Successful Agile Transformation - Jim Grundner - Agile Maine
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This document discusses essential patterns for successful agile transformations. It emphasizes the importance of leadership commitment, forming a cross-functional transformation team, and having an adoption strategy such as piloting agile with a small team. It also recommends focusing on empowering teams, limiting work in progress, using metrics to encourage the right behaviors, and embracing an experimental mindset to continuously learn and improve.
Successful Agile Transformation - Jim Grundner - Agile Maine
- 1. Vaco Agile Essential Patterns of Successful Agile Transformations April 26, 2019 Jim Grundner – Agile Practice Lead 1
- 2. ABOUT ME JIM GRUNDNER JGRUNDNER@VACO.COM Jim has spent his professional career focused on learning, understanding and attempting to create great value from the definition of the customer. He has a deep belief that waste is the enemy of value and we should do all we can to eliminate it. Over the past decade he has looked to further his understanding and skills in Enterprise Agile Delivery & Transformation primarily related to Digital Technology in the Financial Services Industry. His belief system is to bring the best of Agile, Lean - Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and Automation of Software Process to bear to create great software! Jim has most recently led an Enterprise Agile Transformation for an organization with more than 10,000 associates and over 300 scrum teams. His experience includes Agile Practice Leadership and consultation with several fortune 500 companies in the pursuit of their Agile Transformation journey. Private & Confidential 2 AGILE
- 3. THE HARD QUESTIONS Private & Confidential 3 1. Do your projects tend to last longer than you think they should? 2. When the project is complete, does it represent what you originally thought it would be? Is it better? Is it lacking? 3. Overall, are you less than satisfied with the results you are achieving for the dollars you are spending in technology? 4. Are there inconsistent practices employed in how your projects are run? 5. Would you be open to experimenting with a new, more transparent approach? If you answer yes to any of these - you may be a candidate for the use of Agile to enable organizational change Is the Organization Ready for a Transformation? AGILE
- 4. 4 LEADERSHIP CHAMPION AGILE Private & Confidential • Someone Needs To Lead the Charge • Take Risks • Maintain the Overarching Vision • Protect the Team • Keep the Transformation On Course • Connect to the Exec Leadership Team • This connection is the champion’s lifeline! • And Recreate Themselves • Sustainable Agility • Momentum & Energy • Commitment • Identify a Replacement
- 5. 5 AGILE TRANSFORMATION TEAM AGILE Private & Confidential Agile Transformation Team Characteristics: • Clear Strategy, Roadmap • Provide Organizational Agile Support • Represent Different Parts of the Organization • Diverse, Cross-Functional Mix of Roles • Engage Outside Expertise • Be aware of the organizational stress • In short – Don’t go it alone! Backlog of Change Initiatives: • Strategy & Planning • Training & Coaching • Timing of Rollout • Standards, Frameworks & Tooling
- 6. 6 HAVE AN ADOPTION STRATEGY AGILE Private & Confidential • Big Bang vs. Little Bang • POC / Pilot • Beta Test • Change is the largest factor • Avoiding “Change Fatigue” • Open Space • Invitation • Self-Selection • Burn the ships • Show Them the Path • Committed! Expect and prepare for chaos – don’t panic when this happens
- 7. 7 STRATEGY: DO I REALLY NEED? AGILE Private & Confidential • Scrum Masters & Product Owners? • Close to 1:1 Ratio • Avoid Role Overloading! • Small, Co-located teams? X-Functional teams? • Focused Backlog? • WIP Limits • Limit Interruptions • Consider what to do about Email • Coaching – At all levels? • Team • Leadership • Organizational Change Is Work! • Aspire to be a little better each day, but know this will take significant organizational discipline and leadership • Concept of 1%
- 8. 8 ALIGNMENT: THE BUS AGILE Private & Confidential • Getting the Right People On • Ensuring the Bus is Heading In the Right Direction • Getting the Wrong People Off The Bus • Eventually Onboarding Everyone • Defining New Roles • Scrum Master & Product Owner • Agile Team • Agile Project Manager / Agile PMO • Avoiding Role Confusion One Approach – Get the whole system in the room (Open Space Agility) • Primary team and supporting teams
- 9. 9 SLOWING DOWN TO SPEED UP AGILE Private & Confidential Instead, Play The… • Quality card • Do It Right The First Time card • I Trust Your Estimates card • Let’s Experiment & Learn card ✓ Experimentation & Learning Time ✓ Achieve Muscle Memory ✓ Celebration and Reflection Time ✓ Re-energizing (Hackathon) Time Don’t Play the Speed Card!
