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Slides of my talk at ALE 2013: Why and how I've been investigating the matter of transposing the agile principles and practises into our company organization
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From agile software development to building an agile company
Damien THOUVENIN
ALE 2013Bucharest
August 28th-30th
#ALE13 @cltservices
As an agile coach, I tell my clients :
« Agile is not an end, it is rather a mean to
an end. What is it that you really want ? »
As a manager I have learned at least one lesson : « in order to achieve your goals, you must focus on
means rather than on goals »
building an agile company is not my goal but it’s where
my focus is
FOREWORD
DISCLAIMER
This is not a lectureThis is not a retrospective
It’s storyA story about me and my companyIt’s a story about paradoxes, and how we deal with themI hope it is also about us, sharing ideas during these 3 days
What this is not
What this is
WHAT ABOUT ME ?
1980: Computer Kid (IBM 5100)2001: From TDD to full-grade XP – As a software editor, XP is cool !2004: Founding CLT – As a contractor XP is hard ! 2006: Reading a lot: from Poppendiecks’ to Lean thinking2007: Reading a lot more: from Lean to Scrum 2008: Scrum training with Jeff Sutherland2008-2009: Community (learn and share)2010+ : Agile consulting2011+: Could this also apply to the way we grow our company ?
WHAT ABOUT THE COMPANY ?
Founded 2004 (Me+Ludovic, 12K €)First 3 years “lost” trying to know what we want, then growthNow 30 co-workers, ~2.2 M€ turnover12% net profit in 2012
Three lines of businessSoft’It: Custom software developmentCoActiv: Lean-Agile facilitationGreenDot: Microsoft .NET craftmanship
Actively investigating agile as a way of running a our company since 2011
THE GOAL
• Make selling easy : deliver high value to our customers• Make our co-workers happy
• Work is meaningful• You get your say• You learn a lot and become better at what you do
• Make (a lot of) money• Don’t be selfish : contribute to making the world a better place (at the
very least, don’t make it worse)
Building a virtuous company
THE GOAL, REFORMULATED
Co-author solutions with our customersrather than negotiate contracts
Care for relationships and peoplerather than rules, processes and SOPs
Focus on delivering valuerather than compliance and paper work
Word is changing fast: learn and adaptrather than follow the business plan
It’s the f**ing manifesto !
APPLY AGILE TO BUILDING A COMPANY ?How do we build complex software ?
QUESTIONS (PARADOXES)
• Can we make money and not be greedy ?• Should we grow ? How can we change and stay the same ?• How can we have a single shared vision and let every co-
worker bring her own project ?• Can we have self-organising teams and not loose control ?
How do you manage a herd of cats ?
TRIBUTE
SCALABILITY
Maths souvenirs from 1987 : A mathematical structure that is infinitely self-similar; properties and appearance are preserved when scale changes …
How can we get bigger and stay the same ?
Future Present PastStrategy Management Measure
Marketing Production Administer
MOTIVATION (INTRAPRENEURSHIP)
Do whatever it is that you believe in, provided : It fits in the company project, values and ambitions (Make
money, grow people, deliver value, benefit to your environement)
People in the company can freely move to or from your business unit to another (i.e. provide career gateways from/to other lines of business)
You have better ideas ? Go try it !
CONTROL SECURITY
People (at least: my crowd) are not irresponsible. Our culture is based on autonomy + responsibility. Responsible decisions require knowledgeRaw information is uselessActionable knowledge = shared information + learning
The manager becomes a facilitator, the accounting/administrator becomes an information provider
Nobody wants to sink the ship
Roles change
COHESION
Conflicts are for power. In most companies information is power. Share information that is to take away the power stakes.
“Democracy is dead, long live sociocracy !” Gilles Charest.
Why not share power ?
LEARNING
We learn as we go. Iterations are key
Shorter iterations = more frequent learning + less deviation
The whole company moves in very short steps and we communicate a lot
To learn and improve, measurements also are key.
AGILE PRINCIPLES … REFACTORED
• Shared vision + common « value function »• Capacity planning + Iterations• Learning + Information = knowledge• Self-organising teams, and individuals• Fail fast, measure and improve
BE UNREASONABLE
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw