Talk given at Agiles2013 (LIma Peru) in oct-10-2013

1. The quest for the
Minimum Viable Step
to Agility
A Toolkit for Cultural Hackers
v. 2013-oct-17 23:00
@agustinvillena

2. Licencing
• This work is published under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share
Alike 2.0 Creative Commons Chile. To view a copy of this license,
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/cl/
@agustinvillena

3. Agustín Villena
• Entrepreneur since 1998
• Applying Agility since 2002 in
–
–
–
–
–
Software Development
Creativity Industry
Public Sector
Civil Society
Academy
@agustinvillena

4. And my family
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5. Challenge ...
• Moving from here ....
• To here
@agustinvillena

6. Challenge ...
• Moving from here ....
• To here
@agustinvillena

7. Challenge ...
• Moving from here ....
• To here
@agustinvillena

8. Agility as a skill
"Agile teams produce a
continuous stream of value,
at a sustainable pace, while
adapting to the changing
needs of the business."
“We evaluate business
agility by how frequently can
we make decisions and how
quickly can we turn that
decision into reality"
Elisabeth Hendrickson
David J. Anderson
http://www.djaa.com/kanban-alternativepath-agility
http://testobsessed.com/blog/2010/12/14/theagile-acid-test/
@agustinvillena

9. @agustinvillena

10. Oops!
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11. Natural born
agilist
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12. Disruptive changes in the process
(Kaikaku)
Value
New Status Quo
Status quo
Political Cost Rate
Parity point
Time
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Source: @rodrigoy @djaa_dja

13. Evolutionary changes in the process
(Kaizen)
Value
New Status Quo
Early delivery of value
Status quo
Political Costs
Bounded Change
Time
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Source: @rodrigoy @djaa_dja

14. My discovery process
• Agile Clinic
– Coaching for software
team leaders in 8 weeks.
– I expect that they transfer
what they learned
their teams
• Initial Strategy
– Collaborative retrospectives
– Common Problems are
attacked using Agile
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15. Who is it aimed?
CHANGE AGENTS
•Aware of the
problem
•Empowered
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16. @agustinvillena

17. @agustinvillena

18. Babel
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19. SourceJeff Patton
http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf
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20. SourceJeff Patton
http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf
@agustinvillena

21. SourceJeff Patton
http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf
@agustinvillena

22. SourceJeff Patton
http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf
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23. Overload
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24. How do you decide commitments?
• Like that?
«Available
time"
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25. @agustinvillena

26. We try to do many things at once
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27. @agustinvillena

28. @agustinvillena

29. @agustinvillena

30. Oh, oh ...
• Filling your schedule this way will cause…
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31. Traditional Management
Push Scheduling
Work Items
Stage 1
In
Process
Ready
Stage 2
In
Process
Ready
Stage n
In
Process
Ready
Source:
Lean & Kanban 101
http://availagility.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/zurich-lean-agile-scrum-slides/
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32. How do we solve this problem?
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33. OPTIMIZING THE FLOW
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Source:
Alan Shalloway Agile2011

34. Pull
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35. Pull Scheduling
Stop Starting ... Start finishing!
•
We're doing the right task at the right time when we are able
Workitems
Stage 1
In
Process
Ready
Stage 2
In
Process
...
Stage n
In
Process
Ready
Ready
...
Source:
Lean & Kanban 101
http://availagility.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/zurich-lean-agile-scrum-slides/
@agustinvillena

36. People isolated from Purpose
Silos
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37. @agustinvillena

38. If we do not understand the
whole
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39. Modern Times
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40. The result ...
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41. Changing the perspective
Business Layer
Value
Problem
(Need)
Goal
(Purpose)
Language
Common
Base
Business language
Features
(Solutions)
What
(Product)
Technical Language
Quality
TASKS
How
(Task,
activity)
Technical Layer
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Management
Scope

