Agile: MK Success breeds success - so how do you get that?

©2018 Rob Brown (http://change-challenge.blogspot.com/)
“Success breeds
success" - so how do
you get to that?
Agile:MK 22 May 2018

Rob Brown
!1

Summary
Connect to others

Serve them

Say “Thank you” sincerely often

Hear sincere “Thank you” often

Huddles
!2

A thought about the
beneﬁts of an agile culture
The only real competitive advantage everyone is trying to cultivate is a work environment,
a work system, whereby the individuals in it are constantly learning lots of new relevant
things and some new irrelevant (at ﬁrst glance) things…and constantly they are sharing
what they have learned:

• Sharing deepens their own knowledge and understanding a great deal

• Sharing sparks other people’s ideas and energies

• Sharing creates informal networks of communities of interest

Fresh, new, good ideas (no matter the domain, solution or people angles) cannot be
thought up “on demand” - you need a bit of serendipity and a lot of “paying it forward”

• Inspired by the Agile Manifesto “We are uncovering better ways of developing
<software> by doing it and helping others do it.”

• Inspired by experience: <software> = human kind
!3

A picture can
tell many
stories
I started with talking to users and managers,
writing software to satisfy their needs, earning
money and enjoying my work and life.

Then a nagging feeling began to niggle me -
something was not right but I could not ﬁgure
out from the data in front of me what it was…

I started learning, and then more learning in
non-software ﬁelds - understanding in
essence why this cartoon exists since a very
long time ago…
!4

Why is it difﬁcult to
measure and/or achieve
agile (adoption) success?
!5

“People are I.T.”
- Rob Brown
Conway’s Law restated - “software design
reﬂects the organisation [of people] that
creates or maintains it”

“software is the closest thing we have to
pure thought” - someone

- No! Art is!

- No! Mathematics is!

- Yes! Software is both art and
mathematics! It is an expression / model of
how the humans who crafted / curated it
believes/d the world works
!6

The Actual Words We Use
Matter a Lot
(Lakoﬀ also writes on medium.com) (Bateson’s work is at the heart of many schools

of thought / models of how we/stuﬀ work/s)
please
use (naming)
standards!
!7

“The Observer Effect”/ “The Hawthorne
Effect”:

- simply observing a situation or
phenomenon necessarily changes that
phenomenon

- especially observing people causes
them to change

Also, this is freaky: flip a coin 100 times
randomly in 10 sets with a blank mind
and you’re pretty close to 500:500
heads:tails

Take the same experiment and have
the human doing the flipping,
continuously thinking “heads-heads-
heads-heads-” and … there is a
statistical significant shift to more
heads>less tails (every time, every
where)

The Observer Effect
Source: https://www.luckscout.com/hawthorne-effect/
!8

“Seeing is believing”
No!
“Believing is seeing!”
Pygmalion Effect / Rosenthal Effect:

- phenomenon whereby higher
expectations lead to an increase in
performance

(this self-fulfilling prophecy is also why
“labelling” kids/others is really bad - good
to call out wrong behaviours, bad to attach
labels to people)

Source: http://discovermagazine.com/2015/dec/14-great-expectations
!9

“Agile" arrived
in
management
text(s)
Not new approach(es), but a new
vocabulary for describing what was needed
to work in future business realities that
were more and were faster moving

“quick and nimble - able to move in a
direction at speed and change direction
without loss of speed”

•like a ﬁsh, not a cheetah

•like a school of sardines, not a herd of
wildebeest

•easier if only 1, or very few, harder if many
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoaling_and_schooling
Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/514304/Zebra-River-Crossing-Nature-Photography-Wildebeest-Migration
!10

“Manifesto for
Agile Software
Development”
arrived in 2001
Most seemed to ignore the ﬁrst
line - “We are uncovering better
ways of developing software by
doing it and helping others do it.”

And the implications of it.

- What does it mean?

- Why is it the ﬁrst line of the
Manifesto?
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_Dancer
!11

“12 Agile
Principles”
arrived in 2004
3 years later, some more
real abstract thoughts
becoming a bit more
concrete thought

And many people wanted
to be cool, like the 17
signatories
Source: http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
!12

Attempts were
made to
adopt/go
“agile”
Lots of people got into
trouble - either personally,
or professionally, or both!

