Five Steps to a More Agile Organization: Adopting Agility at Scale
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The document discusses a structured approach to adopting agility within organizations, outlining steps for overcoming misalignment with traditional waterfall practices. It emphasizes building a capable workforce, establishing clear role progression, and launching pilot projects to incrementally implement agile practices. The document also highlights the importance of collaborative environments and continuous improvement in agile adoption.
Five Steps to a More Agile Organization: Adopting Agility at Scale
- 1. Three Steps to a More Agile Organization Adopting Agility across an Enterprise
- 2. Meet your Presenter Arlen Bankston • • • • • 2 Co-Founder of LitheSpeed, LLC User experience & product development background 14 years of Agile experience Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Lately 40% training, 20% each of coaching, product development & management
- 3. A Common Scenario • Several teams have done well using agile • There is a feeling agile could be applied more broadly • But resource management, metrics, audit and compliance, team structures, customer engagement model, HR practices, etc are all aligned for waterfall delivery • And change management is not one of our core competencies Where do we start? 3
- 4. Enterprise Agile Misalignment Enterprise Dimension Misalignment PMO Too many simultaneous projects. A Fewer simultaneous projects. Lower WIP lot of spending, not a lot of delivery. to reduce delivery Bme. Resource Management Focus on uBlizaBon by allocaBng individuals across too many projects. Staff are members of a single, dedicated team. Real Estate Cubes that sBfle communicaBon Open space for collaboraBon HR Not hiring for agile skill set. Team based performance. Hiring agile Performance management not aligned skills. with agile approach. Funconal Managers Local measures and opBmizaBon Value stream opBmizaBon Business Partners Big requirements, usually late and inaccurate Light, real-‐Bme requirements Compliance Heavy and prescripBve Focused on principles and conBnuous improvement 4 Agile Approach
- 5. PresentaBon Agenda Build your people • Build a career path • Train by role Make your adoption agile • Educate align on goals • Establish accountable adoption teams • Launch assess pilot projects • Expand adoption breadth depth Focus at all levels • Tone your Portfolio • Release more • Let your teams flow 5
- 7. Agile Team Development Process Process – Assessing current pracBces, comparing to Standard Work, and team experimentaBon to conBnuously improve pracBces and processes. • People – Role development and equipping teams with the skills to successfully implement Agile pracBces. • Product – Product discovery, execuBon, measurement and learning. • Learning Discover Adjust Standard Work Assessment Standard Work ExperimentaBon Leading Doing Teaching Product Delivery Product Role Development People Determine Standards Standard Work Assessment EvoluBon Process Learn Build Measure Visual Management Systems Lean Management Agile Delivery 7 7
- 8. Developing People Agile Role Progression Learning model • Learning – Acquire knowledge by being a student and mentee • Praccing – Acquire real-‐world experience • Teaching – Prove and advance experBse by teaching others People Learning Role Development • Provide people with clear paths for developing skills and core competencies • Provide career progression model Leading Doing Teaching 8 8
- 9. Agile Role Progression Establish a personnel development system • De#ine a clear career progression path for each role • Functional managers establish and maintain • Facilitate knowledge sharing and a collaborative culture Learning Level 1 PracBBoner Taken all required training 9 Doing Level 2 PracBBoner PracBcing within their specific role on an iniBaBve for at least six months Teaching Level 3 PracBBoner Leading at least three training sessions and coaching an apprenBce within their specific role Leading Level 4 PracBBoner Leading at least 10 training sessions and coaching at least three apprenBces within their role 9
- 10. Training by Role All Agile Praconers • Core Training: Agile + Lean Overview • Agile Kickoff Boot Camp ScrumMasters, Project Managers Team Leads • • • • Agile Management Toolset Training CerBfied ScrumMaster + PMI ACP Training Coaching Workshop Kanban workshop Funconal Departmental Managers • Agile Management Governance Agile Team Members Developers: Testers: • Agile Placorm and Tool IntroducBon • Agile TesBng Overview • Agile Engineering Workshop • TesBng Tools Roles Product Owners Agile Product Managers • • • 10 Agile Tools for Product Owners Agile Requirements Workshop CerBfied Scrum Product Owner 10
- 11. Make your Adoption Agile
- 12. AdapBve Execuve Leadership Adapting to Reality in Real Time: Use Agile to Implement Agile • You will need to think holistically in order to remove the broad barriers to adoption • Discovery of problems and goals • But changing everything may take years • And you won’t get it right the first time • OrganizaBonal Release Planning • Start with a wide path and get everyone aligned with goals, principles, and a basic approach • Evolve to more detailed, deeper levels of alignment over time • Discover what needs to be done and adapt to the actual problems at hand • Otherwise, you will end up being slow and overly bureaucratic 12 • Incremental and iteraBve implementaBon • RetrospecBve
- 13. 1. Educate, Align and Assess Before you begin, take a week or two to: Educate Align on Principles Raonale • • • Educate wide band of organization on principles and practices of agile Address senior management, middle management, and team leads Address software dev, QA, BA, PMO, HR, Production Operations, etc Assess the Impacts • • • • Work with each of the groups, at each of the levels, to determine their goals, concerns and possible solutions Prep each group for the coming pilot projects Plan for quick, simple first-cut solutions to a wide range of concerns But don’t go too deep yet 13
