Four Principles, Four Cultures, One Mirror

Four Principles, Four Cultures, One Mirror
Israel Gat
Agile Roots
Salt Lake City, UT
June 16, 2009

Timeless Principles Intrinsic Obstacles

Obstacles Experienced in my Agile Journey
Individuals and interactions
over processes and tools
Re-crossing the chasm between customer and vendor
The “Sausage Syndrome”

Working software
over comprehensive documentation
License revenues versus service revenues: up to a 1:4 ratio
The economics of replacing enterprise software in mature markets

Customer collaboration
over contract negotiation
How do you “codify” Agile principles in contracts based on mutual worst case assumptions?
Technical debt

Responding to change
over following a plan
The market development myth
The primary vehicle by which things happen

A Worrisome Perspective
“ I estimate that 75% of those organizations using Scrum will not succeed in getting the benefits that they hope for from it… The intention of Scrum is to make [their dysfunctions] transparent so the organization can fix them. Unfortunately, many organizations change Scrum to accommodate the inadequacies or dysfunctions instead of solving them.”
[AgileCollab Interview with Ken Schwaber, February 19, 2009]
Remember This Figure

By rolling out Agile, you create a systemic duality and possibly a conflict
Culture = “how we do things around here in order to succeed” [Schneider, 1994]
The Agile Manifesto=“how we do software in order to succeed”
Hypothesis: Cultural Duality

Cultural Considerations

Taxonomy of Core Cultures 8 Actuality Impersonal Possibility Personal
Collaboration
Affiliation
Family/Athletic team
Nurse
Control
Power
Military
Surgeon
Competence
Achievement
University
Research scientist
Cultivation
Self-actualization
Religious institutions
Minister, priest, rabbi
Source [Schneider, 1994]

Culture to an Organization is like Character to an Individual
“ Individuals and corporate personality are constituted in much the same way. Both are living forces characterized by energy and direction… Each corporation has a psychic center, too, which consists of the beliefs, values, mission, attitudes and objectives that determine its-long term direction and short-term goals”
[Harmon & Jacobs, 1985]
9

Agile Rollout Strategies

Rollout Strategy #1
Build on strengths of the current culture
“… culture is singularly persistent… changing [organizational] behavior works only if it can be based on the existing ‘culture.’” [Drucker, 1991]
9

Rollout Strategy #1
Build on strengths of the current culture
“… culture is singularly persistent… changing [organizational] behavior works only if it can be based on the existing ‘culture.’” [Drucker, 1991]
9 There is always a Duck…

Rollout Strategy #2
Move toward an adjacent culture
“ A decade is a short period of time in which to expect to institutionalize cultural changes within a large organization.” [Denison, 1990]
9

Rollout Strategy #3
Move toward an opposite culture
Unlikely to succeed within a formed culture even if you are the company founder...
9

Schwaber’s 75% Failure Rate
For any culture:
One cultural identity
Two adjacent cultures
One opposite culture
¾=75%

Scaling and Culture

Scale Up
Likely to be least disruptive up to a point – you will probably stay within the culture in which you already demonstrated success
Furthermore, you are likely to be able to use the same Agile infrastructure

Scale Out
In this era you are likely to be adding local culture(s) into the mix – Bangalore, Beijing, Moscow, Sao Paolo, etc.
The various variants of Distributed Agile might not be optimal, but their use is inevitable in an era characterized by off-shoring and outsourcing
Key to success is minimizing implementation variances against the Manifesto principles

Scale “Diagonally”
Leveraging Agile success in R&D to drive change in downstream functions is an effective strategy…
… as long as you are mindful of the cultural boundaries you are crossing
Typical border crossing:
R&D  Marketing  Sales  Finance

Limit on Scaling
You can’t effectively scale up, scale out or scale diagonally beyond the joint infrastructure that serves constituencies which are affected by Agile
The data the culture pays attention to
The process by which decisions are made

Example from BMC Software Circa 2006: Diagonal Scaling, Multiple Constituencies, Joint Manual Tools “ xi” release Marketing Release Train “ uber” release 60-90 days 60-90 days 60-90 days 60-90 days R&D Release Train Engineering & Product Management Driven Frequency Market Driven Frequency “ beta” release “ maintenance” release Collaborative Asynchronous R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 GTM Processes

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Fairest Organization of Them All?

Using Your Mirror
Look at the organizational mirror to determine your core culture
Whatever your current culture might be, it is easier to build on its strengths than to try to change it
No single culture is right for Agile
(Note: this is different from a culture being a good fit for a certain endeavor)

Behavioral Changes through Tools
Good Agile tools are likely to induce behavioral changes (in good time) without necessitating a big cultural push
The data dimension: Single source of truth
The process dimension: Natural and automatic – like the response to an exciting video game

Principles for Applying Timeless Principles

Know Thyself
Subtleties of culture
over
the fine points of
one Agile method versus another

Be True to Thyself
Build on the strengths of
your culture
versus
trying to quickly change it

Behavioral Changes Through Tools
Joint Agile infrastructure
over
explicit cultural change pushes

Other Cultures are Part of your Mirror
“ The essence of organizational health is Cultural Balance, a condition in which the tendency toward excess that characterizes any ‘pure’ organizational culture is mitigated by the opposing tendencies of the other cultures”
[Harrison, 1987]

Continuing our Dialog Israel Gat [email_address] www.TheAgileExecutive.com

Four Principles, Four Cultures, One Mirror

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