Three steps to sustainable agility

Three Steps to Sustainable Agility
Dan LeFebvre
Agile/Scrum Coach, CSC
© DCL Agility, 2010-2011
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Dan LeFebvreFounder & Agile Coach,DCL Agility, LLC
Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)Certified Scrum Coach (CSC)
Extensive experience in software product development as a developer, manager, director, and coach
Using agile practices since 2003
Fulltime Agile Coach since 2006
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Force Field Analysis
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Status Quo
Driving Forces
Restraining Forces
Desired State

Agile Transition Dynamics
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Status Quo
Driving Forces
Restraining Forces
Sustainable Agility
Transparency
Predictability
Self-Organizing Teams
Responsive to customer needs
Improved Quality
Astonishing Results
Fear of learning new skills
Current method is not working
process/PMO/roadblocks
Early successes
Departmental Friction
Initial excitement
Annual budgeting process
Agile Champion
Fear of losing position or power
Team self-organization

Sustainable Agility
Transparency
Predictability
Improved Quality
Astonishing Results
Agile Transition Dynamics
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Status Quo
Driving Forces
Restraining Forces
Early successes
Initial excitement
Agile Champion

Your Turn
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Status Quo
Driving Forces
Restraining Forces
Agile Greatness in Boston
Boston is the most active, most innovative & most vibrant Agile learning community on the planet, by any measure that can be named

Sustainable Agility
Transparency
Predictability
Improved Quality
Astonishing Results
How to Use FFA
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Status Quo
Driving Forces
Restraining Forces
Early successes
Initial excitement
Agile Champion

Reinforcing the Removal of Impediments
Teams will raise impediments
They will need help to remove them
If management ignores them, team will be discouraged
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Need an organization impediments removal mechanism

Enterprise Transition Community with Improvement Communities
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Source:
Succeeding with Agile Using Scrum- Mike Cohn

ScrumMaster Team
ScrumMasters are expected to be the organizational change agents
ScrumMasters form a team to remove impediments
Collects and prioritized impediments
Works to fix them in priority order

Sustainable Agility
Transparency
Predictability
Improved Quality
Astonishing Results
Handling Fear
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Status Quo
Driving Forces
Restraining Forces
Early successes
Initial excitement
Agile Champion

Fear
Learning something new is scary
Will I be good enough? What is wrong with my way?
Role changes are scary
Will my job go away? Will I like the new role?
Fear can trigger the “fight or flight” instinct
Many organizations see an increase in the attrition rate
Many organizations adopt “Scrumbut” behavior because resistance is too high in some areas
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Provide Support to Manage Fear
People need help to work through their fears
Help to understand new roles of ScrumMaster and Product Owner
How to test in agile way
An Agile Champion or Agile Coach can help initially
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Need an internal support system

User Groups and Conferences
Encourage people to continue learning
Provide budget for people to attend conferences
Require attendees to run “brown bag” learning sessions
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Communities of Practice
Groups of “like-minded” people get together to help and support each other
ScrumMasters
Product Owners
Testers
Architects
Managers
Share experiences, observe each other, provide feedback, review books, etc.
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Sustainable Agility
Transparency
Predictability
Improved Quality
Astonishing Results
Project Initiation
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Status Quo
Driving Forces
Restraining Forces
Early successes
Initial excitement
Agile Champion

Adopt Agility in the Annual Planning Process
Organizations need to commit to projects
Many managers have pet projects or stealth projects
Many people believe in “big, upfront” planning
This limits organizational agility
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Need an agile portfolio management process

Portfolio Management Process
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Source:
Manage Your Project Portfolio - Johanna Rothman

Summary
Use Force Field Analysis to examine forces affecting a change
Devise strategies to strengthen driving and weaken restraining
Three mechanisms to drive agility include:
An impediments handling process
An internal coaching process
An agile portfolio management process
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Questions
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Three steps to sustainable agility

by Dan LeFebvre

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