Showing posts with label Agile principles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agile principles. Show all posts

Thursday, March 14, 2024

What does the 4th Agile Principle (Business and Development Work Together) look like in Action?

Many want to go Agile or claim to be Agile. The question is, are you and will you align with the Agile values and principles? In this article, I expand on the fourth principle to better understand what it means and attempt to identify what evidence looks like to determine if a culture change may be occurring. What is this principle?  

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. Agile attempts to bring an understanding of business value to the development team and the technical choices and challenges to the business side. To do this, it attempts to integrate business and development as one team. In traditional approaches, there is often little interaction between the business (e.g., product management, sales, and marketing) and development (aka, cross-functional technical team). On the business side, this may be the Product Manager or Business Owner. Scrum introduces the Product Owner (PO) role and XP introduces the Customer role as the bridge between the customer and the development team. These roles allow for a closer embodiment of the business and development team spirit and avoid fiefdoms and throwing work “over the wall” from one group to another with little interaction. 

The intent is to make a sincere effort to build a collaborative and amicable yet productive relationship between business and development. Development benefits from a better understanding of what the customer finds valuable. The business side benefits because development will ask for details that the business may not have thought about. In both cases, the result is a product that more closely aligns with what the customer finds valuable. What actions and evidence exhibit business people and developers working together?

  • An established and productive relationship between business/customers and development
  • A dedicated business owner who works continuously with the development team. 
  • Development comprises a cross-functional team with developers, testers, technical writers, designers, and so on. 
  • The business owner with the development team work together during iterative planning to build a mutual understanding of the requirements of what to build. 
  • The development team demos the working product to the business owner and customers to gain feedback to better align with customer value. 
  • The development team can reach out to the business owner whenever needed throughout the project lifecycle.   

It is up to you to determine what supporting evidence will highlight that continuous integration, build, test, and frequent delivery is occurring. It is worth experimenting with this as it will help you better understand and embrace the Agile principles. The ultimate question is, do you believe that business and development should work continuously together as a team?

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To learn more about what the Agile Principles look like in Action, consider reading:


Monday, February 19, 2024

What does the 3rd Agile Principle (Frequent Delivery) look like in Action?

Many want to go Agile or claim to be Agile. The question is, are you and will you align with the Agile values and principles? In this article, I expand on the third principle to better understand what it means and attempt to identify what evidence looks like to determine if a culture change may be occurring. What is this principle?  

Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale is the third Agile principle. This principle promotes the ability that when customers believe there is value in what is built, it can be immediately delivered. Identifying the elusive customer value means you can release it when the customer wants it. If it is delivered too early, the customer may not be ready for it; if it is too late, the market opportunity is missed. 

Agile thinking includes a fluid world, where changes are continuous welcome, and teams have the capability of releasing frequently. This ability to frequently release, highlights the importance of having processes and infrastructure to help with continuous integration, build, and test. This ability assumes a level of automation that needs to be in place. Automated testing increases the possibility of testing the functionality as is reasonable, including the capability of performing non-functional testing such as performance testing, load testing, and more. 

What actions exhibit frequent delivery?  
  • An established and positive relationship with customers
  • Iterative framework with Sprint Reviews to incorporate feedback quickly 
  • A release capability to incrementally and rapidly deploy software 
  • Continuous integration supported by a merging process and configuration management system 
  • A continuous build process supported by an automated build management system 
  • Test automation infrastructure that can support continuous testing  
It is up to you to determine what supporting evidence will highlight that continuous integration, build, test, and frequent delivery is occurring. It is worth experimenting with this as it will help you better understand and embrace the Agile principles. The ultimate question, do you really believe in the principle that focuses on frequent delivery?

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To learn more about what the Agile Principles look like in Action, consider reading:

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

What does the 2nd Agile Principle (Welcome Change to Requirements) look like in Action?

