“Unless you radiate the purity of the Dalai Lama, don’t assume that people automatically believe you truly have selfless goals.”

-- The Story Factor, Annette Simmons

Kicking off an Agile Product, Team, and Culture

Agenda

IntroPurposeStart of the StartAgile Kickoff

(if time permits)

Agile Kickoff Examples

Darren Hoevel MBA, SPC, CSP, ICP-ACC, ICP-ATF, CSM, CSPO

Pliant Solutions Entrepreneur, Coach, Product Evangelist, Agile Junkie, Adventurer etc..

A pragmatic, non-prescriptive kaizen enabler with a passion for leveraging Agile practices to consistently deliver exceptional results, great products and “delighted customers” to evolving organizations.

Industry expertise: Technology, Education, Software, Semiconductor, Retail, Education, Start-up, Healthcare (HIX), State & Federal Government.

Agile Community: AgileDC 2013 & 2014 (AgileDC.org) Organizing Board Member, Agile 2013-14 Participant, Agile Meetup junkie, Agile Government Leadership Steering Committee

Credentials:SAFe Program ConsultantCertified Scrum ProfessionalIC Agile Facilitator and CoachCertified ScrumMaster and Product OwnerMBA, George Fox University, OR

Purpose

Problem:Business and IT struggle to understand what is expected from them as they enter new projects under the “Agile umbrella”...

Session Goals:Discuss how “setting the stage” for an Agile product, team and organization will help to level set expectations and increase the probability of business value delivery by everyone involved. 

We will leverage standard project documentation, Agile best practices and facilitation games to emulate an Agile product kick off. 

Output:Provide the group with an Agile kick off “template” that will increase team buy in and minimize hurdles along your journey to happy customers.   

A man came upon a construction site where three people were working.  He asked the first, “What are you doing?” and the man replied: “I am laying bricks.” He asked the second, “What are you doing?” and the man replied: “I am building a wall.” As he approached the third, he heard him humming a tune as he worked, and asked, “What are you doing?” The man stood, looked up at the sky, and smiled, “I am building a cathedral!”

Vision

Disclaimer: No magic fairy dust or unicorns will be provided... just a compilation of tools for you to utilize as you feel fit. 

Start of the Start Set yourself up for success

Facilitators are your friend

If you are contributing, step back, or step away

POWER Start Purpose

Outcomes & Deliverables

Wii-FM

Engage Participants

Roles & Responsibilities

Audience The right people & platform

Invest the right amount of time 1 day, 2 day, 3 weeks…

Timeframes are nice, reading your audience is KEY!

Kickoff Inputs

Stakeholder buy-in

Capital

Outputs Ecosystem “unvetted”

Inception Roadmap

Project Vision

Executive Speech Show support

Ecosystem Architecture (Framework) Inputs

Ecosystem “unvetted”

Output Ecosystem “vetted”

Project Scope/Elements

Maturity Model “unvetted”

Create the container Don’t dictate… a gentle assist T

ech

nolo

gy

Bu

sin

ess

Management Execution

Policy Management

Release Readiness

Performance Metrics

Process Management

System Feedback

Budget Management

Governance

Project Prioritization

Business Value Delivery

Product Ideation

Feature Prioritization

Product Backlog

Incremental Development

Feasibility Assessment

Feature Estimation

Agile Reporting

Agile Metrics

Risk & Impact Management

Release Planning

Agile Inception

Visual Management

Test Management

Defect Management

Automated Functional

Tests

Acceptance Test Driven

Development

Development Standards

Technical Debt

Management

Configuration Management

Technical Architecture

Continuous Integration

Engineering Best Practices

Test Driven Development

UI/UX Best Practices

Emergent Design

Design Patterns

Continuous Improvement

Agile Ecosystem

Business Management

Product Management

Project Management

Portfolio Management

Development

Quality Assurance

Agile Program Management

Legend

Remember the future Inputs

Inception Roadmap

Ecosystem “vetted”

Outputs Proposed EPICS

Ecosystem Back Mapping Matrix

Proposed EPICs

Innovation Games by Luke Hohmann

Speedboat Inputs

Proposed EPICS

Outputs Risk Mitigation Plan

Impediments

What’s in / what’s out Inputs

Ecosystem “vetted”

Project Scope/Elements

Outputs Project Scope

Validated Ecosystem

Future EPICS

“Level Set Expectation”

“As is” maturity model

Inputs Impediments

Future EPICS

Proposed EPICS

Outputs Based line Maturity Model

“To be” maturity model Inputs

Validated Ecosystem

Maturity Model “un-vetted”

Outputs Maturity Gap

Set the Project and Team VISION

Roles and goals Inputs

Project Scope

Outputs Roles

Goals

Level set expectation

Personas Inputs

Roles

Outputs Personas

Identify your customers! Give reason

Give purpose

Create passion

Story Mapping Inputs

Proposed EPICS

Maturity Gap

Goals

Personas

Outputs Stories

Portfolio Alignment Wall (PAW)…

Make it visual, Make it REAL

Prioritization Inputs

Stories

Outputs Prioritized Stories

Find out what’s important to the Team

Inform the team on what’s important to management

Forecasting Inputs

Prioritized Stories

Outputs Execution Strategy

Set expectations

Read the crowd

Viable plan?

