Avoiding Fragile Agile: Making Change Stick

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AVOIDING FRAGILE AG Making Change Stick Tze Chin Tang

Transcript of Avoiding Fragile Agile: Making Change Stick

Page 1: Avoiding Fragile Agile: Making Change Stick

AVOIDING FRAGILE AGILE

Making Change StickTze Chin Tang

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

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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

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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.

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Caveat:No two journeys are the same.

This was my journey, yours will be different.

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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

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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.

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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

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Warning:Don't use the word

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

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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!

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

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Warning:Beware of and identify passive

aggressive behavior.

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Warning:Avoid ideological differences, focus on common ground and

objectives.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Tip for change agents:Be flexible & open.

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Tip for leaders:Address problems as soon as

they appear.

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Tip to managers:Step out of the room

(once in a while).

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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.

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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