Move your organization into the fast lane - making Scrum stick
Scrum is not just for software development. Use the principles of Scrum to move your whole organization into the fast lane. It's a big culture change and hard work but immensely rewarding.
2. Mike Vincent
Over 25 years as software developer and architect
Marketing director, construction project manager and
structural engineer previously
Microsoft MVP - Visual Studio ALM
Passion for community
INETA
IASA
Professional Scrum Developer Trainer
Professional Scrum Product Owner
3. Stuck in
Agenda Traffic
Rules of The On- Who‟s
the Road Ramp Driving
Where Accelerat Moving
Are We e Into the
Going? Fast
Lane
4.
5. Collapse of Time
Acceleration of Technology
300 years of change in less than 25
Decreased lead time
• To make decisions
• To execute
• To correct errors
6. Change
How we make stuff
How we manage people
How we deal with our
customers
Financial impact
7. The Need to be Agile
Change with the times …
Or risk getting run over
8. We Are Using Scrum
…for software development
So, what about the rest of your
organization?
9. Organizational Gravity
Core business practices have to
advance …
Or, even the improvements we
have made in software
development are compromised
…
And we slide back under the
waterfall
10. We‟re Just Getting Started
So, you have your software
development using Scrum …
The journey is to make your
whole organization agile
11.
12. About Agile and Scrum
• Agile Software Development is an umbrella term for
approaches to software development that follow the
principle of „Inspect and Adapt‟ and advocate team
empowerment
• Scrum is one of several
Agile methodologies
13. The Agile Manifesto
While there is value in the items on the right, we value
the items on the left more.
Individuals & Interactions over Processes & Tools
Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation
Responding to Change over Following a Plan
Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation
14. Agile Manifesto Principles 1 of 2
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous
delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes
harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of
months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and
support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a
development team is face to- face conversation.
15. Agile Manifesto Principles 2 of 2
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The
sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace
indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing
teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then
tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
16. Scrum
(n): A framework within which people
can address complex problems, and
productively and creatively deliver
products of the highest possible value.
• Lightweight
Scrum Theory
• •Extremely simple to understand
Transparency
• •Extremely difficult to master
Inspection
• Adaption
20. Scrum Thinking, Scrum Management
Solid understanding of the concepts of Scrum
Use to run the whole business
21.
22. Scaling Scrum to the Enterprise
• One step at a time or everyone in the pool
• Yes, it scales
• Quality always
• Commitment at the CXO level
• It‟s not just about projects
• Changing old habits
• Thinking Scrum
23. Scaling Scrum
• Scale the Scrum Roles
• Create One Product Backlog
• Proactively Manage Dependencies
• Establish an Integration Team
• Scrum of Scrums
25. Self-Organizing Teams
• Many organizations have not adopted the self-
organizing, team-based aspects of Agile
• Scrum without self-organization and empowerment is
a death march, just like waterfall, but an iterative,
incremental death march without slack!
26. Focus on the Customer
• Always generating value
• Customer collaboration
• Don‟t just serve customers, delight them
27. A Starter ToDo List
Make Vision and
Purpose
pervasive
Create a
common Reduce
backlog and Shrink work corporate
prioritize loads constraints
Rolling wave
planning and
removing Try, fail fast,
budgets learn amplify
28.
29. Ditching Scientific Management
• The Principles of Scientific
Management - Frederick Taylor
• Defined man as an extension of
machines and organizations
• Took away much of man‟s
autonomy
• Converted skilled crafts into
simplified jobs
30. Be Efficient and Be Human
• Use people as people
• Treat them fairly, with respect
• Allow/encourage
• Creativity
• Autonomy
• Purpose
• Team work
• Work at a sustainable pace
34. Work context factors lead to job dissatisfaction when
inadequate
- When improved they lead to no job dissatisfaction
Motivation
Work Context
35. Hygiene - Am I treated well?
• Company policy and administration
• Supervision
• Interpersonal relations
• Working conditions
• Salary
• Status
• Security
• …
36. Dynamics of Hygiene
• Psychological basis is avoidance of pain from the
environment
• There are infinite sources of pain in the environment
• Improvements have short-term effects
• Needs are cyclical in nature
• Have an escalating zero point
• There is no final answer
37. Management of the Work Context
• Proper Management
• Identify type of hygiene
• Give hygiene for hygiene purposes
• Give hygiene for what hurts
• Keep hygiene administration simple
• Give it and shut up about it
38. Motivator factors lead to job satisfaction when present
- When absent there is no job satisfaction
Motivation
Job Context
39. Motivators – Am I used well?
• Job satisfaction factors
• Achievement
• Recognition
• Work itself
• Responsibility
• Advancement
40. Dynamics of Motivation
• Psychological basis is need for personal growth
• There are limited sources of motivator satisfaction
• Improvements have long term effects
• Motivators are additive in nature
• Motivator needs have a non-escalating zero point
• There are answers to motivator needs
41. Management of Motivators
• Is hygiene getting in the way?
