neil potter presentation

© Copyright 2009-2015 The Process Group. All rights reserved. 1 Version 2.3www.processgroup.com

10 Leadership Practices to Lead Agile Teams

It Doesn't Have to be Like Oil and Water!

Neil Potter

The Process [email protected] www.processgroup.com

This presentation: processgroup.com/agile-leadership-potter-v2p3.pdf


Agenda •  Oil and water - typical symptoms •  Starting point – a common goal •  10 leadership practices:

1.  Focus on results; use practices to manage time, money and risk 2.  Maximize the benefits of Agile / Scrum – why did you select it? 3.  Employ commitment by involvement 4.  Empower teams 5.  Map Agile to contract deliverables and Waterfall (if needed) 6.  Define appropriate release plans, estimates, risks, dependencies, deadlines 7.  Deal with ugly burndown data 8.  Set priorities - none, too many, too often, just right 9.  Use retrospective data 10. Set a great example – use Agile yourself

•  Summary and Q&A


Intro. to Neil

•  Degree in Computer Science •  Certified Scrum Master •  Certified CMMI appraiser/trainer •  Certified 6-Sigma Green Belt •  Developer & project manager – Texas Instruments (’85-’91) •  Consultant – The Process Group (1990-current)

•  Ex-developer, consultant since 1990 •  Focus on improving project & organizational

results world-wide •  Teach new skills (Scum, requirements, PM, CMMI..) •  Fix project & organizational problems •  Stitch process stuff together (Scrum, CMMI,

PMBOK, ?) into team workflows


Oil and Water - Typical Symptoms •  Management frustrated with unpredictable

release dates: – Can’t predict revenue – Projects drag on 2 weeks at a time with no end

in sight (prediction vs. discovery) – Customer needs are discovered continually -

can’t pin a set of features to a revenue goal – Expend more $ than earned – Test resources, defect repairs and support costs

increase All while payroll is a steady & very large expense

Total disconnect between developing software and running the business. Best promise: “We’re Agile – it will work out!”


5-Minute Exercise

3 mins: In groups of 3-4 discuss: – 1. What 2-3 leadership behaviors inhibit Agile? – 2. What 2-3 things describe YOUR oil vs. water challenge

»  That is, where do leadership and team members disagree? 2 mins: discuss publicly


Starting Point – A Common Goal •  Communicate the overall goal:

– Make team members, Scrum Masters, Project/Program Managers (PM) aware of the overall goal, not just the next sprint goal

–  Includes: »  Customer needs »  Deadlines, competition »  Quality expectations »  Budget and/or profit goals »  Resource constraints

Goal

In the best organizations, the PM is responsible for the overall goal. The whole team understands and works towards the overall goal.

Goal?

Goal? Goal?

Goal?


10 Leadership Practices


1. Focus On Results Add practices to achieve the goal

Goal • Goals uncover problems • Additional practices solve problems • Frameworks house practices

Pro

duct

Bac

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Test

Sprint Retrospective R

elea

se P

lann

ing

Spr

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lann

ing You might need to add:

•  Drywall •  Plumbing •  Doors •  Windows?

•  Risk management •  CM •  Design •  Quality assurance

Remember: Scrum is a framework, not the end goal


2. Maximize the Benefits of Agile / Scrum Don’t ditch Agile, fix what is broken

•  You adopted Agile because: – Early user feedback on features? – Requirement changes can be incorporated earlier? – Work is chunked, tracked and visible? – Team & communication

•  Keep Agile and improve common issues: – Work goes on for ever with no sellable release defined – User story mumbo-jumbo: “As a developer I would like to

write code to sort XYZ data” – No documentation to communicate / remember requirements,

concepts and decisions

Don’t allow your initial Agile benefits to be down-graded into chaos


3. Commitment by Involvement •  Betty Crocker cake, 1952

– Withheld the powered egg in the cake mix – Cook adds fresh eggs to make it “their cake”

•  Communicate TENTATIVE goals: – Teach teams how to plan ACHIEVABLE options

•  Seek feedback from team: – What is possible? – What is risky? – What are the options: delivery, cost, features

etc.? •  Select at least 2 options (plan A and plan B)

Teams will do everything they can when committed by involvement. Otherwise you have an uncommitted eye-rolling team.


•  Set achievable (but big) goals – not doomed for failure: – Explain what is absolute and cannot change – Don’t fabricate goals, “It must be done in 90 days” (to keep

you guys focused) •  Give them responsibility (and reward):

– Don’t take the reward after their hard work! – Be humble and help the team

•  Provide positive feedback: – People work better when they feel better. (They are bitter,

disengaged and expend minimal effort when they don’t!)

4. Empower Teams

Show you understand them - resolve their issues NOW so they can focus – become a Super Hero


5. Map Agile To Contract Deliverables & Waterfall (if needed)

70%Requirements30%Other(Requirements,Design,Code,unitTest,systemTest,acceptanceTest?)

Req Design Unit Test Code Sys. Test Accept. Test

70% R 30%

70% R 30%

70% D 30%

70% D 30%

70% C 30%

70% C 30%

70% C 30%

40% T 60%

50% T 50%

60% T 40%

70% T 30%

80% T 20%

90% T 10%

100% T 0%

Sprint

Waterfall

Scrum

You explain!


6. Define Appropriate Release Plans Don’t be scared of release plans. Add practices to manage them.

Need to add practices? þEffort / story points þRelease plan ☐Master schedule ☐Stakeholder coordin. ☐Risk management

Deliverable 5 Deliverable 4 Deliverable 3

Deliverable 2

Deliverable 1 Deliverable 7

A sellable release

When can we deliver / sell?

