essential patterns of agile... · xp, lean, scrum, and kanban experience ! from cary, north...

Essential Patterns of Mature Agile Leadership

Bob Galen

President & Principal Consultant RGCG, LLC

[email protected]

Copyright © 2014 RGCG, LLC 2

Introduction Bob Galen n  Independent Agile Coach (CSC) at RGCG, LLC

n  Principle Agile Evangelist at Velocity Partners

n  Somewhere ‘north’ of 30 years overall experience J n  Wide variety of technical stacks and business domains n  Developer first, then Project Management / Leadership, then

Testing n  Senior/Executive software development leadership for 20 years n  Practicing formal agility since 2000 n  XP, Lean, Scrum, and Kanban experience n  From Cary, North Carolina n  Connect w/ me via LinkedIn and Twitter @bobgalen

Bias Disclaimer:

Agile is THE BEST Methodology for Software Development…

However, NOT a Silver Bullet!


First, let’s explore… Your current Leadership Maturity assumptions

n  From your experience or within your company context, what do think are indicators (patterns) of Agile Leadership Maturity?

n  Let’s rank order some of them; I.e. what do you think are the more impactful patterns? Or the ones whose absence would do the most “harm” in an agile transformation?

Introduction

n  VersionOne 2011 Survey, Barriers to further agile adoption: 1.  52% - Organizational Culture 2.  40% - Availability of personnel with right skills 3.  39% - General resistance to change 4.  34% - Management support 5.  30% - Project Complexity

n  Three of the top five factors for agile failure can be attributed to culture and leadership issues / challenges



Three Common Meta-Patterns

n  Achieving Agile Maturity q  Many teams seem to have a false sense of over-maturity q  Teams become complacent or plateau; often regressing over time q  Can you have too much self-direction?

n  Simplicity of the ‘Methods’ q  “doing Agile” is easy; “being Agile” is much harder and continuous q  Organizations, teams, and individuals often wait till the last minute to ask

for help q  Internally - retrospectives are the key; Externally - get a ‘compatible’

coach n  Culture seems to be the largest “failure factor”

q  Scrum can be quite disruptive; Kanban can be less so… q  All-in vs. incremental? Salesforce.com as a commitment model? q  Generally, how do we handle the term… Commitment?

“Doing” Agile vs. “Being” Agile?

n  One debate in the agile community surrounds agile maturity. A way of characterizing it surrounds q  Doing Agile – focusing towards is tactics, ceremonies, and techniques

vs. q  Being Agile – focusing towards team mindset, leadership mindset,

behaviors, organizational adoption, etc.

n  As an entry exercise, can we brainstorm aspects of Doing vs. Being to capture how you view the differences?

n  The Mature Patterns workshops sort of crosses both, with an emphasis towards the Being-side of the equation.


Introduction Scott Downey: Hyper-productivity ?

n  Agile 2007 workshop n  Defined setup constraints for Hyper-productive teams n  Sutherland, etc. have shared on these sorts of teams

n  First, these teams have infrastructure in place q  Automated testing, continuous deployment capabilities q  Legacy code support; marginalized q  Tooling support

q  http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2012/01/scrum-shock-therapy-how-to-change-teams.html



n  The “Entry Rules” q  Everyone on the team attends a Scrum training class q  1-week sprints q  Clear, team-based definition of “Done” q  Estimate in story points q  Information radiators q  Sprint planning will be 4 hours, each week

n  Demonstration n  Retrospective n  Product Backlog Presentation n  Estimation & Negotiating n  Sprint Backlog Commitment

q  Multi-tasking forbidden during sprint



n  Very prescriptive approach – “Shock Therapy”

n  Outsider – In approach; Expert Agile Coach

n  Usually major impediments come out quickly for resolution n  Why Scott thinks it’s successful:

1.  Get impediments out quickly 2.  Team vs. him; can be more prescriptive (Bad Cop) in lieu of later Scrum

Master 3.  Foster an environment of honest and open dialogue; call out bad

behavior



The Patterns


Outline Leadership Maturity Patterns

1.  Leading with V-M-G-T 2.  Leading with Training &

Coaching 3.  3-Tier Adoption Strategy 4.  Agile Team Staffing 5.  The Place for Tooling 6.  Trusting Your Teams 7.  Always Remembering The

