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Cero a Cien Building successful distributed agile teams
| Date post: | 25-Jul-2015 |
| Category: |
Software |
| Upload: | brian-estep |
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Cero a Cien Building successful distributed agile teams
Better business through better software
HQ in Seattle Nearshore Distributed
Agile Teams Offices in Argentina,
Uruguay and Colombia Alignment with North
America Highly collaborative
agile development Our people make the
difference!
About Velocity Partners
If you’re having technical issues, please send a message to the organizer, via GotoWebinar
Questions encouraged! Please send them via the GotoWebinar question box.
There will also be a brief (time allowed) Q&A at the end of the webinar
Presentation deck & recording will be made available
Housekeeping
Agile Coach, Scrum Master, and Director of Project Management at Appia, in Durham, NC
15 years of overall Project Management experience
Adept at building great teams and is a Change Agent
Certified Scrum Master and passionate about agile approaches
Believes the right Team, the right tools, and the right process can be a game changer
Matt Phillips
Ignorance is bliss
Start with vision of success…
Mindset: Use agile principles and values as building blocks
…then build a roadmap
Agile principles and values as pillars
ValuesRespectCommitmentTrustVisibility / OpennessCourage
PrinciplesPrioritizationAccountabilityInspect and adaptRhythmFeedback
CollaborationSelf-organizationFocus
“Let it grow” or “let it go”
Because you know what success looks like
Don’t slowly water a dying plant
Step 1: Before embarking
Pre-flight checklist:– Why?– What is success?– How do we get there?
Why are we doing this?
Understand the “why” for setting up a distributed team
Possible reasons:– Need new talent pool to support rapid growth– Need to quickly spin up team with low HR overhead– Gain proximity to customer– Scale with mergers/ acquisitions/ expansion– Source skillsets and knowledge bases
Beware of generic arguments
Focus
Courage
Self-organization
What will success look like?
These factors exist for the Team:– They will be considered exactly like any local team
• “ just sit in a different place”
– They will be independent O&Os• As opposed to augmenting existing teams
– They will work on roadmap features • Not legacy or bug support
– They will tell us when we’re wrong– We’ll frequently collaborate in person
• Continual travel is part of the budget and plan
Create a timeline view of success (Experiment Template)– Indications of Success– Amplification strategy– Indications of Failure– Recovery Strategy
Respect
Self-organization
Commitment
Openness
Collaboration
RhythmInspect and adapt
AccountabilityFeedback
How do we get there?
Partner selection funnel– Score card, research, video interviews, site visits, meet the
people– Initial list: Ukraine, Costa Rica, South America– Our itinerary: Peru, Colombia, Uruguay
Pre-empt concerns– Open communication and collaboration
• Sales pitch or 2-way dialogue?• Partner WITH us• Need to be told when we’re wrong
– Company alignment • Do development and process methodologies match?
– Communication, infrastructure, legal• Are day-to-day operations acceptable?
Understand “irrefutable” cultural norms– “Ahora” vs. “Ya”– Jugaad
CommitmentFocus
VisibilityFeedback
CollaborationCourage
Respect
Step 2: Gaining momentum
Hire and build:– People – Places – Things
People
Hire as you would locally– Tech test, interviews, etc. – Cohesion and respect across teams
Get to know styles, personalities, methods– Meet In person ASAP.– Who is grumpy, helpful, Informal, formal, busy?
• (email vs. IM vs. video)
Establish roles and Points of Contact– Use 1 “go-to” at first, then “reroute the water”– Roles:
• Scrum Master• Product Owner• Tech Liaison• Module Owners• Advocate per locale
RespectCollaborationCommitment
Inspect and adaptFeedback
FocusRhythm
Feedback
Places
Get out of the building – Interact person-to-person– Gain corporate and cultural insights– “Phone home”
Understand how we do it “(t)here” – Process and corporate style for both sites– Understand cultural norms and differences
• Values (deadlines vs. quality, etc)• Workdays, holidays, national holidays due to world cup
matches, time zones, etc.