Help your teams scale up PM practices


7. Deal With Ugly Burndown Data •  Scrum does a great job of uncovering stinky issues:

– Technical challenges – Supplier qualifications – Little planning or estimation – Priorities changing so fast that nothing is completed

Rev

iew

Bac

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S

prin

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g A

naly

sis

Des

ign

Cod

e Te

st

Spr

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spec

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Spr

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Observation / Causes •  They won’t catch up – graph has no trend downwards. •  The data wreaks “Replan” – but no one does. •  Common underlying issues:

– Scope creeps continually with no evaluation of changes. – Team priorities are changed every week, so little gets finished. – Management does not agree among themselves what is

important – so everything is.

Management doesn’t like the situation (too painful) and ignores it.


8. Set Priorities None, too many, too often, just right

Risk

Too many, too often: •  Everything started, nothing finished •  Quality problems •  Burnout

None: •  Risk of wrong focus •  Customer needs not met •  Team drifting along

Just right: •  Deliverables are met with

expected quality

Target in here

somewhere


9. Use Retrospective Data •  Got challenges? •  Scrum gives you great data:

– Retrospectives, velocity, test results •  Are you using the data?

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Retrospective / progress / quality data

Retrospective / progress / quality data

Retrospective / progress / quality data

Organized Data

•  Improve the process •  Improve the tools •  Train teams

•  Encourage (and insist) teams to improve

•  Giving them time, guidance

•  Monitor the results


10. Set a Great Example Use Agile Yourself!

User Story Story Points Tasks Estimate (Ideal Time)

Sprint

Big todo 1 21 1

Big todo 2 34 1

Big todo 3 55 1

Big todo 4 42 2

Big todo 5 13 2

Big todo 6 20 2

Big todo 7 20 2

Big todo 8 20 3

Big todo 9 42 3

Big todo 10 35 3

110

poin

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poi

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97 p

oint

s


5-Minute Exercise

•  In groups of 3-4 discuss: – What 2-3 changes will you recommend back at the work

place to: » Help your Agile teams be Agile » Meet management needs?


Q&A


References •  Implementing Scrum (Agile) and CMMI Together. Process Group Post newsletter, March

2009. http://www.processgroup.com/pgpostmar09.pdf •  Adding Practices to Scrum to Achieve Your Goals (and comparison with CMMI Level 3):

http://www.processgroup.com/pgpostapr2013.pdf •  Articles: http://processgroup.com/agilescrum/ •  Potter, N., Sakry, M., Making Process Improvement Work - A Concise Action Guide for

Software Managers and Practitioners, Addison-Wesley, 2002. •  Scrum Guide: http://www.scrum.org/scrumguides/ (Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland) •  Scrum definition: http://www.scrumalliance.org/ •  Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed, Boehm and Turner, Addison-

Wesley, 2003 •  Succeeding with Agile, Mike Cohn, Addison-Wesley, 2009 •  Managing The Development Of Large Software Systems, Dr. Winston W. Royce

http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2003/cmsc838p/Process/waterfall.pdf •  Example CMMI Level 5 Scrum story:

–  http://jeffsutherland.com/SutherlandScrumCMMIHICSS2008.pdf


Comparison to CMMI (Summary)

•  Some requirements •  Some design • Coding •  Some test •  Some lessons learned

• No

• Most Requirements Management • Most Project Planning • Most Project Monitoring/Control • Most Measurement Analysis (effort

and progress)

In Scrum? Level 3 coverage - very dependent on how YOU define the phases

Approx. 47% coverage of Level 2

Ref.: processgroup.com/pgpostmar09.pdf


CMMI, Scrum, PMBOK

3 Defined

2 Managed

1 Initial

Process Areas Level Focus

Risk Rework

Quality Productivity

Integrated Project Management (IPM) Risk Management (RSKM) Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) Requirements Development (RD) Technical Solution (TS) Product Integration (PI) Verification (VER) Validation (VAL) Organizational Process Definition (OPD) Organizational Process Focus (OPF) Organizational Training (OT) Requirements Management (REQM) (Scrum) Project Planning (PP) (Scrum) Project Monitoring and Control (PMC) (Scrum) Measurement and Analysis (MA) (Scrum) Configuration Management (CM) Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA) Supplier Agreement Management (SAM)

Causal Analysis and Resolution Organizational Performance Management 5 Optimizing

4 Quantitatively Managed

Organizational Process Performance Quantitative Project Management

4. Project Integration Management

5. Project Scope Management

6. Project Time Management

7. Project Cost Management

8. Project Quality Management

9. Project Human Resource Management

10. Project Communications Management

11. Project Risk Management

12. Project Procurement Management

13. Project Stakeholder Management


Scrum with CMMI & PMBOK

ò ò ò REQM REQM REQM

PP / IPM PMBOK 4-13 (plans, estimates)

IPM (planning w/ assets, data, program-level tracking) RSKM (risk management) OT (planned training program) OPF (process improvement focus) OPD (process asset creation / update) DAR (tradeoffs using criteria)

PMC (progress tracking and corrective action) MA (objectives & measures) CM (baselines & versions) SAM (supplier selection & management) PPQA (process & product check) PMBOK 4-13

Green = Maturity Level 2 PAs Blue = Maturity Level 3 PAs Burgundy = PMBOK Section

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Planning Backlog

REQM / RD PMBOK 5 Requirements (RD)

Design (TS) Code (TS) Test (VER) Integrate (PI) Test (VAL) Release

Requirements (RD) Design (TS) Code (TS) Test (VER) Integrate (PI) Test (VAL) Release

Requirements (RD) Design (TS) Code (TS) Test (VER) Integrate (PI) Test (VAL) Release

neil potter presentation

Leadership & Management