Hi,
"The king is dead, long live the king!"
People continue to be subject to the king even though the new king may be far less of a monarch than the previous one.
I recently attended the Scrum Gathering 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden.
It was great to see some of the old faces again and its great to recharge and re-energise by talking to like-minded "agilists".
The best day by far was the Tuesday when we did Open Space. This is when you're able to vote with your feet and be involved only in those topics you're interested in.
As a Scrum Practitioner I was able to both support people new to scrum, as well as talk to other practitioners and trainers about larger issues. These issues included integrating scrum within corporate governance models, contracts for agile methods and lean initiatives across companies outside the direct software development capability.
What was disappointing but not wholly unexpected, was the considerable shift from an informal gathering of like-minded people interested in learning and sharing scrum experiences, to a commercially-oriented, brand aware business conference.
The flagrant use of corporate presentations, and the "selling" of agile products and services by consultants and trainers alike really disappointed me. Obviously, there's now some real money to be made with agile and scrum and the bandwagon is super-charged.
Ultimately, Jeff Sutherland's joint corporate presentation promoting off-shore agile teams clearly showed to me that the old Scrum is dead. If the purity of a methodology cannot be maintained at its source, and promoted as the ideal, then those compromises will filter down and out across the board.
The message at the source of a methodology, which are the scrum gatherings, should be about the "ideal" and "pursuing perfection". The open spaces then become discussions about how to overcome obstacles preventing that goal through sharing experiences.
I'm hoping that other attendees provided similar feedback that reflected the frustration with corporate presentations and the need to revert to a more intimate, open space approach for the entirety of the next gathering.
I am however resigned to the fact that commercial gain will further dilute the real value of scrum until it becomes a shadow of its former self.
Scrum is Dead, Long Live Scrum!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Fearless Change
I've recently joined T-Mobile as Agile & Online Programme Manager, and although there is an appetite in localised areas for agile adoption, there are some more fundamental areas of change required before real progress can be quantified.
Corporate IT strategy, budget governance, resource models, enterprise architecture and software development all need to change and require long-term commitment. Shifting towards agile concepts, mindsets, methods and practices is a significant undertaking and clearly, Toyota's statement of 12 years to "lean" is not only true, but probably an understatement.
Over the last few years software developers have often proselyted the use of software patterns, and having read around Alexander's original architectural patterns, I've become a user of organisational patterns.
The core, unique benefit of pattern theory is that it is the codifying of experience. This isn't some individual's idea of how to do something; patterns are derived from actual experiences of a problem context, the solutions that were applied, and that have worked before... Many times.
I've previously blogged about Coplien's book on Organisational patterns of Agile software development, but I've been using change patterns from a book called Fearless Change.
These patterns codify key lessons learnt by people who have tried to introduce innovation within corporate entities. This is not just about introducing agile, but about any innovation, and the benefit to anyone new to change management is that there are tried and tested patterns available.
Key roles identified include the maven, salesman and connector. Patterns I've used and that are bearing fruit include Evangelist, Do Food, Just Do It, Test the Waters, Small Successes, Time for Reflection, Step By Step, Plant the Seeds, E-forum and Brown Bag.
The other benefit of using this book as a tool, is that it is supportive to people in the midst of the struggle to introduce change and innovation. Others have been where you are now, and this is how they succeeded!
If you are not aware of, or using, a facet of pattern theory, you're missing a trick!
Corporate IT strategy, budget governance, resource models, enterprise architecture and software development all need to change and require long-term commitment. Shifting towards agile concepts, mindsets, methods and practices is a significant undertaking and clearly, Toyota's statement of 12 years to "lean" is not only true, but probably an understatement.
Over the last few years software developers have often proselyted the use of software patterns, and having read around Alexander's original architectural patterns, I've become a user of organisational patterns.
The core, unique benefit of pattern theory is that it is the codifying of experience. This isn't some individual's idea of how to do something; patterns are derived from actual experiences of a problem context, the solutions that were applied, and that have worked before... Many times.
I've previously blogged about Coplien's book on Organisational patterns of Agile software development, but I've been using change patterns from a book called Fearless Change.
These patterns codify key lessons learnt by people who have tried to introduce innovation within corporate entities. This is not just about introducing agile, but about any innovation, and the benefit to anyone new to change management is that there are tried and tested patterns available.
