The document provides 10 tips for making Agile adoption more successful. The tips are: 1) use a physical board, 2) collect and use statistics, 3) engage a coach or consultant, 4) prioritize action over talking, 5) the only way to know is to do it, 6) enthuse and pull people rather than push change, 7) be clear on the reasons for adopting Agile, 8) don't forget the technical aspects, 9) ensure a clear flow of requirements, and 10) consider structural changes like using vertical teams rather than projects. The document is authored by Allan Kelly from Software Strategy Ltd.
Many organizations adopting Agile fail to bring about lasting change. This is often because Agile is seen as a developer team "methodology". Effective Agile adoption depends on aligning the adoption strategy with the value stream across the organization. In this talk, Declan will introduce the Agile Fluency model as a mechanism for targeting an Agile adoption to the realities of your organization. Along the way we will talk about aligning your organizational structure with your organization's purpose and the importance of managing technical debt.
Many organizations adopting Agile fail to bring about lasting change. This is often because Agile is seen as a developer team "methodology". Effective Agile adoption depends on aligning the adoption strategy with the value stream across the organization. In this talk, Declan will introduce the Agile Fluency model as a mechanism for targeting an Agile adoption to the realities of your organization. Along the way we will talk about aligning your organizational structure with your organization's purpose and the importance of managing technical debt.
What is continuous deployment? Why design for continuous deployment? How can engineers help designers think and work in this environment. An overview of how it's done at Etsy.
Cumulative Flow Diagrams (CFDs) are used in Lean/Kanban and help trend WIP, Cycle Time, Throughput in projects or flow-based teams/groups.
Learn how to read a CFD and how to use them.
Does this FizzGood? Improve velocity, predictability & agility by asking a si...Jon Terry
LeanKit's founding team had a strong Lean-Agile background from previous careers. So, in the early days of the company, we just instinctively did things in a Lean way with as few formal processes as any startup. But, like any growing company, we eventually did have to start clearly defining how we do things. And like anyone, we were tempted to become more bureaucratic - with lots of scheduling, coordination, meetings and estimates.
Instead, we developed our FSGD (Frequent Small Good Decoupled) approach. This LeanKit way of working has provided our teams with a simple yardstick for making effective decisions without a lot of cross team scheduling and coordination. It has simplified abstract Agile concepts into something everyone easily understands and cheerfully applies on a daily basis.
FSGD isn't a replacement for Kanban, Scrum, XP, etc. We strongly believe in and spend lots of time teaching our teams about the Kanban Method as well as standard Lean and Agile principles, tools, and techniques. But FSGD distills what we think are the key decision making elements of those methods into something everyone can remember.
We apply this model to all of our teams: design, development, testing, operations, sales, marketing, finance, HR. Indeed, we believe that applying it as broadly as possible makes it work most effectively.
Indeed, that's part of why the model doesn't reference software directly at all. It's meant to be generally applicable. One sub-concept included in the slides TLDR (Tested, Logged, Documented, Reviewed) is more specific to the technology context.
We have seen significant improvements in our delivery speed across multiple teams since rolling out the FSGD approach. We want to help other people gain the same benefits.
Bio:
Jon Terry is co-Chief Executive Officer of LeanKit. Before LeanKit, Jon held a number of senior IT positions with hospital-giant HCA and its logistics subsidiary, HealthTrust Purchasing Group. He was among those responsible for launching HCA’s adoption of Lean/Agile methods.
Jon earned his Global Executive MBA from Georgetown University and ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, and his Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University. He is a Project Management Professional, a Certified Scrum Master, a Kanban Coaching Professional, is certified in the Lean Construction Institute’s Last Planner Method, and trained in the SAFe Lean Systems Engineering method.
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Prioritizing happiness has helped us expand our focus and discover work that really matters. In this talk, I’ll describe how prioritizing happiness can have a profound impact on your process, your people and your bottom line.
My talk at Etsy's SXSW Microconference, "Moving Fast at Scale."
http://codeascraft.etsy.com/2011/03/01/moving-fast-at-scale-sxsw/
For companion talks (this was one of four), see http://codeascraft.etsy.com/2011/03/19/moving-fast-at-scale-slides-and-reprise/
Some thoughts about how digital marketing agencies can provide great data insights for clients without killing themselves (and their margins) in the process.
**Version 1**
Agile Stream Framework is a management approach to streamline enterprise operations along Agile Streams. It builds upon the principles of Scrum and Lean to target management contributions in agile transformations at lowering organizational drag around the Agile Stream. Agile Stream Framework (ASF) consists of roles, events, artifacts, and the rules that bind them together.
