Agile tips!

1. 10 leadership tips to be even
more agile
C. Le Coënt

2. Summary
1. Rename “agile” to “common sense”
2. Go for simplicity, make it a habit
3. Get trained but not by anybody
4. Not everybody can be agile in the timeframe of your
project
5. Do completeness from the first user story
6. Rename “Scrum Master” to “Scrum team facilitator”
7. Thing big, start very small
8. Use ideas and concepts that provide a holistic
approach
9. Mono-tasking: art of getting things done
10. Learn, learn and learn

3. 1. Rename “agile” to “common
sense”
• “Agile cannot apply to all projects”
Becomes:
– “Common sense does not apply to all…”
• “Agile is just a fad” becomes
– “Common sense is just a fad! Is it?”
Agile may not be the right word, so use a
more meaningful word ?

4. 2. Go for simplicity, make it a habit
• People like the abstract world, mainly because it
feels better: “Wow, you are doing complicated
stuff!”
– Use examples, models, rewrite and rethink until you
have captured the essence of business needs
– If you don’t understand something, this “something”
might be your problem soon
– Dare aim for simplicity and be very concrete
Simplicity is an art

5. 3. Get trained but not by anybody
• Agile is about not compromising on Quality
so get the right trainers i.e. aim for the
best!
• Mike Cohn and Ken Rubin are very good
Quality in each and every aspect!

6. 4. Not everybody can be agile in
the timeframe of your project
• “Common sense is anything but common”
– You have to acknowledge some people will
be obstacles so if this is your project, better
out of your way that in your way!
Agile is not for everybody, be tough!

7. 5. Do completeness from the first
user story
• Your Definition of Done is the key success of
your project.
• So make sure that even for the first user story,
you have tackled your non-functional
requirements
– Add tests to measure performance, data quality, load
testing etc
Is your first story really, really shippable if…?

8. 6. Rename “Scrum Master” to
“Scrum team facilitator”
• I understand scrum master is the master
of the scrum process/framework but some
people really hear “Master”
• The scrum master is a team facilitator
– So find the people who have facilitating skills
to be your scrum masters!
Look for facilitators to help your teams!

9. 7. Thing big, start very small
• Always keep the big picture in mind and
implement small user stories first
• Engineers always under estimate the effort
so ask them to do the simplest thing that
can work and help them do it well
Don’t hesitate to do less and do it well

10. 8. Use ideas and concepts that
provide a holistic approach
• User stories, BDD et DDD have lots in
common:
– Based on conversation
– Reflect business inputs
– Supplement each other
• All together provides a cohesive approach
Holistic approach = coherent people

11. 9. Mono-tasking: art of getting
things done
• Too often, engineers get involved in doing
too many things at once
• Limit work in progress (WIP) in your « in
progress » column of tasks
Mono-tasking is great discipline

12. 10. Learn, learn, learn
• New concepts are coming along, BDD,
DDD, FDD etc
– Don’t be afraid: behind these concepts, there
are simple ideas
• Learning new things, in spite,

13. In a nutshell
• Apply common sense and use simplication
to drive change!