This document discusses applying agile principles to organizational culture. It references Deming's system of profound knowledge and the concept of a "cultural flow". Applying constraints to behaviors and values can help close gaps in the cultural flow. Iterating frequently through sprints and interacting often with stakeholders unleashes the power of iteration to continuously improve organizational culture and values over time.

1. Agile
The Power of I(n)teration
@Agile.PT 2015

2. Hi.
Bruno Teixeira
https://twitter.com/bruno_cacho
https://pt.linkedin.com/in/brunocacho
Agile Coach @Farfetch
Nuno Rafael gomes
https://twitter.com/nrgomes
https://pt.linkedin.com/in/nrgomes
Product Owner @Farfetch

3. Start Sprint

4. Agile Manifesto
Culture and Values
“At the core, I believe Agile Methodologies are really
about mushy stuff of values and culture.”
Robert C. Martin, President and founder of Object Mentor Inc.
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The Gap
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5. Back to Origins
W. Edwards Deming
o Kaizen greatest influencer.
“I can say that Dr. Deming’ teachings were great
revelations to Japanese management which built
many Kaizen practices in Japan based on his principles.”
Masaaki Imai, Founder of Kaizen Institute.
o Lean Manufacturing “father”.
“Deming is the core of our management.”
Shoichiro Toyoda, Honorary Chairman and Director of Toyota.
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6. Back to Origins
W. Edwards Deming
o SoPK – System of Profound Knowledge:
“There is no substitute for knowledge.”
“A system is a network of interdependent
components that work together to try to
accomplish the aim of the system.”
A system must be managed. It will not manage itself.”
“94% of problems in business are systems driven, only 6% are people driven.”
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7. Systems, systems, systems...
Everything is a system.
o System of development
o System of knowledge
o System of learning
o Complex ecoSystems
o Adaptive ecoSystems
o Thinking Systems
o …
A System of everything? (probably just a theory…)
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8. Emerging Concept...
... from our Agile practice & reflections.
o 2 words were starting to emerge and bound together frequently:
“Cultural System”
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9. Spike
We felt ready to start...
… or so we thought. 
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10. User Story #1
The Flow

11. But where to start?
Every system has one or more flows.
o Operational Flow
o Financial Flow
o Informational Flow
o Others...
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12. Have we found a Cultural Flow?
Our proposal:
Behaviors
Values
Actions
Patterns
Culture Settle
Structure
Trigger
Emerge
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13. What knowledge is available?
... from the community at large:
o Change Organizational Culture:
– Great thinkers’ literature: Edgar H. Schein, William E. Schneider, etc.
– Great coachers’ teachings: Michael Sahota, etc.
– Only an organizational effort can change a corporate Culture!
o Apply Patterns to Organizations:
– Patterns of Productive Software Organizations, Harrison, Coplien, 1996.
– Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development, Harrison, Coplien, 2004.
– Scrum Pattern Community’s work in progress at http://www.scrumplop.org.
– Patterns are about thinking, caring and becoming, not about doing. Challenging!
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Culture Patterns

14. User Story #2
The Gap

15. What about The Gap?
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Patterns
Culture
Emerge
Behaviors
Values
Actions
Settle
Structure
Trigger
The Gap

16. The Gap
Drilling down:
o Change Organizational Values:
– Heavily dependent on the corporate culture: also requires an organizational effort.
– Anyway, we can work the Agile Values of a Scrum Team.
o Improve Social Behaviors:
– Difficult to master!
– Psychology and Sociology are two of the most complex fields of knowledge.
o “Fix” People’s Actions:
– Too time consuming.
– Most of the time, the corrective measures won’t last in time.
Values Behaviours Actions
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17. First Gap in the flow are Values
Customer Collaboration Working Software
Individuals & Interactions Responding to Change
Agile Values
How about working with Agile Values?
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18. How to do it?
Why don’t we apply a Constraint?
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19. System
Flow 2
Flow 1
Let’s try some magic! 
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Adapted from Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC):
FlowConstraint

20. Practice from the Field
#1 – Scrum Team [1 year 3 months]
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Constraint #1
On Behaviours
The only one that matters is
Team Collaboration.
▼
• Shared common goals.
• Boost on all communication levels.
• From Group of Individuals to a Team.
Constraint #2
On Values
The only one that matters is
delivering Working Software.
▼
• Excelence on engineering practices.
• Emergence on solutions.
• Dramatically improve client’s trust.
• Boost team morale and confidence.
After
7months

21. Practice from the Field
#2 – Scrum Team in a Lean Client [3 months]
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Constraint #1
On Values
The only one that matters is
Customer Collaboration.
▼
• Increase client’s engagement.
• Increase # of interactions / iteration.
• Improve all communication channels.
• Learn from the client, “fast & furious”.
• Amplify Learning & See the Whole.