What is continuous deployment? Why design for continuous deployment? How can engineers help designers think and work in this environment. An overview of how it's done at Etsy.
Cumulative Flow Diagrams (CFDs) are used in Lean/Kanban and help trend WIP, Cycle Time, Throughput in projects or flow-based teams/groups.
Learn how to read a CFD and how to use them.
Does this FizzGood? Improve velocity, predictability & agility by asking a si...Jon Terry
LeanKit's founding team had a strong Lean-Agile background from previous careers. So, in the early days of the company, we just instinctively did things in a Lean way with as few formal processes as any startup. But, like any growing company, we eventually did have to start clearly defining how we do things. And like anyone, we were tempted to become more bureaucratic - with lots of scheduling, coordination, meetings and estimates.
Instead, we developed our FSGD (Frequent Small Good Decoupled) approach. This LeanKit way of working has provided our teams with a simple yardstick for making effective decisions without a lot of cross team scheduling and coordination. It has simplified abstract Agile concepts into something everyone easily understands and cheerfully applies on a daily basis.
FSGD isn't a replacement for Kanban, Scrum, XP, etc. We strongly believe in and spend lots of time teaching our teams about the Kanban Method as well as standard Lean and Agile principles, tools, and techniques. But FSGD distills what we think are the key decision making elements of those methods into something everyone can remember.
We apply this model to all of our teams: design, development, testing, operations, sales, marketing, finance, HR. Indeed, we believe that applying it as broadly as possible makes it work most effectively.
Indeed, that's part of why the model doesn't reference software directly at all. It's meant to be generally applicable. One sub-concept included in the slides TLDR (Tested, Logged, Documented, Reviewed) is more specific to the technology context.
We have seen significant improvements in our delivery speed across multiple teams since rolling out the FSGD approach. We want to help other people gain the same benefits.
Bio:
Jon Terry is co-Chief Executive Officer of LeanKit. Before LeanKit, Jon held a number of senior IT positions with hospital-giant HCA and its logistics subsidiary, HealthTrust Purchasing Group. He was among those responsible for launching HCA’s adoption of Lean/Agile methods.
Jon earned his Global Executive MBA from Georgetown University and ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, and his Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University. He is a Project Management Professional, a Certified Scrum Master, a Kanban Coaching Professional, is certified in the Lean Construction Institute’s Last Planner Method, and trained in the SAFe Lean Systems Engineering method.
Good to Great: Achieving Product Excellence in Web 2.0 by Dan OlsenDan Olsen
Best practices in product management, UI design, product development, metrics, and optimization by Dan Olsen from Web 2.0 Expo NYC on September 18, 2008.
All of us like to be happy, yet how many of us prioritize work based on happiness? Consider the people who buy, use, sell or make your product/service. Are you focused on making all of them happy?
When I reflect on a large Agile eLearning deal my company did with our biggest client between 2009-2010, it’s clear that we over-prioritized the happiness of some individuals while under-prioritizing the happiness of others. The smaller deals we are now doing with this same client in 2011 reveal the importance of prioritizing happiness across the entire community of people involved with our product.
Prioritizing happiness has helped us expand our focus and discover work that really matters. In this talk, I’ll describe how prioritizing happiness can have a profound impact on your process, your people and your bottom line.
My talk at Etsy's SXSW Microconference, "Moving Fast at Scale."
http://codeascraft.etsy.com/2011/03/01/moving-fast-at-scale-sxsw/
For companion talks (this was one of four), see http://codeascraft.etsy.com/2011/03/19/moving-fast-at-scale-slides-and-reprise/
Some thoughts about how digital marketing agencies can provide great data insights for clients without killing themselves (and their margins) in the process.
**Version 1**
Agile Stream Framework is a management approach to streamline enterprise operations along Agile Streams. It builds upon the principles of Scrum and Lean to target management contributions in agile transformations at lowering organizational drag around the Agile Stream. Agile Stream Framework (ASF) consists of roles, events, artifacts, and the rules that bind them together.
How value should be managed in software development.
Considers ROI and cost of delay.
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This presentation builds on #NoProjects.
A look at the options available to companies when delivering development services using Agile methods.
October 2014 - Presentation to Agile4Agencies, London.
