Why do so many organizations struggle to put in place mature Agile teams that can apply proper Agile principles and deliver awesome products? Some people will say, “Agile is hard” as an excuse to not do Agile or to become frAgile. Well we think we have developed the “Secret Sauce” to rebooting any Agile team that just doesn’t seem to be maturing and we want to share it with you! If you are thinking of scaling Agile across a large organization, then this talk is a must to attend to help ensure your teams have the right foundation. Organizations wanting to scale Agile must have a solid foundation of mature Agile teams who embrace the Agile values and have the right Agile mindset. Over the years, as we have done Agile transformations in different organizations, we have seen common patterns that keep repeating. The most common pattern we found in our experience is that teams are frAgile. Too many either pretend to be Agile or don’t even know Agile is not a methodology, so organizations question the value of using Agile. Very often the confusion and frustration that comes with thinking that a team is Agile when they are not Agile, brings people right back to their old habits of command and control. Creating successful mature Agile teams is not sorcery, you need to discover the secret sauce! In this talk, we will reveal our secrets on how to create a successful Agile-Scrum team in 5 sprints. Attendees will learn how we applied our secret sauce as we experimented with more than 30 teams and we refined the know-how. This recipe has proven to be successful in different organizations and teams delivering different types of products. Our Creative-Destruction approach goes through a human change process we labeled The Intervention Plan. The 5 steps are: Step 1: Run in the rain Step 2: Thunderstruck Step 3: Start the M&M pain machine Step 4: Open-up and look at the sun Step 5: Removing the training wheels And by using these 5 steps, attendees will discover the 5th Agile value!

1. How to Reboot Your Agile Team
MARTIN LAPOINTE • AGILEKLIX • ML@AGILEKLIX.COM
MAURIZIO MANCINI • EXEMPIO • MAURIZIO.MANCINI@EXEMPIO.COM

2. I’m Martin, an Agile Coach with many years of working with Agile
teams and Agile transformation.
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work in places with a
high potential for experimentation. I was able to develop a deep
understanding of what it means to be part of an Agile team.
Today, I want to share with you my many years of experience
rebooting Agile teams in Canada and Europe.
In my personal life, I’m a triathlete and owner of an Agile family.
Martin Lapointe

3. • A leader in the quality and process industries
with a sixth sense for Agile, quality, and
business process.
• I have been refining my Agile approach for
more than 10 years.
• My passion is to deliver quality software and
to see how Agile can help teams deliver
quality software!
Maurizio Mancini
Agile 2014 – Agile: One Size does not fit all!
Walmart Labs California 2014 – Quality and Process
Atlassian Summit 2014 – From Incremental & Iterative to Agile:
What is the right process for your team?
Quest 2015 – Building a QA Team that Matters
Cutter Summit 2015 – Agile Testing – What’s that all about?
Atlassian Summit 2015 – How to Build in Quality from Day 1
using Lean QA and Agile Testing
Agile Tour Montreal 2016 – Le guide de réparation de l’équipe
Agile : La recette secrète !
Agile Tour Ottawa 2016 – How to Reboot Your Agile Team!
Glogal Scum Gathering San Diego 2017 – How to Reboot Your
Agile Team!

4. Today’s presentation
• The Edge Change & Comfort Model
• Organizational change
• Simplicity and Agile
• Your Reboot Context
• The Essential Ingredients
• Change and Emotions
• Rebooting the Agile Team
• The 5th Agile Value

5. The Edge Change and Comfort Model by M&M
Sprint 5
Sprint 4
The Edge
Change & Comfort Model
by M&M
Sprint 3
Sprint 1
Sprint 2

6. Organizational Change

7. Whether organizations like it or
not, change will happen…
There’s a gap between the pace of change in the world
and the pace that an organization is changing

8. Adapt and change, otherwise
organizations will not survive…
Organizations have to be ready for change

9. Creative Destruction
• Comes from the world of economics
• It is the art of renewing an organization from within

11. Organizational Change
“Can you help me Spin Up some Agile teams? ”

12. It takes time to build an organization with mature
Agile teams
... It doesn’t happen overnight !

14. La semplicità è la più grande sofisticatezza.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
“ ”Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
“ ”

15. Simplicity is the key
to an Italian recipe
A true Italian recipe uses
5 and 6 good quality
ingredients

16. It’s just not the same…
Just because you have the recipe, doesn’t mean that it will taste good!
It’s just not the same!
As much as we try to make mom’s recipe…

17. Simplicity and Agile
stories of Agile failures
Not “the recipe”
secret of Agile
minimal quality ingredients

18. Your Reboot Context

19. Your Reboot Context
Time for you to assess
your current state.
10 Minute
Exercise
In a few words, describe the situation of your team. Include information on
interdependencies, relationships between team members, product vision, physical
work spaces and team dynamics.
Examples:
• Improve team communication on a daily basis
• Increase requirements understanding with better user stories
• Knock down the wall that exists between Dev and QA in the team
• Move to a built-in quality process with code review techniques
Example:
Team has no
autonomy
Example:
No real
Product
Owner
Example:
Sprint length
is variable
Example:
Team
doesn't take
the time to
do test
automation
Example:
People don’t
like the wall
but nobody
is doing
anything
about it.

