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AGILE2017 Top 10 Takeaways 1

Top 10 Takeawaysfrom

Agile2017 Conference in Orlando

by Agile Alliance

brought to you by

AGILE2017 Top 10 Takeaways

AGILE2017 Conference Overview

• August 7-11th in Orlando, FL

• 2,200 participants from 40+ countries– 18 tracks, 284 sessions

• 4 Special Tracks– Stalwarts

– Experience Reports

– 3-7 min Lightning Talks

– Audacious Salon

• Inspiring Keynotes– David Marquet, best-selling author of Turn the Ship Around

– Jez Humble, Founder and CTO, DevOps Research and Assessment LLC, UC Berkeley

– Denise Jacobs, Founder and CEO, The Creative Dose

2

Vinayak Joglekar, CTO

@vinayakj

Hemant Elhence, CEO

@HemantElhence

Top 10 Takeaways

presented by


18 Tracks + OpenJam

• Agile Companies (New)

• Agile Foundations

• Audacious Salon

• Coaching & Mentoring

• Collaboration: Culture & Teams

• Customers & Products

• Development Practices & Craftsmanship

• DevOps

• Enterprise Agile

• Experience Reports

• Leadership

• Learning

• Lightning Talks

• Project, Program & Portfolio Management

• Stalwarts

• Testing & Quality

• The Future of Agile Software Development

(IEEE Software)

• User Experience

4


Our Top 12 from AGILE2017

1. VJ: We Are Going Back Full Circle

2. HE: Agile Executive Leadership

3. VJ: Whole Team Does UX

4. HE: Agile Beyond Engineering

5. VJ: Containerized Microservices=NoOps

6. HE: ATDD/BDD Holy Grail

7. VJ: Dynamic Re-Teaming!

8. HE: Estimating Time/Cost

9. VJ: Get Them Hooked!

10. HE: Scaling Agile / SAFe 4.5

11. VJ: Surprises at Spotify!

12. HE: Architect/Architecture

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1. We Are Going Back Full Circle

6

1980

Dev

2000 2010 Today Test Engg

Dev

QA

Dev

QA

Ops

Dev

QA

Ops

UX

Dev

TE

Ops

UX

NoOps

Dev

TE

DevOps

UX

New UX

Dev

TE

DevOps

UX-Dev


Shared by Paul Merrill

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Machine Learning in Testing

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Hundreds of

simultaneous

users

Multiple

containers

serving their

requests

Millions of

log entries

generated by

monitoring

tool such as

NewRelic &

Logstash

Unsupervised

Machine

Learning

senses exact

patterns in

the log entries

to predict and

reproduce

errors


Impact of Machine Learning on Testers

• Some of the repetitive tasks in testing

can be learned by machine learning.

• It is possible to simulate human actions

like scrolling and swiping on mobile

phones using ML.

• A new breed of testers who will

understand ML enough so that they

can train the machines.

• This new breed will face ambiguous

expectations and less repeatable

workflows because ML will generate

rules at runtime.

• Record and playback will be replaced by

train and test.

• ML will help us by pointing to most

susceptible parts that need our attention.

• ML will work from within the application

to inform us what to test -- in a way

writing test cases and scenarios.

• This implies that most of the testers will

have to acquire developer skills.

Alternatively testing can be done by

developers who will find it more

interesting!

9


2. Agile Executive Leadership

Attention to Agile (mindset) at Executive Leadership Level

1. Intent Based Leadership - David Marquet's Keynote

2. Business Agility - Steve Denning's Learning Consortium

a. The SD Learning Consortium (SDLC) is a nonprofit organization whose members are

organizations committed to discover together the world’s most advanced Agile goals,

principles and practices and disseminate them globally.

b. The SDLC conducts site visits to its members, synthesizes their findings, and disseminates

globally, including reports, web posts, social media and participation in conferences.

3. The Leadership Circle – An Agile framework for leadership

development, Reactive Tendencies vs. Creative Competencies

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Intent Based Leadership

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http://www.davidmarquet.com/

http://www.davidmarquet.com/


SDLC - Steve Denning

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Core Business Agility Practices

1. Delighting Customers

2. Descaling Work

3. Nurturing Culture

4. Enterprise-wide Agility

https://sdlearningconsotrium.org

https://sdlearningconsotrium.org/


Leadership Circle

Assessment on Reactive Tendencies vs. Creative Competencies

13

http://agileforall.com/ https://leadershipcircle.com/a-universal-model-of-leadership/

http://agileforall.com/

https://leadershipcircle.com/a-universal-model-of-leadership/


Empirical Evidence

14

http://agileforall.com/ https://leadershipcircle.com/a-universal-model-of-leadership/

http://agileforall.com/

https://leadershipcircle.com/a-universal-model-of-leadership/


Big Consultants onto Agile

Recent trend of bigger companies acquiring Agile

competencies (Tools, Training/Coaching, Transformation)

– Accenture acquiring SolutionsIQ (Jun 2017)

– Deloitte partnering with ICAgile (Aug 2017)

– CA acquiring Rally (May 2015)

– HP

– IBM

McKinsey on Agile – uptick of Agile writings

15


3. Whole Team Does UX

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3. Whole Team Does UX

• To start with UX is paired with the Dev

team.

