Agile Companies Go P.O.P

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

TOWARDS A NEW AGILE MANIFESTO

CURTIS “OVID” POE

Agile Companies Go P.O.P.

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Keynotes

Why are you here?

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Are Great Companies Lucky?

Published in Harvard Business ReviewOver 20,000 CompaniesFrom 1966 to 2006http

://hbr.org/2009/04/are-great-companies-just-lucky/ar/1

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/redwoodphotography/4356518997/§

Most studies are crap

http://www.flickr.com/photos/redwoodphotography/4356518997/

Most studies are crap

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Sharpshooter Problem Shoot first. Announce your target.

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Reality trumps opinion

Book Apparent Superstars Real Superstars

Alchemy of Growth 29 0%

Big Winners/Big Losers 9 13%

Blueprint to a Billion 26 8%

Breakthrough Company 9 17%

Built to Last 18 7%

Creative Destruction 11 0%

Good to Great 11 0%

Granularity of Growth 42 0%

In Search of Excellence 14 0%

Peak Performance 21 0%

Profit from the Core 32 17%

Stall Points 67 0%

What Really Works 14 0%

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

?

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chess-king.JPG

Between

Between players of equal skill, a bad strategy beats no strategy.

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

So let’s pick a good plan

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

A Bad Plan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Waterfall_model_(1).svg

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Worst Case Scenario

Lots of meetingsBig projectsAgile is AmateurProcess is everything

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Conform

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Agile Manifesto

1. Individuals over process2. Software over documentation3. Customer collaboration over negotiation4. Change over plans

http://agilemanifesto.org/

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Chess

Goal CheckmateStrategy Plan to achieve your goalTactics Moves to support your

strategy

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Business

Goal Mission statementStrategy An agile companyTactics P.O.P.

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

What is P.O.P.?

P eople

O rganization

P rocess

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

People

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

People Are Everything

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Unstructured Interviews

Interviewers aren’t trained in interviewsDifferent candidates/different questionsPersonality valued over performanceVery little predictive power

https://apps.opm.gov/ADT/ContentFiles/SIGuide09.08.08.pdf

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Structured Interviews

Same questions in same orderFocused on specific skills neededExcellent predictive power

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Structured Interviews

1. Job analysis 2. Determine desired skills3. Develop questions4. Goal, role, action, score, speculation (GRASS)5. Immediately assess answers

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Organization

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Eyjafjallajökull Eruption 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eyjafjallajokull_volcano_plume_2010_04_18.JPG

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Agile Organizations

Everyone is an ownerOwnership means responsibilityResponsibility requires authorityAuthority requires information

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Agile Organizations

Small projects over large projectsInformation over opinionEmployees are as important as customers

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Ownership Implies Trust

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Trust

Did you hire the right people?Trust them to make decisionsDecisions require information

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Information

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Log Everything

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ex_magician/4931775369/

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Monitor Everything

Monitor Everything

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eyes_at_the_Prague_Police_Museum.jpg

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Challenge Assumptions

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leaning_Tower-Pisa.jpg

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Large projects fail

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Space_Shuttle_Columbia_launching.jpg

http://www.idlewords.com/2005/08/a_rocket_to_nowhere.htm

http://www.ralentz.com/old/space/feynman-report.html

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Break Down Large Projects

Don’t do large projects (major caveats!)Do a series of small projectsEach should add value

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

VA LV E

http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Process

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

This Subroutine

sub perambulate { my @thingies = @_; foreach my $thing (@thingies) { # validate the thingy } return \@thingies;}

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

5 lines of code …5 page “code review”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/titouanrusso/6153880964/

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Workflow: Management Perspective

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Workflow: Developer Perspective

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Workflow: Agile Perspective

CompromiseTasks, not processesTesting, logging, and monitoring

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Continuous … What?

Continuous integration is old-skool!Try continuous deploymentCourage instead of fearMinimize risk/maximize reward

Continuous Deployment at IMVU: Doing the impossible fifty times a day

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Testing

TDD is not QATradeoffs between unit/integration testingA/B test your bug fixes!

Testing

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:94-707-6_hybrid_rocket_test.jpg

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Agile Project Management

XP?Scrum?Kanban?Crystal?Something else?

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Implementing P.O.P.

Becoming agile is a hard projectAn agile projectOne step at a timeHigh value steps first

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Implementing P.O.P.

Hiring: easy and hardTalk to your employeesAssess risk/rewardPareto!

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Once You’re Agile

Never forget your goalAlways question your processesAgile is a mindset, not a process

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Agile Manifesto

1. People over process2. Software over documentation3. Customer collaboration over negotiation4. Change over plans

P.O.P. Copyright 2012, Curtis "Ovid" Poe

A New Agile Manifesto?

1. People over process2. Information over opinion3. Courage over fear4. Change over plans