20. 6 Essentiel Ingredients

21. Sprint 5
Sprint 4
The Edge
Change & Comfort Model
by M&M
Sprint 3
Sprint 1
Sprint 2
Foundation
The Edge Change and Comfort Model by M&M

22. Leadership
We believe that leadership is required at all levels of an organization.
Leadership
Executive Coaching
Team Coaching

23. Management Style
Management 3.0 promotes the
same principles that we need to start
the transformation of an Agile team
…
Management 3.0
Leadership - Management Style
It is the future of management,
which is all about doing the right
thing for your team, involving
everyone in improving the system
and fostering employee
engagement.
Jurgen Appello

24. Change should be enabled from the
top
but
it needs to take root and flourish
from the bottom!
Change

25. But why is The Vision essential?
The Vision
In Agile, a vision is crucial because of the
speed that Agile is executed at…
• Deliverables are frequent
• Business needs change quickly
• You need a Vision of what the team needs to achieve
and why, in order to help maintain the team's focus.
Leadership – Management Style - Vision

26. • Management Participation
• Motivated team members
• People that take responsibility
• Promote a culture of change
Engagement
Develop engagement at all levels of the organization…
With Agile we don’t have time to be a tourist!
Leadership – Management Style - Vision – Engagement

27. Building in Quality!
Quality Leadership – Management Style - Vision - Engagement - Quality
• Quality is built into the recipe
• Quality must be understood at all stages of the process
• Quality is a key ingredient for building a good cadence
Quality is one
of the core
principles of
Agile/Scrum!

28. If your quality assurance is offset, this is not Building in Quality!!
Dev
QA
Dev & QA Building In Quality
Leadership – Management Style - Vision - Engagement - Quality
One of the most common frAgile patterns!
Quality

29. A good Agile Coach knows how to
blend all of the previous
ingredients to achieve success.
The Agile Coach will know the
right amount of each ingredient to
make the Agile team successful!
The Agile Coach
And finally the Chef…
Leadership – Management Style - Vision - Engagement - Quality - Coaching

30. Almost ready to reboot…
• Engaged Management and developed the Leadership
• Communicated the Vision
• Developed Engagement and a Quality strategy
• We have an amazing Agile Coach

31. The Edge Change and Comfort Model by M&M
Sprint 5
Sprint 4
The Edge
Change & Comfort Model
by M&M
Sprint 3
Sprint 1
Sprint 2
ENGAGEMENT
COACHING
LeadershipVision Management Style Quality

32. Let’s not forget we are
dealing with humans…

33. ?
The Edge Change and Comfort Model by M&M

34. Vision
Emotions
Leadership
Engagement Quality
Agile Coach
Change is Hard
Companies that want their workers to
contribute with their heads and hearts,
have to accept that emotions are
essential to the new management style.
Management Style

36. The success of your Agile
transformation will depend on
being aware that emotions are
part of the change process

37. Emotions
 Positive emotions
makes us feel good and brings us to a happy
emotional state.
 Negative emotions
saps our energy and kill our effectiveness. In a
negative emotional state, you don’t feel like
doing anything.

38. Working with people is about managing feelings.
The issue is not whether employees have “negative”
emotions, but rather how to manage them.

40. The Edge Change and Comfort Model by M&M
How do we assess
where we are today?

41. Let’s listen…

42. We re ready to reboot…
Every Reboot is different
• Every team has different needs
• Need to determine the ingredients in context
• Identify what impediments to work on
• And define the objectives for the journey

43. The survey focuses on 5 main dimensions.
The results will help us define the objectives
and define the type of Reboot needed.
The 5 Dimensions are:
1. Agile Health
2. Product Ownership
3. Roles & Skills
4. Team & Processes
5. Technology & Delivery
Survey the team to define a roadmap

44. Product Ownership
What is the Vision?
Are User Stories actionable?
Strategy:
1. Create an Agile Charter for the Product.
2. Train “Business people” on creating effective
User Stories.
3. Build a Product Backlog that ties objectives to
User Stories.
Sample Reboot Type #1
Roles & Skills
Do you have the Scrum roles for your Agile team?
Strategy:
1. Train the team to understand the new dynamic.
2. Find and formalize the Scrum roles.
3. Strong supervision.
0
1
2
3
4
5
Agile Basics Health
Product Ownership
Roles & SkillsTeam & Processes
Technology & Delivery
Agile Dimensions Evaluation