• It’s the Dev team not the product

owner who manages the backlog.

• The whole team is involved in the

Build-Measure-Learn loop.

• Everyone participates in user

interviews and notes responses-

preferably direct quotes.

• Whole team participates in interpreting

the response by using tools like affinity

map.

• Redgate offered beer for those

participating in research calls. Not

much beer was drunk but everyone

started talking about it.

• Research is published making it freely

accessible to the team.

• Dropping names of subjects is

encouraged -- that gives credibility.

• Result: Dev teams at Redgate were

able to aim better and knew why they

were doing what they were doing.

• Session by Elizabeth Ayer.

17


4. Agile Beyond Engineering

Expanding application of Agile outside of the

engineering organization

• Early adopters: Marketing, Operations, HR

• Lagging adopters: Finance/Accounting, ...

18


Agile Marketing

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Agile Marketing @CA/Rally

20

https://www.agilesparks.com/services/agile-marketing/

Total marketing team of ~300 at CA

~50 Adopted Agile, off those

~20 came from Rally acquisition

Made appropriate changes to terminology,

e.g. Product Owner >> Marketing Owner,

Story >> Jobs-to-be-done

Moved from Shared Services (w/ SLA)

model to Persistent “feature teams” with

clear metrics/goals

Encouraged “T” shaped skills

https://www.agilesparks.com/services/agile-marketing/


Agile HR

21


Agile Finance

22


5. CD in High Performing IT Orgs

23


5. Containerized Microservices=NoOps

• No need of scripts to bring up virtual

machines.

• Bye-bye deploying code in environments

configured by chef or puppet; welcome

container images=config+code in the

deployment pipeline.

• Low friction way to distribute software

across Dev, test, pre-prod and prod.

• Faster startup and shutdown. No need to

re-boot the OS.

• Better env fidelity = reduced ops role.

• Applications are decoupled from the

infrastructure.

• Orchestration platforms provide scaling

and resiliency.

• License costs: one server can have

many containers.

• Containers are programmatically

generated and have smaller attack

surface - hence more secure.

• Each microservice does one thing well

and is loosely coupled with other

microservices - ideally suited for CD.

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6. ATDD/BDD Holy Grail

• Focus on clarifying

requirements upfront/early

• “Amigo Review” & collaboration

- PO, Developer, Tester

• Come up with Acceptance

tests before development

begins

25

CardinalSolutions.com, John Riley’s session on ATDD


ATDD/BDD Holy Grail (cont’d)

Format: Given...when, and, …, then

Tools: Gherkin, Cucumber, SpecFlow

Automate: 194mins of manual down to 1.5mins!!

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ATDD/BDD Holy Grail (cont’d)

• Key is to get to “Test First”

mindset

• “Once a team starts this

process, it spreads like wildfire,

and they never go back”

• Getting started is hard - needs

mindset change

• Do Unit TDD before

ATDD/BDD

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Value of Test Automation

From Jez Humble’s keynote on DevOps

28

Before (2008) After (2011)


7. Dynamic Re-teaming!• Mob programming to get the new team

members assimilated

• Email introduction highlighting

achievements and quirks

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• Time-sharing across multiple projects is

a bad idea

• Re-teaming is inevitable, might as well be

good at it

– To scale and grow

– Split as growth overwhelms

– Cross pollination/learning

– In pursuit of passion

– For business reason

• Both formal and the informal role needs to

be backfilled

• Over-communication helps

• Trading places in mobs at Hunter

• Deliberate re-teaming at Spotify; teams

formed by self selection


Patterns of Re-teaming

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8. Estimating Time/Cost

1. Estimating Time/Effort/Cost - Troy Magennis

a. Use sampling - 7 to 11 samples sufficient for 90% confidence

b. Use statistical tools to estimate/predict

c. All of Troy’s docs and spreadsheets tools available free Bit.ly/SimResources

2. Don’t even use story points! If you do, just use 1, 3, 5. Better yet, slice

them small & just count them.

3. #NoEstimate Update - still a passionate and raging debate!

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#NoEstimates• #Noestimates is a hashtag for the topic of

exploring alternatives to estimates for

making decisions in software

development. That is, ways to make

decisions with “no estimates”

• This is the main premise behind

#noestimates: estimates do not directly

add value to your process, so we want

to find ways to reduce the estimation

process or even stop it where possible

• #Noestimates isn’t about ditching

estimates. It is about improving the

way we work such that estimates

become redundant

Key thought leaders, their blogs

• Woody Zuillhttp://zuill.us/WoodyZuill/

• Vasco Duarte http://oikosofy.com/news/

• Neil Killickhttp://neilkillick.wordpress.com/

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http://ryanripley.com/

http://zuill.us/WoodyZuill/

http://oikosofy.com/news/

http://neilkillick.wordpress.com/


Example: Defect Estimation

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Example: Total Scope

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Estimation Do’s & Don’ts

DO

• Use real historical date

• Use statistical techniques

• Use heuristics

• Same level of attention on

“value” estimate as on “cost”

estimate

• Use it for dialog and learning

DON’T

• Don’t do bottom-up, task based

estimates

• Don’t spend a lot of time doing

it - it is a waste!

