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Agile Transformation

Agile is Not New

1990s

• New Development Methods

• Scrum / XP

2000s

• Agile Manifesto

• Gaining traction

2010

• Agile goes “Mainstream”

• Demonstrable benefits

2015

• >50% Adoption

2018

• Broader Adoption

• Enterprise Agility

• The Agile Budget

• Marketing Agility

• HR Agility

Why Agile?

What Agile REALLY is ...

A focus on delivering value for

customers, working in small teams

in short cycles, and networked

organizational arrangements

rather than top-down bureaucracy

and silos

Agile People Framework

Symbol: Rflor from Noun Project

The “Team”

“The Team”

Product Owner

Agile Coach

Scrum Master

IT Job Titles – the Dilemma

The “good ole days” ...

Cobol Programmer

Java Programmer

Analyst Programmer

System Designer

Technical Tester

System Tester

IT Job Titles – the Dilemma

Functions• Code• Scripts• Configure• Design• Optimise• Integrate• Test

Environment Stack• User Interface• Component• System• Specialist App• Server

Application Complexity• Simple• Complex• Specialist

Technology Stack• Front End

• Single

• Multiple

• Back End• Single

• Multiple

Technologies (e.g. languages)• Python• Ruby• PHP• Node.js• Java• .Net (C#)• Golang• Rust

Methodology• Waterfall• Agile

IT Job Titles – The Real Story

Level Experience

Beginner 0 – 2 Years

Practitioner 2 – 4 Years

Professional 4 – 6 Years

Advanced Professional 6 – 8 Years

Lead 8+ Years

Job Title Proliferation

Variations Levels Titles Levels Titles

30 5 46376 3 496

20 5 10626 3 231

15 5 3876 3 136

10 5 1001 3 66

5 5 126 3 21

{Software} Engineer LevelsLevel Description

Beginner • Writes some production-ready code and some code that isn’t quite ready• Learning the technical stack as well as development practices• Applying learned skills to work• Becoming comfortable with communicating project statuses, making

estimates, breaking tasks into smaller chunks, and owning small tasks or projects

Practitioner • Often writes production-ready code• Code reviews are sometimes perfect, but sometimes require a bit of

explaining and effort from reviewers• Becoming proficient with the technical stack as well as development practices• Has started getting into the mindset of continuously deploying

Professional • Writes production-ready code every day• Beginning to master parts of the technical stack while also teaching others• Seeks out and follows best practices and spreads the development culture• Deploys and iterates quickly without supervision• Communicates well and debates product priorities with a good

understanding of the company values• Able to accurately and dependably estimate own projects

{Software} Engineer Levels

Level Description

Advanced Professional

• Dominates the skills and stack necessary to build product• Teaches others on a daily basis either by direct instruction, blogging,

speaking, or setting a strong cultural example• Learns new technologies and techniques for their own sake• Deploys significant product improvements to users consistently and within a

schedule that can be depended on by the rest of the team

Lead • Expert in the skills and stack necessary to build product• Leader and contributor in the technical stack’s community• Teaches and actively works in complex technical areas• Highly productive with impressive broad and in-depth knowledge• Able to jump into any new area and quickly turn it into a maintainable and

working product, while tackling any problems along the way

{Software} Engineer -Competencies

Technical

Communication

Organisation and Planning

Execution

Emotional Maturity

{Software} Engineer -Professional

Technical• Writes trustworthy code

• In-depth understanding of large sections of codebase

• Ability to respond rapidly and “deep-dive” into code

• Proficient in all relevant technical skills, and starting to build mastery

• Trusted to come up with solid technical solutions to ambiguous or open-ended problems

• Often teaches others in their areas of strongest skill

{Software} Engineer -Professional Communication

• Able to describe the current status and impact of large, multi-person projects or initiatives

• Proactively reaches out to stakeholders and teammates with project updates to keep informed

• Knows when their work affects others and proactively communicates the impact of status updates with those who most need to know

• Communicates bad news quickly and clearly, exposing problems honestly and widely; doesn’t cover anything up

• Developing ability to communicate complicated concepts simply and successfully with a non-technical audience

• Comfortable writing and sending out non-trivial project documents for feedback

{Software} Engineer -Professional

Organisation and Planning• Consistently and accurately estimates the

time a given task will take.

