FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF AN AGILE TRANSFORMATION
Seth Dobbs@sethdtech
https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-dobbs/
Seth Dobbs | @sethdtech
1. WHAT IS AGILE?
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THE AGILE MANIFESTO
Individuals and Interactions
Working Software
Customer Collaboration
Responding to Change
Favor This Over This
Process and Tools
Comprehensive Documentation
Contract Negotiation
Following a Plan
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• Scrum
• Teams commit to ship software through sprints
• Learning loops
• Kanban
• Visualizes work
• Limits work in progress by capacity
RELATED TERMS
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• Companies being slow to adapt to change or new challenges
• Inability to test and learn
• Inability to ship frequently
• Lack of predictability in process
• Lack of team ownership
PROBLEMS AGILE SOLVES
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• Planning is everything, plans are nothing• Changes will always occur
WHY WE USE AGILE: FLEXIBILITY
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TRADITIONAL RELEASE PLAN
Time
Release
Analysis Design Implementation Test
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TRADITIONAL RELEASE PLAN
Time
Release
Analysis Design Implementation Test
Release
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AGILE APPROACH
AnalysisDesign
ImplementationTest
Value
AnalysisDesign
ImplementationTest
Value
AnalysisDesign
ImplementationTest
Value
AnalysisDesign
ImplementationTest
Value
ReleaseRelease
Time
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• Working code gives clear measurement of progress• Tracking progress by time is a lie
WHY WE USE AGILE: TRANSPARENCY
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• Estimations, unless granular and short, are inaccurate
• “I’ve spent 30 hours on a 60 hour task, therefore I’m halfway done!”
• How do you manage impact of a task that takes longer:
• If it’s a one-time problem
• If it’s indicative of a durable change
TRACKING BY TIME (IS A LIE)
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• You’ll see progress in variations of a stair step
• It’s clear when progress is being made and when it isn’t
PROGRESS BY COMPLETED WORK
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• Over time, burndown becomes relatively consistent• Can start predicting future
WHY WE USE AGILE: PREDICTABILITY
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• Predictability makes it easier for us to make tradeoffs if we are off track
• What’s fixed, what needs to change?
PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRIANGLE
Scope
Time Cost
Quality
2. THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS
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DYSFUNCTION I:POOR LEADERSHIP SUPPORT
Organizational change isn’t easy, and it’s even harder if you don’t have real buy-in at the highest levels.
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Financially “lean” organizationsDon’t have time to interact with the agile team
ANTI-PATTERN: “TOO MANY MEETINGS”
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Can’t proceed without full spec
ANTI-PATTERN: ARCHAIC APPROVAL PROCESS
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Real change can be blocked“Do what you want as long as you don’t need help”
ANTI-PATTERN: SKUNKWORKS
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I’m giving you space to try this outvs.
I’m committed to the success of this
ANTI-PATTERN: PERMISSION IS NOT COMMITMENT
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SOLUTION I:EXECUTIVE OWNERSHIP
This represents a real commitment to change
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Starts with the end mindWhat are our business drivers leading to Agile?
SOLUTION APPLIED: KNOW WHY WE’RE GOING AGILE
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Time is allocated to support doing it rightApprovals given without “full scope”Help removing blockers at the highest level
SOLUTION APPLIED: TRUE OWNERSHIP
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DYSFUNCTION II:DOGMA
Insistence that there is an absolute right way to “do Agile”
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“There’s a right way and everything else is the wrong way”
ANTI-PATTERN: RIGID VIEW
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“We’ve got this”Reproduce exactly with a bunch of other teams
ANTI-PATTERN: COOKIE CUTTER
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“As seen on TV”Posters & slogans
ANTI-PATTERN: PERFORMATIVE
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“That’s not Agile”“This is the only way to do it”
ANTI-PATTERN: ELEVATE THE MEANS
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SOLUTION II:BE ADAPTIVE
Spread a mindset, not a prescription
Make the process serve your needs
Foster a learning organization
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Someone from outside the team cannotdictate how the team will best operate
Corollary: Don’t reinvent the wheel
SOLUTION APPLIED: NO IVORY TOWERS
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It helps to have someone on the team that has been through it before
It can take experience to truly adapt
SOLUTION APPLIED: THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE
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Regularly critique the effectiveness of the process (retrospectives, etc.)
SOLUTION APPLIED: CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT
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DYSFUNCTION III:ORGANIZATIONAL SILOESOur work methods often reflect our structure
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Handoff / review is the only point of contact between teams
ANTI-PATTERN: VIRTUAL WALLS
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“I thought that’s what requirement ___ meant”
ANTI-PATTERN: EASIER TO ASSUME
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“We don’t care how you build it, it just needs to be exactly what we’ve asked for.”“Just give us the requirements and we’ll take it from here”
ANTI-PATTERN: AGILE IS JUST FOR ENGINEERING
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Signoff is about shifting blame, not collaboration
ANTI-PATTERN: FORMAL SIGNOFF
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SOLUTION III:ALIGN STRUCTURE WITH VALUE CREATION
Break organizational barriers to create effective teams
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SOLUTION APPLIED: VIRTUAL TEAMS
Business BA Team Design Dev Team QA
THE ANTI-PATTERN
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SOLUTION APPLIED: VIRTUAL TEAMS
Business BA Team Design Dev Team QA
Cross-functional Product Team
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SOLUTION APPLIED: MATRIXED TEAMS
Team A Team B Team C Team D
BA
Design
Development
QA
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SOLUTION APPLIED: MATRIXED TEAMS
Team A Team B Team C Team D
BA
Design
Development
QA
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The notion that you aren’t on the development, design, etc. team. You are on a cross-functional team delivering value. This team is your first priority.