Many want to go Agile or claim to be Agile. The question is, are you and will you really align with the Agile values and principles?  To better understand what this means, I dissected the Principles to better discover the intentions behind them and what behaviors they entail. In this article, I expand on the second Principle to better understand what it means and to attempt to model how to marshal supporting evidence that a culture change may be occurring.  

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage is the second Agile principle. From an Agile perspective, you embrace change to increase the chances of delivering value to the customer. You embrace change because you understand that change is necessary as customer needs, market conditions, and general demand change over time. 

Welcoming change implies several qualities. The first is that there is a positive attitude toward change from the team and management. The second is that while change ideas are admitted, they are methodically prioritized based on customer value along with existing requirements. The third is that there is a process that allows prioritized changes to flow without obstruction.

What actions may exhibit “welcoming change to requirements”? Some evidence includes:  

  • The PO continually engages with the customer to identify new requirements or changes to existing requirements. 
  • A methodical review of the change idea occurs to determine the priority amongst the existing requirements.
  • No person or process restricts incoming change ideas. 
  • The backlog is continually refined and reprioritized. 
  • Increment Planning and/or Sprint Planning is applied to introduce the newly prioritized requirements. 
  • Continuous customer engagement via customer visits and sprint reviews are applied. 

It is up to you to determine what supporting evidence will highlight that a culture change is occurring. It is worth experimenting with this as it will help you better understand and embrace the Agile principles. The ultimate question, if you really believe in this principle is, do you welcome change?

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To learn about what evidence might look like to support the 1st Agile Principle (aka, Satisfying Customer with Valuable Software), consider reading: https://cmforagile.blogspot.com/2023/09/many-want-to-go-agile-or-claim-to-be.html

Saturday, September 30, 2023

What does the 1st Agile Principle (Satisfying Customer with Valuable Software) look like in Action?

Many want to go Agile or claim to be Agile. The question is, are you and will you really align with the Agile values and principles?  To better understand what this means, I dissected the Principles to better discover the intentions behind them and what behaviors they entail. In this article, I expand on the first Principle and attempt to model how to marshal supporting evidence that a culture change may be occurring.  

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software is the first Agile principle.  Satisfying the customer means delivering valuable software in a timely manner (that is, in the market window) for a reasonable cost. Continually striving to meet elusive customer value is important. Ultimately, the key measure of value for customers is an increase in sales and the continued loyalty of existing customers. 

How do you know that you are moving in the right direction of building value? It starts with understanding your customers: who they are and what motivates them. Their profiles include such information as their challenges, their vision for your product, and their buying trends. 

Delivering value continues with an effective sprint review process where the customer gains an opportunity to review and provide feedback on working software. If customers can sense that their input is valued during the demos, their satisfaction can increase. This is particularly true if the customers see that their feedback from the last demo has been incorporated in the working software of the current version. 

In addition, it is beneficial to use the Business Owner/Product Owner (PO) as the delegated voice of the customer to solicit acceptance criteria on what the customer would expect when they see a particular requirement or feature in action. You may also conduct periodic customer surveys to gauge their level of satisfaction with the product or solution. 

What actions exhibit “satisfying customer with valuable software”? 

  • The PO works to understand customer value, constantly prioritizes and refines the backlog, and discusses customer needs with the team. 
  • The PO creates customer profiles to recognize motivations. 
  • The backlog is your single source of requirements (aka, value). 
  • The Customer vision reflects how you wish to engage your customers. 
  • Business Strategy focuses on delighting the customer. 
  • Customers are an integral part of Reviews to provide feedback and validate value. 
  • Acceptance criteria are been captured and met for each user story. 
  • Customer satisfaction surveys are periodically conducted. 
  • Customer revenue metrics are captured and reviewed.  

It is up to you to determine what supporting evidence will highlight that a culture change is occurring. It is worth experimenting with as it will help you better understand and embrace the Agile principles. The final question, if you really believe in this principle, do you believe in continuous customer engagement, adapting requirements, and validation as a means of building valuable software to satisfy the customer? 

