The Impact of Culture on Distributed Agile .. and what can we do? DiscussAgile Bangalore May 07 2016 Marudhamaran Gunasekaran Agile Coach / Security Specialist

1. Marudhamaran Gunasekaran Agile Coach / Security specialist
The Impact of Culture on Distributed Agile
and what can we do?

2. WHY: SOFTWARE IS EATING THE WORLD
{forced}
transforming into software
companies

3. WHY: SOFTWARE IS EATING THE WORLD
qualified software professionals
where are they?

4. CULTURE
… is the way we do things around here?
… is what we do when no one is looking?

5. PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT INDIA

6. PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT INDIA
ALL OF THESE PRECONCEPTIONS CAN BE TRUE !
Quality software delivery
Communication challenges
Saying Yes delivering No
Hierarchical; follow orders
taking initiatives
Loyalty
Indian software companies are Agile

7. COUNTRY CULTURE VS COMPANY CULTURE
Country culture
preconceptions
Company culture
Country culture
preconceptions
Company culture

9. THE WAY OF WORK AT PROWARENESS
People Practices Communication
Culture

10. PEOPLE: HIRE ONLY THE BEST
More than extra hands, extra colleagues that make you more Agile!

11. Some clients say....
Q: We hired a Product Owner/Architect/Scrum Master
who did very well during an interview discussion, but
on the job he was very poor?
A: Design your interview procedure to simulate real
world work, and involve stakeholders*
*stakeholders = people impacted by the the work of the interview candidate (eg: team mates)

12. PEOPLE: SAMPLE RECRUITMENT PROCESS – #1
HIRING
Recruiter’s
telephone
evaluation
Recruiter’s interview
to affirm attitude, and
initial culture fitment
Technical evaluation
1
Technical evaluation
2
Let them code Let them present
their code
Culture fitment
round
Managing Director
discussion

13. PEOPLE: RECRUITMENT PROCESS – #2 TRAINING

14. Some companies do excellent training for new joiners....
But how to validate learning?
Put them on the job
Support with regular mentoring and coaching

15. PEOPLE: RECRUITMENT PROCESS – # 3 VALIDATED
LEARNING

16. PEOPLE: ONBOARDING - PASSION
What do you
do when you
aren’t at work?

17. PEOPLE: ONBOARDING - TEAM WORK

18. 18
Do all of these sound hard?
Do all of these sound hard to do?

19. Scrum puts stress in developing & managing products

20. PEOPLE: ONBOARDING - THE BEST TEAM
Final choice about the best team
composition after the 30 day
induction program
Pay to quit program

21. PEOPLE: PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

22. Guess what Developers priorities are?
http://stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2016#work-job-priorities

23. PEOPLE: PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS
How do we make developers think about business value
delivery rather than salary?

24. PEOPLE: TRANSPARENT SALARY & GROWTH

25. PEOPLE: iGROW – MAN WITH A PLAN – MONTHLY
FEEDBACK CYCLES

26. PEOPLE: COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS

27. PEOPLE: CELEBRATE OFTEN AS A HUGE BUNCH

28. 28
PRACTICES: SCRUM, EXTREME PROGAMMING
Daily
Scrum
2 week
Sprints

29. PRACTICES: WAY OF WORK – DEDICATED AGILE
COACH FOR TEAMS
Determine
the current
state of
WoW
Determine
what could
be improved
next Sprint
WoW
Coaches
coaching the
team
Define
improvement
actions for
next Sprint
Team works
on the
improvement
Create Continuous
Improvement
Environment for teams

30. PRACTICES: CONTINUOUS COACHING
Give Intentions and principles
Being dogmatic?

31. PRACTICES: TECHNICAL DEBT RADAR & CONTINUOUS
DELIVERY
TECHNICAL DEBT RADAR TO KEEP QUALITY
NEGOTIATIONS TANGIBLE
CONTINUOUS DELIVERY SO THAT RELEASE IS NOT A
TECHNICAL DECISION

32. PRACTICES: BIG SPRINT DAY AND MORE CULTURE
TIME TO LEARN FROM EVERYONE

33. 33
PRACTICES: SCALING – PROGRAM TEAMS

34. COMMUNICATION: KICK-ON TO BRIDGE CULTURAL
DIFFERENCS AND UNDERSTANDING NUANCES

35. COMMUNICATION: ENVIRONMENT OF TRUST

36. COMMUNICATION: TRAVEL OFTEN

37. COMMUNICATION: BONDING

38. ALL OF THESE REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT!
The most efficient and effective method of
conveying information to and within a development
team is face-to-face conversation.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.
Business people and developers must work
together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.

39. SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT!
Buy big TVs (touchscreen preferably)
Buy webcams for developer machines,
IP cameras, and those giant Polycom devices
Build coaches dedicated for teams
Let teams solve organizational and distributed challenges
Promote Self Organization and allow mistakes
Buy time for coaching and continuous improvement
Bring distributed teams together often (travel during
the beginning & at least during every quarter)

40. If contracts are signed based on fixed time, fixed scope, and fixed cost then traditional
behavior is going to be expected.

41. AGILE CONTRACTING: SCALING & DOWNSIZING

42. So, What do you think?
MARUDHAMARAN
GUNASEKARAN
AGILE COACH / SECURITY
SPECIALIST
gmaran23

43. REFERENCS & FURTHER READING
Culture is the new Governance Rahul Sah Agile Coach Club Feb 20 2016 Prowareness -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbUU3OlCUq8
Continuous Delivery - http://continuousdelivery.nu/
Performance Appraisals in Agile Environment Nagesh Sharma - http://www.slideshare.net/gmaran23/performance-appraisals-
in-agile-environment-nagesh-sharma
How to Kick Start a New Scrum Team - Agility and HR at Delft Netherlands 21 January 2016 -
http://www.slideshare.net/gmaran23/how-to-kick-start-a-new-scrum-team-agility-and-hr-at-delft-netherlands-21-january-
2016
The 2015 State Of Agile Development: Learn From Agile Expert Firms -
https://www.forrester.com/report/The+2015+State+Of+Agile+Development+Learn+From+Agile+Expert+Firms/-/E-RES120445
Developer Survey Results 2016 - http://stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2016#work-job-priorities
The rise of the chief culture officer - http://fortune.com/2012/07/30/the-rise-of-the-chief-culture-officer/
Scrum is Hard and Disruptive - http://www.verheulconsultants.nl/ScrumIsHardandDisruptive.pdf