Executives & Leadership Practicing Agile

Agile From The Top Down: Executives & Leadership Practicing Agile

Jon R. Stahl

8-9-2011

@jonRstahl

[email protected]

Co-Founded 2.5 Years Ago

Grew up in Pittsburgh, in Cleveland last 18 years

BS in CIS + Econ Minor

@jonRstahl

“The Kearsarge” A Steamship built in 1892

Our office/boat

How does the process of designing a better product work? What does a process AND a culture look like?

“The Deep Dive” - 1999

Process + Culture := Sustainability

“Build a culture and a process, that's what companies really want”

Why are most Agile movements NOT sustainable?

Agile Manifesto

Individuals & Interactions over Process & Tools Working Software over Comprehensive Documents Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation Responding to Change over Following a Plan

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Agile Principles

  Deliver software in short increments

  Expect and encourage change

  Constant collaboration with customer   Continuous attention to technical excellence

  Simplicity

  Self organizing teams

  … (see AgileManifesto.org)

Scrum = Agile? •  Does your company think they are just doing some

common “agile” practices and therefore they are Agile?

• 

•  Or do they recognize that Agile is a set of values and principles?

We Want To Go Agile!

•  Give us the recipe •  Give us some coaches •  Give us some training •  Do it quickly

Really Saying… •  Help me change our culture, •  A culture that you can’t possibly understand

unless you are living in it

Wait…. •  We can’t even describe our culture to you

clearly

•  live the values •  lead by example •  seek to truly understand their culture •  be as transparent as the teams they lead

They must

Lets explore how we could begin to expose your culture and live the values!

Values & Principles

Project Sizing & Capacity

Project Release Planning

Project Demand Funnel

Asset Technology Soup

Assets By Value

Asset Roadmaps & Quality

Metrics

Asset Scoring

People Craftsmanship

People Constraints

People Org Chart

Leadership Road Blocks

Leadership Retrospectives

Standard Work Tools

Standard Work Agile

Financials, Operations, etc.

PMO Re-Factored

Standard Work Waterfall

Speak In Stories

Implementation

Leadership WIP & Kaizen

Our Backlog

Business & Objectives

Information Radiators

Leadership Stand Ups

Stahl Warning: I talk FAST so stop me if necessary, I do not mind


Visualize What you Manage

Clear communication is the foundation

“I’m glad we all agree.”

Get those mental models out on the table

“Ah...”

An explicit model allows convergence through iteration

“Ah!”

A genuinely shared understanding

“I’m glad we’re all agreed then.”


•  A display posted in a place where people can see it as they work or walk by.

•  It shows readers information they care about without having to ask anyone a question.

•  This means more communication with fewer interruptions.

•  Large & easily visible to the casual, interested observer •  Understood at a glance •  Changes periodically, so that it is worth visiting •  Is easily kept up to date

Create a BVR (Big Visual Room)

•  Find a location with lots of wall space •  Must be in a high traffic area like…

–  Lunch Room / Cafeteria –  Long Hallways / Busy Corridors

Step 1: Values & Principles

The MOST Important Wall Of All!

•  Put you values on the wall •  Examine a software value system and principles •  Put this on the wall •  Tie them together •  Management Team Signs it

•  We Recommend.. –  Agile Manifesto –  XP Values (Courage, Communication, Simplicity,

Feedback, Respect) –  Lean: Kaizen & Muda

We uphold the manifesto with prac4ces that we adopt from:

•  eXtreme Programming (XP)

•  Scrum

•  Lean •  Organiza4on Effec4veness / Development

•  SoDware CraDsmanship

Principles behind the Agile Manifesto

• Our highest priority is to sa4sfy the customer through early and con4nuous delivery of valuable soDware.

• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's compe44ve advantage.

• Deliver working soDware frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter 4mescale.

• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

• Build projects around mo4vated individuals.

• Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

• The most efficient and effec4ve method of conveying informa4on to and within a development team is face-‐to-‐face conversa4on.

• Working soDware is the primary measure of progress.

• Agile processes promote sustainable development.

• The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

• Con4nuous aUen4on to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

• Simplicity-‐-‐the art of maximizing the amount of work not done-‐-‐is essen4al.

• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-‐organizing teams.

• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effec4ve, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Source: AgileManifesto.Org

Manifesto for Agile So6ware Development

We are uncovering beUer ways of developing soDware by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interac4ons over processes and tools Working soDware over comprehensive documenta4on

Customer collabora4on over contract nego4a4on Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the leD more.

Source: AgileManifesto.Org

eXtremeProgramming Values We Follow

Courage, Communica4on, Feedback, Respect, Simplicity

Step 2: Visualize Your Business

Selling

Buying

Visualize the Business Units and Strategy

Ownership

Claims

Customer Experiences

•  Product Development wants to expand from 8 states to 16 states.

