ManageAgile Berlin 2012

Lean and agile transformation –

how do you survive the radical shift towards

Inversion of Responsibility and Control while

staying Accountable for Results?

Wolfgang Hilpert

Thoralf J. Klatt

AGT Internationalw/ contributions by Jürgen Habermeier, Mathias Held, Marek Meyer, Jonas Dageförde et al

Leadership Path to Agility

From explicit fine-grained control

… and “active” leadership …

… to “subtle control”*

* The new new product development game - Stop running the relay race and take up

rugby - Harvard Business Review 1986, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka

Speaker Background:

Wolfgang Hilpert VP Development, AGT International

whilpert@agtinternational.com

Professional

• Led product development teams

… @ startup, mid-size and industry leading ISVs incl. IBM, MSFT, SAP

… through product life cycle from idea on drawing board, design, development, market introduction and adoption

… in plan-driven & agile product development

• Initiated lean & agile transformation @ SAP

Personal

• Husband & father of 2 kids

• Half-marathon runner,

soccer player and cross-

country skier

• Occasional hiker & biker

• Occasional photographer

Speaker Background:

Thoralf J. KlattCorporate Agile Coach, AGT International

tjklatt@agtinternational.com

Professional

• Led and coached product

development teams

… Siemens MED, Nokia Siemens

Networks, Siemens USA

… as servant leader, system test

lead, senior developer

… traditional and agile 400+

• Initiated lean & agile

transformation @ NSN BSS

Personal

• Husband & father of 3 kids

• Swimming and running

• Occasional hiker

• Street photographer

• Likes Jazz

Storyline

1. Our „view of the universe“

– Turning traditional world and roles upside down

2. The journey

A) Evolving team and growing into scrum roles

B) Tension: existing org vs. Agile greenfield

• Critical exchange between two worlds

C) Cont. Improvement of agile methods & tools

Storyline

1. Our „view of the universe“

– Turning traditional world and roles upside down

2. The journey

A) Evolving team and growing into scrum roles

B) Tension: existing org vs. Agile greenfield

• Critical exchange between two worlds

C) Cont. Improvement of agile methods & tools

Agile Turns Tradition Upside-Down

Plan

Driven

Agile /

Scrum

Traditional

Waterfall

Constrained Requirements Budget Schedule

Estimated Budget Schedule Features

Value/ Vision

Driven

Agile Turns Reality back on its Feet

Constrained Requirements Budget Schedule

Estimated Budget Schedule Features

Value/

Vision

Driven

Plan

Driven Agile /

ScrumTraditional

Waterfall

Leadership Impact

Command & Control LS style

• Manager defines the WHAT & the

HOW

• Flow of information constrained

by expertise level

• Outcome depends heavily on

skills & foresight of manager

„Radical Management“ LS Style

• Agile manager coaches PO to

define the WHY and the WHAT

• Agile team defines (and updates!)

the HOW

• Outcome leverages skills of

entire team

Inst

ruct

ion

s

Breadth of understanding

Inst

ruct

ion

s

Breadth of understanding

Loosen the Grip to Extend your Reach!

Storyline

1. Our „view of the universe“

– Turning traditional world and roles upside down

2. The journey

A) Evolving team and growing into scrum roles

B) Tension: existing org vs. Agile greenfield

• Critical exchange between two worlds

C) Cont. Improvement of agile methods & tools

Phased Approach

Waterfall Projects, Top Down managedWaterfall Projects, Top Down managed

First small

experimental Scrum

team 1st Demo

I) Greenfield

Defining Moments (1/6):

Settling into Key Scrum Roles

Issue Product Owner (PO) & Scrum Master (SM) new

to their roles when Scrum teams where formed

Transition

needed

- Focus on respective responsibilities as

- PO (� drive and groom the backlog) and

SM(� process stewart) and

- Let go of other responsibilities

Key

take away

- Scrum Training

- Share helpful practices

Separation of Concerns in Scrum

ContainerStrategy, Environment, Budget

TR

AN

SPA

RE

NC

Y

Mgmt

Product Owner - what

owns ROI & Vision

Scrum Master*

… Process

Team - how

… Quality

Defining Moments (2/6):

Priority setting during the sprint

Issue Pressure to complete user

stories by end of sprint;

� Team requests delay of

test automation work as

mandated by Definition

of Done (DoD)

Transition

needed

Re-evaluation of what delivery of „Product Increment“

(per DoD) means

Key

take away

Do not compromise agreed quality standards for

misrepresenting the actual progress, learn from over-

committment etc.

Defining Moments (3/6):

Priority setting for the next sprint

Issue Product owner could not rely on system to

perform demo on short notice

Transition

needed

• readiness to invest in quality measures at

an early stage

• Product owner initiated discussion &

created a sense of urgency within scrum

team

Key take away Best outcome requires full engagement of

the entire Scrum team („shares the pain“) in

finding the best possbile solution to

maximize customer value under given

circumstances

Defining Moments (4/6):

Fail Early on new Technology

Issue To optimize for cross platform mobile development we

analyzed and selected 3rd party framework.

