Many agile coaches think it’s a prerequisite to co-locate the team in order to be successful. However, what if you have remote team members or are considering adding them to your team but afraid it will only slow you down.
As more people choose to work remotely it will be important to learn how to be a part of or lead successful remote agile teams. We will discuss three mindset changes that are critical to helping your team, regardless of location, implement agile and lean principals to help your team be a successful agile team.
Learning Outcomes:
Learn about the four remote team types and some of the traps and how to overcome them with your team.
Learn how to use the agile mindset of encouraging and managing for change to encourage the team to experiment with everything so they can decide when to change.
Learn how to encourage your team to emphasize communication and collaboration and come up with ways the team can do that effectively with remote teams.
Learn how to use agile principles and adapt them to your team.
3. @paulmgower
I discovered From Chaos to Successful
Distributed AgileTeams: Collaborate to
Deliver. I realized that Rothman and Kilby
had written down much of what I have
been teaching and promoting in my
practice. I have integrated their ideas
into this presentation.
11. @paulmgower
AGILE SOFT. DEV. PRINCIPLES
1. Deliver early and often to satisfy the customer.
2. Welcome changing requirements.
3. Deliver working software frequently.
4. Business people and developers must work
together
5. Trust motivated people to do their jobs.
6. Face-to-face conversation is the most efficient
and effective method of conveying info.
7. Working software is the primary measure
of progress.
8. Maintain a sustainable pace.
9. Continuous attention to technical
excellence and good design enhances agility.
10.Simplicity—the art of maximizing the
amount of work not done—is essential.
11.The best architectures, requirements, and
designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12.Reflect and adjust at regular intervals.
12. @paulmgower
LEAN SOFT. DEV. PRINCIPLES
1. Eliminate waste
2. Amplify learning
3. Decide as late as possible
4. Deliver as fast as possible
5. Empower the team
6. Build integrity in
7. See the whole
13. @paulmgower
Start with what you do now
Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change
Respect the current process, roles, responsibilities & titles
Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
KANBAN PRINCIPLES
14. @paulmgower
KANBAN CORE PROPERTIES
1. Visualize the workflow
2. Limit WIP
3. Manage flow
4. Make Process Policies
Explicit
5. Improve Collaboratively
(using models & the
scientific method)
28. @paulmgower
“Running too many experiments at
once can lead to ‘change fatigue’.
Instead, run experiments with a clear
hypothesis and a short duration.”
30. @paulmgower
EMPOWERTEAM
• Ask:“What are our hypotheses, what options do we
have to test them, and how will we measure the
results?”
• Set a time box and regularly gather data.
• Map theValue Stream toVisualize CycleTime
40. @paulmgower
REMOTETEAM PRINCIPLES
1. Establish acceptable hours of
overlap.
2. Create transparency at all levels.
3. Create a culture of continuous
improvement with experiments.
4. Practice pervasive
communication at all levels.
41. @paulmgower
REMOTETEAM PRINCIPLES
1. Establish acceptable hours of
overlap.
2. Create transparency at all levels.
3. Create a culture of continuous
improvement with experiments.
4. Practice pervasive
communication at all levels.
5. Assume good intention.
6. Create a project rhythm.
7. Create a culture of
resilience.
8. Default to collaborative
work.
43. @paulmgower
OWNERSHIP
• Allow the team the space to work with the Agile &
Lean Principles we discussed.
• Allow the team to fail and learn from it.
• Help the team focus on customer value delivery.
50. @paulmgower
MANAGER’S MINDSET
• “To create a successful distributed agile culture,
managers need to change their mindset also.”
• “Successful agile managers work up and down the
hierarchy, helping their colleagues and their managers
change the measurements and desired outcomes.”
56. @paulmgower
FACE-TO-FACETIME
• Helps fix systemic problems that can cause
increases in cycle time.
• Builds respect within the team learning strengths
and weaknesses.
• Meet for a minimum of one week per quarter
57. @paulmgower
“You might think the travel expenses
are ‘too high.’ However, the team
saves time and money through faster
clarification of the vision, mission,
goals, and working agreements.”
58. @paulmgower
BACKCHANNEL
• Dedicated chat channel to support synchronous or
asynchronous conversations.
• Always available—it adds context and allows people
to collaborate.
• The whole team uses it and only the team uses it.
63. @paulmgower
RESOURCES
• From Chaos to Successful Distributed AgileTeams - https://leanpub.com/geographicallydistributedagileteams
• Lean Software Development:An AgileToolkit - https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Software-Development-Agile-Toolkit/dp/0321150783
• What is Kanban? - http://www.everydaykanban.com/what-is-kanban/
• Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change forYourTechnology Business - https://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-
Technology-Business/dp/0984521402/
• The Scientific Method - How ChemistsThink - https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_Chemistry/
Map%3A_Introductory_Chemistry_(Tro)/01%3A_The_Chemical_World/1.4%3A_The_Scientific_Method_-_How_Chemists_Think
• The Education System: Now ClimbThatTree - https://marquetteeducator.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/climbthattree/
• Value Stream Mapping for Knowledge Work and Services - https://blog.lucidmeetings.com/blog/facilitating-value-stream-mapping-for-
knowledge-work-and-service-organizations
• Tools for remote teams - https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/tools/