Project World – Orlando, Florida – November 6 – 9



Lean into Agile Conference, November 7, 2014

Friends and Colleagues,

Thank you for your interest in reading “Chuck’s Snippets 24.0” from the November 2014 Lean into Agile Conference sponsored by the Central Ohio Agile Association (COHAA) and The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. I have included the highlights from the presentations that I attended below.

If you are interested in discussing any of the specific topics and/or speakers in more detail, please feel free to contact me.

My standard disclaimer: While I believe all of the content of the attached summary is extremely valuable, I do not fully accept each premise or believe that all of the concepts fully apply in every organizational environment. However, these basic principles of effective leadership, business analysis and project management are definitely worthwhile contributions to our professional development.

Speaker: Michael Sahota, Agilitrix, Lead Catalyst and Certified Scrum Coach ()

Topic: Lasting Change is About People, Not Process

1. Michael started off by highlighting that agile, true agile, is about the people. He referenced the Agile Manifesto () and emphasized one of the core values; Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools. Even though this is almost a universally accepted principle in agile, he noted that we tend to stay in the “process,” because the process is easy to define and working with people can be messy.

2. The same basic focus on people is true in applications of Lean. The overriding principles of Lean are to identify the stakeholders, understand what the stakeholders’ value, and then map the value stream. The waste elimination and process design comes after the focus on people.

3. Citing Taiichi Ohno (the father of the Toyota Production System): “A leader in continuous improvement activities must be deemed dependable and trustworthy by his workers. He must proactively initiate continuous improvement as he sees it in order to make workers’ operations easier. This will win their respect and generate an expectation toward future improvements. Every time you visit the shop floor, workers ask their leader for more advice for improving the shop floor processes and environment. In this way, a leader probably needs several hours just to walk 100 meters.”

a. Focusing on the key points, Taiichi focuses on 1) leadership over management, 2) trust over command and control, 3) understanding workers’ needs over dictating process and procedure, and 4) responding to needs and removing barriers over setting and measuring performance metrics.

4. Michael compared an agile leader to a party host constantly working the floor to ensure everyone has what they need and that they are having a good time. If a host focuses on themselves or ignores their guests, then the party would be a failure. Likewise, when an agile leader loses sight of the need to focus on people, the methodology will likely meet resistance and ultimately fail.

5. In my opinion, the next comment was the most salient point from Michael’s presentation, “Unfortunately, the typical approach used to initiate agile is inconsistent with the agile goals of empowerment and engagement.” He referenced research in which 250 survey participants were asked questions about their agile implementation success, and only 2.8 out of 5 (just over 50% of the respondents) could claim a successful adoption that realized the anticipated benefits.

6. When researching the root cause of agile implementation failures, a study completed by VERSIONONE (an agile project management platform) identified that over half of those failures were due to the inability to change organizational culture.

a. Who creates resistance to change? Answer: Those that are incorporating or imposing the change. There would not be resistance if nothing was changing.

7. Chuck’s comments: My observations with agile implementation within multiple organizations has been that training begins with a cursory overview of the Agile Manifesto, followed by a justification of why the agile approach (SCRUM in my experience) must be implemented off-the-shelf without modification and that the tools (software packages) must be used out-of-the-box to support metrics that validate the process and tools.

a. Huh? This approach violates the overarching agile principle of people and interactions over processes and tools. What comes first, the cart (the process) or the horse (people)? Did I just refer to people as horses? Follow the logic…

b. The reality is that the savvy leader must understand the balance between people and process and understand the stakeholders (people) well enough to know when to focus, yes…even enforce, the process and when to focus on the people aspect of the agile implementation. Few things turn off a team more than telling them “they have to follow the process because you said so.”

c. Agile may begin with a process in mind; however, do not lose sight of the necessity to concurrently convince people that the process makes sense. The agile leader must know how to value people and manage stakeholder expectations to get the full benefit from agile.

8. Michael cautions leaders to…

a. Avoid “weaponizing” agile and using the methodology as a whip to demand increased productivity. Not every team’s velocity will be similar and not every team’s velocity will follow the average curve and plateau. Hence the term “average” that implies a mean and results that fall on either side of that mean…including the potential for outlier results.

b. If you are not realizing the expected productivity gains, look first at leadership and the implementation approach.

c. Avoid using agile as a “shield” to say you cannot help someone or cannot respond to a request because their requirement is not “in the backlog” or that the sprint is locked. Again, this is focusing on the process over the people. Respond to their need appropriately based on the urgency and priority of their request. Hiding behind the process teaches them to dislike and/or avoid the process.

9. “Doing” agile focuses on the processes, “being” agile is a mindset that does not use the process as an excuse or barrier.

Speakers (Panel Discussion): Dave Ungar, OCLC (); Matt Anderson, Grange Insurance (), and Siddhartha Saran, GAP ()

Topic: Leaning Your Agile Delivery Approach

1. Use a short PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, and Adjust/Act) cycle for agile implementation. Why would we not use our own philosophy related to Lean Thinking to value people and eliminate waste during a major change like transitioning to an agile development methodology? You will find that a majority of the adjusting will be based on the “people factors” such as acceptance, adoption, resistance, training, etc.

2. We realized the greatest level of business partner acceptance when we leaned away from implementing a methodology and towards displaying a desire to be agile and adaptable to responding to business needs.

3. Remember, the tools and processes are a means to an end. If you haven’t bought into the agile team’s responsibility to quickly respond to business needs and focus on delivering valued-added results, then no process will make you better. Worse case, you could become more efficient at quickly delivering what the business does not want.

