1. Copyright © 2013 3P Vantage, Inc.
Individuals & Interactions:
10 Lessons from Putting
People Before Process
Gil Broza
TheHumanSideOfAgile.com
3PVantage.com
OnTheWayToAgile.com
gil@3PVantage.com

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The Olden Days (pre-1999)
Waterfall
“We keep our masterpieces
in the museum’s basement”

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A Reaction: 4 New Axioms

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An Interesting Group of People

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PMI’s Approach To Success
1. Project Integration Management
2. Project Scope Management
3. Project Time Management
4. Project Cost Management
5. Project Quality Management
6. Project Human Resource Management
7. Project Communications Management
8. Project Risk Management
9. Project Procurement Management
10. Project Stakeholders Management

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The World’s Not Quite There Yet
As of 28/4/2013:
How many software products exist to manage user
stories and Agile projects (as tracked by userstories.com)?
84
How many books on individuals and interactions?
8

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When We Value P&T Over I&I
Symptoms Consequences
How we talk about people
How people are managed
Workspace configuration
Quantifiable expectations of output
Estimation anxiety
Demo-driven development
People limit their contribution
You get what you measure
Not enough buy-in & engagement
Teams aren’t real teams
Not “getting to done”
Quality limitations

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Still, many organizations have
embraced axiom #1, truly
putting people before process.
Let’s look at their top 10 lessons:
consequences, how-to, and side effects

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People are not just “resources”

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Signs of “Resource Thinking”
 Overtime as an expectation, not an exception
 Shuffling people between projects and teams
 Multiplexing people across projects
 Creating teams to fit artificial criteria (e.g. size=7)
 Assessing contribution by busyness
 “bodies”, FTEs, titles – ignoring specific individuals’
qualities and preferences
– Where would they be most effective?
– What would drive them?
– How they would affect their team’s success?

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1. People Are Not Just “Resources”
 If they are resources, there is no team synergy
 If they are respected, they will apply themselves
What this involves:
 Changing the language
 Human-friendly design for cognitive/emotional work
 Self-organization within boundaries
 Reframing failure as feedback (from experimentation)
 Rethinking motivation
 Work-life balance (sustainable pace)

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Focus Keeps You Going

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2. Focus
How to focus?
 Cross-functional teams
 Small cycles, small plans
 Limit team’s work in progress (WIP)
 Unitasking
 Actually release working product often
Focus
finish and deliver early
sense of
accomplishment
Motivation, energy,
excitement

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Nurture the Joy of Delivering Value

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3. The Joy of Delivering Value
 Satisfied customers or delighted customers?
 Virtuous cycle: Happy team happy customers
How to get there:
 Vision & mission
 Customer-Developer, not Manager-Developer
 User/business perspective, not task perspective
 Feedback loops

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Take Small, Safe, Feedback-Rich Steps

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4. Take Small, Safe, Feedback-Rich Steps
 Safety  no fear  do the right thing
 Reduced mental load  focusing and finishing
How to do that?
 Use short cycles with actionable feedback
 Base decisions on real data, feedback, and options
 Have checkpoints for all large gambles

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A standardized environment is for standard people

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5. A Standardized Environment Is For Standard People
 Team must own space as well as process
 People want to belong, connect, and be helped
 A great physical environment helps build trust quickly

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How to do that
Line of sight, Earshot
Information Radiators
Big Visual Charts

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Collaboration Requires a Suitable
Social Environment

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6. Collaboration Requires a Suitable
Social Environment
 Reduced tolerance for anti-social behaviour
 Have at least one friend
Technical
skills
Social skills
Emotional
intelligence

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High-Performance Teams Need Investment

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The Team Life Cycle
time
performance
forming
storming
norming
performing

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7. High-Performance Teams Need Investment
The road to high performance is long
… and it’s not a stable state
Teams need teaming support:
 Leadership (dedicated or shared)
 Championing and protection
 Facilitation
 Removing practices that impede teamwork
 Coaching as a role
 Building 1-on-1 relationships and team allegiance

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Manage Less, Lead More

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“We take self-organization to the max. On good days, my
job rocks. Sometimes, my favorite thing to do is just walk
around, and you can just feel the energy; it’s
unbelievable. That’s because it’s so self-organizing;
people care deeply about the product we’re creating.”
— Eugene Kiel, vice president at Cengage Learning
Quoted in The Human Side of Agile

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8. Manage Less, Lead More
The more you control, the narrower your result
How to lead more:
 Social setting
 Clear shared goals
 Team shares responsibility
 More forgiveness, less permission
 Team solves own problems
Remember, you can’t lead “resources”…

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Lead Collaboratively

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9. Lead Collaboratively
 Collaboration minimizes the risk of being human
 Also helps discover simple solutions ( less work!)
 Makes sense when the purpose is bigger than us all
How:
 Find the right purpose
 Constantly communicate to clarify intent
 Facilitation
 Consensus
 Excitement!

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Human Conduct Trumps “Best Practices”

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10. Human Conduct Trumps “Best Practices”
 Context is everything
 Unreliable / undesirable practice? Change it
 Team choice  ownership, buy-in, commitment,
feeling of belonging
How to play this game:
 Continuous reflection and improvement
 Base changes on data
 Slack (not buffer) drives change
This is where preferring I&I to P&T is
more than a value statement; it’s realism.

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Recap
1. People are not “resources”
2. Focus keeps you going
3. Nurture the joy of delivering value
4. Always take small, safe, feedback-rich steps
5. A standardized environment is for standard people
6. Collaboration requires a suitable social environment
7. High performance teams require investment
8. Manage less, lead more
9. Lead collaboratively
10. Human conduct trumps “best practices”

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Learn more at this online conference
www.IndividualsAndInteractions.com
Next week – May 15-23