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Learn more about what other Agile Principles look like in action:

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

A Discussion with ChatGPT about Agile

I had a good discussion with ChatGPT about two weeks ago. I started by asking “What is Agile?” The response was that “Agile is a methodology” with a bit more details. While technically incorrect, given the amount of information and vectors it pulled from, it wasn't completely wrong. What I mean by this is that many people, including some “Agile experts”, refer to Agile as a methodology which is incorrect. Depending on where ChatGPT is pulling this information from, this isn’t a surprise.   

  • My response: “Agile is a set of values and principles. Some Agile information is not aligned with Agile values and principles and instead rely heavily on Agile processes and methodologies or people's misinterpretation on what is agile”.  
  • ChaptGPT's response: You are correct. Agile is indeed a set of values and principles outlined in the Agile Manifesto, and it emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, iterative development, and customer satisfaction. However, misinterpretation or a focus solely on Agile processes and methodologies can lead to a deviation from these values and principles.

I was happy to see that it was aware of the Agile Values and Principles as this is how Agile is defined by the Agile Manifesto which is the seminal information defining Agile. And as I mentioned in my previous article, The Dangers of ChatGPT to Agile, there is a lack of quality evaluators on the numerous Agile articles and presentations in cyberspace that indicate if the information provided is right or wrong, good or bad.


Two weeks later (today), I asked ChatGPT the same question, “What is Agile.” This time it included the Agile Values and Principles as part of its long-winded response that included:


"Agile is an iterative and incremental approach to project management and product development that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement. It was created as a response to traditional, plan-driven project management methodologies that often struggled to adapt to changing requirements and deliver value in a timely manner.

Here are some key aspects of Agile:

    1. Values and Principles: Agile is guided by the Agile Manifesto, which outlines four core values: individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan. These values prioritize human-centric approaches and adaptability.
    2. Iterative Development, 3. Cross-functional Teams, 4. Continuous Improvement, 5. Customer Collaboration, 6. Flexibility and Adaptability" (Note: I removed the details of 2 thru 6 from ChatGPT as this wasn’t relevant to this article).  


While ChatGPT will continue to develop and response to my queries, I am happy to see that it is using my (and others’) input to fine-tune its language model and improve its responses.

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If you are interested in learning more about ChatGPT in relation Agile, Teamwork, or experimentation, consider reading these additional articles:

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Agile - Is it Real or is it Fake?

At the World Agility Forum in Lisbon Portugal on September 29, a panel of leading Agilists focused on “Shifting perspectives to know what is Real (agile)” The panel was made up of Chet Hendrickson, Steve Denning, Nigel Thurlow, and Mario Moreira.  We discussed “What is fake Agile? What is real Agile?”
What is real Agile?  It starts with an alignment to the Agile Values and Principles.  Without understanding and embracing the values and principles, whatever a company is doing is certainly something but can it really be considered real agile?

Agile is more than mechanically applying Agile processes. This I refer to as “doing Agile”. More important than choosing a particular process of Agile, is the art of learning how to live Agile values and principles, to transform Agile mechanics into Agile mindset. This is what I call “being Agile.” 

Steve shared that fake Agile is really a reference to “Agile in name only”.  Since many companies want the badge, he indicated that to understand if companies are Agile, you need to look beyond what they are saying and look at what they are doing.

Nigel discussed how companies feel the need to get on the Agile bandwagon and do Agile as it is the trend.  He stressed the importance of understanding the benefits that Agile can bring and focusing on this instead of Agile itself.

Chet shared that there may be something much worse than fake Agile and that is “dark Agile”.  This is using Agile as pressure to get more work done or impose Agile on a team and not remove any of the constraints leading to numerous anti-patterns. 

Mario talked about a concept akin to fake Agile which I call “FrAgile”. This is when Agile is so minutely applied with little focus on the Agile Values and Principles that it quickly becomes brittle, lacks vigor, and shatters once there is tension applied, leading to a regression to old ways of working.

