Agile fluency
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The document outlines the Agile Fluency Model, developed by Dianna Larsen and James Shore, which helps teams assess their progress towards agile practices based on their specific context. It describes four levels of fluency, ranging from basic value delivery to optimizing entire systems, each with associated team characteristics and metrics. A case study illustrates the application of the model in a large organization, highlighting practices, necessary data collection, and opportunities for improvement.
Agile fluency
- 1. 1
- 2. ROAD MAPPING YOUR WAY TO AGILE FLUENCY [email protected] 2
- 3. WHERE ARE WE GOING? • How it all began • Agile Fluency – the model • Case study 3
- 4. ARE WE THERE YET? 4 • How are we doing? • What should we do next? • How do we compare? • Who can help us with xyz?
- 5. IT’S COMPLICATED 5 • There are lots of Agile/CD/ CI maturity models to choose from • Many are free, some are not • It’s not always clear what they are measuring against • Many don’t consider context!
- 6. WHAT IS THE AGILE FLUENCY MODEL • Developed in 2012 by Dianna Larsen and James Shore • The model results from their observations of hundreds of teams and organisations over many years • The model helps teams understand where they are in terms of their own goals within a relevant context 6
- 7. WHAT IS FLUENCY? • The quality or condition of being fluent synonyms: fluidity, flow, smoothness, effortlessness, ease, naturalness; grace, gracefulness, elegance; regularity, rhythm, rhythmicity; • Dianna Larsen talks about fluency as what you do without thinking about it 7
- 8. HOW FLUENT IS FLUENT? 8 • How many people here speak multiple languages? • Do you have the same level of fluency in all the languages you speak?
- 9. Understand what level of fluency makes sense for you 9
- 10. THE AGILE FLUENCY MODEL A quick tour • Teams start by developing software together. • After a while .. Something will change 10
- 11. ONE STAR AGILE FLUENCY – FOCUS ON VALUE A cultural shift has happened. Thinking as a team, not as individuals 11
- 12. ONE STAR FLUENCY – TEAM AND ORGANISATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS • Transparency • Sharing information • Actively seeking to improve practices • Understand how their work contributes to the whole 12
- 13. * KEY METRIC 13 • Key Metric • Does the team plan and work on delivering value? • Can anyone in the organisation see progress?
- 14. TWO STAR AGILE FLUENCY – DELIVER VALUE • Teams deliver high quality products, on demand or at the cadence the market or business needs 14
- 15. TW0 STAR FLUENCY – TEAM AND ORGANISATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS • Explicit focus on developing practices to support the goal of delivery • Deep commitment to upholding practices such as pairing and TDD 15
- 16. ** KEY METRIC • Is continuous delivery the norm? • Does the team know the cadence for the business and the market? • Does the team have the right skills to deliver value and quality consistently? 16
- 17. THREE STAR FLUENCY – TEAM AND ORGANISATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS • Truly cross functional teams • Minimal management oversight 17
- 18. *** KEY METRIC • The business and the team use a shared language to talk about goals and progress • Teams have access to all the information they need to deliver high value products • Teams are empowered to make product decisions 18
- 19. FOUR STAR AGILE FLUENCY – OPTIMISE FOR SYSTEMS • Whole business involvement in the product or service delivery process • A new organisational culture 19
- 20. **** KEY METRIC • The work of every person in the organisation is driven by the work of the development teams 20
- 21. WORKING OUT HOW MANY STARS MAKE SENSE • One star fluency could be be what makes sense: • You are a large, organisation or work in a highly regulated field. • Two star fluency could be what makes sense: • you deliver a web based service internally or externally • Three star fluency could be what makes sense: • If you deliver software as a service (SaaS) • Four star fluency could be what makes sense if: • You are a start up 21
- 22. CASE STUDY Using the Agile Fluency model 22
- 23. SETTING THE SCENE • Working with a delivery platform within a large organisation • Goal: • To transition away from a project based delivery model towards a CD environment • Many changes over the preceding months including: • Forming several long-lived cross functional teams • Using visual systems to communicate progress • 3 amigos approach to elaboration, development and testing • + more 23
