Agile Introduction for Leaders

Learning Objectives Gain an understand of what is driving the need for agile Learn the fundamentals of agile: values, principles and practices Learn what managers and leaders need to do for agile success Assess teams readiness Learn eight risk points Discuss Radical Management as a flavor of agile specific for running an operation

Agenda Why is Disruption the new norm Looking at why leadership and workers are so illprepared Old rules driving project success are breaking down Agile breakdown (high-level and quick) Leaders Agile tool kit Self organization Radical management Lean Start-up

Section One DISRUPTION

Enterprise Challenges Driving Disruption Speed Rapid pace of disruption and change Can t handle change, lose and lose quickly Productivity Challenge Key to profitability in slow growth environment Finding Competitive Advantage Customer knowledge (internal and external) Product Creation hit or miss Three elements of product creation Competitive understanding, organizational capabilities, creating value Growing, Managing and Retaining Knowledge Workers Generation Y dilemma (Millennial)

What we want: life to be easier But the Reality is!

Something to Consider The Black Swan impact of the highly improbable Nassim Nicholas Taleb ISBN # 978-0-8129-7381-5 Black Swans being unpredictable, we need to adjust to their existence (rather than naively try to predict them). There are so many things we can do if we focus on what we don t know We will see that, contrary to socialscience wisdom, almost no discovery, no technologies of note, came from design and planning they were just Black Swans. The strategy for the discovers and entrepreneurs is to relay less on top down planning and focus on maximum tinkering and recognizing opportunities free markets work because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trails and error the strategy is, then, to tinker as much as possible

Section Two IMPACT ON HOW WE MANAGE

Bad Leaders/Disengagement From CLO Magazine, April 2014 When the Boss Needs People Skills At least 50% up to 70% of managers fail Only 30% of US workers are engaged Nearly 1 in 5 are actively disengaged New reports say 80% are disengaged Engagement is the single most detrimental problem in business Engagement affects customer ratings, profitability, productivity, turnover, safety incidents, absenteeism and theft Adding up to an estimated $300 billion in lost revenue every year

Characteristics of Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Workers Higher than average intelligence Most likely smarter than leaders of the company Do not want to be micromanaged Have some type of management experience Have some type of project experience Lack business financial skills (accounting side of business) their Work Their Work 24 by 7 meaning some level of work is always there It is creative Subjective, success / measurement is not black and white It is team orientated Time sensitive Usually part of a project or change initiative

Section Three T-SHAPED WORKERS

Why We are Here: Major Disruption in Workers Needed It took 77 months to get to pre recession employment levels with the last recession, it normally takes 18 months The % of management positions has decreased from 28% of the economy in 2000 to 24% in 2010 Positions requiring creativity and problem solving have increased by 4.8M from 2001 to 2009 Knowledge workers are engaging in creativity and problem solving, and they have specific skill requirements

T-Shaped: What Workers need to Become \\ T-Shaped Professional www.tsummit2014.org

Managers and Leaders need to Become Managers and Leaders not measures, reporters, and doers What is going to be demanded: Ability to grow people Break down barriers and road blocks Set vision and define direction Set goals Communicate goals / adjust vision and direction Reset goals

Section Four AGILE

How do I get what I want from my efforts? Where does software develop fit?

New Project Law: s + s + $ how Agile sees project world on time all scope within budget happy customer Schedule: Scope: Budget: Project delivered within the timeframe originally identified No date slips Every milestone achieved Everything originally requested is delivered Everything delivered works perfectly as the customer requested, no bugs Did not spend a single cent more than originally estimated to spend Did not need any additional resources, hardware, etc. throughout entire project + +

What is Agile? It s a way of working differently Set of guiding principles Resulting in a set of practices Iteration User stories Burn down chart Practitioners have productized them into flavors: Scrum Lean Extreme Programming SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework)

What is Agile? Guiding Principles The Foundation

Waterfall vs. Agile Basics Important Observation Plan-driven Development VS. Adaptive Development

Agile Mindset Agile is really a mindset a different way to think about the work. DSDM.org, 1994 DEFINING AGILE Why does Agile work?