• Negotiate decisions NOT

estimates

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9. Behavioral Design by Chris Shinkle

36


9. Get Them “Hooked”!

• Prioritise based on outcomes- do what

is most effective in changing user

behavior is of high value and should be

done first.

• If user stories don’t intend changing

user behaviour then something is

missing.

• Most decisions are made emotionally

and automatically.

• Herding: Everyone is doing it.

• Artificial scarcity: Only 20 in stock.

• Anchoring: Maximum order 12.

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10. Scaling Agile / SAFe 4.5

38

SAFe has the momentum

and a supporting

ecosystem of consultants

and training material

SAFe framework seems to

connect better with larger

enterprises and

IT/executive leadership

https://explore.versionone.com/state-of-agile/versionone-11th-annual-state-of-agile-report-2

https://explore.versionone.com/state-of-agile/versionone-11th-annual-state-of-agile-report-2


SAFe 4.5

SAFe 4.5, can be configured to match an organization’s

needs, and allows them to:

• Test ideas more quickly using the Lean Startup Cycle and Lean User Experience

(Lean UX)

• Deliver much faster with Scalable DevOps and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline.

• Simplify governance and improve portfolio performance with Lean Portfolio

Management (LPM) and Lean Budgets.

39

http://www.scaledagileframework.com/whats-new-in-safe-45/

http://www.scaledagileframework.com/whats-new-in-safe-45/

AGILE2017 Top 10 Takeaways 40


11. Surprises at Spotify!• No Model exactly represents reality.

Some models are useful.

• Pairing is used differently in different

squads.

• TDD is practiced in some squads but not

in most squads.

• Light coding standards- devs not aware of

buzzwords like “Clean Code” or ”SOLID

principles”.

• Spotify is trying to implement; Pivotal’s

pairing model- but squads are pushing

back.

• They prefer “Move fast & break things”

over “Move slow to move fast”.

• Spotify compensates for lack of process

by hiring bright engineers.

• No squads have agile estimates,

burndown charts or visual aids.

• Some of these problems are rooted in

Spotify’s hyper growth.

• Too much autonomy, when everyone is

accountable no one is and complacency

are the reasons.

41


Different Ways of Pairing

42


12. Architect Role/Architecture

• Architecture is a shared responsibility, no "official" architect role

• Define "Landing Zones" upfront - a range (min, target, outstanding) of

acceptable values of essential system characteristics/qualities

– e.g. thruput - min 150K, target 270K, outstanding 320K

– tweak them along the way

• Architecture work “rolled into” user stories, and keep it visible

• Actively manage Technical Debt, and keep it visible

– “Floss” Refactoring: small, regular done, like hygiene

– “Root Canal” Refactoring: protracted, infrequent, undertaken only when in pain

43

Rebecca Wirfs-Brock session on Intentional Architecture


Color Your Backlog

44


Soundbites - VJ• Set based design works better than point

based design. Keep multiple options

open.

• Avoid taking design decisions when cone

of uncertainty is wide-wait for the last

opportune moment.

• Way to change culture at NUMI was not

by changing how people think but by

changing how the behave. -Jez Humble

• Every business is a software business. -

Anders Wallgren

• Metrics that compare the team to

themselves are less toxic. Use ratios to

compare across teams.

• “Time taken to get the feedback” is the

single metric that matters.

• If you don’t know how to measure what

you want, you will end up wanting what

you measure. -Cheryl Hammond

• The longer you delay the release the

more is the pressure to accommodate

changes/additions.

• Plans are useless but planning is

indispensable. -Johanna Rothman

45


Soundbites - HE

1. There are two chronic complaints about software development

a. Requirement are not clear (enough!)

b. Estimates are not accurate (enough!)

2. To reduce bias of HiPPO, vote first and then discuss, rather than

discuss and then vote (people get to know leader's opinion and align

along that)

3. Two different types of refactoring

a. Flossing: small, regular done, like hygiene

b. Root Canal: protracted, infrequent, undertaken only when in pain

46


Soundbites - HE (cont’d)

4. Outcome (customer impact) vs. output (working software). Same team

should own both, today someone higher-up owns the outcome, while

team owns the output.

5. Pair programming and peer code reviews are far more helpful (for risk

management) than any other external review.

6. Build a system (dev/test) where the ”right” thing to do is also the

easier thing to do, e.g. automated testing.

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AGILE2017 Top 10 Takeaways 48AGILE2017 Top 10 Takeaways

QUESTIONS?

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Appendix II

Backup Template Slides

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@HemantElhence+1. 469.374.0500

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