the tao-of-transformation-workshop

The Tao of Transformation

dhaval.dalal@software-artisan.com

@softwareartisan

A Workshop

naresh@agilefaqs.com

@nashjain

Individuals and Interactions

over

Processes and Tools

Individuals and Interactions

over

Processes and Tools

To know, is good.

To live, is better.

To be, that is perfect.

The Mother

Values, Principles and Practices

Values, Principles and Practices

• Valuesone's judgement and opinion of what is important in life and form the basis of behaviour and action.

Values

Values, Principles and Practices

• Valuesone's judgement and opinion of what is important in life and form the basis of behaviour and action.

Principles

Values• Principlesfoundation for a system of belief and help with translating values into action

Values, Principles and Practices

• Valuesone's judgement and opinion of what is important in life and form the basis of behaviour and action. Practices

Principles

Values• Principlesfoundation for a system of belief and help with translating values into action

• Practicesthe actual application of belief and are actions themselves.

Examples

ExamplesPractices

Principles

Values

ExamplesPractices

Principles

Values

Feedback

Fail-Fast

Unit Test

Self-Documenting

Code

Declarative Expression

Communication

ExamplesPractices

Principles

Values

Feedback

Fail-Fast

Unit Test

MVP

MVP

Validated Learning=

MVP

Validated LearningPr

actice

or Ritu

al?

=

MVP as a Ritual

• Release 1 = MVP

• Time to Validated Learning

• 6 Months

MVP as a Practice• Testing the most important hypothesis about the

product idea by building a mini-version.

MVP as a Principle• Reduce time to validated learning

• Avoid investment in building infra-structure, check-out alternatives.

• Examples

• Leveraging Kickstarter, Google forms etc…

• Lo-fi prototypes - paper/cardboard prototypes, wireframes etc…

Ignite: Lean Startup - Paul Howe, Founder & CEO of NeedFeed "How $40 Saved Us 9 Months and $2MM"

http://vimeo.com/24749599

Ignite: Lean Startup - Paul Howe, Founder & CEO of NeedFeed "How $40 Saved Us 9 Months and $2MM"

http://vimeo.com/24749599

Stand-up

Stand-up

=What I did Yesterday? What I am doing

today? What problems am I facing?

Stand-up

=What I did Yesterday What I am doing

todayWhat problems am I facing?

Pract

ice or R

itual?

Stand-up Exercise

• 7 Volunteers, 1 Scrum Master, 6 Team members

• Have a stand-up and Discuss the “Dinner Project”

• What you ate last night?

• What are you planning to eat tonight?

• Are there any roadblocks?

• Rest - Observe body language and behaviour

What did you see?Was there real value?

Stand-up Exercise - Take 2

• Be genuinely interested in understanding who is planning to do what and if we can offer help.

• Let’s keep the 3 question format (but some of them can be optional)

Stand-up Exercise - Take 3

• Let’s drop the 3 question format

• Let’s focus on the Game Plan for the day

• Set the goals for the day

• And plan to achieve them collaboratively as a team

We’ve guest for dinner tonight

Stand-up Exercise - Take 4

• No Standup instead we’ve JIT huddles to resolve/improve specific problems

• For Ex: Someone is cooking a sweet dish and is out of sugar. How can we collaborate and creatively solve this problem as a team.

We’ve guest for dinner tonight

a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.Ritual

a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.

Practice

Ritual

the actual application of belief.

Practice Vs Ritual

a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.

Practice

Ritual

the actual application of belief.

Rituals

• Rituals are a helper.

• Starting Steps

• Their use lies in the training they give

• Preliminaries to values, but not the end themselves

• Rituals are a bar.

• When made an end in themselves, they stop the transformation

Discern

• When...

• Rituals are a helper

• Rituals are a bar

Discern

• When... Practice

Ritual

• Rituals are a helper

• Rituals are a bar

Discern

• When... Practice

Ritual

• Principles underpinning the practices

• Rituals are a helper

• Rituals are a bar

Practices

Principles

Values

Discern

• When... Practice

Ritual

• Principles underpinning the practices

• Rituals are a helper

• Rituals are a bar

Practices

Principles

Values

• Values underpinning the principles

Agility

=

TDD Refactoring

Stories

Stand-ups

Iterations

FuturespectivesRetrospectives

Agility

=

Pract

ice or R

itual?

TDD Refactoring

Stories

Stand-ups

Iterations

FuturespectivesRetrospectives

Stories - Sample 1

• As a developer,

• I want to create a database table

• So that I can access it from my service code

Stories - Sample 2

• As a Account agent,

• I want to create an invoice

• So that my company can request payment from the customer

Collaborative Story Mapping

Bob explaining the context scenarios and laying out

the initial map

A day in the life of Ed !

time

optio

nalit

y

necessary

less optional

more optional

activity 1 activity 2 activity 3 activity 4

first release

second release

third release

Team fully engaged!

