6 Pitfalls Of An Agile Transformation - Presented at Agile Austin 1/5/2016

•

2 likes•670 views

Did you know that only 53% of Agile projects are considered successful? Agile has many benefits but can be difficult to adopt. Learn 10 Agile transformation pitfalls that put your initiative at risk. **Cover image property of Matt Roberts

Software

David Hawks
@austinagile
Leadership Coach
OF AN AGILE TRANSFORMATION
DAVID HAWKS
@AUSTINAGILE
CEO, AGILE ENTERPRISE COACH AND TRAINER

David Hawks
Agile Velocity
Role
Name
Company
Agile Coach
david@agilevelocity.com
Email Address
If you would like the slides and
more info on the topic include your
name and email on the back
On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest) how would you
rate the success of your organization’s agile adoption?
7
1- Agile in Name only (it’s really Waterfall)
5 - We are doing agile but not being agile
10 - Our agile is better than your agile

EVERYONE HAS ADOPTED AGILE IN SOME CAPACITY
94% of all organizations surveyed now practice agile. (VersionOne State of
Agility 2015)

ONLY 53% OF
AGILE PROJECTS
ARE SUCCESSFUL
It is better than waterfall, but is that good
enough?
(VersionOne State of Agility 2015)

THERE IS MORE BAD AGILETHAN GOOD AGILE
Why is that?

David Hawks
@austinagile
Leadership Coach
OF AN AGILE TRANSFORMATION
TOP 6 PITFALLS:
1. JUST A PROCESS
2. NO SLACK TO LEARN
3. LEADERSHIP NOT ALIGNED
4.NO PSPI FOCUS
5. ONLY FOCUSED ON TEAM
6. CULTURAL MISALIGNMENT

PITFALL #1 - THINKING AGILE IS JUST A PROCESS CHANGE

PITFALL #5 - ONLY FOCUSED ON THE TEAM VS THE ORG

PATHTO AGILITY
How would you assess your organization?

HAVEYOU SOLVED
SOME OFTHE
PROBLEMS OF
OTHERS?

What's hot

Exercise Lean Feb 27 2010

ExerciseLeanLLC

ITIL Practitioner

Karen Ferris

A Startup Journey: Transitioning from Ad-hoc to Agile to Kanban

Siddhi

Agile is so much more than rituals and buzzwords, but often the real value is lost as organizations focus more on adhering to processes than the reasons behind them. Teams all too easily fall into the trap of following a prescribed method and deviate little from that original template. A continuous improvement approach implies a team is regularly questioning, tweaking, and iterating on its own version of Agile. Today's set of practices and processes should not be identical to those from a year ago.

Agile NOT by the Book - Agile and Beyond 2015

Wade Wachs

In this unique presentation, Kevin will discuss his experience at Adobe, Microsoft, Spotify and now at a legal online marketplace, Avvo. In each organization, Kevin used his background in Operational Excellence to transform businesses. Kevin has created nimble innovation cultures at Adobe & Microsoft, and has used operational excellence tools to help innovation at Spotify. He will discuss how: * How Avvo’s leadership team focuses on the larger strategy at this rapidly growing company, empowering employees to make decisions * Articulating and communicating the strategy in a way that employees understand * Aligning and prioritizing innovation projects at Spotify to overall business goals and objectives * How to benefit from speed and how to operate on a larger scale.

Agile Business Transformation

Kevin Goldsmith

Imagine inheriting the job leading the "business as usual" change program for Westpac's new online banking platform. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it (like you have a choice), is to “turn it Agile”. You are “gifted” a SAFe Program Consultant, not that you know what that is. So you tell them of your predicament and ask if Agile will help. As one would expect, the Agile consultant can see the path to agility. However, the recommended approach seems somewhat unconventional. A one-week immersion program that will transform the waterfall machine into an Agile Release Train! Tune into this session to learn how one of Australia’s largest banks adopted Agile on a mission critical application overnight. Attendees at this session will learn the benefits and pitfalls of using SAFe’s notorious Quick Start approach to implementing Agile, and the facts about what it really takes to “Quick Start” an Agile Release Train.

