guest lecture - uppsala universitet - introducing agile

Citerus - Tobias Fors, 2009 - [email protected]

Introducing Agile

Tobias Fors, Citerus [email protected] 90 86

My company: www.citerus.seMy blog: www.tobiasfors.seTwitter: @tofo

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Guest lecture at Uppsala University, September 2009

mailto:[email protected]


http://www.citerus.se

http://www.citerus.se

http://www.tobiasfors.se

http://www.tobiasfors.se

Citerus - Tobias Fors, 2009 - [email protected], 0709-43 90 86

About Tobias Fors‣ Consultant since 1999, developer, project mgr, consultant, coach

‣ Experience from being a scrum master in both development and change projects

‣ Helped introduce Scrum as development method at Tain, Readsoft, Entraction, Wireless Car

‣ Trained and coached Scrum projects at SMHI, Arbetsmiljöverket, Siemens, Digital Illusions

‣ Certified Scrum Trainer, Scrum Alliance. Has trained staff of many of Sweden’s big consulting companies

‣ Also: project startups, planning, workshops, evaluations, retrospectives

‣ Introduced kanban for eTraveli operations and marketing

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About Citerus

• Citerus is a consulting company specialized in helping clients succeed with their software development projects. Since 1996, we have developed software, led projects, refined engineering practices and improved management methods for companies from a diverse set of trades. We gain break-through results by raising the quality bar, putting people first and reducing bureaucracy.




Agenda

1. Start

2. A Little About Change

3. Introducing Agile

4. Assignment

5. End

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Start

• Times?

• Format!

• Why are we here today?

• Who am I?

• Why did you choose to come here today?

• What do you expect from today?

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A Little About Change

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Going Agile - In Plain Language

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We want to use agile software development

We want to change the way we act

Some of us want to change the way some of us act




Exercise: Perspective

• A man is driving his car, and stops by a hotel. He realizes that he is bankrupt, gives up, and becomes very disappointed.

• What happened?

• I will answer your questions about the situation with a yes or a no.

• The answer to this exercise is simple

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The Blind Men and the Elephant

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Violent and Non-Violent Change

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Violent Non-Violent




Non-Violent Change

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First:Understand

Then:Change




Using Resistance as a Resource

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“No matter how it seems, people are trying to be helpful”- Jerry Weinberg

“Assume they are rational.”- Russell Ackoff




Exercise: Understand Forces For and Against

• What are some forces that work or against agile?

• Let’s put these in a force field analysis

Plan: Introducing

AgileFor Against

For-force 1

For-force 2

...

Against-force 1

Against-force 2

...

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The Dangers of Pressure

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Pressure to Change Change

Pressure can crush things for good

When pressure stops, change stops




A Too Simplified Model of Change

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Time

Performance

Need to change




A More Nuanced Model of Change

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Time

Performance

Late status quo

Chaos

Integration

Foreign element

Transforming idea

New status quo

Resistance

Learn more here: http://www.stevenmsmith.com/my-articles/article/the-satir-change-model.html



http://www.stevenmsmith.com/my-articles/article/the-satir-change-model.html

http://www.stevenmsmith.com/my-articles/article/the-satir-change-model.html


Exercise: Experience Change

• Grab a blank index card and a pen

• Write your full name on the card

• Turn the note over

• Write your name again - but this time with the other hand

• What are your reactions to this experience? ✎

• Will you share an experience of change you’ve been part of? ✎

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Thank you Steve Smith for this exercise!




Chaos -> survival -> short term thinking

“Fear makes the short term almost the only thing that people see or focus on.”-- Pfeffer, Sutton, 2000

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Survival Instincts in Management

• “Teamwork sounds good, but …”

• “Let’s just test it in the live system …”

• “I hear what you’re saying, but …”

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“It can’t be done”

What would it take for this to be possible?




Example: The Reward Once You Make it Through

“I’ve gotten more done the last three weeks than the previous three years here.” – Developer, gaming company

“The way we talk to each other now, we’ve never talked before.”– Project member, another gaming company

“Before, I always felt like a pain in the ass when I came in with questions and suggestions. Now I feel really welcome.”– Product owner

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Simple Works Better

“We observed that organizations that were better at learning and translating knowledge into action understood the virtue of simple language, simple structures, and and the power of common sense …”– Pfeffer, Sutton, 2000

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Don’t forget the Law of Strawberry Jam




Introducing Agile

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An Old Source of Conflict: How Should We Develop?

