‘Agile Executive’
Purpose
To discuss what it takes to create a fast-paced, dynamic, innovative and customer centric organisation.
Intro / My background
• Independent Consultant/Interim CTO (Specialising in Digital &
Agile)
• Award Winning Blogger & Author
• In Software/Product Development for 29 years
• At Executive/CTO level for 15 years
• Domain expertise in Media/Publishing
(Glass’s, Reed Business, IPC Media, Guardian, Elsevier)
• Also consulted in FS & Telco
(Westpac, Telstra, JP Morgan and Suncorp Insurance)
• Track record in Organisational Transformation
Why Agile? (the need for something
different)
• Over 70% of software projects fail
• Things are changing faster than ever before
• Speed to market is imperative to compete
• Common reasons for project failure:
– Projects too big (hard to manage, vulnerable to change)
– Poor comms
Reputation for Building the Wrong
Product
‘Agile Executive’
• Creating a fast-paced, dynamic, innovative and
customer-centric organisation
• that is faster to market and more responsive
to changing customer needs
• in order to discover the right products and
deliver better business outcomes
Convergence in Management Thinking
• Agile & Lean
• The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
• Emergent Strategy / Learning Organisation – Mintzberg,
Hamel
• Management 3.0 – Jurgen Appelo
• Complexity Theory – dealing with high uncertainty
• Beyond Budgeting - Bjarte Bogsnes
• Adaptive Leadership - Jim Highsmith The term ‘Agile’ is now being used to represent all of these related and complementary philosophies.
“While there is value in items on the right,
agile teams value items on the left more”
We value: • Individuals & interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over lengthy documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
What is Agile – Agile Manifesto
‘Agile’ is Not Just A Technology/Delivery
Method
It is really an embodiment of the culture and
principles of a collaborative, adaptive, learning
organisation that is fast moving and more
responsive to change
Agile as a Lever for Organisational
Transformation
Vision / 10 Benefits of Agile
• Better Delivery
• Better Quality
• Speed to Market
• More Customer Focused
• More Responsive to Changing Customer Needs
• Better Visibility, Comms & Collaboration
• Stronger Relationships
• Continuous Improvement & Learning
• Right Product
• Better Business Outcomes, More Revenue
10 Key Principles
of Agile
principle #1 – active user involvement is imperative [to give and receive continuous feedback]
principle #2 – agile teams must be empowered [to give their full commitment and make timely decisions]
principle #3 – time waits for no man [requirements emerge, timescales are fixed]
principle #4 – agile requirements are barely sufficient [high level, visual and piecemeal, just in time as each feature is developed]
principle #5 – how do you eat an elephant? [one bite at a time – small incremental pieces]
principle #6 – fast but not so furious [focus on frequent delivery of product, and regular iterations]
principle #7 – done means DONE! [features completed in an iteration should be 100% done, i.e. potentially shippable]
principle #8 – enough’s enough [apply the 80/20 rule – less is the new more]
principle #9 – agile testing is not for dummies [testing is a continuous, integrated part of whole development lifecycle]
principle #10 – no place for snipers [close cooperation and collaboration between all team members and stakeholders]
principle #11 – agile teams live and learn [the team is continuously learning, regularly discusses how to improve, and actions it]
Scrum
XP
Lean
Kanban
Other eg
DSDM
Agile methodologies help teams to put the
principles into practice
Spri
nt
Pla
nn
ing User Stories
Estimate in Points (Fibonacci)
Commit to Sprint Backlog
(Fix
ed-L
engt
h) Sp
rin
t Cards on Whiteboard
Daily Scrum
Daily Burndown Chart
Collaboration & Teamwork
Test Driven Developm’t
Continuous Integration
Test Early & Often
Definition of Done
Spri
nt
Rev
iew
Final Burndown Chart
Velocity
Demo Working Software
Retrospective
Sprint Report
Release Planning
Repeat
Product Backlog (Prioritised)
Feedback Loop: Plan, Do, Review
Common Agile Practices
Agile Technology / Tech Practices
• Continuous Delivery enables frequent delivery, incremental
product development and short feedback cycles, enabling product
teams to iterate based on real user feedback and empirical
evidence and data, rather than opinion and intuition
• This can lead to discovery of the right products and delivering
better business outcomes
• It also reduces risk and waste, as large projects are vulnerable to
change
Agile Structure – FASTEST Teams
• Flexible/Focused
• Autonomous
• Small (5-12 people)
• Talented
• Established
• Stable
• Together
What Really Motivates Us – Dan Pink
• Autonomy
• Mastery
• Purpose
Summary
• Agile is all about delivering small product increments as
frequently
as possible (speed to market)
• It’s light weight, collaborative, incremental and iterative
• It’s about empowering teams and putting the user at the
centre
• It’s also about keeping things simple and continuous
learning and improvement
Darwin quotes
• “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor
the most intelligent, but those that are more adaptable to
change”
• “In the long history of humankind, those who learned to
collaborate and improvise most effectively have
prevailed”
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