- 14. 2. Establish Accountable Adopon Teams Big changes require dedicated attention: Execuve Agile Steering Group • • • • • Set broad, organizational goals Define measures of success Communicate to middle management and staff frequently Review progress regularly Address organizational barriers to adoption Agile Working Group • • • • A cross-functional problem solving group SW Dev, QA, Production, BA, PMO, Resource Managers Anticipate, uncover, address tactical issues Make recommendations to executive team 14
- 15. Some Typical Agile Metrics Product (Led by Product Owners Managers) External Stakeholder Sasfacon • Quarterly survey • Assessment score Quality: • % Code Coverage • % Scenario Coverage • % Delivered features with zero criBcal post iteraBon defect count Delivery Cadence: • Time from concept to cash • Velocity stability 10/31/13 15 Process (Led by ScrumMasters Coaches) Standard Work Assessment Process Adopon • # of Agile teams • # of cerBficaBons Process Improvement • Change in Assessment scores • Updates to standard work • RetrospecBve acBons impacts People (Led by FuncBonal Managers) Associate Engagement / Happiness • Assessment Score Learning Organizaon • # of Agile PracBBoners at various levels Collaboraon
- 16. Incremental Rollout Strategy Expanded Pilots -‐ Projects Using combinaBon of Experienced Associates and Trained Associates with Agile Coaches’ oversight across MulBple Projects Inial Pilots -‐ Pilot Projects With Day-‐ to-‐Day Oversight by Agile Coaches 16 Enterprise Rollout -‐ Autonomous agile capability using experienced and trained associates. Occasional Agile Coaches’ involvement on an as-‐needed consultaBve basis
- 17. 3. Launch and Assess Pilot Projects Your first projects need: • • • • • • Product Owner involved, accountable empowered to control scope schedule ScrumMaster empowered to control process Dedicated, integrated team Executive support for learning and exploration Short term initial release timeline ( 3 months) Potential for measurable business results and impact 17 Thanks to Mike Cohn for the image: hmp://blog.mountaingoatsonware.com/four-‐amributes-‐of-‐the-‐ideal-‐pilot-‐project
- 18. 4. Expand AdopBon Breadth Depth After some initial wins, you can grow and mature: • Expand Agile to encompass agile engineering practices that will allow teams more agility: – – – – – • • Daily build capability and continuous integration Automated testing: unit, system and acceptance testing Test-Driven Development Emergent architecture and design Pair-programming Use Agile for outsourced or off-shored projects Use Agile on larger, more complex projects 18
- 19. Focus at all Levels
- 20. Interacve Layers of Planning Product PorVolio Company Vision What is our value proposiBon and how do we differenBate? What is our mix of products? Product Visions Integrated Roadmap Vision Statement Product / Project Iteraon / Sprint What business objecBves will the product fulfill? What specifically will we build? User Stories Scenarios Product Roadmap Product Goals Product Charter / Lean Canvas Vision, Unique Value ProposiBon How will this Sprint move us toward release objecBves? Sprint Plan Development Tasks Release Story (Backlog Item) How can we release value incrementally? Release Roadmap, Story Map What user or stakeholder need will the story serve? Story Details How will it specifically look and behave? What subset of business objecBves will each release achieve? Release Plan What user consBtuencies will the release serve? Low-‐fi Prototypes Wireframes How will I know it’s done? Personas, Stakeholders Acceptance Tests What general capabiliBes will the release offer? Epics, Features 20
- 21. Focused PorVolio • • • • • Terminate sick projects LiZle’s Law Split large projects in smaller ones Cycle WIP Time = c ompleBon rate Prioritize projects by business value, at least within business unit Limit development timeframe to months Re-prioritize projects regularly Business Goals Strategy 4 Backlog 21 Development 3 2 1 Producon Sunset
- 22. Focused, Stable Teams • • • • Multiple, stable teams each focused on one thing at a time Dedicated to platforms or lines of business Platform owner prioritizes next project Result: – Support multiple lines of business simultaneously – Focused effort results in quick delivery for individual projects – Clear accountability – Stability and predictability Source: The Lean-‐Agile PMO, Sanjiv AugusBne and Roland Cuellar (Cumer ConsorBum 2006) 22
- 23. Focused Releases R1: Guided Retrospecve (MVP) Benefit: A guided retrospecBve that tracks improvement works for remote teams too. Features: -‐ Moderate retros locally or remotely -‐ Facilitates and tracks retros -‐ Plan and review acBons and their results R3: Progress Tracking Benefit: Powerful beauBful improvement visualizaBon reporBng. R2: Retrospecve Customizaon Benefit: Make and share your own retros. Features: -‐ More built-‐in retro flows visualizaBons -‐ Customizable quesBons and flow -‐ Tips for moderators Features: • Visualize Sprint RaBng, Happiness Index, AcBon Results, Customer SaBsfacBon more. • Custom metrics • Track and trend mulBdimensional improvement 23
- 24. Scaling Agile Teams Generalizing Specialist Productive, independent, selforganizing teams: • Independent, cross-functional • Grow poly-skilled individuals • Size limit of 5-7 people, ideally • To scale, create new integrated Agile teams • Coordinate among teams via an Agile PMO 24 Holistic Team Multiple Holistic Teams
- 25. Parting Thoughts
- 26. Some Final Tips • Refer to frameworks, but don’t rely on them. SAFe, DAD, LeSS… good stuff, but agile is about adaptation, not uniformity. • Don’t forget to support innovaon. Lean Startup, incremental funding, modular contracts, dynamic portfolio management, capitalization rules… • Create collaborave environments. Collocation, team rooms, collaboration tools, fun spaces... • Use tools that support scaling. VersionOne, AgileCraft, LeanKit Kanban… you will need portfolio management capabilities in time. 26
- 27. Contact Us for Further InformaBon Arlen Bankston Vice President [email protected] Sanjiv Augustine President [email protected] www.lithespeed.com I only wish I had read this book when I started my career in sonware product management, or even bemer yet, when I was given my first project to manage. In addiBon to providing an excellent handbook for managing with agile sonware development methodologies, Managing Agile Projects offers a guide to more effecBve project management in many business sesngs. John P. Barnes, former Vice President of Product Management at Emergis, Inc. 27