Failure Modes of Integrating Agile with Earned Value Management

+16.0 ‒ Failure Modes of Agile
and Earned Value Management
Transformation
The root causes of Failure to Transform to an Agile Organization
and Failure to Adopt Agile methods are two Critical Success
factors the require correct actions for any Agile at Scale initiative
to be successful.
How Do I Fail Thee? Let Me Count theWays...
Robert H. Bradfield,Intervention in School and Clinic
August 1973
Performance–Based Project Management®
, Copyright© Glen B. Alleman, 2002 ― 2016 611

There is nothing more
difficult to plan,more
doubtful of success,nor
more dangerous to
manage than the
creation of a new
system.
For the initiator has then
enmity of all who would
profit by the
preservation of the old
system and merely
lukewarm defendersin
those that would gain by
the new one
16. Failure Modes
, Copyright© Glen B. Alleman, 2002 ― 2016
612

+ Transformation Failure Mode
Propositions (1)†
Proposition
Organizations are
potentially chaotic.
§ The greater the number of counteracting forces in an
organization,the higher the likelihood of
encountering chaos.
§ The larger the number of forces with different
periodic patterns,the higher the likelihood of
encountering chaos.
Organizations move
from one dynamic
state to the other
through a discrete
bifurcation process.
§ An organization will always be in one of the following
states:stable equilibrium,periodic equilibrium or
chaos.
§ A progressive and continuous change of the
relationships between two or more organizational
variables leads an organization, in a discrete manner,
from a stable to a chaotic state via an intermediary
periodic behavior.
† Chaos and Organizational Emergence: Towards Short Term Predictive Modeling to Navigate a Way Out of Chaos Sami A. Houry
613
16. Failure Modes

Propositions (2)†
Proposition
Forecasting is
impossible,
especially at a global
scale and in the long
term.
§ When in a chaotic state,ceteris paribus, the impact of
a change has an unpredictable long term effect.
§ When in a chaotic state,ceteris paribus, the impact of
an incremental change can be predicted in the very
short term.
When in a chaotic
state,organizations
are attracted to an
identifiable
configuration.
§ When in a chaotic state,organizations are more likely
to adopt a specific configuration than a
deterministically random pattern.
§ The greater the openness of an organization to its
environment, the more likely is the attraction by the
organization to a given configuration.
614
16. Failure Modes

Propositions (3)†
Proposition
When in a chaotic
state,organizations,
generally,have a
fractal form.
§ When in a chaotic state,similar structure patterns are
found at the organizational, unit,group and individual
levels.
§ When in a chaotic state,similar process patterns are
found at the organizational, unit,group and individual
levels.
Similar actions taken
by organizations in a
chaotic state will
never lead to the
same result.
§ When in a chaotic state,two identical actions taken
by a same organization always lead to two different
results.
§ When in a chaotic state,the same action taken by two
organizations never leads to the same results.
615
16. Failure Modes

+
16.1 ‒ High Level
Failure Modes†
n Expecting transformation to be Easy
n Doing Practices without Principles
n Complicating the Agile Startup
n Leading the team like a Project Manager
n Manage the Backlogs
n Communicating Through the Scrum Master
n Manage the Team
n Manage the Product Road Map
n Manage the Release Plan
n Product Owner not Involved or Available
n Lax Daily Standups
n Not Conducting Retrospective Meetings Every
Sprint
n Failure to manage the Team
Let’s start with the Big Failure Modes
for the Scrum, the Team,and the
Processes they use at the software
development implementation level.
These failures are focused on the
actual deployment of Agile
development process.
The larger organizational failure
modes are in the next section.
† Failure Modes of Team Based Scrum, Mike Cottmeyer, 29January 2014
16. Failure Modes
616

+ Expecting transformation to Agile
and Scrum to be Easy
n Starting the Agile journey after reading a book or airline magazine
article.
n Start with 2 to 3 week Sprints and call it done ‒ we’re doing Agile
software development.
n Teams struggle to keep pace with the planned Sprint cadence
n No Plan for the deployment of Agile processes
n No Plan for the transformation of the Culture needed to support the
Agile processes
n Real transformation exposes existing corporate and cultural problems
that must be dealt with
n Communications
n Accountability
n Distrust
617
16. Failure Modes

