there is no more important time to be agile

Robbie Mac Iver, Agile Consultant & Coach

There is No More Important Timeto be Agile

In the long run, the only sustainable source of competitive

advantage is your organization's ability to learn faster

than your competition

- Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

The Business Conditions

The Mac Iver Group, LP © 2005-2015 2

The Market Reaction


The Problem in a Downturn

We Face Increased

Operational Pressures

We Need to Stay Competitive

in the Market

We Need to Continue to

Improve


How Can Agility Help?


Source: www.agilemanifesto.com

Hands-On Agile Principles


Form working groups

Review agile principles

Prioritize them – which would

be most helpful in address the

problem

Increased operational pressures

Need to stay competitive

Need to continue to improve

The Approach

Make Good Decisions About

What Work to Do

And what work NOT to do

Effectively Deliver That Work

Predictable visible progress

Delivery Value Very Frequently

Help the business today


The Approach


What Work to Do







What Are Your Priorities?


Make Good Decisions

Provide a Clear Vision

Provide Clarity of Purpose

Refined for Current Business

Conditions

What’s the impact?

What’s our objective?

What’s our approach?

Communicated Clearly

Broadly & often


Make Good Decisions

Set Clear Priorities

Two or Three

To increase focus

Specific Actions

That support the vision

Measurable Business

Value

To assess outcomes


Make Good Decisions

CIO Survey – Top Priorities

University VP and CIO

Fully deploy CRM platform

Establish SaaS platform for ERP

suite

Increase digital literacies


Make Good Decisions


Diabetes Solutions Senior Director

Improve the customer experience by

embracing the mobile mind shift and

exceeding customer expectations by

having actionable and authentic data

for business insights

Increase market readiness by staying

nimble and having a plug-and-play

model

Reduce the cost


Make Good Decisions


Energy Company VP of IT Deploy solutions which enhance customer

experience with our company and our brand

Enhance our customer relationship management capabilities so that we have a comprehensive view of all of our interactions with each consumer to be a robust partner

Link our internal data with external data sources to provide better analytical insights about our products for all stakeholders


Make Good Decisions

Purpose Alignment Model

Parity

Excel

Who Cares?

Partner

Mission Critical

Mark

et

Dif

fere

nti

ati

ng

HighLow

Low

Hig

h

Source: Stand Back and Deliver - Pixton, Nickolaisen, Little, McDonald

Make Good Decisions


Buy a Feature

For more information visit: www.innovationgames.com

Make Good Decisions


Select Features for Release

Name User Story Benefit Size in

Story

Points

Purchase

Price

Make Reservation

As a pet owner I want to reserve a PoodlePalace Suite so that FiFi will have the ultimate doggie day care experience.

Reserved Space 5 $75

Meal Preference

As a pet owner I want to specify a meal/treat preference so that FiFi has her usual food.

Usual Food 1 $15

Web Camera

As a pet owner I want to view FiFi via a web camera so that I can see how happy and active she is.

Increased Owner Comfort

8 $120

Historic Data

As the owner of PoodlePalace I want to review historical data so that I know which services are most commonly used.

Increased Business 13 $195

Virtual Tour As the owner of PoodlePalace I want to offer a virtual tour of my facilities so that potential customers are attracted to my business.

Attract New Business

13 $195

…

PoodlePalace Backlog

Make Good Decisions


Useful When…

Product Owner is a Proxy

Lack of alignment with the real

customer

Product is Too Complex

No one person knows it all

Product Serves Many Customers

Which customer’s requests take

priority

Gain Consensus Between Multiple Product “Owners”

Make Good Decisions


Provide a Clear Vision

Provide Clarity of Purpose

Refined for Current Business

Conditions

What’s the impact?

What’s our objective?

What’s our approach?

Communicated Clearly

Broadly & often


Make Good Decisions

Agile Principles

Welcome Changing Requirements -- Harness Change for Competitive Advantage

Simplicity - Maximize Work NOT Done

Business People & Developers Work Together

Face-to-Face Conversation


Make Good Decisions


What Work to Do






The Approach


4 Disciplines of Execution

Focus on the Wildly

Important

Act On Leading

Measures

Keep a Compelling

Scoreboard

Create a Cadence of

Accountability


Effective Delivery

The 4 Disciplines of Execution - McChesney, Covey, Huling

Conventional Thinking

All of our goals are

important. We can

multitask and succeed

at 5, 10, or 15 goals by

working harder and

longer…

Wildly Important Goal


Effective Delivery

4DX Principle

Many goals are

important, but only one

to two are wildly

important. Our finest

effort can only be given

to one or two WIGs at a

time…



Effective Delivery

How many goals

to you want him to

focus on?

Specific Outcome

by

Specific Date



Effective Delivery

Aligned With

A Larger Goal



Effective Delivery

What is a Wildly Important Goal in Scrum?

“We will deliver working

software for 6 user

stories worth 38 points

by the end of the sprint”.



Effective Delivery



Effective Delivery

What is a Wildly Important Goal in Kanban?

Regular Cadence

Refine Backlog

Fit Empty Slots

Optimal Flow

Act on Leading Measures


Effective Delivery

Impacts

Focus on Leading Measures


Effective Delivery


Keep you eye on lag

measures -- sales

results, cost savings…

Stress out while you

wait.

4DX Principle

Focus on moving lead

measures – the high-

leverage actions you

can take to move the

lag measure.



Effective Delivery

What are Lag and Lead Measures in Scrum?



Effective Delivery

Remaining

Hours

Lead Measure



Effective Delivery



Effective Delivery

Lead Measure to Completion of

Product Backlog



Effective Delivery

What are Lag and Lead Measures in Kanban?



Effective Delivery

What are Lag and Lead Measures in Kanban?

