Knowledge Era Paradigms:

Fundamental Rationale behind Agile

Agile India Conference

Bangalore, Mar 2016

Vishu Hegde vishu@pm-powerconsulting.com

Why Knowledge Era Paradigms?

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Why? What? How?

Rationale behind

Agile Values, Principles, Practices

Brief history of civilization

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Agricultural Era

• Labour intensive

• Local

• Mass production / distribution

Industrial Era

• Mechanization, Mass production

• Globalization, Manufacturing driven economy

• Product Design, innovation

Knowledge Era

• Extreme Globalization, Anytime-Anywhere (e.g. Internet)

• Knowledge driven Industries, Economies

• Thinking, Collective-wisdom

“Everything in this world is done twice – once in the Mind and then in the outside world” – Stephen Covey Challenge in knowledge era is the first part – accuracy & speed of thinking, collective thinking

Legacy of Industrial Era

Current Management, Leadership, Quality Management philosophies in Software industry (e.g. CMM, Six Sigma, PMI) are influenced by the Industrial Era experiences Improper application of mass production principles to design/creation principles

Knowledge Era products need a different approach on Quality, Management, Engineering – Human centric & Knowledge centric

Industrial Era Product/Business 20% 80%

Knowledge Era Product/Business 20% 80%

Design/Creation

Intensive

Mass-production &

Distribution Intensive

Management, Leadership, Quality Management, … CMMI, Six Sigma, PMI, …

What is the raw material for software?

It’s Knowledge/ Idea

Where does the transformation from raw material to finished product happen?

It’s in the Minds of people

Computer is only a tool to capture & facilitate the thoughts

How do we know then, how the transformation is happening?

Break the transformation into smaller steps

Bring visibility (e.g. pictures, documents, models, prototypes…)

What is the measuring equipment to verify whether transformation is happening correctly or not? (the calipers?)

Another knowledge body (e.g. peers, customers, experts…)

Collective wisdom (Peer Reviews, Brainstorming…)

Knowledge Era Product Engineering

From raw material to finished product, the object is not physical in nature. There are no Laws of Physics governing the engineering principles, like in Mechanical

or Civil engineering

The Paradigm Shift in Knowledge Era

Knowledge Era vs Industrial Era Production Systems

Characteristics Industrial Era Knowledge Era

Raw Material

Transformation

Engines

Productivity

Interaction

The equation

Input Output

Intangible in nature: knowledge, Idea… Physical in nature

Machines: Stereotype,

Repetitive

‘Touch time’ of Tools

People: Idiosyncratic, changing

‘Touch time’ of Minds

People work around the

machines

People work with people (including

Customers) – High collaboration, communication

Man-Machine-Material Capable People-Collaborating-with

Common Protocols

PARADIGM SHIFT 1

“Repeatable process to Contextual process”

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What is ‘Process’?

Think of a phrase or sentence to describe ‘Process’.

Typical responses:

Set of steps to perform to get output from input

Sequence of operations to be performed

Standard way of doing things

Repeatable tasks to be performed

Clearly documented instructions to do a job

…..

Game with Mathematics

1 1 1 = 6 2 2 2 = 6 3 3 3 = 6 4 4 4 = 6 5 5 5 = 6 6 6 6 = 6 7 7 7 = 6 8 8 8 = 6 9 9 9 = 6

Is this possible? What Operations do you perform to get this Consistent output?

Repeatable Process ??

(1 + 1 + 1)! = 6 2 + 2 + 2 = 6 3 x 3 - 3 = 6 √4 + √ 4 + √ 4 = 6 5 + 5 / 5 = 6 6 + 6 - 6 = 6 -7 / 7 + 7 = 6 √ 8 + √ 8 + √ 8 = 6 √ 9 x √ 9 - √ 9 = 6

f (x) = y

If ‘y’ needs to be consistent while ‘x’ is varying, can f() be constant?

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Repeatable Process or Consistent Outcome?

Process Input Output

In Knowledge Era scenario like Software, Input has high variability – people, technology, project contexts…

In order to maintain Output consistent, Process should change

Contextual Process

Variable Input

Consistent Outcome

‘Repeatable Process leads to Consistent Outcome’ is an Industrial Era paradigm

Because Input is fairly homogeneous

Focus should be on Contextual Process (not Repeatable Process) and Consistent Outcome

PARADIGM SHIFT 2

“Process-driven to Principles-driven”

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How to ‘Manage’ when Variability & Diversity are high?

Productivity/Efficiency?

Quality?

