Agile principles 20-20 The Gorilla Coach
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Agile Principles can't all be P0 priorities. Just as we have a backlog for agile development, we need to have a backlog for the agile principles. This Pecha Kucha format talk presents a team exercise that can be used to gain alignment on what agile means to your organization.
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Agile principles 20-20 The Gorilla Coach
- 1. Agile Principles Can’t All Be P0! A Pecha Kucha Presentation
- 2. © 2015 J Bancroft-Connors Everything is a P0 P1P0 P0P0 @JBC_GC 2
- 3. © 2015 J Bancroft-Connors Agile Gave UsThe Backlog 313 88 @JBC_GC 3 Backlog Laptop Desk Phone Speaker Phone Calculator
- 4. So What About the Agile Manifesto? Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 4
- 5. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 5 Ourhighestpriorityistosatisfythe customer… Welcomechangingrequirements… Deliverworkingsoftware frequently… Businesspeopleanddevelopersmust worktogetherdaily… Buildprojectsaroundmotivated individuals… Themostefficient&effectivemethod isface-to-faceconversation… Workingsoftwareistheprimary measureofprogress… Agileprocessespromotesustainable development… Continuousattentiontotechnical excellence… Theartofmaximizingtheamountof worknotdone… Thebestemergefromself-organizing teams… Atregularintervals,theteamreflects onhow… They Can’t All Be PO, CanThey? P-0 P-0 P-0 P-0 P-0 P-0 P-0 P-0 P-0 P-0 P-0 P-0
- 6. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 6 Flickr: Maurizio Pesce
- 7. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 7 Flickr: Startup Stock Photos
- 8. Two Principles – Two Outcomes Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 8
- 9. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 9 Flickr: Michael B,
- 10. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 10 Flickr: Victoria Pickering
- 11. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 11
- 12. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 12
- 13. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 13
- 14. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 14 Flickr: Martino Sabia Flickr: ShellVacationsHospitality Flickr: Cvent Flickr: plantronicsgermany
- 15. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 15
- 16. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 16 Flickr: Michael Flickr:Wendell
- 17. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 17 Flickr: Phil_Hilfiker
- 18. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 18 Our Highest Priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software
- 19. Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 19 Our highest priority… At regular intervals… Build projects around motivated… The best architecture systems… Continuous attention to tech Excellence.. Agile process promote sustainable dev… *Working software… Simplicity the art of maximizing… Deliver software frequently… Business and developers work together daily… Welcome changing requirements… * Face to Face conversation…
- 20. - Thank You - For More Information: Agile 20 / 20 Exercise TheGorillaCoach.com – My Blog Conteneo.co - Data Driven Collaboration, Innovation Games & Collaboration Cloud Appliedframeworks.com – The right product, to the right market, at the right time. (And great Scrum Trainer) Twitter- @JBC_GC © 2015: J Bancroft-Connors 20 Special Thanks: Luke Holmann @lukehomann Jason Tanner @JasonBTanner Jeff Howey @AgileAlchemist LeadingAgile
Editor's Notes
- Hello, I’m Joel Bancroft-Connors and the guy in the corner is my co-conspirator, Hogarth the imaginary gorilla. He and I firmly believe the path to a better world lies through the progression of better people, teams, projects, products, companies, better world. This is my Pecha Kucha on gaining team and organizational alignment via the Agile Principles. 18.5 seconds
- Who here has seen a set of requirements where nearly everything is a priority 0? <Pause three seconds> Yeah doesn’t work so well now does it? When it’s all a P0, what gets worked on is usually what’s easiest, not what’s most valuable. The calculator it’s the easiest. 15.5 seconds (slow down)
- Which is a big part of why agile has the backlog. It’s one of the most pervasive artifacts in agile. A well run agile project will have a well groomed backlog. We even create backlogs from our retrospectives. In agile there is no such thing as a P0, everything is either higher or lower on the backlog based on some formulae of value, cost, or complexity. 19.5 seconds
- <Pause two seconds> Four Values, Twelve Principles, sixteen total levers to consider when conducting an Agile transformation. Let’s just assume the four core values can be managed as equals. As “values” they are more like acceptance tests to the transformation than they are user stories on how to get to the state of being agile. 17.5 seconds
- What about the Agile Principles though? I’d argue that this is untenable. The principles are closer in nature to being our “user stories”. If we try and deliver on them all at once we’re going to look like a bad cumulative flow diagram where cycle time fills then entire chart and nothing ever gets done. That doesn’t work for developing, it’s not going to work for how we do agile either. 18 seconds