It was a healthy and collaborative discussion leading to a clear awareness of how fake Agile is damaging the good name of Agile.  Instead, it is time to bring pointed awareness of what is and isn’t agile and advocate for “being Agile” and the outcomes it can bring.

For more on Fake Agile, consider reading:

Sunday, December 10, 2017

In your Business, what are you Optimizing for?

Do you optimize for your customers or for the ease of following a plan or process? Many companies like to say that they optimize for their customers.  However, upon a closer look, you catch the scent that some companies optimize for their own internal processes or plan instead.  When you change the plan, it can disrupt schedules and make it less clear on what will be built for the release, as things tend to evolve.  It will also force re-planning, which can impact dependencies and staffing of the work. One of the Agile values states “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” In other words, Agile advocates the importance of interactions with customer.   

One example of optimizing for a plan or process (instead of the customer) is purposefully avoiding customer feedback because it can force you to adjust the plan which can be messy. Another example that I’ve witnessed several times is when actual customer feedback is captured that indicates a change to customer needs, yet the feedback is ignored since sticking the plan is an easier path.  This is a sign that the organization may be optimizing for their internal processes or the comfort of sticking to the initial plan. When paired with management objectives of sticking to a schedule, this often leads to a mindset of avoiding any change. Does this sound familiar?  Be careful not to fall into this trap.  It can be very easy to do.  It can lead to losing touch with the customer and poor business results.
When you optimize for the customer (external), it will often lead to change.  One of the Agile principles states that you should “Welcome changing requirements”.  The more you interact with your customers (which you should be doing), the more they will provide thoughts or feedback on what they really want. This, in turn, leads to adapting the plan to the great benefit of building something the customer wants.  The net result is an increase in better business results. 

There are several ways to gauge if you are optimizing for the customer or for your internal plan or processes.  A first way is to identify how often you actually engage with customers (and how many) in ceremonies like demos and sprint reviews. Engaging with many customers indicates you are optimizing for the customer while none or few indicates a leaning toward the internal plan.  A second way is to capture how often you actually incorporate customer feedback.  Methodically incorporating feedback indicates that you are optimizing for the customer while incorporating little feedback may indicate a leaning toward following the plan.  As you look around your project, product, or company, ask yourself, who are you optimizing for?  Who should you be optimizing for?       

Sunday, November 12, 2017

Embracing Agile in Tunisia

In October, I had the honor of being the keynote at the first Agile conference in Tunis in the past 4 years (generously sponsored by Vistaprint).  While I was grateful for the opportunity, seeing the number of the attendees from different fields highlighted the attention that Agile was getting in this growing Tunisian economy.  I was impressed by the quality of the professionals and students that attended, coming from a range of companies, government agencies, and universities.
 
My keynote was entitled the “Foundations and Future of Agile”.  You can watch the session here. I started my session by asking the question, “Who do you want to be.”  The intent was to get the audience to consider if they can be more than who they are today and make a commitment to Agile as they approach the future.  I followed this up with, “Who do we want Tunisia to be”?  I provided a vision on how Tunisia can be the pride of Africa. I challenged the participants to become the leaders in Agile and the customer value drive mindset.
To begin the “foundation” portion of my session, I focused on the Agile Values and Principles.  I find that too many companies lead with mechanics and forget the mindset of embracing the values and principles.  Leading with the mindset will remind people why they are doing agile in the first place.  As I shared each principle, one at a time, using a roman voting technique I asked attendees if they believed in each principle. I was pleased to see that there was a strong belief in embracing the principles.  This bodes well for their ability to apply Agile methods and practices and the future of Tunisia. 

As I moved into the “future” portion, I shared the importance of becoming customer value-driven.  I suggest that Agile shouldn’t be done for agile’s sake but instead the goal should be to build a customer value-driven engine. It is the customer who we are serving and who we want to make successful.  As they succeed, so will our business.  I shared the modern concepts of the enterprise kanban, customer value canvas, cost of delay, story mapping, and customer feedback loops.  I wove in the discovery mindset including incremental thinking, psychological safety, and, self-organizing teams.
  
