agile works when it's not about agile

Agile funciona cuando no se trata de Agile neil_killickNeil Killick, 2017, All Rights Reserved

Agile works when it’s not about Agile

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Agile is 4 values and 12 principles

You can start today!

But we tell people…


…to be agile, you must…


Invest in cloud, DevOps and test automation training, tools and infrastructure…


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and… Reorganise developers, testers, analysts and designers into co-located, cross-functional teams…


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and…

Stop using projects

(and hiring project managers)…


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and…

Change QAs’ job description to “Agile tester”

(and change the way they work)…


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and… Turn Project Managers into Scrum Masters or Product Owners who let teams self-organise…


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and… Train developers and testers in Scrum and Extreme Programming techniques

(and hope they’re willing)…

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and…

Ensure all business requirements are captured as user stories…


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and… Get business stakeholders to write acceptance criteria with the development team…


Imagecredit:https://www.leadingagile.com/2014/09/acceptance-criteria/

and… Make sure everyone puts all their work on walls around the office (and/or in an “agile tool”)…


Imagecredit:http://www.usabilitycounts.com/2013/10/11/why-i-love-user-stories/

and… Make sure everyone has a stand-up meeting every morning…

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and…

Tell developers to stop estimating in time and start using story points…

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It’s not a bullet at all

Agile isn’t a silver bullet

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for Agile’s sake?

Are you using Agile

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Example – We want Agile because we want to beat our competitors to market

OK – what currently stops you from beating your competitors to market?

and/or


and/or

OK, what can we do to improve the situation?

Solution (experiment options):• Identify MVP’s/MMF’s for Release 1• Impact mapping


Solution (experiment options):• Establish UAT environment on physical/virtual server• Automate scripts• Cross-skill team members (e.g. document deployment process, pairing)• Open up permissions• Deploy on a cadence, incrementally improving deploy time



Listen to what was NOT said

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We need to collaborate better, so let’s restructure the teams and have daily stand-ups!!

Our estimates are always wrong, so we should change the way we do them!

Our quality is bad – we need more Agile testers! We need everyone to put

their work on the walls!

We need to translate our BRD’s into backlogs of user stories!

Put everything in AWS

Neil Killick, 2017, All Rights Reserved

Deliver stories every 2 weeks

Have retrospectives

Re-organise into cross-functional teams

Implement DevOps

Turn PM’s into PO’s

Estimate in story points

Etc.neil_killick

Which problem(s) should we solve first?



Collective mindset sliders

Where are we now?


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Where should we be?

¡Muchas gracias!

¿Hay alguna pregunta?

(Thank you! Any questions?)


agile works when it's not about agile

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