You may have heard about the #NoEstimates movement, and even #NoProjects. Both of those are keen to examine the assumptions behind two key aspects of delivering software. But what about the process itself? Do we even need approaches like Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, or Extreme Programming in order to be successful? Is following a pre-defined process helpful at all? Is there a simpler way to be effective?

1. © 2019 Dave Rooney
GETTING MORE DONE BY DOING LESS
#NOBIGPROCESSES@daverooneyca @PrDCDeliver

2. © 2019 Dave Rooney
WHO IS THIS GUY?
DAVE ROONEY
▸ Agile Practitioner & Coach
▸ Software Developer
▸ Recovering Manager
▸ Assumption Challenger
▸ Impatient Optimist
▸ The punchline to a joke or 10
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3. © 2019 Dave Rooney
ORIGINS
I DON’T MEAN THAT ALL PROCESS IS BAD!!
#NoEstimates questions the prevailing approaches to estimating delivery
#NoProjects questions the prevailing approaches to organizing to deliver
#NoBigProcesses questions the prevailing
approaches of how to deliver!
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4. © 2019 Dave Rooney
PROCESS: (NOUN)
A SERIES OF ACTIONS OR STEPS TAKEN IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE
A PARTICULAR END.
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5. © 2019 Dave Rooney
WHY USE A PROCESS?
© 2019 Dave Rooney
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6. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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7. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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8. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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9. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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10. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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11. © 2019 Dave Rooney
From his paper, “Characterizing people as non-linear, first-order
components in software development” (1999)
“In the title, I refer to people as ‘components’. That is how people are treated
in the process/methodology design literature. The mistake in this approach
is that ‘people’ are highly variable and non-linear, with unique success and
failure modes. Those factors are first-order, not negligible factors.”
ALISTAIR COCKBURN
© 2019 Dave Rooney
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12. © 2019 Dave Rooney
TEAMS ARE MADE OF PEOPLE…PEEEEEEOPLE!
SOYLENT GREEN (1973)
© 2019 Dave Rooney
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13. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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WHERE’S
THE CUSTOMER?

14. © 2019 Dave Rooney
A CAUTIONARY TALE
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15. © 2019 Dave Rooney
Universal law is for lackeys. Context is for kings.
Star Trek: Discovery © CBS Television Studio© 2019 Dave Rooney
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16. © 2019 Dave Rooney
WHAT IF WE STARTED WITH NO PROCESS AT ALL?
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BUT…
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17. © 2019 Dave Rooney
TO DELIVER SOFTWARE SUCCESSFULLY, ONLY TWO KEY ACTIVITIES ARE NEEDED…
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18. © 2019 Dave Rooney
TWO KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL SOFTWARE DELIVERY
SHIP SOMETHING!
▸ Feedback is one of the most
important aspects of delivering
software
▸ Deliver the smallest possible
“thing” that you can in order to
obtain meaningful feedback
▸ The act of delivering software
forces focus
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19. © 2019 Dave Rooney
TWO KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL SOFTWARE DELIVERY
REFLECT HONESTLY ON HOW YOU SHIPPED
▸ How well did you meet the business needs?
▸ Could you have done better?
▸ Were there defects that need to be avoided?
▸ How well did the team work together?
▸ Can you improve communication and
collaboration?
▸ Was the customer happy?
▸ Was the team happy?
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20. © 2019 Dave Rooney
TWO KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL SOFTWARE DELIVERY
HAPPINESS COUNTS!!
▸ Happy people are productive people!
▸ Corollary: productive people are
happy!
▸ Menlo Innovations has focused on this
▸ Happy Melly as well
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21. © 2019 Dave Rooney
TWO KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL SOFTWARE DELIVERY
ONLY ADD WHEN YOU FEEL PAIN
▸ Will a new activity or step improve how you deliver?
How would you know?
▸ Will it improve some measure of quality?
▸ Will it make your customers happy?
▸ Will it make the team happy?
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22. © 2019 Dave Rooney
AN EXAMPLE WOULD BE
HANDY RIGHT ABOUT
NOW.
Brian Marick
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23. © 2019 Dave Rooney
START SMALL!
THE GENESIS OF EXTREME PROGRAMMING
▸ Kent Beck advised the CIO of Chrysler that a
complete rewrite was needed for C3
▸ Told that he would have to lead the team!
▸ Reflected on what had worked well for him
before in his career
▸ “Turned the dials up to 11” on all those
practices
▸ Evolved constantly from 1996
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24. © 2019 Dave Rooney
START SMALL!
SHOPIFY
▸ In 2004, 3 people working in a coffee shop
▸ Guiding principles were “GSD” and “Don’t solve
problems we don’t have yet”
▸ In 2014, 22 development teams
▸ No two teams used the exact same process
▸ Common practices across the organization
▸ Relied on communication and collaboration
instead of formal process
▸ Now has $1B USD revenue annually
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25. © 2019 Dave Rooney
START SMALL!
YOU.I TV - ROKU PLATFORM TEAM
▸ Team was told “it couldn’t be done”
▸ Experimental work every day
▸ Impossible to estimate effort
▸ No defined process because the work was so
unpredictable
▸ Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate!!
▸ After shipping a real-world app, we began to understand
the work and could become more predictable
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26. © 2019 Dave Rooney
WHERE DO YOU START?
@daverooneyca @PrDCDeliver© 2019 Dave Rooney

