addison Wesley: http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net

Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*

* 300 in the book / more at http://managingtheunmanageable.net/morerulesofthumb.html© Ron Lichty 6

Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*

• Measure twice, cut once.• Life is simpler when you plow around the

stump.• Brooks’s Law: Adding manpower to a late

software project makes it later.– Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

* 300 in the book / more at http://managingtheunmanageable.net/morerulesofthumb.html

Before We Begin

• What is your role in your company today?• Manager?• Project Manager?• Product Owner?• Scrum Master?• Individual Contributor?

• Have you completed Agile Projects?

Agenda• Insights from successful software cultures

• Q&A

So what defines “Success”?

• Delivering scope?• Within budget?• On schedule?

• The Agile Principles begin…– Our highest priority is to satisfy the

customer…

-- www.AgileManifesto.org

In the beginning, everyone will talk about scope, and budget, and schedule.

But in the end, nobody really cares about any of those things.

The only thing they care about is this: People will love your software, or they won’t.

So that’s the only criterion to which you should truly manage.

—Joseph Kleinschmidt, CTO

• Go beyond the Agile Principles…– Our highest priority is to delight the

customer…

-- www.AgileManifesto.org

How do we do that?

• Agile practices?

Agile Practices Do Deliver Value

Agile Practices Deliver Value

• Planning Daily• Planning Weekly (or biweekly or…)• Planning Publicly• Ordering Work Based on Customer Value• Together defining “Done”• Delivering Frequently• Sharing how we’re doing• Reflecting on how to do better

Agile Practices Deliver Value

• Standups– Standups matter:– Effective, Daily Standups

--2015 Study of Product Team Performance

Agile Practices Do Deliver Value

Voting Machines Deliver Value, too

• But no one claims voting machines are what make us a democracy

Similarly…

Agile Practices Don’t (by themselves) Make Us Agile

Similarly…

Agile Practices Aren’t Enough to Make Us Agile

“Becoming Agile is hard. It is harder than most other organizational change efforts I’ve witnessed or been part of [for reasons] including…the need to avoid turning Scrum into a list of best practices.”

--Mike Cohn

Agile Values and Agile Principles Make Us Agile

Agile Values Make Us Agile

The Agile Manifesto– We value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools• Working software over comprehensive documentation• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation• Responding to change over following a plan

-- http://agilemanifesto.org/

Agile Principles Make Us Agile

• Build projects around motivated individuals

• Trust… to get the job done • Face-to-face conversation • Self-organizing teams• The team reflects, …tunes, …adjusts -- http://agilemanifesto.org/

Agile Principles Make Us Agile

• Build projects around motivated individuals

• Trust… to get the job done • Face-to-face conversation • Self-organizing teams• The team reflects, …tunes, …adjusts -- http://agilemanifesto.org/

Self-Organizing Teams

• If our self-organizing team were an acting troupe, …

What kind of acting do we do?

What kind of acting do we do?• If our self-organizing team were a

music group, …What kind of music do we

perform?

What kind of acting do we do?• If our self-organizing team were a music

combo, …What kind of music do we perform?

• Who is the leader?

Support Agile Values

Value the Agile Manifesto over sets of practices– We value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools• Working software over comprehensive documentation• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation• Responding to change over following a plan

-- http://agilemanifesto.org/

33http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

Projects Not Suitable for Agile?

• Micromanagement

• Micromanagement disrupts Agile• Micromanagement prevents Best Teams• Micromanagement prevents Learning• Micromanaged teams become order-takers

• Agile calls for everyone on the team to step up• Micromanagement causes everyone to step back

Shared Leadership… and Managers

• Managers of teams• Project managers• Program managers• Scrum masters• Product managers?• Product owners?

• What do all those managers have in common?

