AVOIDING FRAGILE AGILE

Making Change StickTze Chin Tang

“The hard stuff is easy, the soft stuff is hard.”

About meDeveloper

Agile Manager People-first Software

EngineeringCommunity Organizer

manufacturingbroadcastinge-Commerce

hospitalitybusiness automation

BSe, MBA, CSPO, CSM

2001-2005: Waterfall / No formal process2005-2007: RUP / No formal process2007-2010: Scrum / XP2010-2013: WaterScrumFall / Theory of

Constraints2013-2014: Scrum / Scrumban / Agile Leadership / Continuous Delivery

My story at Company

X

• Company X was bought under duress from a SF-based VC.

• It had five engineering centers, all in a high cost country except for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

• I joined as an Agile Guy to work on the flagship product, Atlas, and mature the KL engineering center.

• Atlas had 3 sites working on it.• Release cycles were between 8 to 14 months,

unpredictable. Highly rigid roadmaps and customer commitments.

• A big part of engineering was in KL but product management was in the US.

• KL had 20 developers and testers on site.• KL was hiring, everywhere else firing.• KL/German code to build took anywhere from 1 day to

1 week.

Caveat:No two journeys are the same.

This was my journey, yours will be different.

Have a shared vision

• Executive support is important, if not explicit then minimally tacit support.

• Use this opportunity to find an internal mentor.

• Get an executive sponsor if you don’t have one already, you’re just the hands the get it done / change agent.

• Err on the side of over communication, much gets lost.

• Ask your subordinates / peers / superiors what that vision means to them, help them understand and shape it to be personally meaningful.John Kotter

Make Progress

Meaningful and Visible

How to make it visible:• Go physical when possible. Physical task

boards, co-location.• Celebrate progress! Release parties,

demo ice cream, team lunches.

How to make it meaningful:• Celebrate progress. Have release parties,

demo ice cream, team lunches, drinks.• Have execs praise the team (if deserved).• Address team failures within the group

but personal failures in private.

Don’t act first, study

the landscape

Be patient:• Maximize learning and understanding in

the beginning.• Minimize appearance of threat or

disruption.• Identify the promoters and detractors.

How to study the landscape:• Have regular one-to-ones with

subordinates, superiors and peers.• Lunches work too.• Try lean coffee sessions.

Superiors

Subordinates

Peers

Warning:Don't use the word

"change" or "Agile", unless they bring it up first.

Identify the

promoters and the

detractors

What to do with promoters:– Nurture and educate.– Strengthen buy in. Listen to them, include their

ideas.– Let them spread promote change on your behalf.– Delegate.

What to do with detractors:- Have open dialogs, hear them out.- Find common ground. Get buy-in.- Compromise, don’t have have to win every

battle.- When, all else fails: neutralize, reduce or remove

but never ignore!

Source: https://www.hellocustomer.com/en-US/Community/News/2015-05/NPS-or-Net-Promotor-Score-unraveled!

Warning:Beware of and identify passive

aggressive behavior.

Warning:Avoid ideological differences, focus on common ground and

objectives.

Be consistent

and be prepared to repeat yourself (often!)

How to be consistent:– Use single set of vocabulary.– Create shared meaning.– Have a set of slide decks ready on various topics

ready to be presented to whomever.– Find quiet time to think and reflect.

Go as short as

possible, maximize

learning

Iteration length:• Start with what feels comfortable for the

team with buy in from management. • Work to reduce iteration lengths.• Example: Start with 4 week iterations, then

reduce to three OR have mini sprints within the sprint.

How to maximize learning:• Don’t skip retrospectives. • When they go stale, try different methods.• Do something with retrospective findings.

Lots of small wins > one big

victory

• Sense of progress is a strong motivator, for the team and yourself.• Find what’s preventing you from moving forward – bottlenecks.• How to address bottlenecks:– Identify constraint– Exploit constraint– Subordinate constraint– Elevate constraint– Prevent inertia– Read The Goal

Tip for change agents:Be flexible & open.

Tip for leaders:Address problems as soon as

they appear.

Tip to managers:Step out of the room

(once in a while).

My story at Company

X:18 months

later

• KL grew from 20 to 50 devs + testers.• US lost 1/3 of its engineers.• Became a development manager of 14 devs

+ testers / 2 teams.• Release cycle reduced to 4 months +- 2

weeks.• Code to build reduced to 45 minutes.• Flexible roadmaps.• Transitioned from Scrum to Scrumban.• Release candidate process.

What’s Next?

DeveloperAgile Manager

People-first Software EngineeringCommunity Organizer

manufacturingbroadcastinge-Commerce

hospitalitybusiness automation

BSe, MBA, CSPO, CSM

ICF, LKU

2001-2005: Waterfall / No formal process2005-2007: RUP / No formal process2007-2010: Scrum / XP2010-2013: WaterScrumFall / Theory of Constraints2013-2014: Scrum / Scrum-ban / Agile Leadership / Continuous Delivery2014-2015+: Kanban / Flow / Lean / Lean Startup / DevOps