Too often in agile software development we tend to use methodologies and all their components simply because the rule book says so. Why not select the tool based on the context of the task your trying to complete. Anything that you use that does not lead towards a direct value add to the final product delivered is simply an overhead and waste. This presentation covers discovering what is the minimum amount of practices that are required to achieve the goal of delivering a product we desire - safely, quickly and successfully. Thus allowing us to start getting feedback and improving it.

1. I DON’T DO AGILE, I AM AGILE!
@BarryOReilly
www.barryoreilly.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/barryoreilly

2. Who are ThoughtWorks?
! Enterprise Agile and Technology consulting
! Offices in US, UK, Germany, India, Brazil,
China and Australia
! 1,800 people worldwide
! Martin Fowler, Jim Highsmith & Jez Humble
! Creators of GO!, Twist and Mingle

3. What will we cover?

4. Problems adopting and practicing Agile
in organisations

5. Follow what is in the book
– we’re Agile!

6. Agile project failing to deliver or live
up to expectations

7. But we are doing everything
X
says to do

8. Maybe Agile isn’t for us
It does not work
A myth

9. Practices and Principles
Agile
– SCRUM
– XP
Lean and Kanban

10. SCRUM - Practices
Meetings Artifacts
! Daily Stand Up ! Product Backlog
! Sprint Planning ! Sprint Backlog
! Showcase ! Burn Down
! Retrospective Roles
Time-boxing ! SCRUM Master
! Sprint ! SCRUM Team
! Spikes ! Product Owner
! Users

11. XP – Practices
Feedback Shared Understanding
! User Stories (Planning) ! Simple Design
! Whole team ! System Metaphor
! Test Driven ! Collective Code
Development Ownership
! Pair Programming Continuous Process
Welfare ! Continuous Integration
! Sustainable Pace ! Design Improvement
! Small Releases

12. Kanban
! Visualise The Workflow
! Limit Work In Progress
! Manage Flow
! Make Process Policies Explicit
! Improve Collaboratively

13. Change your perspective

14. Instead of trying to do everything
that’s prescribed
Ask why are we doing it?

15. Do we need to do it?
Does it work for the product we
trying to build?

16. Reverse thinking

17. The best place to begin an intellectual
journey is at its end
– Russell Ackoff

18. Visionaries look ahead to a desired end
Know where they want to be

19. Work backwards to find a way of
getting there

20. Bad smells

21. To do more of what is not working
now, is to do more of what will not
work in the future

22. Trying to do the wrong thing right

23. Being ineffective

24. How do we know?

25. Practices and Principles
! Agile
– SCRUM
– XP
! Lean
– Kanban
– Muda (Eliminating waste)
– Amplify learning
– Deliver as fast as possible

26. It is important that an aim never be
defined in terms of a specific
activity or method.
– Edward Deming

27. Go Compare

28. Compare
! SCRUM ! XP ! Kanban
14 Practices 12 Practices 3 Practices
- Time boxed - Iterative - Event Driven
- Cross Functional - Developer centric - Specialist teams
teams - No Roles Prescribed
- Collective
- Roles Prescribed Ownership - Add Items when
- Cannot Add Items - Small releases capacity
- Estimation Required - Planning game - Estimation Optional
Prescriptive Adaptive

29. Focus on using the practices that suit
the context
Don’t simply stick with one discipline
and one alone

30. Great idea!
When do we start?

31. Day One to Last Day

32. Example

33. Day One
! Management felt need to control and manage team
! Showed a lack of involvement in the project (Agile too time
consuming)
! Wanted progress reports every two weeks
! SCRUM by the book
! Time-boxing led to mini-Waterfall mentality
! Sprint planning meeting (taking hours and all team members)
! Build broken, still go to prescribed meetings
! Estimate in points, task in hours, Burn down in hours

34. Change perspective
On
Planned Demand

35. Change Going Forward
Once Now On
Planned Demand
No Sprint Story Showcase
Planning
No Time Retro Reporting
Box
Trash Abstract
Hours Sizing

36. Last Day
! Only formality
– Showcase to external stakeholders
– Report outwards on velocity covered since last report cycle
! Stakeholders
– require continual engagement at story review and showcase
– Forced to prioritised
! Developers
– Story huddles meant they only review stories they work on
– Focus on writing code, not hang out in meetings

37. What are the indicators for what
practices to use?

38. What To Think About….
! Project Brief
– Green or Brown Fields
– New Product Development
– Heavy Lifting
– Integration

39. What To Think About….
! Organisation
– Experience of Agile
– Open to change
– Culture
– People need to feel secure, otherwise display
defensive behaviour

40. What To Think About….
! Hand over and collaboration
– Always available
– Not with team continually
– Intermittently
– Only attend schedule meetings

41. What To Think About….
! Composition Of The Team
– Co-located
– Distributed
– Same working hours
– Different time zones

42. What To Think About….
! Environment
– Technology
– Tools
– Office Space
– Desk Space

43. What To Think About….
! Releasing
– Automated or Manual
– How often can you deploy?
– On demand
– Daily, Weekly, Monthly
– Scheduled cycle

44. What To Think About….
! Feedback loops
– Stakeholders
– Customers
– Colleagues
– Cannot improve if you do not get it

45. So back to SCRUM, XP or Kanban

46. ! SCURM ! XP ! Kanban
14 Practices 12 Practices 3 Practices
- Time boxed - Iterative - Event Driven
- Cross Functional - Developer centric - Specialist teams
teams - No Roles Prescribed
- Collective
- Roles Prescribed Ownership - Add Items when
- Cannot Add Items - Small releases capacity
- Estimation Required - Planning game - Estimation Optional

47. Stop thinking about what discipline
to use
Starting thinking about what practice
will be useful

48. ! SCURM ! XP ! Kanban
14 Practices 12 Practices 3 Practices
- Time boxed - Iterative - Event Driven
- Cross Functional - Developer centric - Specialist teams
teams - No Roles Prescribed
- Collective
- Roles Prescribed Ownership - Add Items when
- Cannot Add Items - Small releases capacity
- Estimation Required - Planning game - Estimation Optional

49. - Time boxed - Iterative - Event Driven
- Cross Functional - Developer centric - Specialist teams
teams
- Collective - No Roles Prescribed
- Roles Prescribed Ownership - Add Items when
- Cannot Add Items - Small releases capacity
- Estimation Required - Planning game - Estimation Optional

50. Lean Thinking

51. There is nothing so useless as doing
efficiently that which should not be
done at all
- Peter Drucker

52. Minimum amount to succeed

53. Muda
– Eliminate waste
– Not helping get rid of it
– Using more tools, people or equipment than is needed
– Software Development is a value creation process
– Perfect process has no unneeded waste

54. Delivering as fast as possible
– End goal is to deliver a product
– Sooner the product is delivered
– Sooner you get feedback
– Sooner you can improve it

55. Amplified learning
– Continuous learning process
– Making mistakes and learning
– Increased feedback

56. Question Everything

57. Is what we are doing valuable or
slowing us down?

58. Is it relevant for what we are trying
to do?

59. What purpose is it meant to serve
- is it achieving it?

60. If we didn’t do it what would
happen?

61. Continuous Improvement

62. Team arrives at maturity when it invests
more in strategies and tactics that do
not work more than ones that do

63. Learn more when things are wrong
not right

64. Try things out
Don’t be afraid to fail

65. Do not waste your failures

66. It's not FAILURE that we should
celebrate - but the LEARNING that
ensues

67. Kaizen
Plan
Act Do
Check

68. Thank you
@BarryOReilly