Cultural Transformation: Change Inflictor or Change Agent

Cultural Transformation: Change Inflictor or Change Agent October 2012

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Introducing Troy Bitter Director of Advisory Services Coaches and mentors Agile and Project Management service areas Over 4 years of experience focused on Agile/iterative project delivery where "one size doesn't fit all Involved in local Agile community

Abstract The decision has been made to go Agile. Established organizations and teams are going to have to make changes. Some small, but most of them will be fairly large. When Agile is introduced into an established team or company, people get uncomfortable. Does the organization understand how it will affect the team? Do the individual team members understand the change to them? Agile done correctly is very appealing to the business user because it gives them controls, options, and visibility for funding and delivering projects. Agile provides facts and inspectable value as opposed to opinions and suspicions. With all these benefits, for many the Agile coach is NOT a change agent the Agile coach is a change inflictor.

Overview What we will focus on: Understand culture changes that support Agile How Agile affects project roles Generating buy-in What we will not focus on: What is Agile Comprehensive Agile concepts

Cultural Transformation Overview Established organizations and teams are going to have to make changes. Some small, but most of them will be fairly large. When Agile is introduced into an established team or company, people get uncomfortable. Everybody deals with change differently expect it and be prepared to deal with it People have comfort zones, you are going to challenge them People will not buy-in immediately, that doesn t mean they aren t adopting change

Holistic Approach to Change Management Leverage change management to enable people to feel and do the right thing through communication, training, and knowledge management Change Management Workforce Alignment Leadership Communication Participation Training Operational Effectiveness Work Design Knowledge Management How I Feel What I Do

Agile is a Paradigm Shift Adopting an Agile approach is a paradigm shift for most organization. It changes the way people work, interact and deliver. Before you undertake an Agile project, there are a few things to consider. Agile is an approach not a methodology An approach is a flexible framework that allows for adaptation while a methodology is a regulated set of rules Agile is more disciplined then most traditional approaches Due to the speed with which an Agile team moves and communicates, it needs to be more purposeful in its actions and must adhere to a repeatable cadence Agile is a business tool Companies have IT departments to drive the business. IT is a tool. Agile is a tool to help the business more effectively leverage their IT organizations to drive the business Agile will identify issues and breakdowns Agile is not a silver bullet, it will identify problems within an organization. Whether or not the organization acknowledges or addresses them is a different story

Being Disciplined Being Agile is about being disciplined and delivering value. Not coding faster and eliminating process. Deliver the most valuable things first Do, Evaluate, Learn, Improve Speed AND Quality, not one or the other Business Users as team members (the right people) Inspecting daily, not at the end of the Release or Project Team verse process (Self Organized) Crisp requirements, not no documentation (User Story)

Exercise Cultural Transformation Impacts Impacts Approach Roles Desired End Results Who: Each table is a group What: Brainstorm what will be impacted and how people might respond When/Time: 5 minutes Review of results: 5 minutes Pace Quality More

Framework for Change John Shook of Lean fame provides a framework for change. He focuses on monitoring behaviors, start by changing how people behave - what we do" What We Do Values & Attitudes Culture

Creating the right environment for change For the Business For the Team For the Individual Gives business controls and visibility Hands on training Be transparent with communication Provides facts and inspectable value Practical use of available Agile space Tailor messaging around company and personal values Creating Buy-in to the value, not the process Leverage your staff s entrepreneurial spirit Alleviate staff s fears

Perceptions of Change As you transform organizations, you need to view the change from the receiver s perspective. Many people will resist change and view it as Glass. Through conversation and increased understanding, that perception might be changed to Metal or maybe Plastic. Most impact Resistance Cannot be recovered One shot to get it right Many people start here Glass Metal Moderate/Heavy impact Loud but no long term damage Longer to fix Minimal impact Doesn t make much of a sound Can be fixed Plastic

