Deciding to adopt an agile way of working is great! Being precious about the agile framework you decide to use is not. For one reason or another, since adopting agile, we’ve become a community of obsessive practitioners who seem unable to take a pragmatic approach to making project or process decisions. Never has such a sense of entitlement been seen in project teams than in those who have recently converted to agile. 'Agile experts' have constantly told teams that to get any value, you take an all or nothing approach towards implementation. Belittling all previous process ideas, agile culture can sometimes be toxic and can turn the development team against the business if not properly facilitated. In this session, we’ll explore how an agile transition is never an overnight job and that to succeed in any type of project delivery, pragmatism is still a vital ingredient. Having a vision to be better with agile is crucial, but so is an understanding that it will take time, it will be disruptive, and it should be pragmatic.

1. IT’S (STILL) OKAY
TO BE
JAMES HARVEY

2. JAMES HARVEY
▸Over a decade working with Agile teams
▸From developer to trainer and coach
▸Agile Snap: BCS Accredited Training Partner
▸Co-organiser of South Wales Agile Group
▸Pragmatic!

3. WHY TALK ABOUT PRAGMATISM?
▸Project teams can be extremely stubborn
▸Teams often feel confined by their processes
▸Leaders can be precious about a specific framework
▸Don’t just do the right thing, do it the right way
▸Empowering individuals and teams
▸Shaking that sense of entitlement

5. AGILE IS GREAT
▸It’s great that we all believe in Agile
▸Even better, we care about how we deliver software
▸Agile delivery became a thing because waterfall delivery just
didn’t cut it for software projects
▸If used correctly, there is no better way to deliver software
▸But we’ve gotten a little lost recently
▸Desire to pick a framework immediately

7. CHOOSING A FRAMEWORK
FOCUS ON
BUSINESS
JUSTIFICATION &
SATISFACTION
EMPHASIS ON
DIVIDING THE
PROJECT INTO
MANAGEABLE
AND
CONTROLLABLE
STAGES
FLEXIBILITY THAT
CAN BE APPLIED
AT A LEVEL
APPROPRIATE TO
THE PROJECT

9. DEALING WITH THINGS
SENSIBLY AND
REALISTICALLY IN A WAY
THAT IS BASED ON
PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL
CONSIDERATIONS. Pragmatic
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

10. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”
▸Come up with a solution that fits the problem
▸This might start with what a process tells you what to do
▸Abandon the process if it doesn’t work
▸Use your experience to think of a new solution
▸Remember what worked for next time…
▸…but don’t have a process for everything

11. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

12. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

13. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

14. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

15. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

16. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

17. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

18. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

19. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

20. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS”

21. IF AT FIRST YOU
DON'T SUCCEED,
TRY, TRY, TRY
AGAIN.
William
Edward

23. WHAT? SO WHAT? NOW WHAT?
▸What data do
we have?
▸What do we
know?
▸ What does
this mean to
us?
▸ What’s the
context?
▸ What are we
going to do
with this?
▸ What have we
learned?

24. SOUNDS LIKE COMMON SENSE
▸It is!
▸Try something; if it fails, try something else
▸Don’t continue to do the same thing just because the
process tells you to do so
▸Use your experience as a professional to make decisions
▸Fail early and adapt

26. BEING
PRAGMATIC IS
EASIER THAN
YOU MIGHT

27. IT STARTS WITH LEADERSHIP
▸Focus on the practical
“how do we get this done”
side of a task
▸Take each step at a time,
adjusting regularly
▸Realistic; often seen as
negative
PRAGMATIC
LEADERS
IDEALIST
LEADERS
▸Focus on the vision;
big ideas
▸Focus on the end result
rather than the
path/journey
▸Rose-tinted glasses

28. WHICH IN TURN AFFECTS CULTURE
▸Leaders will influence team and organisation culture
▸Involve everyone
▸Pragmatic approach allows us to identify our current
weaknesses without
▸Dismissing current processes invokes a “them and us” attitude
▸Culture can be the single most important factor when it comes
to delivery success or failure

30. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN THEORETICAL
CONSIDERATIONS”
PEOPLE AND
INTERACTIONS
OVER

32. WE DON’T WANT TO “BURN” ANYTHING
▸Use the best of everything!
▸The best Agile practitioners are framework agnostic
▸Never be precious about a framework
▸The grass is sometimes greener
▸Outside of the box thinking for retrospective actions
▸If something works for you; great!