• Sets realistic deadlines that drive urgency, and meets deadlines through wise planning, not excessive overtime

• Uses estimates to set deadlines to hold themselves accountable

• Uses deadlines to cut lowest priority bits of work

• Rarely misses a deadline or allows projects to slip

{Software} Engineer -Professional Execution

• Trusted to prioritise the most important work for the company/team

• Has mastered aggressively cutting scope when necessary to deliver core goals while honouring “deployment beats perfection”

• Executes projects pragmatically• Is trusted to own execution of large multi-person

projects or well-defined initiatives• Coaches and helps others on the team to know

what’s highest priority and avoid feature creep• When working on a series of related projects or

an initiative, is constantly aware of the bigger picture and what they’re going to be delivering in the next few projects

{Software} Engineer -Professional Emotional Maturity

• Sets expectations appropriately

• Follows through on undertakings

• Gives feedback, but knows how much is sufficient

• Honours teammates’ responsibility to make a final call on their own work

• Demonstrates self-awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses

• Is proactive about their own future, from upcoming projects to career goals

• Embraces big challenges as a path to growth, and treats them as opportunities

• Motivates others and spreads a positive attitude

IT Job Titles - Summary

We need a new and different way of describing Roles - not Jobs

We need to be able to define the different levels of the role:• Employee Growth and Development

• Remuneration

• Agile team deployment

• Career trajectories, etc

We need to define the Expectations for each Role and Level

This is likely to be different for each organisation

Performance Management

72% Organisations “somewhat” or “not” effective

50% Employees know what is expected of them (Gallup)

20% Employees are motivated to do outstanding work

95% of employees do not fully understand the company’s goals or what’s expected of them

0% Correlation with Organisational Performance

Agile Performance Management

“Performance Management isn’t dead. The old way of thinking about it is.”

Anita Bowness

Drivers of Agile Performance Management

Making your company more adaptable

Increasing alignment

Creating a customer-focused culture

Supporting your Digital/Agile Transformation

Creating ambitious goals

Support the adoption of Continuous Performance Management

Reducing the time spent in planning and goal setting

Agile Performance Management

Set / Revise Goals

Plan for Development

Linked to goals

Follow up(feedback and

reward)

What did I learn?Behaviours?

ExecuteLink daily activities to goals

User StoriesSprint Goal

Product backlogSprint planning

Daily stand-upContinuous

PrioritisationRemove impediments

RetrospectiveFeedbackLearnings

Celebrate success

Source: Pia-Maria Thoren

Can be 1 week to 1 quarter

Based on Vision,

Mission, Strategy

Annual Cycle

Q1

Q2Q3

Q4

Agile Performance Management

Agile TraditionalFrequent Feedback, Coaching Annual / Biannual Feedback

Flexible Goals Rigid Goals

Collaboration Dictation

Focus on Growth Focus on Delivery

Supportive Leadership Command and Control Leadership

Deming’s 95 / 5

5% People

95% System

Things Go Wrong

Managing the System has Greater Impact

than Managing the People

Agile PM Models

The DIRC model

OKRs

DELIVERY : Any role in any organisation can be measured on the basis of time (deadlines), quality and cost (within budget or general productivity)

INNOVATION & GROWTH : In an agile world, all employees need to help the business grow & improve and they need to be committed to their own growth with regard to technical and soft skills

RELATIONSHIPS : Working effectively with others, communicating well and being dedicated, reliable and trustworthy

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP : Actively living the core values of the company and displaying the desired behaviours

The DIRC Model

The DIRC Model

The employee always completes all allocated tasks, responsibilities

The employee always delivers work of a high quality that doesn’t require more than 1

correction or re-work sessionThe employee always delivers within the

parameters of set budget and doesn’t cost the company money in unnecessary re-work

The employee actively helps the company to grow through marketing, PR, referrals and RFPs

The employee actively helps the company to improve internally (processes, technology,

efficiency & effectiveness)The employee invests time in their personal and professional growth in terms of both technical

skills and soft skills

The employee is a reliable member of the team, always delivering what they say they would,

within the time they undertook to do soThe employee is a team player who respects

their colleagues and resolves disagreements in a constructive manner

The employee takes responsibility for their own actions

The employee maintains a positive and encouraging outlook, even when under pressure

The employee actively lives the core company values by displaying the behaviours that support and solidify the core values within the workplace

HR Tech / People Data tools like Hi5 are exceptionally useful in measuring culture and

providing comprehensive feedback and insights for each individual

Delivery Innovation and Growth

Relationships Corporate Citizenship

The DIRC Model

Similar to traditional models

Simple to implement

Modifiable

Lends itself to 360

Scalable/Cascadable?