Mission Impossible: Banking on a SAFe QuickStart

Em Campbell-Pretty

Sgin2013 keynote-suceeding with scrum-bob hartman

India Scrum Enthusiasts Community

KAA How to get your Good agile teams to Great

David Hawks

Please join us on Wednesday January 27 in Burlington MA starting at 6:30 pm as senior enterprise agility coach Yuval Yeret describes several techniques that can be used to produce a lasting and productive adoption of the Scaled Agile Framework. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a powerful and popular framework for implementing agile at large scale across the enterprise. However many organizations see their implementation of SAFe stall and even backfire since the adoption is mandated from its organizational leaders, instead of engaged teams participating and choosing their SAFe. In this talk we will examine some dangerous implementation anti-patterns as well as healthier alternatives. You will learn some concrete techniques that help live up to the Lean/SAFe principles of respecting and engaging people. We will discuss field-proven ideas such as pull-based crossing the chasm approach to implementation, use of open space as part of the different SAFe ceremonies, and how Open Space Agility can combine with SAFe.

SAFe – A dangerous weapon. Techniques to implementing a lasting adoption of t...

Yuval Yeret

Agile's Future Wave

machielg

Scaling agile

Maris Prabhakaran M

Intro to Agile - Heidi Araya

agilemaine

ЄВГЕНІЯ ГЛОВАЦЬКА «QA Change Management» Kyiv QADay 2021

QADay

Aug presentation-12-12

Lindsay Czopur

In this session, Dipesh Pala will explore how organizations can create cultures, nurture individuals, and build teams to create high performing Distributed Agile teams in a globally competitive world. Dipesh will also share some innovative ideas in addition to tricks, tips, and proven methods that have inspired and helped people and organizations to 'be Agile' rather than just 'do Agile'. The Agile Manifesto puts more emphasis on individuals and interactions over processes and tools and we want to keep it that way no matter where they are!

Distributed Agile Workshop @ Agile India - Dipesh Pala

Dipesh Pala

Avvo is a 10-year old company that is in high growth mode. In June, Kevin Goldsmith joined Avvo as its CTO after three years at Spotify. He will share learnings of how the team is bringing a lean and agile culture to this rapidly growing company. How do you scale the tools of transformation from the team to the company? In a company eager for change, how do you decide where to invest and how fast to go? Kevin will also share some of the programs that have been put into place to begin the transition from a top-down to bottom-up culture.

Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement at Avvo

Kevin Goldsmith

One of the keys to a successful enterprise Agile transformation is the support of executive leadership, which is more than simply providing approval. The Agile executive enables, empowers and engages rather than controls. According to one recent survey, more than one in three organisations claim that the lack of leadership engagement within their businesses is plaguing their journey towards sustainable organisational agility. With a special focus on executives and leaders, this presentation will be draw upon more than a decade of Agile transformation experiences in multiple organisations across eight countries, and will share real-life case studies and insights to illustrate the key things that Agile leaders need to do differently. Be inspired by knowing what serves to catalyse and nourish progress – and what does the opposite.

7 Things Agile Leaders and Executives Do Differently - Agile Australia 2016 b...

Dipesh Pala

12 principles for Agile Development

Julien Henzelin

Sue Evans - “Leading change in Warwickshire”

Alexis May

Agile Project Management with Kanban (4 Nov 2015)

Mai Quay

What's hot (20)

Exercise Lean Feb 27 2010

ITIL Practitioner

A Startup Journey: Transitioning from Ad-hoc to Agile to Kanban

Agile NOT by the Book - Agile and Beyond 2015

Agile Business Transformation

Mission Impossible: Banking on a SAFe QuickStart

Sgin2013 keynote-suceeding with scrum-bob hartman

KAA How to get your Good agile teams to Great

SAFe – A dangerous weapon. Techniques to implementing a lasting adoption of t...