33. YESTERDA
Y I DID THIS
THING…
TODAY I’M
DOING THIS
THING…
I DON’T
HAVE ANY
BLOCKERS
…
I WONDER
IF ANYONE
SAW THE
FOOTBALL
LAST
NIGHT…

34. THERE’S FAR MORE TO AGILE
SCRUM
LEAN
DSDM
KANBA
N
LESSSAFE

35. SCRUM IS POPULAR

37. START WITH AGILE, NOT SCRUM
▸Almost all teams adopt Scrum or another framework straight
off the bat
▸Consider your existing process and any barriers
▸Use a Kanban approach to map your existing process
workflow and look for quick wins
▸Don’t just pick a flavour of Agile straight away; become Agile
first!

39. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN THEORETICAL
CONSIDERATIONS”
WORKING
SOFTWARE OVER
COMPREHENSIVE
DOCUMENTATION

40. BUT NOT JUST WORKING SOFTWARE
▸Working software shows us what we’ve achieved
▸It’s the most practical consideration you can get!
▸Working software alone doesn’t always help with forecasting
▸So we might still need to produce documents
▸We still need to know things that only reporting and
documentation can help us with

42. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN THEORETICAL
CONSIDERATIONS”
CUSTOMER
COLLABORATION
OVER CONTRACT

43. BLANK CHEQUE?

44. COLLABORATIVE CONTRACTS
▸The customer has a right to expect something by an agreed
date
▸However, project teams also cannot be expected to commit
to a big bang delivery
▸Both sides should agree that quality will not be compromised
whatever happens
▸The solution is somewhere in the middle

46. THE PRAGMATIC IRON TRIANGLE
SCOP
E
COS
T
QUAL
ITY
TIME

48. PRAGMATIC ESTIMATION
▸We can (and should) estimate at any stage of the project
▸The scale we use should be appropriate for the stage in
which we are

49. TASKS
SMALLEST ITEMS
ESTIMATE WITH
HOURS
USER STORIES
SMALL ITEMS
ESTIMATE WITH
STORY POINTS
EPIC STORIES
MEDIUM ITEMS
ESTIMATE WITH
SHIRT SIZES
THEMES
LARGE ITEMS
ESTIMATE WITH
AFFINITY
IDEAS
LARGEST ITEMS
ESTIMATE WITH
FINGER IN AIR

50. “PRACTICAL RATHER THAN THEORETICAL
CONSIDERATIONS”
RESPONDING TO
CHANGE OVER
FOLLOWING A

52. PLANNING TO CHANGE
▸Planning in Agile teams should be frequent
▸Responding to change is essential
▸We should plan in a way that encourages change
▸Have requirements, but keep them as brief as possible
▸Respect your customer
▸Think of change more as refinement

53. DON’T OBSESS OVER DETAILS

55. TAKE
PRAGMATISM
BEYOND THE
AGILE

56. BECOME MORE PRAGMATIC
▸Beware of tunnel vision
▸Think outside of the box
▸Don’t be afraid to “break the rules”
▸Don’t lose faith!
▸A pragmatic approach will help you work in a more Agile
way, whilst respecting your existing business
▸The journey is far more important than the goal

58. HIDDEN TRUTHS OF AGILE TRANSITION
▸It’s going to cost a lot of money
▸It’s going to be very disruptive
▸You won’t see a ROI for a while
▸Small changes will make a difference
▸You probably can’t use a single framework by the letter
▸This is exactly why we need a pragmatic approach

59. FURTHER READING

60. BCS AGILE FOUNDATION
▸The only certified Agile training course that is truly
framework agnostic
▸Ensures a broad understanding of a range of Agile principles
and methodologies
▸Keeps the focus on the journey rather than the destination
▸Perfect for a pragmatic approach!
▸Public and private courses available

62. THANK
YOU.
ANY
QUESTION
S?James Harvey
@AgileSnap