getting to the heart of agile
DESCRIPTION
Agile is dead! Long live Agile! There is no shortage of people who want to tell you how to do Agile or how not to do Agile; some people will tell you that Agile saved their business while others think Agile is broken and must be abandoned. I both agree and disagree with all of these things. If you can handle a few contradictions, I'll tell you about how our department at the CBC went Agile, how it helped us, and why you should absolutely not do the same (along with the one important thing you should do instead). Originally presented at Web Unleashed 2014. Notes, References, and Credits Slide 5: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/1542160137 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 7: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/chumlee/6391318065 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 8: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarah_c_murray/5119044564/ (CC BY-SA 2.0) Slide 11: http://www.agilemanifesto.org/ Slide 12, 13, 14: http://stateofagile.versionone.com/why-agile/ Slide 16: http://pragdave.me/blog/2014/03/04/time-to-kill-agile/ Slide 17: http://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-10-contradiction Slide 18: http://javasymposium.techtarget.com/html/agile.html#JKernAgile but more info at http://www.theserverside.com/news/2240033314/QA-Bogus-experts-fuel-the-backlash-against-Agile-development Slide 19: http://maxxdaymon.com/2007/02/cargo-cult-agile/ and http://www.jamesshore.com/Blog/Cargo-Cult-Agile.html with photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/flissphil/306782624 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 21: http://agilitrix.com and http://paulheidema.com Slide 22: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/bixentro/2267138822 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 23, 24: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasfisherlibrary/12308574505 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 28: Photo from http://boagworld.com/usability/user-stories/ Slide 34: Photo cropped from https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/8260274908 (CC BY-SA 2.0) Slide 35: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/14699708858 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 36: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/amylovesyah/4528869007 (CC BY 2.0)TRANSCRIPT
GETTING TO THE
HEART OF AGILE
Jamie Strachan @jamiestrachan
OUR STORY
• Slow to market
• Lack of quality
• Struggle with scope creep
• Weak stakeholder relationships
• Poor internal communication
• Siloed teams
ISSUES
We hired consultants
We got Agile training
• Scrum
• Small, cross-functional teams
• 3 Roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team Member
• 2 week sprints
• User Stories
• Maintain a Product Backlog
• Ceremonies
PRACTICES
We lived happily ever after
Let’s go further
MANIFESTO FOR
AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
“The word ‘agile’ has been subverted to the point
where it is effectively meaningless, and what passes
for an agile community seems to be largely an arena
for consultants and vendors to hawk services and
products.
So I think it is time to retire the word ‘Agile.’”
AGILE BACKLASH?
“I think it is time to retire the word ‘Agile.’”
Agile Is Dead (Long Live Agility)
Dave Thomas, March 2014
“[T]here is danger in such a wide range of
‘we are Agile because we implement L with X,
Y, Z’. We need to worry about how diluted
the meaning of agile is becoming, and focus
on real quality.”
Agile at 10 – A State of Contradiction
Mike Beedle, May 2011
“If you are dogmatically following along with
a handful of agile practices, but don’t really
‘get’ the intentions behind the agile mindset,
you may be disappointed in your results.”
Agile Schmagile: The Backlash Against Agile
Jon Kern, March 2011
CARGO CULT AGILE
“intentions behind the agile mindset”
?
CONSULTANTS
Michael Sahota http://agilitrix.com
Paul Heidema http://paulheidema.com
THE HEART OF AGILE
EXPERIMENT
LEARN
1. Observe
2. Form a hypothesis
3. Establish parameters
4. Run the experiment
5. Analyze the results
EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS
It’s not an experiment if there is:
• No scheduled reassessment
• More than one thing being tested
• No success criteria
EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS
HOW DOES
EXPERIMENTATION FIT?
User Stories: experiments on your product
Retrospectives: experiments on your process
YOUR TEAM SOLVES
YOUR PROBLEMS
Individuals and interactions
over processes and tools
ACTIVITY INSTEAD OF
SPECULATION
Working software
over comprehensive documentation
EXPERIMENTATION IS
EXPERIMENTS CANNOT
BE DONE IN ISOLATION
Customer collaboration
over contract negotiation
CONSTANT EXPERIMENTATION
INSTILLS A
CULTURE OF ADAPTATION
Responding to change
over following a plan
FEAR CHANGE
ACCEPT CHANGE
EMBRACE CHANGE
Experimenting with Waterfall
is more agile than
blindly following Scrum
Stop doing Agile
Start being agile
EXPERIMENT
ON EVERYTHING