Agile Transformation - Cultural and Behavioral Challenges
1. Agile Transformation:
Practical Insights into Behavioral
Adjustments and Cultural
Changes
SESHADRI VEERARAGHAVAN
PRINCIPAL PROJECT MANAGER – AGILE TRANSFORMATION
IHS INC., - HOUSTON, TEXAS
2. Definitions – Common Understanding
Transformation (noun) - trans·for·ma·tion
a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance.
Culture (noun) - cul·ture
the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group.
Definition versus reality: Form/appearance vs. beliefs, behaviors/attitudes,
and cultures
3. Levels in the Hierarchy
Team
Organization
City/State
Country
6. Example: Culture of India
Influence of foreign cultures
Music, drama, literature, architecture, philosophy, sciences
Curry Houses
7. Need for Agile Transformation
Competition – faster delivery cycles (TTM)
Better quality (stronger customer retention; happy customers)
Customer focus (better feedback, better software; satisfied customers)
Predictable delivery (customer faith increases; better reputation)
Higher productivity and happiness at the team level (cost savings and
employee retention)
A total culture and behavior/attitude/mindset change emphasizing ownership,
commitment, responsibility, and transparency
8. So, What Are We REALLY Transforming?
Superficial factors
Methodologies
Processes
Practices
Tools
(Real) Human factors (identity)
Behaviors
Attitudes
Cultures
Beliefs
9. Transformations Bring Up Hidden Biases
Biases (a brief list)
Technological
Process/procedure
Methodology
Groupthink
Status quo
Availability
Proximity
Anchoring
10. …and Biases Lead to Resistance
Types of resistance (not an exhaustive list)
This won’t work
This hasn’t worked
Doesn’t suit our team, personality, culture, or company
Things are fine the way they are – why change!
Too disruptive
What will happen if the team fails? Who will take responsibility?
Let someone else do this first, we’ll follow if it’ll work for them
11. Before We Go Further, Let’s Look at Motivation
Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation
Study for an exam
Play football for fun
12. Scenarios
Let’s take a walk through some of the common categories of concerns, worries,
and doubts from agile adopters
Valid/exaggerated
Emotional/purely technical
Cultural/individual
Behavioral-adjustment/requires education
Unfounded concerns (e.g. “inner workings” of a developer/QA/tech writer etc. being
exposed)
Concerns regarding task estimates and accuracy thereof
Concerns about workday hours (use vs. productivity)
Common root: resistance to and being fearful of change
14. Ownership
Issue: Narrow view of ownership
Mainly concerned with what’s directly laid on their (or their team’s) plate
E.g. This is not my problem or my team’s problem
Strategies
Emphasize transcending the job description and that a given problem is everyone’s
business to help solve
Emphasize going above and beyond the call of duty and breaking down silos and
virtual walls
Talk about how the business (and thus the individual) can succeed only when they
support each other and don’t create islands
15. Belonging
Issue: Absolving oneself, not considering oneself as part of a team
or unit
Highly self-centric; prone to blaming others; not thinking themselves
part of the team
E.g. This is a dev issue, QA issue, PO issue. The code drops are of bad
quality; testing is inadequate; PO is usually MIA.
Strategies
Educate/inspire the team to think as a unit
Empower the team to find its own solutions to their concerns
When one fails, the team fails; when one succeeds, the team succeeds
16. Status Quo
Issue: Status quo with gross inefficiencies
We were told to do this process this specific way (do-as-told, no creative or
innovative thinking)
E.g. We’ve always waited 4 hours for the build to get done.
