AGILE MEAGILE ME

DR RASHINA HODA

What Makes Your Agile

Team Self-Organizing?

SEPTA Research

Electrical and Computer Engineering

The University of Auckland

www.rashina.com

rashina@gmail.comwww.rashina.com@agileRashina

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Kia Ora! Greetings from New Zealand…

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AGILE ME

Socio-Technical Systems

1950s

Organizational Theory

1980s

Knowledge Management

1980s

Complex Adaptive Systems

1990s

Software Development

1990s

SELF-ORGANIZING TEAMS…A NEW CONCEPT?

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Socio-Technical Systems

1950s

• Study of in *

• groups• 10-15 cross-trained people • Setting own work schedules• Autonomous, learning systems• Assuming responsibilities of former supervisors• Guided by corporate vision• Motivated by peer-pressure

*Trist, E. The evolution of socio-technical systems, Occasional paper, 1981

Organizational Theory

1980s

Knowledge Management

1980s

Complex Adaptive Systems

1990s

Software Development

1990s

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Organizational Theory

1980s

• Holographic Brains metaphor to describe organizations 1980s*• “Qualities of the whole system are captured in each of its parts.”

• As a Holographic Brain, organizations display Self-Organization.

• Four Principles of Self-Organization• Minimum Critical Specification• Requisite Variety• Redundancy of Function• Double-loop Learning

*Morgan, G. Images of organization. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, 1986

Knowledge Management

1980s

Complex Adaptive Systems

1990s

Software Development

1990s

Socio-Technical Systems

1950s

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• Self-Organizing Teams in Toyota Production System, 1980s*• “Agents of Knowledge creation and management.”

• Game of Rugby – Scrum – as a metaphor

• Three Conditions of Self-Organization• Autonomy• Cross-fertilization• Self-Transcendence

*Takeuchi and Nonaka, The New New Product Development Game, Harvard Business Review, 1986

Knowledge Management

1980s

Complex Adaptive Systems

1990s

Software Development

1990s

Socio-Technical Systems

1950s

Organizational Theory

1980s

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• Self-Organizing Teams in Complex Adaptive Systems, 1990s*• “CAS exhibit spontaneous order through self-organization”

• Examples: ant colonies, human cities, eco-systems

• Characteristics of Self-Organizing Teams • Informal and temporary• Spontaneously formed around issues• Informal structure• Strong sense of shared purpose• Decide own affairs

*Anderson, and McMillan. Of ants and men: self-organized teams in human and insect organizations, 2003

Complex Adaptive Systems

1990s

Organizational Theory

1980s

Knowledge Management

1980s

Software Development

1990s

Socio-Technical Systems

1950s

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• Self-Organizing Teams as heart of Agile Software Development, 1990s*• “source of best architecture, requirements, and design”

• Critical success factor in software projects• Self-organizing teams in Scrum, empowered teams in XP

• Self-Organizing Teams in Agile• Cross-functional members• Common focus• Self-Managing workload• Collaborative decision making• Continuous learning

*Agile Manifesto, Twelve Principles of Agile Software, http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html, 2001

Software Development

1990s

Organizational Theory

1980s

Knowledge Management

1980s

Complex Adaptive Systems

1990s

Socio-Technical Systems

1950s

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• Do Agile practices enable self-organization in software teams?Yes!

*Rashina Hoda, Self-Organizing Agile Teams: A Grounded Theory, PhD Thesis, 2011

AGILE = SELF-ORGANIZING?

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• Do Agile practices enable self-organization in software teams?Yes

• Are Agile teams meant to be self-organizing?Yes

• Are ALL Agile teams self-organizing?No

• Can non-Agile teams be self-organizing?Yes

• Can waterfall teams be self-organizing?

MYTH OR FACT?

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• Agile teams are self-organizing when:

• they are given high levels of autonomy

• they commit to, select, and accomplish their own tasks

• organize themselves as needed, i.e. perform informal roles to manage team, management, and customer related challenges.

• perform balancing acts between freedom and responsibility, cross-functionality and specialization, and continuous learning and iteration pressure

SELF-ORGANIZING AGILE TEAMS

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RESEARCH FINDINGS

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• Original industry-based PhD research

• 58 Agile Practitioners from 23 Organizations

• New Zealand, India, North America

• Semi-structured interviews and observations

• Multiple perspectives

• Agile practices: Scrum + XP

RESEARCH DESIGN

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Grounded Theory to study SE*

Research focus emerges via iterative data collection and analysis

Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews

Rounded perspective

Observation of Agile practices

Data analysis to find common patterns or categories

Relationships between categories form the emergent theory

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*Rashina Hoda, James Noble, Stuart Marshall, Developing a Grounded Theory to Explain the Practices of a Self-Organizing Agile Team, Empirical Software Engineering Journal, Vol. 17(6), pages 609-639, 2011

RESEARCH METHOD

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17PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS

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The Theory of Self-Organizing Agile Teams explains how Agileteams take on one or more informal, implicit, transient, andspontaneous ROLES and perform balanced PRACTICES whilefacing critical environmental FACTORS.

