soft side of agile - agile alliance...soft side of agile - abstract the agile manifesto centers on...

Soft Side of Agile

January 2012

COHESION.com 877.774.3001

Soft Side of Agile - Abstract

The agile manifesto centers on keep moving forward to provide working software in an ever changing environment. This is done with individuals collaborating and constantly interacting to respond to change and validating done.

Communication and successful interactions with others are key contributors to success. All personality types working together. All diverse opinions collaborating quickly to get to working software.

The Virginia Satir communication model provides a good soft skill mantra to pair with agile. It takes people successfully communicating and collaborating to build that working software that we all so love.

We will discuss some Satir essentials and similar outlooks towards true team engagement:

– Understanding how you communicate

– Cooperation rather than competition

– Empowerment rather than subjugation


Overview

• Empowering teams to their full potential

• Trust through engagement

• Soft skills that directly contribute to team success

What we will focus on:

• Roles

• Organizational structure

What we will not focus on:

• Examine why effective interactions are so critical to agile success

• List the 5 Freedoms of the Satir model

• Identify behaviors that can transform teams from good to great

At the end of this course you should be able to:


Introducing Troy and Cohesion

About Cohesion

• Consulting company with over a decade

of experience

• Advisory & Delivery Services support

both agile and traditional project

approaches

• Focus on PM, BA, Microsoft

Technologies, .NET, Java, QA

• Proven agile framework which can be

tailored for your organization

• Offices in Cincinnati, Columbus, and

Charlotte

About Troy

• Owns development and delivery of

Cohesion's Agile Services

• More than 17 years of IT experience

spanning several industries and roles

• Over 4 years of experience focused on

agile/iterative project delivery where

"one size doesn't fit all

• Notable success involves introducing

agile at Fidelity Investments Midwest,

resulting in improved customer

satisfaction, cost avoidance, higher

employee satisfaction, and establishing

a true team culture

• Over 5 years experience applying Satir

to projects


In one word … Team

Success or failure of an Agile team starts with the team dynamic. Starting with the wrong team or

no buy-in can doom the project before the first line of code is written

Agile teams are just that … a TEAM

• They sink or swim together

• No one person is more valuable then

the next

• The team is flat versus a traditional

hierarchical structure

Benefits of a True Agile Team:

• Strong commitment to one another and

the common goal

• Minimizes politics and maximizes

communication

• Teams become more efficient over time

• Cross training

Constraints Benefits

Agile is not a Silver Bullet…


Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Communication over process NOT communication

without process

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Working software is more important than excessive

documentation NOT there is no need for

documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Customers working with developers to address a

business need NOT developers satisfying a

contractual obligation

Responding to change over following a plan

Adapting to change NOT failing to plan

Interactions means communication.

Communication & Soft skills from

tech people?

The Agile Manifesto was initially conceived by a group of leading-edge developers in 2001.

From a developer’s standpoint, it expresses what’s fundamentally important in good software

development.

Collaboration / people working

together requires communication

Change needs to be communicated

Working software is built in

collaboration


Have you ever felt like a

cog in the machine?

Decisions made (good or bad) without

input or interaction

Code what you are told to code

Run these tests

Check this checklist

What if we applied agile with low emphasis on

interactions & communication?

Sounds like faster waterfall

Unintended Consequences

Lower Creativity

Less Ownership

Diminished Morale

Loss of Productivity

Those consequences don’t align with agile – more ownership provides improved creativity and

increased productivity. All of this positively affects morale.


Someone cut you off

You are driving down the

expressway. Some maniac is

speeding, cuts you off, and ‘almost

caused an accident.’

Have you been to the Land of Assumptions?

How do you react?

He just got a call that his wife went into labor. He needs to get to the hospital now. How does

this context change your reaction?


Code Migration Quality

The code was migrated to the test

environment. It appears that a lot isn’t

working.

Let’s listen to the conversation with

Tom the Tester and Dave the

Developer

Have you been to the Land of Quick Interpretation?

Agile says interaction should occur,

but this interaction may not be optimal


Working Software

Requirement: Quantity is numeric within 1-35

Solution Provided: Quantity is a drop down

list of values 1-35. We thought it would be

a text field or spin control that only

accepted numeric values within the range

Have you been to the Land of Must Be Right?

Agile says interaction should occur,

but unsure if this was an effective use of time


The Unsure or Quiet Person

Built a customized navigation bar for an

application. It had scalability issues and

other challenges after production launch.

In the production triage meeting, James

mentions a Google toolkit control that we

could use. Offline, I learned that he had

this idea during the original project but felt

like no one would consider it – ‘decision

was made.’

Have you been to the Land of Silence?

Need an environment that people feel

comfortable contributing ideas,

not just hands on keyboards


5 Freedoms of Satir Model

5 Freedoms

The freedom to see and hear what is here, instead of what should be, was, or will be

The freedom to say what you feel and think, instead of what you should

The freedom to feel what you feel,

instead of what you ought to

The freedom to ask for what you want, instead of always

waiting for permission

The freedom to take risks on your own behalf, instead of choosing to be only “secure” and not rocking the boat

Nathan

Dave

Michele

Rajesh

James


How do we turn a philosophy into behaviors?

Congruent behaviors are a core concept in the Satir model. The ability to be aware of and fully value the many dimensions of your self, others, and the contexts in which you work and relate.

From Philosophy to Behaviors


Congruence

Behavior Individuals and

interactions

Working

software

Customer

collaboration

Responding

to change

Clear communication

3 C’s of communication

What is Done

X X

Cooperation rather than competition

My idea doesn’t have to win

Inquiry over advocacy

Quicker decision making

X X X X

3 Cs What is Done


Congruence


interactions

Working

software

Customer

collaboration

Responding

to change

Empowerment rather than subjugation

Increased ownership

X X

Uniqueness rather than categorization

Work on things I’m good at

X X

Empowerment

Choose own assignment

Less silos

More creativity

Uniqueness

Do what I’m good at

Fit

Higher quality


Congruence


interactions

Working

software

Customer

collaboration

Responding

to change

Use of authority to guide and

accomplish "what fits," rather than

forced compliance, tyranny or power

Carrot vs stick management

More leading, less managing

X X

Being personally and socially

responsible

Responsible for interactions

Responsible for intangibles like

maintainability

X X

To use problems as challenges and

opportunities for creative solutions

Keep moving forward thinking

X X X


A group of techies emphasize that

communication & collaboration is

a strong contributor to success

Effective interactions are based in

understanding self, others, and

the contexts in which you work

and relate

Methodology / Framework /

Philosophy is good if it is

supported by the behaviors that

provide the desired results

Summary

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Communication over process NOT communication

without process

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Working software is more important than excessive

documentation NOT there is no need for

documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Customers working with developers to address a

business need NOT developers satisfying a

contractual obligation

Responding to change over following a plan

Adapting to change NOT failing to plan


Troy Bitter

[email protected]

513.407.9996

Cohesion.com

mailto:[email protected]

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