• Technical competence OK?
• Are we using people‟s capabilities?
• All attitudes are proper attitudes
• Which behavior is being reinforced and how?
43. Leadership
• Growing and Maturing Self-Organizing Teams
• Servant Management
• Team Dynamics
• Coaching
• Leading Change
• Growth
• Reaching Maximum Potential
44. Leadership vs. Management
• Establishing direction • Planning and budgeting
• Aligning people • Organizing and staffing
• Motivating and inspiring • Controlling and problem
solving
Produces change, often to a Produces a degree of
dramatic degree, from current predictability and order and has
state of affairs potential to create short-term
results.
45.
46. Always a Customer Focus
• There is only one valid definition of a business
purpose: to create a customer.
Peter Drucker, “The Practice of Management”
47. Working Closely with Customers
• Have a sales philosophy that emphasizes relationship
building
• Define a unique niche and become the customer's expert on
it
• Help the customer build the customer's own business
• Translate what you offer into the customer's business results
• Value the relationship more than making your quota
• Think end-of-time friendships, not end-of-month totals
• Achieve a perfect job of delivering what you've promised
• Provide absolutely impeccable service after the sale
48. Not Just Serve Customers, Delight
Themthe entire
• Focus
organization
• Operate in client
driven iterations
• Deliver value to
clients in each
iteration
• Transparency
• Continuous
improvement
49. Make Them Raving Fans
• Decide what you want -
your vision
• Discover what the
customer wants -
customer‟s vision, will
evolve bit by bit
• Deliver plus one percent
- and keep doing it.
50. What about Financials?
• Maximizing Shareholder Value
• “the dumbest idea in the world” Jack Welch
• The real market vs. the expectations
market
• A reality we have to deal with today
• Take care of customers
• Shareholders will be drawn along for a very
nice ride.
• The opposite is simply not true
51.
52. Change Your Organization Culture
A Scrum approach
Culture eats strategy Focus on principles over
for breakfast mechanics
53. Three Levels of Culture
• Observable
• Visible, feelable behavior, structures and
processes
• Espoused Beliefs and Values
• Ideals, goals, values, aspirations
• Ideologies
• Rationalizations
• Basic Underlying Assumptions
• Unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs and
values
54. Scrum‟s Impact on Current Culture
• Empirical management replaces predictive management.
• The art of the possible replaces the mandate of the desired.
• The desire to be certain is replaced by controlled risk.
• Transparency is value neutral.
• Waste, impediments, and dysfunctions are highlighted along with progress.
• Transparency disables politics.
• Authority moves down the organization.
• Scrum Teams are self-organizing and self-managing.
• Accountability is specific
• More attention and hard choices are required.
• What if the project isn‟t delivering what is needed for an acceptable cost?
55. Organization Culture and Leadership
• Leadership is at a crossroads
• Leaders driving agility
• Leaders being more adaptive to align with agility
• Adapting traditional HR systems like
hiring, staffing, reporting, measuring
performance, reviews, etc.
• Agile Leaders have to balance:
• team self-organization with influence
• facilitation with direction
• coaching with team learning
• failing with delivering
• engagement with decision-making
56. Executive Scrum
• Organizational change must be led
• Scrum Provides Key Core Values
• Our Behaviors Shape and Influence Culture
• Fundamental cultural change is really hard
• Enterprise Transition team (ETT)
• Led by top person and his/her senior managers.
• ETT uses Scrum and consists of a Product
Owner, Scrum Master, and team.
• Changes made by Scrum Rollout teams
57. Getting the Whole Organization on
Board
• Don‟t just strategize for change – do it now
• Pick the right team
• Do as I do, not as I say
• Engage, don‟t mandate
• Break habits and make change visible
• Management as mentors
• Recognize that change is lumpy
• Don‟t stop
58.
