Cultural Self-Inventory
for Distributed Agile
Teams
arts interstices
Presented to you in partnership by:
#SococoLife Webinar Series

Agenda
▪ :05 Introductions
▪ :30 Cultural Self Inventory Review
with Elinor and Mary
▪ :20 Q&A
▪ :05 Key Takeaways & Wrap Up

Introductions
Meet your panelists!

Elinor Slomba
Elinor is an Agile coach, and works with organizations
more fluid and adaptive in their approaches. Her
company, Arts Interstices, regularly brings artists into
startup communities, making it easier for people in both
domains to understand and use each other's models.
From her home base in New Haven, Connecticut she
manages the award-winning program known as Project
Storefronts, a small business incubator for creative
entrepreneurs.
Introductions

Mary Brodie
Mary has worked in UX for 20 years and with virtual
teams for 15. She works with startups and enterprises in
the travel, healthcare, hardware, and software industries.
She’s worn many UX hats: strategy, usability testing,
sketching/wireframing/prototyping, project/product
management, and more recently content strategy and
how it integrates with a product to enhance the UX.
Agile and UX are her passions - she sometimes doesn’t
understand why people don't go Agile. It just makes sense.
Introductions

Mandy Ross
Mandy is the Director of Marketing and Agile Practices
for Sococo, after serving as Director of Program
Management since 2012. A passionate Agilist, her past
employers include Apple, Handspring, Palm, Sony and
Boeing.
A telecommuter since 2005, she lives for helping
distributed teams establish remote work best practices by
connecting people to create thought leadership in the
virtual world.
.
Introductions

Why are we here?
It’s time to inventory the heck out of your
Agile team culture!

Our highest priority is to satisfy the
customer
through early and continuous delivery
of valuable software.
Agile Principle #1:

On Delivering Value...
▪ How do we evaluate trust
levels on team and with
clients?
▪ How does it feel when we
deliver early and what’s
holding us back from
doing that more often?
▪ How do we let team
members know that we
care about improving
communications with
them?
1

Welcome changing requirements, even late in
development. Agile processes harness
change for the customer's competitive
advantage.
Agile Principle #2:

On Welcoming Changing
Requirements... ▪ How do we presently
track and manage our
Product Backlog?
▪ How well do we preserve
the context around
decision-making so we
can reference it later?
▪ How well do we work
from the road and in
transit?
2

Deliver working software frequently, from a
couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.
Agile Principle #3:

On Delivering Frequently... ▪ What is our expectation
around real-time versus
asynchronous
communications?
▪ Have they been
communicated and
agreed-upon?
▪ Do we co-design
meetings to be
productive use of
people’s time?
3

Business people and developers must work
together daily throughout the project.
Agile Principle #4:

On Cross Functional
Teams... ▪ Do we share information
centrally?
▪ What kind of social
interactions regularly
occur?
▪ How do we build unity
within our tribe?
▪ Why broadcast
availability to connect as
a cross-functional team
(both formally and
informally)?
4

Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they
need, and trust them to get the job done.
Agile Principle #5:

On Providing a Motivating
Environment... ▪ How do people flag their
interest in working on
certain projects?
▪ How do we do we sense
people’s emotions &
gather their opinions?
▪ How do we share
knowledge & insight?
5

The most efficient and effective method of
conveying information to and within a
development team is face-to-face
conversation.
Agile Principle #6:

On Face-to-Face
Communication... ▪ How do we see each
other’s faces online?
▪ How do we make the
experience as context-
rich and information-rich
as possible?
6

Working software is the primary measure of
progress.
Agile Principle #7:

On Working Product... ▪ How do we build things
together?
▪ How well is this working?
7

Agile processes promote sustainable
development. The sponsors, developers, and
users should be able to maintain a constant
pace indefinitely.
Agile Principle #8:

On Sustainability... ▪ What are the signals to
others that we are “at
work?”
▪ What are the protocols
for checking in & out?
▪ How do we avoid
burnout?
8

Continuous attention to technical excellence
and good design enhances agility.
Agile Principle #9:

On Good Craftsmanship... ▪ How do we recognize and
track progress in
skillbuilding?
▪ How do we disseminate
good examples of
craftsmanship?
▪ How do we set a good
example for teammates?
9

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount
of work not done--is essential.
Agile Principle #10:

On Simplicity... ▪ Are there things we must
do over and over again
that could be automated?
▪ What apps are out there
that can help simplify
reporting requirements
(i.e. bug reports, status
reports)
1
0

The best architectures, requirements, and
designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
Agile Principle #11:

On Self Organization... ▪ What choices do people
have about how to
collaborate?
▪ How are meetings
facilitated?
▪ How are shared working
agreements arrived-at
and stored (with version
control)?
▪ Are there protocols about
language and handling
conflict?
1
1

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
to become more effective, then tunes and
adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Agile Principle #12:

On Retrospectives...
▪ Have we trained or
demoed with any of the
numerous groups,
communities, or
companies out there
making this easier?
▪ How do we know we are
headed in the right
direction?
▪ How are we integrating
play, artfulness and
humor into our team
interactions?
1
2

Key Takeaways
Tools
When selecting
tools, start with
culture.
Conversation
Keep the
conversation about
the work alive and
healthy.
Clarity
Ensure that we
have the same
vision of our team
and product.
Trust
Without trust, truth won’t
emerge in any evaluation.
Advantages
Leverage the benefits of a
remote team.
Honesty
Without honesty, self-
evaluation has no value.

Thanks for coming!
You are the best webinar audience ever, so
you’ll get a virtual goody bag via email soon.