18 years later, what's different about agile? what trends exist?

1. Agile 18 Years Later
@jasonlittle | leanchange.org | #PrDCDeliver
http://sli.do Code: 5232 to ask questions

2. JASON LITTLE
AUTHOR
SPEAKER
LEANCHANGE.ORG
AGILETRANSFORMATION.CA
EX-DEVELOPER

3. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
In 2001…
Technology was dominated by
Microsoft

4. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
In 2001…
These companies ruled the world

5. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
But today…
Perhaps they didn’t read the
manifesto?
21
22
1
9
5
8
41
129
6
16

6. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
In 2001…
We weren’t sick of comic book movies
yet

7. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
In 2001…
Lenny Kravitz single handedly made
popular music tolerable.

8. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Me in 2001?
Your fiiiiiiiired!
well, not yet…but soon.

9. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Before there was
mailchimp…
There were MS Exchange server event
sinks.

10. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Necessary agility

11. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Agile Manifesto
February 11, 2001
We called it a
manifesto because it
was a call to arms, a
statement of our
beliefs
Martin Fowler

12. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Responses
over 13 years
Version One State
of Agile survey

13. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Why Agile?
Accelerate
Delivery increased
by 10% as of 2017

14. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Who’s
responding?
As of 2015,
‘coaches or sm’
increased from
15% to 34%, pm/
prod mgr decreased
from 25% to 11%

15. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Most popular
methods
Scrum continues to
be the most
popular, ‘hybrid/
custom’ increasing
while ‘scrum/xp’
decreases

16. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Barriers
More or less the
same since
inception,
although ‘lack of
skill’ and ‘lack of
management
support’ increased
the last 3 years

17. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Scaling agile
Scaled Agile questions began in 2015
2015
2018

18. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
What’s been
getting better?
More or less the
same each year
2018

19. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Tips for
success
Having internal
coaches increased
the most from 2012
to 2016,
‘consistent
process’ added in
2014

20. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Tips for success
As of 2017, only
the ‘top tips’
were shown.
20182017

21. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Interesting notes
‘devops’ questions added in 2016
Post-2015 includes regions outside of north america
and Europe
Lessons learned added in 2012
More responses from 20,000+ enterprises
Questions skew towards enterprise topics after 2015
‘reasons for agile’ lean towards the ‘right’ of the
manifesto
adecadeofagile.com

22. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
We’re here
7000+ ‘agile’ books on
Amazon
Too many agile
certifications to count
12+ agile related meetups
in my city (Toronto) alone
At least 6 annual “State of
Agile/Scrum etc etc”
reports
Gazillions of Agile tools
vendors
Trend of Agile + Function
Name
Has agile become a racket?

23. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Suppose you’re
new to agile
What would you
think of this?

24. “2 things will never change. Competition and
innovation. An idea is in decline when mainstream
consultants start using the terms, then the same
idea is reinvented with different language”
-Larry Smith, U of Waterloo
Intrapreneur Conference 2015

25. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
What’s next?
Be careful. If
you’re not SAFe,
DAD will get mad
at you and banish
you to the Nexus
where there are
LeSS blue skies
and more zombie
pig-men. #minecraft

26. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Create 12 layers of management
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Design 83 new departments
Implement bell curve of performance
Develop 175 page best practice guide for delivery
Develop 254 page best practice guide that
contradicts the 175 page version
Purchase best-of-breed delivery guide
from vendor
Build transformation plan to undo all of
this
Finalize and implement culture of blame
Our plan to become the worst company ever

27. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Re-organization
Externally visible failures Creation of new departments
Implementation of new processes
Years of rituals and events put us here

28. Seriously though…
At some point the pain of the status quo will out weigh the
pain of changing something.
What do you want to have happen?
What can you influence?
What small action can you take tomorrow?
Small consistent actions over time leads to substantial
change. - Sam Demma

29. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
If you’re here
Focus on this
Not this

30. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Emergence
Coalescence
Bureaucratization
Intervention Intervention
How all change happens (Herbert Blumer)
Decline
Success
Failure
Co-optation
Integration

31. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Re-organization
Externally visible failures Creation of new departments
Implementation of new processes
Facilitate change at the interventions
“Agile teams are out of
control, we need a
centralized process!”
Flip the paradigm:
What would be better if
everyone followed the same
process?
What happened the last time
we created a ‘standardized
process’?

32. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Cause and purpose
Over
Urgency

33. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Theory U
Deep
transformation
through purpose
and meaning

34. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Meaningful dialogue
Over
Broadcasting communication

35. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
“The people who
write the plan, don’t
fight the plan”
- Jill Forbes

36. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
We’re stuck without a
vision.
There’s nothing we
can do
Oh wait…maybe
there is…

37. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Response to change
Over
Resistance to change

38. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
People don’t
resist change
People don’t resist
being change
either
People change
when they feel the
need to do so.

39. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Co-creation
Over
Getting buy-in

40. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Let’s build a
future…
Where these 3
problems don’t
exist anymore.

41. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Co-creation across
the hierarchy
Where these 3
problems don’t
exist anymore.

42. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
Running experiments
Over
Executing change activities

43. Agile 18 Years Later | @jasonlittle | #PrDCDeliver http://sli.do #5232
What’s the
simplest way
To get to the next
foothold?

44. How deep do you want to go?
- Theory U (Otto Scharmer)
- Integral Agile (Spayd/Madore)
- Leadership Gift (Christopher Avery)
- MIT’s 4 Capability Leadership Model
- Satir Change and Interaction Model
- Profit for Life (Global LAMP index) Joseph Bragdon
If you’re not looking for meaningful transformation, hire a process
consultant. Seriously. That’s not a bad thing, just be congruent about it.

45. Thank you
@jasonlittle