Agile Readiness Assessment Traditional Models Agile Model Punish Problems Problems are Treasures Best Practices Shu-Ha-Ri (Continuous Improvement) BDUF (Big Definition Up Front) JEDI (Just Enough Definition Initially) Silo s and Specialization Blur the lines We re all team members Command and Control Self-organizing teams, Servant Leadership - Empowerment Work the Plan The Plan will Evolve Individual Performance Team Performance Check Quality Out Build Quality In Death March is a Tool Maintain a Constant Pace Shoot for the stars and hit the moon Only commit to a realistic amount of work PM is One-Throat-to-Choke Team Accountability A Project Manager Assigns the Work Team Volunteers for the Work Choose the familiar way to communicate Choose the most effective and efficient way to communicate Focus on getting tasks done Team has full ownership of the Goal Sequential Development Iterative and Incremental 22

Why Agile?

Agile Practices / Concepts Product Owner / Scrum Master Daily Scrum aka Daily Stand Up Agile Planning / Estimating Sprint aka Iteration User Story Task Board Burn down / Velocity Retrospective

The Mechanics of Scrum Product Vision / Roadmap Product Release Product Backlog Daily Sprint Backlog 2-4 Weeks Product Increment Process Overview Retrospective

Section Five SELF-ORGANIZED TEAMS

Self-Organized Teams

What is it in Reality A way to organize a group Allows decision making / problem solving to happen at the source of the work Increases empowerment which should increase productivity and morale Significantly disrupts traditional management Some call it Holacracy

How is Autonomy Driven, Two Way Street? Shared Guiding Principals Common goals Communication Trust and Accountability Self-Esteem Great resource ZAPP! The Lighting of Empowerment: How to Improve Productivity, Quality and Employee Satisfaction (Byham & Cox ISBN 10:0679400427)

Self-Organized Being an Adult? Being treated like an adult Acting like an adult Adult definition N: One who has attained maturity or legal age Adj: Fully developed and mature Adulthood The state (responsibility) of a person who has attained maturity All ties to autonomy

Agile Risk Points 1. Workers don t have the skills to self-organize 2. No change management plan in place, specifically around communicating the whys and hows 3. Weak business unit engagement leading to no Product owner 4. Product Owner designate has no authority 5. Iteration cycles pushing way past the maximum 4 week length 6. Teams fixates on perfecting each build, get mired in mud of rework 7. Team never properly learns story point estimating 8. Team doesn t learn how to change from role to work based planning

Section Six AGILE FLAVORS FOR MANAGEMENT

Radical Management Agile Moving to Leadership and Management Basically a Productized Version of Agile for Managing, Based on Agile Guiding Principals http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/04/09/the-best-kept-management-secret-on-the-planet-agile/ Five Foundational Principals of Radical Management 1. From maximizing shareholder value to maximizing custom delight 2. Manager from controllers to enablers 3. Work organized bureaucratically to work organized around customer outcomes 4. From straight economic value to that plus transparency, continuous improvement and sustainability 5. From top-down command communication to conversations

Radical Management: Seven Principles of Continuous Innovation 1. Focus work on delighting the client 2. Do work through self-organized teams 3. Do work in client driven iterations 4. Deliver value to clients with each iteration 5. Be totally open about impediments 6. Create a context for continuous self-improvement 7. Communicate through interactive conversations

Lean Start Up Based on the iterative approach More tests, less structure around tests Let market provide feedback Continuously improved or kill based on feedback Be comfortable with failure, learn and adapt Incrementally invest Provide month to month operating capital only Wait for initial round of funding until product as been proven out Can do this in large companies (intrapreneur) Why does this approach work

Learning Objectives Gain an understand of what is driving the need for agile Learn the fundamentals of agile: values, principles and practices Learn what managers and leaders need to do for agile success Assess team s readiness Learn eight agile risk points Discuss Radical Management as a flavor of agile specific for running an operation

Thank you!!! I appreciate your time. David Mantica President, ASPE Training