59. Scrum‟s Contribution to Agility
• Know where you are • Self-organizing • Clear accountability
• Transparent • Cross-functional • Servant leadership
increments • Highly productive • Transparent
• Control risk • Creative
• Frequent releases
60. Influencing How Our Customers
Interact with Us
• Delivering continuous value each iteration
• Inspecting and adapting each iteration
• Always delighting with the extra 1%
61. Changing, Inspecting, Adapting…
Always Improving
• How we plan
• Strategically
• Financially
• How we value and deal with our customers
• How we measure
• Always focus on what‟s most important
• Our customer
62. Changing, Inspecting, Adapting…
Always Improving
• How we execute
• How we react in crisis mode
• How we manage and treat our people
• How we compensate
• How we run the business
• How we sustain our values and culture
63. In it for the Long-Run
• Our world is continuing to change at a faster rate
• There will always be opportunities for improvement
• Take advantage of them
• Embrace Scrum for your
whole organization
• Move into the fast lane.
It‟s hard work but
immensely rewarding
64.
65. Resources for more information
• One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?, Fredrick Herzberg
Harvard Business Review, January-February 1968.
• The Managerial Choice – To be efficient and to be human Fredrick
Herzberg, Dow Jones-Irwin 1976
• Work and the Nature of Man Fredrick Herzberg, New American
Library, Mentor, 1973
• The Enterprise and Scrum Ken Schwaber, Microsoft Press, 2007
• Organizational Culture and Leadership Edgar H. Schein, John Wiley &
Sons, 2010
• The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management Stephen Denning , John Wiley &
Sons, 2010
• Developmental sequence in small groups, Bruce W. Tuckman Psychological
Bulletin, Volume 63, Number 6 1965
66. Resources for more information
• Great by Choice Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen, HarperCollins 2011
• The Enterprise and Scrum Ken Schwaber, Microsoft Press, 2007
• Software in 30 Days Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, John Wiley &
Sons, 2012
• Drive Daniel H. Pink, Riverhead Books, 2009
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni, Jossey-Bass, 2002
• Our Iceberg is Melting John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber, 1st St. Martin‟s
Press, 2005
• Succeeding with Agile Mike Cohn, Addison Wesley, 2010
• http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/articles/11-toward-a-catalog-of-scrum-
smells, Mike Cohn
• http://agilepainrelief.com/notesfromatooluser/2008/06/agilescrum-
smells.html, Mark Levison
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd997578(v=VS.100).aspx, Jeff
Acceleration of Technology300 years – Western Civilization, medieval to the Renaissance (Age of Enlightenment)25 years today has as much or more changePersonal computers, the Internet, cell phones, mobile information, …Yet to us, we miss recognizing the cultural landmarksWe must continually relearn our worldAnd, our value systemsWe have decreased lead time to make decisions, execute and correct errors
ChangeA given in the worldWe have learned to cope with itBut we resist it
Deal with change, embrace it rather than fight it, take advantage of opportunities, save some time and money, make our customers happy.Mechanical progress, electronic progress, software progressCustomer progress? Management progress? People progress?
The problem – If the whole organization doesn’t move to agile/Scrum, organizational gravity will pull everything back to where you started. You need to make Scrum stick.Over time the development teams modify Scrum and introduce Scrum-buts to adapt to “the way we do it around here” and processes are pulled back to what they were before (rather than continuing to push for doing Scrum right). We call this organizational gravity. Scrum isn’t sticking. What can we do about it?
While Scrum is well beyond being “just another fad” we have a long ways to go to make our whole organizations truly agile. We need Insight, VisionThe status quo is unacceptable. We see Agility as necessary to survive;To provide significant long term benefits, competitive advantage.