+ Doing the Practices without the
Principles
n Practices are easy
n Scrum meetings
n Scrum roles
n Scrum artifacts
n Agile principles are what make the practices work and sustainable
n Principles are much harder to incorporate into practices
n This is the primary failure mode of an Agile deployment
n Agile is about the People, their interactions, and the culture ‒ not the
processes, practices, and tools.
618
16. Failure Modes

+ Complicating Agile Startup
n KISS
n Agile can be deployed without the latest tools
n Stickies' on the wall work just fine
n Manually generated burn down charts
n Spending time of tools instead of getting people working together
in an agile manner is focusing on the wrong thing
n The Agile Manifesto says
n Higher value on individuals and interactions than on processes and tools
619
16. Failure Modes

+ Leading Like a Project Manager
n Agile development is not the same as project management
n It’s a Team Based development process
n Product Owner
n Scrum Master – a facilitator not a Project Manager
n The TEAM ‒ self-organizing and empowered to make decisions in
conjunction with the Product Owner about the direction of the work that
matches the Product Roadmap and Release Plan
n SAFe 4.0 provides other roles and higher level governance
processes for Agile at Scale.
620
Caution
the notion of making mistakes and learning from them is a small team
approach.
Not one that works well on Agile At Scale

+ Managing The Backlogs (1)†
n Failure to produce a well-groomed prioritized product backlog is
the root of nearly every problem in successfully deploying agile
software development
n This backlog Grooming failure mode leads to
n Failure to deliver the planned Stories at the end of the sprint
n Poor sprint reviews to determine corrective actions
n Poor retrospectives for corrective actions of the team
n If the team doesn’t understand what they are supposed to build, they
typically don’t get anything finished, and nothing at the end of the
sprint works.
16. Failure Modes
† Failure Modes of Team Based Scrum, Mike Cottmeyer, 29January 2014Performance–Based Project Management®
621

n Failure to plan the work during the Sprint
n Ineffective daily standup meetings
n Inability to swarm
n Inability to burn down linearly during the Sprint
n Poor planning result from a poorly formed Product Backlog
n If the backlog isn’t clear coming into the sprint planning meeting, the
team spends too much time inventing the what and not nearly enough
time on the how.
n Without understanding the how, it is very difficult to get to a
commitment.
n Without a commitment, it’s difficult to figure out how we can work
together or collaborate.
n If there isn’t collaboration, everyone is working on their own
stories.
16. Failure Modes
622

n If everyone is working on their own stories, they aren’t finishing
early in the sprint.
n If we don’t finish early, they’re deferring work to the end of the
Sprint.
n Deferring work to the end of the Sprint, makes it hard to do testing,
get feedback from the Product Owner, and the Sprint ends up with
missing Stories.
n Missing stories causes the team’s performance to be unpredictable.
n Missed stories make for missed commitments, bad demos, and even
worse retrospectives.
16. Failure Modes
623

n The Backlog is NOT
n A list of technical tasks,created by the Team
n Ambiguous Stories, not well defined using the three part format as a
short, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the
person who desires the new capability,usually a user or customer of the
system.
As a «type of user», I want «some goal» so that «some reason».
n Full of Stories that don’t meet the INVEST criteria
n Independent ‒ of all others
n Negotiable ‒ not a specific contract for Features
n Valuable ‒ to those paying for the outcome
n Estimable ‒ to an acceptable approximation
n Small ‒ so it fits inside a Sprint
n Testable ‒ in principle,even if there is not a test for it yet
16. Failure Modes
624

+ Manage the Release Plan
n The Release Plan stats how the Product Roadmap will be delivered
n Without the Release Plan, the basis of Earned Value Management
has no Performance Measurement Baseline
n No BCWS spreads from the Sprint staffing plan
n No time phase BCWP from the deliverables compared to the BAC
625
16. Failure Modes

+ Product Owner not Involved or
Available
n The Product Owner role is a full time job
n Many new to the role are unprepared for the commitment
n The Product Owner role is a mandatory position and a Critical
Success Factor for Agile to work
n The best PO is involved on a daily basis, so Sprint Review is a mere
formality
626
16. Failure Modes

+ Lax Dailey Standups
n Face-to-Face conversations every day for 15 minutes, force
communications and collaboration
n Standups provide visibility and transparency to the project’s
performance and impediments
n Start on time and stop on time
n Three questions
n What was accomplished yesterday
n What will be worked on today
n What obstacles are blocking progress
627
16. Failure Modes