42. Use workitems with
clear definition of «done»
• Minimun goals - or solutions - that deliver value or
learning
– Never «tasks» or «activities»
• E.g. "Send an email" ...
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43. Look at the baton,
not the runners
Why are you
wasting your time?
Traditional Manager
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44. Leaders 'versus' employees
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45. Those who know, know ...
And those who don´t
are the boss ...
You have to
build this
(And how % $ @
we will do it?)
...
Yes, boss
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46. Employee motivation Kit
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47. What science says?
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48. How do ants organize to find food?
• Like that?
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49. How do ants organize to find food
• Two simple rules
– Leading the way
• Outward
• Back
– Follow the road more brands
• Simple rules that induce self-organized behavior
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50. How do ants organize to find food
Applying to software development
• Two simple rules
– Document learnings
– Vote for the best solutions
and follow them
• Hint
– Use a system like Stack Overflow
• For agility in Spanish http://failfast.chileagil.cl
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51. A tale
• Someone asked a woman cleaning what her work
at NASA was about, she said:
– «To help mankind go to the moon"
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52. And what about those employees that
sabotage teamwork?
Trash accumulates at abandoned
sites
Make the work transparent to
everyone
• In isolated cubicles freeriders
thrive
• Freeriders will be discovered by
their own pals
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53. The hardest obstacle
The illusion of control
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54. How do we understand a project?
Input
Black box
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Output

55. How do we understand a project?
Quality
understood as
compliance with the process
Ej:ISO, CMMI
Input
Output
Deterministic
process
(Algorithmic)
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56. How do we understand a project?
Project Manager
«Resources»
Plan
Quality
understood as
meet the Plan
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57. How do we understand a project?
Score
Conductor
Quality
understood as
correct execution of the
score
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58. Project:
New Hymn of Agile
• Let's hire the best!
Famous Rock Group
National Orchestra
Famous Composer
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59. Consider .....
The Score
Does not exists!
This project has no
deterministic process!
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60. Waterfall model
What about now?
Fixed Understanding
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61. How have we been educated?
• We've been trained to believe that exists a unique
solution
– Ken Robinson: Changing Paradigms
Divergent Thinkig by age
100%
80%
60%
Genio en
Pensamiento
Divergente
40%
20%
0%
5
8 a 10 13 a 15
18
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62. Freedom from the
Unique Solution
Discover root
conditions
Apparent
Solution
“We've always
done it that way”
(Cargo Cult)
Real Need
Alternative
Solution 1
Divergent Thinking
Alternative
Solution n
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63. An exercise to restore creativity in teams

64. Paradigms
What explains that we still use
those failling paradigms?
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65. Ford
•
•
•
•
•
First model of constant production flow
Dramatic fall in production times
Imposes 40 hours a week
Better wages for workers
Industrial process designed - Industrial Engineering - by Frederick
Taylor (called scientific management)
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66. B Side
• “Any customer can have a car painted any color
that he wants so long as it is black”
• "Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, they
come with a brain attached?"
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67. Tips for Cultural Hackers
• How to start a movement
(Derek Sivers)
• Evangelization Strategy
«Do not believe me,
believe to them"
Our superhero
•
Archivald Harry
renegade air conditioning specialist
Brazil, The Movie
– Experiments
– Success Cases
– TED Videos
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68. What comes next?
• With your new super powers, can jump farther
– Practices from
Scrum,
XP,
Lean Startup,
LeanUX
etc.
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69. Summary
Stone
Problem
Countermeasure
Babel
Ill understood
Loooong Meetings
Visual Thinking
Overload
Stress
No time!
• to learn,
• to innovate
PULL Strategy
Focus
Silos
• "Running in circles»
• "Syndrome of the 3 Stooges'
• Cargo Cult :
"It has always been like that '
Definition of «Done "
Focus on the result, not the
players
Leaders vs
Employees
Discouragement
Unhappyness
Intelligence wasted
Autonomy, mastery, Purpose
Transparency
Ilussion of
Control
• Stumbling again with the same stone
• Epic Failures
Experiments Exploration
(eg:Marshmallow Challenge)
Others?
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70. See you!
@chileagil
failfast.chileagil.cl
@agustinvillena
October 28