Post on 21-Apr-2017
Cargo Cult AgileIs Your Organization Getting Agile Wrong?
A Quick Poll to Check Your Organization‘s Agile Health
Berlin, March 17th, 2016
You’re Agile, Yet Sort of Stuck?A common problem nowadays.
“Agile practitioners” are increasingly entering the coaching market without experience beyond a 2-day training or reading a Scrum book.
The result is called Cargo Cult Agile: The “rules” are followed to the letter, without understanding why, thus making Agile as a philosophy looking bad.
Here are 25 questions that allow a quick poll to check the Agile health status of your organization and probably spark a discussion on what and how to improve…
What Is the Purpose of the Poll?
The purpose of the whole exercise is to start a conversation about what part of your agile
transition is going well and where action needs to be taken.
The poll supports this approach in several ways:
• It is anonymous—no one will hold back, contrary to retrospectives as a competing format to
gather feedback.
• The poll delivers data, it’s no longer a gut feeling, and hence a good basis to start talking to
the management.
• It is very affordable.
How to Run the Poll?
That is simple:
Just count the number of ‘yes, this applies’ for all
25 questions…
Question 1/25
(Product) vision and strategy are not
communicated
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 2/25
Roadmaps with fixed release dates are
provided for a year ahead by the CTO
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 3/25
No one from the organization
is talking to customers
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 4/25
CTO and stakeholders insist on every change to
be approved by them in advance
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 5/25
Offline boards are banned for
confidentiality reasons
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 6/25
Product owners are bypassed by stakeholders
talking directly to the CTO
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 7/25
Stakeholders decide on shipping product
increments, not the product owner
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 8/25
Projects are shipped only when completed,
but not in iterations
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 9/25
Stakeholders are prevented from
talking to the Scrum teams
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 10/25
The product backlog is defined by a
product council or committee
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 11/25
Features of doubtful value are being pushed
through, e.g. to secure bonuses
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 12/25
Sales is promising non-existent features to
close deals w/o including the product owner
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 13/25
Deadlines or fixed schedules
are still in use for noncritical issues
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 14/25
Product management isn’t granted access to
business intelligence to make
informed, data-driven decisions
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 15/25
Stakeholders communicate to product and
engineering in the form of
requirement documents
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 16/25
Product owners spend time mostly on the
creation and administration of user stories
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 17/25
Sprint backlogs are changed on short notice
after the sprint started
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 18/25
There is a dedicated Scrum team even for
bugs and minor change requests
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 19/25
Scrum ceremonies are never attended by any
stakeholders
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 20/25
Velocity matching commitment is the main
metric to measure the success of Scrum
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 21/25
Developers are not participating in
user story creation
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 22/25
Scrum teams are changing in size and
composition, depending on the number of
simultaneously running side projects and
task forces
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 23/25
During stand-ups, the team members are
reporting to the Scrum master
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 24/25
Retrospectives are held regularly,
but no changes follow
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Question 25/25
Scrum teams are not cross-functional and
therefore depending on other teams or
departments
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Interpreting Poll Results
Now, count the number of ‘yes, this applies’
—your total should be < 25—
and progress to the next slide…
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
Interpreting Poll Results (2)
0–2 boxes: I’d like to talk to you how you managed to do that. Care for a Skype-call?
3–5 boxes: Well done! You’re on a good way.6–8 boxes: There is room for improvement. Lot’s of it.9–14 boxes: If you haven’t very recently embarked on your
agile voyage, then it is time to change your approach.
15–20 boxes: Okay, start over with agile–it is not working in the current set-up within your organization.
21–25 boxes: You either haven’t started going agile yet. Or you are sugar-coating command & control structures to look “agile”. It won’t work, by the way.
Download a printable PDF here: https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
What Is Your Experience?
Please share your experience:
Cargo Cult Agile: The ‘State Of Agile’ Checklist For Your Organization
https://age-of-product.com/cargo-cult-agile-state-agile-checklist-organization/
How to Get in Touch: Email: stefan@age-of-product.comBlog: https://age-of-product.com
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