The quest for the
Minimum Viable Step
to Agility
A Toolkit for Cultural Hackers v. 2013-oct-17 23:00
@agustinvillena
Licencing
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• This work is published under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share
Alike 2.0 Creative Commons Chile. To view a copy of this license,
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/cl/
Agustín Villena
• Entrepreneur since 1998
• Applying Agility since 2002 in – Software Development
– Creativity Industry
– Public Sector
– Civil Society
– Academy
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And my family
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• Moving from here .... • To here
Challenge ...
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• Moving from here .... • To here
Challenge ...
@agustinvillena
• Moving from here .... • To here
Challenge ...
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"Agile teams produce a
continuous stream of value,
at a sustainable pace, while
adapting to the changing
needs of the business." Elisabeth Hendrickson
http://testobsessed.com/blog/2010/12/14/the-
agile-acid-test/
“We evaluate business
agility by how frequently can
we make decisions and how
quickly can we turn that
decision into reality" David J. Anderson
http://www.djaa.com/kanban-alternative-
path-agility
Agility as a skill
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Oops!
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Natural born
agilist
Disruptive changes in the process
(Kaikaku)
Val
ue
Time
Status quo
Political Cost Rate Parity point
New Status Quo
@agustinvillena Source: @rodrigoy @djaa_dja
Evolutionary changes in the process
(Kaizen)
Valu
e
Time
Status quo
Political Costs
Bounded Change
New Status Quo
Early delivery of value
@agustinvillena Source: @rodrigoy @djaa_dja
• Agile Clinic
– Coaching for software team leaders in 8 weeks.
– I expect that they transfer what they learned their teams
• Initial Strategy
– Collaborative retrospectives
– Common Problems are attacked using Agile
My discovery process
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Who is it aimed?
CHANGE AGENTS
•Aware of the problem
•Empowered
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Babel
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SourceJeff Patton
http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf
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SourceJeff Patton
http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf
@agustinvillena
SourceJeff Patton
http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf
@agustinvillena
SourceJeff Patton
http:/ /www.agileproductdesign.com / downloads / patton_us_and_them.pdf
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Overload
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How do you decide commitments?
• Like that?
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«Available
time"
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We try to do many things at once
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Oh, oh ...
• Filling your schedule this way will cause…
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Work Items
Traditional Management
Push Scheduling
Source:
Lean & Kanban 101
http://availagility.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/zurich-lean-agile-scrum-slides/
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage n
Ready In
Process Ready In
Process Ready In
Process
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How do we solve this problem?
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OPTIMIZING THE FLOW
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Source:
Alan Shalloway Agile2011
Pull
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Pull Scheduling Stop Starting ... Start finishing!
• We're doing the right task at the right time when we are able
Workitems
Source:
Lean & Kanban 101
http://availagility.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/zurich-lean-agile-scrum-slides/
...
... Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage n
Ready In
Process Ready In
Process Ready In
Process
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Silos
People isolated from Purpose
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If we do not understand the
whole
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Modern Times
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The result ...
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TASKS
Business Layer
Technical Layer
Problem
(Need)
Business language
Technical Language
Lang
uage
Com
mon
Bas
e Features
(Solutions)
Quality
Value
Management
Scope
Goal (Purpose)
What (Product)
How (Task,
activity)
Changing the perspective
Use workitems with
clear definition of «done»
• Minimun goals - or solutions - that deliver value or
learning
– Never «tasks» or «activities»
• E.g. "Send an email" ...
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Look at the baton,
not the runners
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Why are you
wasting your time?
Traditional Manager
Leaders 'versus' employees
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Those who know, know ...
And those who don´t
are the boss ...
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You have to
build this
(And how % $ @
we will do it?)
...
Yes, boss
Employee motivation Kit
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What science says?
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How do ants organize to find food?
• Like that?
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How do ants organize to find food
• Two simple rules
– Leading the way
• Outward
• Back
– Follow the road more brands
• Simple rules that induce self-organized behavior
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How do ants organize to find food
Applying to software development
• Two simple rules
– Document learnings
– Vote for the best solutions
and follow them
• Hint
– Use a system like Stack Overflow
• For agility in Spanish http://failfast.chileagil.cl
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A tale
• Someone asked a woman cleaning what her work
at NASA was about, she said:
– «To help mankind go to the moon"
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And what about those employees that
sabotage teamwork?
Trash accumulates at abandoned
sites
• In isolated cubicles freeriders
thrive
Make the work transparent to
everyone
• Freeriders will be discovered by their own pals
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The illusion of control
The hardest obstacle
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How do we understand a project?
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Input Black box Output
How do we understand a project?
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Input
Output
Deterministic
process
(Algorithmic)
Quality
understood as
compliance with the process
Ej:ISO, CMMI
How do we understand a project?
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Project Manager «Resources» Plan
Quality
understood as
meet the Plan
How do we understand a project?
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Conductor Score
Quality
understood as
correct execution of the
score
• Let's hire the best!
Project:
New Hymn of Agile
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Famous Composer National Orchestra
Famous Rock Group
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Consider .....
The Score
Does not exists!
This project has no
deterministic process!
Waterfall model
Fixed Understanding
What about now?
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• We've been trained to believe that exists a unique
solution
– Ken Robinson: Changing Paradigms
How have we been educated?
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0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
5 8 a 10 13 a 15 18
Divergent Thinkig by age
Genio enPensamientoDivergente
Freedom from the
Unique Solution
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Apparent
Solution
Real Need
Alternative
Solution 1
Alternative
Solution n
“We've always
done it that way” (Cargo Cult)
Divergent Thinking
Discover root
conditions
An exercise to restore creativity in teams
What explains that we still use
those failling paradigms?
Paradigms
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Ford • First model of constant production flow
• Dramatic fall in production times
• Imposes 40 hours a week
• Better wages for workers
• Industrial process designed - Industrial Engineering - by Frederick
Taylor (called scientific management)
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B Side
• “Any customer can have a car painted any color
that he wants so long as it is black”
• "Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, they
come with a brain attached?"
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Tips for Cultural Hackers
• How to start a movement
(Derek Sivers)
• Evangelization Strategy
«Do not believe me,
believe to them"
– Experiments
– Success Cases
– TED Videos
Our superhero
• Archivald Harry
renegade air conditioning specialist
Brazil, The Movie
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What comes next?
• With your new super powers, can jump farther
– Practices from
Scrum,
XP,
Lean Startup,
LeanUX
etc.
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Summary
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Stone Problem Countermeasure
Babel Ill understood
Loooong Meetings
Visual Thinking
Overload Stress
No time!
• to learn,
• to innovate
PULL Strategy
Focus
Silos • "Running in circles»
• "Syndrome of the 3 Stooges'
• Cargo Cult :
"It has always been like that '
Definition of «Done "
Focus on the result, not the
players
Leaders vs
Employees
Discouragement
Unhappyness
Intelligence wasted
Autonomy, mastery, Purpose
Transparency
Ilussion of
Control
• Stumbling again with the same stone
• Epic Failures
Experiments Exploration
(eg:Marshmallow Challenge)
Others?