27. © 2019 Dave Rooney
VALUES AND PRINCIPLES AS GUIDES
LEARN FROM THE PAST
▸ The original Agile Manifesto was pretty good!
▸ The Manifesto’s Principles are as important, if
not more so, than the Values
▸ The very first Principle is:
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“Our highest priority is to satisfy
the customer through early and
continuous delivery of valuable
software”
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28. © 2019 Dave Rooney
VALUES AND PRINCIPLES AS GUIDES
…BUT GET WITH THE TIMES!
▸ Modern Agile is a refinement of the
Agile Manifesto’s original Values
from 2001
▸ Incorporates over 15 years of real-
world experience
▸ Focuses on creating an environment
for allowing agility to occur naturally
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29. © 2019 Dave Rooney
VALUES AND PRINCIPLES AS GUIDES
BE PRINCIPLED!
▸ The 5th Principle:
“Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them
the environment and support they need, and trust them
to get the job done”
▸ The 11th Principle:
“The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams”
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https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
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30. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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How does this support an
environment of trust and
self-organization?

31. © 2019 Dave Rooney
If each team is expected
to use the exact same
approach, how can they
inspect & adapt to what
works best for them?
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@daverooneyca @PrDCDeliver

32. © 2019 Dave Rooney
From his paper, “Characterizing people as non-linear, first-order
components in software development” (1999)
“In the title, I refer to people as ‘components’. That is how people are treated
in the process/methodology design literature. The mistake in this approach
is that ‘people’ are highly variable and non-linear, with unique success and
failure modes. Those factors are first-order, not negligible factors.”
ALISTAIR COCKBURN
© 2019 Dave Rooney
32
@daverooneyca @PrDCDeliver

33. © 2019 Dave Rooney
TEAMS ARE MADE OF PEOPLE…PEEEEEEOPLE!
SOYLENT GREEN (1973)
© 2019 Dave Rooney
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@daverooneyca @PrDCDeliver

34. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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© 2019 Dave Rooney
Rule #0 for motivating people is to stop
doing things that demotivate them!
— Esther Derby
@daverooneyca @PrDCDeliver

35. © 2019 Dave Rooney
USE YOUR COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE
YOU’VE GOT THIS!
▸ Leverage your prior experiences of what worked well
as a set of tools you can apply
▸ Experiment with techniques and activities to
determine what works for your group
▸ What works well for one group may not for another!
▸ Inspecting and adapting is key to success
▸ So is challenging any and all assumptions
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@daverooneyca @PrDCDeliver

36. © 2019 Dave Rooney
WHAT HAS WORKED WELL?
WHAT HAVE YOU LEFT BEHIND?
© 2019 Dave Rooney
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37. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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© 2019 Dave Rooney
“It is not the most intellectual of the
species that survives; it is not the
strongest that survives; but the
species that survives is the one that
is able best to adapt and adjust to
the changing environment in
which it finds itself.”
— Leon Megginson summarizing Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species
@daverooneyca @PrDCDeliver

38. © 2019 Dave Rooney
TYPE A QUOTE HERE.
Johnny Appleseed
Universal law is for lackeys. Context is for kings.
Star Trek: Discovery © CBS Television Studio© 2019 Dave Rooney
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@daverooneyca @PrDCDeliver

39. © 2019 Dave Rooney
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40. © 2019 Dave Rooney
MORE RESOURCES
DAVE ROONEY
▸ Blogs http://blog.daverooney.ca and
https://medium.com/@daverooneyca
▸ Twitter https://twitter.com/daverooneyca
▸ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/daverooneyagile/
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