AT12Session6/9/161:30PM

FacilitationTechniquesforAgileMeetingsandCeremonies

Presentedby:

DarrinLondon

DepartmentofJustice

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DarrinLondonDepartmentofJusticeDarrinLondonhasspentmorethanelevenyearssupportingsoftwaredeliveryprojectswithinvariouspublicsectorclientsincludingtheU.SDepartmentsofHomelandSecurity,State,andJustice.Darrinhasexperiencementoring/coachingagileteamsaswellasgovernmentmanagementintheiradoptionoftheagilemindsetandagilepractices.Hisagilejourneyhasfocusedonexperienceswithfacilitatingagileceremonies,developinguserstories,andscalingagileattheprogramlevel.Darrin'sbackgroundincludesrolesasaprogram/projectmanager,portfoliomanager,businessanalyst,anddeveloper.AsacertifiedICAgiletrainer,Darrinfacilitatestheagilefundamentalstrainingforclientsandcolleaguesthroughatwo-day,highlycollaborativecourse.

FACILITATION TECHNIQUES FOR

AGILE MEETINGS AND

CEREMONIES (AT12)

Darrin London

Agile Coach

Department of Justice

A little about me….

• Live in Warrenton, VA • Agile Coach and Facilitator in public sector

Certifications • PMI Project Management Professional

(PMP) • Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) • ICAgile Certified Trainer • ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP)

• Agile Project Management (ICP- APM)

• Agile Coaching (ICP-AC)

• Team Facilitation (ICP-TF)

• Certified SAFE Agilist (SA) 2

Today’s Session

• Purpose

• Provide a new perspective on the importance of facilitation of agile practices

and tools that may help in working with your teams

• Outcomes

• Perspective on facilitation and its importance in agile

• 1-2 Facilitation Process Tools or Actions you can “try” with your teams

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Today’s Session (cont.)

• WIIFM

• You will have the opportunity to learn from experiences of other practitioners

about facilitation and learn some facilitation tools for your tool belt

• Responsibilities

• Will be sharing lecture as well as having group exercises where you can

share your experiences as a facilitator

• Be open to exploring and trying new ideas. Use your Ah Ha sheet to

capture what you will try

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Facilitation is Critical in Agile Teams

Delivery Facilitator

Value Facilitator “Facilitation is the art of leading people through

processes toward agreed-upon outcomes in a

manner that encourages participation,

ownership and creativity from all involved.”

- The Grove Consultants Internationals

Delivery

Team

Value

Team

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Relating Facilitation to Agile Principles

#4 Business people and developers must work together daily

throughout the project.

#5 Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the

environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job

done.

#6 The most efficient and effective method of conveying information

to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

#11 The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from

self-organizing teams.

#12 At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more

effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. 6

Review the Facilitation Framework

• Explore the Possibilities

• Evaluate the Alternatives

• Decide or transition to the next

step

• Takes some planning ahead!

Explore

Evaluate

Decide

Santeon Group, Agile Facilitation 7

Start off Right: Agreed Upon Outcomes

• POWER Start

• Check-in with the group on achieving outcomes and ensure understanding on their responsibilities

• Validate agenda and time-box

• May need a working agreement for the meeting

8

Explore the Possibilities

• Determine agenda questions based on identified outcomes and use follow-up prompts to initiate discovery • Shift from statements to powerful

questions

• Don’t worry about evaluating at this point. Any and all ideas welcome!

• Some techniques include: • Brainstorming

• Mind-mapping

• Histogram

9

Encourage Participation and Creativity

• Where possible, tailor agenda based on personalities in group (and help avoid dominant or over powering voices)

• Engage participants early on to create a collaborative environment. Consider the room setup as well!

• Brainstorming can be great for new or innovative ideas if we push through the silence

10

Evaluate the Alternatives

• Begin to evaluate the data, generate insights and converge on where to take action

• Some techniques include:

• Grouping

• Great for after divergent activity like brainstorming. Look for themes or commonalities among ideas

• Generate insights based on the data collected

• Determine a manageable number to take forward (3 – 8 ideally)

• Rotating Flip Charts/Rotating World Café

• Break meeting participants up into smaller sub-groups

• Document results and rotate to other teams’ work

11

Individual and Group Activity: Explore and

Evaluate

Individual silent brainstorm 1 per sticky, as many as

you can come up with (3 minutes)

• As a participant or a facilitator, when you walk out of an

agile ceremony feeling good, what would have happened

to get you there?

• What seems to be challenging or puzzling with facilitating

agile meetings?

12

Individual and Group Activity: Explore and

Evaluate

Discuss in your group and consolidate into themes on

large post it – one per (7 mins)

• What themes should we focus on in preparing for

powerful agile meetings?

13

Decide and Close

• What actions will we take?

• Need to be clear about the roles and

responsibilities of the group

• Final decision making authority may be

outside the group

• Some techniques include:

• Dot Voting or Roman Vote

• Consensus (I can live with it and support it)

• Fist of Five

• Close the Meeting

• Walk the walls

• Actions 14

Group Activity: Decide and Take Action

• Decide as a group 1 – 2 themes to focus on (choose

a decision technique). Group brainstorming with set

number of stickies (8 per theme). Brainstorm

possible actions or techniques to use (10 minutes):

• What action, technique, or process could you try in order to

enable a powerful agile ceremony?

• What action, technique, or process could you try in order to

address the challenge?

• Post Actions on Flip Chart

15

Group Activity: Gather Other Perspectives

• Rotating Flip Charts (5 mins)

• Browse the other teams outputs. Take your Ah Ha

sheets to each group and jot down actions/techniques

that other groups listed.

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Wrap-Up

• Facilitation plays a key role in agile teams. Gives the team an

environment where they can truly collaborate

• Facilitation Framework: Explore, Evaluate, Decide and Close

• Some next steps from here

• Try some techniques and practice, practice, practice!

• Consider taking an ICAgile (icagile.com) Agile Team Facilitator Course

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QUESTIONS

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Contact Info

Darrin London

darrin.london@gmail.com

@DLondon31

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OUTPUTS FROM WORKSHOP

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