Learning is key to agile success

building a learning culture on your agile team

Declan Whelan

Overview

Agile ManifestoWe are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew

Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland. Dave Thomas

© 2001, the above authors this declaration may be freely copied in any form, but only in its entirety through this notice.

Satir Change Model

Learning

Source: http://www.stevenmsmith.com/my-articles/article/the-satir-change-model.html

Learning

Value

Learning study

accumulateknowledge

child indoorway

bird leavingnest

youth

practice continuously

What Do We Need to Learn?

People

• Self• Team• Organization

Environment

• Domain• Product• Customers• Stakeholders

Methods

• Technology• Process & Tools• Skills• Learning

How do We Learn?Auditory

Kinesthetic

Visual

Personal History Exercise

Ask your partner:1.How many children in your family2.The most challenging thing you faced as a child

Personal Learning

L Brain R Brain

LogicalSequential RationalAnalyticalObjectiveLooks at parts

RandomIntuitiveHolistic

SynthesizingSubjective

Looks at wholes

IDEA

L Brain R Brain

LogicalSequential RationalAnalyticalObjectiveLooks at parts

RandomIntuitiveHolistic

SynthesizingSubjective

Looks at wholes

IDEA

Shu Ha Ri

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari

Following Breaking Away Fluent

Beginner’s Mind

“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.”

Shunryu Suzuki

Personal Mastery

Mental Models

Shared Vision

Team Learning

Systems Thinking

The Learning Organization

Draw a Hand Exercise

Draw a hand in 45 seconds

http://www.thiagi.com/pfp/IE4H/august2005.html#99Seconds

Personal Mastery

Mental Models

Shared Vision

Team Learning

Systems Thinking

The Learning Organization

Personal Mastery

Mental Models

Shared Vision

Team Learning

Systems Thinking

The Learning Organization

Team Learning

Team Learning

Discussion Dialog

Tinkering School

http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html

“Gleeful calamity”“Success is in the doing and failures are celebrated and

analyzed. Problems become puzzles and obstacles disappear”“Nothing ever turns out as planned ... Ever”

“Decoration of the unfinished project is a kind of conceptual incubation. From these interludes come deep insights and

amazing new approaches”“We start from doodles and sketches; sometimes we make real

plans; sometimes we just start building”“We keep the landscape of the projects tilted towards

completion”

Chaordic Learning: Tinkering

http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html

Learning Culture Map

accumulateknowledge

child indoorway

bird leavingnest

youth

Intentional

Infrastructure

Incremental

Individual Safety

Retrospectives

Retrospective Format

Set the stageGather dataGenerate insightsDecide what to doClose

Diverge & Converge

Source: Chris Corrigan blog: http://chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/?p=1265

Integrate Learning & Working

• Pairing• Planning Sessions• Standups• Demos

Create Practice Fields

• Initial training• Simulations• Games• Katas• Etudes

Create Learning Sessions

• Brown bags• Study groups• Road trips• Games

http://www.thiagi.com/games.html

Create Learning Workspace

• Big Visible Charts• Information Radiators• In Your Space• e-Forum

Individual Safety

Virginia Satir“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.”

Summary

“Our tendency is to be interested in something that is growing in the garden, not in the bare soil itself.

But if you want to have a good harvest, the most important thing is to make the soil rich and cultivate it well.”

Shunryu Suzuki

Agile Coach Camp Canada

An Open Space Conference for Agile CoachesPeer-to-peer Learning in a Collaborative SettingFree!

June 11-12, 2010Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

http://agilecoachcampcanada.com/