self organizing agile teams
TRANSCRIPT
self organizing agile teams
roles, practices, factors
Nikos Batsios, Agile Coach/ScM @ IXG, PDU Mobile Core Ericsson’s HTE Learnathon, 4th & 5th February 2015
based on
• a grounded theory on “self organized agile teams” Dr. Rashina Hoda
• a single confirmatory case study on a new agile team, through participant observation for one year and individual interviews - personal study
how agile teams organize themselves in practice?
after the workshop it is expected that you will better understand the various roles, practices and factors affecting self-organization and you might get a few insights how you could enable
self-organization
–Jurgen Appelo M3.0
“self-organization cannot be a best practice. it is the default practice of any system, including teams.
but what happens, also happening in the right
direction? ”
–Jurgen Appelo M3.0
“command and control is a special case, our attempt to steer self-organizing systems towards a direction that stakeholder considered to be valuable”
let’s self-organize
principles of self organization
• minimum critical specification
• requisite variety
• redundancy of functions
• learning to learn
conditions for self organizing capability
• autonomy
• cross fertilization
• self-transcendence
informal, transient, implicit, spontaneous self-organizing roles on agile teams
imagine that a new agile team is formed in your organization!
which spontaneous and informal roles (other than those described by a specific framework) do you think that this
agile team should handle that will help them to self-organize? which responsibilities should take care?
your view as team member, agile coach, manager matters. (5’)
<mentor>
• provide initial guidance and support
• getting team confident
• encouraging continued adherence
• encouraging self-organizing practices
<co-ordinator>
• coordinating customer & stakeholders collaboration
• coordinating change requests
• managing customer & stakeholders expectations
• encouraging self-organizing practices
<translator>
• overcoming the barrier language
• using translator tools
<champion>
• securing senior management support
• propagating more teams
<promoter>
• understanding customer and stakeholders concerns
• securing customer involvement
<terminator>
• identifying threatening team members
• removing members from the team
tips• consider Richard Hackman’s 60-30-10 principle
• 60% of team effectiveness is related to team design
• 30% of team effectiveness is related to team launch
• 10% of team effectiveness is related to continuous coaching
“balancing acts” practices that enable self-organization
what challenges this newly agile team might face in their journey to self-organziation? what practices could enable
self-organization? (5’)
balancing freedom and responsibility
• collective decision making (collective estimation and planning, collective deciding team norms and principles, self-commitment and shared responsibility on team goals)
• self-assignment (boards, ownership)
• self-monitoring (daily meetings, information radiators)
• clear roles responsibilities, boundaries, purpose
balancing cross-functionality and specialization
• need for specialization (multiple perspectives)
• encouraging cross-functionality (group programming, seek opportunities to work outside of their area of expertise, shared responsibility, rotation)
balancing continuous learning and iteration pressure
• self evaluation (retrospectives, reviews)
• self-improvement (pair in need, learning spikes)
tips• work on the agile mindset (goal is to learn, learn from
failures)
• a team assessment could help to identify team’s strengths and weaknesses
• a team launch to define purpose, norms, agreements and values will help team to set their direction
• using OKRs could help to define their measurable goals in alignment with the organization goals
factors influencing self-organization
which do you think are the factors in the environment a team is operating that can influence the success
of a self-organized agile team? (5’)
mangement support• organizational “collaboration”culture that embrace feedback,
transparency, openness, trust, synergy, partnership, interaction. such values are deemed important to achieve and sustain responsible autonomy
• negotiating contracts
• financial sponsorship
• team stability, hiring-removing members based on their fit into an “agile” culture
• understand the benefits of being agile for business drivers and trigger required changes
customer & stakeholders collaboration
• gathering and clarifying and prioritizing requirements
• securing feedback
• changing mindset
• demos and e-collaboration
tips
• understand your culture and “tweak” it to make it work in an agile environment
• train management, customer, stakeholders on agile methods and the benefits of being agile
• pilot ensuring their support and involvement
inspiration• Hoda, R., Noble, J., Marshall, S. Self-Organizing Roles on Agile Software Development
Teams. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), Vol. 39, Issue 3, Pages 422-444, 2013 (pdf)
• Hoda, R., Noble, J., Marshall, S. Supporting Self-organizing Agile Teams What’s Senior Management Got to Do with It?. In A. Silitti, O. Hazzan, E. Bache, & X. Albaladejo (Eds.), Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming (Vol. 77, pp. 73-87). SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN, 2011
• Hoda, R. Self-Organizing Agile Teams: A Grounded Theory. PhD Thesis ,Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2011 [PDF]
• Agile Undercover: When Customer Don’t Collaborate. Agile Professionals Network (APN), Auckland, August 2013 [Slides]
• High Performance Team Coaching, Peters & Carr (book)
• Objectives and Key Results (refer to Learnathon folder)
thank you