My keynote talk at Amdocs internal event on Agile and DevOps in Pune, Dec 7

1. The Agile Way
Tathagat Varma
http://thoughtleadership.in

2. Foundations
• Nature of Software Dev
• Agile Values and Principles
• What’s an Agile Mindset?
• Building an Agile Culture

3. Nature
• Discovery-led…solving complex
problems creatively
• Social Tacit Knowledge…teamwork of
individuals with tacit knowledge
• Customer collaboration…frequent
interactions in a dynamic environment

5. Obvious
Sense
Categorize
Respond
Best Practice
Complicated
Sense
Analyze
Respond
Good Practice
Complex
Probe
Sense
Respond
Emergent Practice
Chaotic
Act
Sense
Respond
Novel Practice

6. over
Individuals
and
interactions
process and
tools
Working
software
comprehensive
documentation
Customer
collaboration
contract
negotiation
Responding to
change
following a plan
Core Values
http://agilemanifesto.org/

7. 12 Principles
#1 #2 #3 #4
#5 #6 #7 #8
#9 #10 #11 #12
Our highest priority
is to satisfy the
customer through
early and continuous
delivery of valuable
software.
Welcome changing
requirements, even
late in development.
Agile processes
harness change for
the customer's
competitive
advantage.
Deliver working
software frequently,
from a couple of
weeks to a couple of
months, with a
preference to the
shorter timescale.
Business people and
developers must
work together daily
throughout the
project.
At regular intervals,
the team reflects on
how to become
more effective, then
tunes and adjusts its
behavior
accordingly.
The best
architectures,
requirements, and
designs emerge
from self-organizing
teams.
Simplicity--the art of
maximizing the
amount of work not
done--is essential.
Continuous attention
to technical
excellence and
good design
enhances agility.
Agile processes
promote sustainable
development. The
sponsors,
developers, and
users should be able
to maintain a
constant pace
indefinitely
Working software is
the primary measure
of progress.
The most efficient
and effective
method of
conveying
information to and
within a
development team
is face-to-face
conversation.
Build projects
around motivated
individuals. Give
them the
environment and
support they need,
and trust them to
get the job done.

8. Mindset
Fixed
Mindset
Growth
Mindset

10. Culture

12. Doing Agile vs Being
agile…
Doing Agile Being Agile
Agile is a noun Agile is a verb
Blindly follow the agile process Explore options, choose better ones
Means are more important Ends are more important
Caught up in process mechanics Focus on agile values and principles
Ship features regularly Ship value frequently
Repeat old mistakes Make new mistakes
Teams are there to follow agile Agile is there for the teams

13. Recap
• Software development entails solution
discovery for complex problems by developing
on tacit knowledge from multiple disciplines.
• The agile way requires individuals with growth
mindset to continuously experiment and
discover best solutions and deliver value.
• Sustaining an agile way of working requires
evolving an agile culture that promotes
collaboration and cultivation.

14. One more thing…
A photographer went to a
socialite party in New York.
As he entered the front
door, the host said, “I love
your pictures – they’re
wonderful; you must have a
fantastic camera.”
He said nothing until dinner
was finished, then, “That
was a wonderful dinner; you
must have a terrific stove.”
– Sam Haskins

15. References
• Cynefin Framework - Dave
Snowden
• Mindset - Carol Deck
• Agile Mindset - Linda Rising
• Agile Culture - Schneider Culture
Model