Key roles identified include the maven, salesman and connector. Patterns I've used and that are bearing fruit include Evangelist, Do Food, Just Do It, Test the Waters, Small Successes, Time for Reflection, Step By Step, Plant the Seeds, E-forum and Brown Bag.
The other benefit of using this book as a tool, is that it is supportive to people in the midst of the struggle to introduce change and innovation. Others have been where you are now, and this is how they succeeded!
If you are not aware of, or using, a facet of pattern theory, you're missing a trick!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Agile Leaders - The Next Hurdle
So you know what Scrum, XP & Agile are all about, got the T-shirt etc.
You're fine tuning scrum practices in your company.
You're running multiple scrum teams, you've adopted most of the XP practices, (test driven development taking a while?).
Agile approaches are spreading across your company's project portfolio.
You've even achieved the holy grail and have board level support!
What's next?
Where do you focus your long-term thoughts?
How do you get the entire company behind you?
How do you create an Agile Business?
What does your next learning curve look like?
How do you achieve more?
Answer: Lean Thinking & Financial Understanding
Too boring?
Who'd have thought that there are a simple set of principles, that when correctly applied, rapidly improve any business in any sector of industry. And, when applied to other departments and functions within your business, will enhance and improve your own project team's output.
Have a good look at your previous impediments. Which took the longest to overcome? Were the long-standing ones due to outside influences?
Is your procurement process too slow?
Infrastructure teams inflexible?
Funds not available?
Training budgets restricted?
Lean Thinking is the best approach to achieving "Agile" levels of performance across the business. And the easy part is getting started.
Lean starts with Eliminating Waste, and from my experience the identification and elimination of the 7 types of waste leads to immediate cost savings directly visible on the bottom line.
This is something the board will understand immediately!
Every single business regardless of sector has waste, and with some thought and application you can "Learn to See"the waste in your business and start removing it.
I recently completed a value chain analysis which has identified savings of over £250,000 per annum. The project to implement the changes began this week.
This isn't rocket science, but it does need you to step out of the comfort zone. You do need to analyse and understand your budgets, performance, and processes. My time with Shaun Mundy at CPM showed me the value of this.
It's alright being bloody great at Agile, and knowing how to deliver software and create self-organising teams, but always remember that the engine for change, the real way to effect change, is control of the P&L.
Agile leaders need to understand and learn to speak the language of the P&L, balance sheet and cashflow if widespread corporate level change is to be accomplished.
Couple financial understanding with lean implementation and Agile leaders will be building not only successful agile project teams, but successful agile companies.
So, go on, nip down to your accounts department today and ask for last month's P&L.
I dare you!
Mary Poppendieck is "Yoda" on this subject - http://www.poppendieck.com/
http://www.lean.org/
You're fine tuning scrum practices in your company.
You're running multiple scrum teams, you've adopted most of the XP practices, (test driven development taking a while?).
Agile approaches are spreading across your company's project portfolio.
You've even achieved the holy grail and have board level support!
What's next?
Where do you focus your long-term thoughts?
How do you get the entire company behind you?
How do you create an Agile Business?
What does your next learning curve look like?
How do you achieve more?
Answer: Lean Thinking & Financial Understanding
Too boring?
Who'd have thought that there are a simple set of principles, that when correctly applied, rapidly improve any business in any sector of industry. And, when applied to other departments and functions within your business, will enhance and improve your own project team's output.
Have a good look at your previous impediments. Which took the longest to overcome? Were the long-standing ones due to outside influences?
Is your procurement process too slow?
Infrastructure teams inflexible?
Funds not available?
Training budgets restricted?
Lean Thinking is the best approach to achieving "Agile" levels of performance across the business. And the easy part is getting started.
Lean starts with Eliminating Waste, and from my experience the identification and elimination of the 7 types of waste leads to immediate cost savings directly visible on the bottom line.
This is something the board will understand immediately!
Every single business regardless of sector has waste, and with some thought and application you can "Learn to See"the waste in your business and start removing it.
I recently completed a value chain analysis which has identified savings of over £250,000 per annum. The project to implement the changes began this week.
This isn't rocket science, but it does need you to step out of the comfort zone. You do need to analyse and understand your budgets, performance, and processes. My time with Shaun Mundy at CPM showed me the value of this.
It's alright being bloody great at Agile, and knowing how to deliver software and create self-organising teams, but always remember that the engine for change, the real way to effect change, is control of the P&L.
