Damon Poole, Chief Agilist, Eliassen Group Agile Vital Signs Presented by Damon Poole, Chief Agilist, Eliassen Group

Agile Values and Principles

Agile Manifesto – Values and Principles We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. “Individuals and interactions over process and tools” “Working software over comprehensive documentation” “Customer collaboration over contract negotiation” “Responding to change over following a plan” Values Scrum? Kanban? XP? ? “Build projects around motivated individuals, give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. “Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.” “Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.” “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” Principles “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.” “Working software is the primary measure of progress.” “Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.” Agile is really more of a philosophy or culture than it is a methodology. You won’t find “Scrum” or anything like it in the Manifesto. Only values, principles, and beliefs. “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.” “Simplicity -- the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential.” “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” “Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.” “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams”

Agile Techniques Come From the Agile Community Agile Manifesto Agile Community Agile Toolkit Scrum User stories Continuous Integration TDD Unit testing Kanban XP SAFe Enterprise Agility Etc. All of the Agile practices, methods, technologies, come from the Agile Community. The Agile Community follows the principles and values of the Agile Manifesto. Not everything that has been labeled as “Agile” actually is Agile. Sometimes it takes a while to realize it. If something doesn’t feel Agile, hold it up to the Agile Manifesto to see if it measures up. For instance, burning down by hours has nothing to do with measuring working software, but burning up by story points of done stories does. Agile – an adjective that describes anything that supports the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto.

Agile Maturity Matrix

Change Requires Sustained Effort Until New Level Complacency Inertia Resistance Impediments 4 – Ideal Agile Maturity Being held regularly and on their way to stage 2. Not being held. Positively adapted to the needs of the team Daily, short, effective. Runs well even without somebody officially responsible for the meeting. Team does an on-the-spot analysis of progress towards shippability and takes corrective action if needed. 80% daily participation from the team, main meeting is less than 20 minutes, real impediments regularly raised, focus is on the team’s stories, team wants to be there. 3 – Agile You 2 – Sustainable 1 – In transition 0 – Impeded Standups

Example Current State 50 Indicators 1 2 3 4 Organizational Support 1 2 3 4 50 Indicators Organizational Support Team Dynamics Team Structure Set reasonable goals for progress as well as an expected timeline. It will likely take longer than expected, but as progress is made or not made, having goals and a timeline are useful for helping to structure the conversations around progress and what needs to be done. Product Per Team Process Mechanics Engineering Practices

Agile Maturity Matrix Tool The Maturity Matrix is useful for Understanding your current state Describing where you want to be Tracking progress towards goals Organizationally Team-by-team

Enterprise Agility Maturity Matrix www.egagile.com 1. 2. 3. Direct Download Enterprise Agility Maturity Matrix

Frankenteam?

Check Your Allocation Levels Try to keep allocation levels above 70%

Long Standing Teams are More Effective Team effectiveness Long Standing Teams are More Effective If teams are forming around projects and projects are constantly being started and new teams formed every 6-12 months, people will never get to the performing stage and you will actually be severely hurting the potential performance of your people. Jerking people around from team to team has the same effect because they are effectively on a different team each time you re-assign them. People are not like blade servers. Combine not having real teams with the Tuckman theory and you’ve got a severe impact on potential performance. Forming Storming Norming Performing Model created by Bruce Tuckman in 1965

It’s Dead Jim “We’re doing Scrum!” 1 2 3 4 Organizational Support “We’re doing Scrum!” Team Dynamics Team Structure Product Set reasonable goals for progress as well as an expected timeline. It will likely take longer than expected, but as progress is made or not made, having goals and a timeline are useful for helping to structure the conversations around progress and what needs to be done. Translation: “we require developers to go to a one hour standup meeting every day” Process Mechanics Engineering Practices

Vital Signs at Standup

Is the Patient Alive? Dead? Is there a Patient? I worked on #5316 yesterday and I’ll be in meetings all day today, no impediments I was working on the id module again yesterday. I think it is almost done and I’ll finish it today, no impediments. Etc, etc, etc, etc, … I was in a meeting for the web team yesterday and also caught up on some code reviews for people. Today I have to catch up on my e-mail, no impediments. Ok everybody, good standup, see you tomorrow!

