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Why Agile Works

Why Agile Works
and why it isn’t working for you

Why Agile Works
and why it isn’t working for you
(maybe…)

Causerie
An informal discussion or chat
(www.thefreedictionary.com)

Causerie
An informal discussion or chat,
especially of an intellectual nature.
(www.thefreedictionary.com)

Smart people

David Harvey
www.teamsandtechnology.com

David Harvey
www.teamsandtechnology.com

David Harvey
www.teamsandtechnology.com

David Harvey
www.teamsandtechnology.com

David Harvey
www.teamsandtechnology.com

In the old days

Project failure rate
70% of IT projects failed
(for some value of “failure”)

But hold on…

Project success rate
30% of IT projects succeeded
(for some value of “success”)

Doing something right

Agile projects failing?
Are 70% of agile projects failing?

Tombstone
A. M. Kuchling
flickr.com

Scientology

All projects failing?
Do 70% of all projects fail?

Bridge fail 1

Bridge fail 2

Road fail 1

Building fail
Sxenco
Wikimedia Commons

Gawunde

Surgery

Recurrence rate
Recurrence in hernia surgery
Average recurrence rate: 10-15%
Shouldice Clinic recurrence rate: 1%

Positive deviant
Positive deviant

Brief History HEADER
A brief history
of Agile

1990s
1990s

Smart people

Back to basics

Fundamentals
eXtreme Programming
Scrum
Adaptive Software Development
DSDM
…

2000s
2000-2007

Manifesto (2001)

Convergence

Late 2000s
2008…

Mainstream
Scrum
+
TDD
+
…
?

What is agile? HEADER
What is agile?

Manifesto again
We 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.
www.agilemanifesto.org

Characteristics
Adaptive
Iterative
Fast
Practical
Communicative
Team focus
Based in values

Why does it work? HEADER
Why does it work?

Light switch - off
Dries Buytaert
buytaert.net

Light switch - on
Dries Buytaert
buytaert.net

Light switch - off
Dries Buytaert
buytaert.net

Light switch - on
Dries Buytaert
buytaert.net

Light switch - off
Dries Buytaert
buytaert.net

Black!

Party Friends
www.howtomakeatoga.info

Party House
digicia
flickr.com

Party Drink

Party Music
Jim Winstead Jr
trainedmonkey.com

Party Script
Richard Moross
flickr.com

Party Friends
? www.howtomakeatoga.info

Simple vs Complex domains
Simple domain: defined process control
Complex domain: empirical process control
(perform, inspect, adapt)

What can go wrong?
HEADER
So why does it go wrong?

Following the book

Smart people

Just following instructions
Cindy McCravey
flickr.com

History written by the victors
“History is written by the victors”
(aka retrospective coherence)

Retrospective coherence

Unintended consequences

Some tests
function testCamelCaseUpperEmpty() {
assertEquals(\"Empty input should give empty output\",
\"\",
convertIdentifier(\"\",CI_TEXT,CI_CAMEL_UPPER));
}
function testCamelCaseUpperOneChar() {
assertEquals(\"Single char should map to upper\",
\"A\",
convertIdentifier(\"a\",CI_TEXT,CI_CAMEL_UPPER));
}
function testCamelCaseUpperOneWord() {
assertEquals(\"Single word should have initial upper and rest lower\",
\"Hello\",
convertIdentifier(\"hello\",CI_TEXT,CI_CAMEL_UPPER));
}
function testCamelCaseUpperTwoWords() {
assertEquals(\"Two words should have initial uppers and rest lower, space removed\",
\"HelloWorld\",
convertIdentifier(\"hello world\",CI_TEXT,CI_CAMEL_UPPER));
}
function testCamelCaseUpperMessy() {
assertEquals(\"Messy string should have initial uppers, rest lower, all spaces removed\",
\"HelloFunkyWorld\",
convertIdentifier(\" hELlO FunKy woRld \",CI_TEXT,CI_CAMEL_UPPER));
}

function convertIdentifier(src, srcType, dstType) {
var allWords = src.split(srcType.sepExp);
Passes the tests
var nonEmptyWords = allWords.filter(function(word) { return word != '';} );
var correctCaseWords = nonEmptyWords.map(dstType.calcCase);
var result = correctCaseWords.join(dstType.joinChar);
return result;
}
var CI_TEXT ={
sepExp: ' ',
joinChar: ' ',
calcCase: _toLower
};
var CI_CAMEL_UPPER = {
sepExp: /(?=[A-Z])/,
joinChar: '',
calcCase: _toInitialUpper
};
var CI_CAMEL_LOWER = {
sepExp: /(?=[A-Z])/,
joinChar: '',
calcCase: function(word, index) {return index == 0 ? _toLower(word) : _toInitialUpper(word);}
};
function _toLower(s) {
return s.toLowerCase();
}
function _toInitialUpper(s) {
return s[0].toUpperCase() + s.slice(1).toLowerCase();
}

var CI_TEXT = 0;
var CI_CAMEL_UPPER = 1;
var CI_CAMEL_LOWER = 2;
So does this
function convertIdentifier(s, from, to) {
var result;
if (from == CI_CAMEL_UPPER && to == CI_CAMEL_LOWER || from == CI_CAMEL_LOWER && to == CI_CAMEL_UPPER) {
// camelCase function doesn't deal with this conversion, but it's easy
if (to == CI_CAMEL_LOWER)
result = s.charAt(0).toLowerCase();
else
result = s.charAt(0).toUpperCase();
var end = s.length;
for (i = 1; i < end; i++)
result += s.charAt(i);
} else {
var undo;
if (to == CI_TEXT) undo = true; else undo = false;
var flag;
if (to == CI_CAMEL_UPPER) flag = true; else flag = false;
result = camelCase(s, flag, undo);
}
return result;
}
function camelCase(s, flag, undo) {
var l = s.split(' ');
var i = 0;
var lc = ' ';
var r = '';
while (i < s.length) {
if (s[i] == ' ' && !undo) {
lc = s[i++];
continue;
} else {
if (lc == ' ' && !undo) {
r = r + s[i++].toUpperCase();
lc = '';
} else if (undo) {
// in undo mode
if (i > 0) {

So does this
“simple”
!=
“the first thing that passes the tests”

Stress

Sprint
Zen
Wikimedia Commons

Marathon

Persistence of Bureaucracy
yaraaa
flickr.com

Lack of engineering skills

Leave it to development
themadlolscientist
flickr.com

Broken window
Sharat Ganapati
flickr.com

How do we succeed HEADER
How do we succeed?

Taking responsibility

Personal mastery

Team mastery

Visible Change
irargerich
flickr.com

What people think
Planning
Sprint review
Sprint

What people need to do
Planning
Sprint review
Sprint
Retrospective
Retrospective actions

Active leadership

Congruent behaviour

Supporting pillars
di_the_huntress
flickr.com

Just enough process

Tools not the answer

Paying attention, care about
outcomes

END
Thank you

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