- 24. HIGH LEVEL OBJECTIVES • Review progress to date • Identify opportunities for knowledge sharing • Identify any knowledge gaps • Set goals – common and team • Create a check point for ongoing review 24
- 25. APPROACH • Basic requirements for the approach: • Context sensitive • Enjoyable to complete • Team based • Visual outputs 25
- 26. DATA COLLECTION - OVERVIEW • Gather each team together – away from their desks • Provide an explanation of the Agile Fluency model • Ask each team to assess themselves against the model 26
- 27. ONE POSSIBLE MODEL VIEW • Building on existing work to create a visual model • Four quadrants • Representing practices, processes, concepts and enterprise • Four concentric circles • Each representing an Agile Fluency level starting from one star in the center to four stars at the perimiter • Numbered blips • Each blip represents a specific practice or idea • The position of each blip, indicates the Agile Fluency level at which you expect to see it 27
- 28. TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES • A3 print outs of each radar quadrant (from our visual model) • Sticky dots • Sharpies • 1 or more facilitators 28
- 29. RUNNING THE SESSION • Each team forms 4 sub groups • Each group takes one radar quadrant • For each blip, assess using a traffic light system • Green = We’ve got this! • Yellow = We’re working on this! • Red = Not on our radar yet! Or too hard – because … • Where a group felt they couldn’t call a blip, we used a blue dot and discussed at the end • Facilitator available for clarification and questions 29
- 30. DATA ANALYSIS • Very manual process • Converted the traffic light ratings into a numeric scale • Captured on a spreadsheet for detailed analysis 30
- 31. VISUALISING THE RESULTS • Experimented with a few different tools; • Excel • Tableau • Raw (Web based visualisation engine) • Looked for patterns, anti-patterns and outliers 31
- 32. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS • All of our teams were well on the way towards achieving 2 star Agile Fluency • Yellows in the one or two star circles indicate where we should focus next • Reds in this area need to be better understood • All the teams had yellows and greens in both three and four star area’s • We could easily see where one team could provide support and coaching to another team • We could see some opportunities for shared development activities • All the teams reported that the process of sitting together and discussing their practices was highly valuable 32
- 33. NEXT STEPS • Give the teams their data Suggest how they might use it • For example: • Ask another team to put together a brown bag or workshop in their strength area • Asking another team to pair on a topic • Suggesting internal or external speakers or training • Developing and showcasing a team roadmap • Asking for management support where progress in blocked by big picture challenges 33
- 34. THINKING RETROSPECTIVELY ABOUT THE PROCESS • What went well? • The lo-fi process • It stimulated good open conversations • People enjoyed the experience • Using the radar • It was simple to use • Generated an immediate and relevant visual output • The data • Provided an overall snapshot • Target the one thing which would make the most difference. 34
- 35. THINKING RETROSPECTIVELY (2) What could have been done differently • A simpler spreadsheet • We didn't need to use all the categories of data we collected • Asking teams to nominate their own practices rather than providing a generic set • Would have been more relevant • An easier way to enter/collect the data • Hand data entry was very time consuming and error prone 35
- 36. ACTIONS – FOR NEXT TIME • Digitise the data collection process, without losing the benefits of the face to face interactions and conversations • Possibly a tablet based solution? • Try using the model in a different context, e.g. with governance teams 36
- 37. LATEST THINKING • Another perspective; • More stars = more investment • Investment = time + money + cost of change • Essentials: • Coaching • Patience – willingness to slow down in order to learn how to speed up • Business champion – someone willing to spend their social capital 37
- 38. WHAT CAN YOU DO? ¨ Step 1. Work out what fluency level makes sense for your team or organisation. ¨ Step 2. Create your own radar with quadrants and blips that make sense for you ¨ Step 3. Run the exercise together ¨ Step 4. Share the data ¨ Step 5. Improve the model we have provided and share it back to the community 38
- 39. THANK YOU For questions or suggestions [email protected] For opinions and comment @kelseyvh