Path to Agility: Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Agile Adoption

Path to Agility
David Hawks, CST, CEC
@austinagile
Get your mobile phone ready as we will do real time
polling during this session.TextVELOCITY to 22333 to join.
Accelerate Agility

David Hawks
Agile Trainer and Coach
@austinagile
david@agilevelocity.com
AgileVelocity.com
Accelerate Agility
Transformation | Training | Coaching

WHAT WE DO
Agile Training & Certification
Certified ScrumMaster and Product Owner, Team Training, Leadership Training, Lean/ Kanban
Agile Team Coaching
Coach teams to reach hyper productivity
Agile Leadership Coaching
Guide leadership to empower teams
Agile Transformation
Formulate agile adoption strategies and plans tailored to the client environment and support execution
Texas-Based Leader in Everything Agile
Upcoming Workshops
9/28 - Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
11/30 - Advanced Master Program - ScrumMaster*
11/30 - Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)*
*Discount Code “DallasALN20” for 20% off
— 5 uses only — expires 10/7 —

EVERYONE HAS ADOPTED AGILE IN SOME CAPACITY
94% of all organizations surveyed now practice agile. (VersionOne State of
Agility 2015)

ONLY 53% OF
AGILE PROJECTS
ARE SUCCESSFUL
It is better than waterfall, but is that good
enough?
(VersionOne State of Agility 2015)

THERE IS MORE BAD AGILETHAN GOOD AGILE
Why is that?

Path to Agility
Stage Align Learn Predict Accelerate Adapt
Pains
• Goal is to “implement” Agile,
Scrum, SAFe, etc.
• Lots of chaos and resistance
• No process for escalating
organizational impediments
• Teams don’t feel management is
bought in
• Different understandings of
Agile/ Scrum
• Think Agile is just a process
change
• No time to make improvements
• Not a safe to fail environment
• Leadership is acting the way they
always have
• Lots of carryover into next
Sprint
• Dev & QA not working close
together
• No knownVelocity
• Ambiguous backlog and stories
• Long release cycle times
• Organizational friction with the
“business”
• Long customer feedback cycles
• Low customer satisfaction
• Low employee engagement
across the organization
• Executive leadership not
operating with agility
• Other departments culture not
aligned with Agile
Your
Rating
(1-5)
Potential
Solutions
• Set strategic measurable goals
• Create a sense of urgency
• Form a Transformational
Leadership Team
• Create a Transformation Backlog
• Make progress transparent and
visible
• Training for all team members
• Training for leadership
• Provide slack to learn
• Emphasize team building
• Form cross-functional teams
• Make all work visible
• Limit WIP until you are getting
“Done Done”
• Constant team Backlog
Grooming
• Break work down and swarm
• Embrace cross functional team
goals
• Cross train and develop T-shaped
ppl
• Leadership focus on optimizing
the whole
• Urgently resolve organizational
impediments
• Test Automation, Continuous
Integration, DevOps
• Lean Product Discovery
• Educate teams and leaders
across the org
• Implement Agile practices in
other parts of the organization
(Make work visible, self-
organizing teams, daily standup,
etc.)
• Change leadership mindset to
servant leadership
Your
Action
Item

Pitfall #1
No Alignment on Mission

Status Quo
Satir Model of Change

Chaos &
Resistance
Status Quo

Integration &
Practice
Chaos &
Resistance
Status Quo

Integration &
Practice
Chaos &
Resistance
Status Quo New Status Quo

Apply Organizational Change Mgmt

Transformation Backlog and LeadershipTeam
Run the Transformation using Agile

Align
Path to Agility - Stage 1
Pains
• Goal is to “implement” Agile, Scrum, SAFe,
etc.
• Lots of chaos and resistance
• No process for escalating organizational
impediments
• Teams don’t feel management is bought in
Solutions
• Set strategic measurable goals
• Create a sense of urgency
• Form a Transformational Leadership Team
• Create a transformation backlog
• Make progress transparent and visible

Discussion:What could your leaders
do better to support your change?

Pitfall #2
Team and Leadership not
equipped with knowledge

Self Organizing Teams need Knowledge and Support

ShuHaRi
Stages of Team Learning

25
Stages of Team Maturity
Individual
Group
Team
Self-Organizing
Team
Self-Managing
Team
Self-Directing
Team
Cooperation
Collaboration
on common
goal
Ownership of
HOW
Holds itself
accountable
Ownership of
Goal

Learn
Pains
• Different understandings of Agile/ Scrum
• Think Agile is just a process change
• No time to make improvements
• Not a safe-to-fail environment
• Leadership is acting the way they always
have
Solutions
• Training for all team members
• Training for leadership
• Provide slack to learn
• Emphasize team building
• Form cross-functional teams

Pitfall #3
Not Getting to Done

Story2Story3Story4Story1Individual Efﬁciency != Team Effectiveness
2 Week Sprint - 4 User Stories - 4 Developers and 2 QA