TEAM 8.  Champion Your Teams

Results 9.  Coaching Towards…“being

Agile” 10. Continuously Reinforce

Accountability

11.  Foster Innovation and Slack Time

12. Reacting to Impediments or Requests for Help

13. Agile @ Scale Models 14. Saying ‘NO’ as a Leader 15. Personally Engage Agility 16. Organizational Leadership

Alignment 17. Servant-Leader Mindset 18. Fostering FUN! 19. Roles Matter 20. Congruent Agile Measurement 21. Agreement-Based Culture


For each pattern… workshop discussions

n  For sets or groups of patterns, we’ll pause and discuss the patterns in small groups

n  Looking for examples where you’ve seen the pattern in operation and have a story to tell

OR n  Examples where you’ve seen related anti-patterns in operation and

have a counter-story to tell

n  Either way, we’ll be looking for group-based discussion around the ways and means of achieving agile maturity


#1, Leading with… V-M-G-T blog

n  Mission & Vision q  Competitive Landscape q  ‘Why’ behind everything

n  Goals q  Release Goals / Criteria q  Sprint Goals / Criteria q  Done-Ness Criteria; Acceptance q  Standards; Meta Requirements

n  Transparency q  Straight-talk

n  They can “Handle the Truth”

n  Sharing stories about “Being Agile”

Motivating Your Team

Stephen M. R. Covey’s book –

13 Behaviors that Foster & Increase

Trust

1.  Talk Straight 2.  Demonstrate Respect 3.  Create Transparency 4.  Right Wrongs 5.  Show Loyalty 6.  Deliver Results 7.  Get Better 8.  Confront Reality 9.  Clarify Expectations 10.  Practice Accountability 11.  Listen First 12.  Keep Commitments 13.  Extend Trust

15 Copyright © 2014 RGCG, LLC


#2, Leading with Training & Coaching blog

n  Agility is deceptively simple; however do not under invest in team training q  Role training for Scrum Masters

& Product Owners q  New hire – Agile Onboarding

n  Coaching is a strong part of this—particularly in the beginning q  Get a Coach for the teams AND

for management / leadership

n  Consider shorter iterations for reflection & continuous improvement

n  Considering team maturity (Shu-Ha-Ri) at all levels within your adoption


Center of Excellence (CoE) or Community of Practice (CoP) n  Establish Guidelines or

Guardrails q  Done-Ness Criteria q  Establish standard agile method q  Roles & Responsibilities

n  Select / prescribe to your own “Methodology”

n  Coaching the Scrum Masters & Product Owners

n  Example artifacts q  Stories, backlogs, designs,

plans

n  If you do have scorecards or agile maturity evaluations, do them with a light-hand q  No grades or Stack Ranking q  Focus on team-based results

& behaviors q  Agile Journey Index - Krebs


#3, 3-Tier Adoption Strategy

n  Establish an adoption tempo that is organizational-wide, not “Technology”-wide q  Teams q  Mid-level Management q  Senior Leadership

n  HR plays a significant role

n  Middle management – the most critical part of your adoption q  Typically undermine the teams q  Uncomfortable with the role shift q  Command-and-control

continues

n  It’s not a methodology… It’s an organization-wide

transformation play


#4, Agile Team Staffing blog, part 1 of 5

n  Staff teams with skills for success q  Towards business / backlog

work q  No magic ratios!

n  Take team transfers seriously q  Keeping “Core Teams”

together as long as possible n  Team-based interviewing

q  Auditioning

n  Limit multi-tasking wherever possible

n  Remove artificial silos wherever possible q  Architecture, UX, documentation q  Work is delivered THRU the team

People are NOT fungible!

Discussion – Team Performance & Compensation

n  Clearly moving to agile approaches

q  Self-directed, x-functional, q  Accountable for results - Teams Changes some things from our traditional view towards individual performance, recognition, and compensation

n  What changes do you anticipate (or currently adopt) in your agile journey q  Is HR on board with understanding and changes? q  What about cross-department implications?

n  Care to share?