•  Product Development wants to introduce a recreational vehicle product.

•  Marketing wants to increase our Gen Y customer base from 5% to 20%.

•  Sales wants to provide consumers their policy data via mobile technology

Strategic Objectives

Step 3: Visualize Your Projects & Demand Funnel

Understand Lean Pull

Business Units

Most Valuable Least Valuable

Project Backlog WIP

Map the Demand & WIP

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B

C

D

Size the Demand & Add Time to Market Constraints

Project A

M

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

XS 0 - 625 Hrs 1 Unit

S 626 – 1,250 Hrs 2 Units

M 1,251 – 2,500 Hrs. 4 Units

L 2,501 – 5,000 Hrs 8 Units

XL 5,001 - 10,000 Hrs 16 Units

Uni

ts d

oubl

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ith

risk

Sizing Time to Market Constraints

Program X 4

Biz A

Biz B

Biz C

Biz D

Calculate Units By Team

7 – 12 Developers 2 – 3 Product Owner/Business Analyst 2 – 3 Quality Assurance 1 – 2 Team Leaders 12 – 20 People, 16 people ideal

2,080 less 20% Non-Billable = 1664 1664 x 16 = 26,624 per team

Or do by Budget ie: 6 Million a year, = 1.5 Million per Qtr

20 Units per quarter

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

5 Units

4 Units

1 Unit

8 Units 4 Units 2 Units

1 Unit

Release Planning

5 Units 5 Units 5 Units 20 Units Per Year Per Team

Budgets Are Done…Deliver!

Visualize what you manage •  Application Assets •  People •  Leadership •  Standard Work / Process •  Financials, Operations, etc.

PMO Re-factored Speak in Stories

It’s not that simple, so let’s paint a real picture…

Step 4: Application Assets

Visualize the Application Assets and Technology soup

Java

C# COBOL

Other

Oracle

SQL Server

Biz A

Biz B

Biz C

Biz D

Order Assets By Business Value/Severity

Biz A

Biz B

Biz C

Biz D

Level 2 Level 1

Level 3

Visualize Your Assets Management in Severity Order

Current State Future State Plan To Get there

Road Map

Technical Debt Production Defects

128 Units 1 Sev 1 12 Sev 2 40 Sev 3

Other things you could track: Lines of Code, Code Change Risk Analyzer, JDepend, Cylcomatic Complexity, Panopticode, Chidamber & Kemer Object-oriented metrics

Automated Regression Test Coverage 74%

jUnit Test Coverage 82%

Severity

Frequency

Performance 91%/10

Score Your Assets, Asset Management

Level 2

Biz A

Biz B

Biz C

Biz D

Level 1 Level 3

Great

Good

OK

Rotten

Road Map Defects

Tech Debt

Test Coverage

> 80% < 25 Units < 5 Solid

Step 5: People (Assets & Liabilities)

Visualize Your Org Chart, Post-IT note color = Primary Role

QA Other BA Mgr Dev Admin

Define Core Competencies, Matrix & Ownership Jon Jim Susan Mary


Master

Journeyman

Apprentice

Eric

Craft Owners

What does ownership mean?

Learn from industry best practices

Form a community for the craft

Feedback loops on the craft

Teachers, Passion For Craft

New, Please Mentor Me

Practice, Rinse, Repeat

Apply Craftsmanship Levels

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M = Master J = Journeyman A = Apprentice

Score the Competencies

Jon Jim Eric Susan Mary


Master

Journeyman

Apprentice

7

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1 1 4 3

1 12

0 0 3 16 3 1

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(3x8)+ (1x4) + (3x2) 34 UNITS

8 Units

4 Units

2 Units

(4x8)+ (7x4) + (0x2) 60 UNITS

(1x8)+ (2x4) + (0x2) 16 UNITS

(1x8)+ (1x4) + (1x2) 14 UNITS

(4x8)+ (9x4) + (3x2) 74 UNITS

(3x8)+ (12x4) + (16x2) 104 UNITS

Could Apply $ Per Unit & Look at Ratio’s

Apply Tech Skills to Devs

Java C# COBOL Other Oracle SQL Server

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Admin

Score the Competencies By Tech Skills

You Get the Idea…

Jon Jim Eric Susan Mary


Master

Journeyman

Apprentice

7

3

2 9 1

1 1 4 3

1 12

0 0 3 16 3 1

4

(3x8)+ (1x4) + (3x2) 34 UNITS

8 Units

4 Units

2 Units

(4x8)+ (7x4) + (0x2) 60 UNITS

(1x8)+ (2x4) + (0x2) 16 UNITS

(1x8)+ (1x4) + (1x2) 14 UNITS

(4x8)+ (9x4) + (3x2) 74 UNITS

(3x8)+ (12x4) + (16x2) 104 UNITS

Could Apply $ Per Unit & Look at Ratio’s

Map People to Business Knowledge

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Admin

Biz A

Biz B Biz C Biz D

You Get the Idea

Specialists that support Agile & Waterfall •  Architecture

•  Infrastructure

•  Security

•  User Experience

•  DBA’s

•  PMO

•  Operations

Circle them, make note of them, SPECIALIZATION is another type of constraint.

