Agile Development Blog

In addition to being fashion forward - the Musketeers were also great at signaling the end of their stand-ups

I was struck recently by the low energy of a daily stand-up that did not signal the end. Some people headed back to work, others started follow-on discussions and others were not sure if the meeting was over or not.

The lack of a clear sign that the stand-up is over can lead to problems:

• People feeling left out
• Not having the right people there when decisions are made
• Time wasted on interesting rather than useful discussions
• People starting to question the merits of a daily stand-up that consumes a lot of team capacity

One way to avoid a never-ending stand-up is to have a clear signal at the end.

The ScrumMaster is the facilitator for the daily stand-up so I prefer that they not assume authority to close the meeting. I like a signal coming from anyone (not necessarily the ScrumMaster) followed by a response from all.

A friend of mine enjoys climbing. At the end of his daily stand-ups he would signal “On Belay?” and the rest of the team would respond “Belay On”.

Sports teams are good at signaling the end of the huddle. One of my favorites is the team portrayed in the classic book by Alexandre Dumas. The Three Musketeers would end their stand-ups with a single cry of “All for one” which then be followed by the refrain “and one for all”

What are your favorite signals?

I’ve written previously about my allergic reaction to process maturity models for Agile development. Based on 5 years of empirical feedback being a part of or watching what  succeeds versus falls back, I do not believe their is a “cookbook” for Agile adoption. Of course, the question then becomes:

If there is no cookbook, then what is the best approach to succeed with my Agile adoption?

Enter the crib sheet for Flow-Pull-Innovate, which is a guidepost for the key transitions in Agile organizations based on proven bottom-up success. Because the hurdles and challenges are unique for each organization and code base, this is not a prescriptive approach. It’s a framework to thinking about how to approach Agile adoption incrementally and iteratively and is essential to establishing quick wins that create a virtuous cycle of success to keep the ball rolling.

The three phases of Agile maturity are based on work by Jim Womack in his book Lean Thinking.  However,  Jean and I thought it was appropriate to substitute “Innovate” for “Perfect” in Agile organizations.  In IT/high-tech, it seems more about continuous innovation than the ultimate pursuit to “resource” efficiency.

Getting Over the Hump - Critical Step #3

Over the past 5 years, our focus at Rally has been getting our customer’s successful at Step 3, which we call Multi-Team Program Pull. (See our whitepaper on Leaning IT and moving to Program Pull.)

We focused on this step because at Program Pull, whole software products or major IT systems come to market typically 50% faster, according to the QSMA studies included in the Agile Impact Report. However, in this tough market and with mainstream Agile adoption, more and more organizations are adopting Agile at scale, making it important to light the path beyond Program Pull and into Organizational Pull and Organizational Innovate.

What do think of the crib sheet for Flow-Pull-Innovate? Do you agree with the key metrics? Are these failure signs you’ve experienced? Would your organization be willing to stand behind items in the commitment needed column?

About the Author: Ryan Martens is a trail runner,  founding board member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, and Founder and CTO at Rally Software Development. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.

Recently, I filmed several “Chalk Talk” videos about some of the basics of Agile software development.

These 3 – 5 minute informal videos are intended to provide quick, easy introductions to Agile topics.  This first set of talks focus on thee Agile Manifesto, the Iteration Retrospective, and the Iteration Demo and Review (yes, I think these latter two are different!) My intent here is to provide you with an alternate way to get access to these fundamentals.

These easy-to-follow videos are great resources to share with your team as they are getting up to speed on the Agile process.

Besides being a quick-start source for your own team, consider using these videos as a quick reference for others. They can be an easy introduction to Agile for people in your organization interested in getting some basic “look-and-feel” without having to read several books. My hope is that each “Chalk Talk” starts or furthers a conversation about the particular topic. I started with the Agile Manifesto in order to lay the ground work about why anyone should care about Agile, what were its roots.

The other two topics are provided here are in no particular order. They are just topics about which I am passionate. I also chose these 2 “Chalk Talk” topics because I find they are very often misunderstood with regard to purpose and attendees and agenda. See if these meeting descriptions look like your iteration meetings.

I have some other Chalk Talks already queued up, so stay tuned!