Agile leaders need to understand and learn to speak the language of the P&L, balance sheet and cashflow if widespread corporate level change is to be accomplished.
Couple financial understanding with lean implementation and Agile leaders will be building not only successful agile project teams, but successful agile companies.
So, go on, nip down to your accounts department today and ask for last month's P&L.
I dare you!
Mary Poppendieck is "Yoda" on this subject - http://www.poppendieck.com/
http://www.lean.org/
Monday, March 12, 2007
Inversion Management - 21st Century Leadership
Using the term "Management" in the title of this blog, reflects part of the problem with the dominant logic of mainstream business.
I've been with TV Network for just over a year now, and its been exciting, frustrating, inspiring, draining, hard work and fun!
Establishing an agile project, running an agile programme, creating an agile department, evolving an agile company... each level requires new skills, different perspectives, perseverance and openness to change.
Your perspectives change, you change...
I believe the most successful business leaders today are shifting through an Inversion of Leadership.
The inherited perception and mindset of management, is one of hierarchy, command & control, transactional leadership, management by exception, reward & recognition, sequential projects and long-term strategic planning.
Agile leaders believe in flat structures for real-time communication, encourage delegation and de-centralisation of control, exude transformational leadership, are naturally inclusive decision makers, care about Corporate Social Responsibility, adopt iterative processes, create vision, define objectives and are continuous change agents.
Agile leaders exist as a minority not only in software development, but in all industries.
The mainstream, pervading approach to "management" is based on reward and recognition, direction and control.
The emerging approach, for successful companies, will be leadership and vision, delegation and inspiration, training and mentoring, support and coaching.
From my experience it is much harder to be a leader, coach, delegate and mentor when there are deadlines, profit/loss and long hours to deal with... but at the same time you can achieve a hell of a lot more.
Do I think Inversion Management will replace mainstream practices?
Will agile leaders be wanted across business?
Not until the current mindset of shareholders, the stock market and banking institutions of looking at quarterly profit margins, and quick revenues, shifts to being concerned about sustainable business, sustainable wealth, and the ability of companies to change and innovate.
I've been with TV Network for just over a year now, and its been exciting, frustrating, inspiring, draining, hard work and fun!
Establishing an agile project, running an agile programme, creating an agile department, evolving an agile company... each level requires new skills, different perspectives, perseverance and openness to change.
Your perspectives change, you change...
I believe the most successful business leaders today are shifting through an Inversion of Leadership.
The inherited perception and mindset of management, is one of hierarchy, command & control, transactional leadership, management by exception, reward & recognition, sequential projects and long-term strategic planning.
Agile leaders believe in flat structures for real-time communication, encourage delegation and de-centralisation of control, exude transformational leadership, are naturally inclusive decision makers, care about Corporate Social Responsibility, adopt iterative processes, create vision, define objectives and are continuous change agents.
Agile leaders exist as a minority not only in software development, but in all industries.
The mainstream, pervading approach to "management" is based on reward and recognition, direction and control.
The emerging approach, for successful companies, will be leadership and vision, delegation and inspiration, training and mentoring, support and coaching.
From my experience it is much harder to be a leader, coach, delegate and mentor when there are deadlines, profit/loss and long hours to deal with... but at the same time you can achieve a hell of a lot more.
Do I think Inversion Management will replace mainstream practices?
Will agile leaders be wanted across business?
Not until the current mindset of shareholders, the stock market and banking institutions of looking at quarterly profit margins, and quick revenues, shifts to being concerned about sustainable business, sustainable wealth, and the ability of companies to change and innovate.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
"Agile" or "agile"
If, like me you seek insights into how to really create "Agile" businesses, I'm afraid there's a mountain of hype, miscommunication and misunderstanding to wade through.
"Agile" has over the last 2 years become the latest "fad" in business circles (certainly I.T. circles) and so of course, every Tom, Dick and Harry is jumping on the bandwagon trying to make a "buck!"
I attended a Scrum Gathering in the States about 2 years ago when the issue of how to rapidly implement Agile across large organisations was a key topic. The truth is, that as with anything in life, it takes time, alot of time, to get something worth having!
Toyota are quoted as saying it takes 12 years for a corporation to become lean, and I believe them.