Dev 1

Dev 1
Dev 2

Dev 1
Dev 2
Dev 3

Dev 1
Dev 2
Dev 3
Dev 4

Dev 1
Dev 2
Dev 3
Dev 4
QA 1

Dev 1
Dev 2
Dev 3
Dev 4
QA 1
QA 1

Dev 1
Dev 2
Dev 3
Dev 4
QA 1
QA 1
QA 2

Dev 1
Dev 2
Dev 3
Dev 4
QA 1
QA 1
QA 2
QA 2

Story
2b
Story
3a
Story
3b
Story
4a
Story
4b
Story
2a
Story
1b
Story
1a
Get Something “Done Done” every Few Days
Dev 1 & 2
QA 1
Dev 1 & 2
QA 1
Dev 3 & 4
QA 2
Dev 3 & 4
QA 2
Dev 1 & 2
QA 1
Dev 1 & 2
QA 1
Dev 3 & 4
QA 2
Dev 3 & 4
QA 2
New Skills Required:
Break Work Down (Stories/Tasks), Swarm, xFunctional Teams, Cross Training (T-Shaped ppl)

Focus on Clarity of Scope
Backlog Grooming:
• Engaged PO
• Whole team
involvement
• Conversations
• Prepare for future
Sprints
• Definition of Ready

PredictLearnAlign
Path to Agility

Predict
Pains
• Lots of carryover into next Sprint
• Dev & QA not working close together
• No knownVelocity
• Ambiguous backlog and stories
Solutions
• Make all work visible
• Limit WIP until you are getting “Done
Done”
• Constant team Backlog Grooming
• Break work down and swarm
• Embrace cross-functional team goals
• Cross train and develop T-shaped people

Discussion:What needs to happen to get 9 out of 10
Sprints 100% Done?

Pitfall #4
Not Optimizing the Whole

Optimize the FullValue StreamIdeation
Prioritization
Requirements
Deﬁnition
Implementation
Quality
Assurance
Integration&
RegressionTesting
Deployment
Customer/MarketValidation

Prioritization
Requirements
Deﬁnition
Implementation
Quality
Assurance
Integration&
RegressionTesting
Deployment
Scrum

Prioritization
Requirements
Deﬁnition
Implementation
Quality
Assurance
Integration&
RegressionTesting
Deployment
Scrum
Test Automation/ Continuous Integration

Prioritization
Requirements
Deﬁnition
Implementation
Quality
Assurance
Integration&
RegressionTesting
Deployment
Scrum
DevOps

Prioritization
Requirements
Deﬁnition
Implementation
Quality
Assurance
Integration&
RegressionTesting
Deployment
Scrum
DevOps
Lean Product Discovery

Discussion:Where is the main bottleneck in your Full
Value Steam?

Predict AccelerateLearnAlign
Path to Agility

Accelerate
Pains
• Long release cycle times
• Organizational friction with the “business”
• Long customer feedback cycles
• Low customer satisfaction
Solutions
• Leadership focus on optimizing the whole
• Actively resolve organizational impediments
• Test Automation, Continuous Integration,
DevOps
• Lean Product Discovery

Pitfall #5
Thinking Agile is just a Tech
Thing

We have an Engagement Problem!

Knowledge
Workers want
Autonomy

Self-Organizing teams lead to better outcomes

Servant Leaders Support not Dictate

Predict AccelerateLearnAlign Adapt
Path to Agility

Adapt
Pains
• Low employee engagement across the org
• Executive leadership not operating with
agility
• Other departments culture not aligned with
Agile
Solutions
• Educate teams and leaders across the
organization
• Implement Agile practices in other parts of
the organization (Make work visible, self-
organizing teams, daily standup, etc.)
• Change leadership mindset to servant
leadership

Exercise:What is the top thing you can go implement?

Predict AccelerateLearnAlign Adapt
Path to Agility
Status Quo Chaos &
Resistance
Integration&
Practice
New Status Quo
The goal for the transformation
cannot be to do Agile. Understanding
and communicating the business
objectives that will be achieved with
the transformation is a critical ﬁrst
step.
Through Agile training and
coaching, teams and
leadership are equipped
with new techniques and
an understanding of how
Agile works.
Ownership of processes
are transferred to an
empowered team and a
culture of continuous
improvement is put in
place.
Teams harden these newly
learned practices and
become more disciplined in
order to deliver working
product in a predictable and
iterative manner.
Once the teams become disciplined
and predictable, we can focus on team
and organizational improvements to
optimize across the full delivery cycle
and shorten time to market.
Agile will begin to permeate
throughout the organization and
executive leadership, enabling
empowered teams and adaptive
leadership to respond to ever-
changing market demands as they
have transformed to an
organization with true Agility.
www.AgileVelocity.com
info@agilevelocity.com
@agile_velocity

FREE WHITE PAPER
Leave a card with name, role, company, email
And we will send you a White Paper on
Agile for Executives
Accelerate Agility

David@AgileVelocity.com
Twitter: @AustinAgile
www.AgileVelocity.com
info@agilevelocity.com
Twitter: @agile_velocity

Path to Agility: Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Agile Adoption

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Mais procurados

Mais procurados (20)

Destaque

Destaque (7)

Semelhante a Path to Agility: Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Agile Adoption

Semelhante a Path to Agility: Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Agile Adoption (20)

Mais de Agile Velocity

Mais de Agile Velocity (20)

Último

Último (20)

Path to Agility: Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Agile Adoption