Customer Development & Product Discovery

Cab Route Optimisation• Most companies provide cab pick and drop services to their employees.

• Company wants to

• improve the utilisation of the cabs

• reduce the cab expenses (lesser # of cabs, reduce total distance travelled by cabs)

• reduce the time taken for employees to get to office

• Constraints

• Employees traveling from different locations at different times (flexi-office hours, shifts, unplanned meetings)

• We need to give the cab vendor enough notice to arrange the cabs

Product Discovery

Goals/Themes CAPTURE TRAVEL

AND DATE TIME

VALIDATE ROUTES OF CARS AND TYPE OF CARS

DRIVER AND CAB ALLOTMENT

NOTIFY THE SUBSCRIBERS ABOUT CABS AND DRIVERS

CAPTURE EMPLOYEE TRAVEL PREFERENCE

Specify starting address

Enter my details (Emp ID,Name,Phn,Email ID)

Book a cab by specifying pick up /drop time

CALCULATE ROUTES

Read the rejection reason

View no. of employees, duration, no. of cabs per route

View total number and type of cabs per day in month

Get routes and number of people from system

Allocate driver and cabs to routes

Send sms notification with cab number, driver number and pickup time

MONITORINGCompare with the previous snapshot

Keep a track on average no. of employees per cab

Keep a track on the total distance travelled by the cabs

Monitor successful last minute changes

Monitor the avg. time taken by cabs per route

Low-Fi Prototyping & Interaction Design Testing

Landing Page

Entering their Location

Retrospectives

Retrospectives

=What Went Well? What Went Wrong? What Still Puzzles us?

Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could,

given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.

Retrospectives

=

Pract

ice or R

itual?

What Went Well? What Went Wrong? What Still Puzzles us?

Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could,

given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.

Retrospectives - 1

What went well? What needs improvement?

Retrospectives - 2

Retrospectives - 3

• Root Cause Analysis

• Mistake proof

• Data-Driven

• Stakeholder involvement.

Retrospectives - 4

• JIT

• Pull based, not scheduled

• Micro-retros, not batched.

Inspect, Adapt and Evolve

• Continuous Experimentation

• Jettison what does not work

• Retain or Improvise what’s useful

• Continuously curate and fearlessly discard

• Question and dispel gospels

If you don’t...

• Either fanaticism or indifference creeps in.

• Walk with the baggage all along.

• Closed for modification.

• Hard to get results.

Real-World is Messy• Not a straight path.

• We are all in this personal discovery.

• Progressing upon Progress - Continuous Improvement.

• Experience is a means to

• Draw out values from within.

• Seed values for cultivation.

• Neither handed out by the giver

• Nor accepted or rejected by the receiver

• In reality, values are inner dispositions of human being

Values

Values Permeate

Values Permeate

Values Permeate

Tell me and I Forget Talks, Discussions

Values Permeate

Tell me and I Forget

Show me and I Remember

Talks, Discussions

Demos, Screencasts

Values Permeate

Tell me and I Forget

Workshops, Tutorials, Pairing

Show me and I Remember

Involve me and I Learn

Talks, Discussions

Demos, Screencasts

Are you awareof your own values?

In less than a minute,write down what you value

the most?

Answer it from within before your mind attempts to

manipulate it!

ExamplesI know I’ve made a mistake

here, but now I know…I can work on it

Hey, let me show you what I found after we worked

on that stuff yesterday…

What do you deeply see in you… that which you embody or you are that? Or something that resonates with you

and you want to realise it?

Image Source: http://avastar.wikia.com/wiki/Stick_Figure, http://www.clipartbest.com/

What can lead toauthentic self-realisation?

What can lead toauthentic self-realisation?

Acting with Passion

What can lead toauthentic self-realisation?

ExpressingFeelings

Expressing Thoughts/Ideas

Acting with Passion

What can lead toauthentic self-realisation?

ExpressingFeelings

Expressing Thoughts/Ideas

Acting with Passion

Beyo

nd

Self-E

xpre

ssion

What can lead toauthentic self-realisation?

Source: Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management, Harvesting Values.

What can lead toauthentic self-realisation?

Ideals that are in harmony with higher nature of human

being

Source: Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management, Harvesting Values.

Ideals

set of standards or values to be aimed atIdeal

Values

Universal Ideals

Expressed in Behavior and Conduct

Truth

• Honesty• Transparency• Integrity and truthfulness in thought, feelings and action.• Impartial wisdom, ability to deal with each person or situation

according to deeper truth in it.

Strength and Force

• Marshalling energies and resources for implementation of Ideas• Courage• Tenacity• Firmness• Will Power

Beauty and Harmony

• Aesthetic Sensibility• Graceful Movements• Cleanliness• Simplicity• Charm• Tenderness• Rhythms in action and behaviour

Source: Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management, Harvesting Values.