I plan to keep recording Chalk Talk videos around Agile principles and practices. I’d love to hear your feedback on what other topics you’d like me to cover. Coming up, look for an overview of Scrum and some of the other meetings we use in Agile. For now, watch these videos and tell me what you think.

In this time of “quick – figure out how to do more with less,” the ROI, work smarter message dominate the airwaves.  Back in early agile conferences “quality of life,” “fun,” and “innovation” were big reasons many teams were adopting agile. They are the main reasons that agile gets pulled into most organizations from the team level.

Pulling from her experience on Rally’s marketing team, guest poster Jessica Kahn describes the improved quality of life she gains from working in an agile organization.  This is the kind of spirit that makes agile so much more than a process fad.  It is a way of working.

Guest Post From Jessica Kahn

As a marketer, I spend a lot of time discussing how Agile speeds time to market, improves software quality and makes teams more empowered and productive.  But Agile also has a profound impact on the quality of life of people whose roles have nothing to do with product ownership or delivery.

When a company is in the pull or innovate phase of Agile adoption, the energy is different.  You join a culture of continuous learning, trust, results measurement and servant-leadership.  This energy is far more significant than the mechanics of the theory.

So, I feel compelled to share 10 ways going Agile will improve quality of life, for developers and non-developers alike.   Why should you care?  If your organization is committed to making this change, get on board.  You might see some big gains yourself.

10 Ways Agile Improves Your Quality of Life:

1.  Every team member contributes.

Since Agile empowers the delivery team, nobody can be a weak link.  They’d get exposed immediately, and they’d get left behind.  By definition, everyone has to produce strong work that contributes to project success.  And it is fun to work with people you can count on.

2.  Servant-Leadership teaches us better skills.

There is no time or place for micro-management or Command and Control in Agile.  Since servant-leadership is the goal, managers are responsible for removing roadblocks to their teams’ success.  Planning sessions prioritize the “what”, and team members are responsible for the “how”.   Do we still get lots of feedback?  Yes.  But are we told how to do our jobs?  No way.  As a bonus, you’ll learn how to be a coach and mentor for your own teams.

3.  Meetings have purpose.

We don’t meet unless we have to.  Our daily standups typically last 10 minutes.  Our planning meetings are tightly timeboxed, so we have to focus and then move on.

4.  Decisions are based on data.

We measure everything that is important to the business.   How else can you make smart decisions on where to spend your time and energy?  Rather than succumbing to the whims and opinions of a few squeaky wheels, by measuring important factors, we have the knowledge we need to back up our decisions  and stay the course, as long as it makes sense.  Therefore…

5.  Whiplash is minimal.

Have you ever worked with someone whose great ideas wagged your entire team back and forth until you could never complete a full project?  If an excited, charismatic tail wags the dog, then chaos, frustration and anger result.

In an Agile environment, you put the great project idea in the backlog, prioritize it against other initiatives, and choose whether and when to work on that project.  And you use your capacity and story sizing to manage expectations.  Which leads us to benefit #6:

6.  Politics are absent.

If you are making decisions based on quantitative results and you have a prioritized backlog, then there is no reason to make political decisions.  What’s the point?  You have the numbers, now go do your job.

7.  The bar is high.

You know how one mediocre project can take you forever to finish, but three challenging projects can sometimes energize you?  Agile sprints are more like the latter.  Sprints can be intense and challenging, and also satisfying.  Sometimes you can even point proudly to your results.  Why waste your days doing boring, mediocre work?

8.  The workday is intense and fast.

With all of that challenge, the Agile workday is short and intense.  Do you want to feel like you are always working, or like you have to hang out at work to show face time?  Work hard, play hard.

9.  Change is frequent.

We hold retrospectives frequently (timeboxed, of course).  With a commitment to changing what doesn’t work, we find ourselves altering our plans regularly, including deciding what to stop doing.  This is refreshing.  In Agile, you go along with the ride and breathe a lot, which is probably good practice for life.

10.  You’ll be smarter.

Future colleagues and partners will want to learn from you.  Your Agile skills will turn up in some unusual places.  You might start timeboxing how long you clean your kitchen.  You may choose to include words like ‘epic’ and ‘backlog’ in your everyday vocabulary.

But you also might do what I did and let go of some of your perfectionism, which has no place in Agile.  And, like me, you might pick up some better ways of structuring your work.

Most of all, you might really enjoy your days more.