This was/is not going to be
as easy as cramming a 1-
pager and “success” (or
certiﬁcate) guaranteed
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet
!13

“The Curse of
Knowledge”
Once we know something,
it’s hard to imagine what it
was like to not know

This “stuﬀ” seems easy to
the people who already
know this “stuﬀ”
Now you also have the
The Curse of Knowledge!
!14

Stakes got higher,
managers got hired,
incentives were
required to drive the
right behaviours.
People needed plans.
People had to get good
at deﬁning success and
achieving success

- For large, unknown-
unknowns, complex,
risky, etc programmes of
<any kind of> change
!15

Let’s look at “agile success”
In 4’s please brainstorm
and share for each team:
1. Deﬁnition of agile
success
2. Best example of agile
success
3. What you think can be
repeated/learned/
extracted/distilled to
breed more agile
success
Source: http://bowperson.com/category/free-stuﬀ/
!16

Ofﬁcially, “success” is …
MacMillan dictionary:
noun
the achievement of something that you planned
to do or attempted to do

a plan or an attempt that achieves good results

the fact that you are successful in your career or
profession, especially when you become rich,
famous, respected, etc.

someone who achieves a lot, especially by
becoming rich, famous, respected, etc.

WordNet:
noun:  an attainment that is successful (”His
success in the marathon was unexpected")

noun:  an event that accomplishes its intended
purpose ("Let's call heads a success and tails a
failure”)

noun:  a state of prosperity or fame ("He is
enjoying great success")

noun:  a person with a record of successes ("If
you want to be a success you have to dress like a
success”
“The Squiggle” by Damien Newman
Which of the diﬀerent meanings do

organisations often latch onto?

(“success”, without Douglas H or Tom G,

is incredibly ambiguous it turns out…)
!17

It is hard to
measure or
breed agile
success
Is it the thorough understandings of the words
and phrases “agile”, “the agile manifesto”,
“the 12 agile principles”, “success”, 1000’s of
“agile practices”, 10’s of “agile frameworks”?

Or the behaviours that are more observable
that should be guided by the thorough and
shared understanding of all the above?

Or the issue count, the release count, other
visible measurable outputs and outcomes?

Or?
Source: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/512777107543751389/
!18

What is
important to
measure?
What are metrics used for?

What do we learn from them?

What decisions do they
inform?

Source: https://pirtlestrength.com/underpants-proﬁt-29853dfef2eb

(Southpark episode “Underpants Gnomes - business plan)
!19

Complexity
Decision trees and
branches… our ideas and
attempts keep shifting as
our deeper understanding
of the problem space,
solution space and people
space keep evolving
!20

What counts?
Sociologist William Bruce Cameron:
"It would be nice if all of the data
which sociologists require could be
enumerated because then we could
run them through IBM machines
and draw charts as the economists
do. However, not everything that
can be counted counts, and not
everything that counts can be
counted."
!21

So you’re trying to
measure a moving
target that is moving
in random directions
at random moments
“good luck”
Source: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/342344009159524475
!22

Standard approaches
Nokia Test
CMMI
(Target) Operating Model
Governance Framework
Assurance
Internal Audit
EBITDA
Bespoke
Checklists
All of standard approaches, no matter what, confuse or leave behind
too many of the layers and spirals of busy people just trying to
complete their day job, who won't tell you they don’t understand
Source: https://stjustinmartyr.org/2018/02/18/have-you-ever-been-on-one-of-those-quick-ﬁx-diets-6th-sunday-b-2018/
!23

At this
moment, I like
Agile Fluency
the most
Martin Fowler speaks highly
of Diana Larson and James
Shore’s collaboration. It’s
basically a dynamic/ﬂuid
agile ﬂuency model which is
safe to progress and regress
naturally and gives clues
about how to progress.
!24

Whatever the measurement model is, make it the
least amount of annoyance to the delivery team,
and patiently look (6-12 months) for opportunities
to simplify it.
Accept it with an open heart and open mind - then
look for ways to improve it.
Agitate cautiously - beware “idea
parentage” (never call someone’s idea/baby ugly!)
!25

“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and
express it in numbers, you know something about it, when
you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a
meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of
knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts
advanced to the stage of science.” - William Thomson,
1st Baron Kelvin

“To measure is to know” - James Clark Maxwell

“You cannot control what you cannot measure” - Tom
DeMarco

BUT Tom DeMarco RECANTED: “strict control is
something that matters a lot on relatively useless projects
and much less on useful projects.” and “The very idea of
controlling your child ought to make you at least a little bit
queasy. Yet the stakes for control couldn’t be higher. If you
fail in your task, fail utterly, lives can be ruined. So, it’s
absolutely essential that you not lose your grip entirely.”
Measuring, a
little history
Source: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/364510163562996165/
!26

Be careful
what you
measure, you
get that
Dr. Deming’s 14 obligations
of management, #11:

“Eliminate numerical goals,
numerical quotas and
management by objectives.
Substitute leadership.”