Agile's Future Wave

Scaling agile

Intro to Agile - Heidi Araya

ЄВГЕНІЯ ГЛОВАЦЬКА «QA Change Management» Kyiv QADay 2021

Aug presentation-12-12

Distributed Agile Workshop @ Agile India - Dipesh Pala

Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement at Avvo

7 Things Agile Leaders and Executives Do Differently - Agile Australia 2016 b...

12 principles for Agile Development

Sue Evans - “Leading change in Warwickshire”

Agile Project Management with Kanban (4 Nov 2015)

Viewers also liked

C.B.T.I.S 48

Marii GoOmez

NASH_CERTIFICATE1

Nashlyn Govender

Uttarakhand

Kaushiki Jaiswal

Log This - Team 8 Action Plan

Cultural Vistas

Fabricación de pintura ecológica a base de caseína

Ana Belen Aguilar

Andreas_Christ_Curriculum_Vitae

Andreas Christ

24 hour completion flyer

Bill Beadles

PetroSync - Well Completion and Workover

PetroSync

Viewers also liked (8)

C.B.T.I.S 48

NASH_CERTIFICATE1

Uttarakhand

Log This - Team 8 Action Plan

Fabricación de pintura ecológica a base de caseína

Andreas_Christ_Curriculum_Vitae

24 hour completion flyer

PetroSync - Well Completion and Workover

Similar to 6 Pitfalls Of An Agile Transformation - Presented at Agile Austin 1/5/2016

In this world of exponentially increasing market disruption, it is more imperative than ever for organizations to not only achieve operational agility (efficiency, speed, etc.), but also organizational agility (speed to respond to market change). Traditional Leadership Paradigms, Org. Structures, and Culture all get in the way, as too many companies focus on team level change and framework implementation (Scrum and SAFe). In this session, we explore how leaders can guide their organizations past these barriers and accelerate the momentum towards true organizational agility.

Why Agile Transformations Get Stuck - David Hawks, AgileCamp Dallas 2018

Agile Velocity

Leadership Agility - Agile Leadership Fest 2019

Agile Velocity

Explore the slides from David Hawks' Agile 2018 talk, Projects Are Evil. David led the group through a set of discovery exercises so the audience can understand their current biases. As the group unraveled what they truly value most, they saw how those values are impacted by a project-driven mindset. Then, they transformed this list of values into a new Agile Manifesto, walking away from the talk with actionable items to take back to their organizations to help create a value-driven mindset.

Projects Are Evil - David Hawks, Agile 2018

Agile Velocity

HR Agility - ATX HR June 2019

Agile Velocity

Baking the SAFe® Cake - One Layer at a Time!

Agile Velocity

Webinar: 6 Keys to Agile Transformation Success with David Hawks | Agile Velo...

Agile Velocity

User Stories Suck - David Hawks, Agile 2018

Agile Velocity

The User Story concept was invented almost 20 years ago, and it’s time for an update. This outdated process supports an old way of working focused on predictable requirements delivery instead of product discovery. Wouldn’t you like to know much earlier which features are not going to be valued by your market? We need techniques that shorten the feedback loop with customers, not stakeholders. We need to prioritize based on riskiest assumptions and iterate quickly through small experiments in order to (in)validate our ideas as fast as possible.

User Stories Suck - David Hawks & Reese Schmit - IIBA Austin January 2019

Agile Velocity

We operate in a world of exponentially increasing market disruption. It is more important than ever for organizations to achieve organizational agility, which is why many companies are embarking on Agile Transformations. However, few of them are realizing the full agile results promised--and needed. In fact, over 50% of all Agile transformations fail. In this webinar, David explored how leaders can guide their organizations past common barriers to transformation and accelerate momentum towards true organizational agility using a proven transformation framework, the Path to Agility®. Key takeaways include: - 4 impediments slowing down the transformation or preventing significant gains from Agile - How an organization develops new capabilities by implementing Agile practices - How those capabilities result in agile outcomes and better agility for an organization - The ability to assess your current state of agility and where to focus efforts in the near term

