Lightning talk at the Agile Meetup. Discusses the idea that if you are introducing change you need to understand how the organisation got the way it is now, and address the underlying concerns and drivers, so as to make the chanegs stick.

1. A parable
This is Brad
Stolen Reused with permission from Steve Hayes www.CogentConsulting.com.au
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oter/3316795815/

2. Brad is an Agile coach and consultant

3. Brad is offered a gig at
Ponderous Software Development

4. Ponderous want to become agile

5. Brad gives Ponderous his “Agile 101”
presentation, and they love it

6. They ask Brad to coach their adoption

7. However, Ponderous can see that agile
as Brad described it, clearly won’t
work for them…

8. Because they are different!

9. Brad can do whatever he wants,
except…

10. He can’t change anything about
operations or the production
environment
(different department)

11. He can’t have access to the business
people
(they’re too busy)

12. Every project needs a business case
accurate to +/- 10% before Execution
(CFO requirement)

13. Projects must have fixed costs, fixed
scope, and fixed delivery date before
development starts
(business requirement)

14. All the requirements need to be
documented to ISO-666 before
development starts
(audit requirement)

15. The process needs to be identical
across all teams
(QA requirement)

16. The tools needs to be identical across
all teams
(We got a great deal on licensing)

17. Developers can’t access
(or download from) the internet
(security requirement)

18. He can’t post information on the walls
(facilities requirement)

19. He can’t spend any money on
hardware or software
(budget constraint)

20. Development must be in a new
language, with no developers
experienced in that language, and no
training budget
(architectural requirement)

21. 70% of the workforce must be
contractors/ delivery partners
(onshore and offshore)
(Division requirement)

22. You must use all of the PMO Project
Lifecycle templates
(PMO Requirement)

23. You actually need to be willing to
change!

24. I’ve been there…
Be careful that you don’t give on too many of the constraints
This is insidious, because the constraints may sound reasonable
to their owners
Focus on addressing the intent of the constraint

25. Change the mindset
Value Chain not Siloed Services

26. Use your Consultants
Good Cop – Bad Cop

27. What about my Governance?
Governance is hard! But it is critical that you get it
right.

28. In Summary
Understand your readiness to change
Agree on the problem
Adopt the necessary techniques
Challenge the constraints

29. Tips

30. At some point you will have a
conversation
“Are we really up for this?”
• Be prepared

31. You will get staff turnover
• Be prepared

32. What about Scrum?
• Scrum for common naming
• XP for technical techniques
• Lean for reducing waste

33. Align KRAs to match the goals
• Reduce Sev 1s in production
• Improve Customer satisfaction score

34. What about Offshore Agile
• Increase comms (video etc)
• Visit often – put a face to the voice
• Rotate people onshore-offshore
• Shared information radiators (Mingle)
• Adjust your expectations

35. Focus your efforts on converting the
80% “undecided” into “on-board”

36. Sabotage Workshop
• How would I make this fail?

37. Insist on Heavy Documentation
Don’t Empower the teams
Demand tight predictability
Don’t make your resources available
Lip service, but no real support
Promote the blame culture
Punish Failure

38. ?
@nishmahanty