SOLUTION APPLIED: FIRST TEAM
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DYSFUNCTION IV:FOCUS ON OWN WORKCan be thought of as individualized siloes
Thinking about how “I” want to do “my” work
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Measuring how many points/cards each person is individually delivering“How do I measure individuals if it’s a collective effort?”
ANTI-PATTERN: INDIVIDUAL METRICS
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“This way is easier for me. Who cares about the impact to the team.”
ANTI-PATTERN: OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL WORK
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Working on multiple cards at the same time means nothing is really progressing
ANTI-PATTERN: TOO MANY CARDS OPEN
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When the smallest unit of work is more than a couple days you lose control of the process
ANTI-PATTERN: WORK UNITS ARE TOO BIG
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The sum of individual efforts does not equal a collaborative effort
ANTI-PATTERN: NO ONE OWNS THE COMBINED RESULT
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SOLUTION IV:TEAM FOCUS
Software development is a team sport
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After siloes are broken down and we’ve become adaptive, we should be able to see the greater effectiveness of supporting team optimization.
SOLUTION APPLIED: OPTIMIZE TEAM, SUB-OPTIMIZE INDIVIDUAL
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Smaller chunks of work:• Move faster
• Give greater visibility to progress
• Give greater flexibility to adjust team
SOLUTION APPLIED: BREAKDOWN WORK TO MAXIMIZE THROUGHPUT
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Team owns the resultsUltimately, the real measure of success is simply value created for the company.
SOLUTION APPLIED: MEASURE SUCCESS OF A TEAM
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• It doesn’t matter how fast an individual can go
• You might have to give up your preferred rowing method
• Slower start to get coordinated
• Only thing that matters is team’s collective velocity
ROWING TEAM: A METAPHOR
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• Scrum: review burndown daily
• Everyone is focused on their own work, nothing is moving
• Team should ask “how do we get back in motion”
PROGRESS IS A TEAM SPORT
Stuck
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DYSFUNCTION V:SKEPTICISM
A passive form of dysfunction
“It won’t work here”
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“It’s just a developer’s excuse to miss deadlines”
ANTI-PATTERN: AGILE IS CHAOS
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“It seems ok but is very backlog/task focused”
ANTI-PATTERN: AGILE IS TOO MICRO-FOCUSED
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Still trying to jam as much work into the next release as possible
ANTI-PATTERN: OLD HABITS DIE HARD
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“Why aren’t things better yet?”
ANTI-PATTERN: INSTANT FIX
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If we measure the wrong things, we won’t see the value
E.g. individual productivity
ANTI-PATTERN: BAD KPIS
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SOLUTION V:CREATE ADHERENTS
Focus on moving to Agile for the right reasons
Let those reasons drive how the process evolves
Set expectations, but demonstrate value early
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An “official” skunkworks can be set up to succeed and demonstrate value
SOLUTION APPLIED: START SMALL
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Focus on the value of what is being delivered
SOLUTION APPLIED: VALUE MINDSET
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Agile is not a cure for all software development ills
It takes work and being adaptive
SOLUTION APPLIED: MANAGE EXPECTATIONS
3. CASE STUDY
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• Goal: re-platform tech and re-design experience
• Waterfall process - product spec + design took 6+ months
• Handoff: held tight by engineering team
• 18+ months of development without visibility
• UAT was rough
• Deployment was a disaster
THE HISTORY
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• We had a small team doing quick hits on existing platform
• Continually delivering value for over a year
• “How are you making it work?”
AT THE SAME TIME…
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• CTO skepticism• Working model in isolation garnered
limited support to “try”
STAGE 1: BUILDING SUPPORT
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• Cross-functional team• Cross-company team• Laid out common vision of what we
wanted to achieve together
STAGE 2: FORMING
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• Siloed thinking remained• Individualized work remained• Still asked “when can I see results?
STAGE 3: CRAWLING
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• Attrition• Team ownership
STAGE 4: TRANSFORMING
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• Spinning up new teams• Continual learning
STAGE 5: EXPANDING
4. FINAL THOUGHTS
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Understand the organizational / operational problems you’re trying to solveUnderstand how Agile applies to itRepeat
SHAPE YOUR PROCESS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
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Mistakes will be made!
That’s ok – that’s why you have an adaptive process!
WARNING
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DYSFUNCTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
Executive OwnershipPoor Leadership Support
AdaptiveDogma
Aligned with WorkSiloes
Team FocusFocus on Own Work
AdherentsSkeptics
Thank You!
Twitter: @sethdtech
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-dobbs/
Blog: https://www.seth-dobbs.com
Seth Dobbs