Webinar - Why Agile Transformations Fail

Agile Velocity

Organizations are frequently embarking on large scale product development initiatives involving hundreds, sometimes thousands of team members. Scale brings in additional complexity, non-linear behavior and risk. On the other hand, organizations are actively identifying ways to reduce hierarchies and reducing layers of middle management to become adaptive and agile. Leaders leading large scale product development initiatives are seeking structure and process clarity to fail-proof their undertaking. Plethora of (Scrum) scaling frameworks and methodologies are trying to address these challenges. Some organically and others in more prescriptive way. In this session Kamlesh Ravlani discusses Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) framework and how leaders can apply it to re-design and descale their organization to scale the value delivery. Large-Scale Scrum is Scrum applied to many teams working on one product. Scrum is almost linearly scalable, hence LeSS framework elements are essentially the same as one team Scrum. LeSS is well balanced between empirical process control and defined elements to work with 2 to 8 teams. From my practical experience working on and leading multiple large scale product development initiatives, and LeSS framework, I'll share elements and practices useful for leaders to re-design the organizations and to enhance the focus on customer value.

Leading Large Scale Product Development with Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS)

Kamlesh Ravlani

Today most Agile teams are trying to achieve predictable, fast delivery. While that may keep your zombie competitors at bay, it’s no longer good enough especially in this highly competitive, rapidly changing playing field. It’s not just about Agile team execution anymore. Next Level Agility is about the ability of the entire organizations to quickly adapt to market changes. In this session at PCS20, David Hawks shared principles and practices that are the future of Agile organizations. Together, he and the audience reset the bar on how great Agile organizations operate by moving beyond practices like user stories, project plans, stakeholder feedback, continuous integration, and velocity, and towards a new Next Level Agile Manifesto with an emphasis on Discovery over Execution.

Next Level Agile @ ProductCamp Austin 20 - 2/2018

Agile Velocity

Ten Things to Tell Management about Scrum and Agile

Peter Stevens

The benefits of total organizational agility can be seen in many of the world’s largest companies--think Google, Apple, and Amazon. While they may not explicitly call themselves capital-“A” Agile, they work with a heavy emphasis on Agile principles like a focus on delivering value, shortened feedback loops, quick time-to-market, and an opposition to traditional top-down management techniques. These principles go beyond teams. Instead, they are ingrained throughout the whole organization and its culture. As a result, these companies have the ability to change and adapt to their markets and have now grown into industry leaders. How did they do it? What can you learn from the changes they’ve made? In this webinar, David Hawks discusses 7 ways your organization can begin operating more like some of the top companies in the world. Key discussion points include: - What is organizational agility and what are the benefits? - 7 ways to bring organizational agility to your business - Why is it imperative to apply Agile principles across the whole organization? - Q&A with the audience Looking for guidance during your Agile transformation? Contact info@agilevelocity.com for more information on how we can help.

Organizational Agility: Take Agile Beyond the Team - Webinar w/ David Hawks

Agile Velocity

How Agile Can Make You a Better Executive (or not)

Hala Saleh

Where Does Agile Go Wrong - David Hawks, DeveloperWeek Austin 2019

Agile Velocity

Today most Agile teams are trying to achieve predictable, fast delivery. While that’s good, it’s no longer good enough—not if we want to keep up in this highly competitive, rapidly changing world. It’s not just about teams anymore. Next Level Agility is about the ability of entire organizations to quickly adapt to market changes. In his Keep Austin Agile 2018 session, David Hawks shared principles and practices that are the future of Agile organizations. Together, he and the audience reset the bar on how great Agile organizations operate by moving beyond practices like user stories, project plans, stakeholder feedback, continuous integration, and velocity, and towards a new Next Level Agile Manifesto with an emphasis on Discovery over Execution. Learn to identify organizational impediments keeping you from breaking through to the next level. Attendees walked away from this session with concrete practices needed in order to support this new way of working.