Elevator pitch Inputs

Goals

Project Vision

Outputs Elevator Pitch

If you cannot sell it, you

cannot support it… let alone build it

Showcase Inputs

Elevator Pitch

Execution Strategy

Prioritized Stories

Outputs Success Plan

Team Ecosystem, Product Roadmap,

Buy-In

While you were sleeping… or texting

1. Kick Off

2. Ecosystem Architecture

3. Remember the Future

4. Speedboat

7. To Be Maturity Model

8. Roles and Goals

9. Personas

10. Story Mapping11. Prioritization12. Forecasting

14. Showcase

13. Elevator Pitch

5. What 2͛s In / What 2͛s Out

6. As is Maturity Model

Project Vision

Ecosystem͛8unvetted͛:

Ecosystem͛8vetted͛:

Ecosystem͛8vetted͛:

ProjectScope/Elements

Proposed EPICS

Ecosytem͛8vetted͛:

Ecosytem͛8vetted͛:

Maturity Model͛8unvetted͛:

Future EPICS

Project Scope

ValidatedEcosystem

Impediments

Maturity GAP

RolesGoals

Personas

Proposed EPICS

Goals

Stories

Prioritized Stories

Elevator Pitch

Execution Strategy

Prioritized Stories

Risk Mitigation

Plan

Ecosystem Back

Mapping Matrix

InceptionRoadmap

CISuccess Plan

Continuous Improvement͞�Inception Roadmap͞�

LegendData Collection

Analysis

Information Sharing

Another Project, Another ApproachDAY 1 Meeting Kickoff

General welcome to the team and an overview of the agenda

Team self-introductions Name

Where you are from

Work Experience, surveys, etc.

Favorite movie, book or TV show

Executive Briefing Welcome the team, discuss purpose and objectives of the project

State of the business and upcoming objectives

Product briefing, review the focus and scope of MCM

Vision of the solution Project Charter, Vision statement

In Scope / Out of Scope NOT rebuilding Legacy CM

MCM features General CM (notes)

Calendaring / Scheduling

Mapping / Routing

Dashboard (email, contacts, IM, “social”)

Why is this effort different?Set expectations

Product development driven by the FRs

FR feature driven product development

How can we do this with only 5 hours a month

Agile, so what… Demos, backlog grooming, dates,

scheduling

Pass out calendar

Product development driven through frequent releases or iterations

Team ExerciseProduct BoxThis exercise lets you leverage your customers’ collective retail consumer experiences by asking them to design a box for your product. Not just any box, but a box that represents the product that they want to buy. In the process, you’ll learn what your customers think are the most important, exciting features of a given product or service.

Planning Requirements & LunchInstruct the team on how we are going to attempt to cover all the core functionality that MCM “should” have done. Show them the Feature board and what the colors mean. Again, set expectations for what each individual and each team should be contributing. The Facilitator explains planning process and expected deliverables.

Walkthrough of:Team planning process

Planning acceptance criteriaProgram Board

Each team had the same deliverables:An objectives sheet

One sheet per sprint for storiesOne risk sheet for risks and impediments

World Café exercise 4 Categories (General CM, Calendaring/Scheduling, Mapping and Routing, Dashboard) (15 minutes per table, 1 hour total)

Validation of input (15-ish minutes)Introduce requirements for JAD session (granted these are from a different group of people) Dot Voting of Features Set Critical Path line for each Feature Dot voting of Categories Showcase the final output

 

If time permits… Once the product board is complete, start talking about dependencies

What stories “add up” to be a feature? What stories must be done in what order? Dependencies?

Another Project, Another Approach

DAY 2 Baseline Plan

Planning Adjustment based on the recreated visuals

Let the team walk around, discuss, add/subtract, etc.

GAP analysis from old JAD session (if you haven’t presented these already)

Identify and validate project risk ROAMing Risks

Confidence Vote Team and program votes

Re-plan if necessary

Team Communication Plan Scheduling Review

Utilize calendars

Demo dates for team, Demo date for stakeholders

Field Test

FR visits back to HQ

Demo Logistics

Dates/times

Video conferencing?

Validate Plan

Identify challenges / concerns

Review Prototype Walk through of current UI prototype Walk through of possible “dashboards” Group Discussion Team exercise? Add new stories to board…

Showcase what the team has come up with…

Plan, features, dates, deliverables, etc.  

Big Visual Indicators: Product Map

FR Features on cardsMilestone/Events on Cards

Product vision/objective on a large banner Calendar in months and years (14, 15) on large print outs SMART Objectives