Leading the agile organization

© Torak, Inc. www.torak.com
Leading the
Agile Organization
Organizational agility has been defined as the capability of a company to rapidly
change or adapt in response to changes in the market so that it can thrive as an
organization. In this session, we will focus on the role of the leader in shaping,
promoting and sustaining an Agile organization. We will describe the Agile
Mindset, discuss the key elements of an Agile Transformation and reveal the ideal
characteristics of an Agile Leader. This interactive session will provide examples
from successful Agile organizations and will reveal techniques that participants
can use to effectively plan, scale and flow valuable work throughout their own
organizations.

About Dimitri Ponomareff
Dimitri Ponomareff (www.linkedin.com/in/dimka5) is a
Coach. Whether it's a sports team, software products or
entire organizations, Dimitri has that ability to relate and
energize people. He is consistently recognized as a very
passionate and successful change agent, with an
overwhelming capacity to motivate and mobilize teams on
their path to continuous improvements. He is a master
facilitator, as well as a captivating speaker with consistent,
positive feedback regarding his ability to engage an
audience.
As a certified Coach, Project Manager and Facilitator of "The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People", Dimitri brings a full spectrum of knowledge in his delivery of
methodologies. Through teaching by example, he is able to build teams of people who
understand where to focus their work to generate the most value.
He has coached and provided tailor-made services and training for a multitude of
organizations. The short list includes, American Express, Charles Schwab, Bank of
America, Morgan Stanley, Best Western, Choice Hotels, JDA Software, LifeLock,
First Solar, Infusionsoft and Mayo Clinic. Dimitri enjoys his work, and does
everything to ensure he shares his knowledge with others who seek it.

The Agile Mindset
● The Agile Manifesto
● The Paradigm Shift from Waterfall to Agile
● The Third Wave of Agile

The Agile Manifesto - 4 Values
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
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.
Source: www.agilemanifesto.org

The Agile Manifesto - 12 Principles
1. Satisfy the Customer
2. Welcome Change
3. Deliver Frequently
4. Work as a Team
5. Motivate People
6. Communicate Face-to-Face
Source: www.agilemanifesto.org
7. Measure Working Software
8. Keep a Sustainable Pace
9. Excel at Quality
10. Keep it Simple
11. Self-Organize
12. Reflect and Adjust Regularly

Organizational agility...
is the ability of an organization to effectively
sense and adapt in complex, rapidly changing
conditions so that it can thrive as an organization.

The Paradigm Shift from Waterfall to Agile
Plan
Driven
Value
Driven
Constraints Scope (requirements) Cost Time
Estimates Cost Time Scope (features)
Waterfall
Predictive Process
Agile
Adaptive Process
The plan creates
cost /schedule estimates
The vision creates
feature estimates

The Third Wave of Agile
Source: http://www.solutionsiq.com/the-third-wave-of-agile/

Agile Leadership
● Delighting customers
● The 3 Pillars of Empiricism
● Team Development & Leadership Styles
● The Cynefin Framework
● The Agile Compass
● True North

The Leader’s guide...
“The new goal for the
organization must be to
delight the customer.”
- The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Re-inventing the
Workplace for the 21st Century by Stephen Denning
Successful leaders use stories to get
their ideas across and spark enduring
enthusiasm for change.
- The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and
Discipline of Business Narrative by Stephen Denning

3 Pillars of Empiricism
Transparency
being open and not hiding what is going on, being highly visible
Inspection
reflecting on what has happened
Adaptation
make adjustments to improve

“Doveryai, no proveryai”
“Trust but verify”
“You always say that” Gorbachev noted laughingly at the White House arms
treaty signing in 1987.
“I like the sound of it” Reagan replied.

Team Development & Leadership Styles
Tuckman's stages
of group development

The Cynefin Framework
Leadership Across Contexts
● Simple Contexts
○ The Domain of Best Practice
○ Standard Operating Procedures
○ Date provides answers
● Complicated Contexts
○ The Domain of Experts
○ Predictive planning
○ Data provides options
● Complex Contexts
○ The Domain of Emergence
○ Pattern management
○ Heuristic method by telling stories
● Chaotic Contexts
○ The Domain of Rapid Response
○ Crisis management
○ Experience informs decisions
Source: A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making
by David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone

The Agile Compass
Leaders must designs for the emergence of capability in
these areas:
● Organizational Culture
○ People's beliefs, attitudes and assumptions
● Organizational Structure
○ Relationships, talent, risk, policies, rules and governance
● Leadership Styles
○ Leading, inspiring, directing and motivating others

True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership
Personal Leadership Development Plan
1. Knowing your authentic self
2. Defining your values and leadership principles
3. Understanding your motivations
4. Building your support team
5. Staying grounded by integrating all aspects of your life
Source: True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George
Agile leaders can adapt while keeping sight of
their True North.

