Jared Richardson is a principal consultant at Agile Artisans and cofounder of the GROWS methodology. He authored books on agile practices and was the second signatory of the Agile Manifesto. The document outlines problems with how agile is commonly practiced, such as adopting prescriptive processes without understanding principles. It then introduces the GROWS methodology, which is based on the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition and emphasizes intentional experimentation through short development cycles to continually learn and improve. The methodology focuses on establishing the right rhythm of meetings, developing the right vision, and practicing good craftsmanship through technical practices tailored for different roles and stages of a project.

1. Jared Richardson
@JaredRichardson
Principal Consultant
Agile Artisans

2. Who Am I?

3. 3
Cofounder of GROWS Methodology
Author Ship It! and Career 2.0
Screencast editor PragProg.com
2nd public signatory of the Agile Manifesto
Started AgileRTP in 2007!
Coach
AgileArtisans.com
Jared Richardson

4. Outline
How do we learn?
What’s wrong with Agile?
What is GROWS?
Next steps…

5. Outline
How do we learn?
What’s wrong with Agile?
What is GROWS?
Next steps…

6. Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition
wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisition

7. Start
Familiar
Working
Smooth
Teaching
Dreyfus
Model
of
Skills
Acquisition
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisition

8. Start
Familiar
Working
Smooth
Teaching
Dreyfus
Model
of
Skills
Acquisition
Steps
Recipes
Intuition
Stuck
Principles

9. Key Points
Skills don’t map
dilbert.com/strip/1990-09-13

10. Key Points
Beginners need steps

11. Outline
How do we learn?
What’s wrong with Agile?
What is GROWS?
Next steps…

12. 12
AgileManifesto.org

13. 13 AgileManifesto.org
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

14. 14 AgileManifesto.org
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
Who’s doing this?

15. Agile!
flickr.com/photos/bulldogpottery/5421547444
Order scrum certifications
Buy agile tools!
Retitle product owners
Contract scrum masters

16. Scrum
Adopt and fossilize
Inspect and replicate

17. XP/Technical Practices
Try and fail

18. Help?
flickr.com/photos/nkphillips/2865781749/

19. How We Learn
Start with steps
Move to principles

20. How We Learn
Scrum
XP

21. Outline
How do we learn?
What’s wrong with Agile?
What is GROWS?
Next steps…

23. DREYFUS MODEL

24. TRACER BULLET DEVELOPMENT

25. 3 RS
INTENTIONAL
EXPERIMENTATION
TOP TO BOTTOM

26. 3 Rs
Rhythm
Right Thing (vision)
Right Way (craftsmanship)

27. Rhythm
Daily meetings
Planning Meetings
Demo
Iteration
Retrospective
Software

28. Right Thing
Vision

29. 29
Initiative
Themes
Epics
Features
Stories Days
Iterations
Months
Quarters
Years
Optional
Optional

30. The Right Way
Technical Practices

31. Technical Practices
Version Control
Test First
Continuous Integration
Continuous Testing
Wash your hands

32. INTENTIONAL
EXPERIMENTATION

33. Experimentation
Learn about software by writing software
Can’t study your way into experience
3+ experiments
Create feedback loops
flickr.com/photos/schwar/6801765768

34. Requirements
Rewrite
Discuss
Development
Developers
disagree on
which Javascript
toolkit is best
Node.js
Bootstrap
Angular.js
Pick one
SOA
Monolithic
Peer to peer
Pick one
Developers
disagree on
which architecture
is best
Demo
Revise
Rewrite
Adjust
Frequent
demos discover
communication
failures early
Continue until
you can demo

35. Discuss
Intentional
Experimentation
Study
Experiment
Learn

36. Decide! Learn
Learn Decide!
Two Paths

37. TOP TO BOTTOM
DREYFUS MODEL

38. PRACTICES BY ROLE

39. PRACTICES BY STAGE

40. TRACER BULLET DEVELOPMENT

41. What Else?
Measure working software
Shorter (lower risk) work
Automation everywhere
Effective leadership
Capacity management
Free to use (see the FAQ)

42. Outline
How do we learn?
What’s wrong with Agile?
What is GROWS?
Next steps…

43. Come join us
beta-> grows.toolshed.com
GrowsMethod.com

44. COME JOIN THE EXPERIMENT

46. GrowsMethod.com