I ended the session by asking again, “Who do you want to be? What is your role in building a greater Tunisia?”  With such potential in the audience from everyone I met, I can understand why some companies are already setting up development centers in Tunis such as Vistaprint.  I ended with asking all of the participants to make a commitment to explore in more detail one of the Agile concepts or mindset elements they learned today.  Almost everyone’s hand went up.  This will help make for a better future in Tunisia. I’m looking forward to it!

Note: 
In addition to my session, the conference included a session by Antonio Gonzalez on “The Role of an Agile Leader” and by JP Beaudry on “The Vistaprint Agile Journey”. Special thanks to Nawel Lengliz and Rahma Arfa for coordinating such a great event and to Walid Abdelaziz for sponsoring the event!  

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Agile Games to Accelerate your Agile Transformation

Games are essential to humans to learn and grow. In many cultures, children use games to simulate and gain the skills that they will need as adults.  As an adult, a game can be a quick way to understand a new concept or practice. In the Agile world, Agile games can be used to grasp Agile related concepts. 
As Agile is typically implemented within organizations as they embark on an Agile transformation, games can be key to help them adapt toward an Agile mindset and accelerate the learning.  They can be used to grasp many of the Agile values and principles and the concepts of customer value, flow, and feedback. 
What is an Agile Game
An Agile game is an activity focused on teaching, demonstrating, and applying the Agile mindset through using game theory. An Agile game has a learning objective in mind.  The objective is to teach the player an Agile concept, practice, or technique that supports the Agile values and principles.  Games without objectives are meaningful to learning. 
For example, in order to learn about customer value, a game may be introduced that asks team members to differentiate between different types of currency.  You may learn that it isn’t always easy yet feedback may be used to better understand the value of the currency.  This simulates what it takes to understand customer value in the real world. 
Why use Agile Games
Games can jump-start the learning of concepts that can lead to an accelerated transformation. This can be useful in an Agile transformation. Games can also be used to model complex concepts or give you insight into processes.  They can give the participants the ability to assess why they work or don't work.
Games insert energy and excitement into learning. Games are often hands-on and get you out of your seats.  They get the blood going in your body and more importantly into your brains. 
Typically Agile games teach basic and mid-level concepts.  More complex and deep concepts should be accompanied by deeper studying, experimenting, and applying of the concepts and practices in real-world environments.   
Getting started with Agile Games
The first step in getting started with Agile games is to identify your specific learning objective.  An objective is often focused on exercising a specific Agile concepts, practice or technique.  Once you have identified your learning objective, you may search the internet for games that may support your objective.  A good place to find a variety of Agile games is at TastyCupcakes.org.  