Organizational Agility
● Plan to achieve your goals
● Scale to increase your productivity
● Flow to gain the most efficiencies
● Innovate from within
● Continuously improve

It’s all about communication
People who want IT must communicate
with people who can build IT.

Why, What & How
●WHY are we doing this?
Voice of the stakeholder (Stakeholders)
●WHAT needs to be done?
Voice of the user (Product Owner, Subject Matter Expert)
●HOW do we build it?
Voice of the developer (Scrum Team)

The 5 levels of Planning in Agile

Agile Vision - The Elevator Pitch
FOR (target customer)
WHO (statement of the need or opportunity)
THE (product name)
IS A (product category)
THAT (key benefit, compelling reason to buy)
UNLIKE (primary competitive alternative)
OUR PRODUCT (statement of primary differentiation)
Source: Geoffrey Moore’s template from Crossing the Chasm

Planning Traceability
Vision
Roadmap
R1 R2 R3 Rn
Release 1
SP1
Iteration 1
ST1 STnST3ST2
Iteration n
ST1 STnST3ST2
Story 1
T1 TnT3T2
Story n
T1 TnT3T2
SPnSP3SP2
Release n
SP1 SPnSP3SP2

Let’s play Plinko...

Scaling Scrum
“Scaling Scrum means getting rid of stuff
because everything in Scrum is just in time, just
enough,…and because any extra weight slows
you down and increases cost. ”
– Jeff Sutherland
Sutherland, Jeff. “Scaling Scrum – What People Are Not Talking About!”
http://www.scruminc.com/scaling-Scrum-what-people-are-not/

Lean thinking
Coined by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, it describes how to organize
human activities to deliver more benefits to society and value to individuals
while eliminating waste, by focusing on these concepts:
● Value
● Value streams
● Flow
● Pull
● Perfection

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Source: http://scaledagileframework.com/

Flow in psychology
Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person
performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of
energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the
process of the activity.
being in the zone

Flow in the workplace
Flow has been used in the software world as being "wired in", “hack mode”, or
simply “The Zone”.
The 3 conditions to achieve Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s
1. Goals are clear
2. Feedback is immediate
3. A balance between opportunity and capacity
Group Flow or group cohesion can be achieved through
● Creative spatial arrangements
● Playground design
● Parallel, organized working
● Target group focus
● Advancement of existing one with prototyping
● Increase in efficiency through visualization
● Using differences among participants as an
opportunity, rather than an obstacle

Ship it like FedEx
24 hours to innovate...
1. Work on whatever you want
2. Assemble your crew
3. You've got 24 hours... go
This approach has been coined by Atlassian. It
has now been renamed to ShipIt.
Source: www.atlassian.com/company/shipit
Other organizations conduct a
Hackathon or a Hack Day to
generate innovation.

Adobe Kickbox - Personal Innovation Kit
What’s the story behind Kickbox?
● Money - pre-paid credit card in the amount of US$1,000
● Instructions - quick reference cards outlining the six levels in the red box
● Innovation tools - scorecards, frameworks, exercises to develop ideas
● Caffeine and sugar - Starbucks gift card and a candy bar
Source: https://kickbox.adobe.com/

PDCA - Plan, Do, Check, Act
ACT
PLAN DO
PDCA
Cycle
CHECK
Continuous Improvements

Agile, Kanban & DevOps Coaching
Learn more at www.torak.com
Learn more at www.AgileTestingFramework.com
Learn more at www.kanbanzone.com

This presentation was inspired by the work of many people and we have done our very best to
attribute all authors of texts and images, and recognize any copyrights. If you think that
anything in this presentation should be changed, added or removed, please contact us.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
www.torak.com

Leading the agile organization

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