Agile Concepts for Management and Leadership

SuccessTuesday, October 30th , 2012Presented by David Mantica

Presentation Agenda• What is Agile – High‐Level Look • Foundational Values / Principles Expanded • Core Setup Practices – High‐Level Look

– Self‐organization– Iterative work– Agile Estimation– Definition of Done– Planning– Retrospective

• Agile Management Flavors– Lean / Kanban– Radical Management– Agile Creativity– Agile start‐up

• Self‐Organized Team revisited—Critical for Agile Management– Definition of Adult– Vision / goals (up and down organization)– Driving Autonomy 

• Questions 

Agile in a Nutshell

• Transformational way of work• Built a foundation of values and principles

– No 1 inch thick rule book

• From those values and principles come practices– Like daily stand up, retrospective, story points, etc.

• Practices are organized into flavors– Agile “flavor” model on next slide

Highly extendable – very similar to open source Scrum is to Agile, as Red Hat is to Linux 

Agile Core Values

Individuals and interactions over processes and toolsWorking software over comprehensive documentationCustomer collaboration over contract negotiationResponding to change over following a plan

agilemanifesto.org

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Agile Core Principles• Customer satisfaction early and continuous• Welcome and harness change for competitive advantage• Deliver work frequently, preference for short timescales• Work with the business and customer• Trust motivated people, give them the tools to be successful• Face to face communication most effective way to communicate• Working systems/solutions, primary measure of progress • Promote sustainability• Strive for a constant pace, no heroics• Continuous drive for excellence • Be simple – maximize work not done• Best work is done through self‐organized teams• Regularly reflect on how to become better and adjust accordingly

Agile Core Principles Converted to Business Concepts

• Customer Service Excellence• Embrace Change• Rapid Prototyping, Shorter time to market• Cross functional teamwork• High performance teams (Autonomy)• Strong presentation / communication skills• Attention to detail• Repeatable • Scalable• Continuous drive for excellence • Productivity (Lean)• Team empowerment• Kaizen   

Agile Practices

• Self‐organized team• Iteration (Iterative work)• Agile Estimating (level of effort)• Definition of Done (maximize work not done)• Levels of Planning

– Daily, Iteration, Release, Roadmap, Vision

• Retrospective 

Self-Organized Teams

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About The Teams?

Agile Teams have three responsibilities as part of the Agile adaptation: 

1. Collaborate & communicate

2. Remove obstacles they can remove themselves

3. Get the work completed that they have committed to

Iterative Process

Agile Estimating

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Five Levels of Agile Planning In Creative:

• A great place to start is by analyzing the levels of Agile Planning, deciding in planning when something is DONE

Product VisionYearly by the product owner

Product RoadmapBi-yearly by the product owner

Release PlanningQuarterly by the product owner and team

Iteration PlanningBi-weekly by the team

Daily PlanningDaily by the team and individuals

Retrospective (Kaizen)

Agile Flavors

Lean / Kanban• Lean—Eliminate waste / increase value

– Decrease waste increase reduces cost– Measure and track defects, increasing quality – Increase quality with more time to focus on customer increases 

overall value produced – Use empirical methods to decide what matters, not “gut”

• Kanban—Part of Lean tool set– Scheduling system– To determine what, when and how much to produce– Rate of demand to control rate of production (from supermarket 

shelves)– Kanban cards or signal

Radical Management» Steve Denning / Paul Stevens

• Agile Moving to Leadership and Management• Basically a Productized Version of Agile for Managing, Based 

on Agile Guiding Principals

• Five Foundational Principals of Radical Management1. From maximizing shareholder value to maximizing custom delight2. Manager from controllers to enablers3. Work organized bureaucratically to work organized around 

customer outcomes4. From straight economic value to that plus transparency, 

continuous improvement and sustainability   5. From top‐down command communication to conversations 

Radical Management: Seven Principles of Continuous Innovation

» Steve Denning / Paul Stevens

1. Focus work on delighting the client2. Do work through self-organized teams3. Do work in client driven iterations4. Deliver value to clients with each iteration5. Be totally open about impediments6. Create a context for continuous self-improvement7. Communicate through interactive conversations

Agile Creativity (Seven Tips) 1. Co‐Located Team – Real or Virtual War Room

2. Add Technologies to the Creative Team

3. Develop “T” Shaped Talent– Problem solvers– Highly skilled in specific area– But interested in many areas (empathetic)

4. Get Real Time Insights 

5. Plan / Use Offsite Idea‐thons

6. Iterate and Test Campaigns 

7. Partner on Pilot Projects 

Lean or Agile Start-Up• Edison Product Factory 

– Use one money maker to feed your tests

• Test a lot and often– Control the scope of test– Good is ok to test (can’t be perfect)– Have lots of ideas to try out– Have way to gauge success

• Controlling false positives / negatives• Learn and go 

The First Step in Agile Management and Leadership: Self-Organized Teams

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Self-Organized…Being an Adult?

• Being treated like an adult• Acting like an adult

– Adult definition• N: One who has attained maturity or legal age• Adj: Fully developed and mature

– Adulthood • The state (responsibility) of a person who has

attained maturity

• All ties to autonomy

Definition of Autonomy

• Level 1– Independence or freedom, as of the will or ones

actions: the autonomy of the individual

• Level 2– The condition of being autonomous, self-

governing, or the right of self-government; independence

• Entire bases of the self organized team

How is Autonomy Driven?• Shared Guiding Principals• Common goals• Communication• Trust• Self-Esteem

• Great resource– ZAPP! The Lighting of Empowerment: How to Improve

Productivity, Quality and Employee Satisfaction (Byham & Cox ISBN 10:0679400427)

Responsibility of Autonomy; Employee

• Understanding of and commitment to shared guiding principals (aka core values)

• Understanding of corporate and department goals• Development of and commitment to personal

professional goals that align with departmental and corporate goals

• Commitment to and demand for communication• “Actualized” Trust• Confidence and commitment to do your job and to

ask for help when needed

Responsibility of Autonomy; Employer

• Develop and adhere to core values– Corporate and department level

• Align core values to personnel reviews• Develop corporate and department goals

– REALISTIC goals

• Communicate goal status, good or bad• Do what you say• Provide support and guidance, knock down barriers

don’t create them– Coaching over micro-management

Questions?

How to Claim Your PDU

• Go to aspe‐sdlc.com/pdu/ for instructions on submitting your PDU.

• You can submit your PDU by mail or electronically.

• The Activity code for today’s presentation is WS103012 and ASPE’s REP number is 2161.

• The seminars are Category A for one PDU