Next Level Agile - David Hawks - Keep Austin Agile 2018

Agile Velocity

How BMC is Scaling Agile Development

Israel Gat

How to get executive support

Agile Velocity

Teams are not delivering quickly enough. Velocity is flat. People are not self-organizing. Business and technology blame each other. Leaders are not stepping up to take ownership. This scaling approach isn’t scaling. Customers are complaining and stakeholders are not happy. If you are facing one or more of these challenges, or hearing it from your leaders, it’s time to step up. The lack of Agile Leadership is the #1, #2, and #3 causes limiting your agile practice. Join us to learn about the six leadership mistakes you are likely making that is hindering your organizational effectiveness.

Five *oops* Six mistakes leaders make

Pete Behrens

6 Keys to Agile Transformation Success by David Hawks at DFW Scrum

Agile Velocity

Similar to 6 Pitfalls Of An Agile Transformation - Presented at Agile Austin 1/5/2016 (20)

Why Agile Transformations Get Stuck - David Hawks, AgileCamp Dallas 2018

Leadership Agility - Agile Leadership Fest 2019

Projects Are Evil - David Hawks, Agile 2018

HR Agility - ATX HR June 2019

Baking the SAFe® Cake - One Layer at a Time!

Webinar: 6 Keys to Agile Transformation Success with David Hawks | Agile Velo...

User Stories Suck - David Hawks, Agile 2018

User Stories Suck - David Hawks & Reese Schmit - IIBA Austin January 2019

Webinar - Why Agile Transformations Fail

Leading Large Scale Product Development with Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS)

Next Level Agile @ ProductCamp Austin 20 - 2/2018

Ten Things to Tell Management about Scrum and Agile

Organizational Agility: Take Agile Beyond the Team - Webinar w/ David Hawks

How Agile Can Make You a Better Executive (or not)

Where Does Agile Go Wrong - David Hawks, DeveloperWeek Austin 2019

Next Level Agile - David Hawks - Keep Austin Agile 2018

How BMC is Scaling Agile Development

How to get executive support

Five *oops* Six mistakes leaders make

6 Keys to Agile Transformation Success by David Hawks at DFW Scrum

More from Agile Velocity

Virtual Agile Meetup with David Hawks, Bob Sarni and Michigan Technology Services Michigan Technology Services offers instructor-led Agile and Scrum training and coaching. We collaborate with stellar people – like David Hawks and Bob Sarni, globally recognized Agile trainers and coaches. In a pre-Covid world our training would take place at our location in the Farmington Hills/Novi area, 20 miles outside of Detroit, or at your location anywhere around the world. Our Agile workshops and Agile coaching sessions are now offered online/virtually, reducing your need to travel. We continue to support the local Agile community and sponsor regional Agile conferences and meetups. We have successfully run Agile and Certified ScrumMaster, Product Owner and Agile Leadership courses for multiple teams from globally recognized organizations. We also provide Agile coaching for great companies, helping them with their Agile journey. We are planning a series of free virtual meetups for our Agile friends. Meetup with David Hawks and Bob Sarni – October 27, 2021 Intro to Path to Agility – an Outcome-Driven Agile Transformation Framework About this virtual meetup While many organizations operate in an Agile way, they are still not fully realizing Agile’s benefits. There has been tremendous focus on implementing all of the Agile practices without understanding if and how the various Agile frameworks, tools, and skills are driving results. Path to Agility is the solution to this growing problem. Path to Agility orients your Agile transformation around guiding business outcomes like speed, market responsiveness, and customer satisfaction. The Agile transformation framework then identifies the right Agile outcomes and capabilities that your organization should focus on to help you build your transformation roadmap.

Outcome Driven Transformation with David Hawks and Bob Sarni - Michigan Techn...

Agile Velocity

Path to Agile Leadership with David Hawks - Agile Austin Leaders SIG

Agile Velocity

Path to Agile Leadership with David Hawks - Utah Women in Agile

Agile Velocity

Path to Agility: Outcome-Driven Transformation at Lean-Agile-Digital Transfor...