Do the specialists want to control or contribute to delivery?

Candidate Waste: Latent Skill

Organizations employ their staff for specific skills that they may have. These employees have other skills too, it is wasteful to not take advantage of these skills as well. "It is only by capitalizing on employees' creativity that organizations can eliminate the other seven wastes and continuously improve their performance.”

Source Liker(2004) – The Toyota Way (p.28)

“I am expert at the system therefore I am in Quality Assurance”

Root: I can break stuff.

“I got a BS degree in Computer Science, but I only do Java”

Root: I know enough technology.

“If it wasn’t created here, I don’t buy it.”

Root: “Not Invented Here” syndrome & self preservation.

“Study my craft? I quit studying when I left school”

Root: I don’t get paid to study. Homework sucks.

“I know the business, so therefore I am the customer, I am the business analyst.”

Root: I can’t admit I changed professions.

Wasteful Craft Patterns in MOST Organizations

Step 6: Process/Standard Work

Standard Work

•  Each step in the process should be defined and must be performed repeatedly in the same manner.

•  Standard Work will define the most efficient methods to produce product using available equipment, people, and material. The Standard Work depicts the key process points, operator procedures, production sequence, safety issues, and quality checks.

Source: http://www.gatlineducation.com/leandemo/rulestandardwork.htm

Sustaining the Discipline

•  Maintain and review standards.

•  While thinking about the new way, also be thinking about better ways.

•  Suggested improvements can be tested. •  If truly better, don’t be different just to be different.

•  Be different if results are the same & is the least waste method (ie: story card tracking).

Teams

Project Management

Standard Work: Tools

Development

Testing

Code Rats

Java IDE

TDD

C# IDE

Continuous Integration

Time Reporting

Agile Project Tracking

Waterfall Project Tracking

Policy Admin

Red Fish, Blue Fish

Code Monkeys

Lean Dogs

NA

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Teams Standard Work: Agile Practices

Never Not Necessary Always Sometimes

Project Management

Development

Code Rats

Pair Programming

BDD

TDD

Continuous Integration

Daily Standup

Retrospectives

Story Mapping

Policy Admin

Red Fish, Blue Fish

Code Monkeys LeanDogs

Mapping of PMBOK Waterfall/Traditional to Agile by Michele Sliger & Stacia Broderick

Standard Practices: Waterfall Projects

Fail Good Caution

Monitoring

Project A Project C Project B Project D Project E

Cost Mgmt

Human Resource

Procurement Mgmt

Project Phase

Integration Mgmt

Scope Mgmt

Time Mgmt

Executing Planning Initiation Closing

Risk Mgmt

Communication Mgmt

Quality Mgmt

Step 7..X: Financials, Operations, Procurement, … Keep Going

  There isn’t one way to do this, do what makes sense to your organization.

  Add & remove information radiators based on value and insight needed.

  If they are not being maintained, that is a sign that they aren’t radiating value – Adapt!

Leadership Practices

Transparent Leadership

•  Doesn’t mean you have all the answers

•  Control is not something you can have over a complex system

•  Set a larger vision for the organization •  Allow the creativity of their people to emerge

•  Visualize the problem, allow teams to solve

•  What we're saying is shift the way you [lead] organizations, loosen control to encourage more creativity. A culture of care will emerge, as opposed to a culture of command and control, and your company will be more creative and productive, too.

Excerpt from “http://www.enterprise-architecture.info/Images/Extended%20Enterprise/Extended%20Enterprise%20Architecture3.htm”

Daily Stand Up Meetings

  Team communicates on a daily basis

  Team members report:

-  What they did yesterday

-  What they are going to do today

-  Any concerns or road blocks they are facing

  Each update is very brief

  15 minutes for whole team

Escalating Road Blocks

Line Manager

Middle Manager

Director

CIO

30 Days

45 Days

60 Days

2/1/10

Born On Date

Management Removes Impediments

Management Supports

Trust, but verify by visualization

WiFi for All

Retrospectives

  Designed to help a team find ways to improve what they do

  Should be held at least every 2 weeks

  What worked? What didn’t work?