!27

Pragmatic
Uncommon Tips
To Spreading
Agile Behaviours
To Others
Wars don’t determine who is right and who
is wrong, they determine who is left.

Our war is with complexity, not each other.

It’s the small things that matter the most.

Praise in public every good behaviour you
observe.

Lead by examplar behaviours in public so
others can observe, learn and copy you.
?
!28

Uncommon
Tip #1: Keep
your “thank
you’s”
Store all the thanks you get in an
(email) folder

count them when you’re having a
bad day/week

re-read them and remind yourself
who to go and talk to and about
what/anything

“These give you stamina, hope and
determination to keep going…”
Source: http://mychocolatemoments.com/2012/01/14/love-letter-boxes/
!29

Uncommon Tip #2: Team Lunch
every week
Everyone has to eat or at least
can come with to a lunch

1 rule: no work talk

“These build tight social/team
relations which everyone can do
with more when the going gets
tough - and it always does”
Source: Lunch Roulette: https://kickstarter.engineering/lunch-roulette-f5272a3990b9
!30

Uncommon
Tip #3: Team
Capabilities
Map
A bit more mainstream these days…because it works

1. Team brainstorms all the capabilities they need

2. Team prioritises top 10-20 capabilities

3. Whiteboard matrix Person-Capability map

4. Individuals score themselves 1-4 (nothing, basics,
practitioner, expert)

5. Reﬂect and rebalance scores

6. Every Friday check and update for 5 minutes - celebrate
each step of progress

Self-organising behaviours:

1.Team negotiates to learn for team or self, preferably both!

2.When to reprioritise a diﬀerent top 10-20

3.Both velocity and Lead Time improves automagically

“These give people real empowerment, and their own real
results - a virtuous cycle”

Source: https://management30.com/practice/competency-matrix/
!31

Uncommon Tip
#4: Shortest
Coach Loop
“You’re doing
great!”
“You’re doing great, you’re
doing great, you’re doing
great!

Now…please change/add/
drop this 1 little thing”

“Gives the newbie courage to
try new things…and
succeed…step by little step”
!32

Uncommon Tip
#5: Send the
team home 30-60
minutes early
sometimes
“Great job, go home a little
earlier today”

“A little more energy goes
home, much more energy
comes back in the
morning”
Source: https://www.rosettatranslation.com/work-life-series-13-leave-the-oﬃce-early-day/
!33

UncommonTip #6: Town Halls
It’s obvious but so overlooked, and so incredibly
empowering for ideas to ﬂow up-down-sideways for
CHEAP!

“everyone begins to understand everyone is human too”
Source: https://thecrisiscommunicator.com/2014/06/24/open-houses-vs-town-halls-during-crises/
!34

Uncommon Tip
#7: Teams
Choose Their
Success Metric
Each team, in their own problem perspective, solution
perspective and people perspective pick their own
deﬁnition of success, and the 1 metric that matters to
help them course-correct if required.

Roll with it.

Do not summarise and/or aggregate these metrics up!
They become useless/dangerous/misleading.

Team tracks their own trend and decide what they want
to do with their understanding of where they are versus
where they want to be

“They own it, they own the work how to improve it, if
they decide they want/need to improve it”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_chart
!35

Uncommon
Tip #8: Learn
from the AWS
Delivery Team
Only 4 rules guide the AWS teams in Cape Town:

1. Team selects and supports their technology

2. Team selects and supports their process

3. Team is responsible for build and run

4. No team bigger than 9

With 1 overarching/founding principle in the
software architecture:

1. Microservices

“Find your own simple rules - from few simple
rules, complex behaviours evolve and emerge;
from many complicated rules, simple behaviours
evolve and emerge”
Source: https://www.quantamagazine.org/ants-build-complex-structures-with-a-few-simple-rules-20140409/
!36

Uncommon Tip
#9: Close Your
Loop: Helps-
Hinders
Feedback
5-10 minutes of 1-1 feedback with
all around you to close your Johari
Window AND create deep trust

Or

group/team (*extremely powerful
energizer)

“Grows self awareness, awareness’
of the other, and trust in each other”
More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window
!37

Uncommon
Tip #10: “How
are you?”
A daily dose of “How are you?” /
“How’s it going?”

Keeps many problems away, helps
people feel better.

“Works really well if the people feel
and see that their answers are
properly listened to (and acted upon
when needed)”
Source: https://article.wn.com/view/2011/12/22/Shane_Warne_piles_on_pounds/
!38

Summary
Connect to others

Serve them

Say “Thank you” sincerely often

Hear sincere “Thank you” often

Huddles
!39

Agile: MK Success breeds success - so how do you get that?

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