Sunday, April 23, 2017

How Agile is creating a new Horizon for HR

A collaboration by Amy Jackson and Mario Moreira
Gone are the days of certainty.  In order to stay competitive companies must constantly innovate, adapt to changing market conditions, and deliver value to their customers faster than ever before.  As a result, many organizations are embracing Agile principles and practices, which are highly collaborative, iterative and focused on delivering maximum value to customers. 
As Agile adapts organizations, so must Human Resources (HR) adapt.  HR is poised to become leaders in the Agile transformation.  From an organizational change perspective, HR can facilitate and improve organizational agility by crafting programs that improve collaboration, ownership, adaptability, speed, and customer focus.  This can include:
  • Continuous Learning determine the appropriate Agile learning path for your teams.  For those just starting out, introduce the Agile Values and Principles and make parallels to the culture and behaviors your organization values. 
  • Adapting Leadership - rethink the role of the manager.  Consider moving from a command and control approach to servant leader/ coach.  Leaders should focus on coaching and removing impediments.
  • Empowering Teams – teams that are given clear direction and outcomes should be empowered to determine how they will work to achieve their outcome.  This autonomy will drive higher levels of creativity and engagement, and if done right, deliver maximum value to customers.
  • Adapting Performance Feedback – consider moving away from “traditional” annual reviews to more frequent feedback and faster feedback loops.  Individuals and teams can adapt more quickly and apply learnings to improve work.  Provide tools and techniques that empower employees to take ownership of their development.
  • Rewarding Agile Behaviorsevaluate programs to ensure they reward the behaviors and mindset you value.  In an agile environment, teams work collaboratively, consider rewards that promote teamwork and collaboration, or recognition for continuous learning, and rewards for delivering value to customers.  A one size fits all approach may not be appropriate.
  • Reshaping Talent Acquisition – hire for culture fit and mindset and make this a priority.   Working in an agile environment is not for everyone. 
In addition to focusing on programs that drive agility, HR as an organization should embrace new ways of working that reinforce the Agile Values and Principles.  First, educate yourself and don’t be afraid to experiment and try new ways of working within your HR team.  For example, if you’re considering the idea of Self-Organizing teams, consider experimenting within your team.  You will become more knowledgeable and better equipped with first-hand experience to help guide, coach and facilitate the organization in their journey to become agile. 
As you think about adapting your programs, consider using Open Space Technology.  Open Space is a great way to gather feedback, ideas and insights from your employees that can inform how you design programs for your teams.  This approach promotes collaboration.
If you plan to change or modify one of your existing programs, consider breaking this work into small increments to avoid delivering a “big bang” fully baked program which may not meet the needs of your customer.  If you plan to move away from “traditional” performance management in favor of real-time continuous feedback consider starting with one team, educate them on the value of real-time feedback and then train them on how to give and receive feedback.  Gather their feedback and iterate as needed and then begin to scale the program.
In addition, start connecting to customer value.  Consider creating a compelling purpose that is focused on customer value.  Strive to keep the (external) customer front and center by linking your programs to the value they will bring to the customer. Empower your employees to make decisions that are customer centric – this shift may mean that you change how you compensate or incentivize your employees by moving away from performance metrics that are internally focused in favor of rewarding behavior and actions that delight the customer. 
Strategic HR organizations have expertise in helping companies achieve objectives through focus on organizational culture and high-performing teams.  Given this capability there is a natural role for HR to play in an Agile culture.  HR has an opportunity to become Agile coaches and change agents.  Embrace and ready yourself for change. This may be the new horizon for HR.
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Learn more about Amy Jackson at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amjackson/
Mario Moreira writes more about Agile and HR in his book "The Agile Enterprise" in Chapter 21 "Reinventing HR for Agile"
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Thursday, July 14, 2016

Pokémon Go to Agile Go

Pokémon Go is an augmented-reality game that recently launched in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Germany and a number of other countries. In a nutshell, you search for Pokemon in the Poké world in your actual, geographical location, which you can explore by physically walking around.
Allow me to introduce you to my newly invented game called Agile Go.  Like Pokémon Go, Agile Go is a reality based game in which you search for people within your “Agile World” (aka, your company) that are exhibiting Agile behaviors aligned with the Agile values and principles.  Take a picture of them and tag it with “Agile Go”.  In Pokémon Go, you capture pokemon.  In Agile Go, you capture the moment where people are exhibiting Agile behavior.  What Agile behaviors should you look for?  Here are some real time scenarios to look for:
  • Business and development collaborating together
  • Product Owner or Team welcoming change to requirements
  • Teams self-organizing around the work
  • Team or Product Owner demonstrating an iteration of work
  • Product Owner getting feedback from actual customers
  • Team member applying a secondary skills to help others 
  • Anyone applying face-to-face communication 
  • Team identifying work not needed during grooming 
  • Anyone completing an action for improvement 
  • Manager or anyone removing an impediment to progress
If you see someone exhibiting any of these Agile behaviors or others you deem as aligning with the Agile values and principles, take a picture of them, write the Agile behavior they are exhibiting, and tag it with the “Agile Go” logo (see below).  Then share the photograph with them, letting them know that you appreciate them exhibiting positive Agile behaviors! Even consider tweeting their picture with the #agilego hashtag.  Go Agile!

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