November 2014 - Updated for Skills Matter, London
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Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
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Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object Calisthenics
10 Tips for Agile Adoption
1. 10 Tips to make Agile Adoption
more successful
allan kelly
Twitter: @allankellynet
http://www.softwarestrategy.co.uk/allankelly
2. Allan Kelly
Director, Software Strategy Ltd
– Consulting & Training for Agile
– Custom Software Development
Author
– Changing Software Development: Learning
to be Agile (2008, Wiley)
– Business Patterns for Software Developers
(2012, Wiley - ISBN: 978-1119999249)
97 Things Every Programmer Should Know
Henney, 2010
Context Encapsulation in
Pattern Languages of Program Design
Volume 5, 2006
(c) Allan Kelly http://www.softwarestrategy.co.uk 2
3. The amount of significant, often
The Problem traumatic, change in
organizations has grown
tremendously over the past two
• Change fails decades.
– 70% change initiatives fail
– (Commonly cited % but from where?)
• Agile introduction fails Prof John P. Kotter, 1996
“Leading change”
• Agile delivery fails
– (We even have names for it)
Scrummer
Fall Has this
changed?
4. 10 Tips for Agile Adoption
① Use a physical board ⑦ Clear on Why?
② Collect & Use Statistics ⑧ Don’t forget the
③ Engage Technical
Coach/Consultant ⑨ Clear requirements flow
④ Action over talking ⑩ Structural change
⑤ Only way to know is to
Do
⑥ Enthuse, Pull, don’t
Push
5. Some advice…
"I can't understand why
people are frightened of
new ideas. I'm frightened
of the old ones."
John Cage
6. #1 Use a Physical Board
“I put the shotgun in an Adidas bag
and padded it out with four pairs of
tennis socks, not my style at all, but
that was what I was aiming for: If they
think you're crude, go technical; if
they think you're technical, go crude.
I'm a very technical boy. So I decided
to get as crude as possible.”
William Gibson, Johnny Mnemonic (in Burning Chrome, 1995)
12. Burn-down with velocity
Burn-Down with Velocity
250 40
35
200
30
25
150
20
100
15
10
50
5
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Iteration
Work to do Velocity
(c) Software Strategy Ltd. 12
13. Layered burn-down
250
• By
200
release, milestone
150
, phase, etc.
100
• By epic or
50 collection of
0 stories
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13
14. Simple Cumulative Flow Diagram
140
120
100
Points
80
60
40
20
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Iteration
Work to do Total done
15. Do you know?
• Velocity: How fast are
you going?
• Backlog:
– How much work do you
currently know about?
• How long does it take
for work to clear board?
– Rate of increase? (Scope
Creep) • How many “bugs” do
– Rate of decrease? (Scope you have?
Retreat) • What else is useful for
• Where you time is you to track?
going?
16. Metrics warning!
1. Avoid hours: Human’s can’t
estimate
2. “Points” break-down with
experience & stress
3. Goodhart’s Law Any observed statistical
regularity will tend to
collapse once pressure is
placed upon it for control
purposes.
17. #3 Engage a Coach/Consultant
• You can do this yourself, but…
– Increase risk
– Adoption slower
Warning:
Consultant talking
18. Agile Coach
• Notice
• Feedback The art of Agile coaching
is understanding the
• Educate situation, the values
underlying Agile
• Facilitate software
development, and how
• Support the two can combine.
Agile Coaching
Davies & Sedley, 2009
(c) Software Strategy Ltd. 18
19. Agile Coach
• Advisor – consultant?
• Process expert
• Someone with War Stories & Scars
• Commonly
– Occasional visitor who advises on Agile
adoption, problems
– Suggests, mentors, trains
(c) Software Strategy Ltd. 19
20. 4D Coaching What is the company making?
How is the company organized?
Company: Strategy Advice for senior managers
What processes are followed?
Are you delivering?
Product: Process Advice for teams
What is the architecture? Is the
code tested?
Code: Technical Are you finding bugs?
Advice for programmers
Time…. Don’t expect everything at once
Use different coaches in different dimensions
21. What's the best way Both ends at once
to take a bridge?
Brigadier General Gavin
Major Julian Cook
Quote: A Bridge Too Far
• Cornelius Ryan (Book) Image: Nijmegen bridge from
FaceMePLS, Creative Commons License on
• Richard Attenborough (Film) Flickr
23. Should we use
#4 Action over talking Scrum or XP?
• You could…
– Ask lots of legitimate Should we be
questions Agile or Lean?
– Make lots of plans
How do we get
We need to plan the business to
our adoption buy in?
carefully
Our Project Where is the
Office won’t evidence it
like it works?
24. #4 Action over talking
Or
• You could just start doing what you can and
see what happens
• Just Do It
25. #5 Only way To Know is To Do
• Just do it!
• Until you try doing Agile you can’t answer the
questions
• Agile is Empirical
– Try it and see what happens
• Agile is Learning
– Learning -> Change -> Learning
26. #6 Enthuse, Pull, don’t Push
• Agile is a change initiative
• Why would agile be any different?
