So, Now You're An Agilist, What's Next?

Jurgen Appelo [email_address] version 2 So, Now You’re an Agilist... So, Now You’re an Agilist... What’s Next?

A. psychological profiles

B. leaders vs. rulers

C. organization types

D. organizational structures

E. risk management

F. organizational optimization

G. adaptive methods

H. non-linear improvement

J. tuning process dependencies

K. classification of methods

Agile... what’s next? My ideas, taken from complexity science

photo by blumpy disclaimer: this is a... (I sometimes change my opinion)

photo by Randy Son of Robert complexity what is it?

complex systems are self-organized photo by judepics

photo by ClintJCL complex systems show emergent behavior

photo by DavidHR complex systems behave in a non-linear way

photo by Noël Zia Lee (many) complex systems are adaptive

“ For example, an ant colony, the brain, the immune system, a Scrum team, and New York City, are self-organizing systems.” - Ken Schwaber Agile Software Development with Scrum “ At the heart of complex adaptive systems theory’s relevance to software development is the concept of emergence , and the factors leading to emergent results.” - Jim Highsmith Adaptive Software Development

some books I read…

The 12 Laws of Software Development Reduce Risk Measure Performance Evaluate Feedback Acquire Knowledge Manage Uncertainty Evolve Practices Motivate People Empower Teams Align Results Optimize Communication Enforce Discipline Restrain Growth which led me to “discover”…

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : a complex system ? : Agents Connections Rules

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #1: the agents must be active

photo by MikeBlogs

The 1 st Law of Software Development Motivate People

diversity brings robustness and flexibility photo by woodleywonderworks

what motivates one demotivates another

Don’t agree? There exists a selection of practices for which the sum of people’s motivational balances is optimal. therefore... “ In a software project the optimal method is a function of the psychological profiles of its team members.” Agreed? A

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #2: the system controls itself

photo by Andrew Mason

The 2 nd Law of Software Development Empower Teams photo by Elvire.R .

The Conant-Ashby Theorem: “Every good regulator of a system must have a model of that system.” controller inside the system good model

? ? ? However... as complexity increases, the models become too simplistic or too big. controller outside the systems bad models

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #3: the system is unaligned ? ? ? ?

unaligned self-organization photo by aviplot

aligned self-organization photo by john w

The 3 rd Law of Software Development Align Results photo by The Wandering Angel

self-organization this was the result of… photo by hive

photo by Mike Licht and this too…

photo by WordRidden The Law of Requisite Variety: a system can only be controlled by a more complex system

photo by marcn The Path and the Fence: Lead and Rule

photo by sonictk lead rule managers : find leaders and rulers

Who are the leaders ? Who are the rulers ? “ There should be both leaders and rulers inside and outside the teams.” Don’t agree? Agreed? B

ordered complex chaotic empowerment alignment ordered organizations need empowerment chaotic organizations need alignment The Edge of Chaos

Don’t agree? Agreed? “ How to implement agile depends on whether you come from an ordered or a chaotic situation.” C

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #4: the agents communicate

photo by woodleywonderworks

Optimize Communication The 4 th Law of Software Development photo by foxypar4

Optimal communication... Everyone is part of a (small) team All teams are cross-functional All are managed by like-minded manager But... where do we put the manager?

Option 1: Boss in team There are not 3 but 6 levels here! level 1+2 level 3+4 level 5+6

Option 2: Boss not in team Now there are only 3 levels! level 1 level 2 level 3

Option 3: Compromise Only 3 levels, but doesn’t scale well! level 1 level 2 level 3

Don’t agree? Agreed? “ Having the boss not in the team is the best solution for flattening and scaling a hierarchy.” D

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #5: the agents stick to rules 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. -----

photo by anna pearson

The 5 th Law of Software Development Enforce Discipline photo by kaibara87

photo by mudpig other people’s behavior must be predictable

The discipline stack...

Self (self-discipline)

Coach (teaching from master)

Peers (warnings from equals)

Signals (steering by infrastructure)

Supervisor (a guy walking around)

Manager (me, cleaning up the s**t)

The higher in this hierarchy discipline is achieved, the better.

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #6: the system tends to grow ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? :

photo by *Maurice**

The 6 th Law of Software Development Restrain Growth photo by mountainamoeba

photo by daisybush Parkinson’s Law organizations tend to get bigger

Cope’s Rule species tend to get bigger image by Bogdanov

Prevent systems from growing...

