agile schmagile talk by jon kern (pdf)

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Agile Schmagile

Does Agile Stink, or is it Just Me?

Jon Kern

QUESTIONS!

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Are You Agile?

Peak Performance

 Do you work on a high- performing team?

 How can you be sure?

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Abysmal Performance

 Have you been disappointed by Agile?

 What practice has failed you/your team?

Grade From Your Stakeholders/Clients?

✔

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Grade From Yourself?

✔ ✔

✔ ✔

Agile Stinks! Or Does it?

 No escaping that Agile can be a BAD word

 100,000+ CSMs could be a good thing, or not

 How can we tell what we should be doing?

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(RE-)CONNECT WITH AGILE!

Recipe For Agile Success

Killer App Software Product

Ingredients:�1.�2.�3.

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Recipe For Agile Success

Killer App Software Product

Ingredients:�1. �2.�3.

Ingredients:�1. PEOPLE! �2.�3.

Recipe For Agile Success

Killer App Software Product

Ingredients:�1. PEOPLE! �2. Process�3. Tools

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Being Able to Reason is Key

 Educate yourself about the agile practices

 Learn about successful project teams

 Engage in observation – Cause and Effect

 Reason about what you do as a team

 Reflect & Adapt

The Manifesto Reveals Truths

 Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

 Working software over comprehensive documentation

 Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

 Responding to change over following a plan

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Agile Practices Demand Holism

 Consider the project to be a system

 Synergies of Practices

 Holistic Approaches

Agile is Simple

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And Yet… AGILE IS HARD! LE

T’S

TUR

N

THE

WO

RLD

U

PSID

E D

OW

N

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The Anti-Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways to provide the illusion of developing software by listening to others talk about watching people try. Through this (dare I call it?) work, we have come to value:

Dogmatic process and CASE-tool-like automation over inspiring quality individuals to interact with the team and the clients

Sufficient up-front comprehensive design specifications over seeing frequent, tangible, working results.

Writing detailed Statements of Work and negotiating changes over collaborating to do our collective best with the time and money at hand

Driving toward the original project plan over accommodating the client changing their mind, or a

path turning into a dead end

So “What’s It Gonna Be?”

 Agile Manifesto?

 Bizarro Manifesto?

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HOW DO WE START?

IT STARTS WITH YOU!

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Change is Hard

 Especially because it starts with you!

Tight Deadlines

I need training

Agile is a Fad

TDD takes too much time

We only work on COMPLEX projects

Management doesn’t care about quality

We’ve never done it that way

before

We’re stuck with legacy code

The QA Dept does all of our

testing

We need full requirements up

front

Be… a Craftsman

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Be… a Professional

Be… Impatient

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Be… Balanced

 Treat software holistically, as a closed-loop system

Be… Lazy

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Be… Inquisitive

Be… Bold

 Question with BOLDNESS

 Ask Why?

 Why?

 Why?

 Why?

 Why?

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Don’t: Just Do It!

 Understand why you are doing it

 Observe, reflect, adapt

You Don’t Do Agile, You Are Agile

 Agile is first and foremost a personal PRACTICE!

 As is ballet, yoga, rock climbing…

 Never a master, always a student

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Agile Has Failed Us?

 Not so much!

 Return to the founding principles

 Be Agile, don’t blindly just DO Agile!

 Apply common sense

 Agile problems? First look inward…

 The Agile Mindset has no agenda, no certificate

Agile Can’t Change the World

 But…

 You can be more agile

 Your team can be more agile

 Your group can be more agile

 Your company can be more…

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Agile Can’t Change the World

 But…

 You can be more agile

 Your team can be more agile

 Your group can be more agile

 Your company can be more…

  Maybe agile CAN impact the world after all!

THANK YOU!

jkern@lightshipinc.com jkern@axialexchange.com

http://TechnicalDebt.com

Agile Schmagile Does Agile Stink, or is it Just Me?

Jon Kern