This document discusses how organizational culture impacts outsourcing agile development and provides strategies for aligning culture between clients and providers. It uses the Schneider model to describe four types of culture - control, competence, cultivation, and collaboration. A mismatch between these cultures can lead to outsourcing failures if not properly understood and addressed. The document recommends analyzing both the client and provider cultures using this model to identify possible alignments before outsourcing.

1. Outsourcing
Agile
without
Losing Agile
Juan Banda, MSc, CSP,
ACP, PMP
juan.banda@percella.
com
Photo by TZA

2. You might have
read and heard
about culture
and how
important is to
understand it
when you
work with
people from
other
Photo by Joel Shlabotnik
countries.

3. Of greater
importance is
understanding
the
organizational
culture of your
future (or
current)
outsourcing
Photo by Clyde Poole
provider.

4. As workers, we
all perform in a
small silo in
which a
particular
subset of
culture coexists
within a much
broader
expression of
local culture.
Photo by Nico

5. Matching culture is
not just a matter of
speaking the same
language, it must
first be determined
what type of
culture the client
has and then see if
there could be
some alignment
with the provider’s
own culture.
Photo by Yckhong

6. The Schneider
Model provides
good foundation for
assessing the type of
culture of both
organizations; the
four quadrants in
this model are:
•Control
•Competence
•Cultivation
•Collaboration
Photo by Hacklock

7. •Control Culture are
highly hierarchical
and have well
defined structures of
power and formal
procedures in place.
• Typically these
organizations
believe in chain of
command and
concentrate decision
power in a few
individuals.
Photo by Judy

8. The majority of the
failures seen are
related to this
mismatching, for
instance one client
was so into the
control culture that
its organization had
a procedure for
almost everything.
Photo by Trolleway

9. One symptom of
the Control
Culture is the
excessive desire to
work on up front
requirements that
can be derived
into a detailed
plan.
Photo by Shaun_Sheep

10. •Maximizing
resource utilization
is another highly
desirable goal in the
Control Culture.
•In this case the
clients management
team is constantly
challenging and
monitoring office
attendance and
reported hours.
Photo by Whiny Dancer

11. Typical of this
culture is having the
Scrum Master and
Product Owner
performed by staff
on the client’s
side, part of this is
because both roles
are attached to
management
positions inside the
client’s hierarchy.
Photo by Tessek

12. Large number of
team members is
another
characteristic of this
Control Culture, and
this is because of
the upper
management belief
that project
managers can
manage large
teams.
Photo by Anonimous

13. •The Competence
Culture
corresponds to
organizations that
value expertise
and knowledge
first.
Photo by Paolo Camera

14. •These
organizations try to
achieve excellence
by introducing new
products and
concepts; their
focus is in being
the best but not
necessarily
believing in teams
as the key for
success.
Photo by fede 1845

15. Even though one of
the Agile Principles
says “Continuous
attention to technical
excellence and good
design enhances
agility” this is
referring to the aim
of the whole team
for technical
excellence, not only
for individuals and
their private quest
for excellence.
Photo by Bob Jagendorf

16. •The Cultivation
Culture is typical in
organizations that
believe in that teams
should be grown, not
only staffed.
•Cultivation has to
do with empowering
people and allowing
them to experiment
with different
approaches; a
systems of informal
believes to achieve
Photo by mastcharter goals is also present

17. The Cultivation
Culture is perhaps
the most costly from
the perspective of
needing to invest
and grow a team
with not many
exiting results at the
beginning.
Photo by kiandraa

18. A Cultivation
Culture offers
the opportunity
for self-growing
which in turn
favourably
impacts in
keeping
individuals
constantly
motivated.
Photo by Coyotecat6

19. The Collaboration
Culture is
different from
control in the
regard that its
focus is on people
and teams.
Success for
organizations with
this culture
depends on teams
and how well they
interact.
Photo by Ice birdy

20. •Agile is a mind-set
and as such it
cannot be
outsourced.
•Even in a single
organization it’s
hard to create a
single opinion on
how to do Agile or
how to make it work
nicely for every
team in every
situation.
Photo by Useitinfo

21. Extrapolation of
values is again
hard to do, each
group of
individuals
create its own
set of values and
beliefs that can
be influenced to
a degree but
that cannot be
cloned.
Photo by WR Bricks

22. Before even
thinking in
outsourcing, do an
analysis of your own
organization and try
to determine the
type of culture in
the project/unit
which work you
plan to outsource.
Photo by Images_of_Money

23. Using the
Schneider model
both in the
client’s and
outsourcing
services
provider’s side
might help to
identify cultures
and possible
matches. Photo by Simonthebuilder

24. If your analysis
concludes that you have
X or Y culture then your
next step is to look for
the same type of culture
in your current or future
outsourcing provider.
Photo by Shamma Mia

25. Some cultures
are better
aligned with
Agile; this is
especially true
for the
collaboration
and cultivation
cultures.
Photo by Toyamarie

26. Mismatches are the
caveat here; just
imagine if you have
a Collaboration
Culture and your
provider has a
Control Culture,
you’ll be surprised
by how much
formality and
process orientation
your outsourced
team will encounter.
Photo by kaylamflores

27. If you on the other
hand are in the
Control Culture
maybe an
outsourcing team
might be the perfect
venue to start
experimenting and
exploring
Collaboration or
Photo by georgeanddana
Cultivation Cultures.

28. Questions
Fotografia por Bilal Kamon

29. Recomended books

30. slideshare.net/juanbanda2
@juanbandajara (twitter)
juanbandaonscrum.blogspot.com/ (blog)
percella.com (site)

31. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/deed.es