Lean. Agile. Trim Tabs. and Pickup Sticks. White Papers. essential. by Alan Shalloway

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1 Lean Trim Tabs Agile and Pickup Sticks by Alan Shalloway essential White Papers

2 Trim Tabs and Pickup Sticks 1 This white paper by Alan Shalloway describes two important mindsets that have long informed Net Objectives approach to software development, training, and coaching. Trim Tabs In Software Development I have always admired and been inspired by R. Buckminster Fuller, author of the groundbreaking book Critical Path. He was the person who created the term Spaceship Earth and invented the geodesic dome among many other things. I remember him reflecting once on trim tabs. Trim tabs are used in aviation and shipping. Literally, they are attached to a large control surface which would otherwise be difficult to move. Bucky once said: Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary. The whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it s going right by you, that it s left you altogether. But if you re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, call me Trim Tab. Bucky points to trim tabs being more than just highly leverageable things. Part of how a trim tab works is that it changes the environment in which it is operating. This chance to the environment is what enables the trim tab to work. In the example above, the rudder works better because the trim tab has changed the environment it is in (the water) so that it can work better. Trim Tabs in Software Development Following are some of the some significant trim tabs for software development. The resources pages on offer helpful insights and advice on each one. Product portfolio management. See Having explicit policies for workflows. See Managing Work-In-Progress (WIP). See Acceptance-Test-Driven Development. See articles/role-quality-assurance-lean-agilesoftware-development and netobjectives.com/resources/books/leanagile-acceptance-test-driven-development Alan Shalloway is the founder and CEO of Net Objectives. With over 40 years of experience, Alan is an industry thought leader in Lean, Kanban, product portfolio management, Scrum and agile design. He helps companies transition to Lean and Agile methods enterprise-wide as well teaches courses in these areas. Alan has developed training and coaching methods for Lean-Agile that have helped Net Objectives clients achieve long-term, sustainable productivity gains. He is a popular speaker at prestigious conferences worldwide. He is the primary author of Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design, Lean-Agile Pocket Guide for Scrum Teams, Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility and Essential Skills for the Agile Developer. Alan has worked in literally dozens of industries over his career. He is a co-founder and board member for the Lean Software and Systems Consortium. He has a Masters in Computer Science from M.I.T. as well as a Masters in Mathematics from Emory University. You can follow Alan on alshalloway 2012 Net Objectives, Inc.

3 2 Net Objectives Essential White Papers and testability and com/files/essential-skills-define-tests-upfront.pdf Most of these don t take extra work to do. Thy just require different habits or ordering of the workflow. The Pickup Sticks Model of Teaching Now, I want to turn to an approach I use when deciding what I need to talk about when teaching a course. This approach informs my professional coaching practice and engagement with clients. A few years ago, I accepted a consulting role at Boeing. My job was to guide about 300 FORTRAN / mainframe programmers into an object-oriented C++ / Microsoft Windows NT environment. This was a big shift for me. Before this, I had been doing mostly software development and support. I was very good with C++ and object-oriented design and programming and was fairly reasonable at one-on-one coaching. It looked like fun and more importantly, a relief from the grinds of software development. 300 people in one year! How do I do that? About a month into the engagement, the reality of the situation started dawning on me. Three hundred people in a year! How was I supposed to do this? When faced with a situation in which I don t think I can succeed, I take one of two approaches. The first is to imagine failure and see if I can survive. For example, in this situation, I could imagine doing such a bad job that they let me go. My ego would be hurt, but I would still be employable so I could see that I could get another job and could manage this failure. Visualizing this helps remove the fear of survival issues and helps me concentrate on the tasks at hand. However, it won t help me figure out how to get the job done! The second approach is to scale the problem into something more manageable: See that I can handle that and then work on scaling the solution. For example, I could imagine being able to handle having to train only one person in C++ / object-orientation. Of course, the client wouldn t be happy with me if that is all I did, but at least it gave me some perspective. Taking the second approach, I said to myself, OK, how do I train one person in C++ / object-orientation given one year to do it? I felt confident in teaching the language. The tricky part was teaching object-orientation. I asked myself, What s the difference between me and a him? Is it that I am smarter? Not necessarily. Also, having someone smarter than me to teach would make my job easier but would still need to happen. Well then, what s the difference? Before I give my conclusion, let me give a little background. I have taken a number of courses in communication and personal development. They teach a powerful paradigm that a person s reality shows up in the language constructs they use; that is, how they talk about things. It reflects what they pay attention to or what distinctions they have of the world around them. With this in mind, I came to the conclusion that, the difference between me and someone who didn t know object-oriented design is that when faced with a problem, I would look at certain things they wouldn t, and they would look at certain things I wouldn t. Let s Talk About Polymorphism For example, given several variations of a task, I would realize there was a common conceptual way of describing the task and 2012 Net Objectives, Inc.