Exercise Perceptions of Change Situation Plastic Metal Glass BA who believes that his job is to eliminate the need for change requests Developer who has the philosophy of leave me alone and I can get the work done in a couple of weeks Project manager who believes that the team will succeed whether they want to or not. You will get it done even if you have to work weekends. X X X Developer who already does automated unit tests with continuous integration Product Owner who complains about delivery and usually is only minimally involved after requirements gathering Sponsor that is tired of surprise delays when project has used 75% of its budget Product Owner who is surprised at what is delivered vs what they would have prioritized X X X X

Adjusting from Traditional to Agile Traditional Waste Agile Extra features that the customer does not need or want Delays due to waiting for resources, SMEs, customers, approvals, documentation, vendors, etc Over-production Waiting No gold-plating supported by pace, velocity tracking, transparency Continuous flow Task switching. Assigning people to multiple projects Extra or unnecessary processes (paperwork, project documentation, approvals, etc.) Partially completed work products, updates, and fixes in process Defects amplified by the time it takes to discover them. Changing customer requirements Physical design of workspace and location / storage / movement of files and other digital resources Transportation Over-processing Inventory Rework Motion Single backlog, full allocation Just enough Done means Done Quality at every step supports Done Proximity to promote communication The right person in the right job let the coders code Intellect Self-organizing teams

Change affects all True adoption of Agile changes roles for all involved members. It changes not only how they work but how they interact and think as well. One of the bigger changes involves team members are engaged continually through the project not just in pockets. Business Developer QA BA Iteration Manager Team member vs early & late comer Provides continual feedback Owns end product & ROI Buys velocity vs specific features Has more ownership Changes way they approach software development Increases transparency Faster pace Just enough mentality Team member vs late comer Team member vs production gatekeeper Division of test responsibility Exploratory testing Team member vs documenter Just enough mentality Arms & legs of team Lead vs Manage Inspect vs Direct Manage expectations vs managing overtime

Cultural Transformation affects Sponsor also Agile does not follow the traditional, plan-driven approach which sponsors (checkbooks) are accustomed. Scope Schedule Cost Value-Driven Plan- Driven How does this affect your world? Schedule Cost Scope

Common Resistance to Agile Adoption Rigid Environment Hard to adapt to change Restrictions imposed by governance Lack of Understanding Agile is a philosophy What & How to apply Mentality It won t work here Failed attempts at new processes in past Resistance is a response

Overcoming Challenges & Integrating into Culture Agile Ideal Co-located team in same room Conversation over documentation Deploy after each iteration Self managed teams Full project team culture change Agile as philosophy Enterprise Agile Distributed team using collaborating tools and time zone differences for advantage Right size documentation to satisfy governance, compliance, SOX, and inspections Deploying bundles every 2-3 months provides better balance of enough features and implementation effort Team takes more ownership & accountability freeing demands on PM and increasing PM capacity Agile team continues to interact with legacy applications and organization following traditional waterfall SDLC Agile as toolbox Agile maturity is a journey of experiences, not a destination

Transformation It s the journey, not the destination Forrest Gump running Journey brings successes & failures Paired with emotion provides better retention Best if natural Shorter build cycles (3wk, 2wk, 1 wk) User Story doc becoming just enough Smaller rocks & estimates Increased transparency willing to ask for help, less surprises Maturity levels not reached overnight Six Sigma CMM Level 5 ISO 9000 Cannot ride a bike for your child

Generating Buy-in There is no easy way to introduce change. One avenue might work for one team member and set another one off. Some people will become defensive while another might simply shut down all together. Everyone will react differently. There is nothing you can do about how people deal with change but what you can do is control the way change is being introduced. Outline and continually reiterate the value of choosing an Agile approach Speed Control Flexibility Visibility Create small wins quickly verse waiting for the big win Successful tasking session An Iteration in which the build isn t broken Delivering or exceeding planned velocity An engaging and enthusiastic User Review No defect iteration Evangelize every chance you get!!! The more a team wins the more bought-in they become the more bought-in they are, the more infectious they become!!!