the "asap" journey
DESCRIPTION
My talk at Scrum India meetup on 3-Mar-2012 at SAP Labs, Bangalore on our journey of enterprise-wide Agile adoption. "ASAP" stands for Agile and Scrum Adoption Program, and also signifies that the change program also needs to show level of urgency commensurate to what is being sought in product development.TRANSCRIPT
The “ASAP” Journey
Tathagat VarmaYahoo! India R&D
Who Are We?Yahoo! is the premier digital media company.
Vision: To deliver your world, your way.
Vision: To deliver your world, your way.
Mission: Create deeply personal digital experiences
Our Context Consumer Internet space
Critical success factors Innovation Speed UX
Agility is more about results than beliefs, labels or rituals
the “ASAP” journey
Establish Credibility
Common Program
Scaling Up
Self-Sustaining
Establish Credibility Learn from history…but don’t be enslaved to it
Identify passionate practitioners…and let their voice matter
Learn the “real world” first…don’t simply forcefit process to it
Don’t preach from the top…demonstrate proofpoints
Validate ideas externally…but don’t hardsell them internally
Don’t try to boil the ocean…rather, establish beachheads
Socialize with key stakeholders…multiple times
Common Program Top-down mandate doesn’t work – let teams figure own process
Acknowledge the “Change Iceberg” – 10% Visible (Process, Rituals, Artifacts, etc.) 90% Invisible (Feelings, Concerns, Issues, Anxieties, etc.)
No prescriptions. At best, give guidance and offer to facilitate
“ASAP” = Agile and Scrum Adoption Program, started mid-2011 Center-wide program to coordinate agile adoption Solve common problems like training, dashboard, reporting,… Create internal community of practitioners and experts Maintain focus, speed, direction and alignment
Scaling Up Don’t worry about ‘charter’ – earn it based on results
Process change is just a small part of the change – maintain a focus on intangibles that lead to holistic mindset change – Training – general, specialized, key stakeholders Leadership development – collaboration, servant leadership Org structure – roles, responsibilities, performance, rewards Tools
“Name and Shame” is short-term shallow tactic – better celebrate solid success stories
Remember – the goal still is better software, not 100% adoption!
Self-Sustaining We are just entering this phase, so still experimenting
First principles Establish measures of success – tie-up efforts to “end-results” Showcase results that highlight success Reward and recognize individuals and teams for end-results Celebrate newer ways of accomplishing better results
Metrics Strategy
“Readiness”
“Adoption”
“Efficiency”
“Effectiveness”
Lastly… Any change can be
accomplished if we acknowledge people are “superheroes” in their own right
Our role is to facilitate change and enable collaboration
Even the smallest of results speak louder than noblest of intents