“Agile” approaches emerged concurrently from a number of leading thinkers who were successfully delivering software with “Lighter” methods in the 1990sOut of a meeting at Snowbird in 2001 to find commonality between their approaches came the Agile ManifestoAgile methods include DSDM, Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, and FDD
Scrum is founded on empirical process control theoryScrum is a frameworkScrum TeamsAssociated roles, artifacts and rulesScrum TheoryTransparencyInspectionAdaptionScrum Teams deliver products iteratively and incrementally, maximizing opportunities for feedback. Incremental deliveries of “Done” product ensure a potentially useful version of working product is always available. The Scrum Guide is short – only 17 pages
Highly productive, creative teams.Self—organizing people working closely together with knowledge of all aspects of product. Just-in-time planning every day.Stay focused, remove impediments, producing high quality working functionality
Short development cycles call SprintsJust-in-time planning provides ability to turn on a dime as frequently as weekly.Done, usable piece of functionality every SprintRelease and use work at least as often as every SprintAll of these are formal inspect and adapt events
Inventory as liabilityAnalysis, design of only most valuable requirements, low value work is not done.Requirements are a prioritized list (product backlog) from which work is selected for every Sprint. Only the top several Sprints of work are detailed.IncrementUnderstand exact progress and risk in release.Transparent increments that are accumulated and compared to needs.
Verbally run through the important concepts of Scrum:Focus on getting most important things doneRemoving impediments obstructing progressKey roles - Highly productive, self-organizing, creative teams.Time boxes – Short iterations (sprints), just in time planning, Done increments of functionalityTransparency -
Not just more and bigger software projects, the whole company!
Scale the Scrum RolesScrum is dramatically different from waterfall in that roles such as Scrum Master and Product Owner play crucial roles that cannot be substituted with extensive documentation. Therefore, when scaling Scrum, make sure you also scale the roles of Scrum Master and Product Owner. One way to ensure you have the proper representation of a Product Owner for multiple teams in several locations is to designate “Product Owner Proxies”. A proxy would have the same day-to-day responsibilities of a traditional Product Owner and help the team answer questions that come up during the sprint, but would be less involved in strategic work.Create One Product BacklogInstead of having multiple backlogs across many teams, consolidate all work on a given project into the same product backlog. This ensures that there is a common vision and understanding of the work remaining within the given project without having to manage multiple, disparate product backlogs.Proactively Manage DependenciesIn large-scale implementations of Scrum, it is even more important to focus on identifying dependencies between and across team ahead of time. One way to help achieve this is to always plan 1-2 sprints in advance – in addition to the current sprint planning session. Obviously, your level of visivility will be less clear for these forward-looking sprints, but they do provide a good idea of the work that is coming up. By ensuring all teams adhere to this practice, a better vision of upcoming work can be communicated across the respective project teams.Establish an Integration TeamAn integration team consists of key technical members from each respective team within the project. By having members of the integration team meet on a regular basis, a common understanding of the current – as well as upcoming work – may be affecting other projects can be identified. The integration team needs to meet on a regular basis, but meeting more than every 1-2 weeks should be sufficient.Scrum of ScrumsThe Scrum of Scrums is an affective way to communicate findings between the different project teams. This team, although technically a scrum team, does not meet every day and their meetings should not be limited to 15 minutes. The key here is that during these Scrum of Scrum meetings, each team member reports to other members on any developments within their respective project that could affect other projects. In other words, this is not a status meeting – but rather a session focusing on items that may affect other projects.
Also recognize that Scrum isn’t the answer for all things
Many organizations have not adopted the self-organizing, team-based aspects of Agile. They still are predictive, top-down organizations. Scrum without self-organization and empowerment is a death march, just like waterfall, but an iterative, incremental death march without slack.Using people as people, allowing/encouraging creativity, team workWorking at a sustainable pace
It’s not just what you do internally within your organization or group, it about building a close working relationship with your customer
Make Vision and Purpose pervasiveAsking yourself why are we doing this, what has happened to bring us to this point and what result do we expect to see?. Also do we understand the purpose of the company through the eyes of the customer and how the work we do contributes to that.Understand demandWhat is being asked of us, how capable are we of doing it and how do we know when we have delivered on that?Define valueAs a company how do we determine, measure and validate value?Visualise everythingHow can we make everything transparent and visual so decisions can be made quickly? What decisions need to be made and what measures need to be in place to help us improve on delivering our purpose? (Note: I didn’t use the word targets)Create a common backlog and prioritiseFocusing the company on the same outcomes and have an agreed method of prioritisation that helps everyone understand how to best use their time and resources. Make prioritisation simple, fluid and transparent.Shrink work loadsBuild flexibility in by having smaller chunks of work so you can stop or change more easily and make it safer to fail, if we are wrong lets not be wrong for long and at minimal cost.Team AgilityProvide the right environment for teams to thrive. Don’t be too prescriptive on a team’s composition or their way of working let things evolves. Focus on appropriate technical practices to improve quality and constant delivery of value to customers. Take into account appropriate forward planning on architecture building blocks without constraining a team’s ability to delivery often and innovate.Reduce corporate constraints Organisational structures, KPI’s, processes, contracts and policies can constrain the team’s ability to deliver value. Provide a minimalist approach to movement of people, work assignments, vendor engagement and polices to maximise the flow of value.Change leadership styleUnderstanding the new role of a leader can be a difficult transition to make but also rewarding. Some conscious effort must go in to helping leaders understand the value they add but also how to avoid getting in the way or constraining the flow of value.Rolling wave planning and removing budgets.One leads to the other, its the ‘annual budgets done monthly’ concept. How do we get rid of annual budget cycles that consume 5 months of the year of senior managers and support-staff. Making work smaller and making everything visible makes it easier to make smaller, faster decisions and realign to priorities as they emerge. This constantly emergent planning makes it obvious what is required going into future fiscal periods. From this we can build up the trust of the financial and governance teams to remove the focus of annual ‘on budget’ metrics and instead work with teams to maximise the value we produce for the money we spend.Try, fail fast, learn amplifyDeveloping a learning culture where we can try many things and innovate on how best to meet the demands of customers.