Limit input and output (keep it simple)

Make resources scarce (small budgets)

Reduce complexity (remove waste)

Clean up regularly (refactoring)

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #7: the system is exposed to risk

photo by Aaron Escobar

The 7 th Law of Software Development Reduce Risk photo by rednuht

Self-Organized Criticality a critical state of high risk photo by lrargerich

Don’t agree? Agreed? Someone needs to try and reduce the system’s exposure to risk... “ Risk management (mitigating potential impediments) can best be done by stepping outside the system.” E

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #8: the system must know how it’s doing +/+ -/-

photo by laffy4k

The 8 th Law of Software Development Measure Performance photo by xmatt

The Tragedy of the Commons: using shared resources photo by ojbyrne

optimize the whole

optimize the whole = manage shared resources

Don’t agree? Agreed? “ Optimize the whole means to optimize to the largest possible span of control, which can mean: don’t optimize the individual software projects.” F

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #9: the system responds to the input +/- -/+

photo by makelessnoise

The 9 th Law of Software Development Evaluate Feedback photo by JasonRogers

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #10: the system needs ways to learn !

The 10 th Law of Software Development Aquire Knowledge photo by procsilas

? ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #11: the system must cope with uncertainty

Adaptation to change…

The 11 th Law of Software Development Manage Uncertainty photo by rednuht

The Butterfly Effect small variations, big impact photo by Hamed Saber

? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : #12: the system figures out how to change 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 3. --- 4. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 4. --- 5. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. ----- 4. ----- 5. --- 6. ----- 2. ----- 3. --- 5. ----- 1. ----- 2. --- 3. -----

photo by Sukanto Debnath genotype (genes) phenotype (body)

The 12 th Law of Software Development Evolve Practices photo by Hulagway

fixed practices = not complex at all

Don’t agree? Agreed? Adaptive phenotype... changing requirements Adaptive genotype... changing environment “ Not just the project, but the method itself must be adaptable too.” G

Fitness Landscapes evaluating performance photo by Hulagway

“ It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” - Louis Carroll Through the Looking Glass The Red Queen Effect

process improvement Managing -- Metricate Analyze Check 7. Check Measurements -- -- -- Execute Do 6. Execute Processes (implicit) Improving Pilot 5. Implement Improvements Analyzing Improve Choose Act 4. Identify Improvements Plan 3. Define Metrics Targets Target Analyze Set Goals 2. Set Goals Managing Analysis Assess Understand Plan 1. Determine Problems CPI-7 Pr 2 imer AIM QIP PDCA

? linear improvement stuck on local optimum or walk through the valley (things get worse before they get better)

Crossover photo by Kevin N. Murphy mixing practices from two sources

non-linear improvement find higher peaks by averaging prior high performers

Don’t agree? Agreed? “ Linear improvement works up to a point, but to find the optimal development process you need a non-linear approach.” H

moderately connected system (several optimums) sparsely connected system (one optimum) intensively connected system (no real optimum)

Don’t agree? Agreed? “ Methods are strong when it’s easy to replace individual practices.” J

sudden burst of solutions image by Karl J. Niklas Punctuated Equilibrium

Attractors convergence of forms photo by Okko Pyykkö

Don’t agree? Agreed? “ We now experience a burst of methods and tools, due to environmental change. This could converge into a few main forms with many small variations.” K

The 12 Laws of Software Development Reduce Risk Measure Performance Evaluate Feedback Acquire Knowledge Manage Uncertainty Evolve Practices Motivate People Empower Teams Align Results Optimize Communication Enforce Discipline Restrain Growth ANY creative team project

A. psychological profiles

B. leaders vs. rulers

C. organization types

D. organizational structures

E. risk management

F. organizational optimization

G. adaptive methods

H. non-linear improvement

J. tuning process dependencies

K. classification of methods

Agile... what’s next? Don’t agree? Agreed?

Thanks, I hope to have inspired you! Q & A picture by - bast -

@jurgenappelo

This presentation was inspired by the works of many people, and I cannot possibly list them all. Though I did my very best to attribute all authors of texts and images, and to recognize any copyrights, if you think that anything in this presentation should be changed, added or removed, please contact me at [email_address] .

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/