+ Not Conducting Retrospective
Meetings every Sprint
n Agile manifesto says
n At regular intervals,the team reflects on how to become more effective,
then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly
n Sprint retrospective is not optional if the team is going to Be agile.
n This is the basis of the fine tuning and responding to change
required to Be Agile.
n Adjustments can’t be made unless feedback for corrective actions
are available inside the business rhythm of the agile Sprint cycle
628
16. Failure Modes

+ Failures in Managing the Team
n People matrixed across multiple teams
n Low coupling between teams for the shared outcome
n Teams with many of external dependencies
n Without visibility to those dependencies, low cohesion results for the
shared outcome
n Teams with missing subject matter expertise
n The notion of a generalist is useful but difficult to scale on software
intensive system of systems
n Software Development is a systems engineering paradigm. Specialties
are a natural part of that paradigm
16. Failure Modes
629

+
n If agile isn’t a silver bullet, blame agile.
n If agile isn’t a silver bullet, blame agile.
n Equate self-managing with self-leading and provide no
direction to the team whatsoever.
n Ignore the agile practices.
n Undermine the team’s belief in agile.
n Continually fail to deliver what you committed to deliver
during iteration planning.
n Don’t communicate a vision for the product to the agile
team or to the other stakeholders.
n Don’t pay attention to the progress of each iteration and
objectively evaluatethe value of that progress.
n Start customizing an agile process before you’ve done it
by the book.
n Slavishly follow agilepractices without understanding their
underlying principles.
n Ratherthan alignpay,incentives,job titles,promotions,and
recognitionwithagile,createincentives forindividuals to
undermine teamwork and shared responsibility.
n Don’t continually improve.
n Cavalierlymove work forward from one iteration to the
next. It’s good to keep the product owner guessing about
what will be delivered.
n Do not create cross-functional teams. Put all the testers
on one team, all the programmers on another, and so on.
n Large projects need large teams. Ignore studies that
show productivity decreases with large teams due to
increased communication overhead. Since everyone
needs to know everything, invite all fifty people to the
dailystandup.
n Replace a plan document with a plan“in your head” that
only you know.
n Have one person share the roles of Scrum Master (agile
coach) and product owner. In fact,have this person also
be an individual contributor on the team.
n Drop and customize important agile practices before
fully understanding them.
n Don’t change the technical practices.
n Convince yourself that you’ll be able to do all requested
work, so the order of your work doesn’t matter.
A Quick Failure Mode Summary†
Performance–Based Project Management®, Copyright© Glen B. Alleman,2002 ― 2016
630
† How to Fail with Agile, Mike Cohn
16. Failure Modes

+ Two Primary Failure Modes of
Agile + Earned Value Management
Failure to Transformation
the Organization
Failure to Adopt
Processes
Top Down Failure Bottom Up Failure
16. Failure Modes
Failure to Transformation
the Organization
Failure to Adopt
Processes
631

+
16.2 ‒ Failure
Modes of Agile
Project
Transformation
Transformation Failure means failure of …
Leadership
1. Lack of Executive Sponsorship
2. Failure to Transform Leaders Behavior
3. No Change to the Organizational Infrastructure
Workflow
4. No business view of the Value Stream
5. Failure to Decentralization Control
6. Unwillingness to Address Illusions Around
Distributed Teams
Congruency
7. Lack of Transformation Product Manager
8. Failure to Create Fast Feedback
9. Short-Changing collaboration and Facilitation
Transition
10. Ineffective Plan for Transforming Beyond SW
Development
11. Viewing Transformation only as Process and
Structure
12. Ignoring Path of Individual, Team, and
Organizational Transitions
Transforming from a Current State to
an Agile State has 12 Failure Modes.
Each may or may not be present on
the current Program or Organization
using Earned Value Management.
If the failure mode is present,a
corrective action to remove the
failure mode,or an action to avoid the
consequences of the mode must be
taken
16. Failure Modes
632

+
n Not all failure modes are applicable in the Earned Value Management
paradigm
n Consider each one and assess if any governance model requires it
remain
n If so, the corrective action can simply be to minimize the impact of the
Failure Mode
Each Failure Mode must be assessed for the specific
transformation process with corrective actions
12 Failure Modes of Agile
Transformation†
The essence of a agile transformation is having a vision that goes far
beyond how engineering teams align their practices in delivery
cadences. A real transformation takes in the whole system
† 12 Failure Mode in Agile Transformation: Transition, Jean Tabaka, https://www.rallydev.com/blog/agile-coaching/12-failure-modes-agile-
transformation-transition
16. Failure Modes
633