#5, The Place for Tooling…

n  Don’t “Lead With” tools, lead with principles and people

n  Our tendency is to emphasize tooling and reporting… q  KISS q  Start as low-fidelity as possible

(cards, walls, etc.) q  Don’t let tools become your

collaboration platform q  Don’t ignore open source tools

n  Let your teams lead the way q  Meet their needs…ask them? q  Local teams vs. Distributed

teams are a key factor

n  Less focus on Project Management & Reporting tools

n  More focus on collaborative support for your teams q  Especially remote teams!


#6, Trusting Your Teams blog blog-2

n  Provide guidance & advice; but trust the team to solve their own problems & challenges

n  Foster an environment of experimentation, trying new things, and innovation

n  Fostering and embracing failure q  Failing Forward & learning

n  Focus on Roles and the endpoints of sprints q  Accountable for their commitments

& results

Do you REALLY trust your Team?

ü  Their estimates? ü  Their craftsmanship? ü  Their judgment & decision-

making? ü  Their level of effort or work

ethic? ü  Their plans? ü  Their code quality? ü  Their recommendations? ü  Their motives? ü  Their skills? ü  Their preferred approaches?

n  Do you actively give them feedback & coach them in areas where you consider them weak? q  In real-time; congruently

n  It’s easy to trust when things are “going well”. q  How about when the going gets

tough? q  Or when you feel they’re not doing

what you would do?

n  Remember: your words, actions, and body language need to align


Discussion – Trusting your Teams

n  How much overall trust exists within your organization? n  In what directions?

q  Up – towards “Management” q  Laterally – across functions & “Management” q  Down – towards “Teams”

n  If there is “distrust”, what are the top 5 producers or initiators? n  How do you handle failure? n  And how does trust change when you’re “Under Pressure”? n  What if I said to you that you MUST trust your teams…no matter

what! What would be your reactions? n  Care to share?



#7, Always Remembering…the TEAM blog blog-2

n  Shifting from individual rewards…to team rewards q  Ask the team to “reward itself”

n  Recognizing and acknowledging the behavior within teams q  Teamwork, collaboration, mutual

respect

n  Changing your language… q  Why didn’t we find that in test? q  Why aren’t the developers coding

right now? q  Stop referring to ‘developers’ vs.

‘testers’

Holding the team accountable to results, commitments, and

support of standards of craftsmanship

5 Dysfunctions of a Team -- Lencioni

Absence of

Trust

Fear of

Conflict

Lack of

Commitment

Avoidance of

Accountability

Inattention to

Results


Passionate Debate about

the things that…

Truly Matter!


The Bus Jim Collins

n  Getting the right people on the Bus

n  Ensuring the each Bus is going in the right direction

n  Getting the wrong people off of the Bus

n  Not everyone is comfortable with an agile transformation, yet they eventually need to get “on board”


#8, Champion your Teams’ Results blog

n  Always the cheerleader

n  Sharing agile “stories” of success and learning everywhere

n  Look back at your progress q  Contrast against historical

performance q  The improvement journey

n  Defend your teams; defend your agile journey q  Focus on transparent RESULTS

Discussion – Celebrating your Team

n  Privately make a list of the last 10 times you “celebrated” your team in public?

n  What were the conditions? n  What did you say? How did you say it? n  In what directions?

q  Up q  Laterally q  Down

n  Reflect on these. Did you do a good job or miss opportunities? n  If you missed some, what changes in your “Celebratory Style” might

you make? n  Care to share?



#9) Coaching Towards…“being Agile”

n  Observing teams @ stand-ups, planning, & reviews

n  Coaching team behaviors q  Setting expectations for quality,

done, assistance, commitment, and collaboration

n  Engaging with the Product Backlogs and Roadmaps

n  Moving towards Team-based recognition and performance evaluation

n  Walking your talk


#10) Continuously Reinforce Accountability blog

n  Influence at the Sprint / Release endpoints q  Goals, Commitment, q  Quality, and Delivery

n  Call it—success or failure q  Sprints and Releases

n  Expect significant & continuous improvement

n  Reward – Results, Effort, and Attitude


#11) Foster Innovation & Slack Time blog

n  Beyond reducing multi-tasking…

n  Google, 20% time q  Innovation Days q  Hackathon’s

n  Collaborative projects q  Sign-up for what interests you

n  Time to think

q  Immersion q  Innovation & Creativity

n  Slack Time q  Tom DeMarco (Peopleware

fame) n  Flow Time

q  Mihály Csíkszentmihályi q  “in the flow…”