  Team votes if items discussed during the retrospective should become cards to be played in the coming iteration

  XP Values: Courage, Communication, Feedback, Respect

WIP + Kaizen

A congested highway does not flow efficiently!

IF WIP takes all the demand

THEN there is no room for continuous improvement

We must support this and allow room for improvement!

• 

Road Blocks Not Started

In Progress Done Worked

Could Be Better

Retrospective

Inspect Via Visualization & Conversations

“Fly By The Seat of Your Pants”

Decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a pre-determined plan or mechanical aids.

Aircraft initially had few navigation aids and flying was accomplished by means of the pilot's judgment (the vibration in the seat of their pants).

Management is a craft that requires more communication than instrumentation.

Pair Management

Re-factor the PMO

Re-factor PMO to MSO

Manifesto

Support

Office

Manifesto Support Office Principles

•  Information Radiators are Good!

•  Throughput Focus, Limit WIP, Pull Value

•  Align Continually (backlog honing with peers) •  Support Kaizen & Crafts

•  Identify, Alleviate, Elevate Constraints

•  Standard Work + Self Organization :=Good

•  “See the Whole”: Communicate Strategic Intent

Step 9: Speak in Stories

•  Stories are statements of value

•  Stories start a conversation

•  Allows us to manage our own WIP more effectively

•  Solve the problem in the lightest way possible

•  Don’t use a tool when you need a conversation

Project Management Dashboards

Write Story Cards for Supporting Organizations

Examples: •  PMO

•  Operations

•  Architecture

•  Human Resources

•  Backlog that is reviewed by Delivery Teams who are tied to delivering business value

As a Customer…

I want to understand who is working on my project, so that I can make sure they are working on the right priorities for the business.

I want to understand who I need to talk to when I need more information.

I want to see when my requests are going to need my collaboration so that I am available to the team.

As a CIO… I want new resources coming into IT to be able to understand what this company

is about and how their job is connected to the goals of the company.

I want to understand the state of work on each team,

so that I can better understand the status.

I want to understand where work is in the demand management funnel, so that I can communicate effectively with the cabinet.

As an Application Delivery Director…

I want to understand what risks we are facing,

so that I can help mitigate them.

I want to understand how effective we are at continuous deployment, so that I can help manage this.

I want to understand how effective we are at reusing components such as port lets, so I can reduce our time to market and overall project costs.

As an Application Delivery Director…

I want to understand the level of engagement I have with my IT teams, so that I can make sure they have a productive, positive, fun and transparent work environment.

I want to understand the depth of craftsmanship across my teams, so that I can ensure a well-balanced organization.

I want to level of standard work across my teams, so that I can ensure we are upholding the value of not being different unless necessary.

I want to understand my cost per unit of software, so that I can better understand our effectiveness.

Application Assets and Technology Soup

Road Blocks Backlog

The End Game

•  Be ADAPTIVE

•  Be TRANSPARENT

•  Seek to eliminate WASTE

•  Value PEOPLE above all else

•  Live the VALUES

•  Lead by EXAMPLE!

•  Sustaining behavior will lead to a sustainable organization

Implement 4 Themes, See The Mind Map

•  Information Radiator Room: 8+ Domains

–  Values, Business, Application Assets, People, Leadership, Standard Work/Process, Financials, Operations…

•  Leadership: 3 Practices

–  Daily Stand Up’s, Retrospectives, Visible Escalating Roadblocks

•  Re-factor the PMO -> MSO

•  Story Cards for Supporting Organizations

Questions, Comments?

@jonRstahl

440.527.1183

[email protected]

•  What is amazing is how long we put up with things that do not work

•  Build a culture and a process, that's what companies really want

•  Not actually experts in any area, they are experts in a process

•  No titles, no permanent assignments

•  Project leader because he's good with groups

•  In an very innovative culture you can't have a hierarchy

•  Hire people who don't listen to the boss

•  Find experts to learn quickly instead of trying to learn it by yourself

•  Many bosses, measure whether their people are performing are the ones at their desk all the time, couldn't be more wrong, the really good people are out

What Did You See That Was Agile?

•  Each team is going to demonstrate communicate and share everything that they are learning today

•  Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius

•  People are encouraged to build their own work areas

•  Open mind is critical and the boss demands great deal of team work

•  Fail often in order to succeed sooner

•  Trying stuff and ask for forgiveness instead of asking permission

•  Fresh ideas come faster in a fun environment

•  Being playful is a huge importance for being innovative

•  Status is who comes up with the best ideas, not who's been at the company longest

•  The boss is always going to have the best ideas, not likely

•  If everybody only came up with sane things, there wouldn't a point to build off of

•  One conversation at a time, stay focused on topic, signs everywhere

Executives & Leadership Practicing Agile

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