Using people as people, allowing/encouraging creativity, team workWorking at a sustainable pace
Continuing on leadershipFacilitate professional and personal growth
Parallel discussion to HBR articleMotivating with KITANegative Physical KITANegative Psychological KITAPositive KITAKITA is not MotivationHerzberg’s research found that the factors involved in producing job satisfaction (and motivation) are separate and distinct from the factors that lead to job dissatisfaction.
Since separate factors need to be considered, it follows that these two feelings are not opposites of each other.The dual nature of humansAvoidance of painSeeking psychological growth
Improper AdministrationKITACompensatory hygieneSubstitution hygieneProtestant ethic hygieneIdeological hygieneBe decent, don’t use as a KITAAddress the problem, don’t substitute as will just create a new source of dissatisfactionAgain, keep it simple to minimize more sources of dissatisfactionDon’t outdo yourself about how decent you are. It can easily backfire.Hygiene (work context) management is preventative management.
Short discussion of each in motivator contextFirst two – shorter term, preparatory motivatorsLast three – longer term, motivation generators
Managing the MotivatorsIs hygiene getting in the way?Technical competence OK?Are we using people’s capabilities?All attitudes are proper attitudesWhich behavior is being reinforced and how?Dynamics of Motivators – Job ContentRelated to approach behaviorsDeal with job contentFinite sources from which to obtain motivator satisfactionMotivators produce “more than” feelingsMotivator effects are long-termThey are additiveMotivators have a non-escalating zero pointThere are answers to motivator needs
Relate this back to Scrum, importance of frequent inspect and adapt cycles. Be ready for change; change direction when the vision changes. One percent allows you to alter the course. You’re not driving one-way, blindly pursuing a big goal only to find when you arrive that the customer moved the goal posts some time ago.Deliver consistently on what you promise. Systems are important, the basic play book from which we gain consistency in how we operate. But they are only the foundation upon which we self-organize and alter the play as necessary to better serve the customer. Rules create robots, not systems. Systems are predetermined ways to achieve a result, but the emphasis has to be on achieving the result. With a rule the emphasis is on the procedure. Flexibility deals with the what is delivered, consistency deals wth the how it is delivered.Listen to the music as well as the lyrics; and listen to the silence.The one-percent rule is also very important for culture change - get people’s full support, no one feeling threatened by what will eventually become a massive shift.
On the observable level, we call that "observable artifacts." That would be things like the way the office is decorated, the dress, the awards, the stories that are used. And so managers on one level of sort of getting an idea of what the culture is, you look at the observable artifacts.These are the values that the organization says that they care about. Most organizations have a set of values, and what's important in these values is that you want employees to behave according to them and you want management to behave according to them. So when management does not behave according to those espoused values, employees then get cynical and they won't endorse change efforts because they don't believe management is walking the talk.These are the basic assumptions that employees come to learn by working in an organization and that influence their behavior. For example, at a company like Southwest Airlines, I'm certain that one of their basic underlying assumptions is that employees matter more than making profit. And the management behaves in that way. And when employees come to believe in those basic underlying assumptions, it forms the culture.