Creating Slack Time

Slack is the degree of freedom in a company that allows it to change. Allowing people room to breathe, increase

effectiveness and recreate themselves. --- Tom DeMarco

n  Be careful of too much multi-tasking across projects q  Task switches take (waste) up to 20% of your time (per switch!)

n  Defining projects with 100% availability assumptions n  Overloading key resources – hard or soft overload


Discussion - Slack

n  Everyone seems to nod their heads when I discuss “Slack Time”…getting the importance of it

n  That’s the easy part, conceptually understanding the need. NOW, does your organization actively provide Slack Time?

n  In what forms? To what trade-offs? n  And if you don’t, what would be a fair strategy (get specific) to start

supporting the concept within your teams?

n  Do you truly buy the connection to: q  Creativity and Innovation?

n  Care to share?



#12) Reacting to Impediments or Requests for Help blog

n  Providing the team support is a prime goal q  Servant Leadership mindset

n  Supporting Scrum Master impediment list(s) q  Transparency with your follow-

up actions q  Risks

n  Reacting quickly to team needs q  Same day response time q  “Example” efforts

n  Always Pull vs. Push


#13) Agile @ Scale Models blog

n  Scrum of Scrums – S2 q  Program Execution

n  Scrum of Scrums – S3 q  Agile Portfolio / Team &

Skills n  Scrum of Scrums – S4

q  Agile Steering, COE

n  Feature or Component Teams

n  System Teams q  Architecture, UX

n  “Project Chartering” q  Agile Charters, Lift-off

Supporting an agile mindset across teams and continents

Maintain the Basics!

Scaled Agile Discussions or Frameworks

n  Dean Leffingwell – Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) q  Release Train, 3-Tier flow, RUP-like q  Connection with Rally

n  Scott Ambler – Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) q  Focus on architecture and modeling

n  Mike Cottmeyer – Agile Transformations

n  Larman & Vodde – Scaling Agile Development books series

n  Patton & Hussman – Visualization q  Story Mapping q  Release Visualization


Scaled Agile Framework™ Big Picture



#14, Saying NO as a Leader

n  Knowing when to say… q  Sometimes direction is required

n  Putting on the hat of the observer; laying it on the table for the team q  Asking questions, trustfully

inquisitive

n  Courage to tell it like it is q  Of Elephants and 800 lb.

Gorillas

n  Behind the scenes, 1:1 Coaching – towards Agile behaviors


Examples…

n  Knowing when to step in, step out? q  When have you stepped in as a leader and realized that it was a mistake? q  When have you stepped in and realized it was the right decision?

n  How do the core Agile Principles help or relate?

n  Self-direction…hard or easy? Context-based? q  What about fostering exploration? Or failure?

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The “One Thing”

When it comes to risky, controversial, and emotional conversations, skilled people find a way to get all relevant information

out into the open.

That’s it. At the core of every successful conversation lies the free flow of relevant information. People openly and honestly

express their opinions, share their feelings, and articulate their theories.

They willingly and capably share their

views, even when their ideas are controversial or unpopular.

-- Crucial Conversations, Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, Switzler

Copyright © 2014 RGCG, LLC


#15, Personally Engage Agility

n  Start practicing agile techniques at a leadership level q  Stand-ups, Backlogs,

Transparency, and Information Radiators,

q  Prioritization & Focus? q  Collaboration & Teamwork

n  Be ‘coachable’; be inquisitive q  Become a student of agility q  Ex: Personal Kanban

n  Demonstrate understanding that agile isn’t a “speed play”…

How does “Agile”… Go Fast? blog

1.  Rework avoidance: Bugs, poor Design, poor Code, poor Requirements, poor Performance, poor Usability

2.  Waste avoidance: hand-offs, multi-tasking, resource sharing, project churn, sign-offs/approvals, dependencies

3.  Requirement avoidance: Gold Plating, establishing Minimal Marketable Features or Products (MMF’s and MMP’s), focusing on value / prioritization, It’s Good Enough!