- 10. 10 MEASUREMENT -YOU GET WHAT YOU MEASURE AGILE Private & Confidential Goals • Organizational & Transformation • Team • Shared (w/ Leadership Team) Outcomes • Move from Simple Metrics or Output Metrics to – Outcomes! Behaviors • Moving from “Doing” to ”Being” I.e., are we walking our talk? Use Equal and Opposite Measures • Caution on One Metric That Matters – OMTM – use pairs
- 11. 11 TRUST YOUR TEAMS AGILE Private & Confidential • “Trust, But Verify”…is NOT Trust • Everyone “says” They Trust the Team… • Don’t let “Bad Apples” Influence Your Overall Trust Posture • Coach your Teams…to Trust Each Other!
- 12. 12 AGILE MATURITY ASSESSMENTS: DO’S AND DON’TS AGILE Private & Confidential YES For! • Insightful, Continuous Improvement • Coaching Focus Tool • The Teams • Training & Employee Development NOT for! • Rewards & Recognition • Measuring Team or Individual Performance • Tying it to Performance • Report Cards
- 13. 13 SCALING & DISTRIBUTED TEAMS – GET YOUR SEA LEGS FIRST! AGILE Private & Confidential First this… • Base frameworks: XP, Scrum, Kanban Then this… • Basic Scaling - Scrum of Scrums Then this… • Large Scale Scrum – LeSS • Nexus – Scrum.org • Scrum@Scale – Sutherland • Scaled Agile Framework - SAFe • Spotify Grow From the Bottom … Up • Experiment, Iterate, Learn; Inspect & Adapt • Keep Things Simple • The Teams are THE Most Important Aspect of Scaling
- 14. 14 HERNAN CORTEZ, EXPLORING MEXICO BURN THE SHIPS, ~1519 AGILE Private & Confidential When might you be ready to do this?
- 15. 15 EFFECT OF WORK IN PROGRESS (WIP) AGILE Private & Confidential Time impact on individuals with multiple Work in Progress (WIP) Items 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 WIP 1-2 Wip 3-5 WIP >7 TIME WORK IN PROGRESS Teams that aggressively control WIP: • Cut Time in Process (TIP) by more than half • Personal WIP of 1-2 is a good target • Meetings are WIP limiters • Have 4x better Quality Source – Impact of Agile, Quantified CA (2017) Private & Confidential 15 Baseline
- 16. 16 STORY TELLING BECOMES A WAY OF LIFE AGILE Private & Confidential Stories are Powerful Tools! • Describing how Teams & Individuals are Getting It Right • Describing and Rewarding Failure and Trying • Describing the Future State • Describing the Right Behavior • Embracing & Celebrating The Past • Embracing our Journey • Celebrating Learning • Celebrating and Sharing the Customer • Simply Celebrating…
- 17. 17 TO CONCLUDE: LETS BRING THINGS BACK TO THE BEGINNING AGILE Private & Confidential
- 18. 18 CONTACT US – JIM GRUNDNER & BOB GALEN AGILE Private & Confidential Cell (919) 450-5740 jgrundner@vaco.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimgrundner Cell (919) 272-0719 bgalen@vaco.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobgalen @bobgalen Podcast on all things ‘agile’ http://www.meta-cast.com/