Lag Measure

Backlog Size

Lead Time

Cycle Time

Lead Measures

Compelling Scoreboard


Effective Delivery


Scoreboards are for

leaders that consist of

complex spreadsheets

and charts with

thousands of numbers

-- Big picture is hard for

anyone to see.

4DX Principle

Scoreboards are for the

whole team to drive

execution with a few

simple graphs. Anyone

can tell if we are

winning or losing in 5

seconds or less.



Effective Delivery

Are they keeping score?



Effective Delivery

What Scoreboards are in Scrum?



Effective Delivery

What Scoreboards are in Kanban?

Team Behavior We Want

Take Initiative, Be Proactive

Act with Confidence

Focus On Getting Things

Done

Stretch Themselves


Effective Delivery

Choose Carefully

Use Scoreboards

Drive Desired Behavior


Effective Delivery

Take Initiative, Be Proactive


Effective Delivery

Act with Confidence


Effective Delivery

Focus of Getting Things Done


Effective Delivery

Stretch Themselves


Effective Delivery

4DX Principle

Accountability on our

team is shared. We

make commitments

and are accountable to

each other (and to our

boss) for following

through.

Cadence of Accountability


Effective Delivery


Accountability on our

team is top down. We

meet with the boss and

he let’s us know how

they are doing and

what to do on next.



Effective Delivery

Review the ScoreboardLearn from Successes and Failures

PlanClear the path and make new

commitments

AccountReport on past commitments

1

2

3



Effective Delivery

How Does Scrum Do This?

AccountSprint

Review/Demo

ReviewDaily Scrum

Retrospective

PlanSprint Planning

Sprint Goal



Effective Delivery

How Does Kanban Do This?

AccountFinished Work

ReviewDaily Standups

Retrospective

PlanRefine Backlog

Prioritization

4 Disciplines of Execution

Focus on the Wildly

Important

Act On Leading

Measures

Keep a Compelling

Scoreboard

Create a Cadence of

Accountability


Effective Delivery

The 4 Disciplines of Execution - McChesney, Covey, Huling

Agile Principles

Self-Organizing Teams

Motivated Individuals

Team Reflection

Sustainable Pace

Business People &

Developers Work Together

Face-to-Face Conversation

Working Software is the

Primary Measure of Progress


The Approach


What Work to Do







A Not So Hypothetical Project


Frequent Value

Construct Customizations

Setup Search Dev Environment

Acquire Content

Create Data Warehouse

Construct UI

Validate Content

Create Test Cases

Move/Upgrade Servers

It’s All Too Common


Frequent Value

Product Roadmaps

What Business

Problem(s) are We

Solving?

When?

What Are the

Incremental Steps?


Frequent Value

Organize Along the Value Stream

The Process is Important


Frequent Value

Where Are We

Going?

How Do We

Get There?

What Do We

Need To

Accomplish?

Vision/Strategy Roadmap Product Backlog

One Sample Roadmap


Frequent Value

Enable

Change M

anagem

ent

Asset

Group A

Manage Infrastructure Assets

Asset

Group BAsset

Group C

Manage

Applications

Manage Topology

Today

Ma

rch

20

14

Ma

y 2

01

4

July

2014

Impactful Releases

Make a Difference Today

Focused Specific

Capability or Audience

Significant Step To Overall

Vision


Frequent Value

Other Examples


Frequent Value

Tools Available


Frequent Value

Deliver Value Frequently


How Does Scrum Support This?

Frequent Value

Deliver Value Frequently


How Does Kanban Support This?

Frequent Value

Lead Time

Agile Principles

Satisfy Customer Through Early & Continuous Delivery of Valuable Software

Working Software is the Primary Measure of Progress

Simplicity - Maximize the Work NOT Done

The Best <Solutions> Emerge from Self-Organizing Teams


Frequent Value

The Problem in a Downturn

We Face Increased

Operational Pressures

We Need to Stay Competitive

in the Market

We Need to Continue to

Improve


Uncertainty Is Always With Us


When Was The Last

Time You Were

Certain of the Next

Move in Your Market?

It Shouldn’t Take A Significant

Business Disruption to Get Us To

Deal With Uncertainty…

Agile Organizations…

Are Learning Organizations

Are More Proactive

Better Anticipate Market Swings

Are More Resilient to Uncertainty


In the long run, the only sustainable source of

competitive advantage is your organization's

ability to learn faster than your competition

- Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

It’s Already Happening


It’s Time To Be Agile


What Work to Do







• Influence vs.

control

• Growth mindset

• Direction and

focus

• Quality

• Reliability

• Adaptability

• Strategic vs.

tactical balance

• Business need

discovery

• Solution

validation

• Shared

commitment

• Fit-to-purpose

solutions

• Incremental

delivery

Balancing Agile Adoptions


What Can You Do?


Promote Agile Values &

Principles

Tie them to improved performance

Understand Business Purpose

Ask for it!

Stay Value Focused

Deliver early & often

There Is No More Important Time


Robbie Mac Iver

▪ Past President/Advisor National Board of Directors

▪ Founder Houston Chapter

▪ Stage Producer – Agile 2010, Agile 2011

▪ Presenter – Agile 2010

▪ Stage Producer – Agile Executive Forum 2011

www.robbiemaciver.com

[email protected]

@robbiemaciver

robbiemaciver

Consulting ▪ Coaching ▪ Mentoring

▪ Agile Adoption ▪ Agile Leadership ▪ Product Management

▪ Leadership Agility 360™ Assessment

▪ Certified LeSS Practitioner

10+ Years Agile Techniques ▪ 10+ Years Project Leadership

▪ 20+ Years Information Technology

there is no more important time to be agile

Leadership & Management

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