Agile Velocity

Are you considering SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework)? Have you begun your SAFe implementation but are not seeing the promised business results? This webinar discusses how to ensure your desired business outcomes are achieved using SAFe. It explains the missing “connective tissue” that ties your business objectives to the underlying framework. Mike Hall is an experienced Agile Coach specializing in scaling Agile and lean economics. He has led several large SAFe transformations and is an experienced SAFe trainer.

Showcase Webinar: Mapping Business Outcomes to SAFe with Mike Hall

Agile Velocity

The User Story concept was invented almost 20 years ago, it’s time for an update. This outdated process supports an old way of working focused on predictable requirements delivery instead of product discovery. Wouldn’t you like to know much earlier which features are not going to be valued by your market? We need techniques that shorten the feedback loop with customers, not stakeholders. We need to prioritize based on riskiest assumptions and iterate quickly through small experiments in order to (in)validate our ideas as fast as possible.

User Stories Suck by David Hawks at North Dallas Product Owners Meetup

Agile Velocity

Webinar: 3 Lessons Learned Guiding SAFe® Implementations with Mike Hall | Agi...

Agile Velocity

An Outcome-Oriented Approach to SAFe® Transformations by Mike Hall at Scaled ...

Agile Velocity

Path to Leadership Agility - David Hawks, Dallas ALN | Agile Velocity

Agile Velocity

5 Key Capabilities Of Agile Leaders - David Hawks | Agile Velocity

Agile Velocity

Enterprise Agility Coach Richard Dolman shares thoughts on the things leaders should watch for during an Agile transformation, based on lessons observed and learned in leading multiple organizations through change. Key takeaways include: - Understanding the common failure patterns that impede transformation - Being able to engage key stakeholders and connecting them to the “Why” - How to build a powerful guiding coalition that can help remove big impediments - Ideas for mapping your own Path to Agility® To learn more about Agile Velocity’s Agile transformation services and our proven Path to Agility® Framework, visit AgileVelocity.com or email us at info@agilevelocity.com

Webinar - What to Expect When You're Expecting An Agile Transformation

Agile Velocity

Scaled Agile NTX - Horse Before the Cart - An Outcome-Oriented Approach to S...

Agile Velocity

AgileCamp San Francisco 2019 - Overcome Transformation Impediments with Outco...

Agile Velocity

Overcome Transformation Impediments with Outcome-Driven Agility - David Hawks...

Agile Velocity

Overcome Transformation Impediments with Outcome-Driven Agility - David Hawks...

Agile Velocity

In this workshop at Agile2019, Mike Hall shared an outcome-oriented approach to a scaled agile transformation. Instead of starting with the framework, Mike starts with a business objective. Attendees explored what agile outcomes will influence an organization towards a certain business objective. And collaboratively built a capability model within these outcomes to drive improvement. Then, attendees used SAFe® constructs to realize the capabilities in order to achieve the desired business objective.

Horse Before the Cart - An Outcome-Oriented Approach to SAFe® Transformations...

Agile Velocity

Make Shift Happen: Leading Change - Global Scrum Gathering 2019

Agile Velocity

In this world of exponentially increasing market disruption, it is more imperative than ever for organizations to not only achieve operational agility (efficiency, speed, etc.), but also organizational agility (speed to respond to market change). Many companies are embarking on an Agile Transformation, but getting “lost in the desert” and not realizing the full agile benefits promised and needed. Traditional leadership paradigms, organizational structures, and culture all get in the way, as too many companies focus on team level change and framework implementation (Scrum and SAFe). At Global Scrum Gathering 2019, David Hawks showed leaders how they can guide their organizations past these barriers and accelerate the momentum towards true organizational agility.

Why Transformations Get Stuck - Global Scrum Gathering 2019

Agile Velocity

Servant Leadership: Not Selfish, Self First - Agile Cincinnati April 2019

Agile Velocity

Why 76% of Organizations are Failing at Agile - Agile Cincinnati April 2019

Agile Velocity

More from Agile Velocity (20)