Many companies fail when it comes to turning change ideas into small and executable steps with learnings as a desired outcome. Agile day-to-day work, such as dealing with retrospective outcomes, becomes very challenging, and whole Agile transitions fail because of this inability to navigate in complex environments. Following a few simple steps to plan, execute, and learn from experiments will provide tangible outcomes, closing the gap between where you are right now and where you want to be with being Agile. If everyone followed these steps, change would be much faster and less feared.

1. LASTConference
Concrete
Experimentation
in Agile Environments
BerndSchifferJamesVulling
18/09/2015

2. Moving to Australia

3. Moveto
Australia
Isit
nice?
Get
pregnant
Yes
No Move
back
Plan
for Oz
Our

4. 20%Chance of getting pregnant
per ovulation cycle
if absolutely everything’s okay.

5. Getting pregnant is
COMPLEX(not complicated)
complicated
complex

6. “Complexityisgenerallyusedtocharacterisesomethingwithmany
partswherethosepartsinteractwitheachotherinmultipleways.
[…]
…evenamongscientists,thereisnouniquedefinitionofcomplexity…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complexity

7. Die nachfolgende Grafik illustriert die Absenkung und den Wider-
anstieg der organisatorischen →Komplexität als Reaktion auf Ver-
änderungen in der Komplexität der Marktumgebung:
Jahr
Taylor -Epoche
Moderne
OrganisationManufaktur
tot
(Maschinen)
1900 1950 2006
EDV wird
wirksam
Marktenge durch
Globalisierung
träge Massen-
märkte entstehen
lebendig
(Menschen)
Marktdruck
Komplexität
Konventionelle
Unternehmen
erkleiden
Marktdruck
Dynamische
Unternehmen
erzeugen
Marktdruck
Jahr
Taylor -Epoche
Moderne
OrganisationManufaktur
tot
(Maschinen)
1900 1950 2006
EDV wird
wirksam
EDV wird
wirksam
Marktenge durch
Globalisierung
Marktenge durch
Globalisierung
träge Massen-
märkte entstehen
träge Massen-
märkte entstehen
lebendig
(Menschen)
Marktdruck
Komplexität
Konventionelle
Unternehmen
erkleiden
Marktdruck
Dynamische
Unternehmen
erzeugen
Marktdruck
Taylor-Wanne: Bis 1900 dominiert die Manufaktur. Dann entstehen neuefrom: ”Best Thinking" by Gerhard Wohland and Matthias Wiemeyer (2007)
Taylor Tub
originally called “Wanne”

8. A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making by David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone in Harvard Business Review (11.2007)
“[In a complex
situation] create
environments
and experiments
that allow
patterns to
emerge.”
— Dave Snowden

9. So, experimenting…

10. Not our own chart!

11. Preferences over Plans

12. CAT SHOE, SIC!
cleargoal
arranged
trackablethroughmetrics
small
hasduedate
outintheopen
evalutatedthroughhypothesis
safe-to-fail
impelledbychampions
communicatedbeforestart
Thus!

13. Another example
Fix It or Trash It

14. Clear GoalStoppilingupbugs.

15. Arranged
cf. ”How We Deal With Software Defects in Production" by Oliver Lorenz
(10.09.2013, http://www.technology-ebay.de/the-teams/mobile-de/blog/how-we-deal-with-software-defects-in-production.html )

16. Trackable Through
Metrics
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
#bugs
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
week
-8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 6
bugs raised bugs fixed and trashed
Experiment starts here

17. "Christopher Hitchens debating John Lennox" by stepher from i can't believe i actually live here, alabama - "Is God Great" DebateUploaded by Richard001. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christopher_Hitchens_debating_John_Lennox.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Christopher_Hitchens_debating_John_Lennox.jpg
Track to Evolve Sustainably
“Whatcanbeassertedwithoutevidence
canbedismissedwithoutevidence.”
—Hitchen’sRazor,byChristopherHitchens

18. Small
“Only”6weeks.Onlyoneteam.
small

19. Has a Due Date
After6weeks,incl.presentationoffinalresults,
afterstandup,andscheduledinadvance.

20. Out in the
Todo Arrange
Experi-
menting
Ready for
Reflection
Done
3
Smaller
Teams
Hire
internal
Coach
First
Open
Space
Fix It or
Trash
It
Happi-
ness
Index
cf. “7 Steps to Build a Kanban Board for a Scrum Team’s Impediments” by Bernd Schiffer
(05/09/2011, http://agiletrail.com/2011/09/05/7-steps-to-build-a-kanban-board-for-a-scrum-teams-impediments )
Open
Yes, that’s a Kanban board.

21. Evaluated through
Hypothesis
h=Wecanhandleamoreorequalamount
ofbugsthaniscurrentlycomingin.
h0 =Theamountofbugskeepsincreasing.

22. Safe-to-Fail
Source:
http://thinkvitamin.com/design/backstage-star-wars-photos/

23. Safe-to-Fail? Maybe.

24. Safe-to-Fail? Nope.
http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/singaporeseen/this-urban-jungle/chased-by-a-bear-its-all-in-a-days-work-for-a-photographer

25. Impelled by Champions

26. Communicated
before Start

27. CAT SHOE, SIC!
cleargoal
arranged
trackablethroughmetrics
small
hasduedate
outintheopen
evalutatedthroughhypothesis
safe-to-fail
impelledbychampions
communicatedbeforestart
Thus!

28. More Experiments
FirstAgileTeam
FirstInternalAgileCoach
FirstOpenSpace
SetupHappinessIndex
SetupCollaborative
Decision-Making

29. Tip:
Do Retrospectives…
…and treat every action
as an experiment.

30. Tip 2:
Uncover What’s Really
Going on

31. http://thechive.com/2014/04/23/this-will-get-your-ocd-boiling-27-photos/funny-ocd-17/ http://www.jokideo.com/ocd-overdrive/
http://www.clickypix.com/funny-ocd-pictures-drive-crazy/funny-ocd-pictures-26/
Tip 2: Don’t Be Perfect
http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/4044631/Ocd+20/

32. Our
Experi-
ment’s
Outcome

33. Result of
Our Experiment’s Outcome

34. Concrete
Experimentation in
Agile Environments
JamesVulling&BerndSchiffer
LASTConference18/09/2015
Get in touch:
‣@jamesvulling
@berndschiffer
‣james.vulling@afl.com.au
coaching@berndschiffer.com
Slides later online here:
‣http://slideshare.net/berndschiffer
Thank
you!