+ Lack of Executive Sponsorship1
Failure Mode Corrective Action
Buzz Word Buy in of Management
Executable action plan showing value
stream produced by Transformation work
Agile is performing as a Skunk
Works hiding from management
Develop plan to syndicate to enterprise
from pilot project
Executive decrees switch to Agile
across the organization,but no
follow through ‒ a check book
commitment
Agile Transformation is like all other
projects, it needs a Risk Adjusted
Integrated Master Plan and Schedule.
Executive demands immediate
results,but doesn’t change metrics
used to measure organization
Value Stream Map of Transformation
outcomes required to show increase
value produced as planned.
Organization blames Agile for poor
performance
Plan the Work,Work the Plan Risk Manage
all work and outcomes with visible,
measures Effectiveness and Performance
16. Failure Modes
634

+ Failure to Transform Leaders
Behavior
2
Failure to embrace behaviors that are a
service to the team
Become a Servant Leader of the TeamPower Through difficult situations,
leaving wisdom and morale of team
behind
16. Failure Modes
635

+
n Systematic neglect: knows the limits of how much focus can be allocated
to issues;learns what to focus on and what to let go of in order to support
the team and achieve goals effectively
n Acceptance: knows when to let go and trust the instincts of the team;
accepts the wisdom of the team and is prepared to support it
n Listening: facilitates useful and necessary communication, pays attention
to what remains unspoken, and is motivated to actively hear what others are
saying
n Language: speaks effectively and non-destructively;clearly and
consistently articulates the vision and goals for the team
n Values: is responsible for building a personal sense of values that are
clearly exhibited through consistent actions; supports team behaviors that
build their sense of values
Become a Servant Leader (1)†
Lack of Executive Sponsorship2
† Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (25th anniversary ed.). Robert Greenleaf, 2002, Paulist Press
16. Failure Modes
636

+
n Tolerance of imperfection:modulates his or her own sense of perfection
and offers to each team member an understanding of their strengths and
challenges;cares more about “How can I help the team grow?”
n Goal setting: owns the vision;doesn’t advocate for a personal belief in
what is right but rather maintains the goal for a higher purpose, inviting
others to align with the vision for the overall good
n Personal growth: recognizes the value of continually finding diverse
disciplines that invite new ways of acting in service to the team, and models
this growth behavior to inspire others
n Withdrawal: knows when to step back and allow the team to figure out its
course,versus inflicting a personal sense of what is right for the team;
carefully decides what to bring forward and when
Become a Servant Leader (2)†
Lack of Executive Sponsorship2
† Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (25th anniversary ed.). Robert Greenleaf, 2002, Paulist Press
16. Failure Modes
637

+ No change to the Organizational
Infrastructure
3
Inability to change existing
organizational structure
Measures of success by department
goals,rather than production of value
Know the true value,know who is
involved to produce that value,have
line of sight visibility to current state of
the value stream, and remove blocks to
progress
Accidental adversaries created
through the organization hierarchy that
limits organizations effectiveness
Focus teams effectiveness at the
expense of the organization
Focus on efficiency based resource
planning
16. Failure Modes
638

+ No business View of the Value
Stream
4
No view across the Value stream of the
Program or across the Portfolio of
Programs
Map system to the needed level of
detail that reveals handoffs and
bottlenecks
Start with current position in the Value
Stream and work both directions as
processes mature
Find the one primary constraint and
remove it
Silos encourage the maintenance of
the sense of control
Expand the boundaries of the value
stream ‒ upstream and downstream
Incuse everyone in identifying the
value stream
Broaden commitment up and down the
value stream ‒ not localized silos
16. Failure Modes
639

+ Failure to Decentralization
Control
5
Set up system based on the economics
of resource utilization
Resources and burn rate are critical.
But so is Value Production against that
cost. Define both in meaningful units
for all work performed
Rely on documents and emails for
communication
Face to Face commination is critical to
being agile. For distributed teams this
can be virtual Face to Face
Don’t invest in bringing people
together to collaborate or train
Collaboration is constant, daily
connections, agreement of daily
outcomes ‒ Plan of the Week and Plan
of the Day are vehicles for staying
connected
16. Failure Modes
640