4.  Leveraging the creativity / innovation of the team: Simple, just enough solutions; creative solutions; solutions to the REAL customer problems & challenges; Wisdom of the Crowd

n  Out of the box, agile is dependent on proper execution of the ‘principles’ for efficient delivery. For raw speed, you need to embrace the above – in order of difficulty

n  Notion of Hyper-productive agile teams – achieve 1.5x, 2x, up to a 3x productivity over their “traditional” counterparts.



#16, Organizational Leadership Alignment blog

n  Senior–Middle–Low level leadership alignment with agile principles q  Training, operational

understanding

n  Balanced Level A, B, and C leadership present q  At least one C championing

agile

n  Projects, PMO, Regulatory requirements, COE aligned

Asking the “Right” Questions?

Right n  Quality focused – around

done-ness adherence and bug repairs

n  Based on information radiators; asking why…?

n  In context, for example, at Sprint Reviews regarding features

n  Around priority and value of delivered features

Wrong n  Around raw speed; are we

there yet? q  I don’t hear typing / coding

going on n  Why do we need to fix that

bug? n  Why do we need to refactor

that now? q  Particularly with teams’ who

don’t n  Why can’t we cut those points

down? What’s so hard about that?


Discussion – Organizational Alignment

n  At your groups, discuss your own organizational alignment towards agile leadership and practices

n  Where are your teams? n  Where are your middle management n  Where are your senior leadership?

n  Is everyone roughly at the same “level” of adoption? If not, what are you doing about it?

Organizational maturity presentation from Agile 2011 conference



The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. Then conscious choice

brings one to aspire to lead. The best test…is this:

Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more

autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?

--- Robert K. Greenleaf

It’s NOT about the Leader, it IS about the team

#17, Servant Leadership Mindset

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#18, Fostering FUN!

n  Have a sense of humor; self-deprecation q  Be ‘playful’ as a leader q  Practical jokes

n  Find ‘partners’ in your teams that identify opportunities for having fun

n  Don’t allow the teams to get “too serious”; q  Take breaks, Team-building q  Fund event ideas

n  Hire positive, “can do” people


#19, Clarity & Focus - Roles Matter! blog

n  Don’t overload core agile roles q  Managers make terrible Scrum

Masters and Product Owners q  Managers should not go to the

retrospective q  Even if you’re “a good leader

and loved”, don’t do it…impacts can be quite subtle

n  Hire at least 1 full-time Scrum Master and Product Owner

n  Conduct Roles and Responsibilities training q  Establish and post them


#20, Congruent Agile Measurement blog

n  Don’t focus too heavily on metrics; instead on results

n  Look for measures surrounding– q  Value Delivered & Customer

Delighted q  Quality being Built-In q  Team Health & Morale q  Productivity & Predictability

n  1-2 measures per area q  Focus on trending q  Behaviors

n  Traditional measures can lead to Metrics Dysfunction q  Measure bugs for reward…get

more meaningless bugs q  Measure LOC for reward…get

more meaningless LOC

Discussion - Measurement

n  At your groups, discuss your historical measures, the drivers for them, and the culture / tactics they influenced.

n  Now within your Agile contexts: q  Discuss the shift your metrics have made and/or need to make? q  What will be some of the impediments to making this shift? q  Brainstorm ideas for how to overcome them.

n  What would be a “nirvana state” for your agile metrics? q  If you could only measure 5 things, what would they be? q  And why?



#21, Agreement-Based Culture

n  Amr Elssamadisy and Steve Peha – The CultureEngine q  Safety, Respect, Ownership, Intention

n  Trust n  Focus on agreements

q  Establishing, Holding, Confronting, Renegotiating

n  The McCarthy’s – Jim & Michelle, The Core Protocols q  http://www.mccarthyshow.com/the-core-protocols-online/

q  Pass, Check-in, Check-out q  Ask for Help, Protocol Check, Intention

Check q  Decider, Resolution, Perfection Game q  Personal Alignment, Investigate


ASK, Don’t Tell did I say ASK? n  In the end, you need to engage

agility; Make the Time!

n  Attend your teams collaborative ceremonies q  Respect the team dynamic, but

ask questions

n  Show honest interest, be inquisitive

n  Look for opportunities to Help

n  Be interested in principles, behaviors, and results


Patterns Review… Have you changed your mind in any way?

n  From your experience or within your company context, what do think are indicators (patterns) of Agile Leadership Maturity?

n  Let’s rank order some of them; I.e. what do you think are the more impactful patterns? Or the ones whose absence would do the most “harm” in an agile transformation?

n  Given your understanding and state of agility, what’s your Top 5 list of inspired patterns to “work on”?

