Eliminating Barriers
No More Us vs. Them

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sasanf/3495404463/
Allison Pollard

Started as PM
Wants to see teams build the right stuff

Swing Dancer and Glasses Wearer
Ty Crockett

Started as an IT dude, now is an Agile dude
Loves to work with teams

Comic book fan, convention geek
Agile Fluency:
Where are you?

How can your team move towards 4
stars (fluency) and build momentum
for the organization to become more
agile?
martinfowler.com
We’ve seen…
Product Backlogs filled with generic “as a user” stories, sometimes missing the “so that”
Product Owner and UX constantly disagreeing on how features should be designed
Teams unaware of the business results delivered from features they released

We want to change the world!
Why do organizations exist?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruce_mcadam/2674561685 by Hello, I am Bruce
http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonannie/7678945614/in/set-72157630825959950 by London Annie
Organizations that become too large…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timothywildey/3929574205/
Agility
“An organization’s ability to respond to
change and take advantage of opportunities”
-Scrum.org
How awesome do you want to be?
“Get closer than ever to your customers. So
“Right now we are selling millions and millions
close, in fact, that you a year, Apple is selling
and millions of phonestell them what they need
well before a year. In six themselves.”
zero phonesthey realize itmonths they'll have
the most expensive phone by far ever in the
market place, and lets see...”
-Steve Jobs
-Steve Ballmer after iPhone debut
Barriers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdierdorf/2469442521/
Barriers

What barriers are you
seeing?
“Developers cannot possibly
talk to customers”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mybluevan/3779552777

Barrier
Barrier

“IAmA Dev!”
“Is this valuable?”
“I am way technical..”

“IAmA builder not a
problem solver”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gimpit/5799919824/
Barrier
Customer Collaboration
over
Contract Negotiation

“The team will give away features, and we still need
to make money!”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nobmouse/4052848608/
Barrier

“But that’s my job
as Product Owner!”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/james2k11/6051807031/
Well, I am
IT and they
are “The
Business”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianperezfoto/4617935602/

Barrier
We are all Business People

We just have different skills
Reference: Mary Poppendieck
The Toolbox

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrhode/4632887921/
Bringing the Customer to Us
Bringing the Customer to Us
Going to the customer

http://www.flickr.com/photos/statefarm/8163895040/ by State Farm
Going to the customer
Empowerment is Needed
“What’s the catch?”

“Are you serious?”

“Can I even do this?”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27807834@N02/2647200029/
Benefits/Value of Removing Barriers
Increase Morale
Happy Customers

Profit!
Cost Savings

:-)
$
What indicators do you have that your
teams need to be closer to customers?
What benefits will you reap by putting
them together?
You know
indicators,
barriers,
tools…

Think of how you can increase trust
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tvangoethem/6145621540/
Eliminating
barriers can
help increase
a team’s
fluency
martinfowler.com
You are ready to take the next step
toward…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonlightbulb/3338852116/
Q/A
Contact Us!
@allison_pollard
allison.pollard@improvingenterprises.com
http://allisonpollard.squarespace.com

@TTcrockeTT
ty@improvingenterprises.com

Eliminating barriers: No More Us vs. Them

Editor's Notes

  • #2 Our purpose today:Is to get teams closer to their customers!
  • #3 where you workyour historywhy this topic...is a Senior Consultant for Improving Enterprises and has worked with Agile teams as a project manager, as a Scrum Master, and in coaching roles. A firm advocate of continuous improvement and the power of teams to affect change, she believes the world needs more strong teams in order to be Agile and meet the demands of today; her goal is to help others create them, shape them, and support them. Allison also volunteers locally as one of the organizers of the DFW Scrum user group and serves on the Dallas Agile Leadership Network board.
  • #4 where you workyour historywhy this topic...is a Principal Consultant for Improving Enterprises. He is an experienced Agile Coach, Scrum Master, and Project Manager and has spent his professional career in the field of Information Technologies. His strength is in getting newly formed groups to become cohesive, self managing, high performing teams. Ty has an intense interest in interpersonal interaction and personality dynamics.
  • #5 What is our journey?Focus on ValueDeliver ValueOptimize ValueOptimize your organizationGetting closer to our customers is one piece of this journey.
  • #6 Talk about indicators that change is needed-generic “as a user” stories, sometimes without the “so that”-UX and PO going back and forth because they cant agree-team unaware of business results from released softwareYou might feel overwhelmed with how much more there is to be done in creating a truly agile organization, but we want you to leave feeling more energized than depressed. Start by changing your organization
  • #7 One person with an idea, starts moving towards his vision. Over time, she recruits others so there is now a group of people driving toward it.To combine our strengths to gain a competitive edge
  • #8 Become big and rigidNot everyone understands the direction"creating an organization for efficiency vs effectiveness"
  • #9 Agility can make you awesome.
  • #10 Remember Microsoft’s dominance? They comfortable with their position in the marketThe question they didn’t ask is “Are your customers delighted with their products?”Steve Jobs believed [CLICK]Because Apple did such a great job in executing this, they were able to disrupt the marketSteve Jobs created a company that could execute this. Most organizations are not like that, they have…
  • #11 Barriers are things that are keeping us at the 2 star plateau. Barriers are things that are keeping us from optimizing value, 3 stars
  • #12 Barriers are things that are keeping us at the 2 star plateau. Barriers are things that are keeping us from optimizing value, 3 stars
  • #14 The team may not see the value in spending time with their customer We will get that from the requirements The PO/Business dude will tell us The customer is really hard to deal withI am way technical..IAMA Builder not a problem solver
  • #15 ContractsWill the delivery team we giving away too much if they get close to customers and kill future sales?
  • #16 Product owners get great value by removing themselves as a barrier between team and customer
  • #17 Teams need to realize that there is no us and them
  • #18 The very words “business” and “IT” indicate that people think of IT as somehow being separate from “the business”. This is wrong. IT should be a part of the business. There should be no such thing as an IT project – there should only be business initiatives which have IT aspects handled by the IT team member of the business team.POs alone are not enough.Our teams need to partner with our product owners so that they go to customers togetherSo what does that look like?
  • #19 Our ToolboxWe can bring our customers to usWe can go to our customers
  • #20 Many companies use UAT labs. Wesuggesting getting our customers involved a bit earlier in the process. War Story: Vision Planning – What if?
  • #21 War Story: CS center visits the Dev teamWar Story: Dev Team meets accounts receivable manager. 
  • #22 War Story: Dev Team visits customer support centerWar Story: Dev Team member does training for customer support center
  • #23 War Story: the team takes a trip to the airportWhat do teams need do do this?
  • #24 Empowering team is not cut and dry.people believe that we are taking advantage of themThey believe that they will not actually be empoweredSome people believe that they simply are not capable
  • #25 Show what will be seen early and then laterIncreased Morale Purposeful work Better future ProductivityHappy Customers Customer/Employee Trust
  • #26 Do Presto Style Exercise2 groups
  • #27 Trust in the teamTrust from the product ownerTrust from the organizationMatt’s Trust Model
  • #28 Martin Fowler.com
  • #29 What can you do to get your teams closer to your customers? How will you find out if your customers are delighted with your products?