Strategies
Challenge and encourage the team to experiment
Motivate them to aim for incremental yet meaningful improvements
Celebrate victories and recognize key talent
Guarantee “protection” from implications of failed experiments (there are
no failures, only attempts)
17. Leadership
Issue: Inability to take a leadership position
We can do well only with external support and explicit guidance
E.g. Our lead is in another location; we won’t make any decisions
without his approval even though this is a critical issue and we’re losing
money every minute that we don’t do something about it
Strategies
Provide soft-skills training (leadership and business skills)
Strongly drive home the idea that they’re the masters of their own
destiny; recognize leadership talent in the team and motivate them
Recognize any roadblocks (politics) and guide the team through
obstacles
Let them test the waters with smaller projects to gain confidence
18. Execution & Commitment
Issue: Very narrow idea of execution and commitment
This is outside the scope of our responsibility and duties
E.g. this defect is another team’s headache (although we know how to fix
it)
Strategies
Educate the team that personal and professional growth comes by
standing out, not by being average
Elaborate on how the organization grows by contributions that come from
everyone and at all levels
Think horizontal(ly) – grow networks across team structures to find pain points
and see how one can help (and how another team may have already
solved our current vexing problem) – NETWORK!
19. Responsibility
Issue: Passing the buck
This is above my pay grade
E.g. This decision is definitely my lead’s – or my manager’s (even though I
have the power to decide)
Strategies
Empower members to “pull the chain/stop the train”
Good-faith “interruptions” and “hold your horses” debates are welcome
and necessary
Demonstrate your commitment to talking about the ‘elephant(s) in the
room’
Teams learn and evolve only when they are able to question questionable
practices and take charge of the situation
20. Communication
Issue: Perceived or real problems stemming from communication issues
Information flow is restricted or exclusive to some personnel; active sharing is
discouraged
E.g. I never hear about these things. Or, I’m always the last to know
Strategies
Humans are social creatures; investigate and remove any real communication blocks
Support and drive open and honest feedback and communication
Be clear: being rude is NOT being frank or honest (there’s a difference!)
Ensure all relevant email/messages are indeed percolating to the right levels
Address bureaucratic and red-tape problems at the appropriate management levels
21. Perceived Helplessness
Issue: Perceived helplessness or being over-cautious
Can address the problem, but won’t due to not wanting to step on others’ toes
E.g. I really want to fix this problem, but am concerned what others may think
Strategies
Pull together and relate (true!) anecdotes of people crossing boundaries and being
recognized/promoted
Show them you value their ability to be altruistic
Banish the idea of fearless and possible recriminations merely for helping others
Demonstrate you stand behind the team every step of the way
22. Rocking the Boat
Issue: Avoid “rocking the boat” [or, it is OK to say no!]
We suffer from many issues but we're afraid to speak up
E.g. Don’t want to be seen as a complainer and bring it up even though our
technical practices are weak and I want to resolve this problem
Strategies
Have weekly 1:1 conversations to really dig into what’s bothering the team
Mark incremental improvements and changes as gateways to team success
Delegate responsibilities for technical issues and recognize each success story
Draw together leads and architects from varied teams to discuss common
concerns and instill a sense of support and security into the team
Drive home the point that everyone has right (and the duty/responsibility) to bring
up issues without fear or favor – and that they’ll be listened to and addressed by
everyone working together as a single unit
23. Infrastructure
Issue: Infrastructure problems and concerns
We don’t have the necessary resources (servers, facilities, phones, network
etc.)
E.g. I can’t work on that issue because the VM is always going down or the
network is choppy or the telephone keeps disconnecting
Strategies
Work with IT to resolve these issues on an urgent basis – this makes you look
like you mean business, and also voids any similar excuses in future
Be prepared to escalate as high as needed to get your team the resources
it needs – you’re the champion/cheerleader of the team – act like it!
Earn the team’s respect and gratitude by being responsive and attentive to
such disruptions and by being proactive (use charts/trends as needed for
resource consumption to forecast what’s needed)
24. Denial
Issue: No problem!
