Agile transformation advice to build it into the culture of an organization.

1. Agile
Transformations
That Stick
Nicola Dourambeis
Purple Agility

2. Enterprise Agile, Innovation &
Organizational Transformation
Former salesforce VP,
coaching at Yahoo!, learned
agile with ThoughtWorks in
2004
Consulting clients include
eBay, RMS, Twitter, Zendesk,
British Telecom
Focus on people and culture
over process. Process enables
outcomes

3. Why Transform?
Agile Transformation Playbook
Danger signs and what to do about them

4. Why Transform?

5. Go faster & beat the
competition
Increase quality
Build stronger and
happier teams
Scale

6. We’ve crossed the chasm
Going agile is no longer a
question

7. Agile is table stakes

8. If we all agree,
then why is it so
hard?

9. Change is hard
People resist change
Agile is all about
people
Dysfunction must be
addressed

10. It’s important
to be:
Bold
Determined
Consistent
Kind
Bold

11. Agile
Transformation
Playbook

12. How to make it stick?
Agile has to be part of the culture –
everything changes
Don’t focus on mechanics, focus on
values, principles & behaviors
Look for and remove systemic
blockers

13. Get leaders aligned
Determine what
outcomes you are
trying to achieve
*(this make take some time to
do)

14. Technical:
How do you do builds?
Do you have continuous
integration?
Do you have test
automation frameworks?
Can teams mock?
Determine your infrastructure

15. Organizational:
Are you staffed to build cross
functional teams of 10 or
less?
Are those teams persistent?
Are there ScrumMasters and
Product Owners?
Do the teams have backlogs
which own portions of the
technology?
Determine your infrastructure

16. Form a cross functional
leadership team to make
decisions which impact
the whole organization

17. Build your organizational backlog
Definition of Done
Roles and Responsibilities
Environments, Tools & Metrics
Delivery Rhythm and Planning Cadence
Requirements and Dependency
Management
Technical Debt strategy
Way to stay visible

18. …but resist defining everything
Add large scale process only when it is
needed

19. Train Everyone in Agile
Leaders
Managers
Whole teams
* Everybody – even those people
who’ve “been doing it for years”

20. Bottom Up Release
Plan
Whole teams
Expect this to reveal
hard truths

21. Allow the teams start without
too much tweaking
They will make mistakes. They
may feel confused.
Help them see tradeoffs and
make wise decisions
Do not over – coach
Let them own the details of
their process
Keep them visible and
accountable
Let them fail fast and reset

22. Danger Signs
And what to do
Danger Signs
and what to do about them

23. There’s so much
process, teams
(or you) forget
what outcomes
you are trying to
achieve.
Backlash or
Mechanics thrive
but teams do not
improve
Process Overload

24. The Fix
Go back to basics
Focus on the “what”
and “why” rather than
the “how”
Push decision making
lower
Take a hard look at your
metrics – people take
their cues from what
you collect

25. Step one – select tool
Step two – determine
process
Step three – train people
on tool and it’s process
Tool enforcement pain

26. The Fix
Put away the tool in favor of
simple, collaboration tools
Allow teams to customize their
process to their work and context

27. ScrumMasters are not
developed (or rotating or
part-time or shared with
any number of roles)
Product Owners are not
bought it to a
“development process”
Role Confusion

28. SMs - Name SMs, build job
descriptions & success metrics.
Develop community for shared
learning
Ensure rollout (and rollout team)
is comprehensive, not just
engineering. PMs (and their
managers) need skin in the game
The Fix

29. Decision Making is held;
no self organization
Leaders are unable to push
decision making down to
teams.
Managers don’t have a new job,
continue directive style,
assignments, estimates and
commitments

30. The Fix
Coach leaders on the
impact of their actions to
outcomes. Bring in data
rather than arguments.
Give managers a real
role in the agile org
which is different from
their previous one.
Critical partners to create
agile culture.

31. Too Many Metrics
Lots of Gaming
Detailed scorecards look
good but teams are not
succeeding or improving
Reporting is a burden and
it’s tough to know how to
action off data

32. The Fix
Simplify – go back to
desired outcomes
Measure no more than
5 things
Remind people of the
“why” so metrics have
value and promote
course correction

33. Final Thoughts

34. Genuine transformation takes time –
remember it’s culture change
Execute playbook quickly but inspect and
adapt often
Fail fast and find successes to amplify

35. Questions?