+
n Hire a coach steeped in
distributed team success
n Ensure all team members receive
same Agile training
n Invest in HD video technology
n Have facilitator in each location
n Use facilitation techniques to
ensure all insights are welcome
n Small group brainstorming,
n Round robin check ins
n Frequent breaks
n Invest in technologies to support
transparent workflow
communication
n Maintain regular cadence of visits
across geographies and roles
n Build working agreements to
support core hours of availability
n Trade or share burden of dealing
with time zone differences
n Engage the executive sponsor in
regular visits to all locations
Failure to Decentralization
Control
5
Changes needed to deal with issues of the Distributed
Model
16. Failure Modes
641

+ Unwillingness to Address
Illusions of Distributed Teams
6
Set up a complex geographic maze
based on the economics of resource
utilization;ensure a time zone
difference between 7-11 hours
§ Invest in communication and
collaboration infrastructure for
audio, video, live document and
code sharing.
§ Distributed control of work flow
§ Automated testing,build,release
processes
§ Low labor foot print for work
machines can do
AUTOMATE EVERYTHING
Rely heavily on emails and large
documents (especially detailed test
plans) for your communication
Don’t invest in bringing people
together to collaborate or train
16. Failure Modes
642

+ Lack of Transformation Product
Manager
7
Processes alone will not move Agile
transformation into a healthy,
sustainable state by themselves.
Transformation Product Manager ensures
the vision and empathy is available to
recognize and correct destructive and
incongruent team behaviors.
Transformation Product Manager ensures
a non-negotiable value of trust — not just
within a team, but across teams and all
support organizations.
Ensure Transformation Product Manager
has the vision and empathy to recognize
the destructive,incongruent behaviors.
Congruent teams act as integrated systems in which the whole matters. The transformation
product owner enables the Transformation Teams be attentive to the incongruent behaviors
that create us versus them conditions.
16. Failure Modes
643

+
n How the transformation impacts behaviors as well as processes and
structures.
n Clarity of transformation goals in teams and across teams.
n The health of teams where behaviors such as blaming and placating,
or a focus primarily on process and hierarchy are recognized as
detrimental to the transformation.
n Intentional decisions about consistency of behavior not just
standards and practices around process and metrics.
n Supporting the benefits of congruency over enforced enforced
behaviors.
Congruent Transformation Opens a CriticalDialogue
Lack of Transformation Product
Manager
7
16. Failure Modes
644

+ Failure to Create Rapid
Feedback to Team Members
8
Clinging to sense of predictability when
future work will be completed
Monte Carlo simulation of project
work
Centralized organization setting standards
for team at the start of the transformation
Frameworks tailored to project
need
Large-batch delivery of feature sets 2 to 4 week Sprints
Holding onto the belief that precision in
analysis resolves all risks in product
delivery
All project work is probabilities.
Probabilistic risk and
performance management
installed
Lack of experiments to test cause-and-
effect about time,effort, and value
2 to 4 week Sprint, with
exploratory Spikes
Blame between business and development
about delivery predictions and actual dates
to support projected value
Integrated planning and
management teams
Blame between development and testing
about defects long after the features have
been built
Integrated development and test
teams - DevOps
16. Failure Modes
645

+ Short-Changing Collaboration
and Facilitation
9
Team divided along specialist lines of
work, failing to see the whole because
of the parts.
Define interfaces with verbs and nouns
that cross the interface boundary.
Build Interface specifications defining
data and processes for all system
components and subsystems
Build map between all components
and subsystems showing all
interdependencies between data and
processes
16. Failure Modes
646

+ Ineffective Plan for
Transforming Beyond SW Dev
10
Speeding up value delivery by
concentrating transformation on
product development alone is
sub-optimal.
The essence of a great agile transformation
is having a vision that goes far beyond how
engineering teams align their practices in
delivery cadences. A real transformation
takes in the whole system.
§ Declaring the transformation
from the executive level is
insufficient.
§ Rolling out all teams at once is
insufficient.
§ Starting up teams randomly is
insufficient.
§ Training everyone at once is
insufficient
§ Led with visionary to transform the way
the entire company does business
§ Guide by lean principles of value flow
§ Encourage to reduce organizational
friction in processes and interactions
§ Inform by recurring value stream
mapping
§ Coordinate across the value stream in a
synchronized cadence
16. Failure Modes
647