There are actually TONS of problems, from bad code to terrible quality to nonexistent review
processes
E.g. Sure, it’ll get done (but there are so many hurdles it’ll be impossible to get it done right)
Strategies
Talk to everyone 1:1 in complete confidence, to understand the reality
Reaffirm you’re there to support and help the team succeed and not to find scapegoats or punish
anyone
Bring in outside experts and internal, successful teams’ leaders/architects to demonstrate easy wins
and small changes that can go a long way
Develop roadmap to improvements; assign responsibilities – ensure complete transparency and
accountability for each assignment. Project roadmap should be CLEAR and known to ALL
Train/educate the team on solid technical practices – and WHY they’re critical to succeeding as a
team (and why without them, the team WILL fail)
25. Understand the “Why-s”
Issue: Team doesn’t understand the need to know WHY something is being done
Typically the team follows a given task blindly with no consideration of the ultimate goal
E.g. Team breaks work into tasks and executes it without knowing the implication of the
implementation or the impact of the work that’s being done
Strategies
Explain the why-s to the teams at the beginning of the project, then send occasional reminders (this
should stop at some point when the team has started getting the picture)
Encourage the team to delve into details of how this particular work will affect future deliverables,
or deliverables being done in parallel
Recognize team members that make key breakthroughs in understanding and sharing of important
knowledge
Stress upon the value of knowing WHY we do what we do; WHY is the most important question there
is
26. Lack of Transparency
Issue: Nothing’s blocking me at all
Person has no idea what they’re supposed to do, but afraid to speak up
E.g. I’ve never really worked on this technology, but if I say something I’ll look clueless
Strategies
Take the time to know each member’s understand of their role/duties and clarify
matters ASAP
Provide technical training as required; ensure talent and skills match what’s being
asked of the team
Be gentle and compassionate – being harsh will get you nowhere. Demonstrate
sincere concern and address deep-rooted worries about “speaking up,” “making
noise,” or “being disruptive” – make it amply clear that you can’t fix what you don’t
know needs fixing.
Emphasize your team are your eyes and ears – show them you rely on them to make
the proper decisions
27. Lack of Transparency, Contd.
Issue: Nothing’s blocking me at all
Well, my colleague/friend is the one blocking me, but I don’t want him getting in trouble
E.g. My module can’t be tested as I have to do full integration test with my friend’s code
here, but his code has problems. By reporting this I’ll lose a good friend!
Strategies
Establish working agreements in the team and ensure everyone understands (e.g.
everyone owns all problems; swarming is greatly encouraged; reporting problems will get
nobody in any trouble; the team is empowered to come up with solutions to each
problem described)
Accentuate the need to get things right – and to do the right thing
Stand behind the team – no ifs or buts – demonstrate your commitment to them as they
do to you
Stress the importance that a team succeeds only when each member succeeds – no
exceptions!
28. Nobody Told Me to…
Issue: Nobody told me to do X, Y, Z
Nobody said being a professional software engineer meant I had to decide a lot of things on
my own and be fully and completely responsible for ALL aspects of my code
E.g. Nobody told me I had to write unit tests; nobody told me I had to get my code integration-
tested first; nobody told me I had to verify with QA if they understood the Story
Strategies
Lay down CLEAR expectations that you have of each member (skill/maturity/experience-
specific). Communication is vital – ambiguity/vagueness WILL cause major problems later
Lay down CLEAR expectations that you have of each member (universal – e.g. all dev MUST
write unit tests; must do TDD; QA must write automation scripts etc.)
May not be always necessary, but critical when dealing with immature teams
Educate the team on the usual and customary technical practices that are expected of them;
get them training if need be; organize cross-team training sessions on good practices
29. Recommendations
Conduct workshops on cultural differences and sensitivities around dealing with other
cultures
Leadership should encourage more meaningful exchanges between teams in varied
global locations (lead by example as much as possible to foster positive behaviors)
Use Enterprise Social Media (e.g. Jive) to further encourage cross-domain and pan-
company interactions and collaboration
Leadership should understand and drive home the point that all cultures may not value
all things the same (priorities and values differ among cultures – e.g. vacation, family)
Spread news widely about any successful cross-cultural collaboration activities that
demonstrate solid, relevant results (e.g. success projects involving teams in multiple
locations)
Identify local champions and leaders and encourage them to talk to their teams on a
set basis about respecting and valuing other cultures (this way the results of any
workshops/training persist and don’t dissipate quickly)