27. Don’t push change - Let them pull!
• Lay out your stall • Support interest
– And wait
• Fan the flames
28. The Change from Above Myth
• Might work for a dictator, but..
– Communication, Motivation, Ap
plicability, Local differences, Self-
Interest
Push from top
– (Dictators typically carry a big
stick, IT Mangers don’t)
(c) Allan Kelly - April 2006
29. Just Do It! ™
“Nobody gives
Stop being led by your
you power,
leaders…
You just take it”
And start leading them
Rossanne Barr
quoted by Tom Peters in Re-Imagine!
30. #7 Be clear: Why?
• What are you trying to achieve?
• How do you know what tools to
choose?
• What are you trying to optimize?
– Elapsed time: idea to product
– Efficiency of delivery
– Maximize revenue
– Minimize costs
– Speed to completing some “Backlog”
31. #8 Don’t forget TECHNICAL
It’s the
• Poor technology… code, stup
– Lots of bugs – is the story done? id
– Can you close a iteration? - can you
deliver at the end of iteration?
• Developers morale
– “Technical debt…
– Technical debt….
– Technical debt…”
33. Invest in Technical
Software Craftsmanship
– Take quality seriously
Images from WikiCommons under Creative Commons license
Alegro - Charles01, Rolls Royce & VW - Thomas doerfer
34. TDD works!
IBM Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft
drivers Windows MSN Visual
Studio
Defect density W X Y Z
(non-TDD)
Defect density 61% of W 38% of X 24% of Y 9% of Z
(with TDD)
Increased time 15-20% 25-25% 15% 25-20%
(with TDD)
Nagappan, Maximilien, Bhat and Williams (Microsoft Research, IBM Research, North Carolina
State University). Empirical Software Engineering journal 2008
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/esm/nagappan_tdd.pdf
35. Bugs
• How much time do you spend finding
bugs?
• How many testers do you need?
• How many bugs do you have logged?
• How many bugs do you fix before
shipping?
• How much time do you spend in
meetings discussing bugs?
How would your life change if there
were no bugs?
36. Without technical side…
• Bugs overwhelm
– Can’t deliver working software
• Code becomes difficult to change
– Velocity slows
• So we test…
– Test is slow & expensive
• And we avoid change…
– Avoiding change is avoiding Agile
38. #9 Clear Requirements Flow
Every 2 weeks….
Development Team Working
software
• Keep arteries clear – keep feeding team
– Keep work flowing – little and often
39. Please
OK, here’s
A story… help… we
what you
want to be
do….
Agile!
Umm… but I
don’t think they
really know what
they are building
Or why….
Gee… we took In fact, they don’t
even have a
the medicine business strategy
Dev Team
and things are that makes sense
much better
40. Supply and Demand
Quantity of
Software / IT Demand also needs fixing
(but fix it second)
Supply
(Development)
Demand
(Business
Case/Requirem
ents)
0 Price of Software / IT
Initial focus on development
improving supply
41. The Real Problem Demand is rampant
Quantity of and inelastic
Software / IT
Mind the gap
Supply
(Development)
0 Price of Software / IT
Supply is severely development
constrained and inelastic
42. Worse? Demand - More
Quantity of technology we
Software / IT have, the more we
want
Mind the gap
Supply
constrained by
Brooks Law
0 Price of Software / IT
development
43. #10 Structural change
• Process will take you so far…
• Technical (alone) will buy you lots…
• But…
44. Vertical teams
• Staffed to delivery
languages), Requirements, Manage business value
ment, Testing, etc. etc. • Responsible for delivering
business value
• All skills needed
Code (all
• Keep together
– Grow, shrink
– Add new people, let folk
leave
45. Forget projects
• Form around Products
• Project thinking is an obstacle
• Good systems never die The initial difficulty with
– They just evolve schedule measurement is
a basic one: Identifying
• Bad systems die the start point of any
• “Done” given project!
– Empty backlog is a sign of failure
• Leave “Project” for accountants
Capers Jones, 2008
46. ① Use a physical board
② Collect & Use Statistics
③ Engage Coach/Consultant
④ Action over talking
⑤ Only way to know is to Do
⑥ Enthuse, Pull, don’t Push
⑦ Clear on Why?
⑧ Don’t forget the Technical allan kelly
⑨ Clear requirements flow Software Strategy Ltd.
⑩ Structural change www.softwarestrategy.co.uk/
allankelly
allan@allankelly.net
Twitter: @allankellynet