Agile is dead! Long live Agile! There is no shortage of people who want to tell you how to do Agile or how not to do Agile; some people will tell you that Agile saved their business while others think Agile is broken and must be abandoned. I both agree and disagree with all of these things. If you can handle a few contradictions, I'll tell you about how our department at the CBC went Agile, how it helped us, and why you should absolutely not do the same (along with the one important thing you should do instead). Originally presented at Web Unleashed 2014. Notes, References, and Credits Slide 5: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/1542160137 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 7: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/chumlee/6391318065 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 8: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarah_c_murray/5119044564/ (CC BY-SA 2.0) Slide 11: http://www.agilemanifesto.org/ Slide 12, 13, 14: http://stateofagile.versionone.com/why-agile/ Slide 16: http://pragdave.me/blog/2014/03/04/time-to-kill-agile/ Slide 17: http://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-10-contradiction Slide 18: http://javasymposium.techtarget.com/html/agile.html#JKernAgile but more info at http://www.theserverside.com/news/2240033314/QA-Bogus-experts-fuel-the-backlash-against-Agile-development Slide 19: http://maxxdaymon.com/2007/02/cargo-cult-agile/ and http://www.jamesshore.com/Blog/Cargo-Cult-Agile.html with photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/flissphil/306782624 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 21: http://agilitrix.com and http://paulheidema.com Slide 22: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/bixentro/2267138822 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 23, 24: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasfisherlibrary/12308574505 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 28: Photo from http://boagworld.com/usability/user-stories/ Slide 34: Photo cropped from https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/8260274908 (CC BY-SA 2.0) Slide 35: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/14699708858 (CC BY 2.0) Slide 36: Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/amylovesyah/4528869007 (CC BY 2.0)

1. GETTING TO THE HEART OF AGILE
Jamie Strachan
@jamiestrachan

2. OUR STORY

3. •Slow to market
•Lack of quality
•Struggle with scope creep
•Weak stakeholder relationships
•Poor internal communication
•Siloed teams
ISSUES

4. We hired consultants

5. We got Agile training

6. •Scrum
•Small, cross-functional teams
•3 Roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team Member
•2 week sprints
•User Stories
•Maintain a Product Backlog
•Ceremonies
PRACTICES

7. We lived happily ever after

8. Let’s go further

10. MANIFESTO FOR
AGILE
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

11. We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
•Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
•Working software over comprehensive documentation
•Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
•Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

15. “The word ‘agile’ has been subverted to the point where it is effectively meaningless, and what passes for an agile community seems to be largely an arena for consultants and vendors to hawk services and products.
So I think it is time to retire the word ‘Agile.’”
AGILE BACKLASH?

16. “I think it is time to retire the word ‘Agile.’”
Agile Is Dead (Long Live Agility)
Dave Thomas, March 2014

17. “[T]here is danger in such a wide range of ‘we are Agile because we implement L with X, Y, Z’. We need to worry about how diluted the meaning of agile is becoming, and focus on real quality.”
Agile at 10 – A State of Contradiction
Mike Beedle, May 2011

18. “If you are dogmatically following along with a handful of agile practices, but don’t really ‘get’ the intentions behind the agile mindset, you may be disappointed in your results.”
Agile Schmagile: The Backlash Against Agile Jon Kern, March 2011

19. CARGO CULT AGILE

20. “intentions behind the agile mindset”
?

21. CONSULTANTS
Michael Sahota
http://agilitrix.com
Paul Heidema
http://paulheidema.com

22. THE HEART OF AGILE
EXPERIMENT
LEARN

23. 1.Observe
2.Form a hypothesis
3.Establish parameters
4.Run the experiment
5.Analyze the results
EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS

24. It’s not an experiment if there is:
•No scheduled reassessment
•More than one thing being tested
•No success criteria
EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS

25. HOW DOES EXPERIMENTATION FIT?

26. User Stories: experiments on your product

27. Retrospectives: experiments on your process

28. YOUR TEAM
SOLVES
YOUR PROBLEMS
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

29. ACTIVITY INSTEAD OF SPECULATION
Working software over comprehensive documentation
EXPERIMENTATION IS

30. EXPERIMENTS CANNOT
BE DONE IN ISOLATION
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

31. CONSTANT EXPERIMENTATION INSTILLS A
CULTURE OF ADAPTATION
Responding to change over following a plan

32. FEAR CHANGE
ACCEPT CHANGE
EMBRACE CHANGE

33. Experimenting with Waterfall
is more agile than
blindly following Scrum

34. Stop doing Agile
Start being agile
EXPERIMENT
ON EVERYTHING