Agile Retrospectives Is Agile solving more problems
Transcript of Agile Retrospectives Is Agile solving more problems
Agile Retrospectives
Is Agile solving more problems than it is creating?
Chris Pratt and Laurence Wood, 10th October 2012
Introduction – Chris Pratt
• 9 years IT Project Management
• Registered PRINCE2® Practitioner also trained in DSDM
• After completing his BSc (Hons) in Bio Science, Chris spent6 years in project management at Ventura in Leeds
• Having learned a great deal about project management infinancial services, telecoms and outsourcing Chris movedto Callcredit in November 2010
• He has been using DSDM for almost a year and is heavilyinvolved in supporting the move to DSDM at Callcredit
• Lead one of two DSDM pilots at CIG
• Chris is now running his third agile project
Introduction – Laurence Wood
• Discovered ‘Just In Time’ and Kanban as an apprentice atJaguar Cars in 1988. Supervised V12 engine and XJ vehicle trim.
• Jaguar sent him to The University of Birmingham to studyManufacturing Engineering with Management and Robotics.
• Ford’s takeover prompted a move to IT as RAD (RapidApplication Development) programmer at Marks and Spencer.
• Freelance RAD team lead roles followed in South Africa,Austria and UK including Coca Cola, and South African Airways.
• He was then PM at Serco and Divisional Head of IT in the City.
• Now Agile Programme Manager at Leeds’ rapidly growingCallcredit, a key part of their move to Agile since late 2011.
• PRINCE2 and MSP Practitioner also trained in RAD and DSDM.
About Callcredit
• Callcredit Information Group (CIG)
• Expert in the fields of credit referencing, marketing services, consumer information, interactive solutions and consultative analytics
• Based in Leeds
• Serve UK’s leading businesses - financial services, utilities, retail, gaming and public sector
• Increased profits year on year
• 219 staff in 2004
• 900 in 2012
• About Noddle
• Most of our activity is B2B but......
• Noddle is our new consumer offering that you may recognise.........
Today we will...
• Overview Callcredit’s agile journey so far
• Demonstrate a simple but effective format for a retrospective
• Show how we have continually reviewed our teams’ views on the method
• Revisit our original hypothesis using actual data
• Share the key lessons from our first year of agile
• Questions
Background /Callcredit Agile Maturity
• Jan 2008 – Various ‘informal’ agile activities within IT
• Nov 2011 – Formalised agile using two DSDM Atern pilots
• Dec 2011 - External DSDM training commenced for all team members
• Feb 2012 – PMO setup to help projects follow the methodology
• Jun 2012 – CIG opens Lithuania office including development
• Sep 2012 – Two of four programmes (>20 projects) using DSDM
• Oct 2012 – Ready to share findings using real outputs of retrospectives
What is a retrospective?
• A regular session for the whole team to review progress together
• At the end of each 2 week time box (sprint)
• Feeds immediately into planning the next time box
Why we have been doing retrospectives
• Share everybody’s thoughts, both positive and negative• About the latest time box
• About the success of the method
• To make us share and react to concerns regularly
• Helps us to make the next time box better than the last
• Encourages open discussion across our team
• Because open discussion has proved good for morale
• People tell us they like it
• To provide one place for moaning!
• Asking staff about the effectiveness of agile helps them to adopt it
How we do retrospectives
• At the end of every time box
• Quick and simple (45 minutes)
• Ask everybody• What went well (need to do more of next time)
• What did not go well (need to avoid next time)
• Each individual writes 2 positive points first (Closed)
• Thoughts then shared with whole group (Open)
• Group similar items – identify common themes
• Repeat with 2 negative points • order is deliberate, reduces overrun
• Agree which items we can attribute to the method to give us metrics• (Is it solving more problems than it is creating?)
• Agree what we will feed into the next time box
Olympic retrospective.....(will not include a retro of the method).....
Olympic lessons
• Key themes from our Olympic retro?
• Lessons for our next time box – or advice for Rio?
• But what have Callcredit’s retrospectives shown
• And what did our continual retro of the method uncover?...
Common themes in our retros
Positive
• Method encourages teamwork
• The Kanban boards provide clear progress updates
• Method highlights blockers earlier in the process
• Morale in the project teams has increased (shown in a survey)
• Continuous delivery drives up quality
Negative
• Velocity not on track
• Difficulties with estimating
• Communicating offsite• Complicates or lengthens stand ups
• Not delivering full user stories
• Building on weak foundations• Blockers that were outside the control
of the agile team
• Environment availability
• Deployment complexity• Numerous products and platforms
• People blame the method in error!• Misinterpreting the method often the
problem e.g. “Stand ups too big”
Findings – what we attribute to agile
•Of the feedback attributed to the method, significantly more was positive
•Often none of the negative feedback was attributed to the method
Trends – Within Callcredit
•Both positive and negative feedback on the method are reducing
•After 2 years both may be zero?
Explaining our findings
• Why is most of the feedback that was attributed to the method positive?
• Why on many occasions was none of the negative feedback attributed to the method?
• Overriding response to the method was positive
• Most blockers were traditional (environmental – not ‘firm foundations’)
• Why is feedback (both positive and negative) on the method reducing?
• After 2 years both (positive and negative) may be zero?• As people become more comfortable they gradually attribute less items to method
• As the method and teams mature they know how to best use DSDM
• After 2 years the method may feel furniture so wont be blamed for anything!?
Revisit the original hypothesis
• The hypotheses:
• Project teams (mostly new to the method) consistently rate the positive effect of the method as 2-3 times stronger than any negative effects.
• Our hypothesis was that as our agile teams align and mature the positive effects will continue to increase
• There has always been far more positive DSDM feedback than negative
• In a significant number of retrospectives teams gave no negative feedback regarding the method
• Several negative items are not due to the method
• Morale in the project teams has been enhanced by Agile
Summary & Questions
• We explained what a retro is
• Shown a simple but effective way of running a retro
• Shared our key findings
• Explained how we also did a retro of the method
• Used real evidence to confirm our original hypothesis:
• Yes, Agile is solving more problems than it is creating!
• Questions...