Impediments to agile

December 10, 2013 3 Comments

Just reading an article on things that impede agile… I share two points here (extracted from the original article):

  • Technical Practices

” …you cannot scale agile on crappy code, without collective code ownership and continuous integration – period, no debate!”

  • PMO

“The mother-ship of all agile impediments – actually not my quote!

A bit harsh? Well it depends.

A PMO that is steeped in governance that adds no value then absolutely! Gated controls are great provided they add value – have the requirements been signed by the Business, has the design been signed by the CTO, have you produced your weekly report, have you correctly RAG your Risks and issues. Mother-ship!

But a PMO that has made both the cultural and mindset shift to agile can be a huge enabler.”

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People is more important than everything

October 17, 2013 Leave a comment

I’m more and more convinced about this: “people is more important than everything”. For many years in the software industry we tought to have found the good method for successfull software development, always searching for processes, practices, framework… but did these practices and methods provide the expected results? Today the risk is that agile will be another of such methods that didn’t bring the expected results if we don’t understand what “agile” is.

I see a situation in which many people wants to use “agile” and start to do it, but what I see in reality is the fall of agile: “fragile”, “wagile”, “srum-buts”… so the question is:  what “agile” really means?
My passion for agile comes from the idea that the interactions between people are more important than processes, that people are the key factor in the software success. Attendind people’s need and the close collaboration among people can bring back the enjoyment to developing successful software. The agile manifesto defines what agile is, we can find in it the same idea:

“indivuals and interactions between process and tools”
“customer collaboration over contract negotiation”
“Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.“
“The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.“

Agile is not doing it but “being agile”… for that we should start focusing more on people.

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Scrum Gathering Paris – “Shu Ha Ri” and Spiral Dynamics

September 23, 2013 Leave a comment

The first day of the Scrum Gathering in Paris is finished. It has been really a great day. The sessions I have attended were mostly about the same theme: “Expanding an Agile Culture in a Complex World”. This theme aims to define cultural tools (patterns, management practices, methods, etc) helping to install in a sustainable way an Agile culture within organizations. Below the sessions I liked most and my main takeaways:

“Cuture > Process” – Henrik Kniberg
The opeining keynote from Henrik Kniberg showed what “agile culture” really means and how this is achieved in Spotify the company where he actually works.
My Takeaways:
Shu-ha-ri  (Follow the rules, adapt the rules, Ignore the rules)
“People > *”  (People are more important than everything else)

Agile à la mode? The long-Term Viability of an Agile Culture in France – Petra Skapa and Mack Adams
This session showed how it’s difficult to have an agile culture in French organizations: the French values are not in lines with the agile ones.
My Takeaway:
The transformation to agile in France is more difficult than in other Countries. Agile is a mindset and it’s adoption and success is directly influenced by the Country’s culture.

Changing Cultural DNA with Spiral dynamics to become thouroughly Agile – Dajo Breddels
Interesting session on how the humans interact and behave according to the spiral dynamics theory and how this theory can help on the cultural change needed for agile transformation.
My takeaway:
Spiral Dynamics theory can be helpful for the agile cultural shift.

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Transformation to Agile is not easy

August 20, 2013 1 Comment

I had the opportunity to meet Peter Measey as trainer of my Certified Scrum Product Owner course and since then I started to read his blog. Some time ago I read an article about how the transformation to agile can be difficult and he made me think about it. I know that the transformation to agile is not easy for large organizations that worked many years with a waterfall methodology. It requires time and it requires a change in all the level of the organization and after all these changes it can happen that the organization is still far to be really agile.  One important aspect of the transition is overcoming the individual resistance and it’s not easy because human being are involved. From Peter Measey’s blog:

“If you think that transforming an IT system from one technical platform to another is challenging, try doing a technical transformation where the platforms have a mind of their own and may not want to change, or even have the ability to change!”

Working in a large organization that wants to go towards agile and knowing that the transformation is complex I always had one question in my mind:

Can a large organization, alone, be successful in the transformation to agile?

When I say “alone” I mean without asking for help from external agile transformation experts.
Maybe the transformation is possible but more painful and longer because you cannot rely on lessons learned or common patterns among different organizations or maybe it will end, as Peter says, to what is known as “FRAgile” or “WAgile” where organizations are not really agile even if they think to be. I don’t have my personal answer to this question right now… In the meanwhile I’m still thinking on Peter’s questions:

“Would you try to write a software system without employing expert software developers ? So why would you think that something much harder (such as transforming an organisation of human beings) can be done by people who don’t understand transformation? ”

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Change your Organization: it’s about trust.

May 2, 2013 Leave a comment

Some days ago a colleague suggested me an interesting blog of James Shore about changing the organization. How an organization can become more agile? How an organization can improve their processes?
Successful organizational changes cannot be fully top-down or bottom-up, but is there really a difference between the two? James Shore thinks they are essentially the same thing: “Both are extremely difficult. Both require that people want to change.” So how can you introduce new ideas and help the change to happen? The central point is trust. James says “It’s as simple as that. When people trust me, I’ve been successful. It hasn’t even been hard. And when people don’t trust me, no amount of cajoling, persuading, beating with sticks, etc., will make a difference.” The way to change something in the organization is no-change. The approach is more to show people ideas, seeing what they think, talking about alternatives, listening to experiences, etc.

“#1: the Way to Change is No-Change. I’ve seen how hard organizational change can be, and so I no longer attempt it. I just share ideas, lead by example, and have fun doing it. If things change, great! It’s a much easier approach to life… and you know what? I think it’s made me more effective as a consultant, and as a change agent, too.”

I like this thought and I think James is right: at the end change is about trust and respect to earn this trust.

“We must be the change we wish to see.” – Ghandi.

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