‘Agile Executive’

Purpose

To discuss what it takes to create a fast-paced, dynamic, innovative and customer centric organisation.

Intro / My background

• Independent Consultant/Interim CTO (Specialising in Digital &

Agile)

• Award Winning Blogger & Author

• In Software/Product Development for 29 years

• At Executive/CTO level for 15 years

• Domain expertise in Media/Publishing

(Glass’s, Reed Business, IPC Media, Guardian, Elsevier)

• Also consulted in FS & Telco

(Westpac, Telstra, JP Morgan and Suncorp Insurance)

• Track record in Organisational Transformation

Why Agile? (the need for something

different)

• Over 70% of software projects fail

• Things are changing faster than ever before

• Speed to market is imperative to compete

• Common reasons for project failure:

– Projects too big (hard to manage, vulnerable to change)

– Poor comms

Reputation for Building the Wrong

Product

‘Agile Executive’

• Creating a fast-paced, dynamic, innovative and

customer-centric organisation

• that is faster to market and more responsive

to changing customer needs

• in order to discover the right products and

deliver better business outcomes

Convergence in Management Thinking

• Agile & Lean

• The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

• Emergent Strategy / Learning Organisation – Mintzberg,

Hamel

• Management 3.0 – Jurgen Appelo

• Complexity Theory – dealing with high uncertainty

• Beyond Budgeting - Bjarte Bogsnes

• Adaptive Leadership - Jim Highsmith The term ‘Agile’ is now being used to represent all of these related and complementary philosophies.

“While there is value in items on the right,

agile teams value items on the left more”

We value: • Individuals & interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over lengthy documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

What is Agile – Agile Manifesto

‘Agile’ is Not Just A Technology/Delivery

Method

It is really an embodiment of the culture and

principles of a collaborative, adaptive, learning

organisation that is fast moving and more

responsive to change

Agile as a Lever for Organisational

Transformation

Vision / 10 Benefits of Agile

• Better Delivery

• Better Quality

• Speed to Market

• More Customer Focused

• More Responsive to Changing Customer Needs

• Better Visibility, Comms & Collaboration

• Stronger Relationships

• Continuous Improvement & Learning

• Right Product

• Better Business Outcomes, More Revenue

10 Key Principles

of Agile

principle #1 – active user involvement is imperative [to give and receive continuous feedback]

principle #2 – agile teams must be empowered [to give their full commitment and make timely decisions]

principle #3 – time waits for no man [requirements emerge, timescales are fixed]

principle #4 – agile requirements are barely sufficient [high level, visual and piecemeal, just in time as each feature is developed]

principle #5 – how do you eat an elephant? [one bite at a time – small incremental pieces]

principle #6 – fast but not so furious [focus on frequent delivery of product, and regular iterations]

principle #7 – done means DONE! [features completed in an iteration should be 100% done, i.e. potentially shippable]

principle #8 – enough’s enough [apply the 80/20 rule – less is the new more]

principle #9 – agile testing is not for dummies [testing is a continuous, integrated part of whole development lifecycle]

principle #10 – no place for snipers [close cooperation and collaboration between all team members and stakeholders]

principle #11 – agile teams live and learn [the team is continuously learning, regularly discusses how to improve, and actions it]

Scrum

XP

Lean

Kanban

Other eg

DSDM

Agile methodologies help teams to put the

principles into practice

Spri

nt

Pla

nn

ing User Stories

Estimate in Points (Fibonacci)

Commit to Sprint Backlog

(Fix

ed-L

engt

h) Sp

rin

t Cards on Whiteboard

Daily Scrum

Daily Burndown Chart

Collaboration & Teamwork

Test Driven Developm’t

Continuous Integration

Test Early & Often

Definition of Done

Spri

nt

Rev

iew

Final Burndown Chart

Velocity

Demo Working Software

Retrospective

Sprint Report

Release Planning

Repeat

Product Backlog (Prioritised)

Feedback Loop: Plan, Do, Review

Common Agile Practices

Agile Technology / Tech Practices

• Continuous Delivery enables frequent delivery, incremental

product development and short feedback cycles, enabling product

teams to iterate based on real user feedback and empirical

evidence and data, rather than opinion and intuition

• This can lead to discovery of the right products and delivering

better business outcomes

• It also reduces risk and waste, as large projects are vulnerable to

change

Agile Structure – FASTEST Teams

• Flexible/Focused

• Autonomous

• Small (5-12 people)

• Talented

• Established

• Stable

• Together

What Really Motivates Us – Dan Pink

• Autonomy

• Mastery

• Purpose

Summary

• Agile is all about delivering small product increments as

frequently

as possible (speed to market)

• It’s light weight, collaborative, incremental and iterative

• It’s about empowering teams and putting the user at the

centre

• It’s also about keeping things simple and continuous

learning and improvement

Darwin quotes

• “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor

the most intelligent, but those that are more adaptable to

change”

• “In the long history of humankind, those who learned to

collaborate and improvise most effectively have

prevailed”