Agile Complexification Inverter

David Koontz guiding a canoe I was at the Dallas Tech Fest last week (2017 actually) and was asked several times what an Agile Transition Guide was (it was a title on my name tag)... it's surprising to me how many people assume they know what an Agile Coach is, yet there is no good definition or professional organization (with a possible exception coming: Agile Coaching Institute ). So naturally, the conversation went something like this: Inquisitive person:   "Hi David, what's an Agile Transition Guide?  Is that like a coach?" David:  "Hi, glad you asked.  What does a coach do in your experience?" Inquisitive person: "They help people and teams improve their software practices." David:  "Yes, I do that also." Inquisitive person: "Oh, well then why don't you call yourself a coach?" David:  "Great question:  Let's see...  well one of the foundational principles of coaching ( ICF ) is that the coa...

A nice article on HBR - "Why Organizations Don't Learn" , by  Francesca Gino and   Bradley Staats ; take a look. They list these reasons: Fear of failure Fixed mindset Over reliance on past performance Attribution bias The authors then give some strategies for overcoming these reasons for the lack of learning.  Many of these will be familiar to the agile community. Who else has studied organization failure?  Well I've heard that many academics have studied the failure modes of organizations.  One was John Kotter's 8 Steps model  developed by studying the failure modes of organizations trying to institute large scale changes.  Other's have studied how successful large mergers have been after the fact (some would suggest it's on the order of 20% successful).  Some have studied how successful large software development project have been (Chaos Report - it is not a good report). So what does your leader do to encourage learning at the or...

Went to Agile Warrior Series   (Jan31, 2018) to visit with about 200+ Warriors in Dallas, TX.  And as the lunch time entertainment I brought some tangram puzzles and we practiced our collaboration skills while eating.  It was a great conference, with Uncle Bob Martin, Clean Coder Blog  delivering a wonderful morning address. And Luke Hohmann , of Conteneo , &  Innovation Games , describing his view of the future of the Agile movement into "frameworks" of collaboration. Also there I saw a MVP of the Scrum Game by Tim & Derek.  This is a great example of the creativity in the Agile community and the deep desire to share knowledge and experiences.    Presented at   AgileGames2016  conference in Boston, April 28, 29th. But  not   Agile2016  - so you can only see it in the  Microsoft NERD center MIT.         I presented this workshop at Agile Camp - Dallas , Oct ...

Retrospective at GameStop based upon Corinna Baldaug's Retromat. Retro process phases: Set the Stage, Gather Data, Generate Insight, Decide what to Do, Close the Retro REF: http://plans-for-retrospectives.com Set the Stage: give time to “arrive” and get into the right mood and focus upon the goal Gather Data: reflect upon what happened, create a shared pool of information Generate Insight: why did things happen this way? What patterns can we observe? Decide What to Do: Pick what to work on, plan concrete steps of action Close the Retro: reflect upon the retrospective, how could it improve? What shall we follow-up upon? Activities for this Retro: Quick Questions  In ONE word – what do you need from the retro? In ONE word – what is on your mind? In ONE word – what is you current mindset in regards to your project: are you a: Explorer – eager to dive in and research what worked Shopper – Positive, happy if 1 good thing come out Vacationer – Reluc...

A wish list of books I'd like to read... Large-Scale Scrum - more with LeSS  by Craig Larman & Bas Vodde It describes how we did scrum 10 years ago without the need to think about scaling on a VoIP project at SpeakEasy.  Four teams of around 40 developers (programmers, testers, UI, UX, BA, system engineers, etc.), one backlog, one awesome Product Owner (with a team of help), one deliver of working tested software, on time and on budget. My current goto resource for how to do Scrum at any scale. Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations by Rich Karlgaard , Michael S. Malone "Throughout, Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone share insights and real-life examples gleaned from their careers as journalists, analysts, investors, and globetrotting entrepreneurs, meeting successful teams and team leaders to reveal some "new truths": The right team size is usually one fewer person than what managers think they need. The greatest que...

Do you believe that what you measure you will get?  If so you want to start to measure team happiness.  So what techniques do we have to measure something so ephemeral? This TED Talk by Dominic Price lays out a simple and insightful guide to assess your happiness. The health care industry has studied measuring pain and have very good data on their ability to measure and administer pain drugs upon a subjective self report.  Maybe we could do the same in knowledge worker teams and work groups. Team Happiness Net Promoter Score sheet Here's a riff upon the classic Net Promoter Score for measuring team happiness.   "How likely is it that you would recommend our team to a trusted friend that is looking for a job?" To calculate the NPS - the continuum is divided into 3 groups; the detractors (1 - 6), the passive (7 & 8), the promoters (9 & 10).  The passive are ignored - they do not promote your objective.  The NET promoter score is the pe...

What does the value of Transparency really mean? Nextgov: How do you define transparency? Fung: My definition is quite a bit different from the conventional wisdom about transparency. A transparency system is designed to allow people to improve the quality of decisions they make in some way, shape or form, and it enables them to improve their decisions to reduce the risks they face or to protect their interests. Some of those decisions are about political accountability but some are in private life, like what food to buy or what doctor to go to. --  Archon Fung , professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government who studies government transparency. Does your company practice fair pay?  Here's what one worker brought to Google and made a difference in transparency at the search giant. Tell Your Co-Workers How Much You Make!     There's no law against it and it increases the chances you'll be paid fairly. Does the Agile Manifesto im...

Here's a overview of a Scrum Immersion workshop done at GameStop this month. A case study example. Normally these workshops start with the leadership (the stakeholders or shareholders) which have a vision for a product (or project). This time we skipped this activity. The purpose of the Workshop is to ensure alignment between the leadership team and the Agile Coaches with regards to the upcoming scrum workshop for the team(s). Set expectations for a transition from current (ad-hoc) practices to Scrum. Explain and educate on the role of the Product Owner. Expected Outcomes: Create a transition plan/schedule Set realistic expectations for transition and next release Overview of Scrum & leadership in an Agile environment Identify a Scrum Product Owner – review role expectations Alignment on Project/Program purpose or vision Release goal (within context of Project/Program & Scrum transition) Once we have alignment on the Product Owner role and the Project V...

Yesterday (July, 2015) we did a lunch-n-learn at GameStop HQ on pair programming.  I think it was a great success, largely because we serve food, and I've been told that everything goes better when people are sharing a meal together (and even better with adult beverages). Are you interested in Pair Programming?  I'll confess, the term is a bit misleading.  I was asked by multiple people if the topic was just for programmers.  No - no it's not just a programming technique. It is also for any kind of knowledge work.  Such as testing, or analysis, or writing stories, or ... yes coding, scripting, excel spreadsheets, etc. The Agenda: Pair Programming Simulation Start with a warm up exercise (totally non-related to the topic).  This allows all the late arrivals to find a seat and not miss out on the real start of the session.  I've found this technique (soft start) to be a required technique for companies that have not adopted basic meeting protoc...