Mindset: Inclusion and communication– “We” not “They”– Avoid 3rd person references
AccountabilityCollaboration
VisibilityInspect and
adapt
VisibilityCollaboration
Respect
RespectCommitmentCollaboration
Things
Goal: A team is a team and we want every team to succeed.– Solve for feedback loops and real-time communication
Definition of Done– OK to care about quality and continuous improvement, instead of just
a deadline? Tools (real time and offline methods)
– Onboarding guide*– Corporate Email and group distributions– Wiki, Google docs, Reviewboard– IM (Hipchat)– Include in regular meetings
• All-hands, engineering meetings, planning, etc.
Video and high-quality audio is a must– Hangouts: Quick. Easy. Free.– GoToMeeting for larger, more formal situations – Invest in cameras, microphones, and speakers
• (The nearshore offices have them, why don’t we?)
Accountability
CollaborationSelf-organization
FeedbackVisibilityRespect
Commitment
CollaborationFeedbackVisibility
You can’t lead from the 2nd chair
The level of engagement for the remote team can only be as good as “home office” level of engagement (no more)
Step 3: Maintain and build
“When you stop growing you start dying.” – William S. Burroughs
Create a shared vision and “why”
Everyone knows the big picture– Team members do new-hire training (Appia 101)– Team joins all-hands meetings, participates in
engineering team meetings. (avoids isolation) Lean story writing
– Clearly explain a problem, team is in charge of solving it• (understanding stories, avoiding spoon-feeding)
Module owners and tech liaisons– Collaboration of software principles– Consistency in development = less friction and waste
Key learning: Avoid drinking from the fire hose– TMI at the onset; pacing and context is key– Incrementally build overall system knowledge
CommitmentTrust
Openness
Self-organizationFeedbackRhythm
CollaborationFocus
Inspect and adapt
Trust, trust, trust (but verify)D
O! • Inclusion
• (Planning, Roadmap, Ownership)
• Take early risks• Act successful• (Then bridge the
gaps)• Advocate• (locally x 2)
• Equality of process DO
NO
T! • Spoon-feed
• Dodge crucial conversations
• Create work-arounds• Engage in 1-way
dialogue
TrustCommitment
CourageInspect and adapt
Openness
AccountabilityRespect
FeedbackCollaboration
Relentless feedback loops
Daily Applications:– Delivery Team Meetings– Roles: Module Owners, Tech Liaison, Agile Coach– X-team code reviews– Mantras: Hipchat for questions, Hangouts for decisions, emails
for summaries– “Enjambre” and living daily burndowns
Scrum ceremonies as touch points– Weekly ‘story planning’ with PO– Bi-weekly sprint planning and “Puño de cinco”– Demo to the stakeholders– Retrospectives – the Team controls their own success
Key learning:– Lacked product overviews as demos while onboarding– Didn’t front-load face-to-face experiences– Too much info at onboarding time
FeedbackInspect and adapt
RhythmVisibility
CollaborationSelf-organization
CommitmentAccountability
Focus
Reduction formula
Create a vision, make a plan Use agile concepts to reduce energy loss
Success = Agile(Vision + Desire)
Have the courage to “let it go”
Take the first step
If you are working with a distributed team:– What does a successful
partnership look like? How can you leverage Agile to improve it?
If you are not yet working with a distributed team:– Are there 3 reasons why
an additional team could be beneficial to your business? How can you create opportunity?
New tool in the toolbox
Find additional talent pools Offload HR staffing, sourcing, hiring Gain proximity, time zone alignment
with customer Scale with mergers, acquisitions,
expansion Source skillsets and knowledge bases Create cost savings*
Set the path, follow it together
Q & A
Feedback / requests for future webinar topics;
Request a video copy of the webinar; Sales inquiries; Coaching inquiries; please
reach out to:
Brian Estep
Senior Partner
(425) 761-1534
We hope to see you at our next webinar…
Keep in Touch
