After 10 years of XP, Scrum, Kanban, Lean and Software Craftsmanship, I'm looking back to what I've learned. Design versus implementation, needed technical skills and effective change tips.

1. 5 things I’ve learned in
10 years of agile
Flavius Ștef
Agile Software Meetup
Timișoara, Feb 2018

2. Co-founder and
VP Engineering
Agile Coach
and Trainer

3. Shu Ha Ri
Shu (“Obey”)
practice fundamentals
learn mechanics eg. Kiba dachi
Ha (“Detach”)
break away
experiment
Ri (“Leave”)
there are no rules
you move without effort

4. Shu Ha Ri
Shu (“Obey”)
how to do a Sprint Review
what is the role of the PO
Ha (“Detach”)
do we always need a SM?
could ideal days be better than story points?
Ri (“Leave”)
being agile is not a goal
useful principles and practices
apply based on context

5. Is agile a silver bullet?
Probably not.
Example #1: implementation services
Example #2: technical research

6. Where is agile suited?
From http://www.lostgarden.com/2006/04/managing-game-design-risk-part-i.html
Fintech example x
Research examplex
Agile sweet spotx

7. #1. Build a team
to build a product

8. Agile Myth
“Adopting agile is easy,
every team can do it.”

9. Forming a true agile team
MEMBER
(AUTO-) SELECTION

10. Forming a true agile team
ADAPTIVE
LEADERSHIP
MEMBER
(AUTO-) SELECTION
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Directive
Negotiator
Coach
Facilitator

11. Forming a true agile team
Icons by Luke Anthony Firth, Wilson Joseph and Gregor Cresnar from Noun Project
ADAPTIVE
LEADERSHIP
CLEAR
COMMUNICATION
MEMBER
(AUTO-) SELECTION

12. #2. First discovery,
then delivery

13. Agile Naivety
“No design up front.”
“Empower teams.” “Get rid of managers.”
“Docs should serve goals.” “Code is the document.”
“No big design up front.”

14. Discovery
INTERACTION DESIGN
BIG LEVEL ARCHITECTURE
CODE, TEST
BUILD, DEPLOY
Delivery
Icons by Matias Porta and iconsphere from Noun Project

15. Can architecture always “emerge”?
• Deploy as monolith or as microservices
• Use stored procedures or process data in code
• Azure or AWS
• Angular or React

16. Design ahead of time
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Discovery Delivery

17. Design ahead of time
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Discovery Delivery
Zeigarnik
Effect

18. #3. Invest in
technical skills
before iterating

19. Agile Myth
“Doing Scrum [Kanban]
means we’re agile.”

21. Pre-requisites
Clean Code
Decoupling
Refactoring
Test Automation

22. #4. Agile changes
the entire company

23. Agile Myth
“Agile is intended for team-
level software development.”

24. Adopting agile
“Let’s add a bit of
agile fairy dust here”

25. Actual changes needed
• HR: performance management
• Finance: revenue recognition
• Product: weekly calendar
• Marketing: flexible documents
• Sales: contracting
• C-suite: budgeting

26. Top down and bottom up

27. #5. Agile can make
you more productive,
but it probably won’t

28. Agile Myths
“Adopting agile will make us
produce more.”
“Agile is a very good project
management tool.”

29. Motivation after agile start

30. Scrum math
+ more work done
- cost to track/report
- motivation
??? PROFIT ???

31. Productivity
This makes
us productive

32. Adaptive (“rolling-wave”) planning
Feature 1
US US US
US US US
Feature 2
US US US
US US US
Feature 3
US US US
US US US
time
Split
stories

33. Adaptive (“rolling-wave”) planning
Feature 1
US US US
US US US
Feature 2
US US US
US US US
Feature 3
US US US
US US US
time
Split
stories Decide:
• Release
• “Steal” budget from
feature 2
• Get more project budget,
extend timeline

34. Where is the
treasure?
More useful Less useful
Values Principles Practices Process

35. Thank you!
www.slideshare.net/fstef <- slides are up
twitter.com/FlaviusStef
www.linkedin.com/in/flaviusstef/