OKRs Originated by Intel Used and made famous by Google

• Supported Google’s growth from 40 employees to more than 60,000

• Credit major portion of success to OKRs

OKR• Objective• Key Results

Approach to create alignment and engagement around measurable and ambitious goals

The goal to ensure everyone is going in the same direction, with clear priorities, in a constant rhythm

OKR Example – CPO (Chief People Officer)

OBJECTIVE:Create an exceptional Corporate Culture / Delight our Employees

KEY RESULTS:_________________________________• Launch an ongoing 2-way closed-loop feedback

process• Create clarity of all departments and teams via

clear OKR goals• Achieve a weekly Employee Satisfaction / Pulse

Score of 8+• Celebrate “small wins” and any type of

progress every single week• CEO and Senior Executives to launch a monthly

Town Hall with Open Q&A

Source: “The Ultimate List of OKR Examples for B2B Companies” by Atiim

What How

OKRs – Benefits

Keeps everyone engaged

Helps translate strategy into action

Increases the organisations learning curve

Objective is scored, not the employee

Creates Transparency and Overview

Aligns efforts

Builds teams that make things happen

Remuneration BenchmarkingThe Benefits

Impartial and Accurate Information for Decision-making

Identifies differences between sectors

Considers all aspects of remuneration

Compare remuneration against others

Remuneration BenchmarkingThe Problem

Why is an agile organization different regarding salary?

Teamwork rather than individual contributions

Flat structure

Transparency

Embracing change rather than following a plan

Trust rather than control

Why Change Remuneration Strategy?

Scarcity of skilled talent

Premier performers are in control of the terms of their employment

Performance management is undergoing a reinvention

Employee engagement and employer branding are now “need to haves”

Agile Compensation Strategy

React quickly to market shifts• Minimise dependencies• Minimise number of approvals

Dial up or down Comp Spend as needed

Continuously flex to meet workforce needs• As workforce makeup changes over time

Fair and supports the culture of the organisation

Helps focus on experimental learning and deliberate practice

Keeps trust, prevents demotivation

Paves way to total transparency

What do we Know?

For work that is cognitive based• Paying more for more

work is a demotivator

Actual Motivators• Autonomy

• Mastery

• Purpose

“Drive” by Daniel Pink

Intrinsic Motivators

Engagement

Formula-based PayExample 1

Joe

Roles Developer - Application Tester: Unit Designer - Application

Base Remuneration 25000 0,8 20000 20000 0,15 3000 30000 0,05 1500

Geographic Area (e.g.

Gauteng, Western Cape,

etc.)

Gauteng 0,05 1250

Formula: Criteria Weight RemunerationCriteria Weight RemunerationCriteria Weight Remuneration

Experience in Role (e.g.

Beginner, Competent,

Expert)

Compete

nt0,2 5000

Compete

nt0,2 4000 Beginner 0 0

Complexity (e.g. simple,

complex, specialist)Complex 0,15 3750 Complex 0,15 3000 Simple 0,05 1500

No of Technologies (e.g.

single, multiple)1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0

No of Stacks (Front End,

Back End, Server, Full Stack)1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0

Methodology (e.g. Waterfall, Agile 0,2 5000 Agile 0,2 4000 Agile 0,2 6000Specialist Knowledge (e.g.

yes, no)No 0 0 No 0 0 No 0 0

33750 14000 9000

Total Remuneration 58000

Main Role Second Role Third Role

45

Why Act NOW!

73% Executives significant disruption in next 3 years• New Competition• Technology Disruption• Rising Customer Expectations

Top Talent Risks• 52% Excessive time to fill open positions• 43% Low or declining employee engagement• 40% Inadequate diversity• 38% Thin Leadership pipeline• 35% Ineffective hiring decisions• 31% Lagging productivity• 30% Slow decision making

Mercer’s 2019 Global Talent Trends Study

The Conundrum??

33% Executives rate organisation’s ability to mitigate people risks as

“very effective”

29% HR leaders believe that business executives prioritise human capital

risks

Agile HR

Move away from traditional

Start practicing Agile

Promote cross-functional synergy

• Agile HR Transformation• Agile People Coach• IT Organisation Design• Role Expectation Cheatsheets• Agile Performance Management• Agile Career Management• PECS IT Salary Survey Job Matching

What we do …

Mobile: 083 654 6480Email: gails@talentalign.com

www.talentalign.comFacebook:

https://facebook.com/gail.l.sturgessLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gailsturgess

How to Find us…

We help HR fast-track their knowledge, skills and processes to not only support Agile Transformation, but to actually help facilitate it.

We enable the CORE of Agile Transformation in organisations by focussing on the area with the greatest impact, that contributes the most to successful transformation

– the People!