agile not by the book - agile and beyond 2015

Quick RetroWhat is your favorite part of the conference thus far?

What is your least favorite part of the conference thus far?

What do you hope to gain from this session?

Introduction

AAB 2015 Agile NOT by the Book - Blake Nyquist & Wade Wachs

Blake NyquistAgile Coach

Recovering developer

Amateur bowler

Classical music snob

@blanyq

Introduction

AAB 2015 Agile NOT by the Book - Blake Nyquist & Wade Wachs

Wade WachsAgile Coach

Testing aficionado

Critical thinker

Avid juggler

@WadeWachs

Introduction

Agile NOT by the Book - Blake Nyquist & Wade WachsAAB 2015

Started in 1997

We are the Internet

Heroic Support

~40 R&D team members

We’re hiring!

Liquid WebIntroduction


Agile NOT by the Book - Blake Nyquist & Wade Wachs

1970 - WaterfallDr. Winston Royce, Lockheed

“Managing the Development of Large Software Systems”

Mistakenly lifted as Waterfall Model

History


1970 - WaterfallHistory


New Practices Emerge1993 - Scrum

1994 - Rational Unified Process

1996 - Extreme Programming

1998 - Crystal Methodology

History


2001 - Agile Manifesto17 Signatories

4 Value comparisons

12 Principles

agilemanifesto.org

History


Modern Day88% using some Agile

PMI-ACP, CSM, PSM, SAFe

Lean / Kanban

Conferences, training, consulting

History


Constant EvolutionStill not a silver bullet

Keep iterating on process

Sleep aid: we wrote a paper on this!“Origins of Teams” - Agile 2014

Are you going through the motions?

History


Adapting to ChangePrincipal of the Manifesto

Evolution is important

Risk stagnation without

Experiment!

Continuous Improvement

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become

more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html


RetrospectivesMost important Agile practice

NOT post-mortem!

3 questions: - What went well? - What could we improve? - What are our actions?



Retrospective Pitfalls

Contemplate and Discuss

What’s your team’s greatest

retrospective pitfall? Why?



Retrospective Pitfallsblaming

defensiveness

no follow through

wrong people

not happening



not engaged / fake participation

anonymity / ineffective

repetitive issues

secrecy, filters, lack of honesty

no facilitation

Retrospective PitfallsNo actions

Actions not what team wants

Not done frequently

Blame / witch hunting



Management dominated

Suppress feelings

Treated as routine

Focus on change outside team

AAB 2015

Retrospective Actions


What action can YOU take to improve

your next retrospective?



Retrospective Actionspre-record thoughts, include quieter team members

focus on actions, actions have owners, represent as a work item

reflect on yourself, share with the team

rewards for owning actions

hire consultant, bring in effective facilitator

use lean coffee



Retrospective Actionsliving retrospective board

take things offsite, change scenery, eat food

focus on improvement

aging of actions, reminder to take action, review action items

model the desired behavior, be the shining example

make the actions visible



Retrospective TipsCreate safe environment

Help introverts participate

Vary formats

Track and check prior results



Guide with questions

Bring food

Allow team vote for actions

Make it fun!

AAB 2015

Team ImprovementActual goal of improving retrospectives

The past doesn’t matter… it’s how you move forward



Team Improvement


What is your greatest team pain?

What can you bring to your next retrospective to improve that situation?



Team Improvementsoverly aggressive PdOs - not invite to retro

change mindsets, estimates - invite to reduce blame, self reflect

plansforrestropectives.com / innovationgames.com

lack of trust and safety - anonymity, fishbowl, healthy questions



Team ImprovementsIncrease team ownership

Team building

Remote office engagement

Share appreciations



Stronger trust

Cross-functional growth

Early delivery

Stakeholder relationships

AAB 2015

Other ActivitiesThemed iterations

Promiscuous pairing

Team/Squad Health Check

Brown bags

Pre-mortems



Utilize experiments

Open prioritization

Book clubs

Visit/network with others

Write Your Own BookCreating a culture, not a process

Avoid complacency

Even good teams can become better

The right way is the way that works best for the team

Go beyond!



Thank you!Blake Nyquist

[email protected]

@blanyq

The End


Wade Wachs

[email protected]

@WadeWachs

AAB 2015

mailto:[email protected]




agile not by the book - agile and beyond 2015

Software

blake nyquist agile

agile manifesto

continuous improvement

waterfall history agile

consulting history agile

wadewachs introduction

important agile practice

agile pmiacp