Manifesto for Agile Software DevelopmentWe are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

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

Kent BeckMike Beedle

Arie van BennekumAlistair Cockburn

Ward CunninghamMartin Fowler

James GrenningJim HighsmithAndrew HuntRon Jeffries

Jon KernBrian Marick

Robert C. MartinSteve Mellor

Ken SchwaberJeff SutherlandDave Thomas

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Do We Really Need Something New?

“Second, research demonstrates that the success of most interventions designed to improve organizational performance depends largely on implementing what is already known, rather than from adopting new or previously unknown ways of doing things.”– Pfeffer, Sutton, 2000

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Vision: Towards, not Away From

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The Vision: A Goal Beyond “Introducing Agile”

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• Quality?

• Time?

• Cost?

• Quality of work life?

“We really don’t have any problems, it’s just that we think that it would be convenient to have a new way of working.”




Exercise: Vision of Change

• Think for a minute: Can you identify a powerful vision you’ve encountered, that attracted either you or someone else

• What made the vision so compelling? ✎

• Have you felt alienated from a vision at some time?

• What made you feel alienated? ✎

• What are the ingredients of a powerful vision? ✎

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Find Change Owner and a Change Team

“Anyone who is to use Scrum would benefit from trying it once in an environment where it is truly supported by management, as I got to do.”– Product owner

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Invite Everyone Early

• Start with retrospectives

• Capture experiences

• Reduces speculation and rumors

• What you co-create, you:

• understand

• believe

• own

• develop

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Y! are hereby invited to a chan" for #e be$er of us all




Example: You Can Do it With the Entire Group

• Goal: Design and implement visual management system• Constraint: work cannot stop• Method: workshop with laptops and cell phones on• Result: a popular and very efficient management system

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Forming Effective Teams

• Create teams that can complete valuable functionality as indepently as possible

Method, values

Goal

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“Our part of the system”




You’ll Need Agile Change Artists

• Key role in change work

• Teams and rest of organization need support and coaching

• Understands and teaches agile

• Gently pushes on

• Helps when someone falls

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Impedi-ment

Process

Product

Policies

People

“Fish bone diagram”




Training and coaching

• The development process itself

• Solid engineering practices

• Steering the product

• Building in quality

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Define Done

• Needed for estimation of work

• Enables cooperation

• Clarifies expectations

• Minimum: frequent testing, frequent integration, effective release management

• Expand as learning happens

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Tip: Behavior Influences Attitude

“There is a large literature demonstrating that attitudes follow behavior. That means that people accepts new beliefs as a result of changing their behavior.”– Pfeffer, Sutton, 2000

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Common Challenges

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Challenge: The Change is Reverted

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Challenge: Inadequate Engineering Practices

• Critical challenge if you lack:

• Effective configuration management (late integration, merge conflicts)

• Test automation at several levels

• Smooth release management (builds, packaging, deployment)

• Going forward:

• Expand your definition of done

• Coach, train, practice

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Challenge: Going From Expert to Team Player

Expert: Instructions, veto right, knows best

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Team players: Helps, supports, teaches




Challenge: Cherry Picking From a System

• Can you “cherry pick” specific practices?

• Scrum, for example, is a system where the parts interact to give a result

• When you take the parts out of the system, they no longer function the same way

• Example: You cannot take one leg of a chair and expect to get a certain percentage of “chair functionality”

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Tip: Be “Programatic”

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Dogmatic Pragmatic“Progmatic”

1. Think about consequences2. Make the change3. Evaluate the result




Common Challenge: Disruptive Incentive Systems

• Rewarding lines of code produced

• Acknowledging heroes

• Collisions between the individual and the team

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Assignment

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Assignment: More Change

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• When you go from your home to class the next time, take a different route

• After this, start a new mail in your favorite mail client

• Journal for exactly 5 minutes about your reflections on this change

• If you want to (and I’d love it if you did), send the text to me

[email protected]






References

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Suggested Reading

• Pfeffer, Sutton: The Knowing-Doing Gap

• Schmaltz: The Blind Men and the Elephant

• Kotter: Leading Change

• Everything by Jerry Weinberg, for example: Quality Software Management I –!IV

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End

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Return on Time Invested

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“ROTI”‣ Was today a good time investment?

‣ 2 = “Even Steven”

‣ 4 = An excellent investment

‣ 0 = Wasted time

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4

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guest lecture - uppsala universitet - introducing agile

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