• What do all those managers have in common?– we run things– we give direction– we tell people what to do– we like being the center of attention

“If you’re the ScrumMaster and everyone is looking at you, you’re doing it wrong.” --Marilson Campos

Managers and Agile• “A common misconception is that because

of this reliance on self-organizing teams, there is little or no role for leaders of agile teams. Nothing could be further from the truth.” --Mike Cohn, Succeeding with Agile

--Agile Learning Labs, Laura Powers

Agile: “Servant Leaders”

Managers and Agile• Fostering an Agile Culture• Modeling, Defending, Evangelizing Agile

Values• Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence

Values• Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence• Removing Impediments

Values• Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence• Removing Impediments• Counseling, Coaching and Mentoring• Scaling Scrum• Hiring and Firing© Ron Lichty 48

Values• Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence

Creating an Agile Culture• Theory Y: “enabling”, “empowering”, “developmental", “continuous

improvement” -> Servant Leadership

McGregor's X-Y Theory© Ron Lichty 50

Managers and Agile• Creating an Agile Culture

Lean-Agile management is the art of leading people, not managing them... Leading people involves creating the correct environment, focusing them on the right things, and trusting them to do their work...

In Lean-Agile, the manager has two primary responsibilities: • setting the outcomes or goals expected of the team; • assisting the doers in creating a better process and workspace to get their jobs done... --Alan Shalloway, Net Objectives

Leaders and Agile• Rules of Thumb

Management sets the boundaries of what needs to be done and says to the team, I trust you to figure out how to get it done.

EmpowermentTrust but verify.

Empowerment

Trust but verify.

-RONALD REAGAN

Empowerment

Trust but verify.

-RONALD REAGAN quoting VALDIMIR LENIN

Empowerment

Trust but verify.

– imperative not to micromanage– the essence of delegation– setting expected outcomes for teams

Empowerment

Trust but verify.

I inspect what I expect.

- ALAN LEFKOF, Netopia CEO, quoting LOU GERSTNER

Communicating

• Create a culture of communication– at every level– with everyone

• up, down, within and across

• “We have two ears and one mouth. Use them in this ratio.”— Kimberly Wiefling

Communication

You cannot overcommunicate.

-RON LICHTY

Communication: Virtual Teams• There is never enough communication• Commitment to communicate• No substitute for face-to-face meetings

The more distance between teammates, the more you have to formalize communication and make it explicit.

-TED YOUNG, Development Manager & Agile Coach, Guidewire

• Agile Culture lives inside Corporate Culture• Agile Culture ≠ Corporate Culture • What’s your corporate culture?

Establishing Culture inside Culture

• Does your company live its values?– What of those values can you leverage?– Wherever you can, leverage culture & values

• Programming culture ≠ corporate culture– Leverage– Bolster– Wall off incompatible values– Substitute agile values

Teamwork and Collaboration

• Base agile culture around creating self-organizing, high-performing teams

• Reward teamwork and shared leadership over heroism

Establishing Culture

Publicly reward or acknowledge engineers who act in a way that supports the culture that you want to create. -Juanita Mah, engineering manager

Managers and Agile• Model, Defend, Evangelize Agile Values

“Managers are still needed. Not so much for their planning and controlling ability, but for the important job of interfacing on the team’s behalf with the rest of the organization.” --Diana Larsen, co-author, Agile Retrospectives

Managers and Agile• Removing Distractions and Impediments

Be a damper to the noise. --Joe Kleinschmidt, CTOJohn Evans, Winchester, Hants, United Kingdom, www.thetippingpoint.co.uk

Capacity• Slack is critical to throughput

– 100% capacity results in bottlenecks

--photo (c) Bud Adams, SXC, www.aimpgh.com

How Do We Foster an Agile Culture?• Trust Our People• Empower Self-Organization & Excellence• Expect / Enable Truly Shared Leadership• Model, Defend, Evangelize Agile Values• Foster a Culture of Communication• Encourage Teamwork and Collaboration• Shield Teams from Politics & Distraction

Creating an Agile Culture• Establishing Culture

Ron Lichty Consulting • Mentoring, coaching, training, consulting:

– http://ronlichty.com, Ron@RonLichty.com• The book:

Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools & Insights for Managing Software People & Teams– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net <-----tools, excerpts, more rules

of thumb

• The study: The Study of Product Team Performance – http://ronlichty.com/study.html

• Training:The Agile ManagerManaging Software People and TeamsZero to Agile in Three Days

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