From agile software development to building an agile company

Damien THOUVENIN

ALE 2013Bucharest

August 28th-30th

#ALE13 @cltservices

As an agile coach, I tell my clients :

« Agile is not an end, it is rather a mean to

an end. What is it that you really want ? »

As a manager I have learned at least one lesson : « in order to achieve your goals, you must focus on

means rather than on goals »

building an agile company is not my goal but it’s where

my focus is

FOREWORD

DISCLAIMER

This is not a lectureThis is not a retrospective

It’s storyA story about me and my companyIt’s a story about paradoxes, and how we deal with themI hope it is also about us, sharing ideas during these 3 days

What this is not

What this is

WHAT ABOUT ME ?

1980: Computer Kid (IBM 5100)2001: From TDD to full-grade XP – As a software editor, XP is cool !2004: Founding CLT – As a contractor XP is hard ! 2006: Reading a lot: from Poppendiecks’ to Lean thinking2007: Reading a lot more: from Lean to Scrum 2008: Scrum training with Jeff Sutherland2008-2009: Community (learn and share)2010+ : Agile consulting2011+: Could this also apply to the way we grow our company ?

WHAT ABOUT THE COMPANY ?

Founded 2004 (Me+Ludovic, 12K €)First 3 years “lost” trying to know what we want, then growthNow 30 co-workers, ~2.2 M€ turnover12% net profit in 2012

Three lines of businessSoft’It: Custom software developmentCoActiv: Lean-Agile facilitationGreenDot: Microsoft .NET craftmanship

Actively investigating agile as a way of running a our company since 2011

THE GOAL

• Make selling easy : deliver high value to our customers• Make our co-workers happy

• Work is meaningful• You get your say• You learn a lot and become better at what you do

• Make (a lot of) money• Don’t be selfish : contribute to making the world a better place (at the

very least, don’t make it worse)

Building a virtuous company

THE GOAL, REFORMULATED

Co-author solutions with our customersrather than negotiate contracts

Care for relationships and peoplerather than rules, processes and SOPs

Focus on delivering valuerather than compliance and paper work

Word is changing fast: learn and adaptrather than follow the business plan

It’s the f**ing manifesto !

APPLY AGILE TO BUILDING A COMPANY ?How do we build complex software ?

QUESTIONS (PARADOXES)

• Can we make money and not be greedy ?• Should we grow ? How can we change and stay the same ?• How can we have a single shared vision and let every co-

worker bring her own project ?• Can we have self-organising teams and not loose control ?

How do you manage a herd of cats ?

TRIBUTE

SCALABILITY

Maths souvenirs from 1987 : A mathematical structure that is infinitely self-similar; properties and appearance are preserved when scale changes …

How can we get bigger and stay the same ?

Future Present PastStrategy Management Measure

Marketing Production Administer

MOTIVATION (INTRAPRENEURSHIP)

Do whatever it is that you believe in, provided : It fits in the company project, values and ambitions (Make

money, grow people, deliver value, benefit to your environement)

People in the company can freely move to or from your business unit to another (i.e. provide career gateways from/to other lines of business)

You have better ideas ? Go try it !

CONTROL SECURITY

People (at least: my crowd) are not irresponsible. Our culture is based on autonomy + responsibility. Responsible decisions require knowledgeRaw information is uselessActionable knowledge = shared information + learning

The manager becomes a facilitator, the accounting/administrator becomes an information provider

Nobody wants to sink the ship

Roles change

COHESION

Conflicts are for power. In most companies information is power. Share information that is to take away the power stakes.

“Democracy is dead, long live sociocracy !” Gilles Charest.

Why not share power ?

LEARNING

We learn as we go. Iterations are key

Shorter iterations = more frequent learning + less deviation

The whole company moves in very short steps and we communicate a lot

To learn and improve, measurements also are key.

AGILE PRINCIPLES … REFACTORED

• Shared vision + common « value function »• Capacity planning + Iterations• Learning + Information = knowledge• Self-organising teams, and individuals• Fail fast, measure and improve

BE UNREASONABLE

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw