Why do we care?
for many agile is about breaking down a big product/project to smaller pieces
Try... Choosing Evolution or Revolution based on your situation/context
4. Percieved VALUE
of Improvement
5. The Right
TIMING
6. Leaders who
CARE
7. Willingness to Experiment + Guidance
nimble and disciplined - you can be both - but you can also choose where to apply which
Also try... explicit consideration/reuse based on experiments elsewhere in the organization as part of the improvement workflow
9. Learn along the way
The Improvement Journey
a.k.a Continuous Improvement is BROKEN - WHY? WHAT can we do about it?
# of Retrospectives Held
Engagement score on the Improvement Board
ROTI Score of Retrospectives
# of failed Process Experiments
Improvement Manifesto
# of Issues raised
% of capacity allocated to Improvement Work Types
We are uncovering better ways of improving by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to prefer the approaches on the left over those on the right
# Noise level in Retrospectives
Sustainable Pace
# of improvement suggestions in the Backlog
OVER
Burnout/Shock Therapy
# of Process Experiments
Evolving through Experiments and Validated Learning
OVER
# of Improvement Ceremonies spontaneously starting to happen
Following a Plan
OVER
Framed as Achieving Performance Goals
Framed as holding Improvement Routines
This is a Falsifiable Hypothesis -
How will we know this approach helps?
OVER
Scattered improvements
Focused Improvements towards Goal
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/05/19/vanity-metrics-vs-actionable-metrics/
Guided/Informed Experimentation mindset
OVER
Unwillingness to try/fail or deal with
heterogeneity
Work with the organizational network
OVER
Shortcuts that seem easier / more convinient
Integrate to the organizational Cadence
OVER
Inventing a new cadence/routine
OVER
Start improvements when the timing is right
Starting cool improvement programs regardless of current context
Wait for Change Leaders who CARE
OVER
Managers who happen to be FREE
WHY do many change programs take off with great energies only to stall mid-flight ?
More importantly both are designed to become Inspect and Adapt methods at some point...
Go get me some of that Agile magic...
Coach
Participants take turns filling the matrix with explanations how a practice addresses the Goal
Should we start with Scrum or Kanban?
TIP: Use ROTI (Return on Time Invested) to focus retrospectives about Daily Meetings or Training Events
Establish traceability between WHY, HOW, WHAT + how to validate progress
UP FRONT!
2. Usage of
Organizational
Network
Even if you start measuring later, this helps buy-in...
Try... a 20 mile march
1. Dot-voting to choose Agility Goals
2. Retrospect with ROTI as the Context
1. Participants vote what was their ROTI
So, we chose the right pace, focused on what's valuable, and are willing to adapt. We have a perfect Plan right?
Coach
2. Build Implementation Backlog
adopt fanatic discipline when it comes to your improvement pace. march on in good/bad conditions, in a sustainable pace.
3. Identify Actionable Metrics
4. Trace Backlog to Metrics to Goals
(Inspired by Lean Hoshin Kanri Strategy/Policy Deployment Matrix)
Pictures from a real @AgileSparks IT client management workshop - Major mobile provider in Israel
After deciding which lean/agile building blocks to use, trace back to issues to verify the approach
* helps avoid the adrenaline bias of sprinting too fast and then burning out
Managers driving agility via the regular management chain
What are the risky assumptions in your plan?
What will be rejected?
What will actually be a step forward towards our goal?
Playing with the map available is easy enough...
What if it's a bit more cloudy/foggy?
How do we know people will care about this change?
Distributing Control for ongoing work doesn't mean no involvement in improvement
Coach
Will you perfect the Conference from a "Learning that will Stick" perspective?
Shallow
Deep
With an Improvement Goal in mind, find the
OVER
FOR YOUR CHANGE
Minimum Viable Change
"Laser" Focus Approach
that you can validate your direction and tactics with.
Use small experiments to eliminate the uncertainty around what works and provides value
SIDENOTE:
Dealing with extreme uncertainty
Talks to Business Leaders / Product managers
For your organization - Choose ONE
http://www.versionone.com/state_of_agile_development_survey/11/
http://innovationgames.com
How do we ensure the experiments do not stray from the righteous path?
Different Board for each Team!
Different engineering practices
The Kanban Method can be used as ONE kind of MVC to validate the direction of Lean/Flow/Agile
How do we avoid Babel Tower?
Different kinds of meetings
Different Estimation approaches
Different questions in the daily
Aren't we wasting time? You are the coach - don't you know what is best? Why experiment?
Achieving Goals
Build Change
Ideas
Change-Measure-Learn Loop - Lean Startup applied to Change...
Use Practices/Policies
Pivot/
Persevere
Minimize Total time
thru the loop
8. Focus!
Learn
Change
Data
Measure
1. Choose the right Implementation pace for the context
http://theleanstartup.com/principles
Practices/
Policies
Try... Exposing people to Complexity Thinking
The "Scatter"/"Shotgun" approach
What would people in your organization say is their return on time invested in Retrospectives?
Get the LeanKit Board Template at
http://bit.ly/ImprovementBoardTemplate
Also look at...
Improvement Burnout
3. Replace Adapt
Organizational Routine
Operations Review
Opportunity to learn and improve from data
Standard Operation Metrics
Measures aligned with Improvement Goals
Try... Establishing Values
that filter experiments
Its best to choose values you connect to...
http://agileconsulting.blogspot.com/2012/03/bootstrapping-enterprise-kanban.html
http://www.agilemanagement.net/Articles/Weblog/OperationsReview-2.html
http://www.agilemanagement.net/AMPDFArchive/AMSE_Chapter14.pdf
http://alistair.cockburn.us/Summarizing+the+DOI
Try... Establishing a small set of overarching Explicit Policies teams use as baseline
Try... Testing the waters
Task Board
Let's do a Retrospective for the Conference so far
ScrumBan
What are you Doing?
What are you Doing?
Object Oriented Inheritance anyone?
There is a story set in medieval times that tells of a traveller who comes upon three stonemasons. He asks each in turn:
‘What are you doing?’
The first answers, without hesitation, ‘I am cutting this stone.’
The second, who appears to be doing the identical job makes a gesture with his hand and says; ‘I am completing the wall.’
The third, again seems to be doing the same job slowly raises his eyes to the sky and says; ‘I am building a cathedral.’
There is a story set in current times that tells of a coach who comes upon three teams holding a meeting.
He asks members of each team in turn: ‘What are you doing?’
The members of the first answer, without hesitation,
‘We are holding a retrospective.’
The members of the second, who appear to be having the same kind of meeting make a "taking off" gesture with their hands and say;
‘We are improving our performance.’
The members of the third team, again seem to be having the same kind of meeting, slowly raise their eyes to the sky and say; ‘we are building a better business.’
Experiments should be focused towards a goal... Which brings us to...
Exercise - Design an MVC around the hypothesis that smaller stories are better
Why is Improvement Broken?
And 9 things to focus on in order to fix it
How can we make Improvement Stick?
Improvement Landscapes
Hey - Didn't we just reach the perfect process? What happened?
Questions?
More and more people realize that agile is about
continuously evolving the product / service
in the face of complex dynamic markets/ecosystems with great uncertainty about the requirements
What many people forget is that agile is also about
continuously seeking the right process
for evolving the product
Challenging your comfort zone
since we are working in complex system and our understanding of what is the best fit for our needs is continuously evolving
Energizing technology delivery organizations in Israel and Worldwide...
http://www.agilesparks.com