The state of agile in ten easy learned lessons

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The state of agile in ten easy lessons learned

Sander HoogendoornAuthor of This Is Agile

@aahoogendoorn

BEYOND BREAKING BAD

BEYOND BREAKING BAD. THE STATE OF AGILE IN TEN EASY LESSONS©2001 - 2014 Sander Hoogendoorn. All Rights Reserved@aahoogendoorn

2Sander HoogendoornMe independent.. (February 2015)

Dad

Mentor, trainer, software architect, programmer

Books, articles, conferences

Work

Principal technology officer Capgemini

Global design authority agile Capgemini

Chief technology officer insurance company

Web

www.sanderhoogendoorn.com

www.smartusecase.com

www.speedbird9.com

@aahoogendoorn

[email protected]


4Introducing the Netherlands. December 5!

Name: Sinterklaas

Born: December 5

Age:700+

Name:Black Pete

Colour:Not really black

(yes it’s make up)

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Why it failsTHE WATERFALL MODEL


6Waterfall?


11We’ve got a plan and we’ll stick to it


12Boehm’s Law. Testing is always too late


14Waterfall?

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Lesson oneAGILE IS NOT YOUR SILVER BULLET


16Trying something different


17The state of agile


18Agile is dead


19Agile conferences…


20Manifesto for what again?

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Lesson two

HAVING SOME PROCESSIS NOT A BAD THING


24We are uncovering better ways to change the world?


25Process? What process?


26What do you mean Scrum is not a process?


29FDD. Adding some process


30Smart. Adding some process

Create

project

proposal

Write

project plan

Deliver

working

software

Stabilize

software


31DSDM. Adding more process


33Boehm’s Law applied to iterations

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Lesson three

THE SCRUM MASTER ISN’T ALWAYS A MASTER

?


37Lowering our fences


38Lowering our fences


39Dogmagile


40Become a scrum master? A servant-leader-master?


41Scrumman


42

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Lesson fourLOOSE THE SCRUM BOARD

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WHAT’S THE REAL STATUS?

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VISUALIZE YOUR FLOW…

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…AND GO WITH THE FLOW

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Not exactly like Kanban? Who cares. It works for us

LIMIT WIP?


49Boehm’s Law applied to backlog items


50Do we really need projects?

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Lesson five

WE ARE NOT MANUFACTURING


How long do you need to build this feature?

Eh .. I don’t know. It depends I guess

20 hours.


Please for once give me an exact number

you silly nerd!

Stop asking me these things I don’t

really have an answer to


55We are using the wrong metaphors




56Manufacturing? Construction?

Manufacturing and construction are linear processes

Software development is a creative process and it is very much non-linear

Software isn’t Built, it’s InventedCoding is a creative problem. Every time a developer writes code, he is taking a non-deterministic path towards an unknown solution — a unique solution that has never been created before. If the work weren’t unique, he wouldn’t need to write it, he’d simply copy and paste it.

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Lesson six

SELF-ORGANIZATIONCAN BE PRETTY TOUGH


61Magic!


62Drawing owls

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Lesson seven

ALLOW THE TEAM TO LEARN


GERALD WEINBERG


67Learning how to play pinball


“Whenever I suggest stepping back, easing up, laughing a little at ourselves, and going outside our own field, somebody objects, saying, ‘But software is different. We have to work harder, concentrate more, because nothing is as complex as software.’

Well, of course software is different, and more complex than anything people have ever before attempted to engineer. But that’s why we have to loosen our structures, not tighten them. That’s why we must learn from any place we can, any way we can.”

– Gerald Weinberg, 1982.

@aahoogendoornLesson eightTRUST THE METRICS




20 hours.


74With creative work estimates are rarely linear

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So no projects? No estimates?LEARN TO LIVE WITH AMBIGUITY


How big is this feature?


About 4 points.


77Those who do the work, do the estimate

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Lesson nine

YOU ARE NOT USAIN BOLT


79Sprints. Scrum’s mini-projects

The team commitsto deliver


81The red sprint anti-pattern


83Reverse planning


84Trust the metrics

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Lesson ten

PROJECT MANAGERS ARE (NOT) A TOTAL WASTE AFTER ALL

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Instructing the team how to marchTHE TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGER


90The traditional project manager

ProjectManager

Customer

Analyst

UI Designer

ArchitectDeveloper

Developer

Tester

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“AGILE” PROJECT MANAGERS FACILITATE THE TEAM


93The agile team facilitator

Team

Customer

Analyst

UI Designer

DeveloperDeveloper

Tester

ProjectManager

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MANAGE THE ENVIRONMENT


97Isn’t that what the scrum master does?


99This is where a project manager comes in handy

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IN RETROSPECTIVE?


101In theory…

• The whole organization is already working agile

• You don’t need a steering committee

• Budget flows automatically

• Everybody wants to collaborate

• Teams are self-steering

• You don’t need a process

• No external parties are involved

• The product owner perfectly represents all stakeholders

• No project manager is needed

• The Scrum Master is our hero

• You always make the sprint

But in practice You’re likely the first agile project in the

organization

Management requires a steering committee

Budgets need to be guarded

People are conservative

Self-steering is hard

A little process is unavoidable

There are always external parties

The product owner only represents a sub-set of all stakeholders

Yes they are needed!

The Scrum Master is too junior

Sprints “fail” all the time

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Lesson ten

THERE IS NO SO THING AS ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL AGILE


103Agile is a sliding scale

Ceremony

Agility

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THERE’S VALUE FOUND IN ALL AGILE APPROACHES. AND EVEN IN WATERFALL

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THIS IS AGILE

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www.sanderhoogendoorn.comwww.smartusecase.comwww.speedbird9.com

[email protected]

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REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS

The state of agile in ten easy learned lessons

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