The document discusses some of the challenges with adopting Agile practices in organizations. It suggests that while the concepts of Agile may have been adopted, many organizations are not fully implementing the practices and cultural changes needed. True adoption requires personal and cultural changes, including shifting to a growth mindset, reducing power distances, and adapting masculinity values. Fully adopting Agile across large organizations and programs will require changes to practices like project portfolio management, team creation, and how management and leadership functions.

1. Where is Agile Going?
Johanna Rothman
New: Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
@johannarothman
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2. What is Your Biggest Challenge With
Agile in Your Organization Right Now?
2 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

3. Where Do You Think Agile Is?
3 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

4. Let Me Ask You For Some Data
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5. Adoption: Breadth Not Depth
People say the words, and don’t do the work
--source: http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/
feature/Agile-methodology-adoption-in-decline
5 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

6. Intent Has Crossed the Chasm
Iteration! Refactor!
Retrospective!
TDD! Story!
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7. Has Agile Crossed the Chasm?
Where are you going?
How well are you delivering product to your customers?
How well is your organization treating you?
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8. Tests Can Bring Malicious Compliance
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9. Dig a Little Deeper
6,7,8-week iterations
Demo? We don’t need no stinkin’ demos
Handoff to QA
TDD doesn’t work here
Continuous integration doesn’t work here
<...> doesn’t work here
9 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

10. The Technical Challenges
Agile in the large
Product owners: Overloaded operators?
Project portfolio management
Team creation
Management == leadership
A true agile culture
10 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

11. Agile Means
Personal and Cultural Change
11 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

12. Agile Encourages Personal Change
If you build in “inspect and adapt” into your work, you
build in the growth mindset
12 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

13. Agile Requires Cultural Change
Each organization has its own culture
Managers and technical leads imprint their cultural
beliefs on top of the organizational culture
People imprint their personal beliefs on top of that
13 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

14. Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset
Fixed mindset => talent is all you need
Growth mindset => start with reasonable people, and
that people can learn
This changes how you hire, how you create teams, how
you manage “resources”
Growth mindset managers and leads no longer need
experts; they believe in generalizing specialists
14 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

15. Power Distance
Large power distance: people expect to be told what to
do
Small power distance: People expect to take on their own
work
What happens if you have middle managers who believe in
large power distance with agile teams?
15 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

16. Uncertainty Avoidance
Strong uncertainty avoidance: strong need for rules and
regulations. Proceed with change carefully
Weak uncertainty avoidance: strong belief in common
sense. Tolerance for ambiguity and chaos
What happens if you have managers with strong
uncertainty avoidance?
16 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

17. “Masculinity”
Masculinity: Personal recognition
Femininity: Work with a cooperative team
How do you do bonuses? How do you do recognition in a
masculine environment? Who games the system? When
do you attack the system?
17 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

18. What Are the Implications?
Difficult transitions for management and across the
organization
Differing mindset beliefs
Differing power distance cultures
Differing uncertainty avoidance beliefs
Differing masculinity values
18 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

19. What Would Post-Agile Look Like?
Agile in the large
Real product ownership
Project portfolio management
Team creation
Management == leadership
A true agile culture
19 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

20. Agile in the Large
Program management
Geographically distributed agile
“Such investment will break our economic model”
“Pay me now or pay me later”
Agile architecture
20 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

21. Project Portfolio Management
“Resource managers” might be the worst thing that has
happened in management
Optimization at the person level instead of optimization
at the organization level
Work has to flow through teams Commit,
Kill, Transform?
Eliminate multitasking
21 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

22. Team Creation
People have to learn to how to become a self-organized
team
22 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

23. Management == Leadership
Management create the environment in which teams flourish
Communities of Practice
Managers can coach, provide meta feedback
Project management
Lead the hiring effort
Iterative strategic planning
Project portfolio management
23 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

24. Crossing the Chasm is a Cultural
Change Issue
24 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

25. Where Are You Going?
25 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

26. What is Your Biggest Challenge With
Agile in Your Organization Right Now?
26 © 2011 Johanna Rothman

27. References and More Reading
Dweck, Carol. Mindset:The New Psychology of Success. Random House, 2006.
Hofstede, Geert, Gert Jan Hofstede, Michael Minkov, Cultures and
Organizations : Software for the Mind, Third Edition, McGraw Hill, 2010.
Look for my upcoming program management book, tentatively titled Agile
& Lean Program Management: Collaborating Across the Organization
Tons more on jrothman.com
If you’d like me to stay in touch with you, please sign up for my email
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I’ll be putting these slides up on slideshare
27 © 2011 Johanna Rothman