leading agile change - agilevancouver 2011

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Walking the Walk

Leading Agile Change


Dave Sharrock

email: [email protected]: @davesharrockskype: dave.sharrock

regulatory international B2B

MBA English IPO agile husband start-up technology

newly-minted Canadian

executive leanstartup outsourcing father

large-scale transitionsB2C data analysis kanban

seismology scrum organizational excellence


Much Ado About Agilea tale of an agile transition with three characters: the teams, the scrum masters and the coaches


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• Co-located phase to build internal capabilities

• Local phase to scale across the organization

Setting the scene


Agile Teams

Followed a common pattern

Formed cross-functional, co-located teams

Focussed on shippable product increments


Scrum Masters and Internal Coaches

Some inconsistencies

Lower impact stand-ups

Break out into smaller units

But co-located, shared calendar, shared outcomes


Coaching Transition Team

External coaches

Quickly emptied backlog

Shared product ownership slow to emerge


•Happy ever after, except:•What opportunities did

we leave on the table?•What message did we

communicate?


Leadership Teams What makes leadership teams different to other working teams


working teams vs. leadership teams

leadership as a group activity

leadership teams emerge at scale

tools constrain way of thinking


The Greiner CurvePhases of small business growth as a function of organization size (Greiner, 1972, 1998)

Discontinuity between leadership and activity requires more coordination


Growth in team-based leadership

• Recognized as emerging trend

• Companies continue to change how they work

• Learn about team dynamics, but don’t differentiate leadership team dynamics

What Makes Teams Work, Susan G. Cohen & Diane E. Bailey, Journal of Management 1997, 23 (3)

0% 17.500% 35.000% 52.500% 70.000%

68.00%

28.00%

1993

1987

Employee Participation Groups

0% 25.00% 50.00% 75.00% 100.00%

91.00%

70.00%

1993

1987

Self-managing Work Teams


Team Definitions

What Makes Teams Work: Group Effectiveness Research from the Shop Floor to the Executive Suite, Susan G. Cohen & Diane E. Bailey, Journal of Management 1997, 23 (3)

Work Teams stable, full-time, well-defined; self-managing teams involve employees in decisions

Parallel Teams parallel to formal organization, lacks authority, often only makes recommendations

Project Teams time-limited, focussed on one output, multi-tasks rather than sequential work

Leadership Teams

apply collective expertise, integrate disparate efforts, share responsibility for success


Working Teams• External product ownership• Dedicated• Cross-functional...and does

the work

Leadership Teams• Internal & shared product

ownership• Rarely dedicated• Cross-functional (represent all

skills required to deliver)• Delegates the work


Tools Define Process, and Contemporary Management Tools Doubly So

• Group-based leadership share responsibility for success

• Requires coordination required across the whole enterprise...

• But management tools reinforce localized silo behaviour


Negatively reinforcing loops

weak accountability

silo behaviours

uncontested vague commitments

local optimization of effort/results


Positively reinforcing loops

strong accountability

shared ownership of

outcomes

(small) definite commitments

focus on customer value, not local wins


Next Steps

• First, recognize when this might be an issue

• At scale

• For leadership team type

• Second, break negatively reinforcing loops

• Transparency

• Focus on whole


Agile Strategy Mapping How to create and work with the Agile Strategy Map


• Shape defines strategic relationships• Leads to independent actions• Weak control mechanisms• Lacks holistic perspective

• Broadens scope for multiple strategic relationships

• Generates teamwork and shared outcome ownership

• Allows for outcome-driven control of effort (just enough effort)

• Holistic perspective allows for responsive action

vs.

Agile Strategy Mapping guides effective action


Theory of Constraints: Intermediate Objectives (IO) Map

Goal

Critical Success Factor #1

Critical Success Factor #2

Necessary Condition 1a

Necessary Condition 1b

“In order to achieve the goal, I must have CSF #1 and CSF #2”

“I must have NC 1a and NC1b in order to achieve CSF #1”

The Logical Thinking Process: A Systems Approach to Complex Problem Solving, H. William Dettmer


At least one product line is able to deliver potentially

shippable product at the end of every Sprint

Strategic Objective(s)Description of a desired outcome with key differentiators

Possible Success FactorsBrainstorm as many possible factors that will contribute to successfully delivering the objective. Factors may include:‣ Skills or Capabilities‣ Relationships or Interactions‣ Constraints or Targets

Necessary ConditionsMinimum actions or deliverables needed to deliver just enough of a PSF. May contain nested NCs until an actionable backlog items are identified.