� Development progress stalled

Transition

needed

• Re-architect system to adopt 3rd party framework

• Slice user stories to showcase minimal functionality

in end-to-end manner early on

Key

take away

Targeting end-to-end user stories revealed erroneous

technology choice early on;

� helped to contain loss of development capacity

(within 3 sprints)

Fail Early, Fail Fast, Fail Often

Phased Approach

Waterfall Projects, Top Down managedWaterfall Projects, Top Down managed

First small

experimental Scrum

team 1st Demo

2nd Scrum Team

I) Greenfield

??

II) Interest

1st Version

CI ready

Defining Moments (5/6):

Release Planning Visualized

Issue Even though teams did regular Agile release

planning the teams did not see the big

picture on a daily basis

Transition

needed

• Continuous and open planning

• Visualize Vision and Release Goals

• Regular interaction and reflection

• Utilize coherence

Key take away Create and maintain Release board

Release Board

Defining Moments (6/6):

Deal with External Dependencies

Issue Many external dependencies e.g. OEM,

remote platform team, global IT, … lead to

waste (e.g. in the form of „Waiting“)

Transition

needed

• Clarify responsibilites/ownership

• Minimize work in progress

• Reduce cycle time

• Decoupling as possible

Key take away Take IT into the boat (cf. DevOps), Strive for

end-to-end ownership/lean architecure,

Establish broader skill set and automomous

testing capabilities

Storyline

1. Our „view of the universe“

– Turning traditional world and roles upside down

2. The journey

A) Evolving team and growing into scrum roles

B) Tension: existing org vs. Agile greenfield

• Critical exchange between two worlds

C) Cont. Improvement of agile methods & tools

Tension:

Plan Driven vs. Agile Greenfield

Plan-Driven teams

• Fixed time, budget & scope

commitments

• Significant quality problems,

schedule over-runs

• Many short term change of

priorties

Agile, Scrum based teams

• Fixed budget & delivery

schedule (sprint rhythm)

• Early discovery of quality

problems

• Development priorities

stable at minimum during

sprints

Organization Stereotypes

• Where is your QA team? (to throw the code

over the fence to ...?)

• Why are you only able to accept changes on a

bi-weekly basis?

• Who is your project manager? Fail and

learn fast,

reduce

waste,

tackle risk

Agile Projects, Scrum, CI

Phased Approach

Waterfall Projects, Top Down managedWaterfall Projects, Top Down managed

First small

experimental Scrum

team 1st Demo

2nd Scrum Team

I) Greenfield

??

II) Interest

1st Version

!

CI ready

!

III) Surprise

Test results

reflecting real Product maturity

Mature

Velocity

Pleasant Surprises w/ Scrum

• Test (code) coverage fully embraced by scrum

teams

• Full transparency of test results (CI radiator)

• Velocity track record sprint by sprint

– Minimal negative impact on quality by change

requests

Transparency CI Radiator

Big Screen in the coffee lounge

Where Teams meet and discuss …

Example:

Agile Release Tracking and Rebase

today

Consolidated

Release

Planning

Roadmap

update

VIP 2 scope

added

VIP 1 Scope

addedArchitecture Rebase

Decision

Release

Candidate

RC

storyline

1. Our „view of the universe“

– Turning traditional world and roles upside down

2. The journey

A) Evolving team and growing into scrum roles

B) Tension: existing org vs. Agile greenfield

• Critical exchange between two worlds

C) Cont. Improvement of agile methods & tools

Agile Projects, Scrum, CI

Phased Approach

Waterfall Projects, Top Down managedWaterfall Projects, Top Down managed

First small

experimental Scrum

team 1st Demo

2nd Scrum Team

I) Greenfield

??

II) Interest

1st Version

!

CI ready

!

III) Surprise

Waterfall Projects, Top Down managedWaterfall Projects, Top Down managed

IV) Transformation

Test results

reflecting real Product maturity

Mature

Velocity

Test Automation

Coverage > 80%

Metrics that worked for us

• Burndown of user stories, projected release

• Velocity

• Estimation accuracy

• Test automation coverage

… and ScrumBan

• Cycle Times for Stories

• Lead Times for Defects

Code Coverage by Test Automation

Estimation Accuracy

New Technology

Split into 2

Teams

Sustainable Challenge

Subtle Control

‘Although project teams are largely on their own, they

are not uncontrolled… the emphasis is on "self-

control," "control through peer pressure," and

"control by love,'' which collectively we call "subtle

control.“’

From: The new new product development game - Stop running the relay race and

take up rugby - Harvard Business Review 1986, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka

Team Flow

Mental States

Problem-solving Leader (Expert)

• tend to micro-manage

Strategic Leader (Achiever)

• leading actively

Visionary Leader (Catalyst)

• growing capabilities

Michael Sahota:

http://agilitrix.com/2012/08/leadership-agility-a-

model-for-understanding-managers/

Leadership Path to Agility

whilpert@agtinternational.com

tjklatt@agtinternational.com