balancing the crusty and old with the shiny and new

K2

Keynote

10/15/2014 10:00AM

Balancing the Crusty and Old

with the Shiny and New

Presented by:

Bob Galen

Velocity Partners

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073 888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ [email protected] ∙ www.sqe.com

Bob Galen

Velocity Partners An agile methodologist, practitioner, and coach based in Cary, NC, Bob Galen helps guide companies in their adoption of Scrum and other agile methodologies and practices. Bob is a principal agile evangelist at Velocity Partners, a leading agile nearshore development partner; president of RGCG; and frequent speaker on software development, project management, software testing, and team leadership at conferences and professional groups. He is a Certified Scrum Coach, Certified Scrum Product Owner, and an active member of the Agile and Scrum Alliances. In 2013 Bob published Scrum Product Ownership–Balancing Value from the Inside Out. Reach him at [email protected].

mailto:[email protected]

http://starwest.techwell.com/sme-profiles/bob-galen

1

Balancing the

Crusty and Old

with the Shiny and

New

Bob GalenPresident & Principal Consultant

RGCG, LLC

[email protected]

A Tale of Crusty & Old...

Copyright © 2014 RGCG, LLC 2

2

A Tale of Shiny & New...


Ultimately…

You must decide the Balance


3

Balance from

to…

Gatekeeper

� Argue, Stop, Block, Impede

� Over my “cold dead hands”

� It’s my call and I say it’s not

ready

� This may take awhile,

Curiosity

� Ask about Goals

� Ask about confidence &

readiness

� Ask about the Customer

� Focused toward team &

value-based decisions

5Copyright © 2014 RGCG, LLC

Balance from

to…

Testing Coverage

� We are 79.5% complete

� We need 2 days, 3 hours,

and 32 minutes to complete

our testing

� We must execute all tests

Risk-Based Testing

� Feedback over coverage

� Targeted testing based on

changes

� Exploration & Discovery

� Customer Engagement &

Exposure

� Adjust!


4

Balance from

to…

Following the Plan

� Big plans, that are not read

� Big strategies that don’t

adapt

� The goal becomes –

completing the Plan

� But, we followed the plan,

Learn, Adapt, Realign

� Creating a shared strategy

� Inspect & Adapt

� Plans are nothing; Planning

is everything

� The goal is customer

delight


Balance from

to…

Follower

� Product, Project

Management, or

Development – “leads”

� Everyone along for the ride;

keep your head down

� Stay out of critical path

Lead by Example

� Creating a vision of the

Customer

� Courage to tell Truth

� Hold the “whole team”

accountable

� Pull vs. Push


5

Balance from

to…

Defend Your Turf

� Defend your actions

� Explain your intent

� Identify risks

� Explain strategies; the Why

� And the Why Not

Team-based Results

� Collaborative strategies

� Business engaged with

trade-offs

� Holistic risk management

� Show me the Money -

DEMO


Balance from

to…

Short Term

� Deliver the release

� 1-shot at delivery

� Time drives everything

� Little refactoring

� Minimal bug fixing

Long Term

� Deliver a “stream” of value

� Iterative delivery

� Adapt, pivot and re-deliver

� Customer feedback –

“Good Enough”

� Robust refactoring


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Deliver the “Ask”

� Follow the Use Cases

� Even if your “spider sense”

is tingling, deliver what was

asked

� Validate the “Requirements”

Deliver the “Need”

� Creating a sense of the

Customer for your team

� Helping craft Persona’s

� Delivering “working code”

� Validate with the Customer

� Building the right thing


Balance from

to…

Balance from

to…

Test Team

� Status, metrics

� Team meetings

� Grouse amongst yourselves

� Silo mentality

� “Done” as a function, then

hand-off

Cross-functional Team

� Plan, estimate, execute as

a team

� Whole team view;

developers test and testers

design

� Throughput is the ultimate

measure


7

Balance from

to…

Single-tier Automation

� Test team focused

� UI-centric; Capture

Playback

� Singular tool

� Brittle UI – maintenance

heavy

Multi-tier Automation

� Whole team focused

� Ongoing integration

� Multiple, specialized tools

� Unit, UI, Component/API

� Finer grained work

� Open source frameworks


Balance from

to…

Trust, but Verify

� Them and us,

� Testers: developers can’t

test their own code

� Developers: testers don’t

know how to test my code

Trust, Accountability,

Try and Fail� Trust team members to do

their jobs,until they don’t

� Mistakes happen,Fail

forward as a team

� Reflect on continuous

improvement


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Balance from

to…

Leading by Telling

� Command & control

� Hierarchy

� Titles & roles

� Job descriptions

� Leadership held

accountability

Leading by Letting Go

� Vision & Mission

� Networks & Tribes

� Self-directed teams

� Roles, but,

� Shared accountability


Parting Shots


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Shiny is a moving target

Shiny and new isn’t always

right,

� Context matters

� Historical lessons,

approaches, tactics, tools,

approaches,still work

� Experience matters

� Shiny fades,giving way

to the next shiny & new


Crusty is simply…stuck

Just because you’ve always

been “crusty”,

� Your context

changes,continuously

� Technology changes

� Business changes

� Generations change

� Stuck doesn’t work, you

need to inspect & adapt


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Imperative - You must decide how to Balance/

Bridge between the two…


Can’t do this without mentioning Yoda!

� The monkey is on your back�

� I know it’s unfair

� I know it’s a burden

� I know it’s incredibly hard to

balance effectively

� But BE the Change

� Look BACK to look FORWARD


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Introduction

Bob Galen

� Independent Agile Coach (CSC) at RGCG, LLC

� Principle Agile Evangelist at Velocity Partners

� Somewhere ‘north’ of 30 years overall experience ☺

� Wide variety of technical stacks and business domains

� Developer first, then Project Management / Leadership, then Testing

� Senior/Executive software development leadership for 20 years

� Practicing formal agility since 2000

� XP, Lean, Scrum, and Kanban experience

� From Cary, North Carolina

� Connect w/ me via LinkedIn and Twitter @bobgalen

Bias Disclaimer:

Agile is THE BEST Methodology

for Software Development�

However, NOT a Silver Bullet!

Contact Info

Bob GalenPrincipal Consultant,

RGalen Consulting Group, L.L.C.

Experience-driven agile focused training, coaching & consulting

Cell: (919) 272-0719

[email protected] www.rgalen.com

[email protected] www.velocitypartners.net

BlogsProject Times - http://www.projecttimes.com/robert-galen/

BA Times - http://www.batimes.com/robert-galen/

Podcast on all things ‘agile’ - http://www.meta-cast.com/

22Copyright © 2014 RGCG, LLC 22

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