Agile Failure PatternsIn Organizations

Why Agile Fails

Leancamp 2016Berlin, February 13th, 2016

Common Sense

The Four Core Principles of the Agile Manifesto*:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan*http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

The Benefits Of Being Agile

• Less customer churn: Focus on value better product happier customers➜ ➜

• Mitigate risk: Focus on value less waste higher ROI➜ ➜

• High quality software: Self-organization happier team-members less fluctuation higher ➜ ➜ ➜productivity better code➜

• Improved organizations: Collaboration with stakeholder organizational flaws revealed➜

• More financial value: Better traction extended runway better valuation for next round (If ➜ ➜you’re a startup.)

Read the long version here: https://age-of-product.com/agile-failure-patterns-in-organizations/

Practical Reasons To Adopt Agile

Most popular ones:• Low productivity – perceived or actual• Low morale • Senior people won’t join your company• Budget constrains• Competition drives innovation at a high pace

Read the long version here: https://age-of-product.com/agile-failure-patterns-in-organizations/

Four Levels Of Agile Adoption

• Organization• Team• Process• Facility

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Organizational Level (I)

• No (product) vision• The fallacy of

"We know what we need to build”• Micro-management by superiors• No transparency• No culture of failure

Read the long version here: https://age-of-product.com/agile-failure-patterns-in-organizations/

Organizational Level (II)

• No rapid build-test-learn culture friction➜• Senior management is not participating in

Agile processes• „When you put problem in a computer, box

hide answer. Problem must be visible!“*

*Hideshi Yokoi, former President of the Toyota Production System Support Center in Erlanger, Kentucky, USA

Read the long version here: https://age-of-product.com/agile-failure-patterns-in-organizations/

Organizational Level (III)

• Product management "Jira monkeys”➜• Local optimization efforts, bypassing product

management • Core responsibilities of product management

covered by other departments, e.g. tracking,• Product managers w/o a dedicated team

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Team Level (I)

• There are too many juniors on the team• Engineers with an purely open source coding

mentality• Teams are too small and hence not cross-

functional• Teams are not adequately staffed, e.g. the Scrum

Master is missing• Team members reject Agile methodologies

openlyRead the long version here: https://age-of-product.com/agile-failure-patterns-in-organizations/

Team Level (II)

• Teams are not self-organizing• Team members abandon Agile quietly ➜

perception: it’s management fad• Cargo cult Agile: Teams follow the “Agile rules”

mechanically • Moving people among teams upon short

notice.

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Process Level

• Processes are being bent or ignored • Agile processes are changed too far

( Product owner becomes project manager)➜• Stakeholders are bypassing product management• Not enough communication among participants

Read the long version here: https://age-of-product.com/agile-failure-patterns-in-organizations/

Facility Level

• No places to communicate: Cafeterias, tea kitchens, sofas etc.

• Whiteboards is missing• Offices that generally don’t further

communication

Read the long version here: https://age-of-product.com/agile-failure-patterns-in-organizations/

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