Consistency/Repeatability?

…

Can we define ‘Rules’ and ‘Dos & Don’ts‘ for all possible cases?

Values & Principles are the way

Agile practices driven by principles & values

‘Simple Rules, Rich Relationships’

Contextual Team-Process

Innovation thrives in diversity

Defect Prevention context

Most Defects relate to Materials & Machines

Number of Causes are relatively less

E.g. Poor Soldering

Defect Fix is mostly physical in nature

E.g. Tune Temperature, Voltage…

Once fixed the machines stay tuned

Industrial Era

Most Defects relate to Human Errors

Number of Causes are relatively large

E.g. Poor Coding

Defect Fix is mostly not physical in nature

E.g. Thinking, Communication,…

Person’s characteristics continuously change

Knowledge Era

One of the most important ways of Defect Prevention in Knowledge Era is taking

people through Experience/Learning: – Learn & Adapt cycles in Agile; Short iterations; Retrospective

PARADIGM SHIFT 3

“Touch-time of tools to Touch-time of minds ”

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Mind Switch Game

Round 1

Keep a timer for 30 seconds

On number 1, keep adding number 3 successively for 30 sec

Keep a timer for 30 seconds

On number 1, keep adding number 4 successively for 30 sec

Note down the total count of numbers

Round 2

Keep a timer for 60 seconds

On number 1, keep adding numbers 3 & 4 alternatively in two tables for 60 sec

Note down the total count of numbers

Observe count dropping by about 50% in round 2

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Most important factor for Productivity, Efficiency, Quality…

Touch-time of Mind Impacted

Clarity, Vision

Emotions

Motivation

Positive

Energy

Workplace

distractions

Mind Capacity

Interactions

with people

Who is

resp

onsi

ble

?

Onus on

Individual

Onus on

Others

Family

Social

Managers

Peers

Subordinates

Customers

Partners

Onus on

Organization

Workplace Design

Organization Design

Org Policies

Self-Managed Individual

Self-Managed Team

-Time boxing - Focus - Scrum Master: Prevent interference Remove obstacles

Some Facts about Software Projects

Studies have shown that :

Almost 80% of Software Defects are human errors – oversight, communication gap, lack of collaboration, distractions etc.

Knowledge Workers’ Productivity varies as much as 25 times based on their state of Mind

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PARADIGM SHIFT 4

“Supervised to Self-managed”

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Management/Quality is more Intrinsic in Knowledge Era

A Construction industry analogy

A prominent construction company has different supervisory ratios

One Supervisor for every 25 civil construction laborers

One supervisor for every 10 mechanical worker

One supervisor for every 5 electrician

Moral of the story: Higher the skilled labor, higher the supervision

needed !

For Software Engineering ?

So, by deduction, one supervisor for one engineer !!!

In other words, PRACTICALLY, each Software Engineer needs to be self-supervised

Self managed individuals , Self managed teams

PARADIGM SHIFT 5

“Measuring to Sensing ”

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What Moves the Iceberg?

Wind

Current

20% Visible part

80% Invisible part

What makes Projects successful?

Hard aspects

Soft aspects

20% Visible part

80% Invisible part

Effort

Schedule Cost

Defects

……….

………. Shared vision

Motivation Team engagement

Customer engagement

Communication

Collaboration

Lagging Indicators Effect

Leading Indicators Cause

Measurement Considerations

Because of idiosyncratic human beings as the transformation engines and dealing with intangibles like knowledge, idea…etc., measurement is a challenge

What we CAN measure are perhaps not very significant

E.g.: Defect Removal Efficiency, Effort/Schedule variance, … - Mostly Lagging Indicators

Those which are significant, are not so visible/measurable

People experience, Motivation, Collaboration, level of engagement of people (‘touch time’ of mind)

Sensing & Sense-making is more important than hard measurements

‘If you can't measure, you can't manage’ is an Industrial Era paradigm

Focus on Visual Management in Agile

Wind

Current

What moves the Iceberg?

Fundamentals of Software Production

In Software production we are dealing with

Human beings as the transformation engines and

Knowledge as the raw material

‘Touch time of minds’ is the key imperative for higher productivity and quality

Capable people Collaborating with Common protocol (process) are the critical success factors

Agile/Scrum practices harness these fundamentals effectively

Agile methods are a good scaffolding to build Knowledge Era Enterprises

Knowledge Era Paradigms

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Why? What? How?

If you understand ‘why’, you

can figure out ‘what’ & ‘how’ easily in all situations

Thank You

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