Agile Isn't What You Do (It's What You Think)

Agile Isn’t What You Do
(It’s What You Think)

Derek W. Wade
dwade@kumido.com www.kumido.com

@derekwwade

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Welcome to #agilethink at the AgileTour Toronto
#att10. This twitter backchannel is for my session titled
“Agile Isn’t What You Do (It’s What You Think)”

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Q1:

What is Agile?

What is this?
Cardinal Bíborostól
(English) (Hungarian)

Kardinal Kardināls
(German) (Latvian)

Kardinaaliksi Кардинал
(Finnish) (Russian)


ofﬁcial bird of
7 U.S. states

black face
long tailed

ﬂying mammal brilliant red


Effects

The “Iron Triangle”
Requirements Resources Time

Value
pe

Plan
Co
Driven
Sco

Driven
st

ResourcesTime Time Requirements
“Agile Triangle” © Jean Tabeka & Rally Software


Mental
Model

*Wikimedia Commons - Gnu License


Q2:

A mental model underlies behavior.
What other mental models
do you use, or are aware of?


Simple guidelines
to enable
empirical, incremental, iterative
realization of outcomes
in chaotic domains.


Incremental
Agile = + Iterative
+ Empirical

Chaotic
OUTCOME Domain


OUTCOME

∆

REALITY
http://www.schoolofwisdom.com/ChanceandChoice/chapter2.html


(Some) Attributes of Agile


! ?


As an Agilist using a mental model
I want visibility
via a daily standup
So that I work empirically Attributes are still
“how”

We want the “what!”

Q3: Which attributes of
Agile do YOU emphasize?

“Process” as the Product


Home Improvement

http://www.aaa-superior.com http://learn.builddirect.com

http://www.hgtv.com/bathrooms


Education

http://addietood.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/is-addie-still-a-relevant-model/

http://webqa.csc.noaa.gov/wcde


Thinking or Doing?

I’m a Dev Team member building a
bank check processing system.
System performance is a challenge
and we’re not sure how to handle it...
...so we should try some different
algorithms to improve performance
until it meets our goals.


Thinking or Doing?

I’m a technical Product Owner,
who knows from experience what
architecture is best for our system.
I want my Scrum Team to deliver
faster...
...so the team should implement a
“pipes and ﬁlters” architecture.


Thinking or Doing?

I’m a CTO.
People in Product Management and
Development don’t trust each
other’s estimates...
...so I will require PM and Dev
people to collaborate when writing
Stories.


VISION
“The Business” “The Business”

Product Owner

Department Project
Manager Manager

Scrum Master

Team Team

EXECUTION

Agile as a process can increase fear
Fear inhibits creativity
Creativity is needed for innovation
Innovation is needed for change


$☹


Beneﬁts?


Beneﬁts?
“The Agile Process” “Mental Model Agile”

• Simple rules!
• Faster! More Quality!
• Certification in 2 days! • ???
• Gartner-approved!
...etc.


“Give Them a Hot Tub” - 20m
Q4)

1. Brainstorm features for “Mental Model Agile”
• Each Team writes several features on note cards, one
feature per card.
• Include some completely “outrageous” features.
2. Accept/Transform/Reject
• Each Team takes turns “selling” their features to
another team. The other team listens and
evaluates the feature.
• If the evaluating Team hears a feature that doesn’t make
sense, they can accept, transform, or reject it.
3. Group all resulting features


Don’t do Agile...
...be Agile!

Thank You!
@derekwwade
#agilethink
Derek W. Wade
dwade@kumido.com www.kumido.com


Agile Isn't What You Do (It's What You Think)

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