- Goal time! Our first goal comes from the VP of Products. He is describing a perfectly distributed team setup. Small development teams in the company’s offices around the globe. High-end telepresence, real-time web cams, and the a perfect implementation of an online agile tool. Developers sit with the business and are still able to remain connected in near “real” time with the other development teams. 19 seconds
- Our next idea comes from the development director. Working more closely with his teams, he proposes something different. A perfect co-location environment. Gut the entire floor, make team pods, quiet spaces, dedicated team rooms with physical task boards. A total transparency, collaborative work space. 17 seconds
- The VP had the principle of “business people and developers working together” first and foremost in his mind. It drove his desire to get the developers located with the business around the globe. The Director believes it is more important to have the development teams all in the same physical building and working face-to-face. This drove his desire to design a co-location nirvana. 19 seconds
- Two agile principles at complete odds with one another. The VP and the Director clearly do not have alignment on what is important to them on how they want to use agile to support the design and development of their products. This can happen anywhere in the organization and with even more disastrous consequences than this example. A very common clash is “welcoming changing requirements” over “releasing often”. 18 seconds
- Both goals are perfectly valid. Both are seeking to support one of the agile principles. And yet are mutually exclusive. So how do you reconcile the two? In a traditional project the two principles would both be Priority 0 and would likely cause several aneurisms in the project team as the circular logic of trying to make them both work at the same time and level was hashed out. 17 seconds
- My solution was inspired by Conteneo’s Luke Holmann and Applied Frameworks’ Jason Tanner. They did a tag team CSPO class that I had the pleasure to attend. Eschewing a standard “this is the agile manifesto” presentation they instead facilitated an Innovation Game 20 / 20 with the agile principles. The final output was a class agreed rank order of the twelve agile principles. 19 seconds
- Conteneo’s 20 / 20 game is so named because it is similar to the eye doctor flipping through lenses and asking “is this clearer than the last.” A facilitated exercise that can take a list of items and, then by comparing one item to another, create a single top to bottom ordering of the items through mutual consent of the group. 18 Seconds
- By playing 20 / 20 with the agile principles a team of up to 20 can generate a rank ordered list of the principles in about 45 minutes. More importantly the powerful discussions will help to generate thought, alignment and highlight where issues exist. You usually then have a clear set of road markers towards getting those issues resolved. 17 Seconds
- If you then conduct the exercise across an organization you can compare the results of the various exercises to one another. In the short time I’ve been working with this, I and a colleague found this to be the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It’s one of the fastest ways to determine, in a measurable way, the disconnects between different levels of the organization. 18 Seconds
- So to play the Agile Principles 20 / 20 exercise. You need, 1 Wall, 1 facilitator, 1 team and twelve cards with the agile principles on the cards. You can get a full explanation on how to conduct this exercise on my blog site, including a download of the exercise. I’ll share links to the exercise and this presentation on my last slide. 18 seconds
- Take the first principle, “our highest priority…” and set it to the side. Shuffle the remaining eleven principles into random order. When done, place the first principle at the bottom of the deck. It gets special treatment and needs to go last. Tape the first random principle to the middle of the wall, and generate some discussion. You will probably need to push the discussion at the start. 17 Seconds
- Trust me though, you won’t have to prompt the discussion for long. As you place each principle up to the wall, you ask variations of “higher, lower, more or less important.” With each principle that gets ordered, things get more interesting and the conversation becomes deeper. The team will probably find it harder and harder to place principles and big changes may happen. 18 Seconds
- When all the other principles are ordered, I pull out the first principle. Hold it up to whatever is currently #1 and say “I’m told the only principle the manifesto creators rank ordered was this one. They felt it was the most critical. Do you agree with them?” So far, every time I’ve seen the game run, yes this is number one chosen from the doers up to senior management. 19 seconds
- Here is an example of one exercise. This team consisted of developers and testers including director and VP level members. The big ones for me were how far down working software and face to face conversation were. They believed that if the top five were done well, the rest would follow naturally. <PAUSE>
- And that’s it. Agile business alignment in a series of 45 minute exercises., presented in six minutes and forty seconds. I’ve posted the presentation to Slideshare with the title “Agile_Principles_20–20_The_Gorilla_Coach”. I’ve also added a link to the Slideshare on my blog at The Gorilla Coach dot com. Thank you