4. One team member found value in segregating training on their chosen tool (software package) and the agile methodology (SCRUM). Their initial experience was that their consultant was focused on implementing the tool and more interested in touting the need to use the tool in such a way that validated the value of the software package than implementing agile in a way that best supported the business need. If they had it to do over again, they would 1) train their organization on the agile principles first, 2) train their organization on the agile methodology second, 3) and then train users on how to leverage the tool to support their process last.

5. In retrospect, gaining leadership buy-in and engaging leadership to foster understanding and acceptance of the agile principles would have shortened the overall timeline for not only adoption, but also benefit realization.

6. Foster an environment where everyone is more “waste aware.”

a. The first step is to ensure folks understand the 8 types of Lean waste.

i. Transport: Moving people, supplies or information from storage to use.

ii. Inventory: Storing materials prior to their use/need.

iii. Motion: The actual movements required to perform tasks.

iv. Waiting: Any delay between need and usage.

v. Over production: Doing, or producing, more than is required at that time.

vi. Over processing: Doing more that is required by the process.

vii. Defects: Scrap, rework, inaccuracies, etc.

viii. Skills: Under-skilled resources or under-utilizing capabilities.

b. Once the team understands the types of waste, provide specific examples in context to their role to help them identify waste.

c. Encourage team members to proactively discuss waste with each other. Awareness is the first step in elimination.

Speaker: Mike Orzen, President, Mike Orzen & Associates, Inc ()

Topic: Agile: Necessary, But Not Sufficient

1. Lean and agile are not as dissimilar as folks tend to think. Both are focused on the value stream, both require systems-level thinking, and both require that we lead by demonstrating our respect for people. Lean tends to be a philosophy, hence the popular axiom “Lean thinking.” Agile typically refers to a methodology or approach, such as SCRUM or Extreme Programming; however, is rarely threated as a way of thinking.

2. Making the two concepts, Lean and agile, even more codependent, Mike suggests that one cannot manage a large SCRUM organization (defined as organizations with more than 2 or 3 development teams) without understanding Lean.

a. Why? Great question! Agile is centered on customer quality, value creation and minimizing waste.

3. If Lean is a philosophy and agile is a methodology based on the underlying premises of lean, then implementing either Lean or agile approaches should focus on 1) People, 2) then Process, and 3) finally Technology ( In that order.

4. Given that agile is intended to deliver value, any implementation initiative should include an appropriate level of attention on typical barriers, or risks, to realizing that value. Common risks include:

a. Variation: A lack of consistency in any process can lead to impediments to not only acceptance, but also realizing consistent value.

b. Overburden: No process can deliver more that the process capability or capacity. Mike described this as trying to put 50 pounds of work in a 30 pound sock and calling it a “stretch goal.” An effective process does not trump unrealistic goals and expectations. “Stretching” an agile team is a destructive as expecting too much from any approach or methodology.

c. Non-value added work: Identify tasks, or work, that does not add value, and target that effort for elimination after reasonable due diligence. Remember, “not fun” does not = non-value add. There are less-than-enjoyable tasks that absolutely add value to the overall process. This leads to…

i. Systems thinking: Keep in mind that changes that make one person’s or one department’s work more efficient may cause bottlenecks downstream. Remember, everything is interconnected; does your improvement help the system or your role?

5. Do not overlook tying an agile team’s effort to the organization’s strategy. Are they aligned with the purpose of the organization, and does the team know how they contribute to that shared goal? An effective leader connects the dots for their team.

6. Lead with humility. Demonstrate that you are comfortable with the fact that you do not have all the answers.

Speaker: Mike Keller, Executive Vice President and CIO, Nationwide Insurance

Topic: Nationwide IT’s Lean and Agile Journey

1. Nationwide started a limited agile implementation as a pilot roughly six years ago (2008), and agile has now become a way of life for Nationwide IT.

2. Keep in mind that “people hate change, but love progress.” The lesson learned is that you must proactively manage change; however, do not lose track of the necessity for mapping, documenting, and communicating progress on your journey.

3. The Nationwide IT team composition and skills five years from now will be much different due to the changes related to adopting agile IT-wide. Examples include:

a. We are seeking lifelong learners that are willing to adapt to new processes, approaches, methodologies, etc. Current team members are putting themselves at risk if they are not adaptable and willing to change.

b. Sharing knowledge and “knowledge transparency” are essential; silos, individual subject matter experts, and “my process, tool, or system” type of thinking presents barriers to an agile mindset.

c. We will want more “integration managers” than “project managers,” which means the traditional command and control type of project management does not have a place in our team. We will seek strong social skills, coupled with critical thinking and decision making skills, with a focus on building trust with stakeholders and enabling team members.

d. We will need project leaders and IT leaders that are flexible, recognize patterns, desire a culture for learning, focus on skill and knowledge transfer as part of their leadership responsibilities, and focus on the people and the value that each team member brings to the team.

Additional quotable quotes from our colleagues:

1. “You are not valuing everyone, or the team, if you’re allowing an individual to not do their job.

2. “Nobody likes to be forcefully changed; however, they may accept change over time through influencers, effective communication, etc.”

3. “Processes are invisible until mapped. Without understanding the end-to-end process, leaders will always want more people or more technology to resolve process related inefficiencies. Congratulations, you have a faster, more expensive bad process.”

4. “Your current process is exactly designed to get your current results. If you want different results, focus on redesigning the process first.”

5. “As a rule, there are no IT solutions until a process is fixed.”

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download