4 Trim Tabs and Pickup Sticks 3 that I could make an interface represent this conceptual, shared method. I could then implement this to polymorphically hide these variations. So how do I get across this point about polymorphism? My first inclination might be to explain polymorphism as a thing; that is, I look at it and describe it. However, it s not just that I look at some things while others less able than me look at others; rather, it s that I can see some distinctions that others don t pay attention to and really don t even notice. I therefore have to break the concept polymorphism down into smaller concepts. One thing I ve learned as a trainer is that if I pretend things don t exist in reality but are a construct of my mind, then I can be more effective. Because they don t exist, I can t assume anything I say about them will be in the listener s mind. This forces me to explain things from basic features. If I know something about my listener, I may assume certain common understandings and be able to move faster. But this is easier to do right than making an assumption that is incorrect. In other words, when something exists on its own, I can describe what I see. But maybe the distinctions or features I see are not what someone else sees. The person doesn t readily understand my descriptions because there is not a common understanding an understanding I am assuming exists and therefore not speaking to. Start with they already almost understand. Now, trying to explain polymorphism as a thing is often difficult because I am not speaking to my listener s reality. Maybe I can t know their reality but at least I can try to start with they almost understand. First, understand the distinctions upon which polymorphism is based. Then, begin teaching those distinctions that my students almost understand. For example, when teaching polymorphism, it is tempting to say, you must not have duplication in your code! But the question remains: What is duplication? Clearly code that is the same is duplicated code but there are other kinds of duplication such as duplication of a concept, duplication of a rule, duplication of a switch construct. It is better to think about something that they already almost understand that matches what I want to teach them. Here is a better beginning point. If you use the exact piece of code in two places, make a method that implements the code and call that method in both places. Then, when you change this one method you affect both places. Of course, this isn t all there is to avoiding duplication but with this insight, the others are a little easier. Next, I have to figure out the next thing that they already almost know and address that. And that is the point. After teaching one distinction that someone already almost knows, they now already almost know a different distinction. The approach for teaching then is, instead of focusing on what I want to teach them at a high level (polymorphism, interfaces, ), focus on the separate distinctions on which these are built. The order I teach When teaching, look them in is simple for what they already teach them the almost know that will ones they already be helpful to learn almost know. what you want them After they know to know. these, there will be a new set they already almost know. I ve been told this is all you can teach anybody anything anyway: what they already almost know Net Objectives, Inc.

5 4 Net Objectives Essential White Papers The Pick-up Sticks Method of Training I call this approach the Pick-up Sticks Method of Teaching. When I was a kid, my brothers always beat me at the game of pick-up sticks. I was always tempted to go after the high scoring sticks that were buried in the pile because I could get more points. This is like going after polymorphism before all of the distinctions on which it is based are stated. Finally, I learned that the better strategy was to remove the stick on top (the distinction already almost known). And then to focus on the next new stick on top (a new distinction is now already almost known). Taking this approach in training, my students and I eventually reach the goal: all of the sticks (distinctions) have been picked up and we have learned! It is what makes a daunting task manageable. Rules for Pick up Sticks: Game Play: A player should hold all the sticks (except for the black color stick) upright with a hand on the table. Open the hand quickly, so that the sticks scatter on the table. The black color stick is to be used as a tool in picking up the other sticks. The first player picks up sticks one at a time, until he causes any other stick to move besides the one he is attempting to pick up. Players should keep track of the score by using the scoring chart as shown below. Scoring Chart. Sticks are scored as follows: Blue Sticks 50 Points Green Sticks 40 Points Red Sticks 25 Points Yellow Sticks 10 Points 2012 Net Objectives, Inc.