"Agile" with a capital A, is not just about adopting a methodology or some SOA or web services architecture; Agile is about shifting executive, middle management and "coal-face" employee mindsets from heirarchical, document-heavy, linear thinking to creating an organisational culture that embodies the tenets of the agile manifesto:
To really value collaboration over contracts, the individual over processes and systems, and value responding to change, over long-term planning.
This is Agile with a capital A, and a true understanding of Agile can only be achieved by pioneering it within your own sphere of influence and experiencing it for yourself. If you want help getting started see Womack, Jones, Poppendieck and Schwaber for reference.
Any company, person, or software architecture can claim to be agile, but, to cut through the hype you need to find those people who know the difference...
"Agile" with the capital 'A', or "agile" with a small 'a'.
"Agile" has over the last 2 years become the latest "fad" in business circles (certainly I.T. circles) and so of course, every Tom, Dick and Harry is jumping on the bandwagon trying to make a "buck!"
I attended a Scrum Gathering in the States about 2 years ago when the issue of how to rapidly implement Agile across large organisations was a key topic. The truth is, that as with anything in life, it takes time, alot of time, to get something worth having!
Toyota are quoted as saying it takes 12 years for a corporation to become lean, and I believe them.
"Agile" with a capital A, is not just about adopting a methodology or some SOA or web services architecture; Agile is about shifting executive, middle management and "coal-face" employee mindsets from heirarchical, document-heavy, linear thinking to creating an organisational culture that embodies the tenets of the agile manifesto:
To really value collaboration over contracts, the individual over processes and systems, and value responding to change, over long-term planning.
This is Agile with a capital A, and a true understanding of Agile can only be achieved by pioneering it within your own sphere of influence and experiencing it for yourself. If you want help getting started see Womack, Jones, Poppendieck and Schwaber for reference.
Any company, person, or software architecture can claim to be agile, but, to cut through the hype you need to find those people who know the difference...
"Agile" with the capital 'A', or "agile" with a small 'a'.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Product Backlog for One?
Hi,
A couple of weeks ago a colleague of mine was having a terrible time at work, highly stressed, a mountain of work, and thinking she'd made a big mistake joining the company.
We went for a Starbucks (thank the lord for making Starbucks) and a chat...
The issues were a great big pile of work and many masters... Not uncommon I think.
I just told her a few "tricks of the trade" that had been passed onto me, and now things have "turned around 100%".
1. The biggest source of stress at work is people. We're either communicating poorly, not empathising, not understanding the complexity of tasks, got hangovers etc, etc, etc.... Once you understand this, you can filter the noise and get on with the work.
2. Have a daily action plan... I don't care who you are or what you do, but spending 10 minutes at the beginning of the day thinking about and writing down what you'll achieve by the end of the day is a MUST!
It helps maintain your motivation and focus, and maybe there'll be a sense of achievement at the end... (Although sometimes its more an indicator of what didn't get done!)
3. Every task has 2 factors! They are Urgency and Importance. Draw a 2x2 matrix, if its urgent and important, get it done! Important but you've got a couple of days, then schedule the time and keep to the schedule.
4. Communicate: With 3 or 4 senior managers screaming for results, understand 2 things:
1. It is not your responsibility to ensure that tasks are evenly distributed across a team, but IT IS YOUR responsibility to be as productive as you can, and work to the required quality levels.
2. The person who knows the most about the tasks you are doing, is you! The person at the coal-face is the expert. So... Tell people what is going on. Be as transparent as possible about your workload. [Geeks: Product Backlog for One!]
The action plan we agreed on, was to clearly articulate the current task list in priority order, to communicate it to all relevant managers, and to elicite feedback on whether any of the priorities were incorrect....
The result...
The managers are aware of a huge task list, can see the other relative priorities, argue between themselves what the relative priorities are, and see an employee working hard. [Geeks: A bit like Steering Group members arguing over a Product Backlog].
This is such a simple exercise and has been part of my daily routine since god knows when.
But I never went on a course for it. It was gleaned or given as advice from mentors or friends.
Its probably one of the most important things for anyone to learn at work!
A couple of weeks ago a colleague of mine was having a terrible time at work, highly stressed, a mountain of work, and thinking she'd made a big mistake joining the company.
We went for a Starbucks (thank the lord for making Starbucks) and a chat...
The issues were a great big pile of work and many masters... Not uncommon I think.
I just told her a few "tricks of the trade" that had been passed onto me, and now things have "turned around 100%".