22. Practice from the Field
#3 – Next Scrum Team [not started]
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Constraint #1
On Behaviour
The only one that matters is
Team Collaboration.
▼
• N/A
Constraint #2
On Values
The only one that matters is
N/A.
▼
• N/A

23. Practice from the Field
Lessons learned:
o Elevate a Behavior like “Team Collaboration”:
– Helps storm a Team faster.
– Helps build a strong Team’s Identity.
o Elevate a Value like “Working Software”:
– Improves engineering practices and hence, confidence.
– Makes it possible to decrease the iteration cycle.
o Elevate a Value like “Customer Collaboration”:
– Increases dramatically the interaction frequency and quality.
– Bosts confidence on all Scrum participants across the ecosystem.
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24. User Story #3
The Power

25. Inspecting and Mapping
We can Mapp Agile Values into System Properties.
Interaction driven:
Customer
Collaboration
Individuals &
Interactions
Iteration driven:
Working Software
Responding to
Change
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26. A Real Life Analogy
For left siders, let’s make a bank deposit:
o You have an principal of 1.000 Euros deposited on your bank.
o Your bank pays you an interest rate of 5%... 
o ... and compounds the interest each month (the period).
o How much money will you have after 12 months (periods)?
Period Principal Interest Future Value
0 (now) 1,000.00€ 1,000€ x 5% = 50,00€ 1,050.00€
1 1,050.00€ 1,050€ x 5% = 52.50€ 1,102.50€
... ... ... 1,795.86€
12 1,795.86€
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27. A Real Life Analogy
Compound Interest:
𝑭𝑽 = 𝑷𝑽 × ( 𝟏 + 𝒓 ) 𝒏
Where:
o FV = Future Value
o PV = Present Value, or Principal
o r = Interest Rate (%)
o n = Number of Periods
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28. A Real Life Analogy
Compound Knowledge?
𝑭𝑽 = 𝑷𝑽 × ( 𝟏 + 𝒓 ) 𝒏
Where:
o FV = Future (Potential) Product Business Value
o PV = Present Product Business Value
o r = Interaction Frequency Rate (%)
o n = Number of Iterations (Sprints)
Notes:
o Product Business Value ≠ Cash Flow from Operating Activities (CFO).
o Frequency = Number of occurrences of a repeating event / unit time.
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29. A Real Life Analogy
An exercice:
o You have a product with a present business value of 10,000€.
o Your goal is to maximize the business value over the next year.
o You must interact with the client, either on low or high frequencies.
o You are free to choose the number of iterations (n) per year:
Iteration type iterations/year weeks/iteration hours/iteration
1 quarter 4 13 455
1 month 12 4 140
1 week 52 1 35
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30. A Real Life Analogy
The different scenarios in numbers:
Notes:
o Interation Frequency = 1 or 1+1 (hours) / iteration length (hours)
o An Iteration with a client can be: a demo, a release, or other feedback...
Scenario N Inter h/n r PV FV
4 quarters, 1 inter/cycle 4 1 455 0,22% 10,000€ 10,088€
4 quarters, 2 inter/cycle 4 1+1 455 0,44% 10,000€ 10,177€
12 months, 1 inter/cycle 12 1 140 0,71% 10,000€ 10,892€
12 months, 2 inter/cycle 12 1+1 140 1,43% 10,000€ 11,856€
52 weeks, 1 inter/cycle 52 1 70 2,86% 10,000€ 43,270€
52 weeks, 2 inter/cycle 52 1+1 70 5,71% 10,000€ 179,867€
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31. A Real Life Analogy
Plotting the results:
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32. Sprint Retrospective

33. Conclusion
Our practice on “Cultural Flow”, applying constraints on its processes,
values and behaviours, highlighted these 2 properties of an Agile Ecosystem,
hence, no matter what you do or how you do it, just:
Iterate & Interact
to unleash
The Power of I(n)teration
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34. @Agile.PT 2015

35. A few references
o https://hbr.org/2012/07/cultural-change-that-sticks
o https://www.deming.org/theman/theories/profoundknowledge
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_constraints
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36. Thank you
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