We’re Agile Now: So Collaborate or Else!

Collaboration and how to do it well in an agile project

Jacky JacobSupervising Consultant and Agile CoachObject Consulting

Today

• Communication vs Collaboration• What collaboration means in an agile team• Roadblocks• Team collaboration

Slide 2 of 30

“When the revolution comes, machines will talk to machines and people's vocal

cords will atrophy"

Mystery, Jonathan Kellerman

Slide 3 of 30

Early Collaboration

Slide 4 of 30

To this

You can go from this

Being a collaborator

Slide 5 of 30

Who does a BA need to collaborate with?

Elicit Requirements Analysis and documentation

Verify solution against requirements

Communicate to teamThe requirements

Help to identifythe solution

Product OwnerStakeholders

Dev’s, TestersScrum Master

Dev’s, TestersProduct Owner

Product OwnerDev’s, TestersArchitectsScrum MasterProject Manager

Dev’s, Testers, Architects

Slide 6 of 30

The 3 C’s in any agile project

Communication conveying information

Cooperationworking in harmony, side by side

Collaborationworking together to achieve a goal

Slide 7 of 30

Communication vs Collaboration

Slide 8 of 30

http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/communication.htm

Collaboration

Slide 9 of 30

10

Collaboration = Trust + Transparency

Roadblocks to collaboration

11 Slide 11 of 30

12

Roadblocks

Roadblocks

Slide 13 of 30

• Don't want to or what's in it for me?• Distrust or lack of trust• Don’t want to share knowledge• Don't know how• Personalities• Lack of time

14

Human Roadblocks

Slide 14 of 30

Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions over processes and toolsWorking software over comprehensive documentation

Responding to change over following a planCustomer collaboration over contract negotiation

Slide 15 of 30

That is, while there is value in the items onthe right, we value the items on the left more

Key Agile Principles for Collaboration

Extract from: http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

Slide 16 of 30

Changing requirements Work

together daily

Build projects around motivated individuals

Face-to-face conversation

Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams

Team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly

17

Wisdom of the crowdMany Are Smarter Than the Few

• Diversity of opinion – Each person should have private information even if

it's just an eccentric interpretation of the known facts.

• Independence – People's opinions aren't determined by the opinions

of those around them.

• Decentralisation – People are able to specialise and draw on local

knowledge.

• Aggregation – Some mechanism exists for turning private

judgments into a collective decision.

18

Collaboration and Agile Analysis

• “Agile analysis is highly evolutionary and collaborative process where developers and project stakeholders actively work together on a just-in-time (JIT) basis to understand the domain, to identify what needs to be built, to estimate that functionality, to prioritise the functionality, and in the process optionally producing artifacts that are just barely good enough.”– Scott Ambler

18

19

Phases in an Agile Project

Initiate Discover Evolve

Definition Design Build Test

Waterfall

Agile

2020

Opportunities to CollaborateVision

Iteration

24 hrs

ReleasableProduct

Prioritised Feature List

SelectedFeatures

Daily Cycle

Collaboration using Scrum

• Additional meetings / workshops– Product backlog grooming sessions– Product owner, tester, developer meetings– Tech huddles– Ad-hoc discussions

Slide 21 of 30

22

Agile Collaboration

• Co-Location• Video Conferencing• Walls (and lots of them) / Sticky Notes• Big Visible Charts (BVC)• Be transparent to all

23

24

25

26

27

28

Team Collaboration

• Priorities– Team success over or in alignment with individual performance

• Targets– Delivering quality outcomes

• Learning– Learning from within and across teams:

• Honest, constructive feedback• Knowledge sharing, not hoarding

• Explicit team processes– Communications– Working and workflow– All roles are clarified within the team– Decision making (self empowered team)

Slide 29 of 30

30

Encouragement and positive feedback

Getting collaboration to work

Skill

Respect

Slide 31 of 30

32

What's needed for effective collaboration

• Everybody needs to understand;– WHY should we work together– WHAT should we do together– WHO should do what– HOW should we work together

http://Kenthompson.typepad.com/thevirtualcoach/

33

Create a Social Contract

Team Agreements Team Culture and behaviours

Teaching Collaboration

Change it up a bit and teach

collaboration through game playing

• Lego Game• Teaches collaboration and teamwork

• Non musical Chairs• Enforce the importance of self organization, communication, simplicity and trust

• Collaborative Origami• Shows that collaboration leads to faster results and better quality

• The backlog is in the eye of the beholder• Demonstrates the importance of identifying and leveraging different views to better

manage a  product backlog

• Marshmallow Challenge• Encourages teams to experience simple but profound lessons in collaboration,

innovation and creativity

• Offing the off-site Customer• http://jamesshore.com/Presentations/OffingTheOffsiteCustomer.html

www.tastycupcakes.org

Slide 34 of 30

You can promote collaboration

• Stay positive• Ask questions• Encourage information sharing / don’t become

the bottleneck• Drive to consensus• Make everything highly visible• Take away the blame• Respect people's views and opinions (even if

you don’t agree with them!).

Slide 35 of 30

36

Additional Information

• Team Work Video– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zacF1pZR1Fg

• Teleconference Video– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbJAJEtNUX0

• Game played – Collaborative Origami– http://tastycupcakes.org/2009/06/collaborative-origami

/

• Website for agile games– http://tastycupcakes.org/– Or (Type “agile games” into your search engine)

THANK YOU

Slide 37 of 30

References• http://rexsthoughtspot.blogspot.com/2007/03/innovation-difference-between.html• http://collaborationzen.com/2010/05/14/achieving-major-benefits-from-collaboration-with-a-collab

oration-framework/• http://learningtocollaborate.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-smart-are-your-goals.html• http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/427/collaborative-learning--for-the-people-by-the-pe

ople• http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/elsua/why-people-dont-collaborate-12499• http://agile.dzone.com/news/team-and-pair-games-building?utm_source=feedburner&utm_mediu

m=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zones%2Fagile+(Agile+Zone)• http://www.agilitrix.com/2010/05/team-and-pair-games-for-building-collaboration/• http://www.tastycupcakes.org• Jean Tabaka, Collaboration Explained, Addison Wesley 2009, • Luke Hohmann, Innovation Games, Addison Wesley 2010• John P. Kotter, Leading Change, Harvard Business Review Press 1996• Kent Beck, Extreme Programming Explained, Addison Wesley 2010• M Sliger and S Broderick, The Software Project Managers Bridge to Agility, Addison Wesley 2008• Lyssa Adkins, Coaching Agile Teams, Addison Wesley 2010• Ken Whitaker, Princiiples of Softare Development Leadership, Cengage Learning 2010• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds

Slide 38 of 30