45. Team & Processes
Do you have a stable team?
Are you working with fixed iterations?
Strategy:
1. Build a Scrum with 7+- 2 people.
2. Design the Sprints and ceremonies.
3. Implement boards to manage the flow.
Sample Reboot Type #2
Technology & Delivery
What kind Quality process do you have?
How’s your continuous integration & delivery?
Strategy:
1. Remove dependencies on specialties.
2. Transform from Inspection process into build-in
automation quality.
3. Introduce TDD (Test Driven Development).
0
1
2
3
4
5
Agile Basics Health
Product Ownership
Roles & SkillsTeam & Processes
Technology & Delivery
Agile Dimensions Evaluation

46. Rebooting the Agile Team
by Martin & Maurizio

47. Why reboot an Agile team?
Is your team "Wagile”, very FrAgile or TrAgile?
• Your backlog contains thousands of tickets? Mostly tasks boards of 15 columns?
• Project managers fill the role of Scrum Masters?
• The team size is more than 20 persons?
• Your QA team is 2 sprints behind the dev team?
• Daily stand-up is a daily status reports?
• The Sprint planning takes 2 days
and Sprints are never stable?
• …

48. Reboot Your Team in 5 Sprints
Sprint 1: Run in the rain
Sprint 2: Thunderstruck
Sprint 3: Start the M&M pain machine
Sprint 4: Open-up and look at the sun
Sprint 5: Removing the training wheels

49. Sprint 1: Run in the rain

50. Sprint 1: The group has
seen better days • Deliveries are now difficult
• Lots of frustration in the team

51. Sprint 1: Understand the
team's current reality
• Coaches time to listen
• Not the time for changes
• Insights from group members

52. • What is causing problems
• Diagnose what is happening in the team
Sprint 1: Understand why
it’s always raining
0
1
2
3
4
5
Agile Basics Health
Product Ownership
Roles & PeopleTeam & Processes
Technology & Delivery
Agile Dimensions Evaluation

53. • Create an iterative change roadmap
• Understand the destination
• Communicate = Trust in the upcoming change
Sprint 1: Define the path to the sun

54. Sprint 2: Thunderstruck
• Courage!

55. Sprint 2: Break the
status quo

56. • Organize team activities
• Generate passion and motivation
• Create change agents
• Find creative people
Sprint 2: Motivate
people in the change

57. Sprint 2: Creative-Destruction
• New Backlog
• Definition of Done
• Visual Scrum Board

58. Sprint 3: Start the
M&M pain machine

59. Sprint 3: Live the pain with
the team
• Crossing the desert
• Favor communication
• Manage emotions

60. Sprint 3: Fail, fail fast
• Quit the superman syndrome
• Strengths & weaknesses
• Failing the demo

61. We need to:
• Guide the Product Owner in planning
the rollout of the product
• Mentor the Scrum Master on
implementing lessons learned
• Support the Team Members to better
collaboration
• Visualize the « Work in progress » with
the team
Sprint 3: Manage frustration

62. Be watchful:
• Over-engineering the processes
• Temptation for Command & Control
• Being dogmatic
• “As a Product Owner, I want…”
Sprint 3: Break the frAgile temptations

63. Sprint 4: Open-up
and look at the sun

64. Sprint 4: Crossing the edge
The team metamorphosis
• Delivering working products
• Building in Quality
• New collaboration & responsibility

65. Sprint 4: Make it visible
• Release planning
• Story mapping
• Refinement sessions
• Dynamic sprint planning

66. Sprint 4: Collaborate and share
• Share knowledge with colleagues
• Promote transparency
• Enjoy success

67. Sprint 5: Removing
the training wheels

68. • Agile Masters promoting Agile values
Sprint 5: The performing Agile team

69. Sprint 5: Deploy the FUN !
• Flow & speed
• Unbelievable happiness
• New self-organized team

70. • Client gets regular deliverables
• Users can provide useful feedback
• Team can adjust the product on demand
Sprint 5: Please our customer

71. Sprint 5: Grow the Agile
mindset in the organization • Implement Meta-Scrum
• Product Owner collaboration
• Managing at the feature level

72. M&M
Reboot Canvas

73. Strategic Canvas for the Reboot of an Agile Team

74. Strategic Canvas for the Reboot of an Agile Team

75. Key Takeaways

76. Start with the essential ingredients:
Leadership, Management Style, The
Vision, Engagement, Quality and an
awesome Agile Coach.
Or define your own.
Remember that emotions are an
inevitable part of any change process.
Key Takeaways

77. Change is hard, but work WITH
people to create Change Agents.
By using a modern Management
Style.
Key Takeaways

78. Use a survey to assess where your team is today so that you can build a
roadmap and have a strategy how to get the team where they want to be.
Key Takeaways

79. Commit to deliver small pieces of products!
Stay with the basics!
But let’s not forget Simplicity…
Deliver what makes sense, even if it is a sprint of just
one Story!
Deliver working quality software generating value for
the end-user and your company.

80. The 5th Agile
Value

81. Have fun at work
beyond
following the recipe!

82. Thank You!
MARTIN LAPOINTE • AGILEKLIX • ML@AGILEKLIX.COM
MAURIZIO MANCINI • EXEMPIO • MAURIZIO.MANCINI@EXEMPIO.COM

83. Reference Books