Cultural Self-Inventory for Distributed Agile Teams

arts interstices

Presented to you in partnership by:

#SococoLife Webinar Series

Agenda

▪ :05 Introductions▪ :30 Cultural Self Inventory Review

with Elinor and Mary▪ :20 Q&A▪ :05 Key Takeaways & Wrap Up

IntroductionsMeet your panelists!

Elinor SlombaElinor is an Agile coach, and works with organizations more fluid and adaptive in their approaches. Her company, Arts Interstices, regularly brings artists into startup communities, making it easier for people in both domains to understand and use each other's models. From her home base in New Haven, Connecticut she manages the award-winning program known as Project Storefronts, a small business incubator for creative entrepreneurs.

Introductions

Mary BrodieMary has worked in UX for 20 years and with virtual teams for 15. She works with startups and enterprises in the travel, healthcare, hardware, and software industries. She’s worn many UX hats: strategy, usability testing, sketching/wireframing/prototyping, project/product management, and more recently content strategy and how it integrates with a product to enhance the UX. Agile and UX are her passions - she sometimes doesn’t understand why people don't go Agile. It just makes sense.

Introductions

Mandy RossMandy is the Director of Marketing and Agile Practices for Sococo, after serving as Director of Program Management since 2012. A passionate Agilist, her past employers include Apple, Handspring, Palm, Sony and Boeing. A telecommuter since 2005, she lives for helping distributed teams establish remote work best practices by connecting people to create thought leadership in the virtual world. .

Introductions

Why are we here?

It’s time to inventory the heck out of your Agile team culture!

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer

through early and continuous deliveryof valuable software.

Agile Principle #1:

On Delivering Value...

▪ How do we evaluate trust levels on team and with clients?

▪ How does it feel when we deliver early and what’s holding us back from doing that more often?

▪ How do we let team members know that we care about improving communications with them?

1

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive

advantage.

Agile Principle #2:

On Welcoming Changing Requirements... ▪ How do we presently

track and manage our Product Backlog?

▪ How well do we preserve the context around decision-making so we can reference it later?

▪ How well do we work from the road and in transit?

2

Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a

preference to the shorter timescale.

Agile Principle #3:

On Delivering Frequently... ▪ What is our expectation around real-time versus asynchronous communications?

▪ Have they been communicated and agreed-upon?

▪ Do we co-design meetings to be productive use of people’s time?

3

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

Agile Principle #4:

On Cross Functional Teams... ▪ Do we share information

centrally? ▪ What kind of social

interactions regularly occur?

▪ How do we build unity within our tribe?

▪ Why broadcast availability to connect as a cross-functional team (both formally and informally)?

4

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they

need, and trust them to get the job done.

Agile Principle #5:

On Providing a Motivating Environment... ▪ How do people flag their

interest in working on certain projects?

▪ How do we do we sense people’s emotions & gather their opinions?

▪ How do we share knowledge & insight?

5

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a

development team is face-to-face conversation.

Agile Principle #6:

On Face-to-Face Communication... ▪ How do we see each

other’s faces online? ▪ How do we make the

experience as context-rich and information-rich as possible?

6

Working software is the primary measure of progress.

Agile Principle #7:

On Working Product... ▪ How do we build things together?

▪ How well is this working?

7

Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant

pace indefinitely.

Agile Principle #8:

On Sustainability... ▪ What are the signals to others that we are “at work?”

▪ What are the protocols for checking in & out?

▪ How do we avoid burnout?

8

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

Agile Principle #9:

On Good Craftsmanship... ▪ How do we recognize and track progress in skillbuilding?

▪ How do we disseminate good examples of craftsmanship?

▪ How do we set a good example for teammates?

9

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.

Agile Principle #10:

On Simplicity... ▪ Are there things we must do over and over again that could be automated?

▪ What apps are out there that can help simplify reporting requirements (i.e. bug reports, status reports)

1

0

The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

Agile Principle #11:

On Self Organization... ▪ What choices do people have about how to collaborate?

▪ How are meetings facilitated?

▪ How are shared working agreements arrived-at and stored (with version control)?

▪ Are there protocols about language and handling conflict?

1

1

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and

adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Agile Principle #12:

On Retrospectives...▪ Have we trained or

demoed with any of the numerous groups, communities, or companies out there making this easier?

▪ How do we know we are headed in the right direction?

▪ How are we integrating play, artfulness and humor into our team interactions?

1

2

Key Takeaways

ToolsWhen selecting tools, start with culture.

ConversationKeep the conversation about the work alive and healthy.

ClarityEnsure that we have the same vision of our team and product.

Trust

Without trust, truth won’t

emerge in any evaluation.

Advantages

Leverage the benefits of a

remote team.

Honesty

Without honesty, self-

evaluation has no value.

Thanks for coming!You are the best webinar audience ever, so you’ll get a virtual goody bag via email soon.