+ Transforming in an Enduring
Manner Against Enterprise
n Declaring the transformation from the executive level is insufficient.
n Practices across the project teams and vertically from bottom to top.
n Rolling out all teams at once is insufficient.
n Rolling out to a single team is a good pilot approach
n Rolling out to all teams needed to sustain the benefits of an Agile
Transformation
n Starting up teams randomly is insufficient.
n A planned rollout for each team in a strategically planned order
n Training everyone at once is insufficient.
n Train up and down the management chain
n Train across all teams
10
16. Failure Modes
648

+ Viewing Transformation Only as
Process and Structure
11
Process and structure are necessary,
but not sufficient.
Processes and structure tailored to
meet the needs for both governance
on for the corporation and the needs
of efficiency of the program.
Process and structure lead to a false
sense of success in the information ‒
checked off the boxes but not checked
with the people.
Using processes frameworks, people
must localize the processes
appropriate for the needs of the
program.
Publish process handbook and
organizational chart and expect
transformation to be effective
The training varies, with executives
getting one-day sessions;product
managers, a week;and new designers,
three-month programs.
16. Failure Modes
649

+ Ignoring Path of Individual, Team,
and Organization Transitions
12
In large transformation efforts, when
it’s good and for the right reasons,
there’s always someone who has
something to lose — whether true or
imagined.
Showing, explicitly,the Value Stream
Map of how transformation impacts the
programs and enterprise.
This transparency is the basis of
decision making.
Creating a better ways of working
generates the unintended
consequence including Fear,
Uncertainty and Doubt.
Constant, broad, and detailed benefit
communication needed for all change
initiatives
16. Failure Modes
650

+
16.3 ‒ Failure
Modes of Agile
Process Adoption†
Adoption Failure means failure of …
1. Check Book Commitments
2. Culture doesn't support change
3. Ineffective use of Retrospectives
4. Needed infrastructure ignored
5. Lack of planning participation
6. Unavailable Product Owner
7. Weak Scrum Masters
8. No onsite Evangelist
9. Team Lacking Authority
10. Testing Not Pulled Forward
11. Traditional performance appraisals
12. Reverting to Form
Agile may be simple, but it isn't easy.
Many organizations fail to adopt
Agile for many of the same reasons,
and many of these reasons are
cultural.
† https://www.rallydev.com/resource/12-modes-failed-agile-adoption
16. Failure Modes
651

+ Check Book Commitments1
Unengaged management –
Just Do It
Do not start the transformation effort without a
Master Plan showing actions,outcomes, and
benefits
Quest for Immediate Results
Use the Master Plan to show when benefits will
be delivered,dependences on these deliveries,
and the cost to produce these benefits
No Organizational Change Change must occur for all transformation
projects. Use the Master Plan to show, when,
where,and who will be impacted by the change
Use Same Metrics as
Traditional Management
Agile Transformation should be executed as an
Agile Project.Focus on beneficial outcomes
16. Failure Modes
Plans are strategies.Strategies are hypotheses. Hypotheses must be tested to
confirm the strategy is correct. Check Book Commitments cannot be allowed to
stand in the presence of a Master Planning approach.
652

+ Culture Doesn't Support Change2
Simply Follow the Plan
Transformation is an Agile project.
Have a Product Roadmap, but the
Features, Stories, and Tasks must
emerge as more insight is gained
during the transformation processes
are applied.
Standard of Work Enforced ‒
Governance equals Conformance
Governance is fine ‒ we work in high
risk, high value domains. But in the
transformation process emerge
processes and practices must be
encourage.
Yes, But … Any excuse must be tested against the
principles of Agile Transformations
before it can be accepted as a reason
for not doing the work
16. Failure Modes
653

+ Ineffective use of Retrospectives3
Ignored – there is nothing wrong here
No actions from Retrospectives
Retrospectives mean
§ What are we doing well?
§ What’s not serving us as a Team?
§ What would we change to improve?
16. Failure Modes
654

+ Needed Infrastructure Ignored4
No stable environment
Single,integrated development, test,
and release environment. This
environment must also integrate Agile
management processes with the
Earned Value Management processes
and tools
TANSTAAFL – There ain’t no such
thing as a free lunch
To successfully integrate Agile with
EVM, but processes must change to
meet the mutual need of the integrated
system.
This costs time and money, but it also
costs emotional energy on behalf of
the Teams and the management of
those Teams.
16. Failure Modes
655