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*Rashina Hoda, Self-Organizing Teams: A Grounded Theory, PhD Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 2011. http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz//handle/10063/1617

THEORY OF SELF-ORGANIZING AGILE TEAMS*

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*Rashina Hoda, James Noble, Stuart Marshall, Self-Organizing Roles on Agile Software Development Teams, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), Vol. 39 (3), pages 422-444, 2013

*Rashina Hoda, James Noble, Stuart Marshall, Organizing Self-Organizing Teams, IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE2010), Cape Town, 2010

SELF-ORGANIZING AGILE TEAM

ROLES*

AGILE MEMENTOR

Guides and supports team

Helps them become confident in Agile methods

Encourages continued adherence to practices.

Played by:

Agile Coach (new teams)

All members (mature teams)

Interacts with: Team

Most important in initial stages.

Mentor

AGILE MEMENTOR

“With [the Mentor] it was kind of to teach us how

Agile works and shape our mindset and make sure

everyone knows how to work under the Agile

umbrella.”

Developer, NZ

“You need to show them...a client presentation [that]

worked...and after a few such validation cycles, then

they start to get confident.”

Agile Coach, NZ

Mentor

AGILE MECO-ORDINATOR

Represents team

co-ordinates communication with customer

co-ordinates change requests

Played by:Developer & Business Analyst (new teams)

All members (mature teams)

Interacts with: Team, Customers.

Existed despite presence of Mentor.

Co-ordinator

AGILE MECO-ORDINATOR

Senior Management, India

“Because we are working offshore [it is] good to have

one person who can communicate...like a co-

ordinator — talks to everybody.”

“[the Co-ordinator] still needs to get all the

requirements to us...so whenever the business owner

wants to make a change...we can plan a little bit

ahead. ”

Developer, NZ

Co-ordinator

AGILE METRANSLATOR

Translates between team and customers

Translates between the business language used by customers and the technical terminology used by the team

Helps improve communication between the two.

Played by:

Business Analysts (new teams)

All members (mature teams)

Interacts with: Team, Customers

Translator

AGILE METRANSLATOR

Product Owner, NZ

Developer, NZ

“My knowledge isn't as technical...some things fell through the crack because we didn't have a good

[Translator]”

“The terminology that developers are using and

customers are using, is very different...I think the

[Translator] has some value in the project.”

Translator

AGILE MECHAMPION

Champions the Agile team

Champions Agile with senior management within their organization

Helps gain support for the self-organizing Agile team.

Played by:

Agile Coach & Developer

Interacts with: Senior Management

Champion

AGILE MECHAMPION

Scrum Trainer, India

Business Analyst, NZ

“The organizations I see getting the most benefit from

Scrum...are organizations where senior management really gets it! The least successful Agile adoption

...senior management has no interest in Agile!”

“The [Champion] was pretty much championing the whole Agile idea...[Senior Management] were thinking

of using [the Champion] to expand Agile through all

of [organization]”

Champion

AGILE MEPROMOTER

Promotes the Agile team

Promotes Agile with customers

Secures their involvement and support for the self-organizing Agile team

Played by: Agile Coach

Interacts with: Customer

Promoter

AGILE MEPROMOTER

Agile Coach, NZ

Agile Coach, India

“I did persuade the client to go down this road...story cards, iterations, all the way through. Slowly the client

did come around and started to see benefit, so it did work out really well.”

“We [Coaches] have interactions with [the customers], have a series of talk...explain to them

what Agile is...focusing on the hardship.”

Promoter

AGILE METERMINATOR

Terminates team members

Identifies team members threatening the proper functioning and productivity of team

Engages senior management support in removing such members.

Played by:

Agile Coach (new teams)

Agile Coach with input from team (mature teams)

Interacts with: Team, Senior Management.

Terminator

AGILE METERMINATOR

Business Analyst, NZ

Agile Coach, India

“ [A team member] tore the whole product apart...So our [Terminator]...noted that [team member]

was holding the team back, and made an executive decision by talking to management.”

“Some evangelists have such hundred percent

concepts - just scares me as a Coach...Throw out evangelists sometimes, hard reality! People get fired…

[Agile] identifies the good things, [Agile] identifies even the bad things.”

Terminator

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• Self-Organizing teams have existed in the past, introduced to software industry through Agile software development

• Following Agile practices does not automatically make your team self-organizing

• Self-organizing teams display special characteristics:

• high levels of autonomy

• self-commit, self-select, self-track, and self-accomplish tasks

• And play informal organizing roles:

• Mentor

• Coordinator

• Translator

• Champion

• Promoter

• Terminator

• Supportive conditions enable teams to self-organize and excel

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CONCLUSION

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AGILE MEAGILE METhank You

rashina@gmail.comwww.rashina.com@agileRashina