Universal Ideals

Expressed in Behavior and Conduct

Truth

• Honesty• Transparency• Integrity and truthfulness in thought, feelings and action.• Impartial wisdom, ability to deal with each person or situation

according to deeper truth in it.

Strength and Force

• Marshalling energies and resources for implementation of Ideas• Courage• Tenacity• Firmness• Will Power

Beauty and Harmony

• Aesthetic Sensibility• Graceful Movements• Cleanliness• Simplicity• Charm• Tenderness• Rhythms in action and behaviour

Source: Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management, Harvesting Values.

Universal Ideals

Expressed in Behavior and Conduct

Truth

• Honesty• Transparency• Integrity and truthfulness in thought, feelings and action.• Impartial wisdom, ability to deal with each person or situation

according to deeper truth in it.

Strength and Force

• Marshalling energies and resources for implementation of Ideas• Courage• Tenacity• Firmness• Will Power

Beauty and Harmony

• Aesthetic Sensibility• Graceful Movements• Cleanliness• Simplicity• Charm• Tenderness• Rhythms in action and behaviour

Source: Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management, Harvesting Values.

Universal Ideals

Expressed in Behavior and Conduct

Fraternity

• Teamwork• Shared Vision• Mutual Trust• Goodwill and understanding• Stakeholders community

Equality

• Distributive Justices• Flattening of Hierarchies• Trend towards greater sharing of wealth, power, knowledge and

culture

Liberty

• Empowerment - Energise people with minimum rules and maximum freedom

• Individuals given freedom to think, initiate, decide, organise, achieve, learn, progress and reach their potentials in work-life

Source: Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management, Harvesting Values.

Universal Ideals

Expressed in Behavior and Conduct

Fraternity

• Teamwork• Shared Vision• Mutual Trust• Goodwill and understanding• Stakeholders community

Equality

• Distributive Justices• Flattening of Hierarchies• Trend towards greater sharing of wealth, power, knowledge and

culture

Liberty

• Empowerment - Energise people with minimum rules and maximum freedom

• Individuals given freedom to think, initiate, decide, organise, achieve, learn, progress and reach their potentials in work-life

Source: Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management, Harvesting Values.

Universal Ideals

Expressed in Behavior and Conduct

Fraternity

• Teamwork• Shared Vision• Mutual Trust• Goodwill and understanding• Stakeholders community

Equality

• Distributive Justices• Flattening of Hierarchies• Trend towards greater sharing of wealth, power, knowledge and

culture

Liberty

• Empowerment - Energise people with minimum rules and maximum freedom

• Individuals given freedom to think, initiate, decide, organise, achieve, learn, progress and reach their potentials in work-life

Source: Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management, Harvesting Values.

An Exercise

Mapping to Ideals

XP ValuesCommunicationSimplicityFeedbackCourageRespect

Pair Programming Collective Ownership On-site Customer System MetaphorRefactoring Simple Design Coding StandardsThe Planning GameRetrospectives

XP Practices

XP Values => Ideals • Communication

TruthBeauty

and Harmony

Strength and

Force

• Simplicity

• Feedback

• Courage

• Respect Fraternity

XP Practices => Ideals Refactoring, Simple Design, Coding Standards

Beauty and Harmony

Pair Programming, Collective Ownership, On-site Customer, System Metaphor

Equality, Fraternity,

Liberty

The Planning Game, Retrospectives,TDD, Continuous Integration, Small Releases

Truth

Agile Adoption?

Agile Adoption?

Using FeedbackPermeate Agility

and Manifest Ideals

How do I begin?

• From Near to Far

• Start with something that is very obvious, that which is within reach.

• That which is far is the goal.

• Take baby steps

Questions to ponder• Would you be able to apply this on a daily basis?

If yes, how? If no, why?

• What ideals would you like to manifest in you next?

• Is there a gap between inner values and outer action? If yes, how will you reduce it?

• Have you matched your disposition to the psychological content of the job?

Special ThanksTo my friends with whom I shared the slides, they actively listened and above all, had intimate conversations. Their opinions, suggestions, feedback has elevated the tone of this presentation.

Aslam Khan

Jaydeep Kulkarni

Ryan Lemmer

Venkat Subramaniam

Naresh Jain for adding the Workshop element to this talk to make it more tangible.

References

• Implementation Patterns

• Kent Beck

• Product Discovery and Story Mapping

• Jeff Patton

References• Sri Aurobindo’s Works

• Works of The Mother.

• Harvesting Values Workshop

• Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management (SAFIM), by Saikat Sen.

• Towards Integral Education

• Sradhhalu Ranade, Sri Aurobindo Ashram.