Burn Down 160 128 96 Hours 64 32 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Days

Card Wall & Measuring Progress 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 20 Story Points Days Ready to accept todo implementing testing done Seller wants to remove an ad 5 Seller wants to show an ad 5 Traveller wants to delete a booking 1 Traveller wants to register with the system 3 Way too much work started compared to other columns Traveller wants to e-mail a hotel booking 2 Traveller wants to see their upcoming trips 2 Traveller wants to enter a booking 3 Traveller wants to e-mail a car booking 2 Admin wants a report of site-wide activity 5 Traveller wants to copy a booking 2 Traveller wants to edit a booking 2

Card Wall & Measuring Progress 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 20 Story Points Days Ready to accept todo implementing testing done Seller wants to remove an ad 5 Seller wants to show an ad 5 Traveller wants to edit a booking 2 Traveller wants to register with the system 3 Looking good! Traveller wants to e-mail a hotel booking 2 Traveller wants to see their upcoming trips 2 Traveller wants to delete a booking 1 Traveller wants to enter a booking 3 Traveller wants to e-mail a car booking 2 Admin wants a report of site-wide activity 5 Traveller wants to copy a booking 2

Card Wall & Measuring Progress 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 20 Story Points Days Ready to accept todo implementing testing done Seller wants to remove an ad 5 Seller wants to show an ad 5 Admin wants a report of site-wide activity 5 Traveller wants to edit a booking 2 Traveller wants to delete a booking 1 Traveller wants to register with the system 3 Insufficient progress Traveller wants to e-mail a hotel booking 2 Traveller wants to see their upcoming trips 2 Traveller wants to enter a booking 3 Traveller wants to e-mail a car booking 2 Traveller wants to copy a booking 2

Trust, the Lifeblood of an Agile Team

Four Pillars of Trust: ABCD Ability, Competence Have the necessary skills. Believable, Sincerity Speak and act with integrity Think things through Say what you mean and mean what you say. Care, collaborative Works well with others Interested, sharing, connected, helping Dependability, reliability Keep promises Act responsibly Manage workload From “Trust Works” and “Thin Book of Trust”

Taking the Collective Pulse Methods Rock-scissors-paper Fist of Five Secret ballot Standup questions How is your morale? How confident are you that we will have all of our stories shippable according to our definition of done at the end of the iteration? Retrospective questions How would you rate the performance of our team? What is your level of trust in the team? ICAGILELO: 1.2.2 Rock scissors paper as in shake fist once, twice, three times and show your number. Kind of the same idea as simultaneous reveal on planning poker.

Level across whole team 100-76 % 75-51 % 50-26 % 25-0 % others Ability me others Believability me others Collaboration me others Dependability me

Product Planning

Agile Feedback Loop Iteration Review Do the planned work New Backlog Items Iteration Planning Agile welcomes changes. After the iteration review *WE MAY HAVE TO UPDATE THE BACKLOG AND CHANGE THE PLAN!!* In traditional development we would call potential changes “scope creep.” But wait, if we discover new value, why would we want to call that a bad thing? Yes, it is tricky to change the plan, but without change, you don’t get the full value of Agile. Shippable Software

One Person Acts as Gateway to the Team Team Backlog Owner GATEWAY PRODUCTBACKLOG ITERATION BACKLOG TEAM One Person Acts as Gateway to the Team Attending all iteration planning meetings Having at least two iterations worth of ready stories Stories prioritized for the iteration being planned Attending all iteration reviews Answering all questions regarding the iteration backlog Immediately most of the time A few hours delay once in a while

Healthy Agile Schedule

Example Schedule Total: 6:30 / 2 weeks (avg 3:15 / week) Iteration Planning (1 hr) Standup (15 min) Uninterrupted work Uninterrupted work Uninterrupted work Uninterrupted work Uninterrupted work Uninterrupted work Uninterrupted work Uninterrupted work Uninterrupted work Uninterrupted work Scrum actually takes up very little time. This schedule is to help illustrate this. Whatever is happening in the “uninterrupted work” other than uninterrupted work should be considered a potential impediment. One of the main points of following Scrum is to focus most of the team’s time on valuable work. Backlog Grooming (1 hr) Iteration Review (1 hr) Retrospective (1 hr) Total: 6:30 / 2 weeks (avg 3:15 / week)

Regular Checkups

Regular Checkups Make sure that somebody is responsible for monitoring the Agile vital signs Check on a regular basis When there is a problem, take prompt action

Agile Vital Signs Summary Iteration planning The product owner is present The meeting is no longer than 2 hours There is very little discussion of “how” The iteration plan takes into account new information learned in the previous iteration Standup The main meeting is no longer than 20 minutes The team re-affirms that work planned for the iteration will meet definition of done within the iteration It is clear to even a casual observer how things stand by the end of the meeting Iteration review It is clear that all planned stories are done and shippable Retrospective It is shown that at least 1 action item from a previous retrospective has been accomplished The meeting is at least 30 minutes long and can be extended if there is a desire by the team to do so In general Morale is high All stakeholders are satisfied with the team

www.egagile.com Damon Poole dpoole@eliassen.com @EliassenAgile Facebook.com/Eliassen Group LinkedIn.com/Eliassen Group 84 32

www.synerzip.com Hemant Elhence hemant@synerzip.com 469.374.0500 84 33

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