The state of agile in ten easy learned lessons

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The state of agile in ten easy lessons learned
Sander Hoogendoorn
Author of This Is Agile
@aahoogendoorn
BEYOND BREAKING BAD

BEYOND BREAKING BAD. THE STATE OF AGILE IN TEN EASY LESSONS ©2001 -2014 Sander Hoogendoorn. All Rights Reserved
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Sander Hoogendoorn
Me independent.. (February 2015)
Dad
Mentor, trainer, software architect, programmer
Books, articles, conferences
Work
Principal technology officer Capgemini
Global design authority agile Capgemini
Chief technology officer insurance company
Web
www.sanderhoogendoorn.com
www.smartusecase.com
www.speedbird9.com
@aahoogendoorn
sander@ditisagile.nl

@aahoogendoorn

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Introducing the Netherlands. December 5!
Name: Sinterklaas
Born: December 5
Age: 700+
Name:
Black Pete
Colour:
Not really black
(yes it’s make up)

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Why it fails
THE WATERFALL MODEL

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Waterfall?

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We’ve got a plan and we’ll stick to it

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Boehm’s Law. Testing is always too late

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Waterfall?

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Lesson one
AGILE IS NOT YOUR SILVER BULLET

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Trying something different

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The state of agile

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Agile is dead

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Agile conferences…

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Manifesto for what again?

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Lesson two
HAVING SOME PROCESSIS NOT A BAD THING

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We are uncovering better ways to change the world?

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Process? What process?

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What do you mean Scrum is not a process?

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FDD. Adding some process

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Smart. Adding some processCreateproject proposalWriteproject planDeliverworkingsoftwareStabilizesoftware

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DSDM. Adding more process

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Boehm’s Law applied to iterations

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Lesson three
THE SCRUM MASTER ISN’T ALWAYS A MASTER
?

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Lowering our fences

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Lowering our fences

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Dogmagile

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Become a scrum master? A servant-leader-master?

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Scrumman

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Lesson four
LOOSE THE SCRUM BOARD

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WHAT’S THE REAL STATUS?

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VISUALIZE YOUR FLOW…

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…AND GO WITH THE FLOW

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Not exactly like Kanban? Who cares. It works for us
LIMIT WIP?

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Boehm’s Law applied to backlog items

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Do we really need projects?

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Lesson five
WE ARE NOT MANUFACTURING

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How long do you need to build this feature?
Eh .. I don’t know. It depends I guess
20 hours.

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Please for once give me an exact number you silly nerd!
Stop asking me these things I don’t really have an answer to

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We are using the wrong metaphors
How long do you need to build this feature?
buildthis

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Manufacturing? Construction?
Manufacturing and construction are linear processes
Software development is a creative process and it is very much non-linear
Software isn’t Built, it’s Invented
Coding is a creative problem. Every time a developer writes code, he is taking a non-deterministic path towards an unknown solution — a unique solution that has never been created before. If the work weren’t unique, he wouldn’t need to write it, he’d simply copy and paste it.

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Lesson six
SELF-ORGANIZATIONCANBEPRETTYTOUGH

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Magic!

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Drawing owls

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Lesson seven
ALLOW THE TEAM TO LEARN

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GERALD WEINBERG

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Learning how to play pinball

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“Whenever I suggest stepping back, easing up, laughing a little at ourselves, and going outside our own field, somebody objects, saying, ‘But software is different. We have to work harder, concentrate more, because nothing is as complex as software.’
Well, of course software is different, and more complex than anything people have ever before attempted to engineer. But that’s why we have to loosen our structures, not tighten them. That’s why we must learn from any place we can, any way we can.”
–Gerald Weinberg, 1982.

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Lesson eight
TRUST THE METRICS

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With creative work estimates are rarely linear

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So no projects? No estimates?
LEARN TO LIVE WITH AMBIGUITY

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How big is this feature?
Eh .. I don’t know. It depends I guess
About 4 points.

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Those who do the work, do the estimate

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Lesson nine
YOU ARE NOT USAINBOLT

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Sprints. Scrum’s mini-projects
The team commits
to deliver

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The red sprint anti-pattern

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Reverse planning

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Trust the metrics

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Lesson ten
PROJECT MANAGERS ARE (NOT) A TOTAL WASTE AFTER ALL

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Instructing the team how to march
THE TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGER

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The traditional project manager
ProjectManager
Customer
Analyst
UI Designer
Architect
Developer
Developer
Tester

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“AGILE” PROJECT MANAGERS FACILITATE THE TEAM

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The agile team facilitator
Team
Customer
Analyst
UI Designer
Developer
Developer
Tester
ProjectManager

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MANAGE THE ENVIRONMENT

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Isn’t that what the scrum master does?

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This is where a project manager comes in handy

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IN RETROSPECTIVE?

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In theory…
•The whole organization is already working agile
•You don’t need a steering committee
•Budget flows automatically
•Everybody wants to collaborate
•Teams are self-steering
•You don’t need a process
•No external parties are involved
•The product owner perfectly represents all stakeholders
•No project manager is needed
•The Scrum Master is our hero
•You always make the sprint
But in practice
You’re likely the first agile project in the organization
Management requires a steering committee
Budgets need to be guarded
People are conservative
Self-steering is hard
A little process is unavoidable
There are always external parties
The product owner only represents a sub-set of all stakeholders
Yes they are needed!
The Scrum Master is too junior
Sprints “fail” all the time

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Lesson ten
THERE IS NO SO THING AS ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL AGILE

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Agile is a sliding scale
Ceremony
Agility

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THERE’S VALUE FOUND IN ALL AGILE APPROACHES. AND EVEN IN WATERFALL

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Available from amazon.com
THIS IS AGILE

@aahoogendoorn
www.sanderhoogendoorn.comwww.smartusecase.comwww.speedbird9.com
sander@ditisagile.nl
@aahoogendoorn
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