Starting with a shared, well-understood objective




Enterprise-wide knowledge building and

experience sharing

Teams focusing on delivery customer value

together

Empirical Process Control, Iterative &

Incremental

Well groomed Product Backlog with sufficient

look-ahead

Teams understand and practice continuous

improvement

Establish accepted Quality System for the

whole Scrum Team

Separation of Sprint activities from Release

activities

Tools that enable emerging processes, not

shape them

Common understanding of Potentially Shippable

Product

Dedicated X-functional teams, spanning

the entire product stack





Possible Success Factors

• Working from the Objective, work in your groups to define Possible Success Factors

• Objective: AgileX Community offers those interested in agile experiences and practices a place to learn about agile and meet other like-minded practitioners and enthusiast





experience sharing


together


Incremental


look-ahead


improvement


whole Scrum Team


activities


shape them


Product


the entire product stackDefined and Shared

Release Cycle

Shared & Emerging Release Plan

Stable Velocity for each team at a sustainable pace

Defined and automatically tested interfaces with depts

Feature value comes with clean code

Scrum Master can remove impediments quickly

Teams are managing their Active Learning Cycle

building a motivating working environment

Teams control their practices & changes to them

Automated Acceptance Criteria Testing

Recognise good agile/Scrum behaviours

Encourage decision making at team level vs.

escalation

Awareness on dysfunctions by measuring

metrics

Product Management can plan value incrementally

Shared Story Definition of Done through Product

Stack

Shared Release Definition of Done

Reach a sustainable paceTeam focused on Sprint goal

Realistic Commitment

Valuable and inclusive way to work with distributed

teams

Established CoP for Scrum Roles

Awareness on possible model to distribute and scale

Dedicated Scrum Master without conflicting

responsibilities

Dedicated Product Owner giving clear direction

Teams dependencies aligned with customer value

Product Owners know tools for effective PBIs

Established onsite agile corners/cafes

Clear defined priorities for different external

customer req

Release Burndown Chart shared across the Product

Stack

Product Backlog is DEEP

Ability to prioritise PBIs across all dependent RVs

Enable transparency across boundaries

Definition of Ready Shared across the whole

Product Stack





Necessary Conditions


• Brainstorm Necessary Conditions for each PSF; Make sure they are really necessary





experience sharing


together


Incremental


look-ahead


improvement


whole Scrum Team


activities


shape them


Product


the entire product stackDefined and Shared

Release Cycle

Shared & Emerging Release Plan

Stable Velocity for each team at a sustainable pace

Defined and automatically tested interfaces with depts

Feature value comes with clean code


Teams are managing their Active Learning Cycle

building a motivating working environment

Teams control their practices & changes to them

Automated Acceptance Criteria Testing


Encourage decision making at team level vs.

escalation

Awareness on dysfunctions by measuring

metrics

Product Management can plan value incrementally

Shared Story Definition of Done through Product

Stack

Shared Release Definition of Done

Reach a sustainable paceTeam Spend most of their time on PBL

development


Valuable and inclusive way to work with distributed

teams

Established CoP for Scrum Roles


Dedicated Scrum Master without conflicting

responsibilities

Dedicated Product Owner giving clear direction


Product Owners know tools for effective PBIs

Established onsite agile corners/cafes

Clear defined priorities for different external

customer req

Release Burndown Chart shared across the Product

Stack

Product Backlog is DEEP

Ability to prioritise PBIs across all dependent RVs

Enable transparency across boundaries

Definition of Ready Shared across the whole

Product Stack

Prioritize Possible Success FactorsWhich Success Factors need the most effort? Which ones are most pressing?

Defining minimum actions to deliver prioritized Success FactorsWhich Necessary Conditions or deliverables are needed to deliver on the prioritized Success Factor? Look for the minimum set of deliverables/actions, rather than delivering all known actions.

Creating the Leadership BacklogPull the minimum required actions into a Leadership Backlog, and use this to guide strategic work shared across the leadership team.


Adding colour to your Agile Strategy Map


• Brainstorm Necessary Conditions for each PSF; Make sure they are really necessary

• Pick an appropriate key (priority, effort, value...) and colour-code the Agile Strategy Map




Team Spend most of their time on PBL

development




LeadershipBacklog

Prioritize Possible Success FactorsWhich Success Factors need the most effort? Which ones are most pressing?

Defining minimum actions to deliver prioritized Success FactorsWhich Necessary Conditions or deliverables are needed to deliver on the prioritized Success Factor? Look for the minimum set of deliverables/actions, rather than delivering all known actions.

Creating the Leadership BacklogPull the minimum required actions into a Leadership Backlog, and use this to guide strategic work shared across the leadership team.

Build a backlog from the minimum actions


The leadership team can continually review and refine the strategic plan by regularly:

• re-prioritizing success factors• re-defining critical actions• updating the leadership backlog

This allows the strategic plan to be quickly updated to respond to new opportunities or threats as information is made available.



Team Spend most of their time on PBL development




LeadershipBacklog

Continually review and refine


In conclusion...


thank you

[email protected]: dave.sharrock

twitter: @davesharrockslides: slideshare.net/davesharrock

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

Henry Ford

leading agile change - agilevancouver 2011

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