+ Lack of Planning Participation5
Who can commit?
Single point of integrative
responsibility
Waiting for decisions = waste
Expose time cost of money for any
delayed decision.
This is called cost of delay in
construction projects. Same impacts on
software development
16. Failure Modes
656

+ Unavailable Product Owner6
Unavailable Product Owner
PO dedicated to team as part of the
principals of Agile.Violate the
principles expect less than acceptable
outcomes
Too Many Product Owners
A single point of integrative
responsibility is the role of the PO
Agile asks a lot of the Product Owner
Yes, that’s why being a PO is a hard job
that requires training,skill,and
dedication
Too busy for all that communicating
Failure to agree on priorities
Failure with Team commitment
16. Failure Modes
657

+ Weak Scrum Masters7
Command and Control
Serve and facilitate the needs of the
those impacted by change
Low morale
Engage all participants in a win-win
approach to change
Low IQ’s
All change is emotional, establish the
basis to reduce emotions and replace
that with business benefit discussion
16. Failure Modes
658

+ No Onsite Evangelist8
No one cares All change initiatives require
champions to move the initiative
forward, remove the roadblocks,
encourage all participants to continue
with their efforts and be he leader of
the successful outcomes.
This requires a Roadmap, just like agile
software development requires a
Product Roadmap by which to guide
the project toward the goal
No one listens
Remote road kill
No benefits reaped
16. Failure Modes
659

+ Team Lacking Authority9
Red tape decisions Empower teams to amplify learning
No forming, storming, norming, or
performing processes
Inspect and adapt, then deliver
16. Failure Modes
660

+ Testing Not Pulled Forward10
Push to deliver
Agile is a cadence based paradigm.
Forces changes in this cadence for the
needs of external interests breaks the
principles of Agile.
Increased defects
With this forces cadence, defects
appear where they would not have,if
the cadence were maintained
Pilled up technical debt
With these increased defects, the
cadence is disrupted.These defect
must be fixed and that cost time and
money
16. Failure Modes
661

+ Traditional Performance
Appraisals
10
Manager’s yearly evaluation Frequent evaluations
Individual heroics rewarded Team contribution rewarded
16. Failure Modes
662

+ Reverting to Form10
Giving up when Agile becomes hard
Provide sufficient time to adopt Agile
processes and principles
Revert to past habits when things start
going wrong
Stick to the 12 principles of agile
16. Failure Modes
663

+
16.4 ‒ Corrective
Actions for Failure
Modes starts with a
Strategic Planning
Process
n Vision ‒ where are we going?
n Consensus ‒ do we all agree that where
we want to go?
n Skills – do we have the skills needed to
get there?
n Incentives – are we headed in the right
direction for the right reason?
n Resources – do we have all the
resources needed to reach our goal?
n Action Plan ‒ do we have a strategy to
reach our goal at the planned time,for
the planned cost,with the needed
outcomes?
All Change is Always A Political
Process.
Failing to start with the political
process,doe not make it go away.It
just make the political resistance
become stronger.
A Strategic Plan for the
transformation of the organization is
the only way to address political
resistance
16. Failure Modes
664

+
n ChangeIs Painful
n Organizational change is
unexpectedly difficult because it
provokes sensations of
physiological discomfort
n Behaviorism doesn’t work. Change
efforts based on incentive and
threat (the carrot and the stick)
rarely succeed in the long run
n Humanism is overrated.Inpractice,
the conventional empathic
approach of connection and
persuasion doesn’t sufficiently
engage people
n Focus Is Power
n The act of paying attention creates
chemical and physical changes in
the brain
n Expectation shapes reality –
People’s preconceptions havea
significant impact on what they
perceive
n Attention density shapes identity –
Repeated, purposeful, and focused
attention can lead to long-lasting
personal evolution
Why Change is Hard
In many studies of patients who have undergone coronary bypass surgery, only
one in nine people, on average,adopts healthier day-to-day habits […] [even
if] they clearly see the value of changing their behavior.
“The Neuroscience of Leadership,” David Rock and Jeffery Schwartz, strategy+business, Summer 2006
Instituting change is at the heart of Transformation and Adoption
16. Failure Modes
666