1. The biggest source of stress at work is people. We're either communicating poorly, not empathising, not understanding the complexity of tasks, got hangovers etc, etc, etc.... Once you understand this, you can filter the noise and get on with the work.
2. Have a daily action plan... I don't care who you are or what you do, but spending 10 minutes at the beginning of the day thinking about and writing down what you'll achieve by the end of the day is a MUST!
It helps maintain your motivation and focus, and maybe there'll be a sense of achievement at the end... (Although sometimes its more an indicator of what didn't get done!)
3. Every task has 2 factors! They are Urgency and Importance. Draw a 2x2 matrix, if its urgent and important, get it done! Important but you've got a couple of days, then schedule the time and keep to the schedule.4. Communicate: With 3 or 4 senior managers screaming for results, understand 2 things:
1. It is not your responsibility to ensure that tasks are evenly distributed across a team, but IT IS YOUR responsibility to be as productive as you can, and work to the required quality levels.
2. The person who knows the most about the tasks you are doing, is you! The person at the coal-face is the expert. So... Tell people what is going on. Be as transparent as possible about your workload. [Geeks: Product Backlog for One!]
The action plan we agreed on, was to clearly articulate the current task list in priority order, to communicate it to all relevant managers, and to elicite feedback on whether any of the priorities were incorrect....
The result...
The managers are aware of a huge task list, can see the other relative priorities, argue between themselves what the relative priorities are, and see an employee working hard. [Geeks: A bit like Steering Group members arguing over a Product Backlog].
This is such a simple exercise and has been part of my daily routine since god knows when.
But I never went on a course for it. It was gleaned or given as advice from mentors or friends.
Its probably one of the most important things for anyone to learn at work!
Friday, January 05, 2007
All Change
Hello,
What a difference a year makes!
I've moved from Head of Development with CPM, to Head of Technology & E-commerce at TV Network, the UKs biggest Direct Response Television Company.
There are lots of projects going on at the moment, but the most pertinent for this blog is Chrysalis 7. Chrysalis 7 is a Lean Thinking Programme to introduce lean practices, culture and organisational change http://www.leanuk.org/.
Having implemented lean initiatives within the software industry, I am now leading a programme to use lean thinking across the entire supply chain. i.e Manufacture, Logistics, Warehousing, Call Centre and Customer Service.
We kicked off late last year and are currently mapping the Value Chain in teams across 4 different companies which represents most of the value chain. We've adopted Scrum as the project management methodology for the programme (a first for DRTV I think!), and with distributed teams, complex processes, and in-built, multiple "company cultures", we are facing similar problems to those experienced when adopting scrum for software development.
In addition to adopting lean thinking, we are moving to Open Book Management. Open Book is a relatively old management theory from the early nineties best described in the book "The Great Game of Business" http://www.greatgame.com/products_books.php. It's very close to the "agile heart" being about full transparency and ownership of risks and rewards, and a clear understanding of the effect of one's actions through continuous feedback loops.
As I say, the programme is at an early stage, but any thoughts and insights will be posted here, along with any parallels with software development.
Steve
What a difference a year makes!
I've moved from Head of Development with CPM, to Head of Technology & E-commerce at TV Network, the UKs biggest Direct Response Television Company.
There are lots of projects going on at the moment, but the most pertinent for this blog is Chrysalis 7. Chrysalis 7 is a Lean Thinking Programme to introduce lean practices, culture and organisational change http://www.leanuk.org/.
Having implemented lean initiatives within the software industry, I am now leading a programme to use lean thinking across the entire supply chain. i.e Manufacture, Logistics, Warehousing, Call Centre and Customer Service.
We kicked off late last year and are currently mapping the Value Chain in teams across 4 different companies which represents most of the value chain. We've adopted Scrum as the project management methodology for the programme (a first for DRTV I think!), and with distributed teams, complex processes, and in-built, multiple "company cultures", we are facing similar problems to those experienced when adopting scrum for software development.
In addition to adopting lean thinking, we are moving to Open Book Management. Open Book is a relatively old management theory from the early nineties best described in the book "The Great Game of Business" http://www.greatgame.com/products_books.php. It's very close to the "agile heart" being about full transparency and ownership of risks and rewards, and a clear understanding of the effect of one's actions through continuous feedback loops.
As I say, the programme is at an early stage, but any thoughts and insights will be posted here, along with any parallels with software development.
Steve
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