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Evolving Agility @dsommerville_nw Apologies if you already know this story… Nevertheless, is fascinating and makes an important point…

Evolving Agility

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Cargo Cults of the Pacific Islands - Agility Reality Check.

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Page 1: Evolving Agility

Evolving Agility

@dsommerville_nw

• Apologies if you already know this story… • Nevertheless, is fascinating and makes an important point…

Page 2: Evolving Agility

War in the Pacific! • During WWII the Americans and Japanese used the Pacific Islands for their supply chains. • After the war anthropologists discovered an unusual religion have developed amongst the islands. • (USS Pennsylvania)

Page 3: Evolving Agility

War in the Pacific! • During the war the Islanders saw the Americans and Japanese summon huge metal birds carrying cargo from the sky. • However, once the war ended the Americans and Japanese left and the cargo stopped arriving….

Page 4: Evolving Agility

Magic! • The Islanders figured that if they re-enacted what they had observed, then they too would be able to summon the metal birds… (Hawkins Field, Betio, Tarawa, March 1944)

Page 5: Evolving Agility

• So they: • …built replica aircraft out of twigs and branches.

Page 6: Evolving Agility

• So they: • …lit fires along the landing strips and built control towers.

Page 7: Evolving Agility

• So they: • …carved radios and headsets from wood and coconuts.

Page 8: Evolving Agility

Became know an “Cargo Cults” • Quite a common occurrence. • Tend to occur where fundamental knowledge of the underlying system was not exchanged or passed on. • Belief is that by re-enacting the observed ceremonies the “magic” of the advanced culture will be re-created. • (“John Frum” cult today)

Page 9: Evolving Agility

“I see the same tragedy occurring with Agile.

Many of the teams I know have adopted just two aspects of agile development: stand-up meetings and biweekly planning sessions.

Nothing else.”

* http://www.jamesshore.com/Blog/Cargo-Cult-Agile.html

Page 10: Evolving Agility

Agile Cargo Cult? • Simply adopting Agile “ceremonies” and a few XP practices does not make a team “agile”. • Can actually become detrimental.

• An unnecessary distraction and/or source of disagreement. • “You’re doing it wrong!”

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Evolving Agility • Team must have a sound understanding of Agile principles for the “magic” to work:

• Rapid delivery of working software. • Collaboration & communication. • Feedback loops.

• Ceremonies may help achieve this…

Page 12: Evolving Agility

Experiment & Evolve • Start by looking a Scrum, Kanban, XP, etc but don’t stop there.

• Continually evaluate and adjust the practices to suit your teams’ needs. • It’s OK to get it wrong - failure is good - raw stuff of learning.

Page 13: Evolving Agility

Reality Check • Can your team:

• Respond quickly to a change? • Hours (or even minutes), rather than days or weeks…

• Release at a moments notice? • Daily, rather than weekly or monthly…

• Avoid overtime? • Achieve near-zero defect rates?

Page 14: Evolving Agility

Thank You

@dsommerville_nw

• Show of hands - who had already heard the Cargo Cult story?