+
All five components plus an Action Plan needed for
successful transformation and adaptation
Five Components Needed
for Successful Change†
Vision + Consensus + Skills + Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = Success
Vision Consensus + Skills + Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = Confusion
++
Vision + Consensus Skills + Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = Sabotage
+
Vision + Consensus + Skills Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = Anxiety
+
Vision + Consensus + Skills + Incentives Resources + Action Plan = Resistance
+
Vision + Consensus + Skills + Incentives + Resources Action Plan = Frustration
+
Vision + Consensus + Skills + Incentives + Resources Action Plan = Tread Mill
Failure† Knoster. T. (1991) Presentation in TASH Conference, Washington DC Adapted byKnoster fromEnterprise Group Ltd
16. Failure Modes
667

+ Vision
n Vision shapes of the future that an individual or group desires,a set of ambitions.
n Vision is an expression of a desirable direction and future challenging state for the
school.
n Vision constitutes partly the sensing by an individual of what the organization should
look like,how it should work,how it should be taken into the future – based on a set of
beliefs,supported and mediated by each individual’s values and beliefs.
n Vision is of little value if it is merely straplines and catchphrases which have no
foundation
n Vision must generate action,must involve change
n An effective vision provides a perspective,an ambition of how the people in the
organization will operate,in philosophical terms,in terms of decision making,in
terms of serving others,in adding value to society.
n Building a shared vision is a critical factor in managing change.
n The vision process,creating the vision,can be more important that the vision itself
allowing stakeholders to join in, feel strong ownership in order to buy into it and
promote it as their own.
n Vision creates the big picture – needed by everyone if they are to have a sense of
where change is leading them.
Absence of Vision creates confusion – through lack of vision and resulting in
lack of direction.
16. Failure Modes
668

+ Consensus
n Co-operation – agreement on ideas, values, purposes, shared
understanding.
n Collaboration – working together in an atmosphere of support and
encouragement toward a shared outcome
n Collegiality – development of a learning community gaining skills
and expertise together.
Absence of consensus results in sabotage – where the unwilling or
unconvinced can actively work against the willing – negativity of counter
arguments drags everyone down and prevents action.
16. Failure Modes
669

+ Skills
n Identify of whatever knowledge or expertise is required to move
forward.
n The capabilities to implement new plans.
n The means to act in new ways, explore different ways of working,
negotiating, collaborating.
n The abilities to try out different strategies, developing skills as
teachers and within pupils.
Absence of Skills creates anxiety – in those who feel they do not have the
necessary knowledge or expertise to cope with or to implement new
situations;– have little faith in training to provide them with knowledge /
skills.
16. Failure Modes
670

+ Incentives
n Intrinsic or extrinsic.
n What is in it for me, additional payments, self-esteem, sense of
achievement.
n Reasons to change, intellectual excitement, opportunities for
collaboration in planning and delivery, to try new things.
Absence of Incentive creates resistance – from those who see nothing in the
changes for them, no moral meaning, no personal meaning, no benefit; –
conviction that things are all right as they are,no need to change.
16. Failure Modes
671

+ Resources
n Physical resources.
n Any items which people feel are necessary to enable them to make the
required changes.
n Use of existing knowledge or expertise within the organization or outside it.
n Existing staff used as a resource including management team members,
collegiality.
n Emotional or social support / collegiality.
n Development of knowledge, expertise,skills through effective training
programs.
n Extra staffing.
n New equipment.
n Time given to development, planning, reflection
Absence of Resources creates frustration – if resources are not supplied to
adequately implement the changes – to ensure success.
16. Failure Modes
672

+ Corrective Action Plan
n Steps worked out to direct actions towards future goals.
n Process shared by participants, understanding what needs to be
done and how.
n Identified leadership, timescale, resources, monitoring processes. •
Committed leadership
Absence of a Corrective Action Plan create a treadmill – doing what we have
always done in the way we have always done it and therefore not succeeding
in working in new ways,not achieving new goals.
16. Failure Modes
673

+ Three Phase Model of Change†
n Initiation Phase
n Implementation Phase
n Institutionalization Phase
† Fullan’s ChangeModel
16. Failure Modes
674

Failure Modes of Integrating Agile with Earned Value Management

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Failure Modes of Integrating Agile with Earned Value Management

Similar to Failure Modes of Integrating Agile with Earned Value Management (20)

More from Glen Alleman

More from Glen Alleman (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Failure Modes of Integrating Agile with Earned Value Management