6 LEAN-AGILE ESSENTIALS curriculum Lean-Agile Project Management Certification by Net Objectives Summary Lean-Agile Project Management Certification by Net Objectives prepares a person to play the role of the Lean-Agile Project Manager. In today s world it is critical that one know why Agile work, not just be given a set of practices to coach the team in performing. While Scrum is a popular Agile method today, it is not always the best Agile method to use. This course introduces the participants to popular Agile methods: Scrum and Kanban. Description To win in today s competitive market requires giving your business the ability to deliver highly profitable products faster than the competition. The goal of Lean-Agile software development is the ability to add value quickly to your customers now while retaining the ability to add value quickly in the future. Most development organizations are not structured to do this because they work on large projects that require long delivery cycles. This course teaches how to drive from business and customer value to select what to work on and to teach the teams how to deliver it incrementally. This course breaks down and analyses three key areas of the Lean Enterprise: Business Prioritize features by highest business/end user value Drive the development efforts to incrementally deliver Portfolio Management Development Teams Focus on speed in delivering software functionality Must include functionality, maintainability, and extensibility Requires excellent engineering practices Management Focus on the value stream (cycle time idea to implementation) Drive continuous standards improvement Organizational guiding principles, impediment removal Lean-Agile Project Management Certification by Net Objectives is a leadership focused offering that teaches the management skills required to implement Lean-Agile. It is a combination of interactive lecture with a significant amount of time spent on hands-on exercises. This course is an alternative to standard ScrumMaster training. More and more companies are finding initial success with Scrum only to find they cannot extend it beyond a few teams. We believe the reason for this is no failing of the people attempting to use Scrum, nor even Scrum itself. Rather, the challenges that must be dealt with go beyond the capabilities of the Scrum framework to provide sufficient solutions. In other words, Scrum is not always the right process for an organization, but if that is all someone has learned no other alternatives present themselves. This course prepares organizations for Agile development by providing a solid understanding of the principles behind Agile methods which allows you to decide which is the best team process for you - in your circumstances. This greater foundation also allows for better tailoring of whichever Agile method you chose, including Scrum. Contact us info@netobjectives.com Lean-244 ( ) Learn more copyright 2012 Net Objectives, Inc.

