How is it possible that a seemingly highly skilled team struggle to meet business deadlines whilst a team of average skilled professionals consistently deliver value to their client? Do the skills of the team members have any outcome on the delivery of the team? Of course they do, but without the secret sauce even the best team will fail. The uncomfortable truth is that human beings do not do ANYTHING unless they are sufficiently motivated to do so, despite what they may say they will do. Unfortunately, in most organisations, people learn to say what their managers want to hear and then still proceed to do the opposite. Why do people do this? In this talk we will explore how an Agile approach makes average teams become great teams through the injection of one vital ingredient: motivation. We will explore how an Agile approach gets people in all kinds of industries (not only developers!) become motivated to be successful without them even realizing it. The key principles of Agile that, probably coincidently, addresses the fundamentals of human motivation, will be uncovered. Jaco heads DVT, a team of 600 staff that specialises in Agile software development, testing and related services for clients in South Africa and the United Kingdom. He has more than 20 years IT experience in the field of software development and has been involved in the architecture, design and construction of various size software development projects, some of which were in the utilities, financial and insurance industries. Jaco holds a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Johannesburg and has focused his Ph.D. research on object oriented software design and information security.

1. WHY REALLY, DO AGILE TEAMS
PERFORM BETTER?
JACO VAN DER MERWE
9 MARCH 2017

3. ABOUT ME
• Not a phycologist!
• Passionate about software development.
• Head up DVT,
• I don’t code anymore  but did in Smalltalk, Java and other languages.
• Have been responsible for small and large dev teams
• Have experienced waterfall, iterative and Agile
• Have seen and been part of performing and non performing teams
• An introvert

5. ARE WE TALKING AGILE OR SCRUM?
• The Agile manifesto defined the values of the Agile movement
• 12 Principles, not work methods
• Did not define how to implement Agile
• Software development methods like Scrum and XP defines how to implement (some of) the Agile
principles
• I am mainly using the Scrum methodology to look at how Agile impacts motivation in practice

7. GOOGLE’S RESEARCH
• In 2013&2014
Google analysed
and interviewed
more than 180 of it’s
teams to understand
what makes some
teams perform
better than others.
• In conclusion, 5 key
factors where
identified.
Surprising discovery:
High performing teams
did not necessarily
have the most skilled
or experienced team
members!

8. SNL
• Lorne Michaels is the creator and producer of Saturday Night Live.
• The show first aired in 1975 and was hugely successful.
• Why?

9. LEARNINGS
• Sceptics did not believe the show would be a success
• A huge success over many decades with different team members
• How did producer Lorne Michaels achieve this?
• Physiological safety. Able to speak their mind in a weekly planning
meeting.
• Seeing the results of their work quickly (every week!) Feeling they have
an impact and had enough control to make a difference
• Able to depend on the team members. Commit to the show. Not
individual’s work

10. WHAT DO THESE TEAMS HAVE IN COMMON?
• Why did these teams perform well?
• They felt it is a safe environment to share their opinion
• They could see the results of their work fast
• They felt their work made an impact
• The felt they could depend on team members
• The above are all, actually, by-products of one thing:
• MOTIVATION.

11. TEAMS THAT WORKED REALLY WELL TOGETHER
Research by Charles Duhigg:
Motivation results from the individual’s belief in the power to make
choices and control outcomes.
The motivation to accomplish difficult things come from the meaning
behind these choices.
The most productive teams actively seek each member’s input,
have defined rules and goals, trust one another, and feel safe
in proposing ideas to each other

13. PSYCHOLOGY 101 - MOTIVATION
Intrinsic
“Internal factors”
Learning,
Belonging, fun,
meaning,
curiosity,
autonomy, control
Extrinsic
“External factors”
Avoid negative
consequences,
prizes, awards,
competition,
money, fear

14. ** Malone, T. W. & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In R. E.
Snow & M. J. Farr (Eds.), Aptitude, learning, and instruction: III. Conative and affective process analysis. Hillsdale, NJ:
Erlbaum
**

15. THE REAL QUESTION
Ask not why Agile teams perform better, rather
ask what motivates people in Agile teams to
perform better?

17. DO AGILE TEAMS PERFORM BETTER?
The Standish Chaos report (2016):

19. DEVELOPERS LOVE TO LEARN
In a workplace, developers value:
70.1%
64.3%
44.1%
40.2%
Building something
new
Having control over
product decisions
Improving an
existing application
Believing in the
company mission
** According to Stackoverflow.com’s 2016 survey

20. DEVELOPERS LOVE TO LEARN
In a workplace, developers value:
70.1%
64.3%
44.1%
40.2%
Building something
new
Having control over
product decisions
Improving an
existing application
Believing in the
company mission
** According to Stackoverflow.com’s 2016 survey

21. DEVELOPERS STRUGGLE WITH
70.1%
64.3%
44.1%
40.2%
Unrealistic expectations
Poor documentation
Unspecific requirements
Inefficient development
processes
Changing requirements
** According to Stackoverflow.com’s 2016 survey
40.2%
!!!

22. DEVELOPERS STRUGGLE WITH
70.1%
64.3%
44.1%
40.2%
Unrealistic expectations
Poor documentation
Unspecific requirements
Inefficient development
processes
Changing requirements
** According to Stackoverflow.com’s 2016 survey
40.2%
!!!
These prevent developers from
seeing code in production.
I.e. building (and seeing)
something new.
The core problem, is it
demotivates developers.

24. SO WHY DO AGILE TEAMS PERFORM BETTER?
• What is at the core of Agile teams, that make them perform better?
ANSWER: INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

25. INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND AGILE
An Agile approach like Scrum:
 Pursue gaols with meaning. Weekly Sprints=see results
 Learning. Sprint Retrospectives. A Learning culture.
 Decision making close to the people that do the work.
 Commit to the team. Meet the Sprint objectives
 Frequently see working code (used) in production.
Intrinsic motivation
factors:
1. Challenge
2. Curiosity
3. Control
4. Cooperation and
Competition
5. Recognition

27. MILLENNIALS
• People born between 1982
and 2004 (roughly). Ie
presently between 13 and
35
• According to
stackoverflow.com’s 2016
survey. Developer age
distribution is:
77.2%
Majority of
developers are
Millennials.
Employers struggle to
motivate them
0.80%
3.00%
8.90%
10.20%
18.10%
28.40%
23.60%
7.10%
<60
50-59
40-49
35-39
30-34
25-25
20-24
<20

28. WHAT DOES MILLENNIALS SAY THEY WANT? **
• Free FOOD and BEAN BAGS 
• Work in a place with purpose, make an impact, have meaningful work
• what is this?
• Intrinsic motivation factors.
• Create things which they can see make a difference/work in production
• Remember what stackoverflow.com’s research showed about developers?
• Agile helps to achieve this.
** according to Simon Sinek – Millennials in the workplace

30. BRINGING IN IT ALL TOGETHER
• High performing teams = teams with motivated team members.
• Extrinsic motivation in the work place, does not work so well anymore.
• For developers, especially Millennial developers (77%), Intrinsic
motivation works well.
• Agile works, because it addresses the core Intrinsic motivation factors
• Challenge, Curiosity, Control, Cooperation & Competition, Recognition

31. CONCLUSION
• Key lessons:
• Life is just too short to work in a team where you are not motivated.
• It’s not really about Agile, it is about motivation!
• Agile teams are generally more motivated.
• Use Agile to motivate your team.
• Join a team using Agile to be motivated!

33. THANK YOU
JVANDERMERWE@JHB.DVT.CO.ZA
@JVDMERWE