How does Agile fail? Jean Tabaka (Rally) http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?ObjectId=12384&Function=edetail&ObjectType=ARTCOL http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/10/agile-australia-tabaka

1.  Ineffective use of the Retrospective 2.  Inability to get everyone into the planning meetings 3.  Failure to pay attention to the infrastructure required 4.  Bad Scrum Masters 5.  Product Owner is consistently unavailable OR there are too many

Product Owners who disagree 6.  Reverting to old habits; comfort zone 7.  Obtaining only “Checkbook Commitments” from executive

management


How does Agile fail? Jean Tabaka (Rally) http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?ObjectId=12384&Function=edetail&ObjectType=ARTCOL http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/10/agile-australia-tabaka

8.  Teams lacking authority and decision-making ability 9.  Not having an on-site evangelist – particularly bad for remote teams 10. A culture that does not support learning 11. Denial is embraced instead of brutal truth 12. Culture doesn’t support change 13. Not pulling testing forward 14. Holding onto traditional performance appraisals



Workshop Wrap-up

n  What were the most compelling patterns?

n  What essential patterns did I miss?

n  Final questions or discussion?

Thank you!

Contact Info

Bob Galen

Principal Consultant, RGalen Consulting Group, L.L.C.

Experience-driven agile focused training,

coaching & consulting

Cell: (919) 272-0719 [email protected] www.rgalen.com

[email protected] www.velocitypartners.net

Blogs

Project Times - http://www.projecttimes.com/robert-galen/ BA Times - http://www.batimes.com/robert-galen/ Podcast on all things ‘agile’ - http://www.meta-cast.com/

58 Copyright © 2014 RGCG, LLC 58


20 Qualities of an Agile Leader Kelly Waters - blog

1.  Strong communication – storytelling and listening 2.  Passion for learning and intense curiosity 3.  Focus on developing people 4.  Having fun and very energized 5.  Strong self-belief, coupled with humanity and humility Source: http://kw-agiledevelopment.blogspot.com/2007/07/20-qualities-of-agile-leader.html

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6.  Committed to making a significant difference 7.  Clarity of vision and ability to share it with others 8.  Dogged determination and often relentlessness 9.  Strong focus on priorities 10. Not afraid to show some vulnerability

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11. Regular use of reflective periods to think and learn 12. Real passion and pride in what they do 13. Confidence and trust in their teams, giving them real empowerment 14. Respect for all (team members, temps, customers, suppliers and directors

alike) 15. Clear standards of ethics and integrity; openness and honesty

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16. Ability to drive, inspire and embrace change and continuous improvement 17. Positive attitude at all times and an innate ability to be diplomatic in any

circumstances 18. Lateral thinking and ability to find innovative ideas and solutions to

problems 19. Ability to inspire and motivate others 20. Willingness to take (calculated) risks

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References

n  Salesforce examples - http://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2014/4/19/salesforce-as-an-agile-role-model

n  Role of “management” - http://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2014/4/14/were-going-agile-fire-all-the-managers

n  Bandwagon’s - http://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2014/4/13/bandwagons-the-good-and-the-bad

n  Ratio’s - http://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2014/4/3/magic-ratios-silver-bullet-or-bunk n  What does Agile “solve” -

http://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2014/1/28/what-problems-are-executives-trying-to-solve-with-agile

n  Movement vs. Sustainable Pace - http://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2014/1/19/dont-confuse-movement-or-effort-with-sustainable-results

n  Burnout? - http://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2013/9/16/the-agile-project-manager-can-agile-teams-get-burned-out


essential patterns of agile... · xp, lean, scrum, and kanban experience ! from cary, north...

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