7 Your Roadmap to Lean-Agile Success Growing numbers of organizations are realizing the need to become more Agile. Some are weighing the risks and benefits and seeking guidance Others are implementing initiatives and are looking for ways to improve their return on investment. The road to Lean-Agile success has become less risky as the early adopters have paved the way for the next generation of Lean-Agile methodologies and practices that solve the common problems, and transcend the limitations that early adopters have struggled with. Net Objectives has been a thought leader in each of the Agile methods of the past decade. This uniquely enables us to provide the most effective approach to our clients needs. For more than a decade, Net Objectives has been training and facilitating large and small organizations to achieve agility. We serve organizations at the team, management, and enterprise level with comprehensive organizational consulting, coaching, and training. We do not promote one method as most other firms do rather we pull from a broad knowledge base to offer an approach tailored to your situation. Undertaking Your Transition to Agile There is no one method that guarantees success at the team level. Our full assessment services will answer these questions to help you to determine which to choose. Do cross functional teams already exist and if not, how difficult will it be to create them? Are certain staff essential for multiple teams How many concurrent projects are teams currently working on at one time? What challenges face the organization in the areas of integration and deployment? Throughout your transition, Net Objectives will help you ensure the following mechanisms are in place through appropriate Lean-Agile training that enables your teams and management: Teams are capable of delivering value quickly with high value Businesses are capable of selecting, sizing and prioritizing business capabilities to be developed Management takes responsibility for improving the value stream and removing impediments facing teams Our Instructors and coaches enable your teams with skills, and competencies to leverage the power of agility as part of your value stream. Our consultants collaborate with your managers, stakeholders, executives, and experts providing insight and experienced guidance from the organizational view. Understanding Agile The first step toward success is drawing a clear distinction between enterprise agility, and team agility. The benefits of Agile at the team level are very different than benefits at the enterprise level. The paths to success and the challenges presented are also very different. Enterprise agility enables an organization to effectively respond at the enterprise level to changing business needs while reliably delivering business value. Team agility is a component of that capability a component and not the equivalent of enterprise agility. This understanding is essential since team methods alone cannot deliver enterprise level benefits. First generation methods made the assumption that team agility translated to the enterprise. This has been a costly simplification. Many organizations have attempted to achieve enterprise agility simply by creating more Agile teams. This often starts well, but usually ends up being impeded by enterprise level problems that team solutions do not solve. The next generation of Lean- Agile openly acknowledges practical truths, limitations, and organizational structures required to fulfill the needs of the entire Lean-Agile enterprise. From assessment and planning to pilot and rollout, our goal is to facilitate your organization with custom approaches and solutions that are appropriate to your needs, structure, and goals. Let us show how the next generation of Agile can benefit your organization. call us with your questions 1-LEAN-244 ( ) or visit

8 Business-Driven Software Development Assessments, Consulting, Training, and Coaching Business-Driven Software Development (BDSD) is Net Objectives proprietary integration of Lean-Thinking with Agile methods across the business, management and development teams to maximize the value delivered from a software development organization. BDSD has built a reputation and track record of delivering higher quality products faster and with lower cost than other methods BDSD goes beyond the first generation of Agile methods such as Scrum and XP by viewing the entire value stream of development. Lean-Thinking enables product portfolio management, release planning and critical metrics to create a topdown vision while still promoting a bottom-up implementation. BDSD integrates business, management and teams. Popular Agile methods, such as Scrum, tend to isolate teams from the business side and seem to have forgotten management s role altogether. These are critical aspects of all successful organizations. In BDSD: Business provides the vision and direction; properly selecting, sizing and prioritizing those products and enhancements that will maximize your investment Teams self-organize and do the work; consistently delivering value quickly while reducing the risk of developing what is not needed Management bridges the two; providing the right environment for successful development by creating an organizational structure that removes impediments to the production of value. This increases productivity, lowers cost and improves quality Become a Lean-Agile Enterprise All levels of your organization will experience impacts and require change management. We help prepare executive, mid-management and the front-line with the competencies required to successfully change the culture to a Lean-Agile enterprise. Prioritization is only half the problem. Learn how to both prioritize and size your initiatives to enable your teams to implement them quickly. Learn to come from business need not just system capability. There is a disconnect between the business side and development side in many organizations. Learn how BDSD can bridge this gap by providing the practices for managing the flow of work. Why Net Objectives While many organizations are having success with Agile methods, many more are not. Much of this is due to organizations either starting in the wrong place (e.g., the team when that is not the main problem) or using the wrong method (e.g., Scrum, just because it is popular). Net Objectives is experienced in all of the Agile team methods (Scrum, XP, Kanban, Scrumban) and integrates business, management and teams. This lets us help you select the right method for you. Assessments Productive Lean-Agile Team Training See where you are, where you want to go, and how to Team training in Kanban, Scrum get there. Technical Training in ATDD, TDD, Design Patterns Business and Management Training Roles Training Lean Software Development Lean-Agile Project Manager Product Portfolio Management Product Owner Enterprise Release Planning For more information about Business Driven Software Development Services Contact Mike Shalloway at Net Objectives: mike.shalloway@netobjectives.com / NetObjectives.com / LEAN-244 ( )